The Rehabilitation of George Bush

Our esteemed President is on a roll now. Castro's resigning after 49 years is the best thing that could happen to freshen up a stale presidency. Now if Bush has the sense to normalize relations with Cuba he will defuse a lot of liberal complaint about him that he is intransigent. By the way the words intransigent and intransitive don't mean the same thing. But all indications are that even the democratic candidates don't want to open up relations with Cuba. We trade with Comunist China and Cuba's torture and human rights violations are no where as grevious as China's. It's just that Nixon is a good guy but when people think of Cuba they think of Kennedy and Kruschev and the Cuban missile crisis. When Nixon stabbed Tihwan in the back in 1971 it was seen as a good thing. It was "ping pong diplomicy". But the idea of normalizing relations with Cuba is resisted by the Cuban lobby, who always vote Republican. And we know how Hillary loves the Latin vote. If I were president I'd approach Raul, whom the country has been turned over to, Fidel's brother, and I would hint "today is your lucky day" and I'd say that if he doesn't cease this oppertunity and give us any concessions we happen to congure up that we want in exchange for trade, that the door may close and there would be another forty-odd years of trade isolation. All of the psychics are already saying that Raul will bring democracy to Cuba in one way or another. I think our rationalization for isolating Cuba is decades outdated, and I'd just like to say few of us share the Mafia's romantic notion that is Baptists were still running Cuba then everything would be just peachy. Harry Truman stated while he was alive that our government made a major strategic mistake in not volentering to help Castro in 1959.

Obama has won state number Nine in his string of victories. Apparently Obama has won every state in the month of February by a margin of at least twenty percentage points, except Maine, which he won by nineteen. Clearly everyone has been wrong about Obama, particularly in the Clinton campaign. All of the negativity of "Billery" has gone unheeded by the people of Wistonsin as they have of every other state where the people came to know Obama. Of course I found in dealing with Christianity and the Calvary right, the better people know me, the fewer of these absurd stereotypes that crop about me. And I like Obama know what it's like to fight phantoms floating around in peoples' minds. The Clintons and company have raised three recent charges against Obama. First that he promised to take public campaign funding only like Mc Cain is accusing him of. But Obama should challenge Mc Cain to only taking public money for the fall campaign. There is no way Mc Cain is going to pass up all that money from the Busy Dynesty to fund his fall campaign. Mc Cain in this area will "lose his nerve". Mc Cain in abandoning the principles of Mc Cain - Feingold, is an area for the democrats to launch a major attack against him in the fall campaign. If Mc Cain is going to continue to kiss conservative ass, he's going to lose all the respect of those centerest people who voted for him in this primary campaign. The second area of the Billery attack against Obama centers on this plegurism business. This to me is absurd. Where is it written that you can't use someone elses' words in a campaign. It's been pointed out that someone else ghost wrote "It Takes a Village", which people think that Hillary wrote. Bush believes she wrote it. Besides it's a friend of his he borrowed the words from and they borrowed words from each other. But I don't understand how Joe Byden was knocked out of the 1988 campaign by plagurizing speeches. Of all the issues you could fault someone on, this issue seems pointless. The third area of attack is the debating issue. Obama has appeared in eighteen debates and he's scheduled to appear in two more for Texas and Ohio. But Hillary used this failure to debate issue in Wisconsin, in vain. The thing is that if Obama were to schedule a debate he'd have to prep for it and it would take time away from the capgaign and nobody has that much time between elections these days. On the issue of Party unity the one area where I disagree with Randi Rhodes on - - well, two - - the other is the Open Primary. I'd like to see fewer open primaries. But I also disagree with Randi on this whole idea of "We don't care who runs in the fall because they are both outstanding camdidates. Let's go back to John Kennedy. The reason why he was picked over Johnson or Humphrey or even Stevenson, is because he had the personal charisma and "the vision thing". Leaders need to instill a vision of hope. One can say that Jesus was good at making speeches, because nobody today believe that Jesus actually does any of that other stuff like heal or cast out demons or raise from the dead. If you ask a liberal about Jesus like Thom Hartman, you won't hear how Jesus gave to the poor or volenteered for the red cross or the peace corps, or supported popular charitable foundations. You will hear little of how Jesus overcame temptations with women or to drink alcahol. Jesus is not remembered for these things. Jesus today is remembered for his Words. It's his Words more than his deeds that people strive to live up to. So I'm just staying that Obama can point to precident for relying on his words. To illustrate a greater truth, there are times when we have to "Clear our minds to see the truth" to even Know what to do next. We need a type of spiritual clenzing. Personally I don't give a crap about whether we have universal health insurance or not. If that's the only appeal a candidate has then forget it! I don't think we need to engage in some massive contest to see which candidate can promise the biggest government giveways to the people. The fact is that neither candidate is going to do anything about issues such as civil liberties or the growing size of government or the growing Imperial Presidency. Neither candidate is talking about prosecuting people in the Bush adminestration. Just a week or so ago Bill Clinton gave an "apology statement" for why he is still for NAFTA and not raising terrifs with Comunist China in particular. I don't know that Obama is any better on terrifs than Clinton is. He's talked little about it. In short my support of the democratic party at all is tenuous. Any number of issues could sway me to vote either Republican, or for a third party.

