FIVE EASY PIECES

We are "growing" as a people. One way in which we see this is that the "Religion" factor in Iraq's latest election a few days ago is a lot less prominent than the election of 2005. Most of the political factions then were religious in nature, but now other matters are more important. Many religious people in this country may have cause to "Fear" Obama because he has become such a Rock Star. He has an almost inappropriately "transparent" adminestration granting all these media interviews where the President speaks candidly about the issues and what he hopes to accomplish. There was one guy on the Rush Limbaugh program this morning who tried to scare us saying that "Rendition" of terrorist suspects will be increased by Obama and that "They will long for the day when they were back at Guantanamo Bay". I'm not buying a bit of it. These conservatives are nothing more nowdays than a bunch of hysterical squaking chickens- - and they are all headed for the political chopping block of Public Oppinion, and they know it. Meanwhile George Bush is a man according to the Thom Hartman show, that if profiled psychologically would fit the mode of the mass murderer. You hear things about young George Bush you don't read in Wickipedia. There is the whole matter of the death is his sister when George was seven and how young George had to "stuff his feelings" because his parents went golfing rather than attend the funeral. Both mother and father are described as "emotionally distant". They would have you believe otherwise now. But I'm not really buying that "reconsiliation" any more than I am buying the Patty Davis reconsiliation with Nancy. Lets face it. There are some issues that "just don't disappear like that". George W apparently like to joke and mock about that one Born Again woman he put to death, mocking her pleas for mercy. I still think we need to see a Real movie about George W that doesn't pull any punches.

Alright this is the afternoon just before three with Randy Rhodes’ waning moments on the air. Today there are certain Realities of which I was not aware when I got up this morning. You learn something every day. Michael Steel the new republican chairman has been called a “Token Black” by Thom Hartman. His logic is interesting in that he says Steel exploited his race to the hilt in a deceptive matter in a number of prior elections. His people put out brochures that claimed that he was a democrat and that this list they were handing out was a “Sample Democratic Ballot”. I guess this is the same guy who said “If you get in our way, we will knock you over”. Then there is the case of Tom Dashell. Hartman doesn’t believe he is the best choice for the department of Health and Human Services because he is not for the single payer health plan. But if he is in Obama’s administration he will pretty much have to toe the party line and do as Obama instructs him. But a better choice for the post would be a real doctor, a physician, namely Howard Dean. His politics are better all around, and he doesn’t have those nagging tax questions in his past. I think Dean should get the post because he’s a spirited man and I know that in whatever he sets his mind to do, he will give it his all.

Just to refresh your memory on Iraq before we forget about that nation entirely as we engage in a whole new round of killing in Afghanistan- - deaths from the Iraq War are one million Iraqis dead. There are 1.2 million widowed. There are 4.5 million people displaced, and I’m surprised that number isn’t higher. There are five million children orphaned. Joseph Stalin once said “One death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic. Maybe if you have loved ones lost in the war, if it doesn’t hurt too much, perhaps when you put flowers on their graves, you could also say a prayer for the other side.

Pope Benedict is in hot water for two things. There are all those attacks on the Obama administration with the family planning stuff we talked about earlier. But he’s also in hot water for a story I didn’t fully grasp till just today. Pope Benedict reinstated a Bishop who had publicly denied the Holocaust. He says “No more than 300,000 Jews were gassed- and that wasn’t part of any organized plan. (as if that made it OK) and had been excommunicated. I don’t believe this is the sort of message the Pope wants to send, especially since he is German. (You’ll excuse me for playing the race card here) The Catholic Church is in big trouble if it can’t keep more in step with the times. Sometimes I don’t think this Pope knows better. Even Rev. Ted Haggard got the liberal version of “religion” last week in saying that Church ought to show more human love and compassion for the lost souls who are afflicted with being gay. Some Pastors (and one specifically comes to mind) are too busy frothing and foaming at the mouth to show the slightest bit of the sort of Love that Jesus expected us to have for all our brethren.

In soap land today’s episode could be called “Maggie Finds Out”. Maggie told Clowie to button up her blouse because Maggie saw she and Daniel making passionate love and Maggie said she was going to tell Lucas about it. But she was manipulated into saying nothing to Lucas at the moment. Were I Maggie I wouldn’t have backed down. We know it wasn’t her first indiscretion but her second. I don’t know if it would help Clowie’s case for Maggie to tell Lucas, “Yeah she made love with Daniel but she couldn’t help it. She was too overcome with such a passion as she’d never known.” Meanwhile Nicole is doing a professional manipulation job on Sammy’s doctor herself getting him to go along with all her terms, no matter how taxing or unreasonable.

