Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Stop the Killing!
We have that guy dressed in a Santa Clause suit who came to a family gathering of his estranged wive's relatives and wasted the whole party, killing nine and leaving many grandchildren as orphans. You all know the story. He had cash with him and explosives in the car and was intending to escape to Canada except something went wrong and when he burned the house down he suffered burns himself so instead decided to comit suicide. He was 45 and a church goer who had a girlfriend in 2002 who said she left him because he refused to support his own disabeled son. Nobody who attended church with him suspected him of being a potential mass killer. If there is a Hell, then this man surely made a swift descent thence after his death.
Johnny Wendell doesn't mind that the Obama girls, Shasha amd Melique are now objects of the paperatzi. Apparently there are photos of the girls wearing bekinis in Hawaiiai. We never saw Chelsea in a bekini. She was well protected. I believe children should be protected from the paperatzi even if they are children of public figures. President Obama seems to be cultivating some of this photographic voyerism himself. Photographers would not be able to get that close to get shots of him unless he allowed it. As I have often said- - I hope that the Obama presidency will be noted something besides Berock Obama having rock star status. I would hope it would be known for reestablishing our historic progressive march forward in this country.
Apparently people who take the virginity pledge are no more likely to stay virgins than the general population. I have known many Christian couples that apparently were virgins on their wedding night, so I know (or at least "think") that it's possible. The whole idea of putting virginity on a pedistal is so "two centuries ago". This was back in the era when women were regarded as property and a woman losing her virginity meant her price went down. Dr. Laura may want to foster some idea of sexual purety. But many of Laura's ideas put women back into the dreaded role of being "sexual objects" and there for the sheer pleasure of a man and somehow not a real person. I'll tell you right now in the case of relational problem or divorce cases I have a natural bias to side in favor of the woman, because they are usually right. Let's face it- - men are jerks. We still have trouble seeing women as "people" - - you know- - like we value ourselves. Many of Dr. Laura's ideas perpetuate the idea of one dimensional view of women as nothing more than glorified whores, and house cleaners, and human incubators and nannies. Men actually deprive themselves by not fully appreciating their wives.
Delany of Delany and Bonnie, died the other day. His guardian angel visited me- - and this has happened several times where I was visited by a guardian angel after someone famous died. Delany is a pure Romulan and a citizen of Revelus V by right. John Lennon was apparently happy to see another musition from "that era" there on Sirius A. Apparently the reason why we don't get better "messages out" from John Lennon is that he suffers from depression. Some people even when they are in the same room it's hard to tell what is going on inside the recesses of their mind. The title "Stop the Killing" was my own idea although the phrase is used in the song "Freda People". John Lennon has not expressed an oppinion (that I know of) on the current mideast situation. The guardian angel of Delany told me quite a bit of other stuff and he suggested I make everything public because "If you found it interesting then your readers will probably find it interesting, too". I've known that Delany was a Romulan and destined to be among them when he died as far back as 1971 or so. Of course I'll be up front with you. I still have my doubts as to whether anyone of any stripe susvives death at all.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Vice President Chaney says, "I Did It"
Jerry Brown, Attorney General of California, has filed a brief in court to have the anti gay marriage proposition in California overturned. The reason is that fundamental rights cannot be voted out of existance. As I've noted before Proposition 14 forty years ago dealt with this same question and the courts decided then that voters would not vote rights away by a simple majority. I don't see anything but a favorible outcome for Jerry Brown. It's also a legal fact that things once legal are not automatically rendered illegal. There is a case in "The Bretherin" involging segragation that irked me but I'll tell you about it. There was a case about a guy leaving a Park to the city or someone with the stipulation that it would only be used by white people. Well of course the law changed, but according to the Supreme Court this was a violatioln of the man's express Will when he died, so remedial action had to be taken. Also in the case of building codes there are lots of instances of buildings not coming up to earthquake standards or handicapped standards or whatever or building too close to the property line. But settled law is these buildings are OK, unless new building is done. Using identical logic, I don't see how gay marriages in this state can be made null and void as much as some would like them to be, because such voiding would be against all legal precident.
I lay in bed this morning "thinking of things you're not supposed to think about". I thought of how both of the wives of my brother had brothers who committed suicide. People don't talk about so-called "loved ones who commit suicide". It's as if somehow the incident as well as the person themselves just never existed. I thought of Homer Simpson and a question I'd like to ask him. "How do you feel about the fact that due to your direct parental influence, all three of your children will grow up with an IQ 15 to 20 points lower than they otherwise would. I thought of how today's young kids are nurtured and "built up" both mentally and emotionally in a way we never were. I thought what it would be like on Christmas day to come out with the statement at a family gathering "Well, I guess Christianity is pretty much D O A this year". I've only received one Christmas card this year and that wasn't sent through the mail but given to me by a friend here. These "hard times" are in the process of killing Christmas. Perhaps this is part of a trend if this recession continues, where Christmas itself will just "wither away on the vine".
