Channeling Real Enlightenment

We now see more of the future before us when it comes to Obama and Clinton. I don’t think it’s any kind of stretch to declare that Hillary won last night’s debate fairly handily. On the first question both balked at answering it directly. That was the one about being each other’s vice presidential running mate. Both declared it was too early to think about that. From then on Obama took a beating. He did not handle that stuff about his Chicago pastor well at all. He was worse at handling the “resentment” question. Overall Hillary was much more in touch with peoples’ feelings and guarding her words carefully. Obama called people who shouldn’t have guns “deranged”. Hillary preferred the more gentle term of “mentally challenged” and overall in the guns discussion you picked up the “vibe” from Hillary that she understood your desire to preserve the second amendment. In so many cases Hillary looked better merely because she got to answer first, like on the tax questions and Iraq War questions. Hillary set the tone that the “mission” in Iraq or anywhere is defined by the President himself and not by the generals. This is a generic Truth and I hope people understand that. It’s not the President’s job to obey the orders of the generals but it’s their job to obey his, or hers, or whoever is President. Hillary was unambiguous and assirtive in stating that it was her purpose to get all the troops out of Iraq, and I liked that. On the tax issue Obama spoke in less clear terminology than did Hillary. Overall Hillary was the more skilled word-smith. She was able to paint a better, more compelling picture, using fewer strokes. (words) Hillary spoke less than Obama but was ability to say more with the words she had because her speech has a “Self Evident” quality, which is a good quality to have. I think overall Hillary was able to “connect” with the voters better than Obama. Hillary didn’t seem to have the “flag” issue or the “terrorist sympathizer” issues that Obama had to face. On so many issues during a large portion of the debate last night Obama was on the defensive. A lot of times Obama appeared to be self consciously tap dancing around an issue in an almost Nixonian manner, and believe me, that’s not a good place to be. Like the Kennedy Nixon debates, Obama came off is kind of a “Me, too” kind of guy. Obama appeared more nervous and Hillary appeared more relaxed and self confident, and I’m sure people pick up on that. Occasionally a question is asked that if it were me I’d respond, ‘I don’t think that’s any of your business”. If it were me on the stage and some of that flag stuff came up I just might respond “Oh come on, you know what kind of people these flag wavers are. They’re covering up for their insecurities!”. In like manner when it came to issues of “Faith” I’d say the absence of a professed “Faith” does not to me indicate any lack of patriotism or devotion to one’s country.

It would seem that Obama is gaining in the polls according to the LA Times, which I read yesterday. But I’m getting déjà vu of Hampshire, where Obama kept going up and up in the polls and Hillary ended up winning. I suspect particularly in Indiana people are shy about their own racial biases and won’t admit they’ll decline to vote for a candidate merely because he’s Black. Many say Hillary’s remarks were aimed at the super-deligates out there. On the issue of who can win- - both candidates answered identically. They said they were the best person for the job but that the other one could win. I think this needs to be stressed because both candidates are so similar in what they believe and there is such a huge gulf between either candidate and the Republicans. Either candidate should be proud to work for the other one to win in November. I guess I am looking for something in Obama that I’m not seeing- - growth. You will remember that Pete Best was kicked out of the Beatles and the chief reason is “He just didn’t grow with the rest of us”. I’ve seen growth and evolution in Hillary. I haven’t seen this in Obama. Jack Kennedy “grew” as the campaign progressed, and he also “grew” while in office. Obama looks like the same guy who first appeared fifteen months ago. I’ve seen Christian pastors that I hoped would “grow” out of certain behaviors that were really immature- - but they never did. I guess if you’re a comedian or someone who works around crowds all the time you draw energy from the crowd and feed off their reactions and remarks to hone your own skills. Obama is like a football coach who’s working from a tattered years old play book frantically trying to figure out “What do I do now?”

In terms of my mathematical stuff- - often when I explain my own thoughts to people I have a tendency to leap ahead with my logic and leave out key sentences and stepping stones so that people can’t follow me till I back up and explain. It’s a weakness I need to work on if I’m ever going to speak in public. Of course often my logic is sound but I’m saying “Let’s suppose set of facts “A” is true”, and go on to explore certain logical deductive conclusions. Other times I will say, “OK, let’s assume set of facts “B” is true”, and work from there. Some teachers are “show your work” kind of people and if they want the work, fine. In logic there are often facts I regard as Self Evident, that occasionally I get frustrated when someone asks you to prove they are true.

