Constitution clashes Head-on with "The Future"

Now tried and true tradition clashes with technology. Americans are upset because President Obama, when he signed the patriot act was in Europe at the time but used an automatic signature generator to sign the Patriot Act extension remotely. Personally I’d demand that he travel across the Atlantic to sign it the old fashioned way. So we lose a few days when we aren’t “covered”. Hell, it isn’t some freaking collision insurance policy or something. We’ve gotten used to the concept of the Patriot Act and all its “big brother” implications. But remember what Thom Hartmann said about the Third Reich, “If the last steps had been taken at the very beginning there would have been an uproar. But since each step was not really that much worse than the last one, the people accepted it. Rather than growing in certainty that a certain Course is wrong, the people actually grew in uncertainty about their own moral standards government should be held to. Newt Gingrich, who lies about anything involving economics, says that in his health plan it would be just that: a plan ti insure that people don’t get sick to begin with by mandating certain lies styles as opposed to other ones. So you could have the plot of “Quitters” becoming a reality in our lives. People should have the right to either have or not have medical insurance. But for Newt’s plan to work, you would have to employ a whole new layer of government beaurocracy to enforce his ideals.

Some may say this anti circumcision law they are trying to get passed in Santa Monica is some kind a joke. But don’t laugh too loudly because fifty or a hundred years ago we may have laws that infringe on certain religious groups’ rights to practice their faith. Personally I think they should legalize peyote. I don’t like these laws in France where Moslem women can’t walk around in traditional veils because they are some kind of a security risk. I know in Santa Monica they tried the experiment of Rent Controls. Those always end up in disaster. And there was some wheel chair ordenance debated on John and Ken over ten years ago where every single home had to be handicapped equipped, or else the government would come in and start tearing out walls. I’m really not big on these anti fur orddenances either. I believe these impinge on property rights of rich people, not to mention the all cherished “freedom of expression”. We are all concerned about “registered sex offenders” but nowadays this includes horney women in their thirties who have sex with fifteen year old boys. Every few months they pass laws narrowing the limits of where sex offenders can go. Of course you know my feelings about smoking bans. But I was just thinking that Jack Kavorkian oughta come out of retirement and service sex offenders who just served a 25 year prison sentence, only to discover that life on the outside was actually worse than when they were in prison.

They are now worried about the California snow pack in the Sierras because it is 192% of normal. It was only a few months ago that they finally came around to saying that we were no longer in a drought, so make up your minds. With geography in California and a high slant to rivers- - the probability of flooding is way lass than in places like North Dakoda, where the rivers actually flow backwards. But all over the West they are getting late snowfalls. I don’t see how this can be anything but a good thing. They complained for so long that extended drought was killing our evergreens. But some people just won’t be happy.

The future is upon us. I remember when “The New Leaf” came out forty years ago and they had this beeping heart monitor thing for an expensive sports car. Now it seems there is no grease monkey popping the hook and poking around your engine but rather you just hook the car up to a fancy computer and it gives you an instant diagnosis of everything that’s wrong with your car. Dr. Levy says cars are so complicated you can’t even change the oil by yourself now. Dr. Levy talked about his experience ad a college in Torrance where he steped out of the building during a night class break and couldn’t get back inside. The building had been locked down by computer at six and he had to contact some head hauncho in another city who then contacted the security guard on the eighth floor or something and he came down to let Dr. Levy in. But he couldn’t use the elevator without more help, and if it’s like a lot of “modern buildings” the stairways are locked, just in case a couple of generates make their way in there doing unseemly things, I suppose. Of course this whole idea of automated customer service is what I call self-defeating. Sure you save money on a couple of phone employees at ten dollars an hour, but you’ll lose a lot more than that in customer good will. Apparently they believe if people have some complaint they’ll just give up, but somehow continue doing business. And there are these cars now that not only automatically parrellel park, but also you don’t even need a driver according to Dr. Levy. A blind person could give a destination and the car would take them there, somehow timing with all the traffic laws. Of course they do have cards coordinated with lane sensors, and also that keep you a safe distance from the car in front, or can even sense when the driver has become drowsy and slow down and stop. Of course Leo Le Port was saying they don’t sell that many stand alone GPS devices any more because they are a part of your I phone. And of course if you just want a P D A, you can get an I pod and avoid the monthly $120.00 phone charge. Leo says they don’t sell that many cameras now because all Smart Phones have cameras. I find that a little hard to believe. Leo even believes the DVD will become obsolete as people more and more get their movies on-line. That’s an assanine inefficienty because you just clog up your computer with a ton of data it was never meant to handle. Sometimes I think we lean on technology more than is good for us, or society. I’m kind of in the Thom Hartman school of thought that what we lose in inefficiency we more than make up for by a healthier society and get real people involved in our commerce. I don’t want to go to a doctor and have it turn out to be an automated computer like on Jeopardy. I want to have contact with a real human being. That’s why people go to the doctor. Of course it was stated in “The Third Wave” thirty years ago that people would run business out of their house and not even have to commute. Judging on how freeway traffic is, that one is slow in coming true even with the virtual office and things like “Go To Meeting”. Although there may come a time in our future when young people behave more like 75 year old shut-ins and never go out anywhere but get all their “stimulation” electronically. Like my parents after a certain point they will reason “why go through the hassle of a vacation when I can just turn on the TV and watch a travelogue?” Dr. Levy talked about these automated supermarket lines where they don’t have cashiers but an automated nobody handles the bill. I don’t know what they do about produce. Of course even I have said I can get a computer to generate an image that were it painted by an actual artist working in paint and canvas- - would have been heralded as a freaking genious a hundred & fifty years ago. There is always the danger that we will lose something vital in all this mechanization that makes us unique as human beings.