I'l like to call this paragraph, "The perals of false hope". People have high hopes for the Rev. Rick Warren that by being invited to preach at the Inogural of Obama that somehow his position on gays will soften. They should be made aware, so I've heard, that Rick Warren does not allow gays to join his church, and I would assume that means confessing Jesus at the alter. Also Rick Warren believes if you haven't "accepted Jesus" you will go to everlasting hell. Furthermore Rev. Warren believes in only two causes for divorce, either desertion or adultry. Abuse, either mental or physical- no matter how bad it gets- - is not sufficient grounds. I have heard many a preacher talk about praying for a backslidden (?) wife or husband for God to change his or her behavior. But you can't do that if you're dead. You may also want to know that these new Bush regulations will enable pharmicists to not fill a prescription for birth control pills or the morning after pill or as Thom Hartman says- - even get anti-biotics if you're a Christian Scientist or whatever. I don't see how in the bi-polar world of fundamentalism that anti-biotics could be a bad thing. It would seem to me they'd be agents of Christ fighting the devil. You know when they do a murder trial that's a capital case, they screen the jourors to make sure they were willing to impose the death penalty. As such if OJ Simpson had had such a jury his chances of conviction would have been much improved. You don't send passifists to the front line. And there are certain areas of medical science where Bush's new rules should not be allowed to interfere. Some would liken getting saved to coming into a dark room and eventually finding the light switch and switching it on. You may not understand how electricity works, but you don't have to, all you need to do is find the switch. Gene Scott likens salvation for some to trying on your grand dad's old glasses and wearing those, while others need to go down to where the lanzes were ground and watch how it's done. But the bottom line this presupposes that either set of glasses help you. But if you're a Jehovah's Witness and need a blood transfusion but are denied one because hospital policy forbids it- - this is patently wrong. Some people in looking at the Rev. Rick Warren make what I call the "slop-over" falocy. It's like a black hole. What you do with a black hole is say everything inside the circle is one thing, like Salvation, and everything outside is the state of perdition. Some would have it that if you "merely near the circle- - well this is OK because you're somehow in its influence". That isn't how black holes work. The edge of space occurrs in the black hole when light cannot escape. This is literally "the end of space" meaning there ain't no more. To paraphraise Gene Scott, "It's as hard to get out of this universe once you're in it as it is to get into it in the first place. There is no "slop-over effect" with Black Holes. The other side of the circled line around a black hole is "beyond infinity" as far as sheer distances are concerned. In other words "You can't get there from here" going either direction. In like manner once you are a Christian you can't be NOT one merely being "exposed to another message". You've heard the saying "Christianity is caught, not taught". You can't catch a disease by talking about getting it. Also there is another dirty little secret they'll admit. Christians are bold in large numbers but cowards as individuals. The whole idea of a Cult is to emerse the subject in religion so in his eyes "everybody is doing it. What's wrong with me?" As such no Christian places very much hope at all in somehow "witnessing their faith" like at a Presidential Inoguration. "You can't get there from here". The only thing this event proves of Warren appearing at the Inoguration is that Obama will do anything to win the approval of the Right Wing, which of course they will never give him, so it's a lost cause on Obama's part.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Apollonius of Tyanna
Frankly, typing this posting was the last thing I expected to be doing this Saturday night. I thought I was done blogging for a while, at least till Tuesday when gay pride takes over. But I saw that My Space entry and I just had to investigate. I have absolutely no doubt that those postings are reaching a lot more people than my blogs are, in the same way that I believe a lot more mathematical calculations are being done on computers rather than on slide rules.
Who is Appolonius of Tyanna and why is he important. Back when I was in philosophy class (back when they wrote on stone tablets) we learned that "Apolonian" things were of the intellect and Dianecian things were of the emotion. But also anything Apollonian was related to the Sun and Sun worship, as opposed to the Moon. There are still feminists out there who say that the Apollo project was the organized rape of the Moon. So the name "has a history". Also we know that just prior to Christianity taking over the world there was the Sol Invictus religion, which translates to Invincible Sun, or Unconquered Sun. So now that you know that let's get on to why Apollonius of Tyanna is important. Get your "Glass Onion" L P's out because "Here's another clue for you all". What is the one "Missing Link" in my whole theory about the origen of Christianity? It's been the Apostle Paul. Who was he? Well, here's another PAUL for you all. Appolonius of Tyanna was apparently born in 40 AD and died in 120 AD and as such could be the "Old Man" that Justin the martyr met. Both birth and death dates are highly flexible since this man's life is poorly documented and seems to be one of those men to whom myth makers are attracted. He is mentioned as a possible "antitype" of Jesus Christ. He is said to have ascended into heaven when he died, and performed meracles. Eusubius (if you believe him) claims that Apollonius performed his great meracles with the power of demons. Strangely enough, like Jesus, it's claimed this man visited India. His father died at age twelve and there is a blank in the years of his life, just like Jesus. This man unlike Jesus did not believe you could petetion the Lord with Prayer. (shall I keep repeating it like Jim Morrison?) But like Jesus this man was against animal sacrifices. Sometimes it's interesting to see the things that were NOT changed when the gospels were written down. But more important is where this man lived. He lived right in Asia Minor or western Turkey right where the Apostle Paul did all his minestry. He was born in Capidocia. He was said to be a Pythagarean, whom I know little about, with the exception of the Gnostic notion of "The One". (Yeah, Borgs, too!) It's interesting to note that between his death in AD 120 and the inilation of Palestine, (which was a word invented by the Romans to torment the Jews and should never be used by a Jewish person again) - - between these two events there was a lot of "emotion" where people had feelings they "didn't know what to do with". Psychologically, this is a prime time for mental abberations to occur. (as Ron Hubbard might say) You enter that bubble of delusion where your thoughts run in incurable circular arguments. So you can add this guy's name as an admixture in the Jesus Brew, along with "That Egyption" and "Yeshua" and Philo of Alexandria. And of course there is Mithraism, which goes back to Pursian myths- - notably elements of the Christmas Story.