They had a thing on Hemmingway a night or two back. After it was over I had the thought that a certain figure in “popular music” might meet his death soon. It’s my belief that that this Artist was “channeling” Hemmingway in some of his best albums. This has been a Z A C belief for literally decades. Also I have had certain “beliefs” about Hemmingway that I haven’t exactly been able to prove. The first of which is that he is more conservative “now” than the life he led on earth would tend to indicate, and that in fact he was not a raving pro Castro communist while living in Cuba, but often worked for the government. Hemmingway is said to admire “dead authors” but is not so hot about living ones. His “prototype” seems to feel the same way in his songs and the people he mentions. It wouldn’t be a bad “carrier move” for this Artist to die now (I’m thinking in terms of slipping on a bar of soap in the shower), and maybe his songs would get played on the radio again. Or is that just Colonel Parker logic?

Doing What You Have to Do

This file as you know is named after Sean Brady’s one time ex wife. Fortunately they’re better at serving food than they are at not lying to their husband.

Well, it would seem as if Randi Rhodes has pulled off a Mark Bove. As you know Pastor Mark Bove was fired because he took a stand and wouldn’t be pushed around by the church organization. After he was fired, due to the fact that he had a very loyal following, he had a new church up and running within ten days. In such case you are gambling when the stakes are high, but when you prevail the victory is that much sweeter. Randi Rhodes was fired by Air America when they tried to cram certain contractual restrictions down her throat, and I guess one of these was her right to leave at any time. Now she is with the Nova-M network, or whatever. The miracle is how she could line up all her old radio stations and sponsors when she was on Air America. We have missed her on the public air waves. We need someone like her to spell out the issues as they are and not pull any punches.

Well, people are still talking about a Clinton – Obama dream ticket. My psychic vibes tell me that isn’t going to happen, but of course I’ve been wrong before. It would seem now that Hillary is rebounding in the polls and many say she will now carry Pennsylvania by fifteen points. She is also slated to win in India but be beaten by Obama in North Caroline, whose primaries are the same day on May 6^th. Hopefully on that day we will know which one of the candidates has prevailed. You know, she is offering him the Vice Presidency. I’m wondering whether he shouldn’t just go ahead and take it because it’s unlikely he’ll ever be in a position like this again. I’m one of those people who is always shouting “Deal” on the “Deal or No Deal” program. Many people get pig headed and piss away their advantage. The thing is if the super-deligates do what everyone believes they’ll do and pick Hillary, then Hillary might not want Obama any more. At that point he’ll be a defeated also-ran. He should act now while he still has status. The thing is we still are a bigoted, narrow minded, even racist country. There are a lot of places like rural Pennsylvania out there. Remember: people don’t Think, they Feel. Experts and psychologists agree people don’t make political decisions based on rational study. Hillary for good or bad has tapped into the mind-set of the American public. If she wins two of the next three states she’ll claim a major victory.

In my personal life it looks like I’m not going to be getting any tax rebate this year because technically I’m not on Social Security. I can file on line, I suppose, and the worst the IRS can do is ignore me. There have been “things” where my credibility has suffered lately, including the spreading of a roomer that proved utterly without merit.

I like to blow up the TV picture in “At the Movies” so there is less darked out area. With Yahoo trailers you don’t get the running background commentary.

Sixty Minutes had two fascinating segments. If you believe them they have discovered a cure for cancer- - - Again. This is some Buck Rogers type invention involving home produced micro-waves arranged to zap the cancer. It might make you sterile but I have my doubts about the cancer. Apparently they inject metal into the cancer site, which is microscopic gold dust. I believe they call it nano-particles, or is it “nanites”, or is that a StarTrek show? Anyhow these “nanites” are sprinkled with cancer anti-bodies to help them seek out the DNA of the cancer cells anywhere in the body. When this gold dust settles into the cell (these particles are much smaller than blood cells) then the micro-wave is turned on and the metal expands and it zapps the cells. And all without side effects! Do you believe it? - - The other segment was on this Venezuelan youth orchestra. Apparently the local cure for delinquency and the way out of the slums is to start playing the violin at age four and practicing five hours a day before and after school and on Saturdays. Then you get really good and can play all this lovely music which has a refining effect on the soul. They have a lot of different trainer orchestras but the flag ship orchestra travels all around the world and is in the greatest of demand. On their last American tour they sold out Carnage Hall.

