Ted Kennedy to be Burried in Arlington

You know that signs of economic improvement can now be seen every day. However it’s been “depressed” so long it’s going to take a lot more good news to get down into people’s psyches so that they really believe it. Most people sense when "a corner has been turned" on an issue, and even in their personal lives sense whether victory is to become a reality or remain just a pipe dream. There are times, even in a person's personal life that they can point to positive "things" but all the while sense that a key battle has not been won. This is the case with Health Care. President Obama blew a valuable propaganda oppertunity to "hit a home run out of the park" during the eulogy of Ted Kennedy today. Now there only remains to sit back back and wait for the inevitable failure that is to come. Home sales have been steadily up for the past several months. Industrial production is up this past month and that is a significant sign of improvement. The stock markets are continuing on their uptrend. Some would say “Don’t buy now; wait for the pullback”. My response to that is that nobody is psychic. The “pull-back” might just never come, and I wouldn’t want to be the last person to turn bullish. But as I said I'm not psychic, especially about soap opera plots. And life is a soap opera. You just have to ask yourself which you are more afraid of: the markets falling apart and free-falling, or getting “left behind” to borrow a page from our Christian friends. Why should you be the last person to be making money? It's kind of like finding a break in traffic to cross the street. If your timing is off you could get run over. Really what is occuring that as Hartman points out, Timothy Geitner is trying to "re-inflate the bubble" only this time it will burst more quickly than the last time. But I don't know when that will be. But when the bubble bursts on the economy the next time it will most certainly be more disasterous for all concerned, just as a second heart attack for a man may kill him if he took no warning from a prior heart attack. (Selah)

A classic liberal would reason “To raise Consciousness of a Problem, one must first become Aware of it. We then presume that Awareness of a problem will evoke Concern. And ethically if you have a Concerned then you need to take some sort of appropriate Action on that concern. Given this line of reasoning, how do you suppose that God Almighty would score on one of these “Liberal” voting tallies?

A lot of people would say of Ted Kennedy’s death “Well, at last he will be reunited with all his loved ones”. This whole thing about “being reunited with your loved ones” when you die is something for which there is not one verse of scriptural support from Genisis to Revelation. You may think you’ve heard “something” about it. There is after all in Revelations when it says of the slain martyra "Wait here a while while I put your enemies under your feet" (or something like that) But if a slain person is told to as it were "rest" or "sleep" then having him talk is nerely a metaphore to get the point accross that God is working out his will, isn't it? In like manner the Rich Man in the parable of Lazerus really wasn't sent to Hell was he, for being stingy. If this alone were grounds for going to Hell a lot of good Christians would be there. No. This is another for being concerned for the poor among us RIGHT NOW, not in the afterlife. Perhaps you’ve heard the verse in Hebrews about “Through faith, women have received back their dead sons”. This verse alludes to the miracles of Jesus, but nobody Jesus ever raised made claims of knowing anything about the after-life. Some may then say “Well it says in scripture that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord”. I won’t dispute that scripture says a soul “will return to God” when you die. But is being “with God” the same thing as reuniting with your family? Chuck Smith once told of someone who asked the question “Will I know my loved ones in heaven?” and Chuck gave the sort of reassuring answer the man wanted to hear. He said, “Of course. You won’t be dumber up there than you are down here, will you?” It’s nice reasoning but will it hold up? I bet a lot of you didn’t know that in a lot of Christian circles they have the “Amnesia doctrine” or some may call it the Lobotomy doctrine. This is the doctrine where if there is anything the least bit either unpleasant or “un-scriptural” about ANY of your personal associates, you simply forget all about these. As you know Jesus gets annoyed when anyone asks him “What happens to unsaved people” or others may ask in concern “What about my unsaved loved ones?” It’s simple. You just forget they ever existed like that “Forgetfulness” cocktail that Moe served Homer Simpson in an episode last week. Not only that but God himself has the power to Will himself to Forget any fact at any time as though it never existed. These are what theological giants such as Billy Graham and Gene Scott believe. You may say “Well, I’ve lived a pretty good life” but Calvin says that “pretty good” won’t cut it. Here is one place where the Perfect does indeed become the enemy of the Good. The pastor of the local Calvary Chapel preached a sermon on the Afterlife once in which for bad people it’s almost as though they weren’t there in heaven though technically they made it in. These churches believe that all people will do is sit around and remonis with fellow Christians about old times they had “fellowshipping in the Lord” so that the more time you spent in religious posturing in your lifetime, the more you will have to remember in the after-life. Some may say “But doesn’t scripture say that we will Know [God] even as we are Known [by God]. Let’s suppose you’re hoping to do some sort of Valcan mind meld with God when you die and somehow assimilate everything He knows. Different forms of Life have trouble relating to each other. For instance would you mind-meld with a caterpillar crawling on a leaf? Or better yet how about mind-melding with the leaf itself. Do you see the problem? God has experienced everything that has ever happened or will ever happen in the Universe all at once in a single moment of time, and perhaps other stuff we are unaware of. How can your mind grasp this? If God has the power- - - shall we say, to do something “Un-God like” as Gene says he does- - you can say “You will Know to the extent that you are Known” but perhaps God doesn’t want to know you. If you’ve heard Jesus on KFI you know there are “certain people who you just wouldn’t care to have for dinner”. And if God doesn’t want to know you, what makes you think you can Know Him?” (Selah)