If you judged The Jesus Story by the same criteria that you judged the story of Santa Clause or Jack and the Bean Stalk, its meaning would be obvious. Sure such stories fill a need in our lives, but they aren't science, archiology,. or history. I promised myself I wouldn't say anything else against Jesus or Christians a while back and I haven't kept my word. OK, give me twenty lashes with a wet noodle! Some have spoken of the Necessity of Now, or the Burden of Now. In like matter I think the Overriding Nature of Reality trumps any promise I made to nobody in particular. I have always said of others "If you break your word because what you promissed was so assenine to begin with people will thank you for breaking your word". That entry said that while it's true that Smart People believe in Christianity- - - the act itself of Believing was not smart, it was very unwise. Sometimes intelligent people will come up with ingenious and inovative ways to preserve their own flawed egos. There were smart people who were loyal members of the Nazi Party, and some of them were brilliant and Hitler counted on that. But believing in an error is not only bad for You; it's bad for the Planet. It's bad for the Species. It celebrates death when we should be celebrating life, and darkness and obscurity when we should be celebrating enlightment and education for all. All of this you should think about. I will.
Intersteller Chatter
And now we turn to letters from our listeners. Mrs. Oglethorp from Appleton, Wisconsin writes that she highly resents the way we have portrayed John Mc Cain and that he did not dump his first wife after returning to America in March of 1073. He did not divorce her till years later in April of 1980 and that there is an anti-nuptual agreement so that he didn't marry her for her money. Also she wants to say that Mc Cain is one of the finest patriotic Americans this land has ever produced and that it's time older Americans were again given a voice in government.
She further goes on to write that Jesus Christ is one of the most historically attested and documented figures in the history of the world, and that the resurrection of Our Lord is one of the most historically documented facts in the world. In fact you don't even have to go to the Bible to show he's divine because there is not one source about Jesus that doesn't also add in that he was divine with the power to perform meracles at will.
Also Mrs. Oglethorp says we just have some genialogical facts wrong. The Detroit Romulans are not half Andromeda but one fourth Andromeda and 3/4 classic Romulan. In fact there is a group that are half Andromedan and they are called "half breeds" but they take it as a term of distinction that they are double the Andromeda mix that the rest of the Detroit Romulans are. She wants to remind me that racial mixes are not always 50 - 50. And that the Atlanta Romulans are part Cassiopian and not pure-breads, and that it's the Cassiopian part that makes White Andromedan's as white as they are. Also the Scorseans are known as the Cortessians and that someone not that long ago began calling them by the wrong name. And the CMK Romulans of Southern California are queer birds to fraternize with the Cortessians because they are part bred with the Reemus race, their mortal enemies.
Mrs. Oglethorp hopes that if this letter is read on the air it is done so in a dignified matter and there are is nothing about the way the letter is presented that would be embarrassing.
P. S. By the way if there really is a Mrs. Oglethorp out there from Appleton, Wistonsin, my profoundest apologies for this posting, that is unless of course you happen to agree with it.
Friday, June 13, 2008
Tim Russart Dies
Someone else who will never be the same is the Pope, because Benedict XVI is no John Paul II. He doesn't have that liberal passion to crusade for issues like ending the Iraq War or abolition of the death penalty, etcetra. President Bush met with Pope Benedict today in his "secret garden" where the Pope goes to pray. I imagine divulging what they talked about would be a no - no, but somehow I get the feeling it wasn't the fact that Bush has the most morally depraved Adminestration in American History. I think the President is a man who could stand to "Get Religion" if you catch my drift, but I also have that certain feeling that will never happen.
COSMIC PSYCHEDELIC MADNESS
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
A Clear Choice for Voters in November
I've been reading up on the horrors of this "Enron loophole" bill that President Clinton signed in the year 2000 and let me just say that on the surface I don't see the problem, exactly. Comodities have always traded in future contracts as far as I know, and not present circumstances. They say the price of oil is now 40% too high, and how the price of oil has quintuppled in the eight years of the Bush Adminestration. There has to be more to it than that. What Enron did to us in California seems to have only tangental connection to this Clinton "loophole". That was just bad planning and poor business sense by Gray Davis. It would seem to me that the easiest thing to do to end this round of speculation is for the government tomorrow (or today) to say they are going to pick up where Jimmy Carter left off in 1979 and exaustively explore all alternative forms of energy. And if supplies are as high as people like Thom Hartman say they are then the price should collapse with nothing to sustain it and the ones most punished will be those who speculated the most heavily, just like in the real estate market. According th Hartman, apparently what the government has been doing is granting all sorts of lease or whatever contracts to oil companies to gain controle of the product, but then they refuse to pump the oil from the ground and prefer to sit on it. I would certainly to the extent possible bring anti trust actions against OPEC, and were I the government I would revoke these permits, if possible, and give them to smaller oil companies who will guarentee to pump the oil and sell it at a lower price. Certainly tax laws could be brought to bear or new ones written so that it just no longer paid for oil companies to sit on oil they own rather than to drill it. How about an oil assets tax or something that's really steep? Clearly the problem is not lack of refineries has had been alledged. Apparently the oil companies don't WANT to build new refineries; things are just peachy the way they are, as far as they're concerned. I'm sure there are lots of other laws being violated, though, and perhaps a new laws that need to be written that are both cleaverly and aptly worded and get the job done by sticking it to the oil companies. Of course Democrats have charged that taking business overseas is encouraged by our tax laws. Also John Mc Cain apparently supported Air Bus, some French company, against Boeing Aircraft, a comestic company. What we need is economic policy that puts America first and that includes the awarding of government contracts. Conservatives love to call liberals "Un-American" but from here it seems as if the shoe is clearly on the other foot.