The problem between the Romulans and the Federation now centers largely around the newfound “raproshma” or whatever between the Romulan Empire and the Ionians. This is a group whom the Federation has positively loathed for three thousand years and in 2005 there were roomers that the Ionians were going to ally with another old nemesis, the Centaurians, to invade the Federation, the Romulans, Andromeda, and whoever else was in the way. If anything the Romulans deserve a medal for diffusing this bomb. People are still wondering what it is the Romulans gave them that would induce roomers that the Ionians were going to share their technology with the Romulans. We know of course that the Ionians grew disaffected pretty fast with the Centaurians and have left them pretty much to twist in the wind. It is speculated that if the Ionians pulled some Nepolianic stunt and went on the attack against everybody you’d have a World War II type situation where the tide would slowly but surely turn against them. At any rate certain things like Holiday celebrations on Sirius A the Federation suddenly finds “annoying” when they never used to before. We still don’t know how this will play out. We know like Japan and Germany, there has been a growth of a militarist movement in the Romulan Empire. They are tired of playing second fiddle to the Federation for fifteen hundred years. You’re thinking, “Gee, it’s too bad there isn’t a movie coming out”.

Some Truths to Meditate On

All right, those of you expecting to read about the events of yesterday at the family gathering, we are pushing that off to the next file. I will just say that I regard yesterday as a very successful outing and leave it to you Jimmy Carter freaks to deduce just what I mean by that. What I’d like to discuss are some truths to meditate on right now. The first truth is “If you are a Liberal Democrat, Hillary Clinton is your Candidate”. Obama is no Jack Kennedy. What Jack Kennedy said with utter certitude and forthrightness in his speech, Obama says haltingly, riddled with doubt, as if he were reading a tele-prompter. There is no doubt if you want to “Get the liberal democratic agenda done” then Hillary is your girl. She has the capacities and experience to push what she wants through congress. Of course Obama apparently misspoke at last week’s San Francisco gathering in a closed speech not for public consumption. He said that people in Pennsylvania were backward and provincial. They’ve lived in the same area for hundreds of years and they are an older population. If you saw “The Deer Hunter” you know they “cling to” such tried virtues as God and Guns and are for tighter regulation of immigration, especially when they likely haven’t met any aliens. I in myself don’t see any problem in Obama’s remarks and would advise the people in the Pennsylvania heart land to “get over it” and come into the 21^st. Century. But of course Hillary and Mc Cain swoop down like vultures to capitalize on Obama’s remarks.

We’re Searching for Something

That has Already Found Us

I hope that stays centered. This quote is one Mark Campbell often used and it’s from the “American Prayer” album. The whole idea is that God and the future is out there and our “discovering” him or it doesn’t change the reality of what was already there. I heard Joel Olsteen’s speech today about flowers from ashes and the resurrection experience in your life. If, as we’ve said, the future “isn’t already baked into the cake” it isn’t going to happen. Jesus Christ on his show today referred to one caller I didn’t hear who apparently spoke on Science. Here is another truth: Religion has no need of Science and Science has no need of Religion. Let me give an example to illustrate each truth. Religion is like somebody from a savage backward tribe where they survive from stealing things they need from their neighbors. If you show such a backwards tribesman a barrel full of money he’s going to see a bunch of pieces of paper with funny writing on them that might be useful to burn in a pinch instead of fuel if he got cold, but otherwise would have no value to him. If he wants food or a gun he can steal that directly. The idea of an intrinsic value of money is lost on him. In terms of science and religion I would like you to meditate on the truth “The bounds and dimensions you see in this universe are governed by your inability to approach the speed of light”. Some may say that black holes exist. For a pure Einsteinian such a question is meaningless because in his closed universe system, Black Holes CAN’T exist. There is absolutely IMPOSSIBLE to prove they existed even if they DID. For instance in a donut shaped universe- - whatever matter is in the hole of the donut doesn’t matter, just like shrubbery outside the bounds of a miniature golf course doesn’t matter. Neither can something outside a close universe system affect anything that is IN the closed system, be it by gravity or by any other means. There is no "inferential" information manifest. It is a proposition you have to take entirely on faith.

