Last weekend two events apparently happened. The “Fatah” party took over the government in the West Bank and the US wants to cut a deal with them and give them support so Hammas doesn’t take over again. Some news blogs, ect. say that it’s the United State’s fault that Hammas won the Palistinian election last year, that Larry Elder was so proud of when it occurred because “any democracy is good”. Now Hammas is out in the cold there but in Gaza they have taken over militarily. I’m a little confused. Hugh Hewitt and his callers all seem to say there isn’t a dime’s worth of difference between Fatah and Hammas anyway. Some of his callers don’t differenciate between any theater of conflict in the mideast from Pakistan to Iraq to the West Bank to Gaza. It’s somehow all our “responsibility” to straighten out. One of his callers pointed out that India is a large democracy in the area of an industrialized country, but Pakistan is still as hostile as they come with terrorists and nukes and everything. As Thom Hartman points out, “Why shouldn’t Iran want Nukes because Pakistan has Nukes and they get respect and Saddam didn’t have Nukes and we overthrew him.” Good point. But of course Hugh Hewitt had to rush to the defence of Pakistan saying what a great democracy it was and now they and Turkey are different from other Mideast countries. Hugh saw the Bush doctrine threatened and ran to it’s defence. George Bush believes any democracy is good and that it’s contagious and if people see Iraq with democracy, all the other mideast countries will want it, too. Larry Elder says the same thing. Neadless to say all these conservatives have their heads in the sand. A new report has stated that there is no less violence even in Iraq; it’s just spread to areas where it wasn’t a problem before. What they should really do is make public all of the secret alliances and “deals” we have with various countries around the world, and see if the American People approve of them.

I really don’t think Hillary would be any better. As I’ve said, Michael Benner says what they do with a new President is take him to a secret room and tell him who is really running the country and what foreign policies to follow. The reason why O Bama is sinking in the polls is that people perceive him as weak on “security” issues. Even if there is an overwhelming “Peace mandate” on Election Day 2008 that won’t stop someone like Hillary from doing whatever she believes will best sustain her power.

Last night I had a dream where you couldn't buy or sell without having these government cards like IBM cards and I knew the formatting code on them (it was somewhat reminicent of Fortran print codes) and I would punch them in for my family so they could shop or get an apartment or something. I remember seeing Michal Benner's face on TV and hearing some documentary about him and his background. I have no idea what he actually looks like.

This is the next day. As was pointed out the minimum wage is still $5.25 or something but if the minimum wage had the purchasing power that it had in 1968 the minimum wage would be $9.50. That rate at $1.65 would imply there has been about a five for one inflation rate. Try and buy a house for five times $35,000. That would take the price to $175,000 or something. You couldn’t buy decent fire wood for that. Try buying some gasoline for $1.50 a gallon. People like Larry Elder say the minimum wage is horrible because it depresses the economy or something by reducing profits. But in reality every bit of that money goes back into the economy. Thom Hartman has said these big chain stores, which they don’t even allow in India take money out of the local economy because the profits are all shipped off to some foreign account or some off shore oil rig investment or something. That’s an interesting thought. Of course there are certain people whom God could “bless” and get more of a “return” than blessing other people. Some people are like corporations. They absorb all the blessing and it all goes into inflating their ego and gives them bragging rights to lord it over others. Other people will take every bit of the blessing they get, and then some, and pass it on to other people. But of course as some Pastor reminds me, “God is not a utilitarian”. That is God doesn’t do what does the most good for the most people. I myself tend to be a utilitarian. In India they decided they didn’t want to allow these big chain stores in their country such as Wall Mart and Cosco. 97% of the businesses in India are Mom and Pop stores. And India has a thriving economy. In this country most of the stores you used to see in store Malls were independently owned small business outlets. It isn’t that way any more. Larry Elder loves to conjure up visions of the “family farm” when the topic of the estate tax comes up for discussion. But since when has there been a “family farm” in this country? I think most liberals agree that it’s time for a little “tough love” with corporations, who don’t deserve person hood. But the people who actually are people deserve compassion. Thom Hartman has done a good job of illustrating the fact that most of our Robber Barron friendly laws date only back to the 1880’s or so.

It is said we shouldn’t bomb Iran even if they have the Bomb. The theory goes that Iran has no interest in seeing turbulence in the world but instead wants Iraq to be a peaceful country and not have that nation overrun by Al Qaida. Iran does not want another Afghanistan at its door. I believe we’ll end up having to bomb Iran sooner or later so it might as well be sooner. Just as we were destined to fight the Japanese and the Nazis sooner or later so it might as well have been sooner. You know there is an old saying, “a stitch in time saves nine”. It’s like disciplining a kid. A swat at age four might save you having to send your kid off to a reform school at age fourteen. Think about it. The time to stick it to Iran is before they become a major player on the world scene.