What Obama needs to do in his speeches is spell out all the economic realities to Americans and make them realize that these Neo Cons do not have America's best interests at heart. Of course you realize that is gasoline really reflected the price of oil today it'd be selling above five dollars a gallon. But Obama doesn't need to tell the people that. But for instance the unemployment rate is a lot higher than 5.5%. They said it was 13% for able bodied males between 20 and 55. This is up from 11% in 1998 and 1988 and up from 9% in 1979 and from six percent in 1968. The economy was pretty darned healthy in 1968. All of the people who are under-employed or those discouraged workers no longer even looking for a job should be counted. Of course this bloated labor market keeps wages down because people are afraid they'll be next to be on the unemployment line, so it's kind of economic control of the workers by fear.
In terms of progress on the Impeachment bill, it has been suggested that Nancy Palosi and other congress people don't want to bring the 35 Articles up because of that "People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones" argument. The reasoning goes that congress is corrupt therefore they don't feel "morally right" about exposing the corruptness of others. The argument is completely idiotic. I don't care if Nancy Palosi is a mass murderer- - I still want her to bring up this impeachment bill before congress. If she has committed any "sins" in the past, then this action will go tword her redemption. More to the point it would seem that we need another spring house cleaning in November. The 2006 purge of congress apparently wasn't thorough enough and we need to get more overtly reformist people in congress next time, to work with our new president, Berock Obama. Mc Cain says he claims to care about people's economic problems. If he's serious about that then he should be humble and say "I don't know anything; please inform me and tell me what I need to do" to his economic advisers. Somehow I get the feeling John Mc Cain is not quite the ignoramus he claims to be with all of those lobbiests hanging around. My fear about this Presidential campaign is that it won't be pursued with enough vigor.
Let me just say a little about the I Phone II, or whatever it's being called 3 G or whatever. It would still seem that businessmen prefer the Blackberry. As far as I've been able to glean, other phones are still cheaper and get the job done better, with more flexability than the I phone. All the new I Phone does is let us know that Apple is not completely stupid. Just to change the subject slightly- - - are IQ tests for our kids really going up now? Have all these electronic gismos they carry with them made them smarter- - or could Sir Isac Newton with a slide rule still blow any of them out of the water? Back in the day, "Logic" and "Rhetoric" used to be taught in our institutions of higher learning. Are people still taking these? You know a lot of these skills are highly applicapable to math and science. I sometimes get the idea that the youth are today are more Drugged out than stimulated by the technology of today. Am I right?
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
A Warning Shot accross the Bough
OK if you listened to Randi Rhodes today you know that last night she listened in rapt attention to CSPN, a station I don't even get, to several hours of Dennis Kasinitch's reading of the 35 Articles of Impeachment of George Bush that he had drafted, and it reportedly took several hours. I downloaded the whole thing onto Adobe Reader, but it took a little time to find because Google seemed reluctant to give me anything in Kassinitch Impeachment or 35 Articles. Perhaps it's because I can't spell. Randy describes herself as being in some altered, hypnotized state, and she says "Normal people just don't watch CSPN. She says sometimes it weird to get information that only You have and can't share with anybody. That's how I feel now with Mark Campbell and Bill Gunderson out of my current reality. You know- - sometimes a Revolution can be a noble thing even if it fails. Take that Bar Kopha guy or whoever that led the rebellion of Judah in 135 AD. You know that revolution failed, but in the words of Jack Nicholson, "Well, I tried- god-damn-it! At least I did that". In point of fact the Jews were able to obtain an independant state for a couple of years or so and even minted their own coins. I point this out because most of what you hear about this Second Jewish Revolt is negative. The leader is spoken of as a "false messiah". But if you look at what he did he was a great organizer, and his followers did everything in their human power such at the revolution should succeed, including the timing of the attack at the most oppertune moment. If you're wondering how this relates to Dennis Kassitinich let me just say that he has the heart of a true revolutionary. And the thing is I'm not sure whether anybody on the left at this point isn't dealing with a stacked deck and a rigged craps table. There are still roomers floating around that George Bush might not even allow the election of 2008 to take place. Many of these 35 articles, perhaps too many, have to do with the Iraq War and the fraud leading up to it. Of course that Poker Deck thing has 54 things that Bush is guilty of and I'd have to cross-reference to see which ones mesh with the other. But the point Randy was trying to make is that the news isn't going to report such a momentus event. The media in a perverse sense really "defines" what is "True" and "Worthy News" and "Relevant" in our society today. It's not just that they slant the news- - -they produce the news like a Broadway Play is produced. It's coriographed with actors and scenery and the whole shabang. It could be said that he who controls our vocabulary controls our thinking, and Thom Hartmann has talked a lot about this in "Cracking the Code". In fact if you go to his web site or to your local book store if you can still find one, you should buy all his books.