A Salute to Neil Asphenal

For you sensitive types who don’t like certain content appearing in my blogs, consider this Fair Warning. Apparently Neil was a roadie employee for the Beatles as far back as 1962 with Mal Evans being hired on as assistant roadie- - later and Neil was promoted to other key Beatle tasks. Neil stuck up for Pete Best when Brian fired him face to face from the group. Pete had functioned as a managerial person for the group and Brian was taking over these tasks. Mona Best couldn’t be to happy Pete was let go. Neil in later years was in charge of things like Beatle re-releases such as CD’s and the Anthology Series and only quit his job in 2006 when illness was taking its toll, and he died on March 24^th. 2008. The Federation has always liked Neil. It was about 25 years ago when Harrison, I believe, was dissing Neil saying “Some of these people like Neil Asphenol have been around us so long they think they are Beatles themselves”. The Federation came down hard on this statement saying how indispensable Neil was. Neil now is “with George and Mal Evans”. I asked the Federation why they didn’t inform me that Neil had died and they said, “We did, sort of. We said that the number 32 you had in a blog signified death, and you responded sarcastically, “Yeah- - Right! If anybody dies in the next few days I’ll let you know” (me talking back to them) I also asked why they didn’t inform me that George Harrison was with the Federation and they said “Well, the only reason why we even let you know about John Lennon is because of your favorable association with Stewart Sutcliffe”. This isn’t even accurate. The real reason I suspect is that relation between the Federation and the Romulans has deteriorated markedly in the past year or so and John and Stewart and I are all Romulans. They also told me today “You really aren’t that important now”. Then they began talking about how its important to be loyal to employees and how Bill Clinton shouldn’t have let Mark Penn go because he never did anything disloyal- - “. I can’t disagree more with this assertion. Mark Penn was damaging the campaign and the public image badly with his activities.

Four Things To Remember About the Theory of Relativity

Here are four things to keep in mind to help “keep things in perspective” when you hear Einstein discussed. I was going to mention them to Dianne and Wendy yesterday but it never quite came up in the conversation. If you’re out there, you know who you are. “Hi, how’s it going?” The first great truth is “The nature mass is governed by the nature of the Time it occupies. If you increase or decrease the speed at which we are traveling through the fourth dimension, mass has to increase or decrease to keep “all other things equal” as they say. This has nothing to do with the Theory itself but is deducable by ordinary Newtonian physics. I bring you back to Clark Kent doing those fast dashes in the Smallville episodes. The next Truth to keep in mind is that infinity is a real number used in science and it’s quite possible to go beyond infinity and when you do you “Go Negative”. I offer you two examples: One is in optics when it comes to real and apparent images. The other is “tangent waves” used in graphing circular trigometric functions. You get those “S” saves that spike low and then flatten and then spike high and then reform low again. (Excel will graph this) The third great truth is that the nature of space surrounding an object is determined by the nature of the atomic particle matter that makes it up. What this means, simply, is that you can only have negative matter in negative space. People talk about the “Positron” and how it is created. However the positron seems little more than an abstract creation if you read the material, and hasn’t been used to synthesize “anti-matter”. If anti-matter existed in this Universe it would have profound implications for space travel. The fourth truth is that it’s best to think of Accelerat-ING matter rather than Accelerat-ED matter. What this means is that all that weird stuff that happens to space and time only happens when matter is Changing in its Inertia. This occurs in a cyclotron when particles are put under enormous gravity field stress. (going around in a big circle) It’s this gravity field that alters space and time, rather than a static inertial speed close to that of light. Is everybody clear?

What's Coming Down

By now you know about the John Yoo memo about allowing CIA torture and the NSC meeting where methods of torture were discussed in great detail including how many times you could use which procedure. Apparently any form of torture was OK if it didn't lead to organ failure. In attendance were all the usual suspects, George Bush, Vice President Dick Chaney, George Tennant head of the CIA appointed by Clinton, Congelisa Rice, and John Ashcroft, Attorney General. Rice told the CIA to "go for it". Ashcroft was the one voice of conscience who said that history would not judge our actions well. I would have blogged on this sooner except I've had a host of situations to wrestle with in my personal life. It would seem Air America radio wants "War Crimes" charges brought against all these principals. I don't know. The whole network might be declared illegal by the government. You never know how powerful "The Powers that Be" really are. This John Yoo memo hasn't been talked about that much by the leading candidates for President. ABC news has a pretty good video on this subject if you're looking for a more in depth factual review to look at. Apparently the torture used was useful in nabbing at least one terrorist suspect. I think an adverse astrological alignment occurred April 9th. or 10th. and I plan to investigate that further. All of the news is bad these days. One can only ask themself now "What's Next?" It would seem to me if we were going to try and prosecute any of the principals of the torture, we would first have to impeach the President and remove him from office to insure that he didn't deliver a massive sweep of eleventh hour pardons just before he leaves office. Bush by his speech on Iraq yesterday morning still believes the Iraq War is going well. This republican pipe dream of being in a perpetual state of war with its attendant emergency measures- - is something the electorate will have to wrestle with in November. But right now I just don't think the average American citizen is upset enough about any of this to do anything about it. Usually things don't remain static. They either get better or they get worse. It would seem by all measurements "worse" is what we can expect.

People are upset because you can buy military equipment on Ebay and Craig's List. You can get this night vision stuff that identifies Americans and you can buy parts for F 14 hilicopters. Of course you can also buy any type of assault weapon you want incliding fifty calabre guns that have an amazing range. Personally I'm more afraid of what the government will do rather than the risk of some nut getting a hold of military weapons he shouldn't have.

