My Beliefs About God and "Things"

I have stated I am an objectivist. However I am not an absolute empericist. This means that I do not believe ALL truth can be derived at through scientific experiment or proof in a test tube. It is said that you cannot prove a negative. Actually Police do this all the time when they eliminate possible suspects. They say “We know so and so could not possibly have committed this crime”. What you CAN’T do, however, is to disprove an Unknown. You can disprove a Known, but not an Unknown. We cannot scientifically prove that there is no Existance after Death. As I said in late summer 2004 (I think) was that Death as we know it connotes the existence of time and space as we know it. We know, for instance a tree when it dies is just wood. But a hundred thousand years later that stump may have become petrified. So change is occurring. But as it says in the book of Revelation, among the things that end up being destroyed are Death and the grave, itself. None of us has “experienced” non existence and come back to tell others about how it felt being Dead. It can be argued that without the passage of Time, that Death as we understand it cannot truly exist. But where I part company with the “Faith” people is that if Dr. Levy says something I have substantial Doubt about, a Believer will reason that it is more important to Believe, even if your rational mind is riddled with doubts. I reason rather, that one should investigate for himself whether the things he says be True or False. And if they prove True, than you can finally have genuine faith in them. But the Believer rather chooses to be ruled by unreasoning Fear of what he may find out, as we discussed in our last posting. I believe there are things that Exist beyond our ability to know then. Some would ask Columbus “Do kimono dragons exist?” If Columbus says “No” he is not being fair, because he hasn’t been to Japan to find out. If someone asked me “Do monarch butterflies exist on Jupiter?” I would say, “I can’t be sure”. I haven’t been to Jupiter to find out. Perhaps some space alien came to earth and captured a bunch of monarch butterflies and has them safely in an environmentally controlled aviary there on Jupiter. I believe there can be and probably are physical dimensions we know nothing of. I also believe in the existence of certain things, such as God, and Time, and Absolute Moral Principles, that I cannot prove. Yet I believe in them. But as I said before, I am a Determinist Deist. This separates me from other Deists. Some may say that the PH test of whether you are religious is “Do you believe your future is in God’s hands?” I would answer that question in the affirmative. Most deists wouldn’t. That ethics guy on KNX 1070 made an interesting statement today. He talked about how each event and decision in our lives affects so many other lives in ways we can’t imagine. You’re right I CAN’T imagine it. But I still believe it. He then said “By going back into the past and changing one thing- - - You Change Everything”. I believe that. But I would re-state it as the fifth dimensional principle of “You Can’t Get There From Here”. But I also am an afficianado of the song lyrics “Mistakes I’ve made a few - - but then again - - too Few to mention”. Because I believe even if you went back and changed that one thing (and it’s probably many, if you start counting) then being given the opportunity to go down another road- - something else would come along that was unexpected to STILL keep you from your goal. Something you never had to face the other time around. I think it’s time to stop asking the question “What does the Future hold?” and rather ask the question: “Who holds the future?” Because if you believe life is a rigged crap game then you’re screwed or charmed no matter which way you decide to slice up the apple. It’s still going to taste like an apple no matter how you slice it. If you believe in karmic destiny, or the destiny of karma- - either way- - then you believe in a world of cause and effect. If life is like a caldron of bubbling primordial soup- - then even if you see a positive event or two or three linking together in a constructive matter- - - they can just as easily randomly un hook and dissolve in the next moment. How many of us thought that President Obama would be the next F D R. From what we knew from his book or whatever we had no reason NOT to believe it and many reasons TO believe it. You know, I have spoken on that title “The Audacity of Hope”. I do not regard hope as a cardinal human virtue. Hope only derives its value if it leads to a brighter Reality of tomorrow. If Faith without works is dead, then Hope without a plan is just as dead. As to those attributes of God theologians believe in, I believe God is omnipotent, all powerful. I believe he is all knowing. I believe he is Transcendent, but not Intimate, which is usually the other half of that phrase. I do not believe God is “present everywhere” and “in the room with you right now”. Sometimes the phrase of “God is Immanent - - and Transcendent”. Now I can believe it. Imminent refers to Time- - -not personal closeness or presence. Imminent means “NOW” and I do believe God is NOW. God is also Just As Much - - all the rest of time, too, at this moment. I believe that to construction a man made Religious belief system around God is to degrade and, if you will, “dishonor” him. (At the risk of being anthropomorphic) As I have said my beliefs about God derive from logic and Science rather than from Religion. I believe the scientific evidence points to an intelligent creator God. But that’s as far as I go. I think the idea of obtaining some kind of “God patent” like you now have the ability, above others, to “sell” God, like Kentucky Fried Chicken, is to inflate your own Ego. I do not believe Objectivism is Ego centered. Even impericisum, carried “too far” (I don’t know what that is but I know it when I see it) - - even they become too “ME” centered and lose their sense of Objectivist beliefs. OK that’s my creed. What do you think of it?

In Jesus Christ Superstar Governor Pilate utters the line “But what is Truth. Is Truth unchanging law? We both have Truths. Are mine the same as yours?” Those are good lines. Dr. Levy, you this morning had a thing about Truths up there on the screen. If you’re still reading this it must be an aufully long letter. Let’s run down a few of these on the list. It was stated “Truth is what Works”. I basically agree with that. Both pastors Gene Scott and Mark Bove have from the pulpit attacked people who hold to this axiom at least in regard to Christianity. Because some try it and conclude that it just does not “Work” for them. They both say “You are not allowed to say this about the Faith.” Clearly what “works” is a keystone of evolution. As such it is a key attribute of both natural and social science. The second one is that Truth is the totality of one’s experiences. This is OK, with qualifications. I don't believe it's any crime when confronted with a new fact to say "I didn't know that. It's never been a part of my own experience". My problem with the whole Jury system as we know it is that in trials certain evidence gets routinely excluded because some Judge concludes “Oh, the jury is not intelligent enough to sift through this evidence and it might lead to some sort of bias”. As a potential juror- - I find this an insult to my intelligence. My greatest fear as that I go to a trial and vote to acquit a man who is as Guilty as sin, yet the evidence was so edited and filtered, that all I could do is end up being confused, and perhaps vote with a majority if the defendant should be acquitted in their opinion. We then have “Truth is logical” or “Truth is rational”. There is no real “nexis” between what is Rational and what is True. Arguments can be structured so as to be highly valid, and yet highly Unsound. Sure in math – this statement is true. I think even Law Enforcement is aware that sometimes “what is True can be stranger than fiction”, and all that. But still if it’s not logical, if a story doesn’t “Hang together” cops are much less likely to believe it. Some Nazi types can make rather logical and half way rational arguments to promote their own sick point of view, yet it would immediately violate the sensibilities of any ethical Moral person. We then have things like “Truth is Beauty and Beauty is Truth”. I’m not going to argue that one one way or the other. Others would say “Truth is what you Feel in your Heart”. We could discuss this one. As you know an axiom of James Dobson and other fundamentalists is “Your feelings will always Lie to you” and “Don’t trust your feelings”. Of course the punch line is “Don’t trust YOUR feelings - - Trust Mine”. At least then we come to song lyrics. I guess my view is that I don’t mind sentimental love songs, but I don’t like schmaltzy songs, to employ a Yiddish term. For instance “God only Knows” by the Beach Boys is a sentimental song. I don’t necessarily agree with it for myself, but “I believe the singer sincerely believes it”. But you come to another song on the same album “Wouldn’t it be nice”. This song is pure “schmaltz”. It’s like the soundtrack to some “girl flick” movie, or a Broadway musical. It’s corn ball “sentimental hogwash” as Mr. Potter would say. I think there is another stronger Yiddish word “schlock”, which connotes an added bullshit factor, as though the speaker is attempting actively to deceive us. I believe there is much in the Gospels and the book of Acts that is in this vein. Truth can be properly discovered with “right discernment”. I believe if you are what is called a Clear in Scientology, you are in a much better position to Discover the Truth. Again I discuss this a little in the previous posting. I guess another on the list could be “Truth is what Fits”. Well again, this one is not fool proof. But I think it’s a good test for new information. If it’s something that seems off the wall, like a roomer about a person you may know that just seems utterly unlike them- - you can use discernment and “consider the source” and judge for yourself.

