Pope John Paul II Takes Step Tword Sainthood

Tomorrow Pope John II will be "beatified" by the Roman Catholic church. Throngs of people will be headed into Vatican Square tomorrow. Of course first there is "veneration" and then "beatification" and then Sainthood. Beatification requires one Miracle, whereas Sainthood takes two miracles. Of course Pope John Paul II is considered much more of a humanitarian and in touch with the common man than the current Pope. In fact Benefict was referred to as kind of a protective attack dog, zealously guarding Catholic doctrine. Many thought Benedict would serve only a short while, when he has already served six years, with no signs of quitting. Of course people as diverse as Lek Vluenza, to Elizabeth Gayno to Steward Sutcliffe are affianados of Pope John Paul II. "OK quit mentioning people we never heard of" Stewart and Elizabeth are rather opposite in the way they deal with negative feelings. Stewart is inclined to speak his mind frankly whereas Elizabeth takes the Marge Simpson approach of "taking your bad feelings and stuffing them down into a deep, dark place". But Elizabeth is also a fan of Chuck Smith and Stu can't stand him. Really the whole idea of Sainthood seems silly. I was thinking about this whole topic lately. While we are generally forbidden to talk to the dead ("a message that never got through to You, obviously) we are encouraged to pray to the Saints. Perhaps in the realm of the dead, since Saints are elevated to the infallible status of God Himself, then it is fitting and proper to pray to them, since God has such a busy schedule and all. I have major problems envisioning much of a future for either British Royalty or the Papacy. In both cases maybe there will be a succession or two of a leader, but that will be it. British royal tradition is slowly but surely already starting to come unwraveled. In the case of the Church, there have been no progressive developments in Catholicism since they agreed to all the saying of the Mass in English in 1965. That's about the last time my own denomination updated their confessional creed. I told Craig today that Jews were hard to witness to because they in large part have a fundamental misunderstanding of the overall message of the Bible, which is God's sovreignty, God's perpouses being fulfilled without failure, and God as the redeemer of Mankind, who are destined to be made sinless. A Jew is a victim of his culture, which can be an oppressive taskmaster. Of course Stewart likes to talk about "The karma of the Jews". I don't want to go there because that's dog whistle speech for BAD karma. Stewart also has other Nazi like traits such as to at least a degree embracing the Nanny State, believing it's the government's obligation to insure the physical health and fitness of its citizens. Stu also doesn't believe the Catholics were being cowardly in not opposing the Nazis. He believes that Adolf Hitler "saw the goodness of the Church and had reverence for that and would never attack". My view is "Never say what Hitler would "never do" because if Hitler "has a bad day" he could do just about anything. Many people do not believe Pope John Paul II should be Sainted because "he presided over the period when child molestation among Priests was routinely being covered up". I have undecided feelings about this. I regard all Christians as pretty much cowards to begin with, and moral cowards in particular. I have no desire to make one or the other of them a Saint, which would only be added to the panorama of Icons to be idolized. Basically I agree with Signond Freud's statement that basically, we would all be psychologically healthier without religion. Stewart tells me he believes the same thing, but obviously he means something different by that than I do.

Well, the "Croakings of doom and gloom" as Anne Baxter would put it, continue on the Mc Laughlin report. I think I can see the future a little more clearly this week. I believe Donald Trump has become very close to "peaking" and he will indeed "peak" just about one month from now, and by the time he actually announces for President, his campaign will already be on a downward slope. I think Trump is self destructing in the long run. People got turned off to Ross Perot, too and his campaign peaked around the first of June in 1992. From then on it was a case of "bad timing" one after the other. First he quits and says something about the Bush family conspiracy. Then he jumps back in, after turning people off. In the case of Donald Trump I do think Trump "won the day" at least for last week. Anybody you get someone to do something that clarifies who they really are, I believe they have done a good thing or a "Mitzbah" as our Jewish brotherin might say. I just wish a few other entities would come out of the closet. I would love to see Trump run. Don't get me wrong. But what will happen (conspiracy theorist as I am) I believe Republican leaders will all gather in a cloister in a month or two and secretly decide that Tim Polente or Mitt Romney or somebody IS the candidate, and they will rig the table so that that candidate wins all the primary campaigns. People are pretty much lily livered followers and will back whoever the public opinion polls tell them to.

This whole gas crisis hysteria has about reached its limit. If you believed the Mc Laughlin group the world can't help but come to an end in the next few months. We're going to have a double dip recession for a couple dozen different reasons. Well, as the Zombie song says, in a few months "You Don't Need Any Reason" and that's because it will become obvious that gasoline prices and everything people were pinning their negative hopes on, will vanish. We know right now that they will collapse about forty percent, and could do most of that amazingly suddenly. I predict after Memorial Day people will be scratching their heads and say "I don't get it. Usually prices are headed up in the summer but the past week they have been collapsing. And all those fears of consumers not spending and unemployment rising and everything- - will evaporate along with that fall in prices. They said we should drill more. If we can, we should. My sources tell me that there is "nothing left to drill" that would not be more expensive than it was worth to extract. I'm telling you now if you hold oil futures you really ought to sell them now. As I said in a recent posting 'Bulls make money in the market, bears make money in the market, but hogs never do". Don't say you wern't warned.

I think I have come to terms with God in the past week or two. As I wrote I have pretty much "figured out that scientifically it's a "Just" cause and effect world" and you really can't ask for more than that. The Bible says "the curse without a cause does not come". That is a literal truth despite the fact you may not take kindly to the statement. It certainly does no good to "oppose" God because you'll only be beating against the air. I wish that more people were into Science and fewer were into Philosophy. Religion is like philosophy because neither demands any logical observational contact with the real world. I would rather one be a sociologist or anthropologist rather than a psychiatrist. Because in the first two they actually chart human behavior and learn from that. In the third occupation they forever state "what human behavior ought to be" and what is "normal" and what is not. In this they have an almost "religious" devotion to elevating themselves their fellow man, and frankly, engaging in unchristian thoughts and behavior. (Selah)

Prince William & Kate Middleton Are Married

The weather today has been nice, but they inform me both the previous and subsequent weather will be hotter. We had barbecue chicken for dinner tonight with lots of sauce, and corn and baked beans. Unfortunately my canker-sore was hurting, which I may have gotten at the dentist's on Wednesday either from biting my tongue or perhaps rubbing the under side of my tongue up against a jagged tooth that was being worked on. Many people around here got up at three o clock to watch the Royal Wedding. I was not one of them. (A lot of people around here suffer from insomnia) I watched the last half hour or so on 7.2 at 9:30 in the morning. I watched the entire hour over again on FOX at three and took pictures. Unfortunately they aren't yet available for the internet and besides my camera batteries need charging. They had 72 high definition cameras all around Westminster Abbey and two thousand people were inside as the arch bishop of Canterberry officiated. The vows were pretty standard. At one point they said "fear and nurture of the Lord" instead of the usual "fear and admonition of the Lord". The other line is a gramatical triffel. The arch bishop said "I now declare that you be man and wife". I believe that should have been "I declare that you are man and wife" using the indicative rather than the subjunctive. The crowd outside cheered when this happened. They say that 2.6 billion people around watched the ceremony. Kate is far better prepared for Royal life than was Dianne. I hear that they met only thirteen times before the ceremony, which to me seems freaky. This morning Dr. Levy said Prince Philips official title is "Prince consort to the Queen". That either sounds adulterous or worse, incestuous. It could be in years to come King Charles' reign will be so brief that his chief role in the whole thing is sperm donor.