The news now is so screwy. I know I’ve fallen behind the learning curve in not keeping up with it in my blogs. You know what Ship High In Transfer stands for you, don’t you? A lot of “Ship High In Transit” is coming down these days. Apparently they used to ship "cow pies" in the hulls of ships for fuel in hard times. However sea water would get into the hulls and cause the turds to emit methane gas and so when people would come down into the hulls with gas lanterns the whole place would explode. So they had to ship the cow pies higher up so that they could remain dry. The news gets worse every day. Microsoft still wants to gobble up Yahoo taking one more step twords a monopoly. We have the whole airlines flights mess and all this unscheduled maintenance. Hopefully I’ll be moving out of this place where I live. But to do that you need friends and I don’t have any, at least any that I dare lean on. I have found myself overwhelmed by various events in the past couple of days. I have gotten so much contradictory information from various people about the Bush tax refund coming next month and know that with every day I delay it will be that much delay in getting the money. They now have said the lowest gasoline prices are $3.49 and $3.54 a gallon. They didn’t say what the highest figures were but I imagine you pay four dollars some places. We have this pandemic energy crisis because China and India and all these places are requiring more energy production. These people are also demanding more meat in their diet and beef cattle eat wheat, which is wheat that could otherwise be used to feed human beings. Also wheat production is being abandoned in favor of the non food production of corn for ethanol production, not only here but around the world. Around the world food prices are doubling, no matter which country you survey. It’s not all a stretch to believe that they could have food riots and food wars before too long. Then you have China making that oil deal in south Sudan. And we are going along with that deal because we don’t care about individual rights but merely in keeping China happy. Who cares if the local people are screwed. Then there is the whole Texas cult thing in El Dorado where now mothers are complaining that the government has separated them from their children. At least this government raid was done without violence. You know if I were a Christian I might be praying at this point “Beam me up, Scottie”. But reality forbids us from having such fond fantasies.

Too Many Anally Fixated Minds

This is going to be one of those vent your spleen type postings. I'd like to go on an Andy Rooney rant against tightwads. You know, my dad lived like a miser and he died like a pauper. Some would see poetic justice in this but I'm not a big fan of shottenfreuden. My Dad was screwed over multiple times by hospitals, plural, doctors and nurses in the months leading up to his death. My sister in law sent me a copy of a moving letter she sent to the hospital where my Dad died. My dad died as though he were a piece of welfare scum who didn't deserve a second thought. It was a case of massive incompetence and not by just one isolated individual but on a massive, pandemic scale. He died of sepsis of the colon, which had nothing to do with why he was admitted. But as tight as my Dad was, my Mom is tighter. I got far less money for Christmas this past year, like forty dollars, from my Mom than I would have received if my Dad were still alive. Of course people in this place where I live drop and die like flies. There just hasn't been any recently. But certain events get in my craw. If there is an extra glass of punch on the table and the other person never shows up to their place, they get mad at you if you drink their punch. Lately Thu Thai has been giving her food to Manfred. Today an aid told Manfred he couldn't get in the seconds line because he already had Thu Thai's food. I guess you could call it the generosity dividend in reverse. These people probably fish the gold out of your teeth before turning the body over to the family. I have lost forty-five pounds, I tell you no lie, in the past two years largely because the food portions are so meager now. My parents played the tightwad theme to the hilt growing up. Of course Calvary Chapel has its own version of tightwad-ism. They sometimes describe God's blessings as a roaring waterfall or an oil gusher. And yet with their gushers not a drop hits the ground. It's as though someone spread the roomer that earthworms liked to eat oil and that they were becomming overweight and now on the media everywhere the media was flooded with stories of the "crisis of earthworm overweightness, and how this will ruin the ecology. So every time an oil well gushes new oil they move with cartoon speed to spread tarp over the ground before a drop of oil touches the ground. Of course the left wing is good as obsessing over things that were never important before. For instance there is talk of Big Tobacco and "Big Fat". Rush Limbaugh in late August of 1997 did a parody of "Big Fat" and how it will become the next big crisis the media obsesses over. Who would have suspected as with so many Rush Limbaugh parodies, that yesterday's jest becomes today's reality. Second hand smoke is one of these obsessional items. My family would obsess on my smoking if I'd let them and I have to be careful how the conversation is steered this Saturday when we meet together. I don't like this idea of "Big Science" either. I don't like the idea of obsessing over topics that didn't matter before just now. Mc Cain is obsessing over what will happen to Iraq. Clearly there are enough factions in Iraq that the morass is unsolvable, with or without U S troop aid.

