So Much Deception

It would seem that CBS news was caught in another lie.  But they wont fire this Sixty Minutes reporter like they fired Dan Rather, because her story was supported by FOX News.  It concerns this whole Bengazi mess where this one guy claimed to have been there at the time of the attack and scaled a wall and confronted various people.  The report sounded very insistent and authoritative like the ones on Fox News do.  But it was all a hoax and he told the FBI a completely different story.  But of course Fox News likes these Cancer victims that people like Judy get suckered in by.  This woman claimed to have really advanced cancer and her insurance coverage was so great sending her to all the right doctors and never asking for money.  But it seems with her actual insurance coverage she's out thirty thousand dollars if she's even telling the truth, whereas with the Affordable Care Act she's only be out a maximum of six thousand dollars.  There were so many things which prompted me to vote for Bush against John Kerry in 2004.  One of them was the bogus document that was obviously forged that Dan Rather took the rap for.  This concerns George Bush's military carrier or the lack of it.  Then there were the Swift Boat people, and their witness against John Kerry seemed convincing.  Then there were all of the yellow, orange, and red alerts.  Then there were John Kerry's speeches themselves on the Mideast War- - and I didn't know if he was for the war or against it.  The way I figured with Bush at least I knew what I was getting and he seemed to have a plan and it seemed to be working.  Then there was the economic news, which was turning sharply positive.  Finally there was the Bin Laden tape, which was almost like a last minute Ad for President Bush.  Upon reflection, perhaps it was intended to be just that.  We know that Bush seemed to be protective of Bin Laden.  At least he wasn't going after him, which puzzled virtually everybody.  Even with all this President Bush's margin of victory was razor thin, and with all those suspect votes in Ohio- - perhaps Kerry really did win the election were the votes honestly counted.

The Pentatonics are the latest number one group on You Tube, and are the persons of the week on ABC news.  They are five teenagers who do do-wop and other cover versions of songs all in five part harmony – and they are good.   They sing virtually acapella, with minimal percussion sounds.  The lead singer bombed out three times on American Idol but the group just would not give up.  There videos are spontaneous.  They sing everywhere.

A Black man was released from prison today after being wrongly being convicted for a murder committed thirty years ago.  I guess the family isn’t planning to sue, because they don’t let you sue for stuff like that.  The sister of the key eye witness admitted that he lied, and the case fell apart and the conviction was dismissed.  Of course according to Randy Rhodes the government can lie about you and you have no rights or recourse to investigate the facts.  Like in the Pat Tillman case- - the Army apparently owes you no explanation whatsoever for how a particular serviceman died in or out of combat.  I find this revelation positively astounding.  If I’m going to take the trouble to die for my country the least my country owes me is a proper rendition of the circumstances under which I lost my life.  My relatives deserve that much.  And there is a re-staging of the classic play “Twelve Angry Men” cast a bit different this time, with six Black men and six white men, to make it more interesting.  The part of Henry Fonda is played by a Black.  The play is entirely relevant even today, with only a few lines here and there needing to be updated.  Back when I grew up as a kid of course it was the Puerto Ricans who were considered the gang threat and the ones you feared getting knifed by- - rather than Blacks.  This is probably due to the polarity of “West Side Story” in our culture.  Of course back in Los Angeles I started off first grade attending a school with a majority of Black students.  But to be perfectly honest, I found whites more intellectually stimulating to talk to.

The unemployment rate rose a tenth of a point to 7.3% last month, they claim, because they counted all of those government workers getting free pay as “unemployed”.  But they added 204,000 jobs last month and this is nearly double what they had been expecting.  They also re-calculated upward the amount of economic progress we’d made in the previous quarter.  Of course home sales and car sales are rebounding, and they say the future looks hopeful.  The stock market reached new highs.  But I’m still not ready to end my “sell” recommendation yet.

There may be a treaty with Iran in the offing with John Kerry saying that “Peace is at hand”.  But the tea baggers and Israel will no doubt have caniption fits over it.  This treaty is “doable’ in my opinion.  It says Iran will give up SOME of its nuclear development as Europe and the United States suspend SOME of its trade sanctions.  Of course people who love toquote the Bible say in essence “Never trust anyone who announces the advent of peace”.   Bob Dylan puts it just as bluntly on a 1983 album singing “Sometime Satan comes as a Man of Peace”.

Ireneus is a theologian who was kind of the George Washington of Christian prejudice.  He was the first heresy hunter.   The majority of his rantings against Heretics are about the Gnostics.  However he over-plays his hand.  These people eventually do, such as Eusubius claiming that there is a Monument to St James outside “The Temple in Jerusalem, even to this day”, apparently ignorant that the Temple was destroyed eight years after James allegeded death, which was- - get this being cast off the temple pinicle because - - up till then, the Jewish authorities (three decades after the fact) had no idea he was a Christian.  Marcion makes similar confused statements.  He said that “Simon Magnus” was the father of ALL herecies- - and of Valentinianism.   This is a character first introduced in Acts, and in that book he merely wanted to be able to “buy the franchise right” so to speak, to invoke the Holy Spirit.  And by the way, he repented.  Of course Simon Magnus is most often translated “Simon the Magition” but the word actually means “The Great”.   These people falsely claim that people like Valentinus used to be a Christian, but backslid.  But Irenius according to one source, is notably biased and usually distorted and inaccurate when even describing any Gnostic sect.  Because he’s playing to a particular audience.  Information on the life is scarce and we know even less about him than we do about Marcion or Justin, in terms of their ‘formative years”.  He just appears full blown as a major theological heavy-weight.  He claims that Jesus was crucified under Claudius and not Tiberius- - get this in AD 42 when he was about 46 or so years of age, because he was “not yet fifty” according to his adversaries.  Jesus also allegedly has some “secret tradition” with his disciples instructing them that Every Bishop over every major city in the Roman Empire was pre ordained by Jesus, and also that only the Bishop has the right to properly interoperate the Bible.