One thing I’d like to mention right now is a report from the Iraqi government that says they fear a permanent U S force occupation, and the nation is telling us to get out. Also it is feared by
This last part is typed after dinner (on Sunday). In the hour before dinner I was looking at things like the Gospel of Mark and ‘Papius”, who supposedly came up with the Mark as disciple of Peter theory. This Papius is an obscure man who died in AD 155 at the same time as Polycarp. Irenius refers to him as a “man of old” even though he is only thirty or so years in the past. Eusubius ever the historian, flauts Papius for his belief in the second coming of Christ. I didn’t know that the Bar Koppla war was more costly to the Romans than was the revolt of AD 70. Some parallels to the gospels are noteworthy. There is the phrase “Twelve legions”, which Hadrian sent to battle at
If I think of anything more to say on this subject I will. You know,
Jesus Christ seemed to be saying “Can’t we all get along?” today. He said that girl Susie should make allowances for human imperfection in picking a church. My answer to that is if you flush the book of Acts down the toilet you can get rid of all these ideas about divine sovereignty and the leading of the spirit, and the rest. Because nowhere in acts does it mention “How to search for a church”. The very idea is not even admissible. You know of course that St. Paul saw himself as infallible. The people whom Jesus views infallible, and the only ones, are that group of Cardinals at the council of Nicia in the fourth century. Later on he talked about "apologizing for apologetics." He said, “A lot of people burn Christian tracts as fast as they get them”. My response to this is “Just how did the idea of God loving you and having a Wonderful Plan for your Life- - become a notion of Ill-repute?” Jesus also mumbled something about not “pushing back” at the idea of “growth” and how “growth takes time, but we are too impatient”. I'll define "growth" for you. If someone hits you or whips you- - "growth" is the LOSS of the ability or inclination to strike back out of sheer exaustion. Such horses loose races! (Selah)
Friday, June 06, 2008
Knock - Knock! -Here Comes Israel
It's amazing the things you can listen all day to the media and not learn. Do you know WHY the price of oil hiked up so high on Friday, June 6th? It's because Israel threatened to destroy Iran's nuclear capability. The rap now is that Israel plans to coordinate such attack with Washington. Of course this is a "foreign threat" that just might justify my astrologically based prediction of some foreign crisis developing in the world. Personally if I were an oil man I wouldn't be phased by such a statement. After all, Iran insists, and I believe them, that they only intend to use enriched uranium in peaceful nuclear reactors to bring their electric power generating capabilities into the twentieth century. OK, I forget; this is the 21st. Century. Oh well. . . Apparently they believe some strait in the Persian Gulf would be blocked off or something. Well, which one of you nuts has got any guts? Does anyone want to go "short" in oil futures right now? You could make a bundle, or lose even more, if you're wrong. Hey, as far as I'm concerned my astrological prediction has been vindicated, thus increasing the odds that Obama is headed for Trouble, are also increased. If you want my pick on whether Big Brown will win the tripple crown, that's a big thumbs up! But I have absolutely no prognosticative indicators for that.
Some of the arguments against Atheism are things like "You can't prove a negative". Others say that an Agnostic is an atheist who is too cowardly to admit it. Mark Twain alledgedly said that "Faith is belief in things you know 'taint so". Some say "There are no atheists in fox holes". Some say "Atheism is a refutation of all the charished values of Western Civilization". Some say lack of belief in God is "unscientific". Others say that Atheists are incapable of ever having any "meaning to life". Some say atheists are lacking in any morality and hence "A-moral". Others say that atheists have the "personality flaw" of "lacking in Faith". Some deny that an atheist can ever have any mystical or revelitory experiances if they don't believe in God. Some say that atheists have "no hope" in things like an Afterlife. I'm just throwing out ideas I've read from other people. I am not going to take a position on any of these statements.
65% of Americans think that we should teach both creationism and evolution in schools. (CBS) It definitely pays to be a professing Christian. 55% believe that “God created humans in present form.” (CBS) 45% believe that the world is less than 10,000 years old. (Gallup) 37% think that we should teach just creationism in schools, including 60% of evangelical Christians. (CBS) 36% believe in telepathy. The sixth dimension is beyond our present cognition 35% say that evolution is well supported by the evidence. (Gallup) 35% say that evolution is not well supported by the evidence. (Gallup) 25% believe in astrology. Count me among these. 25% think the sun goes around the Earth. 13% think that Joan of Arc was Noah’s wife. Only 13% of Americans accept the standard scientific account of evolution, without a god’s involvement. (CBS)
Facing our National Economic Crisis
But my other question is what the hell Obama is going to stand for. Randi Rhodes points out he hasn't taken any lobbyest money. This is admerable. He's ahead of his time setting high standards hoping that others will follow by example. But people like Sean Hannity say that Obama has no substance. What does he intend to do about the federal budget deficet? What IS the deficet now? Has it topped five hundred billion yet? Just wait! He needs to get over this Santa Clause mentality of offering voters everything from pre school to universal health care if they vote for him. We can't afford any of that. What will he do about the Social Security crisis? What is his remedy for the trade deficet? What does he intend to do to solve our poliferation of guns in the inner city? How does he feel about prison overcrowding? Is prison the best way to handle our drug addiction problem? Is the rest of the nation really as pro homosexual marriage as we seem to be in California? Will Obama be asked about this in the debates? How does Obama feel about prosecuting members of the Bush Adminestration for war crimes and other "high crimes and misdomeanors"? Has he toyed with the idea of a windfall oil profits tax? How does me feel about control of the comunacations media limited to only a handfull of people and conservatives at that? How does he feel about Bible clubs on school campuses? Does Obama intend to nominate judges that wipe out the religious expressions of Christians?
