It's The Same Old Issues

We're still arguing over the same stuff we were when the Tea Party was founded four years ago.  There was one writer on KNBC who still maintains that more people are Leaving California for states like Texas and Oklahoma- - than migrating here- - because of the lower real estate values there- and there are lower taxes and more jobs.  I didn't know the "Rick Perry Texas Miracle" was still alive and well but apparently it is.  We hear that people on the Coasts, in the Blue States will suffer the most if we allow ourselves to "Go over the fiscle cliff" because these are the states, the urban ones, that have the highest personal incomes.  So all those Southern red and middle America states that voted for Romney will benefit the Least from his money friendly policies.  Grover Norquest now is singing a different song saying that the Pledge that Congressmen made to him- - was not Really to Him but rather to the people who voted for them.  However not a month ago Norquist was likening these personal no tax hike pledges to Him as "like a marriage' with no expiration date, but appearently is a carrier long comitment.  I am no longer as convinced the President will be successful in his drive to make rich people in the top two percent of income bracket pay four percent more.  Somebody said that if we were to cut the GNP by four percent we would go from enemic two percent growth, to a two percent decline.  On the Mc Laughlin group yesterday John Mc Laughlin kept talking about "a three percent Deficet in the economic growth rate" and I'm not sure but Mc Laughlin seems to have the idea that we have been in a steady state of Decline these past few years.  Treasury Secretary Timothy Geitner reminds us that business sees their Own outlook as the strongest at any time in the past ten years in terms of growth and expansion potential- - as long as the President can secure that tax break for us income earners who supply the commerce for most of the jobs growth.  Larry Elder has said "I never got a job from a poor person".  That's not true.  You see people around here getting others to go to the store for them because they're too lazy promising them so many cigarettes.  There are probably a lot of women abductors like the guy on Criminal Minds last night- - who fancies himself as a Pimp, as a "job provider' for these young women in his control in a lucritive role in prostitution.  Of course there was record consumer spending in the Black Friday shopping spree last Monday with a 27% rise seen in Cyber Monday over the previous year.  Clearly if we can get this economy going- what I've been saying all along will be true- nothing will let the air out of the Tea Party balloon faster than a robust economy because if we have a robust economy nobody will listen to these nay sayers on the Right.  But what I find strange is that a whole month has ticked off since the Election and I still have not heard what congress is actually Doing- - - as in RIGHT NOW.  We only hear what they plan on doing or hope to be doing.  Need I remind you there us just a little more than three weeks before Christmas, assuming they want to work that last minute.  If John Boehner hasn't softened his stance by now- - I see no indication anything that happens in the next three weeks can change his mind.

Personally I don't see what the fuss is about Palestine being declared a State by the United Nations.  The vote was 137 to eight or something.  And few nations were willing to stand besides the United States in its support of Israel.  This idea of Israel "retaliating' by resuming their illegal settlements on the West Bank makes no sense to me.  Diplomatically it's cutting off your nose to spite your face.  Of course people like Dr. Levy remind us that Israel could bomb Gaza back into the stone age and kill a half a million people and are showing "amazing restraint' in not doing so.  It's all a matter of perception, I guess.  Israel doesn't see that Palestinians might resent being permanently Occupied by an alien power who doesn't identify with their causes and values.  Jimmy Carter spoke of a foreigner Aparteit.  But now we hear that the United States will cut off economic aid to the Palestinians if they should seek legal redress for their grievence about west bank settlements.  Clearly the Palistinians are out gunned and out bombed, and only have moral issues as their defense to stand on, rather than having any pragmatic military upper hand, which they don't.  Pat Buchannon seems to believe as I do that vilifying the Palinsinians really isn't that shiek on the world stage since there are so many nations supporting the Palistinians in the United Nations and so few supporting us and Israel.  It was suggested by members of the Mc Laughlin group that the United States withhold its funding for the United Nations because the vote did not go our way.  There is a nation wide election in Israel on January 22nd. where I guess that nation will have a change to bring in more progressive leaderships, should the people desire that.  Of course what I really get sick of is these people who say that "Well of course the Palistinians hate Israel because they are the descendants of Ishmeal like the Bible says and sworn enemies of God's elect".  That remark contributes nothing to solving the problem.  The problem is solvable- - and obviously it's in the Palestinians to do everything they can to secure the best deal from Israel they can get and end this pointless decades long hostility.

Interestingly it's Liberals who seem to have a better grasp as to true Christian values and what is in the Bible and what is not in the Bible, as opposed to the conservatives.  Many people in the Christian Religion do not regard themselves as being "in a Religion" but will tell you "It's a relationship with God".  Of course- - they have a medical term for people who form relationships with Imaginary people.  The thing is that Liberals see Christianity as primarily a set of moral values taught by one man.  Those on the right view the Faith as a whole complex web of theology with its own ways of interperating Reality as well as interperating the Bible.  I think if Our Side could ever rescue Christianity from the tea party right it would be the best thing that could happen to Christianity.  Because the tea party set is in a well advanced mode of destroying everything that is good and decent about Christianity.  However I am not wholly adverse to conservative morays.  I too believe in "Don't Lie" "Don't make claims you can't back up" "Don't Make Promises you can't keep" "Actions have consequences"  "Don't blame others for your own faults"  "Take responsability for your own actions"  "Don't try and cash in on the coat tails of another" "Don't value what you DON"T know - - more highly than what you DO".  Don't worship your own imagination and call it God.  Don't claim others gave you permission to act a certain way so it's not really your fault at all.  Also there is no virtue is getting an innocent person to take the blame for your faults, and neither is it right to harm innocent people as long as you call it "Collatteral Damage" or "Seeing the Bigger Picture".  And also keep in mind "If you don't have something right NOW - - are you sure it was ever really yours to begin with - - or will ever be?"  (Selah)

November 29th is the eleventh anniversary of when George Harrison died of cancer.  Everybody around here was shocked by the news because nobody thought the cancer was that bad.  So KLOS had an all George Harrison broadcast today.  Cosmically George Harrison went to what is called "The yellow planet" but my Romulan friends of mine add another word.  They call it "The Yellow Cat Planet".  This is the second star or the middle star, in Orion's belt, for you Google Earth people.  In terms of Pink Floyd this is a contraction of two different names.  They used to be "The Pink Floyd Sound".  Actually- - Rick Mason and Richard Wright (?) were in the band before Waters and Barret joined the band and when Roger and Syd joined the band, two other members left and this was around the summer of 1965.  But the founder of this group, which went under a whole lot of previous band names, left a few months later, with his own Wickepedia entry.  Formerly this group was known as "Sigma Six" and "Megadeath" and also "The Tea Set".  Of course in those days they were playing hard core Blues songs like the Rolling Stones.  In Word yesterday I mentioned that "The Pretty Things" and "The Rolling Stones" have a common progenitor called "Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys" and Dick Taylor was the bass guitarist of both "Blue" and "The Rolling Stones".  Brian Jones was never in this "Blue" band.  I must say that Brian is a better guitarist than the one in "Pretty Boys".  I would like to remark about one Wickepedia statement.  They said Syd Barret played on "Paint Box" and my guess is that he did not.  However they omit the B side of the "Julia Dream" single that came out in early 1968 where another sourse says that Syd sand vocals on the flip side of "Julia Dream".  but the title escapes me.  Apparently Syd Barret was once arrested for performing Beatles songs on the street without the Beatles' permission.  Unfortunately though this proto Pink Floyd was around two whole years (at least) previous to Pink Floyd's first album, I don't know how much of the music they did then has survived, but I know a lot of people would like to hear it, and glean for ourselves just how Syd's music evolved.