Of course the US hasn’t been too fond of democracies in other countries. We overthrew a democracy in Chile and according to TH we overthrew a democracy in Iran in 1953 under Eisenhaur. Also Viet Nam was supposed to have an election in the mid 1950’s but we intervened to stop it because Ho Chi Min would have won.

You know the more I think about it the more I think that “post traumatic stress” drug they had on Sixty Minutes is dangerous. I call it “The Jesus drug” because when you’re on it you lose all consciousness of important turning points your life; it’s all “washed away by the blood”. Picture the following cartoon. There is a rat swimming around in a tank and in one small place in the tank there is a platform. Label the platform Scientology. When the rat lands on the Scientology platform he turns into a human being. Then the human being is taken to a laboratory and injected with that drug they talked about that makes you forget things. Then the human being turns back into a rat and again begins swimming around aimlessly. Christians would love it if there were a drug out where people never learn anything. By the sermons they preach on Sundays they act as though the general population is already taking this drug. Most preachers assume you literally “fell off the turn-up truck yesterday” and see your mind as a blank slate they can program. “Experience” is a four-letter word to preachers. Experience and learned behavior is the natural enemy of the Evangelist. If you talk with one they will move heaven and earth to change topics the minute they’re cornered on one topic and something will actually get “resolved”. To turn their own scripture “They spend their lives learning and learning and never come to a knowledge of the Truth”. One might only add that they learn and then the forgetfulness drug is injected and they forget again. If the American People were on this drug on December 8^th. 1941 not even Pearl Harbor could shock them into entering World War II. I’ll end with this saying: “Some people say that to mend your ways of a bad habbit you have to first hit bottom. But if someone removes the platform you’ll continuously keep falling into a Black Hole.

I’m wondering whether tonight is “Get grandpa” night on “Days”. Maybe they’ll all invite themselves over and demand that Sean tell them the truth about the Di Mira feud. Don’t you hate the line “If that information is uncovered it could destroy us all”. How can not knowing something protect you from whatever it is you’re dreading???

This is June 18, 2007 Paul Mc Cartney’s birthday. He is 65. They have been talking about the “baby boom” retiring now for some ten years, but as of today that event is still off in the future. I guess you’ve heard Hillary Clinton is leading O Bama by double digits, some thirteen points 39% to 26% or something. We did our “President Hillary” blog thirteen months ago. We’re just leading the curve. In the news we have some interesting events. An eleven year old boy was killed by a black bear in Utah. He and his sleeping bag were carried off and the next day they found his dead body. They blamed the hot, dry weather. Some drag racer in Tennessee was racing for a charity event and spun off the road killing a bunch of mostly teenagers. And in Fort Worth they have had major flooding and a lot of people were washed out of their homes and a four year old girl was killed. And did you know it’s ethylene glycol that gives your toothpaste that sweet, tingeling sensation? Apparently some was found with that product in it. Now you know it’s the bright green color that gives your toothpaste its “mnty freshness”.

This morning I bought a cigarette from Richard Moor for 23 pennies. When it came time to pay Glen I had to pay him fifty cents for the early morning coffee and also two cigarettes for the mid day coffee. Marcus wanted to play chess again, and I guess we should be doing that right now. I had Drive radio on this morning and they were doing 1970. Neither Thom Hartman nor Randy Rhodes had noteworthy programs.

Both soap operas were on today. I’m still waiting for them to discover that the baby they “rescue” has a penis when they go to change its diapers. “Gee honey, I guess that lady was right. This isn’t Claire after all”. A bomb went off in the Di Mira tunnel. So what else is new. Of course that doctor was killed by the blackmailer because it took Sheridan and Fancy the whole hour to get to his office. Spike deserves the psycho of the year award because he now had plans to burry Jessica alive after drugging her. Gee, I really don’t think that would play very well in front of a jury if you’re the defence.

Blockbuster video is announcing that soon they’ll be exclusively backing the Blue Ray disks and not even market the HDDVD disks when it begins selling them, which I am surprised it hasn’t done already. They say on Eye Witness that this move could help “resolve” whether Blue Ray or HDDVD is the one to go with. Blue Ray already had sixty percent of the sales. We’ll just have to see. Competetion is good, if it's fair. Superiority is good, if it's fair. Games are good in that they develop moral character and a sense of fair play. Football and basketball players are less sportsmen than they are freaks. They are tall or overweight or both freaks and their inherent physical perportions make any sense of true gainsmanship absurd. The fairest thing they could do in basketball is raise the hoop to fourteen feet, for starters. I also think a heght restriction of say, six ft. three inches, would not be at all out of place and a maximum weight for football players of 250 pounds. If they made all pro football touch football, we would see who's really good and who just had gerth. For my next government edict I'd like to ban all corn syrup sweetner from fruit juice and punch. Next I'd make all Congressmen agree to a 35% turnover in the house every two years. If more incumbants than that won, I'd do a lottery system of drawing straws or something and those who lost would arbitrarily lose their jobs and the elections in those districts would be held again with all non incumbant candidates.