When Elvis Di Mira married Nicole Walker the ceremony itself was beset with a bad omen with the groom falling in love with the maid of honor. Of course there is the Dr. Phil way of dealing with a problem in a straightforward "take the bull by the horns approach". And then there is the soap opera way where every bad decision that can be made will be made. It's as though Gill was writing every episode. By the way if you see old Gill walking down the street, run the other way; he's nothing but trouble. Well now we hear that the "business arrangement" between Nicole and Elvis is coming to an end as Elvis is getting a divorce since it's the only way he thinks he can have Taylor. Unfortunately after he's lost what ever respectability he hoped to achieve, and after he pleasures himself with Taylor he'll grow tired of her, too, and get back to his major obsession, Samantha Brady. He thinks he's managed to engeneer a divorce between Samantha and her husband, but even those hard fought plans may be dissolving before his eyes. Unfortunately he didn't handle the matter of his infadelity with Nicole well, and now she's gotten help to plunge the dagger into this playboy, son of a despot, once and for all.

We need to pray for all the people in the South who have suffered the ravages of these tornadoes, which is the worst since 1974, and the season isn't over yet. The death toll all over the southern states of the US is 295 and rising. Tuscalusa, Alabama was one of the hardest hit cities with whole neighborhoods being wiped out. Thom Hartman reminds that it's all due to Global Warming. Even though there is just five percent more moisture in the air now (because warmer air can hold more water) it makes a major difference when it comes to actual weather. We know that nature is neither moral nor immoral. It doesn't care. But those who deny global warming are living in a fool's paradise if they think this sort of wild weather isn't only going to get worse. (Selah)

I was looking for someone else's oppinion on Donald Trump today. But my brother said some things that made me think. I have viewed Donald Trump as someone I might vote for, being still a registered Republican, just because I think it would be an interesting campaign if Trump ran. Trump is going to make his decision whether to run for President by June first, not that far off. I have found Trump rather more intelligent and insightful than your average tea party melon head who just fell off the truck yesterday. My brother sees things rather differently. He says he doesn't believe Trump is a Christian and won't vote for him if he doesn't share his spiritual values. As to the matter of his "seeming" more intelligent and qualified and all that- - well, Trump has been before the cameras and microphones for a long time and has had experiance in making a good impression with the public. It will be legal in California to vote for the opposite political party in the primaries for the first time. But as I am still a Republican I won't have any moral scruples myself about voting for Trump. I hope he knows more about the economy than the rest. Randy Rhodes on her show the other day made some really stupid statements. She said that Trump selling goods made in China disqualifies him to run as an American First guy. But of course it's basically his job to make economic profits now. If Trump Enterprises is a publicly held company, he'd be breaking the law and his fiduciary responsability to the stock holders were he not to maximize corporate profits. If he runs for President- - than THAT will be his job come 2013 and his responsabilities and duties will be completely different. Randy Rhodes also accused Trump of being racist in attacking this bit about his getting bad grades but still managed to get into Harvard. Race was the LAST thing I thought of. And the simple reason is that Harvard is a private institution and not suffer to racial quota admission laws. However it IS subject to its own biased terms of admitting students, which often includes whether a parent or a grand parent went there or if they have friends on the board of admissions. I thought perhaps one of these applied to Obama. My feeling is that anything which takes the media spotlight off the regular tea party people who have been setting the agenda- - - is a good thing.

SCIENTIFIC THEORIES CURRENTLY NOT IN USE

One of the biggest ideas I've had to disregard that were in earlier blogs such as early 2007 was this whole idea of the "event horizon" of Black holes. This theory says as you got closer to a black hole you could look further into it, but that there would come a "point of no return" where you would be destined never to be able to get back. Also this whole idea of a Black hole as some giant cosmic vacuum cleaner sucking up all the matter in the Universe I have disregarded. Also discarded is the notion I've seen on TV that Black holes could sneak up on you from virtually out of nowhere and gobble up the earth. Another notion discarded is the idea that the Universe has a hollow center and virtually all of the matter you see in the Universe is at its spherical edge. In this theory this "center" would "move" to wherever you happened to be you would think you were in the center of it. Also disregarded is the idea you could have negative matter interracting with positive matter. But this notion was torpedoed by the axiom of "the nature of the matter determines the nature of the space around it." Negative matter, if it exists at all, would have to exist in negative space. Also discarded (maybe not quite entirely) is the idea of "space folding' like in Dune where you would somehow transport yourself by folding space and shortening the distance traveled, and once you got where you were going, you would be reversed so everything you saw would see mirror imaged. Of course the trouble with this theory is that if space folding were done on a large scale it would cause mass chaos and besides you would see physical evidence of it. Also discarded is the notion of some invisible world where you can't be detected but you can see others. There is a variation on this theory as in "through the looking glass" where everything is reversed and somehow "different" from here in some ways and alike in many others. Another theory that I'm not really "pushing" now is what Euclid referred to as poly-dimensional space. (I have a nice math formula for this one that seems to work, but I can't find it in any scientific text) While this theory is interesting there is absolutely no evidence for it. But I'm not ruling it out entirely. I have also regarded the "perpetual falling machine" model that I have discussed in a blog. It, too, involves multiple Black Holes. And finally I'm discarding that "spiral staircase" model of "enlightened psychic plains of evolution" where each higher step takes you to a sphere where you have more Free Will and are less subject to the whims of predestination, which in my prophecy book I equate with Sin. These triangles are constructed on the 13 x 12 x 5 measurements specified in the book "Arachne Rising". While the triangles get bigger by 13/12 each time there is no relation at all to musical notes as these are based on fractional exponents and not by proportionality. Many view existing in zero gravity as a pipe dream, but this one is reality and our test pilots do it all the time by flying in parabolic trajecteries in the sky (I have a nice formula for this one in Excell, too, but it is not original with me)

