Letting the Culture Dictate Societal Norms

It's interesting that Rush Limbaugh would come out in favor of the idea of "Letting the culture dictate the norms of society" because this is not a classic conservative position.  The conservative position would be dictated by religious doctrine.   Rush points out that in a totalitarian society it's the State hat dictates all of the norms of society rather than the Culture, in fact the "culture's" existance itself is not even deemed legal unless the State says it is.  It's pointed out that in England they have a tradition of "Innocent until proben guilty" but on "The Contenent" the tradition is the opposite - - it's "Guilty untill proved innocent".  Also in a free society there is a presumption that anything is legal untill there is a Law passed, hopefully by a body elected by the People, that says it isn't.  It was back in the sixties that a liberal even acknoledged this.  He said "Back in the old days if you were raking leaves you'd gather them into a pile and burn them and there'd be no problem".  After all they are your leaves and it's your property.  But these days gas leaf blowers are frowned upon, and charcoal barbecues are considered carsogenic, and even fire pits on the beaches are being taken out, though they may be more than a football field length away from the nearest houses.  Now you aren't even allowed to have wood fires in your own house without permission.  You can't go dirt biking just anywhere in the desert because you might disturb some "petroglifts' or Indian relics of some sort.  My answer to all of this is "These restrictions all interfere with our southern California culture".  My view is to allow people to be people, enjoying their lives.  Rush's point is well taken about the supreme court and nine men in black robes having the Final Say over what what is 'Proper conduct" at any given time, rather than the Culture at large.  For a free society this is wrong.  Tomorrow is the 41st anniversary of the Roe vs Wade court decision.  This decision just declared that a fetus was not a living being, as science has demonstrated it is over and over again, but rather just some kind of bodily tissue that needs to be expelled, with no right.  I kind of compare Roe vs Wade to the Dread Scott decision on Slavery in 1857.  You see Stephen Douglas of Illinois advocated for "Popular sovreignty".   When you think about it for that time and place, this doctrine seems to be a reasonable one.  That is "Let the people of each state decide for themselves whether or not they will allow Slavery".  The trouble is the Dread Scott looked at this and decided, in the tradition of Roe vs Wade or frankly the Trans Pacific Partnership - - "No you cannot decide for yourself.  We are going to define normalcy down to the lowest common denominator.  So if a Black man is property in a Slave state, then a black man must also be regarded as Property in a Free State".  And so with abortion- - were the people of the "several states" allowed to decide for themselves on this matter- - Rush points out there wouldn't be near the uproar on the subject as there is now.  Because some states would outright ban abortions, and other states might allow it with varying restrictions over length of time, or other proscriptive conditions under which they may be performed.   Up to this point Rush was doing fine.  But then he moves the subject from abortion to marijuana and now suddenly the States don't know anything.  Washington State and Colorado don't know anything.  This is because a Federal study concluded that marijuana was dangerous.  More dangerous than cigarettes as a matter of fact.  Patric Kennedy even says "Today's grass is so much stronger than the grass we grew up with that we have to take a second look at it".   Of course something else that's deemed legal in a free society is Free Enterprise.  This is the natural outgrowth of allocation of resources, "in the most efficient way possible".   In Russia they used to speak of "The black market economy" but if the truth be known THAT was the "Free market economy" because it's not something the government "allows you to have' after standing in line for two hours or God knows how long.   So on the gay issue- - I could use Rush's observation today of "Letting society dictate what normal behavior is" then I would have to, against my own personal preferences what I'd consider ideal, to say "If society is coming to accept gay marriages, than who am I to stand in the way?"