The Fourth Turning

You’ve heard of the Fire triangle. This is the three elements without all three of which, you can’t have a fire. Take away any one of them and the fire goes out. These things are Heat, Oxygen, and something to burn. Often problems need several simotanious things to exist together or the problem will no longer be there. I have noticed this in a negative way in my own life. But then there is the phenomenon of reactionary thinking that has run so rampant today where everybody wants to go back to a hundred years ago. And by the way, I don’t think their views would be too welcome there, either. .Let’s get psycho-analytical for a moment. We all know that Fear is a normal human emotion called the “fight or flight” sydrone in mammals. But fear should be a transitory emotion impelling action and not a permanent state of existence. If fear is allowed to persist for protracted periods of time it can have unhealthy consequences on the human psyche. But today we are talking about an inherently unhealthy fear. This is the sort of “Mindless, paralyzing fear” that Roosevelt talked about in that speech, crippling needed actions. When someone is in such a state they begin to psychologically “shut down” and refuse to receive any new input or information. I think my Dad was in such a state for the latter part of his life. Anyhow since they have undergone this psychological shutdown, no new information gets in, producing ignorance. And ignorance is sort of a mental void in the brain where knowledge should be. And they say that science hates a vacuum. And things like prejudice creeps in. Often prejudice gets reinforced with each cycle. Because prejudice produces fear. But it’s a fear that is produced by an emotion you yourself generated. This is how it is with the tea party crowd. They have inoculated themselves against any enlightenment. (Selah)

You know I’m not going to talk any more about the stuff at the beginning of this file that appeared on my last blog. I did a little of that at the end of the previous file, called “fiddling” as in “Nero fiddled while Rome burned”. I guess in order to describe the evolutionary state we are in now I would have to refer to the death of my cat, Bo. It was mid March of 1985 when I noticed Bo was slowing down. Upon examining her I noticed an unnatural firmness in the lower abdominal area. I immediately knew what the problem was and revolved to feed her only good canned cat food, and not the dry kind. But after a while the cat disappeared. After more time elapsed I found the cat in the back yard under a bush- - Dead. We right now in our evolution with the US debt ceiling thing are “past the point of no return”. The cat has gone away and we’re in the out of sight, out of mind phase of our being. Nobody is even thinking about next Tuesday August 2^nd right now. It’s as though that date were a million miles away. But clearly it’s the most serious economic crisis we’ve faced in a long time- - and the consequences will be very real and impact us all. Those “new taxes” the Republicans dreaded so much will become a reality as interest rate hikes and inflation eat into our savings, driving down economic activity and casting us at long last into that second leg of the double dip recession.

This morning Thom Hartman had the usual Friday visit with Bernie Sanders. Of course both the Boehner and the Harry Reed bill should be voted down, at least according to Hartman, since neither raises taxes on the rich at all. Seemingly a poll shows that 72% of Americans would like to see taxes hiked on the rich, who can afford to make a greater sacrifice to get us out of this hole. Ideally the debt ceiling should not even be tied to budget reduction. Now the Republicans want a cut in corporate taxes, and a constitutional balanced budget amendment and a prohibition against raising any taxes with out a two-thirds vote in Congress. Actually I’ve said all I can say on the matter. Now it’s just a case of putting the whole thing out of my mind. Yesterday morning and Wednesday I drank a lot of coffee. I cut way back on that today. There is nothing worth trying to “figure out” right now. What’s going to happen will be what happens. Nobody wants to take any intelligent advice anyhow. They would prefer “acting stupidly” to use Obama’s words. And the President has “acted stupidly” numerous times since he’s been in office. So it’s kind of sit back and just entertain ourselves with other matters now. We will get at least one more S S I check for August, anyhow. Now they’re calling for a residents council meeting for this month right now. I guess I’ll be there and take this up later. But first I’m having a cigarette- to maybe organize my thoughts better.

I could like to discuss the ideas in “The Fourth Turning”, which I think is by De Fezzio and Howe, which came out in 1997, according to Thom. I would dispute the length of the average cycle as normally shorter than eighty years. Normally it’s sixty. But then people didn’t use to live as long as they do now. The sixty year cycle conforms to the grand Chinese sixty year cycle combining Chinese elements and years. For instance, Jim Cooper would be a late Aquarius fire cock. I have known quite a few fire cocks in my day, and have had at least four of them as house mates as a matter of fact. These would be Jim Cooper, Bill T, Henry, and Bobby Hayden. Some years such as the Monkey seem to signal revolution and tumult, for instance the first election of FDR, the Normandy invasion, Elvis Presley coming to national fame, and the assasenation of Martin Luther King, “Prague Spring”, and the Chicago convention riots. Years of the Dog tend to be recession years. Michael Jackson is an earth dog. Pete Richards is a wooden horse. Becky Daniels is a Leo water snake. I graduated in an H S class of mainly metal tigers. Of course the Kandratiav wave is only 52 years. That’s a long stock market cycle they talk about. But lets go back a few cycles and run through them. Let’s start with the 1837 Panic, and they started calling them recessions after that because Panic was such an alarmist word. Andrew Jackson refused to renew the National Bank system we had to regulate the economy. This may be part of the problem. Then we had a trough war - - the Mexican War. Normally trough wars are “good wars” because they help us out economically. Our next cycle or cycle two in the book would be the “generation of quiet builders”. There was a period of great Western expansion and the laying down of trails and railroads and “fifty-four forty or fight” and all that. The size of the nation greatly expanded. Cycle three began around 1859 or ’60. This is a period of introspection, discontent, and looking inward. Of course John Brown kicked off the whole Slavery issue for most people. We had the Civil War which divided people, just as the Viet Nam war did. And then we had the reconstruction amendments, and strict enforcement of voting laws at first for Blacks. Then we enter Cycle four. This was the period of greed and the robber barrons, and relaxation of laws. Here we first heard that corporations were people. This period of laxity ended in 1892 or so when we entered one of the worst business recessions our Country has faced. There were all sorts of Industrial strikes even back then- - and the economy was paralyzed. Then we had another trough war to get us out of it. This was the Spanish American war. I see we’re on page six already. After this we had a very brief “quiet builder” phase or normalcy, and celebrated good times in 1900 reelecting William Mc Kinley, but mainly we leaped right into Cycle three, or the era of Reform, let by Teddy Roosevelt where all sorts of acts were passed and trusts were broken up. This was a happy, optimistic time for Americans. We had another peak war and then went into Cycle four or another period of greed, or the roaring twenties where we slid tword reactionary ways. Then the whole cycle starts over again with the stock market crash, panic, the great depression, World War II, another trough war. Then in cycle two we have more “quiet builders” in the late forties, fifties and early sixties. In this period you saw a most phenominal rise in the consumer standard of living. I think the 1956 Republican slogan was "You never had it go good". You saw our space program build up. You had the St. Laurance seaway opening. You had "New Frontiers" and you had the massive interstate highway program. Then we have another period of both revolution and introspection and cultural moray change- - the mid to late sixties and the ‘seventies. You saw liberalized abortion laws and "no fault" divorce laws, and women's liberation and Earth ecology consciousness. In 1980 Ronald Reagan’s election signaled cycle four or another era of greed. This is the period that has been unnaturally prolonged. Ravi Batra predicted we would have a recession in 1990. We started to have a downturn but I think two things saved us. First Gulf War I, another possible trough war, stimulate the economy and turned around the stock market to the positive side to past three thousand for the first time. The other thing that saved us that wasn’t available before was borrowing money from China. Without these two things I honestly believe “the end” would have come much sooner. Another thing that saved our bacon was Bill Clinton’s raising the income tax rate, thus doing something real about our mounting national deficit. But today we have forgotten all these lessons- - as the last people who lived through the Great Depression are dying off. So we pass bills in congress that would have been "Dead on arrivel' at any previous point, such as the massive take down of all Securities regulations, doing away with the "Fairness" laws in broadcasting, and five people in black robes throwing out a century of campaign regulation laws. So since we don’t remember history we are doomed to repeat it. We are now in the process of doing this in a step by step devolution process where any ethical standards are blown up, almost described in almost uncany detail even unto failure to get out Social Security checks because of a credit crunch. Suddenly not paying our bills violates nobody's moral concerns. The stock market has been down all this week and we may not see another up week again in a long time. All this is unfolding and will unfold precisely outlined in “The Fourth Turning”.