. I listened to Randy Rhodes at noon till she referenced Sean Hannity. You know, many of the things Hannity asserts I can agree with. We don’t need socialized medicine. And the single payer system where the government writes the check but you control the doctor sounds great, but we as a nation can’t afford it. We can’t afford pre kindergarten to Senior in College either. There are times when a young person grows up they have to take responsibility for their own actions, and I am all for that. On the soap opera, John Black took to attacking Lucas, which seemed uncalled for. Max flaked out on the celebration of the Pub going all green. That “certification” only seemed to take a few days from when the idea was first proposed. Max says that guy helping Nick is a total fraud, and I guess he has evidence. John paid a guy big bucks to get some information on Philip’s activities. [last sentence is deleted]
Oil price per barrel prices have risen to $138.05 per barrel. This is a record. Gasoline prices now average $1.35 a gallon, but that’s going up. They say unemployment hasn’t spiked a half percentage like that in twenty years. 5.5% used to be considered recession territory. How can George Bush possibly say he’s doing a good job and have John Mc Cain follow faithfully in his footsteps? Hannity may call Obama a radical but we need some sort of radical solution to the energy crisis now. I don’t get why all the things people said would “kick in” once the price got higher, haven’t seemed to materialize yet. I suppose some are still saying “Well the 1974 prices would be six dollars a gallon in today’s prices”. I’ve heard that. Airlines are cutting back service and cutting back routs and reducing the number of passengers they carry any way they can. The day may be fast approaching when air traffic as we’ve known it for forty or fifty years may be a thing of the past. Personally, I think a good bullet train surface line system is the way to go for a lot of routs. There are the Canadian “oil sands” in
I have often discussed that we revamp our money system for a five to one dollar consolidation. Just what would our minimum wage be? About $1.85. That’s about what it was in 1968. Let’s see how other prices stack up by 1968 standards. A can of Coke would run twelve to fifteen cents. Movies would be about two dollars. A record album would run you about $3.50. So far so good. But there would be certain “anomalies” that would take some getting used to. For instance back then you would never be charged ten dollars just to set foot inside an amusement park. A “decent” full sized car would run you eight thousand dollars and up. That’s high. Apartment rentals for any decent apartment would run you $250.00 a month. Definitely high. Gasoline would run you about ninety cents per gallon. Way high. Almost any medication? Don’t even ask. And no way back then would you plop down seventy cents for a cup of coffee.
I can’t for the life of me fathom why they don’t put more forward looking stories in the news. For instance, has anybody thought of a way or reorganizing the UN to make it more functional in today’s world? What about these non lethal weapons they could use in riots in stuff like that “ray gun” thing on Sixty Minutes or other forms and stuff? Is the “death lobby” really that strong? What about that Phoenix Mars craft? We know that it is safely on Mars but we don’t know what new discoveries have been made in the past week. When was the last time they had an ethics debate in the news about the quandary of over-population, which is much more of a crisis now than it was forty years ago when the topic was fashionable to discuss? Has anyone even sat down and thought hard about the real economic consequences are of five dollar a gallon gasoline? Like global warming, the consequences of high gas prices have a compounding effect, and each result is in turn a cause for far reaching and even unanticipated ramifications.
Friday, January 11, 2008
Selling Your Soul for a Buck
I want to talk one more time about "Sin". Under Calvinism, sin cannot exist. Sin is defined as departure from the Perfect will of God. We know that everything that happens is predestined and so IS the perfect will of God. The word Perfect means that which is in its ideal form and any alteration of it would be a move tword imperfection. We know God is a fully actually actualized being. We know that God can't learn anything new. All God will ever know he knows now. Therefore this notion of being "disappointed" with man is nonsense. By its definition in the Greek the word perfect also means "Finished" or "Complete". People say the reason why we have Evil on the planet is that God has to abandon his perfect will in favor of his Permissive will, that is 2nd. best. Once again, Calvinistically this is impossible. Man by his own efforts can do NOTHING to achieve holiness. When someone says the word Impossible, perhaps we should believe them. Is confessing Christ "Doing something"? Well, is confessing Christ "Doing nothing?" answer that one. To say sin exists is to say that man "missed" something in his moral goals and aims. That he departed from some Perfection which, on some level had to be at least Possible. But no! Man's so called SIN or ERROR - - Always WAS. It never NOT Existed! There is no logical way he could fall short. There is no way since creation that God can divert the Universe from its pre prescribed path. The one thing God cannot do is change his mind- - and that includes even if you confess your sins fifteen times a day. We are saved by pre election and pre election alone. All that God is may be defined by Theology and without theology one can question whether there is evidence for God. But also- if we insist on a "sign" try this: All that God is is reflected in Circumstance. God lets his perfect will be known by circumstance. Jesus on KFI said "You only go around once in life; there are no do-overs". Well we don't know if God did any "trial runs" in some other dimension. We know only that THIS is the dimension that counts because THIS is where we are. We may have succeeded ten times in a row in some trial run in a parrellel Universe- but it's what we are doing NOW that counts. And since we get rewarded- - not by how we bless others, but by how much we are blessed by God, we CAN DO NOTHING to improve our salvation. If I had "Do overs" for portions of my life to be honist I can't say whether things would turn out better having another go at it. I think in some cases they would, but you don't know. Jesus on KFI says that nobody gets second chances. Some will say "Well, we have control. We can respond to the quickening of the Holy Spirit in our hearts". The trouble is Jesus never talks about the Holy Spirit, and I don't think the KFI preacher believes in it. It can't be overstated that if our salvation is based on something we DECIDE to do, then we have at least some control. Calvinistic predestination affords us no control. The only humane way out, to me is to bring about Universalism. If everybody gets saved, God looks like a good guy and reveals his power over All.
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
The Crying Game
We kept hearing that those votes from Hanover and Dartmoth College were going to come in any moment where all the young people voted to sway the score from its 39% to 36% tally. What we didn't hear was the slightest hint that this vote was going to come out like this. I don't want to say that the fix was in but I'd like to see someone explain a sixteen percentage point swing in the space of one day. Monday it was "Panic" and Tuesday it's "Total victory". Of course I may have jinxed it myself when I used the phrase "Going for the brass ring". I've never used it before and I'll probably never use it again. The original "last song" on that compilation was a highly apocraliptic song about doom, gloom, and total destruction. Except we'd already used the track on "Radio Ready". Pat Buchannon is a new found Hillary supporter by his remarks on MSNBC last night.