We Dodged A Bullet Three Weeks Ago

I think that many on the left are guilty of rewriting history when they say that President Obama won the election by a landslide.  It's true he scored big in the electoral college, and we did well in the senate and more more people by number voted democratically for house seats than Republican seats, however were it not for our side "giving our all' it never would have come about and almost didn't.  A percent or two the wrong way would have spelled curtains for our side and we would have lost it all.  We continue to be in major trouble in a lot of state governments, who will continue to pass laws and make decisions most adverse to our interests.  We proved that millions of dollars being outspent in so many races, could be overcome by dedication and determination.  However if we had failed it would have proved that "money rules' and people like Karl Rove and Sheldon Adelson would have been vindicated in their belief that money can buy elections and that they needn't allow a fair race to be conducted ever again.  We might well have fell victim to voter purges of the rolls were our side just a little less vigelent.  It's like in World War II our side did win that- but if we had "ignored the problem" much longer, we may no longer have been able to have won that.  We came a lot closer to letting it all slip away this time- closer than any of us want to contemplate.  We would not have had the justice department on our side if that had happened (and we Still may not - - ) but Government dispensation of Justice would have been in Mitt Romney's hands, and I don't even want to imagine what that would have been like.  And there are still remnents of the tea party around.  I was talking to a guy today who started off conservative and then switched to Obama, and today appears to have slid back into the tea party mode.  I was mentioning the fact that if the supreme court refuses to hear California's appeal case on gay marriages when two lower courts have already ruled Proposition 8 uuncnstitutional, then if we could prompt the Highest Court NOT to hear the case at all, then gays would win by default and gay marriages in California would be all be legal on a permanent basis, as well as any subsequent new gay marriages.  That's all it took for this guy to go on an anti gay rant.  I then mentioned about the Palistinian State being made official by the United Nations yesterday- - that sent him off on another rant, and this time he dragged in Iran and said we should go over to Iran now and Nuke their facilities into oblivian.  When I said "I don't know how such a thing came to occur" I was referring to the lopsided vote in the United Nations yesterday.  But he thought I was referring to Iran getting the Bomb and he went on a rant about the Obama Administration not being security conscious at all but letting left wing ding bats call the tune in Washington.  I talked to another guy today who complained about taxes on cigarettes being so high.  I knew he was a little "off" when he said "I bet there are two or three dollars in taxes on cigarettes on every pack you buy".  Not on the cigarettes I buy- - and I know that for a fact.  He then went on to rant about the educational system and government officials in California misplacing vast sums of money, and just to top it all off he mentioned the mounting sixteen trillion national debt just as he was leaving.  When you hear someone bring up one thing and then go off on a major "rant' about "everything" you know they have been as it were cocked and primed to fire off those talking points at the drop of a hat.  And there are a lot of Americans walking around today in this condition is being "pre programmed" by FOX news ready to "further the agenda" at the slightest provacation.  Just think how in vast portions of the south and the western plains- - there is hardly an Obama supporter for as far as the eye can see.  This is a solid mess of red on the map.  I heard someone talking about Californian's traveling to Texas and the minute they lay eyes on that California license plate they are suspicious of you from that point on.  Our work is cut out for us even after the President gets Inogurated for a second term in January.  Perhaps we should all go to Stephanie Miller's sexy liberal tour in mid January in the beltway.

President Obama is holding all the winning cards in dealing with the Republicans in this "fiscal cliff" crisis, or what we enlightened folk call "the bunny slope crisis".  Doing NOTHING definitely IS an option and at this point I feel it is the BEST option we've got.  If we do nothing we will get a bunch of things our side definitely wants.  We will insure that the rich pay their fair share of taxes.  We don't have to grovel or negotiate with anybody.  We'll cut the deficet sharply, which is what everybody wants,  and we will also cut defense spending thus discouraging another war- - as well as sticking it really good to Romney's war profiteer backers.  That's an awful lot of upside and you won't see any better.  The downside is the risk, but by no means certainty, of a renewed downturn in the economy.  But that might not happen now.  The economy may well have acquired enough forward momentum and "critical mass" to overcome any slow-downs once the snow ball has begun rolling.  We would not even begin to see any sign of a slow down till well into January.  And should a slow-down develop at some point this winter- - we still have the option of revisiting the situation down the line, but we will be doing it with a strengthened hand.  Because by then it will be a clear situation of "should we or should we NOT cut taxes for middle income wage earners" and the choice either TO do that or NOT to do that will be clearly on the Republican House Members' shoulders.  Think about it.

PRETTY THINGS    Album released November 30, 2012  Prod by Pink

I Ain't Talking (Yardbirds)
Don't Lie To Me (Pretty Things)
Round and Round (Rolling Stones) (track #1 of 12 x 5)
With A Girl Like You (Troggs)
Let Me Love You (Jeff Beck with Rod Stewart)
Borris the Spider (The Who - Live at the BBC)  I heart edit (fast fade)
Flying (The Beatles)
Sweet Thing (Queen) (track #6 of "Opera")
Roselyn (Pretty Things)
Train Kept a Rollin' - All Night Long (Yardbirds) (studio version)
Unwashed & Somewhat Slightly Dazed (David Bowie)
Lube (Please Come Home)  The Who
Astronomy Donnie (Pink Floyd)  orig Studio version
(Don't Want to Be Your) Slave  (Rolling Stones)
Steppin' Out (Cream - instrumental jam)

Back photo of that "Strawberries" file photo exactly as it appears there.  The front photo is of a hotel and there is an elevator- - and hallway and just to the left of the elevator with the red down arrow being lit- - there is a "Night Man" with a note pad with names written on it, and he's dressed all in blue, with blue golf pants and a blue blazer, and the carpet is a gray-green.  The walls are white.  The doors are blue.  Down the hall visable to the left are a lot of rooms and on the left side (of the hall to the left) a man had just closed a door and is looking ahead with a wary "deer in the headlights' look as if expecting to see something he's afraid of.  The night man is approaching him just around the corner.  There are various candelabras in the halls.  There is an open space in front of the elevator where a man looking like Jesus Christ in the white robe and long hair- - is looking at a computer screen with a mouse in his right hand.  The screen is all pink except for the print in black caps that reads "Hello, P I T A", which translates in hotel service lingo for "Pain in the ass".  The title letters are a rounded style and are lavender with kind of a muddy magenta trim.

"Back To Normalcy" Is A Good Thing

The Blue Bus - Is Calling Us-!

I don’t think I’ve used this shade from the color square source before although I used to “mix” something very much like it in the past – kind of a rose color.  Yesterday at one was that World War I movie again in black and white about this general that had a paranoia about cowardly people in his ranks.  I saw a good chunk of it again.  Randy Rhodes made reference to it being a Thursday in the rerun she had about Condelisa Rice and her arrogance.  But it couldn’t have been last Thursday because that was Thanksgiving.  The past sixteen days have been a little more unsettled than I like, and I’d much prefer it if we’d get back to a more “normal” stance around here.  We had chili dogs for lunch and potato chips and I got a second half dog and also more of that good beef soup they had.  I grabbed the fullest coffee cup from the tray before she could make the decision, and lucky I didn’t get a “demerit” for it.  It should be noted that I was unable to watch Days of our Lives on Tuesday, and I still have not picked it up on the internet yet.  The soap opera is confused because some of the people know about Gabriel’s time at the abortion clinic and went on there whereas the other half of the time Gabriel not only hasn’t had the abortion yet, but seemingly the matter is still top secret and Samantha and Raphael know nothing about the pregnancy.  It’s like editing confusion where they are forking back and forth between possible plot lines. It must be stated that Secretary Rice under Bush knew about the memo that explicitedly stated in it’s title, “Al Qaeda Determined to launch Plot in US Later this Summer” and now claims that it’s a “historical background document”.  Clearly the Bush administration was judged under an entirely different set of standards than the Obama administration has it.  Senators John Mc Cain and Lindsey Graham say they are “more disturbed and troubled than ever” after meeting behind closed doors with Secretary Rice.  Perhaps they should both get into psychotherapy.  Otherwise there seems to be nothing fresh actually taking place or else they wouldn’t be doing reruns.  I haven’t checked C-Span today, and I’ll do that now.

This is a rainy Thursday November 29, 2012 at ten thirty and Larry Barton just talked my head off again telling me stuff I already have memorized backwards.  Dora served coffee in the hall way because even though it’s pretty much stopped raining, using the same logic they use about mopping the floors, “It’s wet outside”.  I was afraid it would be really cold but I physically was a lot colder all day Tuesday when I wasn’t feeling 100% anyhow.  I got two cups from Dora of coffee that was a hell of a lot better than at breakfast time.  We were treated to cold and weak coffee that wouldn’t even dissolve the creamer.  Moe Kelly was talking about Susan Rice, and this second Trayvon Martin type case in Florida.  As far as I can tell it’s about a guy who was playing loud music and this other guy asks him to turn down his car radio and then shoots eight or nine people, and it happened outside a convienience store.  But I may have the details wrong because I was half asleep at the time.  There is some Black guy after ten who says our problems are because we are “Never ourselves”, like “Jake” in two and a half men.  He’s substituting one script for another from a right wing church, and it’s feared we might now the real nineteen year old Angus.  Lindsey Lohan, otherwise known as the female Rodney King, got arrested again.  She must spend half her life under arrest.  They also talked about Jesse Jackson Jr. and how he’s resigned and all due to health issues.  On the Stephanie Miller show this morning they were talking about how John Mc Cain graduated fifth man from the bottom and they said he crashed five plains in training and also he disregarded warnings to bail out when told to when it came the time.  But there is still not one major story I can sink my teeth into to blog about that has happened since Monday.  Even back last Saturday I was “searching about” for something to post because even then there was a derth of new news stories, so I’ve had to pad my postings with other things such as old stuff, or else paragraphs pasted from on line.