I was going to do a whole "Death of Bo" thing but we'll pass. The House passed that Boehner bill, apparently with trouble securing votes, but he did. But the Senate immediately voted the thing down, which, like we all feared, means we are back to square one.

Congress has a Boehner that’s in danger of failing

Get your asses in gear so Boehner can do his thing

Boehner is now going for an unexpected bill insertion

Bushmen are becoming an endangered species now that the tea party has arrived.

Lisa Simpson says her Reed is too dry and she doesn’t even live in Nevada

“What did you come to the Jordan to see? A Reed blowing in the wind?”

Boehner may be suffering from a disease infection of the green stuff

The Bush gets thinner and thinner as the years proceed

Orange you glad you don’t have a Boehner like that one

Grab the ankles and assume the position

One attractive female on an astrology page said she was born under a waxing gibbus moon - - so like is she a sexual dynamo in bed or something?

Rev Moon has been permanently eclipsed

The woman's baby was born under a bad sign. Yeah, the sign collapsed right on the spot and killed her baby

So, is the nerd side of Milhaus Van Hauten of the house or Orange?

"You can't catch me because the rabbit done died." Yeah, and you just ate it and it was infected with the ebola bacteria, so now you're not going anywhere.

A Boehner with joints enables for quicker concealment when necessary.

End the war on drugs with a joint resolution

Last night our computer wasn’t working. He had a migraine.

The screen play didn't come off successfully, so the Democratic team lost points

The question is, is the Boehner now firing blanks?

My name is Gunn; I have an impressive rod.

A better Resolution requires better reproduction power than we now have in the house. But you have to go to caucus with the person you’re in bed with now.

A little Darrren before dinner makes a better Stevens I always say

Is that a la carte or on the Darren?

These rubber balls were a major hit for Bobby Darren

"You mean Bobby Vee, don't you" "Yeah, that's what I said"

I think Stevens would have made a great president

Gleanings from an Abandoned Salt Mine

They say these self appointed experts on the government and the economy are a Dime a Dozen

-I’m looking for the guy that’s supplying the dimes

You know, when he was younger President Obama was employed for a while as an elevator operator

-But they had to let him go. He had trouble memorizing the rout.

You know, Negroes shouldn’t be condemned to doing servile work

-Like following George Bush around with a pooper scooper

The words of politicians are like flowers in a wallpaper pattern

-You know they’re not real and they’re utterly lacking in depth

“Hey, you know Baby Jesus is allowed to go anywhere he wants to in the house to craw around”

“That’s the trouble with Baby Jesus - - - (I don’t need to finish this line, do I?)

"Behold: He was born on third base and he thinks he hit a triple"

The Apostle Paul is said to have remarked, "Roman citizenship is hard to come by, but some manage to purchase it with a great deal of money. But I am a natural born Roman citizen". So I guess what I want to know is 'Who is he trying to impress?"

The Apostle Paul has said "Behold I am dead to the Law, and thus I am at Liberty". But I say that true moral Virtues are not of such a nature that they can be killed, or sunsetted out of Existance".

John Boehner is having trouble with his Caucus

John Boehner may have to bring out the whip to keep his colligues in line. Let's just hope he doesn't bust a rod.

As it is well known, the tea party quickly fell out of favor not that long into 2013. It's too bad Paul Mc Cartney chose to serve tea at the D A R convention at his house. Otherwise tea would not have fell into such bad repute for Americans.

"Hi, my name is Jake the Flake. What can I do?" Mick Jagger cerca June 1969: "I don't know, Brian. What CAN you do?"

"Hey all you tea baggers. What are you brewing up in your witch's caldren today" "Hey, you're Drunk - - leave this meeting" "Tomorrow I shall be sober. But You'll STILL be a mindless right wing nut case"

There may not be much difference - - between Brian Jones - and the Head of the Federal Reserve - - if we check their Math scores.

Street Criminals are "Job Creators" too, but we don't need more of them.

Bill Halliday is a spiritual abortionist

Sure I’ll start listening to Bill Halliday’s sermons again - - the minute I start getting paid the usual hundred dollar an hour Fee.

There is just one real difference between Dixie Locke and “Gypsey Lou”

-“Gypsey Lou” is funnier.

Exercising humor in front of a mental patient is like giving liquor to a recovered alcoholic.

-You can never be sure of the results - - but they could be disasterous

Neil Savedra has the hart and soul of an Actor. He’s far less concerned about the inherent goodness or badness of an act, but rather, how it will play on stage, and the reviews he will get for the performance- - two thousand years later.

Jesus of Nazareth functions as sort of a “Useful Idiot” in canonized Christian scripture.

God and Satan are two sides of the same coin. Each side may appear very different but when you go to spend the coin, you will find they are of equal value

The trials of life don't create character and courage - they reveal it.

It is said Resentment is a horrible thing. I say - "So is Failure", but there are certain things we can't legislate out of existance with the stroke of a pen.

In Communist China they apparently don't believe things like bullet train crashing don't have Causes. They're just "acts of God" or something, and can't even be talked about.

Any person who calls himself Good, but other people ignore him, so he seems to think he can bolster his self worth if only there were more Darth Vadors in the world - - isn't looking hard enough.

Marcion and his writings are like Adolph Hitler in “Mein Kamph” He lays out in the pages his plan to stick it to the Jews and then he tells everybody he knows to read his book and to vote for him to bring him into power. The Orthodox Church is like “Dog whistle speech” like the “birthers” or people who say that Obama is a Moslem or a socialist, or not born in America.

Neil Savedra is like some front man for a dangerous Cult out there entertaining the people who would pass by. He’s like that guy in that Hitchcock episode who is told “Oh, I’m not hiring you as a geek. You’re just filling in for the Real geek till he can return”. But of course the dark secret is that in the course of time Neil Savedra has BECOME the Messiah- - - because the real Jesus of Nazareth is as long dead as Norman Bates’ mother.

It can be said of many World Icons:

“The evil men do lives after then. The good is off interred with their bones”

-Mark Anthony

It was good Christian Germans who voted the Nazi Party into Power

“So they All are- - - Honorable Men”

-Same speech as previous.