President Obama Wraps Up Iraq War

Tonight the President from the Oval Orifice (to paraphrase Rush) delivered the anticipated fifteen minute catch-all speech that he prays people will take time out of their pathetic lives to listen to. It was Thomas Jefferson who said that "The tree of liberty is a tree that must be occasionally watered with the blood of Tyrants and Patriots alike". In the photo of that tree one is reminded of several things. First of all other trees around the grounds have been removed. I'm wondering when this tree is going to be removed and want to make sure I have adequate photographs of it be this the case. The President has attempted to plant the seeds of liberty in Iraq. Tonight the president paid due homage to the brave troops who fought and died in this war and in Afghanistan. He spoke of the serge which he himself was against at the time in 2006 and I myself was haltingly in favor it. He spoke in terms of an unbroken tapistry of national war endorced by both the Bush and Obama administrations. This was has gone on so far for nearly seven & a half years. The President said all the remaining troops will be withdrawn from Iraq by the end of 2011. I highly doubt this date. The President believes that a government will prove stable that will be accepted by the citizens of Iraq. But unlike the old war horse who rears up at the sound of gun fire, can our President decide to "let it alone" when the bombs go off planted by terrorists that inevitably will happen? The President spoke of Afghanistan and how we can now devote our full energies to that war so it in turn can be ended or "begun" to be ended less than a year from now. Somehow I doubt that, too. Sarah Palin spoke of the sacrifices of our troops and gave three examples in her speech of unusual heroism by three servicemen, one in Afghanistan, one in Iraq, and one who did time at the Hanoi Hilton. We admire such acts of courage, of course. But sometimes we fixate on the micro and miss the macro. Jesus Christ praised two people who gave sacrificially - -one a rich prostitute and another a poor old widdow lady. In the praise of these two the fact omitted was that giant sucking sound of the guilded Catholic Church sucking up the resources of the world. The question it seems is never raised, "Should these people even be giving at all?" Jesus in his zeal to praise the prostitute kind of let slip the whole idea raised by Judas that there are multitudes of poor people out there far more deserving of the money. His response of "the poor you will have with you always" is not too far removed from Marie Antwenette's "Let them eat Cake". If something is doing something they should not ought to be doing does it make you feel better to say "Yeah, but they Did it so Heroically". Sure there are heroess in wars. If LA was struck by a plague of the ebola virus tomorrow I am certain there would be all sorts of heroic acts done by medical personell. We are slaughtering hundreds of thousands of innocent people in two countries but by golly, among those comitting these acts are real heroes who "are just following orders". I don't place such a premium on "just following orders". It was Bob Dylan who said "Don't follow leaders", but this of course, was before he got "Saved". People should be a little more macro, a little more utilitarian in their outlook. "What if everybody did what I am doing". Then we would have an army of three hundred million troops killing foreigners for our own national agrandizement, or rather for the agrandizement of those of whom Dylan says "You hide behind walls - -but I can see through your masks". After all of this the President, having more time and not yet out of Turtle Wax, decides to slather on a little more economic salve to the liberal constituancy out there hoping for a word or two about the economy. Knowing the President's fading numbers, it's hard to say when he will again have an audience to listen to him in Prime Time. At no time, and this won't escape the note of any trained psychologist or socialogist out there- - -at no time do we ever stop and think what we can do to prevent the Causes of war. As long as these, like un-attended weeds out there, are allowed to flurish- - we are doomed to perpetually fight losing wars of reactivity.

Glen Beck wanted this country to "Come Together". This song ranked number nine in the list of all time favorite Beatle songs according to the Rolling Stone. This is the song where we drew out 10-10-10 date from, "one, and one, and one, is three". I understand this song was originally intended to be given to Timothy Leary for some "campaign" of his. And then we have that other song, the one with the mythical "bare-foot sailor" in it, Bob Dylans 115th. St. Dream. This is the song that speaks of a sailor touring New York a few days before Columbus got there in his three ships. The end of the song speaks of getting a coin to flip to answer that age old question raised by the Clash, "Should I Stay or Should I Go". He decided to Go. In ZAC theology we talk a lot about the identity of "Sailor Sam", who appears in two Mc Cartney songs. The Apostle Paul spoke of the rapture of the faithful as like "setting out on a voyage by ship". Sailing on the waters rather than IN them can be likened to one who departs the body, but does not die, but is on a "Journey" never the less. "The future's uncertain and the end is always near". It's hard to say what the average Joe out there when confronted by a Force or a Dimension of Existance he is unaccostumed to. People like James Kirk seem to thrive under such a challenge. I suppose this can be a goal. One should be prepared for this particular "What if- " in my humble opinion.

Lipstick On A Pig

President Obama feels he has to make his "Mission Accomplished" speech tonight although we know he's not going to use those two particular words due to an excess of Bushophobia. We know 50,000 troops will be left behind just like Eisenhaur decided to leave about that many permanently in Korea after the war. But the idea of it being one of the few speeches from the Oval Office and only lasting fifteen minutes seems strange. You'd think he'd have more to say. Randy Rhodes suggests that the President do REAL "fireside chats" over the radio or TV and not just the five minute blurbs on Saturday morning and nobody remembers to tune into KNX radio at 7:05 or whenever they are on. Roosevelt used his fireside chats over the radio to turn things around in this country and get the American People on his side. Back then certain people were trying to wish the whole New Deal away. But as a consequence of the democrats gaining significantly in both the House and the Senate in 1934 paved the way for the W P A or work progress administration projects that put millions of Americans to work. Roosevelt faced then the same arguments of "devoting national resources" and all of that. But Roosevelt answered them saying that such large unemployment was the biggest waste of a human resource of all, and that if things were really going to change, more drastic action needed to be undertaken. It was in 1935 that a lot of the Wall Street regulations were brought forth. A month or so ago we passed the 75th anniversary of the passage of Social Security payments, and OASDI. Old Age and Survivors Disability Insurance. But I don't know if Obama has what it takes. The other day, yesterday in fact, I went to someone to borrow just two dollars and he turned me down. He says "we all have problems to overcome" and he's right, of course. But won't republicans say that this President "has been to the cupboard too many times - and now the cupboard is bare". Congress isn't biting. The arguments aren't working. People are saying "We have gone all this time without these requested measures being passed so what's so different about now?"" People today opperate from the "meme" that government is out of control. They view the next congress fondly as one who will set about to repeal everything that was passed in the congress just passed. And unfortunately these Black organizations don't look too good by saying that "Glen beck wants to take back America but we ourselves come to government with palms open for yet more government hand-outs". Some people take this to be pure sloth in need of a severe "attitude adjustment". If the Democrats have a prayer (apt word) of winning in November they will have to come up with an approach the republicans haven't already inoculated us against.

There is a persistent roomer that Joe Byden and Hillary Clinton will be swapping positions in government. They say Byden has always wanted to be Secretary of State and that Hillary needs a stepping stone for a new run for the Presidency in 2016. At that rate she would be in office till 2024 and by then she would be a little long in the tooth. She'd be about as old as Reagan was. They say that Byden has been doing more "negotiating" than Hillary has. Apparently there is a crisis in the Mideast that Byden and not Hillary has been on top of. This while "settlements" issue will be coming up again on September 26th when some moritorium on building expires and as such the heat will be on. I have been predicting that "something witchy" will happen on September 25th of this year as a sign of upcoming events. The whole issue with Iran has never been resolved and Israel at any time could decide that Iran needs to be preemptively bombed. If we know anything about Israel is that they are pro-active rather than re-active. They don't wait for events to surprise them- - they take action ahead of time to insure the outcome they want.

Today is Tuesday August 31, 2010 and I had some Stephanie Miller on before breakfast and some TV. We had oatmeal for breakfast. That old guy at our table has been messing around with peoples’ table ware before we get there. I got my medication with Oscar before breakfast. We had pancakes for breakfast and sausage. I got more coffee from the back counter. Joe lent me a third cigarette before breakfast. Paul gave me three cigarettes at 8:20 or so when I was out there. I was amazed at his sudden generosity. Now I've paid Paul back three, and Frances back four, and Joe put me on notice for three cigarettes. It's a cardinal rule that people are willing to lend with the expectation of being paid back. The same holds true for nations buying our bonds, such as China. Some people lay away for the future. Others borrow From it. If you are of the latter you should be aware that's what you are doing. People "borrow" things like "Faith" and "Credibility", too. Sometimes the bill comes due unexpectedly. In the next paragraph I talk about how Christianity has a long standing "bill" due to - - the whole Universe. The Church has used every trick in the book to fenegle a place in the hearts of mankind. But I suspect from the hostile reaction to Glen Beck (even here by a fellow Mormon) that such religious "professions" will become increasingly manifest and difficult to ignore.