On the other end of the "nut" scale - - are people like my Dad. Why is it all the people who are anti war are ones that served in the military whereas people like me, who often see good in war- - never served. My Dad got released on a disability and we can argue about that and whether General Patton would look at my Dad and say "You're not dead yet, back to the front!" People talk about "crises" that "wake people up". One of the biggest lies in the "Oh God" movie is the line "I work best under pressure". With all due respect God falls completely apart under pressure. I can think of a few "Pearl Harbors" in my life. One was my suicide attempt. Another was the events in and around October 8th. 1987. These were both"Pearl Harbors" in my life. If my Dad were President during December 7th. 1941 he'd be every bit the asshole George Bush and Mc Cain are but from the opposit direction. My Dad would see the billowing black smoke and destroyed ships and go "Oh well I can see how some might be troubled by this but we must Stay the Course of Peace. We won't"let" this "minor event bother us". If the enemy sees this event "bothers us" he has won. Therefore we will not go to war and therefore we'll send a message that will be remembered in history. There is a theme in the Bible that God is our protector. If my Dad were to have made such a speech as president I'd be among those clammoring for impeachment. If there is one thing you get from the Jesus Christ show it's "Don't count on God showing up when you need him. Because God has to "ballance" your own concerns against his own Divine Sovreignty. And besides remember that even when the worst happens "There is a reason for it all". This is another of my Dad's favorite sayings, and he has a belief in God that "It all makes sense". And the Calvary people say "Yeah and if it appears not to make sense then it's because you don't know everything God knows". There are times when you have to say, "Screw God. I choose to follow my own conscience" (Selah) If our nation truely ever were "attacked by a foreign power" of course I'd want our nation to rally around and defend itself. But we abuse this sacred trust with frivelous campaigns like the Iraq War. As Thom Hartman says "We won the war. This is an occupation". And we know that in occupations in other lands- - the eventual goal usually is to get out at some point.

I'd like to talk a little about this beating in the Orange County Jail. A 41 year old man was beaten by multiple inmates and presumably died. Yet the guards won't be prosecuted though they are clearly culpible. One Spanish teacher I had said "If you put your test paper where others can easily copy off it it- - I consider you just as culpible". The man was roomered to be a child molester when in actuality he just had child pornography. Obviously children were molested in the making of that pornography but that's for another day. But the guards as much as expected the guy would be beaten up. They slept often on the job and let the inmates run the assylum. They were just feet away and were doing things like playing video games and texting people, or else sleeping. I guess they sleep well knowing an innocent person is being beaten up. I guess being in prison is like the military. It's just luck whether you come out alive.

Johnny Wendell has made much of Hillary's firing of campaign manager Mark Felt. This is a guy who had connections to the Mc Cain campaign. He also had connections to Blackwater. But he was fired for helping to broker a Columbia NAFTA style deal that George Bush wanted, so Bush loves the guy. All the while Hillary was campaigning against NAFTA. Of course when you combine this with the whole donations issue with the Presidential library and possible influence peddeling, and also Hillary's "sniper fire" incident in Bosnia, it isn't looking real good for the Clinton campaign right now. But unlike Johnny Wendell, I don't see this firing incident as the smoking gun that's going to sink the Clinton campaign. I really don't think people care. There are still two whole weeks to go till Pennsylvania votes. Obama is now only down six points in one poll and is dead even in another. I don't know how the average working stiff would take to knowing how rich the Clintons are or how they are secretly working for NAFTA. Thom Hartman coined a very apt expression today. he said that "Free Trade" was just a buzz word for exporting slavery, exporting pollution, and perhaps exporting poverty. We don't have to worry about polution because we've exported it to others and we can point the finger of shame at them now. We abolished slavery in this country but tollerate it in many other nations. Child labor doesn't bother us if it's half way around the globe. Apparently John Negroponte was one guy whenever she showed up labor unions would be abolished and the goon squads would come out. Of course we know that labor rights were better under Saddam Hussein than they are now in Iraq. I guess the question is whether Hillary really has a heart for the common working man and woman or whether it's just words. I will say this: Electing a Black man would certainly "Send a message" that we have as a nation come a ways in the past forty years since Martin Luther King died. What these super-deligates have to ponder is just which of the two democratic candidates best suits the J F K mold of "New Frontiers" and looking tword the future with hope and resolve, and which one will be the "same ol' same ol' we've had for decades.