My latest theory - - all you anti “other side” people can turn away now - - about who was “occupying my body” in 1967 it was Jim till November of 1967 and then for three months or just over perhaps from mid November to early March of 1968 it was John Lennon, in what would have to be the “Glass Onion” period. Let me just insert here that Pink was the guy doing John Lennon's job back in England.  Actually an interview with Johnny Cash was declassified and Cash told - - Bones, I guess, that Jim was “not a tea party person” and when asked about voting for Romney Cash just said “He’s not a person who would do that sort of thing”, and then mentioned that “being a trial lawyer he has a left wing occupation”.  I heard he was an adoption attorney, and not trial lawyer per se.  But when asked about going against his father in law, Cash just said “Well, I guess there may be some sort of a problem developing there”.  I must stress that I have zero confirmation of this from “this side of the void” so we’ll just have to see.  I am still of the belief that the whole “12 – 12 – 12” thing has substance to it and something good, positive, of a supernatural nature, will occur to “the elect”, meaning ME in this case.  Jim always had the saying of “Never give the Devil an even break”.  Technically that’s right, if he’s being kosher with us.  Rick Warren is right, too.  You don’t negotiate with the devil or be verbally manipulated by him.  You set your sights on one thing only, which is to undo and destroy the works of the Devil because after all he’s pure evil, and there is no redeeming value in “getting involved with it”.  However I was puzzled why Rick Warren was hung up on “Natural verses Unnatural”.  To me Christianity came to me as a completely “unnatural” course to take, going against every instinct in my body, for a whole host of reasons.  I get suspicious when people are talking about gays and the focus of the conversation is abruptly switched to looking at a pretty woman as she’s walking down the street.  If you know nothing about gays it’s that their lives are basically a “frustrated attempt to find themselves”.  How many gays do you know that didn’t at one time at least WANT to be heterosexual, and once saw themselves that way- - but something went wrong- - and rather than “fix’ what was wrong- - decided instead to warp out their whole values and morality system.  Oh yes, I guess Born Again Christians do the same thing!

Stephanie and Bill Press apparently, were talking about canceling some relation the station had with the Salvation Army, apparently because they discriminated in giving aid to gay people, which apparently they don’t do.  But you won’t find a political correctness test that Jesus said to give anybody when it comes to distribution of goods to the poor.  But the Salvation Army is kind of like the Church of Scientology.  I would never become a member or it or work there but I admire certain things they stand for.  As you know one time housemate Daryl spoke of many things the Salvation Army organization was a little weird about.  We got seconds on oatmeal at breakfast.  For my first piece of toast I had two butters and a jelly on it.  Now they are starting to put catsup on our eggs and Brenda complained about that.  Denise provided seconds on coffee for me seeing I had drunk my first cup so eagerly.  I also got seconds on toast and ate that piece dry.  All in all it was a nice filling warm breakfast.  I finally feel in biological equilibrium for the first time in a couple days.  I’m still taking the garlic and vitamin C, which is two garlic and one vitamin C.  I’m hoping it’s having some long range effect on my health.  But yesterday I was in some kind of metabolic slow-down all day.  I don’t know if it was my body saying it needed rest or what.  When it comes to acts of grace- - grace itself I regard as a good thing and it’s all how it’s used that counts.  One might call it a precious gift that must not be cheapened or contaminated.  I guess I’ll see what’s happening on the Ed Schultz show now.  We are on page six, and I may add to this page later on in the morning - - or not.  I mentioned that Glen seemed to be in a downer mood yesterday and today and naturally he denied it.  Last night he was so emphatic about no instant coffee for cigarettes, when he’s the one who in the past has made that offer a lot of time with me, beck before I had a means of really hot water, or creamer.

This Ed Schultz show station is kind of a rotating feast.  They promoted that they were from Palm Springs although the evidence was that they were from Minneapolis.  But then Monday it was a station in the Monterey Bay area here in California.  But a few minutes ago they announced themselves as from Columbus.  So go figure.  Last evening I listened to excerpts of the 2004 debate between President George W Bush and John Kerry.  What struck me about these exchanges is how civilized they were and rational discourse by today’s standards.  You didn’t have the “wall of lies” you see today, and people were polite not interrupting each other.  Also there were no groans or gestures or funny faces by the person who was waiting to talk.  “Eminence Front” by the Who is a song with a lot of Jesse Ryder “vibes” on it.  They played “Let Me Love You” that I have always mentally referred to as “Bullfrog Blues” perhaps by the way the guitar plays.  They played “Honey I Need Your Love” by the Pretty Things, and also “I’m Not Talking” by the Yardbirds, and also “Silver Spring’ an interesting Fleetwood Mac song, and of course ‘Had to Cry Today” by Blind Faith.  But very little of Ed Schultz.

A "Full House" of Ideas

That Jake fellow who ragged on “Two and a half Men” is probably in breach of contract, but when did keeping your word ever mean anything to a Christian.  That’s this guy’s excuse.  He is now calling the show he acted in for nearly ten years and who made him rich- he’s calling the show “filth” and “not to watch it” because studies have shown that that show rots your brain with moral corruption.  If that is true, then since he’s been exposed to the show ten times as much as I have shouldn’t he be ten times as corrupted and therefore not morally qualified to tell me not to watch it?  I’ve never “Gotten” this thing with Christians who at times seem to brag that they lived a more corrupt life in their pasts than I could ever dream of, and that’s what makes them experts to tell me how to lead my life.  And then we have the “bounce houses” which become airborne and “flying houses”.  That sounds pretty cool to me as a kid to be in a bounce house that leaves the ground.  It’s a bit of exciting unpredictability.  And I am sick and tired of hearing about the evil of grapefruit.  They say they interfere with Statens.  I have a simple solution to that problem; don’t take the Statens.  After all grapefruit will lower your cholesterol so you don’t even have to shell out all the money and risk your health to take statens.  And I doubt many of those other 85 drugs on the list are much better for you.  Don’t give me this crap about the list growing from seventeen to 85.  All that tells me is that we are a lot more drugged up society than we used to be.  They have this ice house where I guess they give you a parka when you go in because they keep the thermostat down to nine degrees F.  I guess the ice sculptures are so intricate that to risk even a small amount of melting is not an option.  This morning I was listening to that I Heart Radio blues station and they played “Boris the Spider” performed live by the Who at the BBC sounding very close to the record, actually.  After the song Brian Matthews, still the host then, asked why they smash their sound equipment.  Perhaps it’s inflation- but the price in pounds of ruined equipment didn’t seem all that high.

Dr Levy was wrong in a major point in his remarks to me last Saturday about "setbacks are all a big illusion because when you're going through them they seem bad, but the overall course of your life is on a steady improvement.  Is the course of MY life on a steady improvement.  On October 8th 1987 a Pearl Harbor wake up call arrived when one of my Bosc housemates "turned on me" in a way I would have never predicted.  And yet as I have subsequently said, compared to the damage the Rev Bill Halliday did to my Christian Faith- - the Damage done by my Faith in the Lord by Pastor Bill actually Exceeds that done to me by Frank.  It's kind of like the Japanese invading Pearl Harbor and all we do is lodge a protest at the UN and refuse to invite the Japanese delegation to any more White House afternoon teas.  "That will show them!"  But if they then go on to invade San Francisco Bay- - everyone would agree this is a WORSE offense than the first.  But there is one difference.  That is- - it's not entirely unexpected this time.  We have already seen a course of Hostility from the Other Side and we chose to basically do nothing about it and pretend that all was well.  I told you about the NEXT blow to my Christian Faith in Pastor Mark's letter to me about "God being the cause of all things", which ipso facto means that this one and same God is responsible for all EVIL that has ever been comitted in the world.  We move on to shock number four in late 1998 when I had basically erected a high barbed wire fence with signs all over it telling God to Keep Out and if he endeavors to cross he will be a Tresspassor.  But if God comes accross anyhow it's no longer me pursuing the Lord at all but now it's the Lord pursuing Me, and extending a war that I now would like to call a truce to and just say that I lost and call it a day.  This has to do with this interventionalism in the name of the Lord that featured my being diagnosed with alcoholism for the first time- - by a Christian doctor.  We can then move on if Dr. Levy would like.  Sure I've gained many things in the last twelve years but I've also lost a lot.  I've lost out in terms of economics and money and self sufficiency- - and overall image of myself.  And I have also lost an awful lot of that immesurable thing called Hope.  We can now move on to blow number five if you'd like- - by my realizing in early 2003 that the Bible really "doesn't commit itself" to our "Going to Heaven" when we die.  And all Good needs do, assuming he actually exists, is point to the Bible and say "Show me here in this book where I owe you anything after you die?  I don't know what you were told but you've been lied to".  This used to be a favorite Bill Halliday line in the early days - - ie, "You've been lied to".   I could go on but to quote a Dylan song, "My words would soon turn into a meaningless rain".  You get the point.  People like to hype up their own arguments with smiles and cheer, which is all well and good.  And since you are a "pain averse person" to begin with rather than confront them on their Error you decide for the tranquility of the Moment to just play along.

