This opening thought isn't related to anything but I need to say it. Just as this weather might be called "false spring" this April fools type warm balm we are experiancing in Southern California while the rest of the nation freezes their toosh off- - -it was on my birthday on December 31st. 1985, the day Ricky Nelson died- - that I wasn't exactly "Born Again" but I had a burst of awareness of where my life was headed. I saw everything in a different light and suddenly I viewed a lot of Christian activities as not only a big waste of time but downright annoying- - and various people were beginning to annoy me. Flag the first four or five months of 1986 as a period when I had what I would peg as a "last chance" to leave this planet before things got really awful and I couldn't even think straight and lost all sense of Ego. This was a period when it was at least worthwhile hanging around for a little while because of certain Events. There was the Challenger explosion, the death of Ron Hubbard, the death of you-know-who, whose funeral was March 18th. and that I attended. Blue Oyster Cult came out with "Club Ninja", which was a subtle hint. And there was Chernobyl- - that horrible nuclear melt-down in Russia. And there was Haley's comet, not that there were any really good views of it. That Christmas I was given a portable elctric keyboard and I "expressed myself" by doing impromptu abstractions- (I wouldn't call them compositions) in the Frank Zappa tradition. Of course the snail mailings to the media were never of more exciting, dynamic quality, and it would have been a shame to deprive recipients of theese. This paragraph is a teaser. More may or may not follow.
Well Rolland Burris has finally taken his place as Senator from Illinois. Yesterday I didn't think it would happen this quickly. All indicators were that senators 58 and 59 on the road to a fillibuster proof senate seemed mighty murky. It still looks as if Al Franken's installment as a senator will have to wait for yet more court challenges. As far as I'm concerned "challenges" mean you're just going to have to work your trigger finger faster. But you know- as bright as the future now looks for getting needed bills passed- - the ghosts of the past are closing in. There are still at times when you feel that the Media, which surrounds you, is in the clutch of the Powers of Darkness. It's these same forces which decreed that Reaganomics was the greatest thing since sliced bread and cutting taxes on the rich and deficets like we've never known were the best possible medicine for our economy. Now there are people on the radio, the ghosts of Larry Elder, who are saying that it's "the media's fault" the economy is doing so badly because if the media had just been more Optimistic in their reporting of economic developments a few years back, that we would never be in the mess we are now. To add to this Joe the Plumber has chimed in. Of course by now you pretty much get the idea he isn't much of a plumber, and I'm not even sure his name is Joe. But Joe the plumber says that it's a job of a "War Corospondent" to conceil news of whatever wars we are in because since "war is Hell" we comoners just don't "understand what we are seeing" and what a great thing it is- - all these wars we are condicting. It seems the only acceptable "coverage" of a war is these World War II news reels where you saw troops proudly marching in formation in some victory parade, or else a few guns firing and a few bombs explotding - - from a safe distance, like a vidio game. Someone else on the radio, and I don't remember who, stated that they wished Hillary Clinton had remained in the Senate because someone needs to take over the reins of Senate Majority leader, Harry Reed- - who never met a political intimidation from the right that he didn't go into a faint over. If there is one thing we know from Hillary, she is a "nag" would win the race, and fight for what she believes is right. As her own campaign adds stated last year she would be ready on Day One. Now we are wondering whether Obama is ready at all from his latest Fred Mc Murry type statement (Hopefully you've seen the Caine Mutiny) Because Obama appears to be getting a case of cold feet when it comes to dismanteling the centers of repression and oppression in this country such as Guantanamo Bay. Maybe he will and maybe he won't. I guess the question posed by obvious fear mongers is "But where would all those dangerous terrorists go?? Would be simply let them loose?" Obama has now said he wants to "turn a page on the past" but in order to "turn the page" it's helpful to first read what is on the page, preferably with extensive underlining and anotating. We have to bring the Criminals of the Bush Adminestration to Justice. There comes a time where is an Executive doesn't act in a timely manner, it forever puts a mark on his character that in the coming years he wishes he could erase. Obama isn't sure he wants to deal with "deeds of the past". But if they aren't dealt with then they don't yet qualify as "the past" any more than walking out of a Computer store with an I Phone. So we simply wish Obama would get off the dime on this issue and act. Hearings are what congress does best. Congress has over the decades held hearings on some pretty frivelous matters and these offences and deeds of the Bush Adminestration such as the systematic violations of civil rights and privacy and covering up previous wrongs- - are anything but frivelous. The ball is in your court.
The issue of transportation is a pressing one. With our air ports all clogged up with people inspecting Prell shampoo bottles and shoes, airport waits get longer and longer as service continues to go down hill and fees march inexerably higher despite how much fuel prices have come down lately. Many people today make use of computer software for their "Virtual experiance" in the absence of the real thing. So today you can ski in eighty degree weather in the safety or a surround screen, and you can play a round of virtual golf without having to walk the four miles or whatever. While these "short cuts to life" may be advisable for people getting on in years, such as my parents, whose last extended vacation away from home was the summer of 1989, the year before they moved- - still younger people should not cacoon themselves in an electronic environment but get out and enjoy life. My biggest fear is that small kids will no longer so simple things like putter around in the dirt or climb trees or play outdoor games. Small children need physical objects, not pictures of objects, to develop their tactile skills. But the question is if we're going to examine how to solve the energy crisis- - Air Traffic would be a prime place to look. I imagine vapor trails put a lot of exhaust into the air and may affect "global dimming" or something. Or do we want that now? My solution is that we go underground. If we had pnumatic tubes like on the Jetsons you could zip around at two or three hundred miles an hour from city to city. These tubes need not even follow the curviture of the earth but make a bee line shortest rout say Under the earth. It's a thought. I don't know how fast the latest Bullet trains so now but I know it's in excess of 200 miles per hour. If we could up this figure a little to half the speed of air travel many may well decide that air traffic is a thing of the past, what with the long wait and having to get to the airport two hours early. You would no longer have flight cancellations or planes stacked up circling a city waiting to land. People want to move and we need to find an efficient way to move lots more people than we are moving now, because as more nations develope into first world countries, more people will want to travel.
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