Another Day in the Life

They held the twentieth and perhaps final debate last night starting at six o clock. To my way of thinking it was important to show that he had "grown" throughout this campaign process. I thought both candidates handeled themselves well. It was a spirited debate. I think Obama won it simply because he was Mr. Joe Cucumber under all fire. Hillary used the Romney argument talking about uninsured people under Obama’s plan. He countered that he’s talked to people who would rather pay the fine for being uninsured rather than the exorbanent cost of medical care. Obama’s biggest score of the night was with NAFTA. He had the moderators on his side for this one pointing out the countless times over the years that Hillary has supported NAFTA. The endorsement of Luis Faracon came up and Obama first said he rejected it and Hillary used the word “denounced” and Obama came back and said “OK, I’ll concede the point; I denounce his support”. The crowd loved it. Hillary was the more convincingly pro Israel policy of the two. It seems Obama was cut off by the moderators when he was defending himself against a Hillary charge of voting against a credit card interest limit bill. The debate was held in Cleveland and the weather outside was terrible.

This morning when I got up I felt like singing “Good Morning USA, I have a feeling that it’s going to be a wonderful day”. For the first time in quite some time I didn’t need a jacket when I went out on the patio this morning. Coincidentally I am wearing my white American flag shirt. For breakfast we had cream of wheat that wasn’t excessively thin, and fried eggs. I went out after a while to the bakery for a large coffee.

Now Obama and John Mc Cain are in a shouting match over whether Al Qaida is in Iraq, or something. Mc Cain was trying to accuse Obama of ignorance. Of course it's flattering for Mc Cain to know whom he's going to be campaigning against in the fall.

Last night I watched American Idol. That “Rolling Stone” was the best song that far of the evening and Simon was absolutely right about that. How all three greviously missed the boat on the last song, which was the best song of the night with that guy singing “Without Love” absolutely flawlessly. He was perfect. I guess these people must have a tin ear or something. Once again I had a sore throat and coughing last night. I don’t cough during the day. Oscar informed me that this morning’s was the last of five days of anti-biotics. Oscar gave me two pieces of mail. One was from Time-Warner. Someone must have put me on their mailing list since I never used to get mailings from them before. The other was an “urgent” pink envelope from the phone company, which only informed me that my “Life Line” form had gone through with no problems.

This time of year in 1968 forty years ago the first primary had not yet occurred. This year after Tuesday there will be “the long wait” till late summer. Having the conventions so late makes absolutely no sense, particularly this year. In history books they’ve even made reference to party conventions being held in June, and this year that wouldn’t be at all a bad idea. People are going to just snooze and forget about the campaign till “After the World Series” as they point out on “Making of the President 1960”. That year both party conventions were in July. The Democrats were in Los Angeles (after I was no longer living there) and the Republicans were in Chicago. One thing that puzzles me about election night that year is I remember my Dad was gloating in the fact that Kennedy was pulling away from Nixon, JFK winning state after state. Then the guy announced on the TV that it had just turned midnight. "I guess I better be heading to bed, I've got school tomorrow" I thought. But all of the pundits say that during the night the race tightened, and I guess I'm puzzled as to how late it DID tighten?

Today’s religious thought consists of this: We know O Master that perfection can not come of sin, nor can corruption breed flawlessness. Therefore how can God or Jesus say of an illigatimate bastard birth that that baby’s life was pre-ordained of God and that good things for that life are predestined. The logical deduction is that his parents did not sin in producing him. For example- - if you have a crick in your arm and are throwing darts with a friend and despite your pain, you throw a dart dead center in the target, you can be said to have thrown a sinless shot. But the perfect results could logically not have come from anything other than a sinless throw. (Selah) If everything we do is preordained from the foundation of the Universe, how can it be said to be sin? In God’s mind it already “exists” and it’s only in our perception that the passage of time occurs.

Finally, William Buckley died today, founder of “Firing Line” and I think he personally commissioned J S Bach to write the theme song. Unlike everybody else I’m not going to make with a history of his life. You can find that elsewhere. I’d just like to say that the first time I heard of him Dad was playing a reel to reel tape of Buckley debating some Black guy like James Baldwin or something. I naturally assumed that both of the speakers on the tape were Black. Buckley is known for his hoity-toity intellectual brand of conservatism. In the circles I ran around with in the “seventies, Buckley would automatically be considered a communist because he was from New York. Besides this he was just too liberal and too “Jewish”. Buckley was for the leagelization of marijuana and some other “liberal” causes as I recall, and has notably been absent the past seven years as to people lining up to defend George Bush.

I had Rush Limbaugh on this morning for the full three hours, and then I switched to Sam Cedar at noon and at two. I had the soap opera on at one. Kimberly is back, but with a different actress, a flaming red-head. Of the people not at the funeral, these consisted of Alice Horton, the couple’s “best friend”, and “Uncle Eric” whom Eric was named after and who molested Kimberly as a little girl. “Uncle Eric” was notably absent from the recent Ireland flashbacks. Eric the younger was absent. Lucas went to prison without passing Go. They did not cover one court appearance of Lucas. Even if he were found guilty he’d be allowed three weeks or something to “get his affairs in order” before official sentencing. Also not there were Carrie and Austin, and of course Will, who is staying with them in Switzerland. Then there is Frankie, the “other” adopted son. Is Gennifer shacked up with Frankie now or is she back with Jack? I forget.

Thom Hartmann the other day was again talking about the “religious gene” others have mentioned. They say the gene may have helped mankind cultivate a sense of unity when mankind was just starting out. Those who had this gene prospered and survived more than those who lacked it, so eventually everyone got the gene. Christians say you are born with a “God-shaped hole” in your soul. The trouble is you could make the same argument about the size of a man’s penis. I guess my advice is to “get over it”. I’ve had dreams where I craved a drink of alcohol. When I woke up the craving was gone. More important than having a perceived “need” (which, by the way isn’t being met by the churches anyhow) but whether in fact there actually is a God who could meet the need.