The Other Side of People and Things

I was watching Chris Matthews before dinner and the commentary was mainly on the political round-up of candidates once again. It was agreed that Mitt Romney is the only one of the seven anybody could even vaguely imagine occupying the Oval Office. Anybody who isn’t two dimensional, like a cartoon figure, has more than one side to them. Jesus Christ is a two dimensional cartoon figure. He has no reality other than what is drawn on the canvas, like Homer Simpson. People are real. Coins are real. When you flip a coin and it lands wither heads or tails- - it is falsity to say that good is the opposite of evil. The reality is in the coin itself and not merely the two dimensional aspect of it we happen to see. The same thing goes with God. A coin cannot be faulted for coming up either heads or tails, and God WILL NOT be faulted for coming up heads one day and tails the next. This is kind of like Mitt Romney, the classic flip flopper. He’s for believing in global warming in June and against it a couple of days ago. He is a bit unsteady on this Ohio proposition two. Of course Romney care and his position on gun control - - and the like is an ongoing quandary. Remember when I said the bigger the lie the more emphatic the person stating it. Earlier in his life he told this heart wrenching story about a good friend who had a back alley abortion and this “experience” convinced him that abortion should be legal. Of course now he says otherwise. We don’t know whether Romney is really a moderate and once elected president he will choose to serve ALL of the people. It would be nice if he “grew” like that. On the other hand how long do you think it will be he backs down and takes that 200,000 ceiling off his capital gains cut provision under tea party pressure? Marco Rubio is a first class phoney. Now a story comes to light that Rubio's parents were immigrants from Cuba who came here in 1956 well before there was any revolution threat in Cuba. But of course though he benefited from immigration he wants to "pull up the ladder" after him. Even though many people crossing the border here in California are refugees from places like Guatamala and El Salvidor where they do have real oppression. Gingrich is a tactless candidate. He says the reason he cheated on his wives because he was so dedicated to his work circumstances “prevented him from being faithful”. Maybe “in his heart” he doesn’t think he’s a bad person but I believe a man is ultimately judged on his actions and not how he “feels about himself”. We know he’s against Moslem mosques. Apparently he made vicious, cutting remarks about Tip O Neil all the time. Ron Rhodes told me 25 years ago he thought Gingrich’s problem was that he was arrogant. Of course there is his marital situation and that whole half a million dollar debt to Tiffanies. He is “the mean candidate” Chris Matthews reminds us. He would be our first “mean” president in quite some time. He has made inflammatory statements about everyone and everything. None the less he has risen to third in two different polls, a move we anticipated. Herman Cain may be popular because he is “not Romney”. You have to get a chuckle out of his “Imagine there is no pizza” song. But Cain has no political organization and seems to lack the basic discipline to even organize a Presidential campaign. He may be running just to get more press to promote his book tour. Ron Paul has now dropped behind Gingrich in the polls and appears to be fading. President Obama is far from perfect. It was pointed out he’s never had a real opponent. Mc Cain was Mr. Senile at the twilight of his carrier in 2008, and he faced an even weaker opponent in 2008. It is an open question whether Obama can hold his own in a debate because Hillary beat the pants off him in every one to one confrontation I’ve seen with them. The President has led a very secretive and elitist life and roomers persist he has some sinister “secret agenda” he had yet to unleash on us. This sense of Obama being like Romney in that he has no real convictions but will just tailor his course to the political winds is disturbing. In some ways his “Black” credentials are about as poor as O J Simpson in that he seems to be friends with all of the wrong people. Clearly the man cannot project confident leadership in a time of crisis.

Well USC is playing Stanford tonight and we hope that U S C whoops them good. Stewart is also a strong U S C partisan, not just because he usually routs for U S C, but we both hate Stanford – and I believe for the same reason, because of a particular alumnus who got his degree there. Stewart doesn’t mind going on the record as predicting a Trojan win. We talked a minute ago about a question raised in a Who song, which is “Can you see the real Me?” But it’s an open question as to a person even HAS an “essence” as we have talked about previously. Couldn’t the “essential nature” of any individual be defined just as easily by the perceptions of others, and that if he relies upon just the perception of himself he is getting an incomplete picture? Elvis Di Mira wanted Nicole as his campaign manager because “She knows me through and through”. This is a valuable asset if it’s handled right. Because they know what ploys to suggest that would be good for you that you could pull off well, as well as steer you away from pitfalls that others might see in time, but they do because they know all your weaknesses. Stewart told me that under some circumstances he could envision himself voting Republican if the other candidate running against him was horrible enough, but the ONE exception to that rule is Newt Gingrich. There aren't ANY conditions where one would vote for him for President. I said "Well what if he were running against Atilla the Hun or Mao Tse Tung?" Stewart said, "Well if the majority voted like me I guess we'd have Atilla the Hun for President, wouldn't we?" I said, "I guess so".

There is a major snow storm hitting the east coast bring snow before Halloween in Central Park for the first time since the Civil War. Clearly there is “climate change” in the world and only a fool would deny it. Perhaps we weren’t ready for Jimmy Carter’s energy “opus magnum” back in 1979 but many years have passed since then. This is the 21^st Century and energy development in a broad spectrum of areas has gone forward. Some people take no pride in living in California because it is a progressive state. They prefer to find refuge in a state like Texas or North Carolina that has both taxes and political climate more to their liking. My word to them is “Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out”. We in S C are having a nice little warm spell right now.

Quantas workers have gone on strike, I guess for the first time. The NBA strike will continue at least until the end of November without games being played. Nobody watches basketball till about Christmas day anyhow. Our troops were ambushed in Afghanistan and thirteen were killed. There have been various large earthquakes around the world. The defense in the Michael Jackson mal practice case clearly has their head up their ass. Gold continues to rise, which puzzles me. It’s got to be headed for a major crash and I mean a sharp, sudden one, and soon, if history is any guide. Bill Halliday has been the head of that church now for some 40% of it’s entire history and this church has had more pastors than Elizabeth Taylor has had husbands, and they precede back to way before my time. I have no idea when the next Republican freak show debate will be. Now Rick Perry says he may not participate any more of these. Smart move. In fact if they were smart they would call the rest of them off because Damage Control is working overtime already. If president Obama were smart, which he obviously is not, he would have in his next address a guest speaker who is an economist who has been around the block for a few dacades and gained experience, like I have - - and not someone who just fell off the turn-up truck in September of 2008. Clearly the American people already have political campaign fatigue and it isn’t even the end of 2011 yet. None of us can say for sure what unknown developments occurring in the next year that will figure into the political campaign that we are not aware of, but will assume major importance.