Of course the other phenominum was that John Mc Cain came in first on the Republican side. This has to be the most meaningless victory of all time. We know he is "toast" as a candidate. He's all washed up. People call him "grandpa Mc Cain". So let him have his day. It will be his last. Equally meaningless is Romney's two losses in a row. This projects nothing as to Romney's future. Some may ask me, "What do you care about Mit Romney, you're never going to vote for him". That is quite true. To be honist as this point I'm thinking of voting for Ron Paul. I think he got eight percentage points. I thought perhaps he might get more. But the thing is you have Mc Cain in at first and Romney in at second, and Huckibee at 3rd. but look who is lurking at fourth place. Giuliani. Giuliani is there in stealth mode just waiting to make his mood. I DON"T want Giuliani to be on any ticket as a choice on election day. The prospect of his election fills me with more dread than anybody else. We need to see what will happen in Michigan. If Romney wins big in Michigan, people will come to look more kindly on him. I think Romney is the best choice the right can make to articulate their views in some debate forum.
We've been hearing that the stock markets have not been performing that well in the first week or so of this year. While I could say "I told you so", actually I was expecting a much WORSE drop off for the beginning of this year. I made a number of dire predictions about January of 2008 that haven't exactly come to pass yet. It could be they aren't telling us things. It could be that I just "jumped the gun" in saying we were headlong into a major economic recession.
I'd like to endource Governor Swartzenegger's four Indian tribe amendments to boost revenues. If you heard the governor's speech yesterday afternoon you had to be impressed with it. He spoke of building infrastructure. He spoke of ecology and the need to sue the Federal Government to "get it out of our way" so we can do the job we know we need to do. He spoke of No Child Left Behind- - and the need to take action against schools that don't comply so that we don't lose federal funds. The governor spoke of revenues as being "flat" and we were now off the sugar high of the spike in revenues two years ago, and how we need a constitutional amendment to institute automatic mid year budget cuts, to prevent crises in the future.
Sunday, January 06, 2008
A Varitable Potpuree of Topics
I’d like to make a few remarks about “Handicap Theology”. As you know the mantra of Born Again to outsiders (including me) is “Die to Self”. However another trait touted as a virtue is deliberately cutting off your nose to spite your face. Rev. Peacock once preached on a Greek guy who cut off his little finger because he said it was “in the way” producing certain pottery. In the book “Misery” Annie Wilkes speaks of South Africans who cut off one or both feet of slaves who worked in the mines so that they would not escape. In another book I read how Roman condemned prisoners who worked in the sulpher mines branded them and then gorged out an eye with a hot poker so I guess they’d look so hideous they’d never want to show their face above ground. Of course you have ghettoized handicapped communities such as deaf people, where they see people who don’t sign as outsiders and aliens. Of course many Christians “tie half their brain behind their backs” like Rush Limbaugh. They deliberately pride themselves on their newfound stupidity. As you know Gene Scott has made the statement, “I hate people who know it all”. I bed he does. That must mean he hates God. What he really hates is anybody who actually knows more than he does, as all pastors do.
Today I was playing an old video tape from late August mid September of 1993. There was a Star Trek episode about aliens taking over people’s bodies. There was President Clinton’s speech on health care. And there was Days of our Lives where Samantha was screwing around with the life of her sister, Carrie. You saw a younger, sexier Carrie, and a much younger Lucas Roberts. And there was also a scene about Roman and Abe Carver digging around the life of Stephano. They never heard the valued adage, “Let dead dogs lie”. Sometimes digging for worms only resurrects them. In my own life the late spring and early summer had been a bad one for me in terms of event following hard upon event overwhelming me. They say “Whatever doesn’t kill you will make you stronger”. Don’t believe that for a minute. The events of mid 1993 started me to drinking alcohol and made me a decidedly “weaker” individual than I was.
Some people don’t like churches that after you are supposedly “saved” say, “That is all well and good but you really can’t be sure you’re saved unless you jump through all of our hoops.” Wouldn’t you like to tell the pastor of such a church to go fuck himself, and use the Bible as your scriptural support? I think it’s time for a new denomination of the Church of the Sanctified “Go Fuck Yourself!”
Tonight’s program is brought to you by Stranglex. As you know, studies show that oxygen is one of the most addictive substances on earth and alarmingly, incidences of oxygen addition are growing in
The Federation is still sticking to their support for Mit Romney. I wish they weren’t so lilly-livered about recommending the Chargers. They were so bearish on themselves after listening to them you might have bet on
Here’s some stuff that has never appeared in my writings before. As you may know from 1973 tro 1975 when Richi Vallenz “died” a second time so to speak, Richi lived in
The writer's strike really sucks, doesn't it. Just be glad I'm not subject to that. Now we hear that late night talk show hosts will attempt to boost their ratings by having each other as guests on their shows. In late news Obama is now leading in New Hampshire by double digits. We progressives could not ask for better news. We now have a chance to grab the brass ring that we last got a glimpse of before April of 1968. Unlike Christian pastors, we don't believe in whining, harranging, cajoling or threatening our listeners. We take a page out of Joel Olsteen and merely speak of things as though they were true. Amazingly the reason why other Christians have troubles is because they play the game of hot potato that they'd got to get rid of quickly. By the way I bet you didn't know I'm a "Let It Be" virgin. This is one movie to this day I have never seen, but of course everybody else speaks of the events that take place in it. I owe several of the inspirations of songs below to Yahoo sixties rock. The JA song is track 7 from their 3rd. album. Of course "2-A" has already been listed back in May of 2006.