Wolf Blitzer loved Chris Christie's speech today in New Jersey.  Rush thinks Wolf Blitzer is a liberal but I always thought he was a conservative TV commentator.  We have a difference of oppinion here.  Whatever the governor said was pure Bullshit and he doesn't mean a word of it anyhow, but he's just saying it because polesters say it's what he "should" say.  I would agree with Rush on his view about an "Independant".  It used to be indepandants were the swing voters.  But prior to this morning I had already seen a thing, from a liberal site that said that today if you call yourself "independant' you are most likely conservative.  But you just don't want to make an asshole of yourself in public so keep your views to yourself.  And it was said that 59% of these Independant voters went for Romney in the last election, which any other election cycle year means he should have won.  Of course there are these "Troll" callers.  I guess that's what they're called.  They stalk radio call in shows and claim to be "non political" and "fair minded" and "No previous oppinion" and all but let them talk for any time at all and you come to realize they're just another hard right political person.

I was just watching on C-Span this guy saying that most State Houses are dominated by one party or the other.  Only five states have divided government and New Hampshire and Virginia are two of those states.  His point is that both the “democratic approach” and the “republican approach” seem to both be creating jobs, obviously for different reasons.  Better paying jobs occur in the democratic states but more and cheaper jobs were created in the republican states.  I’m puzzled as to just how republican governors are creating more burger flippers and window washers.  If I didn't say before, you know that in 1968 dollars we'd have to hike the minimum wage to $10.40 an hour just to be even with what we were then.  But then I heard that "If you account for the vast increase of per worker production and efficiency between then and now that fifteen dollars an hour would be a more suitable minimum wage figure.  This is what Ed Schultz was arguing for on Tuesday morning's radio program.  In terms of unemployment- - the fact that Congress is off this week is really neither here nor there since the forward progress was jammed anyhow.   He said that a company like Boeing is not necessarily looking at the tax rate when they decided to relocate but rather things like education of the people providing fertile ground to recruit those workers from.

You know it’s lighter now in the evenings than it would be on the first day of Pacific Standard Time, don’t you?  This is Janu-annie month according to Subway.  They say five dollars for any foot long sandwich.  This ad has always puzzled me since back in the nineties when I was buying a lot of Subway sandwiches I think foot longs were routinely five dollars any how.  There was a 6.2 earthquake in Wellington, New Zealand, and they showed what happened during a dog race.  The dogs kept running the track.  And a seventeen year old Russian teenager in St Petersburg may have written the mal-ware that sabotaged all those Target stores, and they say other retail outlets may have fallen victim to this predatory malware that haven’t admitted it yet.  There is a newly discovered or at least released audio recording of Martin Luther King made in December of 1950 explaining all of the “forces” that led to his being released from jail in the South when Kennedy was running for President.  Both John and Bobby Kennedy took action, which seems to have led to his being freed.  People from some other planet watching our ads in the media for all this electronic new stuff, would never have guessed that we in the United States have been in a Great Recession all this time.  There is lots of stuff in the media about steps you can do to “make yourself feel better” and more young and vibrant.  There is a whole lot more stuff on TV now than twenty years ago about people of all sorts “beating the odds” or taking physical daring risks, and more stuff about service oriented programs to help others.  They say that King Day is a “day of service” and it’s a good thing.   But the Republicans wish it were 2011 again, and that people were just as discouraged as they were then, and they aren’t; they are more hopeful.  I’m not but most people are. 

 I find it disturbing that Thom Hartman’s book of “Doom in 2016” rather disturbingly parrellels that movie that was released trashing President Obama in 2012 and promos for the movie were probably a reality even two years ago.  A lot of anticipation was generated for this movie.  Hartman does realize that is an economic crash did occur in 2016 it would be the worst thing that could happen to democrats and the best news the republicans could hear for their chances in 2016.   The question is jut how Hartman could come to such a belief about the economy unless somehow he weren't swayed by "something" of a non objective nature.  Because clearly by any objective criteria- - we are a really long ways from another economic "bubble".    Doesn't Hartman track interest rates?   There is yet another survey that if you have guns in your house, that your kids are seven times more likely to commit suicide using a firearm.   Tylenol causes liver damage.  Perhaps that’s why I don’t take it.  Doctors always endeavored to give me some other drug.   There is some complication called “hepatic encephelopothy” where you can’t think.