The rapture may occur on April 11th rather than april 19th of 2013 as I said a number of postings back.  That means that rather "have been asleep for one night" I was actually 'out" for a week and that the last thing I remembered was in excess of a week earlier.  In that legondary haunting dream of the turn of the year 1992 - - I kind of remember something about "a baseball game" and something vaguely about a crescent moon in the evening skies before it had even gotten dark.  I now believe there is a positive astrological value to when the Moon crosses Alcyonne, as if to neutralize its adverse powers if sometimes flexes.  As you know Bones visited me last week and sympathized with the raw deal I had been getting with life lately.  It was the first "sympathy message" I had gotten from any of those people in months and I appreciated that.  In fact that very night I slept right through to the morning and that hadn't happened in days.  This raises the question as to how an imaginary or self generated event can have a real cause and effect relation in real life?  As you know I am not a believer in Mind Power, as people like Wayne Dyre define it.  Well, it's their problem not mine.  And now here's an encore paragraph I thought was of great social and political import you might like.

First of all I’d issue a caviat as kind of a warning to answer question directly addressing the issues raised my questions and not laps into tea party “talking points” all the while counting on the fact that he’s going to do just that so I can lure him into various “chess” traps.  And I’d raise the example of a worker in a metal machine shop, or perhaps working with farm equipment and how if you’re not careful on the job you could use a finger or a hand or something in a moment of inattention.  Romney would say “Well this is a contest for President of the United States, which is a little more significant than a common macfhinist”.  Then I would quote “Jesus said that if you can’t be trusted in small things, how can you be trusted with Large things”.  If he appears slow to acknowledge this remark I would add, “Your Church does teach and believe the words of Jesus, doesn’t it?”  And then I would go on to cite some statistics about the Supreme Court and how utterly important it is these next four years to get the right guy picking the nominees.  And I would mention that President Obama has a smaller percentage of his nominees for all sorts of post- - more are vacant from lack of Congressional action than with any other administration.  And did you know that this is the most conservative Supreme Court we’ve had in the last 75 years or since at least 1936.  And four of the most conservative justices in the last one hundred years are on the bench right now.  That would be Roberts, Scelia, Thomas, and Allito.  And Justice Kennedy, the swing vote of this court, is the tenth most conservative justice of the past hundred years himself.  And the fact is that if the popular will of the people, which you tea party people claim you prize above all else, were carried out in 2000 then Al Gore would have been President and the Supreme Court would look very different today.  And at some point the topic might come up - - or I would overtly ask Romney, “Just why is it that you want to be President anyhow.  When you ran against Ted Kennedy you tried to pass yourself as a moderate liberal to garner votes and you still lost.  And you did the same thing running for Governor in Massachusetts in 2002.  At some point in his answer he’s revert to talking points and use the phrase about ‘I’m running to stem the leftward drift in politics today”.  Then I’d bring up Citizen’s United and remind him that when it first came out in early 2010 that fully eighty percent of the American people were against it.  If he were to respond, “That’s why it’s been important for our people to get the Truth out there”.  And I’d go, “Your point is well taken.  This activist decision is among the most activist decisions any Court has ever rendered, and it was decided in a minute issue that the Justices broadened out into a major ruling.  And because of this all sorts of Pac organizations have come into politics and corporate money that was illegal before.  How do you expect the average democratic candidate running for congress to be able to complete with it.  You know we need to go back to some sort of public financing of elections to keep this sort of influence peddeling out of the race.  Because the idea that these PAC groups do NOT represent specific political candidates is a bad joke.  You know it and I know it.  Romney may respond, “Well President Obama chose to use his own money in 2008”.  And I would say “That was absolutely wrong.  What do you think about that yourself?”  Here is another trap.  If he says he agrees with the President to spend the money himself I’d go “Then in reality you don’t think President Obama did anything wrong?”  If he says what the President did was wrong I’d go, “Well does that mean a President Romney would advocate for some sort of Public financing of elections once in office”.  I would go on to cite things like how Obama ran on a public option for Health Care and how many who voted for him wanted him to go after the massive financial and political corruption of Bush and Chaney- - not to mention the violation of civil liberties?  If he brought up (which he will) this new Obama executive order limiting certain liberties under emergency conditions I’d then go, “Well then does that mean we can count on a President Romney to be a champion of limiting governmental snooping against citizens?”  (now material just added tonight)  If he mumbled something about my being lax on Islamic Terrorism, I would raise the point about how because of recent executive decisions that right wing political groups have now been targeted as contraversial, and I'd appreciate it if he would just spell out to what degree the average, law abiding citizen should be snooped on by the long arm of the Federal Government, and does he think our Founding Fathers would approve of ANY of these measures.  I would finally lay a trap for the candidate?  I would ask him "Many people who support you believe we are at some fiscal cliff and that we need to immediately take steps to dramatically cut the federal deficet.  And I'd ask "Just how extreme should such measures be to save our economy from crashing due to debt or hyperinflation?  And then I'd say "After you're done figuring that one out- - what's wrong with the current debt ceiling agreement where the Bush tax cuts would all expire and all government expenditures would be slashed ten percent accross the board WITHOUT THE SLIGHTEST BIG OF BIAS ONE WAY OR THE OTHER and should not "doing absolutely nothing" be the Prefered course of action for congress to take- or rather- - NOT to take?

A New Era of Cost Cutting: Corporate Prison Labor

We now learn from Randi Rhodes that Wall Mart uses women prisoner workers.  But it’s kind of one of those jobs people would be clamoring to get even just getting paid two dollars an hour.  Because the alternative is being woken up at three AM and fed breakfast and taken out for an hour ride to the work fields where you work all day long in the hot sun without sun screen or medical supervision, and that includes people with bee allergies.  And no many how many chest pains you have on the job people think you’re faking the heart attack, and even with a doctor’s explicit directives not to let this person work for three or four days, that directive is violated.  But then you know what Judy thinks of labor unions.  Not to quote Stu or anybody from the Other Side, but the one bit of feedback I got about last Saturday was that “I allowed them to lie to me about labor unions and the state of reality with Hostess and Wall Mart, and that I really whoosed out about not standing up for progressive labor causes.”  I plead guilty as charged.  I just rolled over like a dog on that one.  These ECO’s get four thousand (?) times the pay of the lowest paid worker.  It’s gross mis management in Hostess we have already chronicled.  And of course when I raised the issue about getting paid overtime for night shift after hours Judy just said indignently “These people are lucky to have a job.”  And also, “Labor unions have driven too many businesses into the ground because for them it’s just more demands and take, take, take, until the business has nothing left”.  If you believe that there is some industrial purity grade sand I’d like to sell you from Hurricane Sandy.   Like I said these TV stations behave the way they talk as though Mitt Romney had won the election and that it’s president Obama who has to cave on all of the disputed issues.  People even have the gall to say “Lincoln was a successful President because he was willing to work with people and compromise when necessary”.  Those people are reading about a different President Lincoln from the one in my history books.  These past seven days have run a jinx tally easily between a negative ten and fifteen, for sure.  I say this because it all hasn't been sweetness and light for me since Obama was reelected three weeks ago.  Wall Mart claims they don’t use any prison help where the workers don’t get paid minimum wage.  Of course- - they won’t even give you decent breaks and if you take an unauthorized break (because you’re having a heart attack or something) then they just add that to your prison sentence.  And of course they use the old chestnut about “Come on, you’re costing the corporation hundreds of dollars for each unauthorized minute you’re not working”.  Randi Rhodes says that she can foresee the days when people in third world nations will have more worker’s rights than they do in the United States.  By way of contrast Cosco treats their employees really well.  Don’t tell Judy that.  She shops there and if she learns they treat their employees decently she may decide to take her business elsewhere.  In the old days they used to worry about roudy Union employees disturbing the tranquility of the store customers.  But today it’s like a third world nation inside these stores on Black Fridays with the customers behaving like animals climbing over and clawing each other.  Meanwhile the employees who protest are doing so in a most quiet, orderly fashion.  Of course nobody cares how we get our merchandise- - and often we don’t care how we got our produce.  I think it times a lot of us would like to pretend that “The Jungle” is just a work of fiction and not applicapable for our times.  Even Judy has complained in the past that when it comes to customer service, “We are becoming a third world nation” but of course she blames the Obama Administration for everything that has happened bad in the past four years.  Beliefs can be stubborn things.