Spencer Tracy once said the following:

“Yes, Mister, You can invent the power of flight - - but the birds will lose their wonder - - and the clouds will smell of gasoline”

-But I say unto you, “The sky was already tainted with ground level industrial pollutants, and the magesty of birds in flight is not contingent on what any one man thinks of it”

The trouble with Jesus Christ is – he has spent so much time among the angels that he believes that we humans here on this earth can can be expected to run the race of life- with the effortlessness of the Gods.

The trouble with a Messiah any Christian deems worthy of any worship- - - is hatched fully blown as the object of fancy of some writer- - devoid of an actual Past, in which the incidents instrumental in developing his character occurred

Christians are Born – not Made

Dixie dicks around with the Truth dictating decorum with her Dictaphone delitarious to distracted dissidents

I judge my presidents by their accomplishments – not by their degrees

“Hey, that man over there said that I was “Over Striding”. Do you have any idea what he meant by that?” Response: “Well, I think what he meant was that Blacks will never be accepted by White people regardless of what they have accomplished in their life”

Someone with the heart of a soldier or athlete or a champion, doesn’t change the rules in the middle of the game so that he can kid himself he is winning, when he is losing.

Christians have been mass murderers, Moslems have been mass murderers, but I have yet to come across a mass murderer who was an avowed disciple of Madeline Murray Ohare

Christians are like salt. We should be exposed to a certain amount of them just enough to get a sense of balance in our lives, but consuming too much time with them has been shown by experts to be deleterious to our health.

You always know the latest dance

You claim you’re into true romance

But your kisses make me wonder –

If you’re a Tom boy

It’s really not so strange

I wish that you would change

But I know you’re going to stay

Stuck up as you are

The powder’s never on your face

On you it just looks out of place

You show no real trace

-of true Emotion

It’s really not so strange

I wish that you would change

But I know you’re going to stay

Stuck up as you are

Stuck up as you are

Stuck up as you are

- - - [fade]

Evening shadows make me blue

When each weary day is through

And it’s all because of You

My Misery

The previous poem was found scrawled on the wall in Richard Bachman’s apartment just after they came and carted him off to the booby-hatch

The sun is fading away

That’s the end of the day

As the June light turns to moon light

I’ll be on my way

To where the winds don’t blow

And golden rivers flow

This way will I go- - -

This way will I go - - Hey!

They were right I was wrong

True love didn’t last long

As the June light turns to moon light

I’ll be on my way

-John Lennon (This song is a favorite of mine)

Burt Lombard and Mick Ronson have something in common

They are both mysterious and most of what you know about them had to do with music.

It's Worse than you Think

You know, I was going to write a piece on what President Obama needed to do now. And my solution was to invoke the fourteenth amendment of the US Constitution, which speaks on the idea of not questioning the validity of all debts. Clearly not extending the debt ceiling would be to dishonor our debts and obligations. President Clinton has urged President Obama to invoke the fourteenth amendment and bypass this whole congressional nonsense alltogether. That's obviously the sensible thing to do, but this President is obviously stupid or something. You know he could have saved himself this whole Tea Party problem if he'd just waited on Health Care till he got relyable poll numbers on the subject. The second thing he should have done is to have gone after the just passed Bush Administration. The third thing he should have done is to press for indictments of the bank officials responsible for the financial crisis of September of 2008. The fourth thing he should have done was to release a "clean" copy of his long form birth certificate, and done it immediately as soon as the topic was raised. The fifth thing he should have done, failing all this, was to announce that he would not run again in 2012. This would have diffused the Tea Party bomb and taken the air out of their balloon and sapped their resolved. But clearly this President is an idiot. But it might be worse than this. He might be some kind of a conservative plant in the White House have often times exceeded the offenses of his immediate predicessor, George W Bush. Below are some remarks lifted from another blog, and I hope he won't mind, but I find them interesting, even though I don't fully understand the implications of all of them. But just for a reality check, can you picture ANY previous President of the United States allowing this silly crisis going on for one second?

But first I'd like to address another issue. And that is those who resent referring to Christianity as a violent religion, or that "real Christians don't commit violence" as though the Church, which according to St. Paul is the "Body of Christ" has sponsored many a war. But some say that Jesus taught love and peace. The character Jesus did in the gospel. But he is not the real Jesus. St. Paul spoke of the falocy of "knowing Jesus after the flesh" meaning - trusting in that historical man who walked the earth for a few years. Jesus didn't get called sinless because everyone examined his life and found it to be perfect from birth. Rather Jesus was FIRST called God, and then it was inferred that he was perfect. Do you remember what our government said to justify dropping the Atomic Bomb on Japan. They said "It saved a lot of lives in the long run". Do you think the events Jesus is perported to have endorsed, such as the Roman wars against the Jews- - do you think these did not save but actually COST lives? Not just of those Jewish patriots, but of countless Jews who were persecuted through because of Church bigotry and hatred against the Jews and of course we have Hitler and the extermanation camps. You know, one trait that real Heroes have is that they don't like bullies. And we all know bullying when we see it. You may hold high office but you still don't earn brownie points by closing your eyes and looking the other way when you see wrongs. Don't say "well I'm above all, I'm too Christian for that regular nitty gritty stuff" Or say "My passivity will get me brownie points and help me rise in the polls". I doubt those would have died had Jesus been just a little more jucidious in his use of words. Everything that was placed in the gospels, allowed to be there, was crafted to incite maximum hatred of the Jews. No, I am not going to give the Church a free pass on this one.

PRESIDENT OBAMA - - THE ULTIMATE POLITICAL FRAUD

My philosophy is "either lead, follow, or get out of the way". President Obama has not done any of these three things. It's not in his nature. He has other ideas.

The accusations imply that Obama is on our side. Or was on our side. And that the right wing is pushing him around.

But the evidence is clear that Obama is an often-willing servant of corporate interests -- not someone reluctantly doing their bidding, or serving their interests only because Republicans forced him to.

Since coming to Washington, Obama has allied himself with Wall Street Democrats who put corporate deregulation and greed ahead of the needs of most Americans:

• In 2006, a relatively new Senator Obama was the only senator to speak at the inaugural gathering of the Alexander Hamilton Project launched by Wall Street Democrats like Robert Rubin and Roger Altman, Bill Clinton’s treasury secretary and deputy secretary. Obama praised them as “innovative, thoughtful policymakers.” (It was Rubin’s crusade to deregulate Wall Street in the late ‘90s that led directly to the economic meltdown of 2008 and our current crisis.)
  

• In early 2007, way before he was a presidential frontrunner, candidate Obama was raising more money from Wall Street interests than all other candidates, including New York presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani.
  

• In June 2008, as soon as Hillary ended her campaign, Obama went on CNBC, shunned the “populist” label and announced: “Look: I am a pro-growth, free-market guy. I love the market.” He packed his economic team with Wall Street friends -- choosing one of Bill Clinton’s Wall Street deregulators, Larry Summers, as his top economic advisor.
  

• A year into his presidency, in a bizarre but revealing interview with Business Week, Obama was asked about huge bonuses just received by two CEOs of Wall Street firms bailed out by taxpayers. He responded that he didn’t “begrudge” the $17 million bonus to J.P. Mogan’s CEO or the $9 million to Goldman Sachs’ CEO: “I know both those guys, they are very savvy businessmen,” said Obama. “I, like most of the American people, don’t begrudge people success or wealth. That is part of the free-market system.”

• After any review of Obama’s corporatist ties and positions, the kneejerk response is: “Yes, but Obama was a community organizer!”

  He WAS a community organizer. . .decades before he became president. Back when Nelson Mandela was in prison and the U.S. government declared him the leader of a “terrorist organization” while our government funded and armed Bin Laden and his allies to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. That’s a long time ago.