They are celebrating in Kosovo because that country has signed a declaration of Independence, and they were endoursed by Western Europe, and condemned by Russia, who continues to be pro Serbian after over 90 years. People on the far right like to use Kosovo as a case in point of the US supporting Moslems living there and that they are somehow "ungrateful". Dennis Miller has spoken of his detesting the word Palestinian, insisting that that is not a race, and even if they were a race they don't deserve to have a nation. Thankfully, President Bush is more liberal than the right wing whackos who support him. President Bush has been spending time in Africa trying to rehabilitate his image with help for AIDS and malaria and the like. They teach primarily abstinence before marriage. He is handing out free mosquito netting. He’s more popular now in East Africa than he is here.

This and the previous three paragraphs was typed February 19, 2008 and the elections are being held today in Wisconsin and Hawaii and also a primary in Washington State, which doesn’t count. Obama is trying to “beef” up his image, like Mondale. Obama can't go wrong in specificity for people like me who are actually curious. If it's true that people in general vote with their gut rather than their minds, then it doesn't matter. I think a big turn off, and it is for me is that ranting "whine" that Hillary gets to her voice when she campaigns on the stump.

I have certain favorite photographs I use for wallpaper, like “Mt. Reneir II”, which I have on now, which I’ve used the previous two years about this time of year. We had chili dogs for lunch and I got a letter there from Time-Warner I’d forgotten that I already picked up. I got a cigarette from Phyllis, which is a “free” cigarette I don’t have to pay back, because she already owed it to me. I was talking to Nancy about the weather and now we’re supposed to get some rain every day this week. I guess if you just had enough inputs in Excel computer programs, you could predict weather with exactitude. We aren’t there yet, but if you’re like me and believe that nature is one continuous cause and effect force, then you should be able to “get it right” every time.