It's a fact of life that the Strong people in the world Make the rules and the weak, compliant people of the world Follow them.  Take that however you want.  No evil act in the history of the world ever occurred before God's ontologically getting the Idea of it first.  When it comes to any act of evil, be it genocide in Africa or your teenage daughter getting an abortion without your permission- - no act of evil has EVER occurred without not only God signing off on it first, but God THINKING of it first.  There is a passage in the Old Testament that could be easily extrapelated to read "Before an Evil Idea ever entered your head- - it entered Mine first".  (selah)  You know it’s funny how this dominant personality stuff works.  For instance there is some celebrity who has money and power in her own right, but has chosen to go back to an abusive husband who beats her, and unfortunately Johnny Wendell didn’t supply any names. People do stupid things.  Sometimes people will risk their own lives to save a dog, when the dog proved he could have survived without their help. Most people with "power trips" can only exercise them in what I call a "power field".  In other words, in a different environment these people would not do what they do, like bullying around women in abortion clinics who are having grave second thoughts.  In another environment they wouldn't last five seconds.  But you have the case of Jim.  Our first encounter got off to a rather strange start two months ago, and sometimes "first impressions" stay with you - - on both sides. The day I met him I made a decision this was one person it was not wise to tread very close to.  He’s a friend of [name withheld], who did time in prison for a murder, and I don’t care if he’s a Christian now.  At any rate at lunch I went to look at the menu and came in the west door, which I usually don’t do, even though I go out that way.  The door was already open and everybody else just about was already seated.  I’m sitting in my seat maybe thirty seconds and Jim comes over rather angry, seemingly saying “That’s the third time you cut me off like that.  Don’t do it again”.  I agreed I wouldn’t.  But it would really help if I had the vaguest idea of what he’s talking about.  John Powel thought me was referring to the med line.  That isn’t it.  But I’m smart enough to know that in the “Dad tradition” it’s best to admit whatever it is they are accusing you of because if you don’t remember or deny it or try in any way to defend yourself, it only makes them madder.  It’s kind of like these cops that administer these arm twisting pain holds and if you twitch in pain or try to move to another position to ease the pain- it’s called “resistance” and the cop only applies more pain.  That’s because these cops are natural born bullies and sadists.  We had a warm chicken salad sandwich on partially toasted wheat bread with beets.  I had seconds on the rice soup.  We had mixed melon and grapes for desert.  

Here we go with one of those “what do you think?” stories.  On the soap opera Gabriel got her abortion today.  But clearly she was conflicted and kept asking to speak to someone while she was in bed.  Will is in the waiting room and wants to tell her that he now believes it was a mistake.  He was told Gabriel was in communacado.  Then they finally meet and speak and then she goes back into the opporating room. Raphael, her brother, calls up the clinic and is both lied to and equivocated with and stalled wasting valuable time.  He comes down there and tries to push his way in only to find that the door is locked.  Even when Raphael informs her that he is a cop, and a high ranking - - Chicano Catholic cop at that, she still will not let him in.  Finally after she has had “the procedure” she comes out tearful.  You know if this were the old south like Alabama or some place you could count on that place being fire bombed out of existence within 48 hours and no one in law enforcement would touch the ones that did it.  Keep in mind there was no three day waiting period or anything.  She had the abortion so far as I can tell within 24 hours of when she was pregnant, and I’m not aware of her getting any pre abortion counseling of any sort.  Where is Eric around when someone needs him?  You know the authorities are going to close that place down for good.  Salem isn’t that big of a town and people talk.  Odds are the nurses who worked there will find it difficult to get any other employment. And if you're wondering how I personally feel about this issue of black listing former employees in these small abortion clinics - - I think this is here one case where "we should let the free market decide". 

The United States is concerned about Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi taking on broader powers, saying it does not want to see too much authority resting in too few hands. The president's decree has sparked protests by opposition activists, who continued to camp out in Cairo's Tahrir Square for a fourth day Monday to demand that Morsi reverse his decision.  U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton telephoned Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr Monday to discuss President Morsi's assumption of broader powers.  State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland says Secretary Clinton underscored the importance Washington places on settling these disputes democratically. "We want to see the constitutional process move forward in a way that does not overly concentrate power in one set of hands, that ensures that rule of law, checks and balances, protections of the rights of all groups in Egypt are upheld," she said.  Egyptian judges hope to persuade the president to limit the sweeping powers he granted himself last week.  Morsi says placing his decisions above judicial review is temporary. He met Monday with Egypt's Supreme Judicial Council to explain the move. Nuland says that is encouraging.  "The fact that the right people are talking to each other is a good step, but obviously we want to see this issue resolved in a way that meets the standards and principles that we have been supporting all the way through since the Egyptian revolution began," she said.  ​​Rallies against the president's greater powers have reinvigorated a fractured opposition in Cairo, with some of his opponents accusing the new president of attempting to become "a new pharaoh."    Without a functioning legislature, Nuland says Egypt's post-revolutionary democracy is operating in a "very unclear political environment."   "It is a very murky, uncertain period in terms of the legal and constitutional underpinnings, which makes it all the more important that the process proceed on the basis of democratic dialogue and consultation," she said.  The State Department spokeswoman would not say whether President Morsi's decision might affect U.S. backing for International Monetary Fund assistance to Egypt's new government.  During her conversation with Foreign Minister Amr, Secretary Clinton also discussed the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas authorities in Gaza.​  

Experiancing "Grover Norquist Fatigue"

If there is a single transcendent issue that most fills me with revulsion when I think about who Mitt Romney is as a person it's this perverse notion of "Hating the poor BECAUSE they are poor".  It's like a whole set of value structures are imputed to the poor being Judged as - - "The other".  You know in the old days I was glad when artists like Love Song and The Way and the Blessed Hope but a little honor for being Christian musicians because I figured "It's time Christian music got some of the honor from the world it deserves".  But there came a time when I realized that even though I as a Christian identified with THEM, that they did not return the favor and identify with Me.  But instead they became the rest successful Romney fat cats of south Orange County who identified with the Romney top two percent- - and I, as a poor person, plus a few other traits, some of them biological- - was pegged as "the other".  I was people like Me whom the "Holy Spirit" to use a phrase, most wanted to eridicate.  But now with an Obama win and knowing nobody can challenge his power for another four years and two months- - that there is no percentage in playing it "hard right" all the time.  Grover Norquist cannot threaten this president any more.  It's one thing to say that you WILL not be "tempted" by something, perhaps to "get back in to an old lifestyle" and in my case that would be Christianity.  But it's quite another to say that you CANNOT be tempted ever again.  Once you reach a person point- - you reach that coveted position where you CANNOT be tempted with either scenes of a religious naustalgia that never really was- or else terrorized by visions of hellfire and damnation or some apocraliptic "2016" gloom and doom scenario.  For me what killed my love for Christianity once and for all- - was "finding out for myself' to quote John Lennon - - that indeed Christianity fully embraces this Gordon Gecko doctrine of "greed is good" and that Never Again can you be swayed by any talk of how "Giving" and "generocity" and "Charity" are a part of Christianity. If I learned nothing else from Neil of KFI, it's that compassion and Christianity do not mix.  So that I needn't be bothered ever again with phantoms of words like love and caring as somehow things associated with Christianity.  Because I know all too damn well that they are not.  (Selah)

In general all the avalanche of news has come to a grinding halt, as is none of the many foreign crises were really crucial to begin with.  Israel and Iran,  Syria and Turkey, Egypt,  Israel and Gaza, the Bengazi aftermath- - if apparently all irrelevant now.   However one revelation has come to light today in that the head of the CIA or somebody admitted that he was the one who issued the specific “talking points” that Secretary Rice used in her briefing about the Bengazi killings.  Which means that it did not the directive did NOT come from President Obama.  Of course there are positive developments in society that will “make the world a better place” in the long run.  There is this “Save the Children” organization started by a twelve year old boy who began the movement in 1996 who even at age twelve and younger spoke with the authoritativeness of an adult on the subject of making things better for the children of the world.  It was pointed out, and I got a bit of Déjà vu on this issue- - that sometimes there is initial success but then “the powers that be” harden their resolve and things go back to the way they were and children who had been “liberated” and given a sense of freedom suddenly due to societl and economic pressure, go back into servitude and poverty.  So perhaps when I first announced I was putting out a prophecy book it got encouragement and people first hearing about it were interested - but the powers that Be convinced me that no Christian ever acted without the leave of Chuck Smith or whatever other Big Cahuma they worshiped in church on Sunday.  But now as an adult that young man is sticking with his idea and continuing to speak out with boldness on the subject.  And now there is a new boy and girl who are taking up the kid apostle mantel.  An eleven year old girl and twelve year old boy, both caucasion, went to Kenya to lend their hand helping the children of that land.  And the “Messai” honored them in their final day there with a gift of a live goat.  I thought the Messai were some fictional name of an alien civilization in a sci fi movie.  At any rate the boy isn’t even allowed to keep a dog in the apartment complex where he lives in New England, let alone a live goat.