  It’s worth remembering that decades before Reagan became president, the great communicator was a leftwing Democrat and advocate for the working class and big federal social programs.

  The sad truth, as shown by Glenn Greenwald, is that Obama had arrived at the White House looking to make cuts in benefits to the elderly. Two weeks before his inauguration, Obama echoed conservative scares about Social Security and Medicare by talking of “red ink as far as the eye can see.” He opened his doors to Social Security/Medicare cutters -- first trying to get Republican Senator Judd Gregg (“a leading voice for reining in entitlement spending,” wrote Politico) into his cabinet, and later appointing entitlement-foe Alan Simpson to co-chair his “Deficit Commission.” Obama’s top economic advisor, Larry Summers, came to the White House publicly telling Time magazine of needed Social Security cuts.

Marshall Auerback argues:

The debt ceiling dispute is not forcing a compromise on this President, but is instead is viewed by him as a golden opportunity to do what he’s always wanted to do.

***

Unlike President Hoover, who inherited the foundations of a huge credit bubble from the 1920s and found himself overwhelmed by it, this President is worse.

***

The predictable result is of his current stance is that, even as he claims to recognize the interlocking nature of the problems facing us and vows to “solve the problem” once and for all via a “grand bargain”, Obama is in fact tearing apart most of the foundations which were tentatively initiated under Hoover, but which came to full fruition under FDR. If he continues down this ruinous path, $150 billion/month in spending will be cut. Such economic thinking isn’t worthy of Mellon, let alone Herbert Hoover.

Glenn Greenwald writes:

Obama ... has done more to subvert and weaken the left's political agenda than a GOP president could have dreamed of achieving. So potent, so overarching, are tribal loyalties in American politics that partisans will support, or at least tolerate, any and all policies their party's leader endorses – even if those policies are ones they long claimed to loathe.

This dynamic has repeatedly emerged in numerous contexts. Obama has continued Bush/Cheney terrorism policies – once viciously denounced by Democrats – of indefinite detention, renditions, secret prisons by proxy, and sweeping secrecy doctrines.

He has gone further than his predecessor by waging an unprecedented war on whistleblowers, seizing the power to assassinate U.S. citizens without due process far from any battlefield, massively escalating drone attacks in multiple nations, and asserting the authority to unilaterally prosecute a war (in Libya) even in defiance of a Congressional vote against authorising the war.

And now he is devoting all of his presidential power to cutting the entitlement programmes that have been the defining hallmark of the Democratic party since Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. The silence from progressive partisans is defeaning – and depressing, though sadly predictable.

***

Obama is now on the verge of injecting what until recently was the politically toxic and unattainable dream of Wall Street and the American right – attacks on the nation's social safety net – into the heart and soul of the Democratic party's platform. Those progressives who are guided more by party loyalty than actual belief will seamlessly transform from virulent opponents of such cuts into their primary defenders.

Progressive economist Michael Hudson writes:

The most reasonable explanation for [Obama's] empty threat is that he is trying to panic the elderly into hoping that somehow the budget deal he seems to have up his sleeve can save them. The reality, of course, is that they are being led to economic slaughter. (And not a word of correction reminding the President of financial reality from Rubinomics Treasury Secretary Geithner, neoliberal Fed Chairman Bernanke or anyone else in the Wall Street Democrat administration, formerly known as the Democratic Leadership Council.)

It is a con. Mr. Obama has come to bury Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, not to save them. This was clear from the outset of his administration when he appointed his Deficit Reduction Commission, headed by avowed enemies of Social Security Republican Senator Alan Simpson of Wyoming, and President Clinton’s Rubinomics chief of staff Erskine Bowles. Mr. Obama’s more recent choice of Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats be delegated by Congress to rewrite the tax code on a bipartisan manner – so that it cannot be challenged – is a ploy to pass a tax “reform” that democratically elected representatives never could be expected to do.

The devil is always in the details. And Wall Street lobbyists always have such details tucked away in their briefcases to put in the hands of their favored congressmen and dedicated senators. And in this case they have the President, who has taken their advice as to whom to appoint as his cabinet to act as factotums to capture the government on their behalf and create “socialism for the rich.”

***

Usually a crisis is needed to create a vacuum into which these toxic details are fed. Wall Street does not like real crises, of course – except to make quick computer-driven speculative gains on the usual fibrillation of today’s zigzagging markets. But when it comes to serious money, the illusion of a crisis is preferred, staged melodramatically to wring the greatest degree of emotion out of the audience much like a good film editor edits a montage sequence. Will the speeding train run over the girl strapped to the tracks? Will she escape in time?

The train is debt; the girl is supposed to be the American economy. But she turns out to be Wall Street in disguise. The exercise turns out to be a not-so-divine comedy. Mr. Obama offers a plan that looks very Republican. But the Republicans say no. There is an illusion of a real fight.