The whole thing with the Olympic torch is still an issue. Now a guy with a John Lennon T shirt is beaten up because some Chinese official thought it was the Dali Lama. I can't help but be heartened to know there are a lot of people in England and France and in San Francisco who still value liberty and are willing to "make a statement". If I didn't say so I'm also rather annoyed at this whole Urban blight thing they have in Peking where they clear out the dwellings of poor people who have lived there for decades. But then I didn't like sweeping the streets of homeless in New York for the Convention either. I think we need to acknoledge the America we have. We don't need signs around like 'No Jews or Dogs" like they had in Nazi Germany.

Some More Things to Think About

You know I may have to rethink my position on this whole China investment in the U S industries bit. The thing is if someone invests in you it increases your “value” whether you do another thing or not. I’ve always wondered that since God owned me he didn’t “Invest” in me because it would be in his own interest to value his own property higher than it would otherwise be. As I see it China investing in our financial institutions increases their stability from what they would otherwise be. Sure it can be bad, but it doesn’t have to be unless they get a working 51 percent and can take over Stork board room votes. As he says “Anytime it’s roomered some rich person is going to buy your stuff it automatically goes up in value, and every time it’s roomered a rich guy is going to divest himself of your stuff, the value of it will go down. I guess we should all get down on our knees and thank God that as worthless as we are, someone is willing to put their hard earned money to invest in us. The middle story was about this one man in the Bush administration who was the architect of the Iraq War strategy. Everyone else in the Bush Adminestration, except for Donald Rumsfeld, hates him. But even this man says we should have not disbanded the Iraqi army because we lost valuable time in trying to bring stability to the post war scene. Finally there was that segment on going to Mars, which won’t occur till the year 2030 when I am an eighty year old man. We won’t make it to the moon till 2020. Yet preporations are already being made. Rockets are being fired and equipment is being tested. They are saying the journey to Mars will be two & a half years because we have to lay over eighteen months on the red planet till Mars is again in a favorable position for a return trip. (And they say Astrology is a bogus science!) It is absurd to talk of deficits right now when we’re planning for an event of 2030. Who knows what the economy will be like then? In the Kennedy Adminestration we spent a good four percent of the entire budget for space exploration. But in the Nixon adminestration we junked all of our Saturn rockets and otherwise dismantled the entire infrastructure of Apollo. That to me is “appalling”. Andy Rooney has commented on how cars nowadays are harder and harder to get in and out of. And I thought it was just me.

“The Simpson’s had one of the strangest ill fitting shows on last night and the other time it aired I was preoccupied to doing something on computer but last night I was able to give the episode my undivided attention. The fact is there has always been that five year “gap in time” where Marge could have gone to college. But the gap normally would be from 1975 to 1980. The allusions to Nirvana were such that I hope they got permission to use Kurt Cobain’s name and music style in the episode. But of course the least believable thing about the episode is where Marge is in love with this college professor but merely because he disparages the idea of marriage she blows him off and runs back to Homer after a presumed gap of many years. That doesn’t make sense. Of course the “underlying theme” is that there is Unconditional Love for certain individuals and somehow Marge welcomes a life of sure misery throwing her potential life away for an utterly self centered buffoon. It’s one of the “things” of the whole nineteen year series that just doesn’t “fit” with the rest of the reality of the characters.

There are these adds out for “Prince Caspian”, which is one of the seven Chronicles of Narnia. The first book is what I tag “The Lying King”. The image of the cowardly lion is one used frequently by the Federation in their propaganda. There is also the lying lion. There is I story I typed back in April 1996 in the file “Songs and Stories” about a story I’d heard as a kid about this African tribe that was undergoing famine. But one day a wise man said this one bare tree in their midst was actually a magic tree that would bear all manner of fruit if only the magic word could be uttered. But to obtain the magic word various animals were sent to a far land to see a wise man who gave out the magic word. First they sent the rabbit, then a deer or something, and then a hippo or something and last of all they sent the Lion to obtain the magic word. Every one of the other animals had failed in their quest. The Lion went out streaming along at a fast gallop but then fell asleep after he’d obtained the Magic Word. Now he had forgotten it. But the lion was too proud to admit he’d forgotten the magic word and so made one up and said it many times to the tree. Nothing happened. The others in the tribe said “You are no better than the others who failed”. Last of all then sent the tortoise and he was successful and said “Ohh-won-ga-lem-a” and immediately the fruit began to fall. There is a saying we need to learn well from Bill Clinton who once said “If you see a tortoise on a fence post you can rest assured he didn’t get there by himself”. I think Jesus of KFI should meditate a good long time on this saying every time he thinks of me, till at last he figured out what it means. In some says my brain is absolutely amoeba like. When it comes to people saying “Christianity is a bunch of bullshit” I and my brain took a lot longer to arrive at that conclusion than other more acute people who pick up on that Truth virtually instantly. I didn’t arrive at today “of my own accord”. (Selah)

Leo Le Port is from Tsmania both today and yesterday recording at four in the morning and he’s coming in via ISDN lines, which are digital phone dial up lines where the signal comes in at 128 K. Before eleven I had The Beatles verses the Rolling Stones and they were playing songs from 1967. Any time you hear an RS song from 1967 you better check to make sure the D J doesn’t have a gun to his head.