It seems with Lindsey Graham’s leading cue, that republicans will be abandoning their no tax hikes pledge to Grover Norquist.  Good.  Maybe we can break the back of The Beast.  But like I say these news programs like Meet the Press talk as though Mitt Romney had been elected several weeks ago and not Barock Obama.  I gleaned from stuff on the Chris Matthews show that a lot of republicans in their saner moments will admit that most of what Mitt Romney said during the preceding campaign was a bunch of crap.  They have Power Ball in most states but not in California, Colorado, Utah, or Nevada, apparently.  Perhaps another.   So since nobody won the jackpot last night, it will grow to 425 million this Wednesday.  You could buy out a whole fleet of expensive autos in a show room for that price or meet payroll for a major league baseball team, or a lot of other stuff.   Now they are saying the weekend’s Black Friday numbers were “record setting” when I had heard the percentage increase was four percent this year, as opposed to five percent last year, which the Tea Party dismissed as not indicative of anything.  That would amount to over nine percent since 2010.  Cyber sales are up 17% this year, and Cyber Monday is hyped as the next big buying occasion.  Although the trend goes back to when the work place had the only decent computers with fast processing times.  I was just reading Internet for Dummies at Mom’s and the thing was talking about avoiding Outlook and Outlook Express.  Does anybody still use those?  A few other things in that book were looking a little dated.

Read this whole paragraph before you jump to conclusions what's in it.  We had pepper steak for dinner and the accompanying vegetables, and decent rice, with chocolate pudding for desert.  I got seconds on the meat and rice and she started on our side of the room.  The Oriental guy gave me a bit of meat, and most of his chocolate pudding.  After a bit I got a cigarette from Paul Evans as it was getting dark, on the west benches.  I heated water for instant coffee.  We had to go get in a long line for Medication from Judy but it was a fast moving line.  Later on the west bench about six twenty, I got a cigarette from Mike Deletore.  Loretta asked “How come you never buy cigarettes”.  That’s the first time she’s heard me ask for cigarettes in maybe two months, and she asks that question.  Loretta has this “Mitt Romney virus” of “hating the Poor BECAUSE they are Poor”.  I must repeat that I’ve never known a relationship of in excess of a year and a half to turn around on a dime so quickly as mine did with Loretta around the first of March of this year.  Larry Hagman died a few days ago and Linda Gray, his long time TV wife, mourned his passing.  Larry Hagman seemed to enjoy this persona of J R Eweing, even in the later years.  J R was kind of like George W Bush before his time.  Of course you know from my blog writings who R J was in my life, and no, the last name isn’t Reynalds.  Like the song says, “You may call me R J - - - “.  In terms of top grossing movies “The Avengers” came in at number one at 600 million.  I looked and looked for that on Yahoo and Google and for some reason never saw it.  In at second was “The Dark Knight Rises” and third was “The Hunger Games” and fourth was a “Spider Man” sequel.

In more football, the NY Giants are beating the GB Packers.  The ‘49ers bettered the NO Saints.  The Baltimore Ravens defeated the SD Chargers in a close game that was blacked out in the Los Angeles area, as if the average LA resident would travel 130 miles to a football game.  The Miami Dolphins defeated the Seattle Seahawks because the sprinklers went on as a distraction, and Atlanta defeated Tampa Bay in that earlier FOX game you wondered about.  Last night the Giants pretty well put away the Green Bay Packers.  I usually rout against the Green Bay Packers whether they are playing the Bears, the Vikings - - or the Rams.

12 - 12 - 12 Possibly a Good Omen?

Astrological indicators, plus a dream I had a few years back, indicate something very positive might occur for the "chosen ones" (liberals) on the night of December 12th and 13th.  In the dream it had to do with Sirius starting to from then on go super nova or something ever December 12th in honor of some special occasion in what we refer to as the Sirius Federation.  Of course you ZAC people know this night as symbolic of something else- - but in the dream- - there was some - - other event- - - that would come to be celebrated on an Anual basis by, like I say a -  "selected group of chosen ones".  We now cover the events of today, Saturday November 24th.  I did not blog either Thursday or Friday, and most of today has slipped by and only as it approaches nine o clock an I now doing a posting.

Last night it was the usual ABC network news and ABC game shows.  At eight o clock it was all cartoons on every station and so I turned off the TV and listened to 92 Jam where there were vintage romantic soul songs including ‘Make Me Your Baby”.  I had KLOS and “MTV” on briefly.  I turned back on to KCOP and ‘Monk” I guess, until nine.  Then I had it on some other program for a while till 9:20 and soon afterward retired.  I woke around one but did not venture out of the bed knowing I had no cigarettes to smoke, and I got back to sleep.  I got up a few minutes before six and turned on KNX 1070 and listened to the President’s Thanksgiving message.  There was this chewing gum dark spot on my red jacket I obsessed over a bit.  We had Rice Krispies for breakfast and after a protracted wait it was a fried egg and dry toast.  The coffee was better, with a cinnamon flavor.  In the night I had thought of all the shocks to my Christian faith that began coming one after the other every few years, and in one case it was two shocks running in tandom around 1994.  That letter from Mark made it clear to me like never before that no act, good or bad, is beyond God’s capacity to control and as such “Everything that happens is God’s will”.  This goes a long way tword “clarifying one’s theology”.  (Selah)

Dr. Levy was in a hurry to get everyone to class but I didn’t make it down till five after eight because I had a few things to do first.  I kicked off the check-in process with a real downer report for the past seven days.  Dr. Levy talked about “setbacks” and confessed that he had just canceled his trip to Israel next week because of all the violence.  Egyptian’s President has assumed dictatorial powers over in Egypt and the people don’t like it.  But our President is paying their bills with our foreign aid and as it were whoring out foreign policy to the highest bidder.  If this guy slips we can “buy and pay for” another leader we decide to install.  Of course the people spoke of the President’s “temporarily assuming dictatorial powers” kind of like Julius Caesar did, to the distaste of the people.  And he got assasenated for his troubles.  All in all I wouldn’t have worried about new violence breaking out in Heifa if I were Dr. Levy because as he pointed out the week earlier, he is well out of the range of the rockets from Gaza.  Roselyn was there and she talked with Dr. Levy at length in her wheel chair after class.  Dr. Levy had breakfast bars for us, and we had two different kinds of those, harder and softer.  We also had pieces of two different kinds of pound cake.  I needed the food because I didn’t get filled up by breakfast here.  Dr. Levy got to just about everybody for check-in in random order except for John Metz, who probably wouldn’t have had anything to say anyhow.  We talked about health issues and one person took exception to the serving of potato chips for lunch, which sounded like such a silly statement to me since we don’t get that many at a time.  David Shaner always used to give me his chips and he’s been in the hospital the past month or so.  There was talk about Harry’s Diner and their free Thanksgiving meals.  But once again Dr. Levy had nothing on the agenda as far as actual teaching is concerned.  We ended just before nine thirty.  I followed Dr. Levy to his car where he gave me six dollars for coffee.  But I wasn’t sure how I actually wanted to spend it and so just sat on it.  It was almost time for Melinda Lee after shaving and changing clothes for the family gathering.  Melinda talked about Thanksgiving leftovers.