Beam Me Up, Scotty

THE SPEECH PRESIDENT OBAMA SHOULD HAVE GIVEN

My fellow Americans. We are here to night to discuss a very serious topic. But before we get started I would like to address myself to the TV networks and their practice of putting on a rebuttal to address delivered from the Office. As President of all the land I would like to believe I speak for the entire country and not leave myself open to be sniped at by some right fringe upstart malcontent who like all the rest of this phoney tea party movement are what Vice President Spiro Agnew would call "negative nabobs of negativism". Ladies and gentleman, there IS a serious crisis now but it's NOT the one that Republicans would have you believe it is- - not in the least. They would lead you to believe that we have a deficet crisis and justify their numerous below the belt political tacticts to justify the unjustifyable. There IS no "deficet crisis". Our government bonds and T bills and other money instruments are quite sound and AAA rated, as are those of many other nations like Japan who have a sizable budget deficet. However the Republicans' motives are not what they claim to be. Not by a long shot. Their actual goal is to crash this economy prior to next year's election and thus hope to gain the office of President next year. It's pointless for them to try and deny this, because were it not true, their actions would not have been what they are. Ye shall know them by their fruits. These fringe Republicans who took over in this election past have stated this goal often, and in many ways. My fellow Americans, good Americans do not do this. What they are doing is tantamount to economic treason. They say they are worried about the deficet. But is they really were, John Boehner would have agrees with me on a bill last week when we came close. I have been more than patient with my Republican colligues. But he said he would not compromize the pledge many of his coolgues surrupticiously and illegally made not to raise taxes no matter what the circumstance. This is the height of irresponsability. But Mr. Boehner is under pressure from those to the far right. He imagines these fringe tea party candidates will not win a primary if they do not stick to their no new taxes pledge. But I don't believe when people know the actual facts they will want to vote for a policy that will cause them to lose their jobs or for grandma to not get needed medical treatment, or for money to get tighter and economic uncertainty to increase. But these things will indeed occur if we do not come to an agreement in the next week. This deadline has no extensions. Were they all that concerned about the deficet they would have grabbed my offer with both hands to cut four trillion dollars from the federal deficet. But they didn't. Even now as you talk to many of them, their apathy about the approaching August 2nd deadline only grows with each passing day as the situation becomes increasingly out of reach. On August 2nd of next week, the nation will default and be unable to pay it's bills. My fellow Americans, when you in your own household decide you can't afford things in the future you do not unilaterally decide not to pay your outstanding bills and obligations. President Ronald Ronald Reagan spoke at length on this topic in a similar crisis in the 1980's. In that speech me made the identical points I am making today. If this default is allowed to come to pass, interests rates will go up and money will be tight and loans needed for economic expansion will be impossible to get. Prices of bonds will fall, and our credit standing around the world will fall. The Republicans will have at long last achieved the goal they were dreaming of ever since I took office. People such as Glen Beck have been predicting for years we'd have runaway inflation and skyrocketing interest rates because of my policies. Some two and a half years later this never happened. But now these republican fringe elements in the House are going to on their own endeavor to MAKE it happen. Ladies and Gentlemen, this should be a routine thing to raise the national debt ceiling. To use this event as a partisan political football is the worst kind of hitting below the belt. And I believe the American people have an inherent sense of knowing what's fair, and what is not. Eisenhaur, Nixon, and Reagan must all be turning over in their graves at the prospect of what is happening now. The Republicans just passed a cut, cap and ballance bill that not only makes massive cuts in vital government services, but also institutes a constitutional amendment mandating a balanced budget. In the 1972 Republican Convention they voted down such a provision as unworkable. If President Nixon found it unacceptable, why should it be any more acceptable today considering we have not had a balanced budget since 1969. Indeed Republicans through the ages have cited the proverb, "Deficets don't matter". These rises in the national debt ceiling for the past hundred years and up to this year have always been completely routine. Ronald Reagan had 17 such rises during his political tenure. Also, interest rates under Ronald Reagan were much higher than today meaning he subjected the American people to a perportionately much higher financial burden than is the case today. It's our patriotic duty to insure that America is economically respected around the world, and they are putting this as risk. These republicans have absolutely no pride in America, and they also lack any shame at what they are doing to this country by their petty and ill conceived actions. At this time I would like to remind you that George Bush, my predicessor is far from blameless in the problems we are having today with the deficet, and I think he'd be the first to admit it. It was George Bush who did the giveway to the drug and insurance companies with Medicare Part D, that guarenteed the drug companies top price for everything and stripped our government from any power to negotiate the price down. It was George Bush who put so many items "off budget" and thus did not show up in the official deficet tallies. It was George Bush who promoted the real estate crisis we are still suffering from. And it was George Bush who manufactured our war in Iraq and sent our young men there on completely fraudelent grounds. And evidence has clearly come to light that George Bush KNEW they were fraudelent reasons at the time, saying that Saddam Hussein has "weapons of mass destructions". First of all it cannot be overstated the connection between the Bush family and the Saudi families - - and by the way fifteen of the nineteen 9 - 11 hijackers were Saudis. Bush has maintained a close relation with the Saudis and it was most likely they who wanted Saddam Hussein gone because his brand of moderate Islam was not to their liking, and they preferred the more radical Wahabbiest variety. President Bush thought if he could trump up a phoney war he could gain "political capital" and rise in the polls in time for the election of 2004. And he was right, if you don't count the voters in Ohio. But wars cost money. They kill people and our soldiers come back a shadow of the men they were and need extensive medical therapy to be rehabilitated into society. All of this costs money. But these Republicans don't care about our Veterans any more than they care about medical care for older Americans which they have come to depend on. The goal of these tea party republicans is nothing short of the dismanteling of the American Government as we know it. One of their own has stated that their goal is to "shrink the size of the American government down to where it can be drowned in the bathtub". This is their avowed goal. Not to trim waste in programs, and not even to cut the deficet. Were this true they would be much more open to revenue enhancement and closing gaping tax loopholes for giant international corporations. Indeed there is indeed waste in government, and I have stressed my concern about this time and time again. But the House voted down a tax law that would end our government's actually subsedizing corporations from moving over seas, and with them all those jobs, because they refused to eliminate the tax write off that enable this. Indeed I myself was accused of wanting to cut grandma's medicare by my Health Care reforms. Many good programs will have to be put on hold during this crisis. Yet I have been accused of not wanting to cut anything and I imagine Senator Boehner will again repeat this false assumption when he speaks. What they are about instead can be summarized in the words "starve the beast". But, my fellow Americans, YOU are the Government. You, the American People hold 65% of all American bonds which fund the government. So to say that the government should default is to default against yourselves. Do not let the Republicans get away with this. Get on the phone right now and call them, and keep calling them and tell them you will not stand for another minute of this needless delay, but to come to an agreement immediately. In doing this maybe we can snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, for all of us. I wish you God's speed. Thank you and good night.

You know – one in these troubled times tempted to say “Beam me up, Scotty”. Of course you know our scheduled Rapture is scheduled for September 28^th or just two months away. The time will be fast upon us. Of course I was thinking of announcing a delay of that event for another three years to September 24^th 2014, same time and place. But I don’t know if this chaos we are in can go on that long. We have no idea of knowing what sort of President a Rick Perry or a Mitt Romney or Michelle Bachman would make. Of course to ask Bachman about her frequent and disabeling migranes would be sexist or something, so as Nancy Pelosi would say, that topic is “Off the table”. The American people have gone insane, without a brain in their head. Of course the majority of these people claim to be Christian. But they couldn’t put together a coherent story of the resurrection of Jesus to save their lives that would survive even the most innocent of questions from one who might be genuinely curious. They say Judas betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. How did they learn that? Judas was dead. He couldn’t tell them. And law enforcement usually doesn’t publicise the identity of informants. As to what was done with the money- - some say it was to buy a potters field to bury the poor. Others said Judas bought a piece of land with it and fell to his death and his insides burst out. I’m wondering. Doing business on the Sabbath was prohibited. So Judas had to wait till Sunday. According to the way all the movies portray it Judas hung himself over a cliff several hundred feet high and the rope broke. Then somehow his disfigured corps now rotting in the desert sun, the portion of it that hadn’t been eaten by scavengers- - and somehow a disciple was just passing by and identified it. But Jesus appeared to his disciples that very evening, so that poses very little time for Judas to have done all that. And I’m wondering if Judas knew Jesus was alive he surely would have met with him. We are told the three women on the way to the tomb mused on how they would roll the stone away. But Mary Magdolane came to the tomb even earlier while it was still dark- - and met the gardener who she took to be Jesus. So why didn’t SHE tell the other two women the SECOND time she went to the tomb the stone had already been rolled away? Why were Jesus’ disciples still in town anyhow when according to the Zachariah prophecy they were “sheep to be scattered”. They say soldiers gambled for Jesus’ robe. Yet the Roman soldiers GAVE him a purple robe to wear, which they draped on his bloody body, and then he appeared on stage with Pilate in front of the crowd that way wearing the purple robe. And those two men in a city twenty miles away. They had a talk with a stranger they later came to believe was Jesus after he had gone. But they didn’t talk about the fact that Pilate had pardoned a hardened zealot who had committed a murder. Surely that’s a topic for gossip. And they didn’t talk about the curtain in the temple being rent in two. They didn’t talk about either of the two massive earthquakes that hit the City, nor the fact that graves were opened and dead people were arising and walking through the city. As Gene Scott says, “Try pudding a little flesh and blood on these characters”. And of course not too many people in those days slowly ascended into the sky like a UFO, in an era that didn’t even have balloons. But somehow the people didn’t know about this. Of course if money exchanged hands (on a Sabbath, which was illegal) when the priests told the Roman Authorities to place a quatrane of troops to guard the tomb of a convicted criminal because there were roomers he would rise again- - - well, it just gets curiouser and curiouser. But me I’m like “Mr Potter” and I say “I see you are troubled- - and you know what I’m going to do? I’m going to help you out. I’m going to cite instances from the Bible - - - “. Did you know that a man who sacrificed his own daughter as a burnt offering is hailed as a “Hero of Faith” in the book of Hebrews in the N T. People say that Cain married a distant relative like a 2^nd cousin or something- - in some remote city, where he had fled because “He didn’t want people finding out he had murdered his brother” and God agreed to protect him- - - because you never when some desert caravan might be traveling from Adam’s farm to some city which- - - now we have a problem. There were no people so how could they build a city. Cain HAD no other older siblings who had “left the farm and moved to the big city”. Walter Martin’s been watching too many old movies. All Cain and Abel’s siblings would be YOUNGER than they were, and probably needed as workers around the place doing the usual farm chores- - - and they in the context of the story were probably but teenagers themselves. So we are left with the option of a bunch of “Children of the Corn” types- - maybe ten brothers and sisters probably with an average age of ten or eleven- - all going across the desert to build a city and then have sex with each other and begin having kids. People’s explanations for things are laughable.