GNOSTIC TEACHING IS GROSSLY MISUNDERSTOOD

This next paragraph may turn out to be several times longer than intended so hold on to your hats. Thom Hartman was debating with someone whether a corporation is a person or not. I believe corporations are persons and therefore ought to be taxed. This guest on the radio says corporations are not persons and shouldn’t be taxed. But conservatives are not the only people guilty of hypocracy. Christians do it when they talked about “The Gnostic hericy”. First of all they misstate what gnosticisum is just like they misstate what epicurianism is. With both they say “It’s a license for the flesh to sin and not be accountable, even though if you look up Gnosticism, it has virtually nothing to do with “the flesh” in this way. That didn’t stop Irenius, who is not my favorite theologian to begin with, to say that Gnosticism is a license for the flesh to sin. According to Christians, the Gnostics unduly separate out the spirit life from the flesh life, when in reality you can’t divorce one from the other. I am among those who agree that the spirit and flesh cannot be divorced. However Christians turn right around and endorce this separation of spirit and the flesh in another way. Phyllis was just telling somebody that Christ was the second Adam. What this means according to Dr. Price is that Jesus was not born perfect; he was merely born innocent. None of us have a chance for salvation by our own action when we’re born. We are born guilty have having committed sins already. (The last time I checked, guilty was the opposite of innocent) Jesus had the opportunity, as the first Adam did, to live a perfect life, but we don’t. Now- - when we are saved- - St. Paul tells us that marvelolus things happen to us like the spirit of right and truth comes into us and we have the ability to live perfect. (in a perfect state) Now… the Gnostics likewise teach that once we encounter Sophia, we have the ability to be saved. As they teach it and as I’ve gone into already- - there is a devolutional quality with “The One” meaning God in his perfected First State, which apparently goes back to the pythagerians. (The term “The One” reminds me of ‘Hue” in that StarTrek “Borg” episode) Anyhow, “The One” begat other gods and goddesses and each “aeon” of layer of gods was inferior to the previous one. Finally you get to Sophia and Christ, who occupy the lowest rung. (Jesus was created a little lower than the angels, ect) Sophia had “unauthorized reproduction without a man” (or copyright clearance) and begat Man, and as punish for her sin the baby was exiled and emveloped in Darkness where she could never find him. The school of Gnosticism that made its way to Rome at the turn of the 2^nd. century originally came from Egypt, which I find interesting. To make a long story short- - Gnostics teach that you can have a personal encounter with God, or The One, and thus be saved in your soul and spirit. St. Paul tought the same thing. But these neo dispensational Calvinists come along and teach that “Well yes, some people are saved by emvoking Christ, but you can’t count on it, and only God knows whether a man is really saved”. They will go on to state that “It’s all on Faith” and there no visible signs such as a “feeling of deliverance” or any Spirit that comes upon you or any healing of your body or anything. Salvation has nothing to do with the soul, but only with “the spirit”. This is what these neo Calvinists teach. So in the end you can not know whether you are delivered from your “Total depravity” or not. You have to wait till you die, when, according to these people, all your questions will be answered and all your doubts resolved and all your desires fulfilled. It’s kind of the dyspensationalist’s way of justifying “Nothing” and calling it “Something”. In their mind if you in your own flesh have an “Experience”, ie. seeing flashing lights or hearing voices or whatever, this experience doesn’t count because it happened to your Flesh. The only true experience is one of “the spirit”, which can’t be proved or in any manner demonstrated to exist to begin with. FYI, when I used the term “soul” I used it to refer to “Self”. To these people “soulish” is akin to “Self” and therefore is Baaad-!

There was new stuff about the Kennedy assasenation last night. They discovered a whole closet full of evidence that the Warren Comission reviewed and rejected including part of an alledged “Play” where Oswald and Jack Ruby were talking about killing the President before it happened”. Apparently they plan to make all this information public in a museum or some sort. The new D A believes the public should see it. My position is the same on this as it is on Christianity and the origen of the Roman Catholic Church. We may never know the truth. The question is whether you trust the people who are indoctrinating you. As for me, I do not.

Not it’s 12:30. I’m going to make a complete list of all the people I owe.

I’d like to explain what I meant by “the pond” in one of my recent postings. It’s simple. If there is a speed boat where do most all of the waves form. From behind the moving boat. If there are waves propagated in front of something moving in the water they are shrunk in the direction of the moving object and stretch out behind the object but the overall speed of the propagation is the same. For the most part big waves in the ocean travel at about the same speed as little waves. They just aren’t as high. I say all of this to illustrate a simple point. You don’t need the special theory of relativity to explain the speed of light if you accept the ether theory of space. Go for the obvious!

It’s after six now. I just did “Plaza” in sketch. The thing wigged out when I tried to draw a circle on that flat roof enclosure. So I used a square. Obama won in Wisconsin they project. This is big news if it holds up. I bought a big Hershey’s chocolate bar for just a dollar from Janet when I paid her back the cigarette. I ate the whole thing before dinner. I couldn’t help myself once I got started. So far I’ve also paid Bill back and James back. I went out to the bakery for a large coffee after dinner. We had what you’d have to call vegetarian soup with a few strands of chicken in it. I had seconds on that. We also had Spinach and corn bread, and you know what desert. Oh, Dianne is back but she didn’t talk about her sougern much but seems no worse the wear.