President Obama is doing now what he should have been doing the past six months in that he is finally making stump speeches in public where he goes after the practices of the insurance companies. But I have a feeling it's too little and too late. The health care bill appears doomed. For every vote, if any they turn into a yes vote on health care, several more votes go "No". Now there is talk of high pressure desperation tactics in trying to round up enough votes to get the health care bill through the House. But meanwhile the insurance companies are staging a public relations counter attack by saying that the fault in high rates does not lie with them but with other aspects of the health care profession such as hospital rates and drug prices. It's pointed out that insurance companies only have a four percent profit whereas drug companies have a twenty percent profit. I think it's time we learned ALL the facts on health care and not just the ones that the Left wants to present to the public. The bottom line is what this bill does is shift health care costs from sick people who use the services, to those who have chosen not to be insured or the otherwise healthy people who are considered "good risks" by the insurance companies. It's funny how we never hear about them. The Left calls people without insurance "freeloaders" who "drive up costs" because supposedly all of these people go to emergency rooms if they ever do get sick. I personally resent this designation. Since this bill really does cause more problems than it cures, I would be voting this health care bill down.
Eric Massa has been in the news a lot because of his gay proclivities and the charge that Rhom Emanuel approached him in the shower and stuck his finger in his chest pressuring Eric to vote for the health care bill. And no, I don't know why they took the shower curtains off the showers. But of course Eric Massa claims he was pressured to resign by fellow Democrats because he will be voting No on health care because it doesn't contain a public option. We are told how Eric Massa engaged in tickling parties of subordinates. Stephanie Miller doesn't know whether he is gay or not but aside from his gayness, he seems to be suffering from some sort of personality meltdown. Apparently he told his teenage children when he was running for Congress in New York to be really respectful to Rohm Emanuel because he was an influencial man. Emanuel told him he would have to raise two hundred thousand dollars a month, for several months, if he had any hope of winning a congressional seat. The whole thing is murky with several sub plots. Massa has attacked Rush Limbaugh for not honoring the fact that he is a vetteran who has spent time in the Navy. But Rush Limbaugh calls you a "phony vetteran" unless you agree with him on everything. Now we hear that Massa had certain proclivities in the Navy by going down four decks to shower with the younger, junior officers. I plan to catch last night's interview on the Glen Beck show last night. I'm glad Glen Beck was willing to have him on.
Another inagmatic personality was one featured last night on KCET. They featured a thing on evangelist Amie Semple Mc Fearson. She came into life with a strong religious background but like me, had to wrestle with the teachings of evolution and decide which side of the fence she came down on. Her first husband, an evangelist named Semple, died on a missionary trip to China right after they were married. She claimed she was called by God to go out on her own and lead a ministry. This took a lot of courage because it involved reaching out to the poor and also to racial minorities, which was not then in fashion. When she came to Los Angeles she was pressured to forgo some of the more extreme aspects of pantacostalism because City People would be turned off by that. But you realize what a bigoted city Los Angeles really was in those days. California of course hated the Chinese. And Los Angeles was hostile to Latinos coming from accross the border. And Police Chief Parker was bigoted against Blacks. But Los Angeles was also snooty against evangelists and fundamentalists in general because they wanted to cast LA as some liberal Hollywood mecca or something. When Aimee disappeared in the spring of 1926 under strange circumstances for six week (she waded out into the ocean and just disappeared), afterward the District Attorney attempted to file charges against her. Some people thought she was having an affair with her radio producer. But this attempt was defeated because some hot shot liberal reporter fresh off the Scopes monkey trial case, began investigating Aimee and writing about her. But when he learned the facts he refused to condemn her as the District Attorney had hoped she would. Later on in the thirties her ministry recovered some of its former glory as she got back to her spiritual roots. Today of course we have this Neo Con Christianity as taught by such people as Gene Scott and Jesus Christ of KFI, who are really down on any idea of supernatural manifestations of any kind or "moves of the spirit". Jesus teaches "Anybody who speaks in tongues it just trying to make himself feel important, when he's really not important". Pastors resent anything "spontanious" unless they are in absolute control over it like Akmadenijab or Kim Ill Sun of North Korea. Their message is "God doesn't run this congragation; I do". These neo cons also regard any supernatural miracle of any sort is "Well, this was put in the Bible for leturgical and theological considerations, and not of its own merit". These neo cons favor the rule of despotism (their own) over law, and state proudly that "Christians don't have rights" and as such would reject the statement of Abraham Lincoln of "No man is above the law, and no man is beneath it". They don't believe in the Bible as much as they believe in the science of "Hermanutics". They in essence believe the only way you can "come to God" is to go through them. Jesus' fondest wish is for a collection of small churches each of which thinks it has the exclusive key to heaven, led by despotic pastors such as Bill Halliday who are in sole control of who is admitted to their church and who is kicked out. Jesus refers to this as the doctrine of "accountability". Mega Churches are seen as undesirable because often these churches grow spontaneously with "moves of the spirit" that is not under the direct control of some pastor's thumb.
Sometimes I feel that life is stagnating. I haven't done any rock compilations outside the Beatle ones in quite some time. Many would note all the George Harrison songs out in the last twenty years (!) that aren't included. Actually George hasn't done that much recording since 1990 and of course Harrison has been dead the past eight years. I feel as though I am no longer on the "cutting edge of societal evolution" as Rush used to say. I am no longer "ahead of the learning curve" in my blogs, because I'm waiting too long to put them out.
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