This is the next morning, Wednesday July 27th. and I'd like to throw in a "prequel" at this time. For some of you who thought the "Children of the Corn" analogy was over the top, I say "not one bit". The oldest child, presumably the leader may be fifteen or sixteen, like Malachai was in the movie. Picture being raised by parents who talked about a land of talking serpents in a garden Paradise to the west, the east gate of which was guarded by two angels, with flaming swords that moved every which way. To say this story is not an "essential" element in Christianity is again to miss the target. Jesus spoke of Adam and Eve as literal beings. However in other areas Jesus liked to cherry pick scripture. For instance, Jesus regarded the making of any vows to either the LORD or a human being as a snare of the devil. Jesus said "Do not swear". Jesus said if you married a divorced woman YOU were guilty of Adultery. Jesus obviously never read the scripture where the prophet Hoseah was ordered to take a prostitute for a wife. Jesus also said that the Old Testament law was some sort of degraded or compromised version, despite incessent references elsewhere in the Old Testament to the law of god being perfect, and to meditate on it day and night. Jesus also taught that blood atonement was not absolute. If you did not forgive your brother, neither would God forgive you, regardless of whether you were "covered by the blood". And now here are some other worthwhile coments fro yesterday.

We are now in concrete. This is Tuesday after three on July 26, 2011 and Bill is out of the room. The soap opera demonstrated that Victor is both a bully and a queer lover and in my opinion only diminished what little credibility he had by his behavior today. You know, homosexuals are not immune from being assholes or causing embarrassing social situations for others. And they won’t acknowledge that.

Money draw call came near two. It was a short line. I guess Loretta Hill has already been. I went in and received fifteen from [name withheld]. I wanted sixteen. I took three pieces of candy. I was going to buy a snack at the store but now I’ll have to spend that money on coffee. Janet’s little request actually cost me a dollar and a quarter of this week’s money. I’ve got enough coffee for one more cup. They music class met today. I went out and got two cups of coffee from Dora. I also got coffee from Dora in the morning. I had Randy Rhodes on at noon and after two. Oscar is hosing down the patio so I went out front to smoke. Nora was by at about 10:30 to change the linens. I’m going to save that coffee lid because the normal one with those cans doesn’t seal tight.

Yesterday just before noon Dr. Levy’s class convened. Of course Dr. Levy fancies himself an expert on economics and between the two of us he is the one presumed to have the more knowledge although I spend all day listening to the stuff and information compiled by people more industrious than I. Whereas he brags that he only watches ten minutes of news a day and that’s it. Someone said Marie Calendar pies are definitely closing down, all of them. The company is going into bankruptsy. I mentioned this on a blog in passing weeks ago as a roomer. We had our check-in. Joe read four favorite poems from Dr. Levy’s book, and they were good ones. Then Dr. Levy wanted to talk yet more about creative aging, as though we hadn’t more than beaten that horse to death. Dr. Levy grilled us with a few test questions. The corrected version of our poem was passed out. At one I went up here briefly and then met Dr. Levy and we went to his car to go to the bank. I went in alone. My account was $58.50 or something, but I forget to get a receipt. He said he knew of no “secret question” that people who called an 800 number were supposed to answer. On the way home I mentioned the ontological delema about knowing something may be true but not being able to prove it. Would that still be called objectivism if it was an “objective” truth? I them nentioned the perils of utilitarianism and capitalism and how both are fine within moral boundaries.

When a "Terrorist" is not a Terrorist

Thom Hartman opened his show with this topic this morning. That guy who set off the car bomb in Norway and then killed 68 children at a "labor party supper camp" was constantly referred to as a "terrorist" while they thought he was an Islamic working for Al Qaeda or whatever. But when it was found out he was just your garden variety right wing Born Again redneck, the word "Terrorist" was suddenly dropped from all news accounts. This shooter is pure evil. We know that. He was dressed as a police officer to gain admittence to the island. From then on it was like shooting fish in a barrel since nobody at the camp was armed. The furtelizer bomb had the same chemical compound as the bomb in the Oklahoma City bombing by Timothy Mc Vey and Terry Nichols. He is of the identical political stripe. He wrote out a Ted Kazinsky style "Manifesto" which had some anti technology stuff in it but mostly he just raged against the immigration policy of his country and how they allowed Moslems there. Some of the right wing and not so right wing sources made pure jackasses of themselves in their editorials over the weekend. "The Wall Street Journal" was running stuff like "This only goes to show that President Obama is wrong in wanting to wind down the war in Afghanistan, and why we shouldn't cut our defense budget because we never know there the next attack from Al Qaeda is coming from". Others went so far however as to declare this "labor party summer camp" is a "Hitler youth" training facility by liberals. However if you actually check the FBI.gov web site and look at the statistics on terrorism you find that a full 42% of US terrorist attacks are Latino in origen, such as various Puerto Rican liberation fronts. There are a number of left leaning groups on the list. But there are only six percent of the attacks tracable to Islamic groups and they trail attacks by the Jewish Defense League at 7%. And yet we are told how much a threat "Islamo-fasciests" are. This term is an oxy-moronism, of course. People will say or write anything if they think it will sell newspapers, or raise them up a few notches in the polls. But years ago there was some major terrorism report done by the Bush administration that stressed that the political right of this country was a major threat as far as future terrorist attacks in this country are concerned.

Of course the beating of that Giants fan at Dodger Stadium after the game on opening night is in the news again. They had the wrong suspect for months. But now it's determined that though he was guilty of parole violations and other offences, he was shacking up in a motel room with his girlfriend and wasn't at Dodger Stadium that night. The two new suspects they do have now, and a third girlfriend of one of them, are bad dudes. Apparently they cut out the guy's tongue and gauged out one of his eyes in one of the attacks. The police had never released that information before and it sheds rather a new light on the thing- - as being something of a whole different order than your garden variety beating. They do have things called "enhanced" charges - - such mayhem- - which I imagine could get the suspects 25 years to life.

This is a period of firsts and last. Yesterday the Tour De France came to a conclusion with a winner. Last Friday they officially did away with "Don't Ask; Don't Tell" but the edict does not go into effect for another sixty days, or till about the first day of autumn. So I guess you could still get kicked out during this period. Of course over the weekend they had their first gay weddings in New York. So what is the in thing now- - - a gay ceremony at the foot of the Status of Liberty with doves and flowers and everything. So I guess it's all "Best Men" and so it's a whole line of men up front, like a glee club, probably dressed in white tuxes to symbolize purity or something, and no bride's maids. The whole thing is a little much for me. I see little difference in this than a ceremony where a man marries his car. I don't see a good future for the institution of marriage. And on Friday the last space shuttle craft landed in pre dawn darkness officially ending the thirty year long space shuttle program. Now we'll only have private groups in space funded by corporations. And of course Amy Weinhaus' carrier came to an end on Saturday when the British singer showed up dead of a drug overdose. It is one of those cases where a lot of people saw it coming. She now joins the "27 Club" along with Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and Kurt Cobain. Brian Jones only made it to 26 before he died, as you know from the poem on "Through the Past Darkly", a vague Corinthians allusion.