After breakfast I watched the first three-fourths of “Days of our Lives”, the portion I didn’t see yesterday. Stephanie Miller had been talking about religion, and had a reverend on discussing it. But my famous refrain is “You can’t put lipstick on a pig”. I don’t even want to venture into other people’s faith. I only know from my own experience and I’m not in the business of cramming my experiences down other people’s throats. What they think of Christian credibility is their own affair. However I will say that it’s a fact that “big movements often devour their own parents”. They say that Thomas Paine fell on hard times and a loss of credibility after 1776. We know that the Mormon Church today is not the “Reorganized Church of Later Day Saints” because a court ruled against Young’s Utah church in favor of the one in Missouri. Joseph Smith never preached polygamy, despite Young’s testimony that Smith personally imparted the doctrine of polygamy to him. We know that the dreaded Brown Shirts or original “Storm Troopers” of the Nazis fell victim to “the night of the long knives’ in that they were done away with by Hitler himself because they no longer suited his purposes. In like matter the core of the Christian cannon originated with Marcion. He was the personage who imparted the fundamental doctrine of anti Semitism to the Church, and every utterance that proceeds from the mouth of the Church alias the Papacy, is predicated on the original “meme” of anti-Semitism. Marcion was born in AD 110 on the south shore of the Black Sea and he comes from a family of ship builders and we were told it was a relative wealthy family. The year 144 AD comes up in two different veins. One source says that this was the year Marcion was ex- communicated by the Church. The other source says this is the year, in the autumn of 144 that Marcion finalized his doctrines. We have one source saying “Marcion’s beliefs spread throughout the whole world” and goes on ti name all the countries. To me this seems a bit strange in that after his death- - and more like decades after his death, his name was summarily blackened, and I don’t mean in a racial way. Iremeus did a biography on Marcion but a later guy that Hippo- - - something guy added in that Marcion “seduced a virgin and was disowned by his father for the deed because his father was a Catholic priest”. Many people mistrust this “virgin” story saying that the earliest summaries of Marcion’s life don’t have this story. As you know in that story I did a month or so ago describing the whole Universe as one big “holideck” of the Enterprize, where I say that Marcion feared that he was damned to Hell in the afterlife. Marcion has similarity to Gnostics. The difference is that Marcion was bi-polar with a singular Jewish devil-god who gave the law. In “Paul’s” early writings Paul speaks of Christ “putting the law to death”. The idea of using any part of “the law” as justification for your personal actions- - was considered a heretical act by Paul. Gene Scott as you know has stated “I believe the epistles of Paul take precedence over the Gospels of Christ.” This was in response to some old lady who wrote him that said “I read the Gospels on my knees- - but I take the letters of Paul with a grain or two of salt”. Gene Scott responds “Peter is responsible for the gospels and we know that Paul condemned Peter to his face, so therefore I believe Paul has more reliable NT doctrine than do the Gospels”. In saying this Gene was practically saying that apart from the written gospel text there is no independent proof of Christ’s existence, and that there is no essential “Christ message” that takes precedence. Stephanie Miller and Thom Hartman appeal to what they see as the liberating “liberation theology” Jesus they see in the gospel pages and make that message their life credo. But as I have often said, you really can’t rest that easily in Jesus’ words. (I did one posting on the topic “Jesus was not a liberal”. People have said “You can’t trust Glen Beck because he’s a Mormon.” One person yesterday went so far as to say “It could be that Glen Beck is the Antichrist that Hal Lindsey wrote about”. To this I would say that Hal Lindsey is a far more likely antichrist candidate then Glen Beck. And left wing radio has been suckered into appealing to the writings of Christians who themselves are abberated and deluded.

Forty Days and the Judgement of America

Glen Beck gave his “Inaugural speech” in the Washington mall just after twelve noon sharp local time. At first there was a propaganda film on America. The theme of the speech which ran over was an hour is how “we live among giants”, and he spoke of all the monuments around them. He spoke of a faith in God and knowing what he requires of us being a driving force that should transcend all religious difference of any faith, even if you attend a mosque. He spoke of not dwelling on our faults done in the past. He spoke of a change in the Washington monument one fourth of the way up because construction was halted during the Civil War. He read the entire Gettysburg address, which was much shorter than I thought. He admonished each person to challenge the tenants of their own Faith. He said “Open doubt is better than blind faith”. And he spoke of an awakening based on fear and 9 – 11 was based on this. He also spoke of another kind of Awakening based on Christ’s resurrection from the death. As to many of his sentiments and the call to love of country, many of these are echoed in my prophecy book. Although I would add a Planet of the Apes caviat that “Sometimes you might not like the truth when you find it”. One year after I began my book in late July of 1981, I knew so much more about religion I’d have written a very different book. In fact I may well have chosen not to write a book at all. It was about 10:08 and Glen Beck began talking about bagpipes. At this point I was ready to exit. It was not ten seconds from when I closed the window that the announce came it was “Coffee time”.

But they are having “dueling rallies” in Washington DC because Al Sharpton is also holding a rally in the area. I must say that Sharpton’s speech was uninspired. He seemed more intent upon criticizing Glen Beck for his speech rather than have anything substantive to say on his own, except to mention the name of Martin Luther King. I will say this about “liberation theology”. If liberation theology is what Glen Beck says it is then Glen is right and Sharpton and the President are all wrong. Because salvation is an individual thing and not a group experience, contrary to what the Calvary Chapels would have you believe. Each man must find God on his own. Glen is right in that when you come down to it we can’t “change the heart of another man”. If we are skillful and have resources we can make a pretty good attempt, but in the end there are things in the collective hearts of men and women in this country that we have no control over – and as such no pollster will save us. If Obama were smart he’d do what Glen Beck suggests and really put his own faith to the test to see if it be up to the job. If prayer really works than the President should be able to pray his poll numbers up. But if all there is to liberation theology is just socialism using spiritual language, then perhaps Glen Beck is right. Perhaps we’re all missing a dimension. Glen Beck says that he was not aware of the significance of the date when he organized his rally. Some how I think he did.

.At no time during Glen Beck’s speech did he bring it back to current affairs or bash the poor or minorities or gays, or the President. This must have taken an amazing amount of restraint from him. People were told expressly not to carry their usual signs. And this would have ruined it for those proverbial people in Motel rooms with a hangover looking for something to salve their troubled spirits on a Sunday Morning. I guess it was Glen Beck’s own idea to do it that way - - with none of the usual political posturing. I never heard Sarah Palin’s speech at the rally. I don’t know. I hope her screechy voice didn’t ruin the mood. I really don’t know what to make of the Rally. I guess everybody was given something to reflect on, and hopefully be a better person.