[name] and Judy were actually early in picking me up and I had to rush my last cigarette from Bill and I promised he’d get cigarettes from me when I bought a pack of my own later in the day, and I made good on my word.  We managed to steer away from politics for the most part but the subject of the father of that dead Navy seal did come up- - when I again mentioned the “sensitive” and un biased Glen Beck interview.  We went down Gilbert or something and hung a left and went down a diagonal street I never knew was there to Cosco Gasoline and their price has been reduced.  We then got on the 22 to the SA Freeway and we were already well on our way there and we made it there faster than it looked like we would at maybe seven minutes past eleven.  We went up to Mom’s room where [name]  and Marie were already there.  We went down to lunch and we had to wait a little to be seated.  We were shown a big round table with a good view out the east window for some.  I had the salad bar of course with French dressing on dark lettuce, and crab salad and a Waldorf salad.  I didn’t have soup as many others did.  I had that leg of lamb, which turned out to be over-done roast beef chunks, and a big baker potato with both butter and sour cream, and spinach, and onion rings and the usual orange slices.  I decided to follow in [Pete's] footsteps having one of their chocolate shakes, which is no aware winner, but no coffee till the end of the meal when the guy was there and I had him fill my coffee cup, which I suspect was the Decaf that Judy had requested.  I had a thin piece of pecan pie for desert.  So I deviated considerably from what I had originally intended to order.  Back in Mom’s place [name] and Marie turned on the computer, and I’m surprised the anti-virus was still able to update after so much elapsed time.  We talked about Mom’s finances and her tax accountants.  Mom actually paid ["a lot!"] in taxes, which means the income, just income she made over the past year must have been absolutely humungus and at Mitt Romney’s 14% rate the figure must be staggering for the principal given the two percent growth rate of T Bills and the like.  I put in a plug for traditional energy stocks, which [name] didn’t seem to like.  About the only time [name] and I talked were about my weight, as we were leaving, and also about global warming, while the others were out of the room.  One thing I noticed was I have not gotten that garlic smell when I use the bathroom and that really puzzles me compared to fourteen years ago when I took the garlic.  We spent a lot of time looking at calendars and note pads and magazines and the like, that each of us would be taking.  I reminded [name] as it got past three that I had to be back soon after four o clock for dinner and after an interval of time we finally left.  I was surprised at how warm it still was at nearly three thirty, by now.  It was only when I was in the car that I felt warm and took off that black sweatshirt I was wearing, when I got back here.  I hurried to my room and down to dinner and did not even stop for a cigarette.  Judy kept making jokes about “Coffin Coffee” trying to get in humor about how I should do discount coffee sales for customers who quit smoking.  Actually if I didn’t know better I’d say Judy was channeling Mal Evans or something.  That’s his kind of humor.  Paul mentioned having thanksgiving breakfast with his kids, and also Thanksgiving evening dinner with a bunch of friends of theirs.  Marie said she still can’t taste her food, a condition she’s had ever since her auto accident eight years ago, but if she lived at the Regency she would only have one meal a day.  Tim never talked about his trip, but Bob Q - [ ] -’s name came up.  I forgot to bring my camera- but after all “we know what we all look like”.

Flash:  The final game score was Notre Dame 22 to USC 13.  Notre Dame has completed an undefeated season.  Maybe Paul is right – the dining room seemed really quite when I entered.  We had chicken pot pie here and I asked for and got a lemonade from Federico.  We had not yet been served our main plate.  It was a pretty good chicken pot pie and corn bread, and I think vanilla pudding.  Seconds were called out as I was leaving the room, but I didn’t need them.  I went to the liquor store and bought a thing of creamer and a pack of cigarettes, but I didn’t buy the instant coffee because I knew I was a quarter short.  But at least I would have the cream for tonight’s coffee.  Now all we have to do is come up with a name for this file.

The Perils of "New and Improved"

In 1969 there was a rock album that came out called "New and Improved - Blue Cheer".  But I was warned not to buy the album because it wasn't nearly as good as their first two.  Now there is an eleven year old kid who says you can tell when a product package is being downsized because they put 'New and Improved' on the box.  And the facts bore that out.  At times I worry about new software downloads of programs I already have and work just fine, because I have a paranoid they are downsizing it, and it doesn't do what the former release did.  People have mentioned this as it relates to cars depending on which year you buy it.  Sometimes a later year will not fetch as good of a price.  Would anyone buy a New and Improved Facebook stock now?  In particular when I downloaded an update to "Google Earth" one time, I lost the use of "Planets in Motion" and haven't had it back since.  And we move on to Christianity.  I had already been confirmed by my local church on Palm's Saturday - - of 1964.  Calvary Chapel wasn't offering anything better.  The reward was still Eternal Life.  But now you have to pay a lot higher price to get it.  You have to schmooze with all the members and "click" socially and buy the same records and books as they do to really be "In".  Someone may have thought Tom Leykis was being blasphamus talking about "Jesus brand Ice Cream Sandwiches".  Yet is this Marinotha stuff any better.  I remember one time in August of 1990 at a Jesus rock concert, at the time I was pushing forty and "too old for this sort of thing" and I looked around at everybody else younger than I war.  And they are all "In" on the latest groups and had their own lingo.  You can't just sell Jesus like a box of laundry detergent with new bright day glow colors, but the package is smaller.  Oh I know, you all thought I was going to parody that line about "Jesus offered me his stimulus but his Package didn't stimulate me".  Well, what do you know?  I slipped in that line after all.

The American embassy was stormed in Cairo and in Libya today on account of a new anti Islamic movie that’s put out by that Terry Jones pastor guy who burned a copy of the Koran last year.  It depicts the prophet Mohamed in a less than proper manner- - - in a religion that forbids any photographic reoresentation at all,  So they are insensed in Egypt and Libya.  They tore down the US flag at the embassy and hoisted the black Al Qaeda flag.  (?)  I am inclined to be in sympathy with the Moslems on this one.  I know they have been overbearing in the past but here I think they have a legitimate complaint.  I think people like Thom Hartman or that Mr Grouver guy I had as a teacher of eastern religion in the spring of 1973 at Cypress were right.  A lot of people just don't "get it' when it comes to the true exercise of religion.  It's not just a product you can peddle like a new movie promotion, with loud blairing music and cleaver editing and quotations out of context. There are probably times when I have fallen prey to this "cheapening" of religion myself.  People live around fakes so much, when they see the Real Thing they don't recognize it, but they freak out, and their use of intelligent speech is suddenly gone from them.  It's funny how George Bush originally referred to the Iraq war as a "Crusade" before some P R people got after him for it.  Besides "weapons of mass deception"  make that destruction - - (perfectly logical mistake) - - - the OTHER issue for President Bush was "Bringing democracy to the Mideast".  But even then people like Judy were slipping in to their repetuire of remarks the following, "Of course you know that these people are not Christians and since they aren't, democracy will never work for them, because you have to have your heart changed from the inside by the Holy Spirit".  Yeah, I'd like to have the Holy Spirit on the psychaiatrist's couch or in that legondary "empty chair" of Clint Eastwoods.  Oh the conversations we could have!  But back to my point - - Do you really think Judy would come out AGAINST President Bush's pursuit of the Iraq War all those years?  I wouldn't hold my breath.  These Republicans will use ANY slogan if they think it will win their point.  The goal for them is not principle, much as they say it is- - but rather it's just Winning for winning's sake.  That is- - getting the Better of the Other Guy.  And of course the whole thing boils down to Money for Money's sake, and Power for Power's sake.  And that's what it's really all about.

Meanwhile in Chicago the school teachers continue on strike for the second day.  They have the support of the community as well as the parents of those affected students.  Mayor Ron Imanuel is a republican Stooge on this issue and Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney have praised his stalwart actions in opposing the strike. That only goes to highlight the tea party's feelings about education in general.  It's an entire field of endeavor they have absolutely no respect for.  Teachers have complained that "The average person in politics hasn't a clue as to just what being a school teacher is all about".  It's not like going to the supermarket and picking out the best apples and congradulating yourself what an astute shopper you are.   Here again without knowing the specific issues, I am inclined to sympathize with the teachers. I feel that people like Governor Christie have villanized whole professions- - as the tea party people at large have.  It's like they see somebody who still hasn't been affected by the massive government downsizing, and they say "We aren't happy with our millions- - we want your pittance of a salary, too.  There's lots of money to be had in raiding union strike funds and government pensions.