BELOW THE RADAR SCREEN VOL 2-B
Acapulco Gold (Rainy Days) (??)
Evil Hearted You (Yardbirds)
She (Monkees)
Use Your Imagination (Guess Who)
Devil with the Blue Dress On (Mitch Ryder)
Twelve Thirty (Mamas and Papas)
I Ain’t Never Loved A Man, the Way- - - (Aritha Franklin)
She Said She Said (Beatles)
Cream Puff Wars (Grateful Dead)
Flying on the Ground is No Good (?) (
Six O Clock (Loving Spoonfulls)
Sun Shine Girl (artist?)
Ooogum Boogum (Brenton Woods)
Love Is Strange (Peaches and Herb)
Never My Live (Association)
BELOW THE RADAR SCREEN (Vol. 2-C)
In My Own Time (Bee Gees)
See Things My Way (The Who)
Rain on the Roof (Loving Spoonful)
It’s All Too Much (The Beatles)
I Want to Take You Higher (Ike & Tina Turner)
Connection (Rolling Stones)
My Own
I’m A Real Straight Shooter (Mamas & Papas)
I’d Rather Have My Country Die for Me (Jefferson Airplane)
Colored Rain (Traffic)
She’s Got Medals (David Bowie)
I Wonder What She’s Doing Tonight (Boyce & Hart)
Valerie (Monkees)
Hoochy Coochy Man (Steppinwolf)
Child of the Moon (Rolling Stones)
Hang ‘em High (Booker T. & the M. G’s.)
Friday, January 04, 2008
Obama, Huckibee - - Iowa Caucus Winners
Stale TV dinner Special
Wrapping Christmas Presents
Finding a Parking Place
The Whiney Kid
Charities
Facing My In-Laws
Five Months of Bills
Sending Christmas Cards
Hangovers!
Stringing Up the Lights- - - and
Finding a Christmas Tree
My message to God at this point is, "You shall receive no sign from me except the sign of the Cherokee Nation". Because the Cherokee's were one tribe who wanted to learn White ways and assimilate white culture. Their young were taught English and their people became literate and even dressed like Whites. They even owned Negro slaves like White people. But then came along that traitor Andrew Jackson. The Cherokee people had fought bravely with him in battle in the past against the Creek Indians. But to repay them in 1928 he ran on a platform of exiling the Cherokee people from their land and in 1838 there was the "trail of tears" as the Cherokee people were relocated to Oklahoma during one of the coldest winters they've ever had. I think the message to God is clear. When you're a Christian you lose your identity to the person who "peddled" the faith to you in a pyramid ponsie scheme. It doesn't matter how many times you've confessed Jesus because once you're cut off from your Source, there is no way you can contact God because THEY control you're contact with God because it's THEIR God and not yours to begin with. Jesus once told the Jews, "You shall receive no sign but the sign of Jonah". I would guess that Jesus wasn't doing miracles this day. But I happened to think that there are few people Jesus resembles less than Jonah. How about "Why couldn't Jesus have been more like Jonah", as an explosive sermon title? Jonah was a rebel who was "corrected" by God. God made it clear to Jonah just who was God and the proper relation of humility between them. When did Jesus do this? When Jonah preached to a people he personally despized, the Assyrians, they repented. God told Jonah "Get over it". When Jesus preached to the Jews, a people and culture he personally despized- - it was merely a prelude to their inilation forty years later. Jesus on KFI said "Being humble means being put to shame" or something like that. But I say unto you that being humble is realizing you simply are not in control of the events in your own life. When did this ever apply to Jesus of Nazareth? (Selah)
Moving on to a happier topic the Iowa caucuses were held last night and Obama won. A Black came in first place with 38% or something with Edwards at 30% and Hillary in at 29%. They say an alltogether younger crowd came to the Iowa caucuses. In the Republicans is it was an up or down winner take all vote. With the democrats if your selection did not get fifteen percent of the vote, you had to have a "second choice". And Kasinitch and others may have made "deals" with Obama to make Obama their 2nd. choice. Obama would be the Jack Kennedy of this generation if he's able to rise to the occasion. A broad horizon has been placed before him, and now the question is whether he is able to rise to the challenge. Hubkibee won among the Republicans with Romney in at second and Thompson at third. Romney spent all that time and money in Iowa with nothing to show for it. Huckibee symbolizes change among the Republicans. Some are now saying that Michael Bloomberg will be announcing for President any day now and that he still plans to place Chuck Hagel as his vice president. I won't say for the other democratic candidates like Joe Byden or Chris Dodd to drop out right now. They still have something to say, and they should stay in the race merely to keep the other candidates sharp.
In terms of Auld Lang Sine, the words "Lang" and "Zein" are actual words on the old Sirius A Federation. "Lang" means "Old" but not the kind of obsolete "old" as in "Old Sirius - - " but rather an "old" meaning been around a long time. "Zein" means "desire" among the Sirius A people and the Sirius A Romulins. But the Romulins on Regelus V or Denelus II and IV don't like that word one bit because they say it refers to the blueness of the "Druanian" gene (that we've talked about before) Among Romulans they don't ask you "Are you Jewish?" but rather, "Are you bluish?" Indeed the first year of the ZAC it was called the Zionisum Analisis Committee" due to this Romulan influence. The Sirius people say that the word "Zein" is kind of like "Dezign" in English and demotes imagination, and there is nothing at all racial about the word. - - - They've sent stuff in the E mail that says the Antarians have the biggest star of all. This may be why the Federation was afraid of them four thousand years ago. Contrary to that mailing- - Reigel is seen as outshining "Betelguese". I may have more another time.