Mal Evans contacted me this morning to announce the “42 Days America is on Trial” in reflection on the Glen Beck address. As you know for nearly 42 months we have been predicting some either rapture of judgement or both of America on 10-10-10 if not before. Thursday October 7^th would be forty days from the event. Glen Beck said the timing of his event was divine providence. Fox reporters grilled him endlessly on his gaffs and misstatements and Beck bore up under it. You’d have to use your imagination to fathom what form such a “national judgement” would entail. Of course there is always the prospect of space aliens landing here and physically picking up various members of the population to go with them. And we could speculate all day whether such an event would be an honor or a tragedy. Fox reporters seemed to pretty much agree that the Democrats would be all washed up in November. However a newby on the Mc Laughlin report said that the surprise would be that the Democrats would hold on to both houses. This, too, would be a matter of speculation. How would said space alien abduction or invitation or whatever affect the political balance of power of those remaining. One would suppose that only a minority would be taken but this too is assumption. And we don’t know whether the people taken would be gone for good or somehow reprogrammed and released anew into the population at a later date. Glen Beck seemed to speak as if God and not man were his audience and somehow there is an unseen force out there that needs to be pleased. We are becoming increasingly polarized, and this is one area where surprisingly Glen Beck appears to agree with me, that it is not a good thing. People have become pretty much frozen in their beliefs. Were I God and thinking of visiting mankind, this is the first thing I would change. If I were God I’d do things to point man in the right direction and away from the wrong directions. But up until now God had not shown any inclination to do this. Does Glen Beck have some talent or pull with God that I don’t? Is there anything about Glen’s methodology that I could learn from?

Palin Backed Tea Party Candidate Wins in Alaska

Everybody wanted to know on Tuesday whether Sarah Palin was still good at backing the right horses, of has she begun picking losers lately? Well it looks like in the US Senate race in Alaska on the republican side, we are seeing a sickening political upset. Congresswoman Lisa Marcosky is apparently going down to defeat and will be beaten out by Sarah Palin backed candidate Joe Miller. Miller is one of one of these way far out tea baggers who wants to make social security voluntary and privatize it- - end Health Care before it begins and eliminate unemployment insurance while you’re at it. Lisa Marcosky being an incumbent probably didn’t expect to be defeated in the primary. I think she was leading in the polls. But as of now she is trailing by about a thousand votes with fifteen thousand absentee ballots to count. So there is still hope. In Arizona you have Ben Quayle, son of Dan Quayle, who is a far right protogee, who had been trailing in the polls, but he won anyway. He was involved in some scandal writing for a pornography site. And John Mc Cain also beat J D Hayworth as the nominee for Arizona’s U S Senate seat. One might think with all these tea party victories it would mean a lot of victories for the Democrats in November. I no longer see it that way. The tide is too strong. The political pathology of society is too great. We are too much the victim of these simplistic, cleverly if tersely worded political commercials, which spoon feed us all the facts they think we need to know. That these commercials are an insult to our intelligence is a thought that never enters their minds. In Florida the case gets a little tricky. On Star Trek they accuse the Romulans of being deceptive and manipulative (something you haven’t seen in my writings about them) but here is a case where President Obama himself has to be careful. As you know the Republican candidate for senate is Marco Rubio. Rubio is a Latino and not a straight down the line tea party candidate. He, for instance, doesn’t believe English should be the exclusive language in the United States, in fact he gave some of his acceptance speech in Spanish. Neither does he believe in SB 170 or whatever that Arizona bill is on immigration. The independent candidate for Senate is Charlie Crist, who just might be caucusing with the Democrats come January, in Congress. We can hope. The democratic candidate is a man many liberals like. But if President Obama campaigns for him, he may take votes away from Crist, and with it chances of winning the election with 35% of the vote or whatever. Because it will syphen votes away from Crist to the democrat- - and it might just be enough to tip the balance and make Rubio the victor. But Randy Rhodes is most upset, and understandably so, about the republican winner for Governor. This is a guy named Rick Scott. He is a far right winger and has apparently run some really vicious and disgusting adds on TV in a saturation manner. He was the executive for some health care company who defrauded Medicare to the tune of millions of dollars. He spend fifty million on the campaign for his bid, but arguably it’s really the money of all the people he swindled. Apparently the media in Florida is so biased nobody is comenting on any of this so he skates free. He apparently pled guilty to some charges of malfeasance to the Bush Administration and has taken control of a lot of hospitals and mismanaged them badly so that patients have died. People are already talking as though he had already won. I guess it’s one of those cases where the underdog democrat has to take courage and mount a convincing campaign. Perhaps he can get Raphael Hernandez as his campaign manager- - who has some incriminating taped conversation. We can wish.

Our whole electoral system in this country has evolved into a pathological state. You have candidates like this candidate for governor in Florida who spent fifty million of his own money to win. You have Meg Whitman and Carley Feurina, who both were apparently screw ups in the private markets, now getting into government. Of course it’s insane to think that anyone could get rich by going into government. But then, how do people like Bill Clinton do it - -that is, get rich? The power must be intoxicating. I always believed a person was entitled to spend his money however he chooses on himself but now I’m beginning to wonder. In the old days we had industrialists like Norton Simon running for state office. But they were relatively harmless. You can’t say that today. This sleaze bag in Florida is going to drag our society to new low standards. Well there come a time when someone says that by the sheer presence of all that money hopelessly corrupts the process, even if it’s your own money? You tell me why all these rich people want to run for political office. Of course the tea party crowd is a hypocrite because they love rich people in government. It’s just people who belong to a union whom they can’t stand in government. And so you have them leveling the charge that all these low level pencil pushers in government don’t deserve the pensions they get, and they say they make out better than the private sector would. Actually someone ran a survey and that said that only high school drop-outs do better with a government job than in the private sector. After high school it’s just about even. And with people with a bachelors or master’s degree, people who choose to go into the private sector fare much better than those who choose to dedicate their lives to government work. People love to spread lies on the right. Marco Rubio made a speech the other day where he said that only in America can a man be want he wants to be. He said that in any other country you could think of in the world, what your job is is pre-determined by what your parents did in life. So if I’m from Italy and my father was a violin maker, then I am pretty much set to be a violin maker for life myself. Of course this isn’t true. The world is changing and industrializing rapidly. You have places like Japan and Germany after W W II that changed radically. You have your China, your Sweden, your Kweit- - your Austrailia. You have all these countries that are rapidly evolving in this modern world. One of the ways in which the US is behind most “civilized” countries in the world is the way we do elections. There are two “schools of thought” concerning how to fix our electoral process. One is eliminate the closed primary and make all candidates open to vote for, for everybody. The problem here as Hartman points out is in Michigan you have Wallace winning the Democratic vote in Michigan in 1982. This is what you might call the Swartzenegger model, since, unfortunately we have adopted this model of “idealized perfection” here in California. The other model is the Hartman model. Here you have a run-off. You take the two highest vote getters and have you choose between them. This way you will never have a candidate winning with less than a majority vote. But Hartman had an even more intriguing idea. He says you could enter a second choice along with your first choice. That way if your first choice came in less than second or something, the vote would shift to your “second choice” for the office. We need a man with almost Solomonic wisdom these days to run the world. It’s too bad we don’t have one. If there were some Hollywood script involving an anti-Christ I’d like to see that script to see how many brilliant ideas the guy wants to implement in advance.