Now they are saying that fish oil is bogus and does not help.  I don’t know.  People have been calling fish “brain food” since the early sixties.  Something else fishy are all of these Republicans who now want to throw Mitt Romney under the bus for slipping in the polls.  So you have Laura Ingrem, Donald Trump, and George Will now sounding the alarm.  Now they are playing “Amazing Grace” on bagpipes, while reading off those names of the fallen.  I digress.  You know that given a head to head choice between Romney and Mc Cain their own people already MADE their choice.  They made it four years ago when they chose Mc Cain, even in South Carolina!  So they are running a man who was beaten the man, who was beaten by President Obama.  Doesn't sound like a winning combination to me.  This is nothing short of Ironic since just a few days ago Judy was saying to me "These left wing socialists who support President Obama will get rid of him if they feel he is lagging in the polls.  And we all know support for the President is shrinking and the man is not nearly as popular as four years ago.  This is common knowledge".  Those are her words.  But of course the problem was that Romney wasn't "Packaged" properly.  Now their task was taking an essentially Smaller man than they had to work with in 2008 and still somehow making it appear as though the republican Consumer was getting More.  It seems that Larry Flint offered a million dollars to anybody who would produce Mitt Romney's tax returns for those ten years.  By that wording, Mitt Romney himself could stroll in there and pick up a fast Million dollars.  Hell.  I'd whore myself for THAT price!  But Mitt Romney if nothing else is an astute student of money.  He knows the cost of everything.  He has figured out that in the overall Big Game- - - he would have a hell of a lot more to lose by taking the Million if it meant the American people knew what was in his tax returns - - and all the damaging political baggage that would go along with it.  You must remember that these people opporate on a Pay to Play basic.  They put in money and political favors pop out the tray at the bottom.  I one said with great lament that the one talent my parents exhibited that outshined all the others- - was the ability to accumulate Money.  And Mitt Romney shares this trait.  Jesus words about "Thou fool.  Don't you know that this very night thy soul will be required of you" mean nothing to Mitt Romney.  Because if actions don't lie even if words do, then Mitt Romney really doesn't believe in the teachings of Jesus.  No surprise there.  Mitt Romney can't get specific about ANYTHING and that INCLUDES any discussion of economics.  How provident that one poll concludes that the American people now trust President Obama more on Economic issues than they do Mitt Romney.  This was Mitt Romney's trump card.  Now he has lost it.

9 - 11 "Enough, Already!!!"

At the risk of sounding a little cold I would like to cite an example from the movie “Inheret the Wind” where Gene Kelly remarked of the death of “Matthew Harrison Brady” the following.  He said, “Why should we mourn for this man.  Heaven knows he spent enough time mourning for himself while he was still alive”.  One could say the same thing of Jesus Christ.  He was a man who violated the Rush Limbaugh rule of “A true hero does not stop and plot just how he is going to remembered and celebrated after he is dead”.  Now we come to the David Cruise show on at three.  Of course it’s all about 9 – 11.  The very thing he said he didn’t want us doing was in fact what I ended up doing.  After listening to ten minutes of his moaning and sermonizing I turned the station to 92.3 FM and listened to funky-soul music, which by the way wasn’t very today.  The only song with any potential at all was “Boogie Wonderland”.  After this I switched to Katie Kuric.  So it was about one third of the hour on each of these.  But of course today for the eleventh time there are the commemorations and rememberances and the reciting of names.  So this is in essence “Armed Forces Day” number four.  That is if you count Armed Forces day, Vetterans Day, Memorial Day and 9 – 11 plus whatever other special occasions prompt memorials of our fallen men.  Let me tell you we would have been climbing the walls if this sort of thing were going on forty years ago during the tailing years of the Viet Nam War.  You know sometimes the adage is true.  “Your feelings will lie to you”.  That is, when they are being played like a violin by the media, who tells us every emotion to have on almost any subject.  They tell us the unemployment numbers were bad.  They tell us that despite the onrush of new workers, students, immigrants, Veterans returning from the war that “Droves of people are leaving the work force”.  According to Rush Limbaugh in another four years the work force will continue to shrink the same rapid rate.  I didn’t know the “safety net” was so cushy these days that it posed such a magnet.  I thought unemployment was cut BACK from 96 weeks to 76 weeks due to budget cutting.  James Dobson said “Your feelings will lie to you”.  But nobody ever stops to think for a minute that “What if I’m being played like a violin by a voice on the radio.  You don’t suppose the sudden feelings of self doubt about my own intuition - - that THOSE FEELINGS could be a Lie?  No, never.  Does anybody ever ask me that I think?  No.  It’s like a Sunday sermon.  We are ALL somehow supposed to be thinking the same thoughts after the message is delivered.  All this talk about monuments and such, the Greeks would say our society is suffering from an extreme “edifice complex”.  When I saw what was happening I was amazed at how even the media was informing us the buildings would collapse even before they did.  When someone played “Imagine” on the Laura Schleshenger show, Dr. Laura came on and objected telling the producer “Be sure and deguise that card”.  (meaning erase)  Can’t have any sentaments about a time when we won’t have War.  No! No!  We have to all hate a country that wasn’t even responsible, and not the fifteen of the nineteen hijackers, who were from Sauti Arabia, alias Bush’s good buddies.  When senators were on the fence about 9 – 11 a few envelopes in the mail containing anthrax solved that problem.  Lagging in the polls?  Just raise the “Alert” level to Orange.  If you are still lagging in the polls- - - how about a Bin Laden video just before election time?  We were told the passengers of Flight 93 “Sacrificed themselves gladly” by running the plane into the ground so it would not hit an important building.  This is so even though all cameras showed of the site were a very few pieces of debris, and a whole lot of smoke.  “Hey, all we need is a few smoke bombs over here”.  Nobody ever asked themselves “You mean an entire plane crashed here”.  And “What happened to the steel beams?  Shipped off to China, you say?”  You know in another country they were showed propaganda film after propaganda film in preparation of the people psychologically for the invasion of Poland.  The conservatives still want to invade Poland, to put back the missiles that the Obama administration failed to approve.  Why - - we are told that in Kenya they occupy their spare time singing “God bless the USA”.   So in the words of that famous Latino, Jose Himanez I say “Ya, Basta!”  “Enough Already!!!”

The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors. - -

ARTICLE II, SECTION 4 OF THE

CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

President George W. Bush, Vice President Richard B. Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales have committed violations and subversions of the Constitution of the United States of America in an attempt to carry out with impunity crimes against peace and humanity and war crimes and deprivations of the civil rights of the people of the United States and other nations, by assuming powers of an imperial executive unaccountable to law and usurping powers of the Congress, the Judiciary and those reserved to the people of the United States, by the following acts:
1) Seizing power to wage wars of aggression in defiance of the U.S. Constitution, the U.N. Charter and the  rule of law; carrying out a massive assault on and occupation of Iraq, a country that was not threatening the United States, resulting in the death and maiming of over one hundred thousand Iraqis, and thousands of U.S. G.I.s.
2) Lying to the people of the U.S., to Congress, and to the U.N., providing false and deceptive rationales for war.
3) Authorizing, ordering and condoning direct attacks on civilians, civilian facilities and locations where civilian casualties were unavoidable.
4) Instituting a secret and illegal wiretapping and spying operation against the people of the United States through the National Security Agency.
5) Threatening the independence and sovereignty of Iraq by belligerently changing its government by force and assaulting Iraq in a war of aggression.
6) Authorizing, ordering and condoning assassinations, summary executions, kidnappings, secret and other illegal detentions of individuals, torture and physical and psychological coercion of prisoners to obtain false statements concerning acts and intentions of governments and individuals and violating within the United States, and by authorizing U.S. forces and agents elsewhere, the rights of individuals under the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Eighth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
7) Making, ordering and condoning false statements and propaganda about the conduct of foreign governments and individuals and acts by U.S. government personnel; manipulating the media and foreign governments with false information; concealing information vital to public discussion and informed judgment concerning acts, intentions and possession, or efforts to obtain weapons of mass destruction in order to falsely create a climate of fear and destroy opposition to U.S. wars of aggression and first strike attacks.
8) Violations and subversions of the Charter of the United Nations and international law, both a part of the "Supreme Law of the land" under Article VI, paragraph 2, of the Constitution, in an attempt to commit with impunity crimes against peace and humanity and war crimes in wars and threats of aggression against Afghanistan, Iraq and others and usurping powers of the United Nations and the peoples of its nations by bribery, coercion and other corrupt acts and by rejecting treaties, committing treaty violations, and frustrating compliance with treaties in order to destroy any means by which international law and institutions can prevent, affect, or adjudicate the exercise of U.S. military and economic power against the international community.
9) Acting to strip United States citizens of their constitutional and human rights, ordering indefinite detention of citizens, without access to counsel, without charge, and without opportunity to appear before a civil judicial officer to challenge the detention, based solely on the discretionary designation by the Executive of a citizen as an "enemy combatant."
10) Ordering indefinite detention of non-citizens and now actual citizens in the United States and elsewhere, and without charge, at the discretionary designation of the Attorney General or the  Secretary of Defense.  Legal citizens of the United States may now be targeted for assasenation by the President.  President Obama is worse than President Bush as far as the use of unmanned Drones that are responsible for the deaths of countless innocent civilians.