I watched Meet the Press. They were talking about Hillary and all the millions she’s earned since leaving office. The Clintons have raked in twelve million a year or something every year they’ve been out of office. Perhaps it’s more. They’re raising money for the Clinton library people wonder whether that isn’t political bribery somehow. At nine was Chris Matthews but by then I had fallen asleep and woke at 9:15 and at 9:30 I went out to the patio to smoke. James had his chess set out and wanted to play but I told him I felt tired. They had a new topic on the Beatles show. They talked about Paul and Heather’s marriage and the break-up and physical abuse from Paul and failure to provide for her handicap needs. Apparently she nagged him to death about smoking marijuana and “failure to control the press”. I watched “This Week” on 7.2 at ten and in general this political scene is the same old song and dance. They talked about the Iraq War. That’s kind of a yawner. So is Mc Cain going to get General Petrayas to run on the ticket with him? Wake me when the race has been decided.

I had Joel Olsteen on this morning and he was talking about faith dreams. I decided to have the Jesus Christ show on a bit. It’s such a trip to hear all their holy roller music and hear all this crap about “Laugh with him, cry with him, pray with him, on the radio”. Today Jesus wanted us to know God never condoned polygamy. Unfortunately Jesus is in error. The Mosaic law specifically makes provisions for polygamy and the rights of the first right verses the second. In terms of that scripture about multiplying horses and wives- - unless you’re willing to say a man who owns two horses is guilty of polygamy you can’t use this verse. This verse is in the spirit of “Multiplying the salary of the C E O’s during the Reagan administration”. But more to the point, Adam and Eve never had a marriage ceremony and scripture only says they had sex after Eve ate the apple. And the first son Eve gave birth to was a murderer. [added: Nowhere in the text does it say that Adam and Eve loved each other. Jesus said certain Bible passages were “descriptive” and others were “prescriptive”. Did you know that Rebecca was the love of Jacob’s life and yet scripture says “When God saw that Leah was unloved, he opened her womb- - and she bore six children] Jesus quotes Titus or somebody about how you can’t be an Elder unless you are the husband of one wife. That lets me out since I do not have a wife. And why would Paul, who is unmarried himself, be writing saying you had to be married to be in a position of church authority? Jesus talked about “concepts” that are taught such as the Trinity, even though the word is never used. [added: On the contrary the “concepts” of Philo of Alexandria are paramount in the Bible, which conform to the hated theology of Arius of the 4^th. Century. Arius was not a “Trinitarian”] Jesus says there is a concept against “self destruction” in the Bible. You’ve heard of suicide by cop. How about suicide by Roman legions? Does thyat one count? (Selah) Well, another “concept” is that serving God brings happiness rather than misery. Jesus doesn’t want to talk about that, I bet. There is a “concept” that you are to stone false messiahs who claim to be God and yet do not fulfill the prophecies of the messiah, like being the deliverer of Israel. In fact in Ezekiel 28 it specifically states that a man who claims to be God will suffer death as the result of wounds administered by uncircumcised foreigners, and that people at his death will ask if he will still say, “I am a God.”

Johnny Wendell reached a new of stupidity of topic. Now he’s going after the American lawn. Tomorrow it will be motherhood and Apple Pie. Every one of his arguments were completely stupid. He says “land is being wasted”, but you can’t just scoop up land from out of the blue by some cosmic hand and put it somewhere else where it can go into something we really need- - like another ten lane Freeway. There is something to be said for green areas and spacing out the population. Lawns cool the ground. They are pleasing to look at and require far less maintenance than growing crops, which is a lot harder than it looks because we’ve tried it. Having a “farm” on your land lowers real estate values so you’ll have the neighbors, and possibly zoning on your case. Also grass is good for playing games on like croquet. Johnny Wendell says all golf courses ought to be blown up. In Japan a golf course is a marvelous thing for where else are you going to see that much unused land? Lawns are good for lovers to sit and dream on and for kids to play football on. We played football on our front lawn as kids and all the neighbors would show up. Wendell kept talking about Monticello and the British estates of the mother land. Dad used to hate trees. He was just as whacked out.