If you’re Nicole Walker right now your last bastion of hope just got torpedoed, much against your choice. If anything happened to me I’d want my next of kin to sue Raphael Hernandez, and especially Victor Kiriacus, who as it were, placed the knife in his hand that eventually cut my throat. If I were Nicole I’d be taking another look at those cyanide capsules in my purse because now might be an excellent time to use them. There is something about dying on your own terms that’s appealing if you’re in her shoes because you deny all your enemies the pleasure of salivating over your destruction.

Well you’ve been hearing it for seemingly months on the Mc Laughlin round table. The Real Estate market is falling apart. Home sales of pre existing homes are down 25% and sales of new homes are down 15%. They say the level of economic activity in general is the lowest that it’s been since last November. The stock markets have been trending down for the past couple of weeks. I don’t know but I imagine the value of my Mom’s property that she will pass on as an inheritance one day, is markedly diminished because she has a lot of Chevron stock, and IRA’s and other instruments like CD’s that are flat in value. Of course in my Mom’s case- - her expenses are up this past year. As of now she can well afford it. Of course my two brothers stand to inherit a lot more than I will because of my screwy situation with Social Security. People will start to believe this economy has really turned when the state governor, preferably Jerry Brown says to us next January, “Guess what. We have an unexpected influx of tax revenues and now I’m asking for your help as to how to spend it”. We can hope. It looks from here as though the probability of a double dip recession is approaching certainty. That means that Team Obama is pretty much all washed up as far as the November elections are concerned, and there is going to be a political blood bath come election day. And it means there will be Hell to pay because if you think the economy is bad now, just waituntil the Republican’s are in charge and you’ll see what economic hell is really like

Mc Cain In Electoral Shoot-out Today in Arizona

Today they are having primary elections in five states. In Arizona you have Grandpa Mc Sane up against J. D. Hayworth. That sounds like some heiress’s third husband. Each candidate is trying to sound more conservative than the other, although both have a record of the dreaded "Moderation" rattling around in their political closets. Hayworth used to be a sports announcer but people say he wasn’t good at ther, either. Apparently Mc Cain is heavily leading in the polls. In Florida you have a lot of hotly contested senate races in both parties. Once this election is over we will know a lot more about the strength of the tea party set. Three other states having primaries today are Alaska, Oklahoma, and Vermont. Of course Republicans preach “You know that our influence in elections goes up ad voter participation goes down”. They admit it.

Chief Judge Royce Lambert of the federal DC District Court ruled yesterday that the Obama administration has to end all their embryonic stem cell testing and confine their research to adult stem cells. (all the adult stem cells hang out in bars and adult book stores) It is said that corporate pressure was brought to bear on the Court in rendering their decision. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised. Judge Lambert said he was “returning the situation to the status quo”. That’s hardly the case. This is just another area where we thought when President Obama came to power you’d see some real changes.

Randy Rhodes says they are heavily proselytizing Christianity in the military and she says it’s inappropriate. She says some people are given a choice of attending a Jesus rock band or cleaning out the barics. She talked about a “Team Jesus” group that was active and pushing in the military. She says it used to be that a Chaplin was there just for prayer and comfort but that isn’t the case any more. If you’re Jewish or Moslem you really feel out of place today. Hence the military has become sort of a Christian club.

People like Ted Olsen and Ron Paul deserve some sort of awards for standing up and being counted. Ted Olsen was an attorney in the Bush verses Gore case, but was “consistent enough” to be a “constitutional” conservative and that means to grant people certain inailable rights, like getting married to whom they choose. I may get ill but I’ll have to second the notion that this guy is a hero. It’s said that the real test of a constitutional right is to grant that right “even when it’s hard for you to do that”. Ron Paul had the personal courage to stand up and be counted on this Mosque issue, to say that he favors the Islamic community building the center and sees it as property rights, and then went on to attack the motives of the other Republicans. I wish we had more conservatives like him. The dinner bell just rang. I feel like a cigarette. Last Friday ABC saluted one of these guys who defuse bombs in Iraq. This guy who just was killed is person of the week.

In personal news I got Dr. Levy to reprint my "Seventeen Injunctions of Life" which I did for you blog readers a month ago. Metaphorically I got the head of the record company to like my sound, but convincing the record buying public is another thing. I may have hit the ball out of the park, but the crowd was so medicated on qualudes or Prozac or something they scarcely paid it notice. I'd like to know who is out there- -if anybody- - who is a regular reader. I know I need to do more to get my blogs listed on Google searches. It happens occasionally but usually I fail to use those valuable key words in the title heading, which Google counts as so important.

Karzai - Thumbs Up On Women's Rights

Hammid Karzai said today that this roomer that has been going around about a deal between the Obama administration and the Talliban to make peace at the price of denying women their hard earned rights- - is nonsense. Karzai says he was shocked at the recent stonings of women, and I believe him. Karzai appears to want to Westernize his country in a more progressive direction. He does however want these private “security contractors” out of his country by the end of the year. Apparently this “phase out” will actually be taking place. He says that these outfits in the name of some vigilante pursuit of justice and “routing out corruption” in his government has arrested people in the dead of night and sought to ship them off somewhere like Russia used to do. He personally intervened in a case involving one of his close aids. To me he seems like a reasonable man. The issue was raised whether members of these “security” groups might join the Talliban is they were forced to disband and Karzai said that made absolutely no sense. He said something about “If they’re that messed up they shouldn’t have been working for the United States”. ABC news wants us to know however that US troops are personable and recognize you by face, and they know the good guys from the bad guys. At least that’s what they would dearly like you to believe.

The credit card provisions of last years bill went into effect today bringing welcome changes for customers. If they raise your rates they have to give you notice, and they have to reconsider the move if it’s seen as no longer necessary after six months. Your penalty cannot exceed the infraction. So if your infraction is two dollars they can’t charge you $35.00 but a maximum of two dollars. Apparently certain penalties are limited to $35.00. They can’t charge you multiple penalties for the same infraction any more. Of course many synics out there out there will note that there is nothing in this legislation which prevents credit card companies from conjuring altogether new charges to lay on you. Some libertarians might say that it’s a communist conspiracy to even step in and regulate credit card companies at all. They would say “If you don’t like the service of one bank, then go to another”. Actually it is hard to argue with this logic. Loose credit is what caused all our economic problems to begin with and a “slap down” by the bank may cramp your style, but may in the end force you to be more careful.

Last night I reread those two articles in Astronomy Café. One was on those fourteen Grim Facts about the Universe. First and foremost, even empty space is not empty. Other statements are made such as the brain controls the “energy environment” of matter. They say three percent of your body is made up of quarks, which is a lot more than I figured. The rest of it is pure energy. So let me get this straight - - 97% of the weight of your body is comprised by energy. They said if you had enough brain power you would meld yourself into a wall because “there is no scientific reason why that should not be possible. Perhaps you can lead me to Wayne Dyer’s padded cell. But also the statement amazed me that “If there were no gravitational fields, there would be no time”. Obviously people in weightless environments don’t suspend people in time so I’m puzzled. Another thing was suggestive of something I had already put in a blog. They said that gravitational fields can ONLY be properly described in four dimensions and not three. As you know I introduced the concept of “deep time” and “shallow time”. We also seem to have the possibility based on that Excel formula that these newtron star gravity wells can emcompass time going back hundreds of billions of years. You may say to me, “but the Universe is not that old”. Thus we have the concept originally aired by Gene Scott that “the past” is something that can be “created” after the fact.