Yahoo has reorganized their sports page getting rid of all those convenient headings at the top of the page.  There is only one place I found any reference to that call that should have been “roughing the kicker” and that was in the comments section.    At about nine thirty I watched a good chunk of a “Sleepy Hallow” episode.   But after the morning coffee break - - and wait for the light saver to pass - - I turned on the Ed Schultz show on Media Player.  This show was productive because he was talking about Dawn Zimmer, which I guess is the name of Hoboken, who has been called a liar by the Luitenant Governor of NJ.  Zimmer has volunteered to take a lie detector test, which is something not Christie or any of the others has offered to do.  The tests may not be perfect, but this shows courage and conviction on her part.   It could be we are mere months away from ever hearing Chris Christie’s name mentioned in a serious way ever again as a political figure.  That day can’t come to soon for me.

The US Can't Trust Snowden - - Or Russia

David Snowden may be a lot more dangerous to the security than we figured.  Two people on Face the Nation today and one on Meet the Press said they are ‘Pretty sure that Snowden had to have had help.  First of all getting around the Security measures for some of the secrets he collected took more knowledge than he would have had.  Snowden’s motive isn’t what he claimed it to be that “many young people born today have no concept of what it is to have any privacy at all”.  Well, they can blame some of that on their helicopter parents.  Snowden revealed a lot of military secrets and a whole lot to compromise our security such that the United States has had to abandon whole methods of operation because now our enemies are aware of them.  One must keep in mind that our National Security Administration was doing nothing illegal and there have been very few abuses.  A few NSA agents have checked in on old boyfriends and girlfriends for personal info.  The Martin Luther King parade tomorrow will be carried on KABC.  I watched most of “Face the Nation”.  Snowden’s trek out of the country was that of someone with a purpousful plan and not the random acts of some fleeing amature.   We have a lot to be concerned about with Russia in general and not because of all the suspicious help they gave Snowden.  But of course Russia has a thing or two to explain too about the Boston Marathon bombings and how those two brothers were able to get into this country and the Russians didn’t do anything about it or warn us adequately.  Besides this we now learn that Russia is NOT helping out much with security with the Olympics as far as working with our federal agencies, as has been a longstanding tradition between the United States and whatever nation was holding the Olympics.  It would seem that Vladimir Putin bears a lot of personal animosity to the United States.  I don’t trust Russia these days, and I don’t trust any nation that would be in a close military alliance with them.  But that’s just me.   It seems that the CIA chief made 46 specific recommendations of changes to the NSA, but I don’t know how many of these were taken up by the Administration.  One question I have is “If Google and Yahoo and AT&T are holding all this information, suppose they decide to themselves “We don’t need all of this volume of information cluttering up our data banks.  Let’s get rid of it.”  Will then these private companies be brought up on charges of Treason for violation of an implied contract?  Now ABC news is coming on and saying that there are threats of chemical weapons being let loose at the Russian Olympics.  There is a new video released by the same terrorist group that says “The attacks on Volgagrad are only the beginning, we have more in store including chemical weapons”.  One US Senator says it’s now unsafe for the United States to go to the Olympics.  Vladimir Putin was interviewed today by George Stephanoplis and Putin says “Snowden has a perfect right to travel anywhere in Russia with no limitations, even the Olympics”.

They are activating the “alarm clock” on this space craft that was launched ten years ago with a mission to land on a comet to learn its secrets and whether water from a comet gave earth it’s first prospect for life.  It will be like landing on a speeding bullet because the gravity would be very slight and I guess they have to bore into the ice of the comet to secure the craft.  One might think the gravity would be so slight a man could physically lift the craft off the ground.