This is Saturday August 29, 2009 at 1:30 in the afternoon and the little league game has apparently been rained out. It was pouring down there at the field, and may be the same rain storm that affected the weather at Teddy’s funeral as the dignitaries were arriving. I had that on at seven on seven. Since we’re “simocasting” let me just make a few general remarks. Obama did not talk about getting health care passed there at the church when he had the chance. He didn’t speak for as long as I would have figured, but the service was in excess of two hours. I went for breakfast and when I got back at around five to eight the service appeared to be just starting and it lasted till about ten o clock on the dot. The final hymn was “America the Beautiful” missing a verse. The other song they sang was a supposed favorite of Catholics, which is downright Dylanesque in the number of verses. A lot of things were said to make you think, both about Teddy’s life and theologically. The pastor gave a good message. Then some “youngest” relatives gave speeches. Yo Yo Ma played the Cello and Classico Domingo sang tenor. “Ave Maria” was sung. Edward’s son Ted spoke, and he had that Kennedy speech making aura about him as he spoke about losing his leg at age twelve and climbing up that hill in the snow. Then Patrick spoke, who was by his own words the runt of the family, with red hair, and he got to ride “extra” in sailing races. We heard a lot of Teddy’s love of sailing and other strenuous physical activities including ski jumping, if I heard right, and his love of the arts and painting. President Obama admired a sea scape picture in Ted’s office and Teddy said he could have it. Teddy loved debate around the dinner table and often played Devil’s Advocate. There was talk of his personal generosity, and how he loved to sing, if off key. Of course Teddy was friends with conservatives such as Oren Hatch and John Mc Cain. You don’t see that in “statesmen” today. Back in the old days Tom O Neil would sit around and have a drink together with President Reagan to work out their problems. People don’t do that today. They don’t communicate. I think of Christian pastors I have known in the past 25 years and the record is far from stellar. I look at the pastor of the local Calvary Chapel, and I look at Pastor Don. There was a guy who is more shallow than meets the eye. There is the next tier of Pastors such as Louis Monteith and Richard Cathers, who are absolutely people I would not have a drink with. Then you have Bill Halliday. I don’t see among any of them the sort of magnimity you saw in Edward Kennedy in dealing with his political opponents. At ten I went outside and talked to Janet and then Glen awhile. It’s the longest conversation I’ve had with Glen in some time.

I went down stairs for coffee sitting on that swing thing for ten minutes in the sun waiting for Dora to announce it. I just had one cup. Then I listened to Handel on the law, and then at close to ten to the hour I went out for another cigarette, knowing from past experience that commercial break can run seven minutes. I listened to Leo Le Port both before and after lunch. We had chef’s salad with the usual hard boiled egg and crackers, with watermelon bowl. I had two cups of coffee for lunch. I have to get as much of their low caffeine stuff in small cups as I can since I’m of course out of money to buy any. Leo doesn’t like “Snow Leopard” because he says it’s more like a “Service Pack” update and they shouldn’t charge $39.95 for it. I’ve read the same thing on-line however there seem to be a lot of “little” improvements that are worth the price.

Antony never sang “Daddy’s Home” last night at the talent show. I watched Jeopardy switching to NFL football on CBS with New England beating Washington 27 to 24 on a late field goal. I was rooting for Washington. Then it was some NBC crime drams. I slept OK. We had cream of wheat with toast and scrambled eggs for breakfast. The AC in here has kind of quit working. Maybe a little but not like it was the past several weeks. Janet has been more conversant lately. Dora just called afternoon coffee, so I guess I’ll be headed out. Bill already just left. Over and out.

Jackson's Doctor Guilty of Homocide

Michael Jackson's personal physician, Conrad Murry, has now been found by the coroner's inquest, to be guilty of Homicide, or"Death at the hands of Another" as they refer to it. I remember that term from the Reuben Salazar Inquest in September of 1970 here in the LA area. If you don't know the details, first Murry gives Jackson Valium at 1:30 in the morning, and then every hour or hour and a half after that, as sleep eludes Michael Jackson, he piles on other drugs such as Ativan and muscle relaxents, often giving repeat doses of the same drug. But Michael still could not fall asleep and finally Jackson asks for his "milk", which is what he refers to Prophinol as, which is that drug administered by hospital drop and must be constantly monitered all the time. The doctor administers Prophinol and then leaves the patient to take a bathroom break. When he returns the patient is now unconscious. Of course he doesn't call the relavant authorities. Instead he makes phone calls and gives Jackson another drug to try and counteract what he's had. The thing is that Murry lied about all of this. He failed to tell any of the medical authorities this vital information. This right there is a criminal act. The charge under California law will be at least Manslaughter, and lately we out here have redefined what "murder" is, so don't count that charge out. This will be another of these cases which dominate the headlines. And we know how with any case in the Entertainment industry, that defendants seem to live a charmed life, and convictions are hard to come by.