TURNING THE CLOCK BACK 45 YEARS

A lot of us have periods we look back on as positive in retrospect. For instance in my life I tag the spring and summer and early fall of 1978 as "The Era of Good Feeling". Of course this tag has been applied to our national politic at large during the era of President James Monroe, due to the placid political waters of that time. But within my own lifetime my favorite era to look back fondly on in retrospect is the period from 1963 to 1966. Because in the election of November 1962 as Thom Hartman points out, the political ballance in the US Senate was tipped heavily tword a democratic veto-proof senate. In such an era a lot of bills could get passed that wouldn't have otherwise. For instance the Nuclear test ban treaty of 1963 and the Civil Rights act of 1964 and yes even the income tax cut from 91% to 70% and also the Voting Rights act and Medicare, as well as other "war on poverty" stuff. Some of us hoped that in 2006 that at least in our State Government we would have returned to such an era where spending in infra-structure was again popular. Thom Hartman has pointed out that "Capital goods expenditures" are more helpful to either a corporation's well being as well as our nation's well being. As Barnie Frank pointed out today "No job was ever created or money generated by a tax cut" because if you don't have a job that earns you money, speaking of tax cuts is pointless. It's kind of like "pushing a string" as the analogy goes. You need to fuel the engine that's moving the string to begin with and public works bills are what we need now in Government. Yes they are things that "The Democrats have wanted all along" and maybe we are "taking advantage of the current economic situation" to "sneak these bills into law". But there is no "sneaking". In fact Obama and the Democrats would welcome open discussion of the issues and if the Republicans per chance have anything constructive to add to Obama's bills, we're all ears. So far the only thing we've heard from the Republicans is "It will never work" like Rush Limbaugh has been saying. We need to put the American economy first and "get this country moving again", as John Kennedy used to say. What is going on with Governor Swartzenegger and California State government is nothing short of criminal. Not are only programs like child care and health and student loans being slashed but I regarding the withholding of Tax Cuts for the people that they have coming from their 2008 taxes - I regard withholding these as downright criminal and a briech of trust. Weere it the private sector - there would be legal charges of "mal-feasence" and "misappropiations of funds". You can't pay your bills on I O U's. I don't know of any private corporation that will accept an I O U. The Governor's disapproval numbers are going through the roof. The people don't care if we're running a 42 Billion dollar deficet for this year. The state has obligations to the people and it's the State's problem where to come up with the money. But if they go cheating tax payers out of their refunds - - I don't see why conservatives aren't up in arms at this outrage.

YOU MIGHT AS WELL BE DEAD

You know, I find all this stuff about life after death so fascenating. It's the great "Existential Problem" because nobody can in any way measure or quantify the soul, and to say that the soul even exists is honistly an act of il-logic. The axiom is true: "I Think - - - Therefore I am experiancing an Illusion". In Ghost Whisperer they talk about these themes of dead people somehow not knowing they are dead, like nobody told them. Unlike some fifth dimensional transfer ("Sliders") where such an illusion would be understandable- - the idea that you died in your sleep and got up the next day and didn't know you'd died is a strange one. Then you have this young woman saying "You have to go into the Light". Hell, what if you've never SEEN the light? How do you know it's there so you can go into it? Yet this is the theology. Another theme they have adopted is this idea of spirit posession and soul transfer. Like your dead husband's soul is now residing in somebody else's body. I don't know how that would work for a pick up line, "You don't know it but I'm really your dead husband". But if you can't even prove the Existance of the Soul, how can you possibly prove the existance of an Afterlife? I don't know. And if your spirit did jump from one body to another the natural assumption would be to say "That can't be!, because I'd know it if I were suddenly living someone elses life because I'd have no memories of it". But here again is where it gets mucky. Because you'd have the other person's brain. Stripping away that which is unprovable you'd have the first brain thinking its thoughts and living it's life and the second brain doing the same. The only thing that changes would be what you'd call EGO control. It's who was given the "Illusion" that they ARE living the new life. And I imagine if it happened- - you'd never know. Life if I were to live in the fictional Jess Ryder's body in southern Maine- - - I wouldn't even be aware of it because I'd have my Brain and my Brain would be "telling me who I was". The only difference is- - I'd probably make different Decisions from that point on- - - . People say you need to make a "decision for Jesus" - maybe you've heard that one. But what they might REALLY want to do is to "change spirits controling your Will". It's not the Decision but the PERSON MAKING IT that matters to these "evangelical types". It's like they want you to become posessed and controled by an alien will, and often they admit as much.

Today KLOS played US Beatle singles. A couple such as "I Feel Fine" and "And I Love Her" are distinctively different from their British counterparts. John Lennon talks about "Dreams" a lot. People don't question dreams. Weird stuff happens in Dreams all the time and we make decisions we'd never make in real life. It's like a whole different set of realities apply. Most of the time you don't even know it's a dream. When the Bhuddist tells you to "awaken" what he is saying is that there is a whole reality that MATTERS a lot more than the one you're in. (Selah) The program for this evening isn't new- - you've seen this material through and through - - - "Hello, Jim". Did you have a good World when you died?