A thief can get a tax refund in your name with virtually no ID.  All he needs if your social security number, and fill out a form and he’s in.  So basically it’s easier for someone to steal your tax refund than it is to vote in some states..He can have your refund in his pocket before you even getting around to filing for it.  They claimed as high as 1.6 million people in America have fallen victim to this, which sounds like no minor thing, but we’re just now hearing about it.

A few minutes ago the ‘49ers are clinging to a 17 to 13 lead but now Seattle has scored a touchdown on a "free play" and are now leading 20 to 17 and so the crowd is happy.  There's a whole quarter to go but I'm starting to get a grim feeling about this game. Even if the ‘49ers should lose this game, they have nothing to be ashamed of because they have played well.  But knowing the home team momentum with the cheering crowd and all the sheer energy may enthuse the home team and they could well come back to win.   The '49ers were cheated out of a "roughing the kicker" call that would have given then fifteen yards and a first down.  There was another base of bad officiating and a "not reviewable" clause, that awarded Seattle the ball.  I hope the game doesn't turn on a case of bad officiating.   But karma caught up with the Sea Hawks because they blew an easy touchdown, and now the '49ers have gained yards and have the ball with 8:18 to go.  In the Patriots and Broncos game earlier, the game turned on New England failing to make a two point conversion leaving them down 26 to 16, and right there is where the score stayed.  They were saying the weather was mild despite the fact they were playing in Denver.   This is a bit later and they just awarded the Lamar Hunt AFC championship trophy.

We are hearing a whole new counter-charge in this whole Governor Christie deboccle.  Now the right is accusing the democratic party of “orchestrating” all these multitudes of charges against the governor.  As you know the mayor of Hoboken was denied flood relief or something out of retaliation.  I didn’t know this was directly allotted Hurricane Sandy money congress had voted out.  So Christie does a campaign commercial for himself with his family in it with the money, but denies the people of Hoboken the right to flood relief congress wanted them to have.  That’s my understanding.  David Gregory tried a little “too hard” to appear neutral.  Some things are so glaringly obvious they don’t call for neutrality but objective pointed questioning.  Gates was on- - and of course he isn’t nearly as anti-Obama as FOX news would portray him.

Last night it was the Mc Laughlin group.  Four topics were covered all of sort of a National Security nature.  They talked about the new Obama guidelines for the NSA where Pat and Mort and the crowd generally thought “struck the right balance”.  The only key change in the way things are right now is that evidence AGAINST allowing a wire tap will at least be allowed before the FISA court hearing.  Then there was a round of Hillary Clinton bashing.  Then there was talk about Robert Gates and his book.  Finally they talked about Iran and that Republican bill that has the support of 59 senators so that a sustained Veto on the bill is even in question because this whole suspicion of Iran thing is only growing in momentum.  These are the only Senators who right now have pledged their support of the bill.

 I went out for coffee break after two and ended up having three pieces of some kind of flavored strawberry pink cake and vanilla icing, and two cups of coffee.  The birds are still in a chirpy mood.  Lisha was out there and it’s the second time I’ve seen her with that guy she said she was “Just friends with” when they were showing amorous affection in public.  I wanted to mention that sometimes I borrow traits from others.  For instance I got the phrase “There you go!” as a useful phrase for all sorts of occasions, I got from ex apartment neighbor Ken Hancock.  And that silly laugh John Metz does- - I do that one too, just not nearly as much.  It’s kind of half embarrassed and a little sarcastic.   Just so I can remember when I wrote this paragraph it’s short of two and a half years after Labor Day 2011.  Two things occurred on this day.  First Ray the lime time senior cook left in the kitchen and things haven’t been the same since.  Also as I flog my memory- - it’s the point in time where Dr Levy drastically cut back his classes from one long and one short class per week, to basically one short class per week, on those weeks he even deems to show his face.  What this means is that in the less than five years I’ve been attending his classes, half of that period was of a “truncated nature”.  I remember in the spring of 2012 when Levy was skipping a lot of classes that I considered it a problem then.