Ben Vernanke has been reappointed to head the Federal Reserve. Some say this was done now to take people's attention off the fact that the projected deficet over ten years will now be nine trillion over the expected seven trillion. Some may say "why quibble over a couple trillion"? It is believed that had Vernanke NOT been reappointed this would have caused the stock markets to fall percipitously. People are arguing over which "letter" best fits this recession. Will it be a "U" recession, a "V" recession - or worse yet, an "L" recession, where the recovery just doesn't come? I don't even know if there is any evidence that the head of the Fed even knows what he is doing at this point. At the "bottom" of the 1982 recession late in the year, the stock market was already making new highs in anticipation. We are nowhere near that now being nearly five hundred points from the top of the market on the D J I. If they continue to cut back things like Social Security checks, this will further depress the "demand" of this economy.

Thom Hartman suggests that if you really want to see action in this economy, to cut the retirement age to 55 and that way all those people would be taken out of the labor market and this would force the unemployment rate down and wages up. In terms of this Health Care situation, what President Obama needs to do is to get on TV and declare war on the Insurance Companies and H M O's. Point out that everyone opposing a publicly funded health plan is acting knowingly or unknowingly as a schill for the insurance companies. Do not let let a handfull of greedy insurance companies dictate what health care will consist of in this country. What we need to do is re-frame the whole debate and take charge of what terms we define our opposition with. The Republicans are pros at this. Instead we have Ronald Reagan speeches from 1962 making the rounds where he uses the phrase "The government wants to Impose "socialized medicine" on a US Population that is perfectly happy with the status quo. They say that having a member of your family mugged will instantly change anyone from a liberal to a conservative. May I suggest that an unforseen medical crisis in a family can just as quickly change a complacent conservative to an agitated, activist liberal. But why wait for disaster to happen before you change? It's pointed out that we in the US ALREADY spend MORE MONEY on health care than anywhere else in the world, but we get a whole lot less for it. But all conservatives see is this bullshit with this guy going to Canadian health care clinics and not getting treatment for tennis elbow, or whatever it is he claims to have.

As you know we are coming up on the four year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. But there is a case to be made that President Bush's entire response was designed for "social engineering" to rid the New Orleans metropolitin area of Black people. First of all Bush did not shorten his vacation to tend to the hurricane. But on August 27th. apparently before the hurricane even struck, Bush already declared certain counties a disaster area but it was areas in Northern and Western Louisiana but NOT ANY COUNTY most likely to be affected by the hurricane. It would seem that Bush's policy was marked, "For Whites Only". You have heard the investives uttered against the Black and the poor people in New Orleans by Bush's apologists of the far right. And with each passing day they move further and further to the right as new more extreme voices such as Glen Beck rise to prominence. I don't know of any other natural disaster where the victins were referred to as "shiftless" and "lazy". The idea is to clear all the problem Black people out of the city to "Turn New Orleans Red" and to create a new Republican base in the area with construction projects that are designed to cater to the rich.

The CIA tortures people. In previous times the CIA was known as an information gathering agency. We all know about the world of spies and counter spies from the movies. But Bush's CIA had a whole array of torture techniques they employed. They water boarded the same prisoner over a hundred times. They staged mock exicutions. They threatened prisoners with the deaths of their loved ones. In one case they turned on a power drill and aimed it at a guy's head. There is the usual heat and cold and sleep deprivation. Now it seems Eric Holder is going to appoint a special prosecutor to handle some of this stuff, but the juristiction he has will be narrowly prescribed, with little or no lattitude to "expand" any investigations. I am among the many people who feels there is all too much "continuity" between the Bush and Obama administrations. Finding real evidence of change is a lot harder than you would think.

And now for our "Piracy Moment". The following "admission" might as well have been taken from secret ecclesiastical documents in the Pope's vault. But it is taken from that other great "treaties" of our time, Mein Kamph. Here is goes: All this [self deception] was inspired by the principle--[technically] true in itself--that in the Big Lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily [subconsciously] corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the Primitive Simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the BIG lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell Small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths (Selah), and they would not believe that others could have the Impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will Still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be SOME OTHER EXPLANATION. For the grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is known to all expert liars in this world and to all who conspire together in the art of lying. (Selah)

Finally, in soap land they are pulling a major bullshitting job on us. They are leading us to believe that Bo and Hope's little daughter was gunned to death at the end of today's episode by that rogue cop confirming Hope's worse fears, hiding behind green tarp. Of course they can do "dishonest" editing when they want to, and come tomorrow's episode you're going to find that there's a whole lot of stuff they left out of the story deliberately to mislead you. All I can say to the NBC producers is, "Just be glad that Annie Wilkes is only a fictional character". They have had totally "un-believable" plot twists before such as the utterly looney circumstances of John and Marlena Black's exits from the show.