Time Magazine has that stars and stripes in the shape of an Islamic crescent, and the heading was Islama-phobia. But we have worse than a phobia, what we have in this country is outright bigotry and hatred, of a type that would not be acceptable against any other group, not Latinos, not Blacks and not even gays. This whole thing with the community center is such a petty complaint to provide a rationalization for this hatred of an entire religion with 1.3 Billion followers world wide. George Bush himself espressly said we were not at war with the Islamic community. But today's Republican main stream is way to the right of George Bush. I had ABC’s “This Week” on and it consisted of two lengthly segments. One was a Jewish woman as one guest, and also the wife of that Sufi Islamic leader who wants to build the community center. This center will have things ranging from classes to swimming lessons to bereavement meetings. Actually it's kind of an Islamic version of the Y M C A. I went to Y M C A camp as a kid and I was never indoctrinated. There was some American history about the British banning Synagogue construction here. As to the remark about the US being an “accessory” to the crime of 9-11, he was referring to the long term CIA support of the Talliban in the 1980’s. I hope Newt and the gang figured that one out. People twist words so readily today and they don't listen to things in context. Yes, the CIA really was funding the Talliban. Don't you believe that ever happened? It did. Also it should be pointed out that the Koran is not Sheria law. From what I have heard lately, Sheria law is not consistent but varies from country to country. So it's rather silly to talk about Churches having Koran burning parties on 9 - 11. When you burn another religion's Holy book, what do you call it if not hatred?

Here is something to think about. They say in the Psalms that “If I make my bed in the grave- - Thou art there”. If so it means that the vision of Hell as “total separation from God” can’t be true. But some would say “We know God is everywhere but what you lose forever is your awareness of God’s presence”. OK right there I have you because I have wearied myself looking for some clear “evidence” of God’s actions in my life and haven’t come up with anything. And ponder this- - people might point to something like my living here and being on welfare as “God’s provisions”. I have just one thing in response to say to that. Any positive act of God has brought to pass has to pass the “is it something I could brag about to other Christians” test. Capish?

Of course we still have the same stories ad nausium in the news. It’s been all bad eggs and bed bugs- - and now they aren’t limited to a few states, they’ve gone international. They replayed the same article from NBC Nightly news the next morning on the Today show. We should be thankful, we’re told that there are no serious diseases associated with them. I watched the Mc Laughlin report. Today Pat Buchannon was back, bellering about the Mosque at ground zero. He played the lone wolf today with nobody to back his strident opinion. Monica was absent and some liberal Oriental looking guy was in her place. At seven it was “Malcolm in the Middle”. Then I switched to the end of that Auto Race on ABC. No I don’t remember who won. After this it was aimless dial twirling the rest of the night not watching one station that long. And it wasn’t that long because there was nothing on and I remember making preparations for bed at five to nine. Fortunately the nights continue to cool off nicely. Of course they’re saying this heat wave will intensify as the week progresses.

In the morning I had the Today show on. They were discussing vegetable juice “cleanses” to rid the body of toxins. They say “they don’t have enough calories - - and they lack protein to sustain any regular diet”. After this they had what white wine to drink depending on how hot the thermometer read, becoming lighter and lighter. That’s another way to “cleanse” your body. We had Rice Krispies for breakfast and a fried egg that was well cooked (good health move) and toast with butter and jelly. I had Brenda’s orange juice, and Laurie had Andrew’s, though later he showed up. I watched the 2^nd half of Chris Matthews and “Meet the Press”. You know if these talking heads want to do something we’d all love, they’d have six months of reporter’s predictions made at the end of these shows, so we can see who’s right and who screwed up badly. John Mc Laughlin says his prediction was that “in the end Rod Blagoiavitch walks”.

On Regaining Respectability

Thirty-two years ago the Rolling Stones came out with the song “Respectable”. Respectability is something we should all be striving for. That means both moral as well as intellectual respectability. I know I’m never going to be a “George Washington’s Blog” but at the same time I know that I need to have my facts down pat because if people sense a lot of mooshiness or “play” in my intellectual steering wheel, they will cease to regard what I say and my writings will be dismissed and set aside and I won’t be any the wiser. Today is the warmest day we have had all week. The news is kind of in an endless loop rerun with the same stories being talked about near obsessively by Stephanie Miller and Randy Rhodes. Among the few new items are the Authorities closing down those drag races out in the desert because eight people were killed in last weekend’s accident. Naturally if you weren’t one of the ones killed you wonder what all the fuss is about. After all these is kind of a doctrine of “implied concent” otherwise known as common horse sense in attending that kind of a race and standing in such close proximity. If people go through life knowing that “actions have consequences” and are at peace with the “sensible risks” they are willing to take in life, then the nanny state Government will not have to step in and micro-manage our lives. They have commenced furlough days in state offices. I need to get to the Department of Motor vehicles because my license has expired and also I think it’s high time I switched affiliations from the republican to the democratic party. That enchanted cat is in the news again. This is the cat that snuggles up to people in convalescent hospitals and the cat in this way has been amazing in foretelling the next patient to die. Prior to this I had always heard that a cat was one animal that would not hang around the home of someone why is dying. Well, somebody is wrong. Today I had a diet cherry-cola and guess what- - after forty years those things still taste like bourbon. Tomorrow is the day that Iran’s reactor goes on line and it appears I was wrong about Israel bombing the facility before that happens. I don’t think it hurts to mention a “probability” or hunch, even if it turns out to be wrong. Cops pursue hunches all the time- - and quite often they pay off.

Back when I was in elementary school, when they still chizzled on stone tablets, they had something called “American Heritage” which was instituted by the local school board. My feeling about it was “history is history- - why give it a fancy name”. Then five or so years later, when my politics had moved considerably to the left, there was a song on the radio “The Green Barrettes”. Personally I regarded the song ad evil incarnate propaganda from the other side. All that stuff about “Put silver wings on my son’s chest- - after I die” so he can follow in my footsteps. All went well for a number of years until the Viet Nam war ended in early 1973. Then we had all those prisoners of war returning from North Viet Nam. I was hoping they’d be filled with communist propaganda and say how humanly they were treated and all. Instead they just talked about how wonderful it was to be back in America with old glory waving in the breeze. And then America went through the post Watergate malaise and finally as 1984 dawned and Reagan announced it was “Morning in America” – we had the Olympics in LA and there was to me an almost gingoistic return of the American spirit. Actually the whole thing with our athletes winning in the Olympics became conflated with Ronald Reagan’s reelection campaign. But Ronnie Baby may just owe that election victory to Jimmy Carter. Because if Carter hadn’t pulled the US out of the 1980 Olympics (a move the Republicans were against) than Moscow wouldn’t have pulled out in 1984, a move that was actually predicted in my 1980 prophecy book. I didn’t like Oliver North testifying before congress. I have a low regard for psychopathic liars who say, “I confess – Ronald Reagan is responsible for everything”. Oliver North betrayed both his President and his country. And then we come to 1991. I remember contemplating going to a pro life rally down the street in late January. But when I saw all the people wearing “Operation Desert Storm” shirts and hats, suddenly I felt out of place and I went on back home. It was on a Saturday in May, perhaps on Armed Forces Day, they had a big blow-out military parade down Sunset Blvd. which celebrated Bush 41’s version of “Mission Accomplished”. It was a nice, easy little engagement that sure boosted Bush 41’s standing in the polls, at least for a little while. And then we have September 11, 2001 - - and what I guess I regarded as a sporadic disease now became an ongoing chronic condition. Now suddenly out president’s words were like Holy Writ handed down from on high. And that leads us to yesterday when President Obama announced that the combat engagement in the Iraq theater was now completed. The troops were really going home and jubilantly celebrating. And this is fitting, if he’s really happening. Somehow I doubt this. This is one area where I wouldn’t mind being wrong one bit, but we are so war obsessed in this country- - I don’t think we can live without it. President Obama has of his own volition made himself into a War President. And he’s committed thusly. We still have 50,000 troops in Iraq. People say that anytime we leave there will be a bloodbath. So naturally we’re looking for signs, the slightest hint of turmoil. And when we find it we will end out planned withdrawal and jump right in with both feet. That’s how I see it.

