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.