I'm trying to read my notes "Buddy Ruemey" (?) anyhow there is another Republican running for President who is probably "too old" or at least that's how they'll attack him. He wants to restore the economic terriff policy we had in this country from Alexander Hamilton through to Jimmy Carter where the average terriff on foreign goods was 22% (or was it higher?) At any rate it was a primary means of raising taxes for a big part of this country's history. And I thought we were looking for new revenues, but apparently not, because nobody is upset about the August 2nd deadline any more. Anyhow our policy now is the subsedize the transfer of a corporation's factory and headquarters to another country. Moving is expensive, you know. People like Judy and Dr. Levy act like it's as simple as pie and anybody would do it. No, our governments HELPS them move by allowing them gigantic tax write-offs. Apparently the House passed a bill to get rid of this anti job provision of the law when the House was ruled by Democrats, but a minority of Senate republicans killed it. Keep in mind the forty percent of republicans in that body at the time probably represented only ten or twelve percent of the entire US population. Otherwise the President would have signed the bill into law.

I have had various Deja Vu experiances involving the Beatles at the BBC. For one thing the song "Young Blood" when I first heard it by the Coasters, probably in the LATE sixties- - seemed to me to be way too slow and just "wrong". It turns out I was right. The Beatles did it completely differently. I experianced Deja Vu listening to the BBC tape with "I Forgot to Remember to Forget" on it, because before that song even came up I KNEW it was coming, even though I had never heard this tape before. I also had never heard the Brian Matthews introduction to this song, which, knowing his kind of humor, was predictable. Of course the chronology is a little different from the CD package because one of the early sessions had "I'm Gona Find My Baby", "A Shot of Rhythm and Blues" and "Young Blood" all recorded for the same program. Brian Matthews introduced the middle song - by Arthur Alexander by saying "Wel'll feel better or we will, after a shot of rhythm and blues". The segment opens with a rather contentious John Lennon. Of course "Lonesome Tears in my Heart" spawned Deja Vu thoughts, partially because I think maybe I heard the song before but more because the guitar riff sounds like the guitar riff in "The Balad of John and Yoco". As to the song "I Just Don't Understand" I sure thought April Stevens and Nino Temple did this song, but nobody else remembers that. You know, I was going to make this a whole lot longer paragraph but we'll save it for later.

This is Monday July 25, 2011 and Augustine was just in to check for toilet paper. Nora was in here and unhappy about my moving the chair out of place and having the spread on the floor and the bed unmade. I just called Mom at three using the number of the new card, which I had to fish for because it’s been some weeks since I even got that one. The problem has been too few calls and too long a period of clasped time. Judge Pirro is on right now. The floor buffer still smells of mildew. There seems to have been other commotion in the hall but so far I have not seen the green cart. Me and Mom had a nice conversation. Her weight is holding steady, but not going down. She lost the ‘House and Garden” station on her cable, and perhaps others. I confirmed that her cable still isn’t HD. She still gets visits from [name deleted] who checks out her computer. They exchange magazines. [name deleted] recommended the grape juice. I told Mom that they have stopped serving milk around here for lunch. The weather isn’t as hot today.

Last night it was ABC network news and at twelve after six I went down to the living room despite my generally feeling a little sick and definitely tired and not operating on all eight cylinders. I sat on the couch and waited there 25 minutes for Seid and Nicky to arrive, and listened to Wally talk about his experiences as a fork lift operator. Finally I left and had a smoke. Then I went back down at ten to seven and now the size of the crowd seemed to have more than doubled. Seid a Nicky are nothing is not erratic. They brought vanilla ice cream with them and I had one standard “large” serving and a second small serving. We were also served a Russian “hot dog” that Seid says is made out of lamb. I don’t know – but whatever it was it was going bad. We talked about the Temple ceremony yesterday for four people here that were officially confirmed into the church, Manfred, Wally, Elizabeth, and Marcia. Lorrie had told me that Marcia felt she was being socially shunned, and puzzled I asked why, and she said “Because she is Black”. This is the God’s truth but her race didn’t even register to me - - I never thought about it – till that very moment. It’s kind of a sober eye opener. When I arrived Seid greeted me and shook my hand. I was looking for a chair and brought one over and set it down and this guy in a wheel chair ordered me to “move it” because I was blocking his view. The room had so many walkers and things scattered about and I said “Where shall I put it?” and he said “Take it out to the street for all I care”. He later gave another late arrival a hard time and Laurie told him to “Knock it off”. Good for her. I didn’t stay but about twenty or twenty-five minutes. Then I went out for a cigarette.

Sixty Minutes had this thing on the corruption of cops in New Orleans I had never seen before. They said the murder rate in “The Big Easy” is now the highest in the nation and rattled off troubling statistics. One person said “A lot of cities have temporary spikes in their murder rate. We just seem to have more of them than most. In that class poem there was a line about “If you go to New Orleans you’ll find that the food is greasy”. Dr. Levy set the bar real low on this poem. How about “If you go to New Orleans you’ll find that getting away with murder is easy”. Or if you want to be not so nice you could say “If you go to New Orleans you’ll find that the Niggers are greasy”. At any rate I wasn’t real sure what sort of “corruption” the P D was experiencing. Then they had that thing on sharks and how “sharks are people too”. The thing is to find a shark who is “a player” and one you think you can swim with. Kind of like Nicole picking out her next husband, hoping she doesn’t get devoured. You want a shark who is curious about man, but not angry or aggressive. He went on to say that the death statistics on sharks is really low and how “in fact many people at the beach have actually had positive encounters with sharks and didn’t know it”. Kinda like space aliens, huh? The trick of course is to never show fear and of course, don’t splash or do anything else to make them think you’re a seal, because they love seal blubber for its high fat content. And sharks don’t like contact with metal so the camera is kind of your protect device that says “Don’t come close”.

After this it was a strange Simpson’s episode. (They’re ALL pretty strange, these days) Last week’s Cleveland Show was so awful I’m never watching it again, so switched to some unknown show on KCOP. I went to bed at nine, and managed to sleep well. But I wasn’t 100% in the morning and had diaria. My innards have some sort of bug. We are on page seven. I brewed coffee. We had corn flakes for breakfast and then scrambled eggs and butter and jelly. Andrew gave me his orange juice. The rest of the morning was pretty non eventful. I had Stephanie Miller on before and after breakfast and had Thom Hartman on. I did make a lot of notes I intend to use but not here. We had ham sandwiches for lunch and red tomatoish soup. Laurie gave me another half sandwich and also her Fritos. We had bananas for desert. Coffee is a less important factor now that I have my own coffee maker and can have it any time I want.

This is after dinner. We had pepper steak with unflavored white rice. We don’t seem to get the good stuff any more, and also coloflour and broccoli. We had peaches in lemon pudding for desert, which was different. Eye Witness news is on now. Janet wants her coffee. Joe wants his coffee. Everybody is eager today. Well, coffee is not cheap. It gets used up, too. It doesn't last forever. Dr. Levy said maybe I should take donations when I buy the coffee - - along the same vein is chipping in to buy a pizza.

Today the NFL announced that the players voted and ratified a ten year NFL contract so we are all set for football in the fall. “Captain America” actually beat out “Harry Potter and the Deadly Hallows Part II” in the box office, which slipped to number two. The smurfs are starring in their first 3 D adventure. I saw a preview of that movie yesterday and the idea of using that cartoon series for a movie is idiotic. Jerry Brown wants to give illegal aliens student financial aid while putting the screws to the rest of us.