Franklin Graham says that President Obama was born a Muslim because his father was a Muslim. Being Muslim is not like being of the Jewish people. There is no assumed limiage either passed on through the mother (as in Judaism) or by the father. Islam is a religion of faith and profession - the first of the "Five Pillars". Islam is a religion of faith and not of race. To even have to mention these things is almost an insult to the intellect. Franklin Graham has lost intellectual respectability. They say a substantial percentage of the American People, more if you're a republican, believes that President Obama is Muslim and not a Christian.

In the song “Dogs” by Pink Floyd, there is a line “- - and it’s too late to lose the weight you used to need to throw around”. Somehow I think of Rush Limbaugh when I hear this line. In the movie “All About Eve” I think it’s Bette David that engages in a bit of philosophizing thusly, “You know, you have to be careful who you walk all over on your way up the carrier ladder, because you’ll meet the same people again on your way down”. This is good advice. What goes around comes around- -and the golden rule is a good principle to live by. One of David’s sons, Absolem, turned against him and waged Civil War against him. And it looked as if David’s troops were done for. Absolem’s chief counselor, Ahithaphel (played by Jim Morrison in my movie version) gave Absolem the good advice to strike while the iron was hot and to pursue David’s troops. But David’s side somehow tricked Absolem by “turning” an aid of Ahithaphel against his own side. And this aid was sent back to Absolem and told Absolem “Thy servant Ahithiphel sent me to tell you to halt the pursuit because you need the time to get the people on your side, that your cause may prevail”. In this way Ahithaphel’s sound advice was circumvented. Absolem listens and halted and David’s side regrouped and came back to beat the hell out of him. David’s general, Joab (somehow I always picture Deforrest Kelly from Startrek) slew Absolem as his long hair got caught in a low hanging bough as he rode his horse and Joab slew Absolem. David mourned for his lost son to such a great extent that Joab came to him and said “I get the feeling you would rather that our whole army lost the battle, if I could bring back your son to you alive”. As such Joab has a bad rep for being an overly bloodthirsty general in many Sunday ser-mons. This is an assessment I disagree with in that Joab was only good at doing his job.

And now our geeky science corner. People with an education in the field of special relativity understandably take exception by my little “looking glass” chart and want mathematical justification accepted by others. Let me offer the following side step. I was talking about a relationship to an alltogether imaginary but theorized entity. This entity would be such an unknown that their relation to us or us to them cannot be quantified. It would be like talking about a relation between ourselves and the Cardassians. (No, I didn't know Cardassian was an Armenian name.) I know the actual formula for addition of volicities and have performed numerous experiments with various numbers on this in Excel. At the risk of excessive detail let’s just say certain “things” become apparent. For instance 100 plus 0 remains 100. But 100 plus one equals 1. In fact any number plus 1 including 1 always yields a sum of 1, or the speed of light. A whole number added to a sub-light speed number will yield a number greater than one. A whole number added to another number greater than one will always yield a sub-light or less than one number. Two equal numbers will always yield a smaller sum than a great big number and a little bitty number. The bigger the first number is, the more adversely the second number- whatever it is- - will affect it. What we can conclude from all this is that- - I am not the only one who somehow invisions “small numbers” on the hyper-space side of the ledger. Not only this but it would appear that numbers can become negative by huge factors of a hundred or more. Carried out logically it would mean that masses can go negative and time can run backwards- - - really fast out in “La – la” land. Of course I “Jail Broke” Einstein’s formula because you “aren’t supposed to use this formula with anything greater than one”. When Apple owns the right to Einstein’s works I’ll start to worry. In terms of time going backward- - I used certain terms in recent postings where I showed, shall we say, a lack of discretion. I used terms such as “light dragging” and “light chasing”. You all may have seen the cartoon where Sylvester goes over the water fall and then tweety bird turns off the flood gates and Sylvester is now desperately trying to climb up the vanishing supply of water. I’d like to reintroduce the terms “fast light” and “slow light”. “fast light” is red shifted and “slow light” is blue shifted. Now if you are listening to a radio transmission from red shifted light- - the message will be really slowed down. If you equal the speed of light the message will freeze and should you exceed the speed of light- - hypothetically you’ll hear the message begin to go backwards the other way. It’s that time “slows down” in telescope (red shifted) light or “speeds up” in (blue shifted) Christmas ornament light- - even here on earth if you’re looking at people thusly distorted in vertical (front to back) space- - it looks like time is sort of slowing down. If you are in a space ship that is headed from east to west- - you will see nothing or not our kind of “space” ahead of you. You will be in that hyperbola kind of Universe. And hyperbolas will always trail you in "actuality" but in appearance the hyperbolic view will be in front, to the west. Being out of our ether what is ahead of you will be in that hyper-space realm. You will look as if in a mirror to the west, ahead of you – and see the sky behind or to the east of you. And this image will indeed not only spacially mirrored but also time mirrored "chasing light" so you will see it in reversed time. But you will be looking west- - as I say, as if in a mirror ahead of view viewing objects behind you. If Leo Le Port is reading this I hope he benefits from this updated version of Saturday morning.

But if you are viewing from the ground stationary in our ether time won’t be reversed, so I want to clear that up. I’ll explain just a little more. Let’s say you’re on the ground and the space ship is moving west- - OK. The light starts off moving down and east but the ether wind blows it- - it’s a constant backward vector- - and blows it west. Think of it as a tail wind. Now you have one more question I’ll address right now. First of all tie time thing. Why doesn't time reverse? Because unlike our hypothetical "radio waves" example you aren't "chasing light". You're seeing sort of a mirror effect caused by the ether. And now your other question. And that is how does all this hyper-light speed satisfy Einstein's equation about the constancy of the speed of light? Think of the "scale" control in Sketch and you adjust the axis of travel gradually less and less and then the image becomes a single line and then the image gradually expands back into shape in a reversed image. First the image is squashed. Then it is normal (at twice the speed of light) and after this it becomes elongated in the reversed direction. In this manner we can manipulate the units of measurement. This should satisfy Einstein’s axiom “At all cost- - the speed of light must always be 186,000 mps.