It is said that “He who controls the dissemination of History controles the course a society will take”. That an awful lot of people are ignorant on some basic facts of History is stating the obvious. Taken Newt Gingrich. According to him the reason why people rejected Jimmy Carter in 1980 is because we were in the worst recession since W W II and after Reagan got in in a few months economic statistics began turning around. No wait a minute. That was Obama. The Regan recession didn’t begin until July of 1981. That month is indelibly etched in my mind because I was an avid reader of the business week charts during this time. It was August 5th 1981 I believe when I was at the beach being held down by two big waves in succession that "the whole decade ahead flashed before me", and I sensed that economic times would get much worse, that US society as we knew it in America would be altered, and that my life would take a turn for the worse during the decade. Now if we move to this whole Rapture thing of last weekend and that preacher- - maybe he’s the smartest man in the world, but he happened to overlook one thing. Ask any of “that kind of Christian” when the Rapture will occur and he will say “Right before the Antichrist comes and walks into the Jewish temple and profanes it”. You know, we’ve been debating ten years what to build on the site of Ground Zero. How long do you think it will take the Jews to get plans for a temple going? Also they say the Jews will view the Antichrist as a hero to Israel. So why do people go around calling President Obama the Antichrist? It makes absolutely no sense. Of course after Babylon indaded ancient Israel prophets like Isaiah appeared to speak of a Messiah for the Jews. And Ezekiel said that the temple would be built in his grandiose scheme. In his history of the nation of Israel, Ezekiel makes no mention of either King Solomon or the Temple. It’s as though he were completely unaware of it. If you read the stretch of Scripture where Solomon is mentioned you find some strange stuff. You find Egypt as a viable nation invading Israel, after Moses “utterly destroyed” them and other prophets said Egypt would never again be a great nation. Also you find reference to “Sodomites”, which was a city most people think it was utterly destroyed some seven centuries earlier. And correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think there is anything in the Solomon narritive, despite the letergical nature of the text, denoting either the Sabbath or Passover. Obviously history has been subject to a slice and dice campaign. At the time of John the Baptist there were many who distrusted anything associated with King Herod - and Herod built the temple. Jesus again repeats the assertion that “You will know it’s the antichrist because he will profane the temple”. Unless I’m not up on the news, last time I checked there WAS no Temple to profane. Am I wrong?

In my conversation with Stewart Sutcliffe several mornings ago he said that “Sometimes its redundant to speak the obvious”. For one thing people who think they know it all don’t want the obvious thrown up in their face. To say that things like Time and Space are “artifacts of God” is not to say that there is any shortage of either. For all practical purposes of human beings, time and space are unlimited. Some people are too inclined also, to impute “God” like qualities to human beings who have “been around the block” a lot more than they have and can talk and think circles around them. But even a very advanced alien culture that invaded Earth would not be “Gods” and they would not be “Infallible”. Stewart questions the use of that word anyhow saying “The term of too open to people’s own definitions of it”. I asked him “Well, some people don’t believe conversation with the Dead is possible” and Stewart just said “Look around at the world. Are you really going to sit there and tell me that vast numbers of people haven’t gotten inspiration and guidance from those who went before, that may not have been known at the time of their deaths?” As to the whole idea of just what “matter” is “made of” scientists are making discoveries all the time, both the “string” and the “particle” people. Scientists are coming to suspect that the whole concept of “spaciality” breaks down at the sub-micro level. People have a lot of assumptions about the universe, and that includes myself, that may become outmoded in fifty years, should there be any big break through. They say that all the “important” happenings with The Big Bang” occurred in fractions of a second. I find this interesting, and have a few questions of my own about that. In terms of what hits the media for public consumption, we haven’t made that many strides about “The Atom” and smaller in the past seventy years or so. Commercial jet travel is very much as it was fifty years ago (only a less pleasant experience) To the best of my knowledge they haven’t made many advances in solar panels since the 1960’s when they first began putting them on sattalites. This may prompt certain religious people (such as Neil Savedra) to conclude that “we have made all the advances that are Possible in such and such an area- - “ such as exceeding light speed. But if history tells us anything it’s that the world does not stand still, but mankind is always in a state of knowledge evolution. This will be the last posting on this Blog for a while. See us next time on “Marcus in Exile”. By then there will hopefully be fresh news to report on.

U S Senate Extends Patriot Act in Close Vote

The US Senate has voted 73 to 72 to extend the three key provisions of the Patriot Act before it expires tonight at midnight. I wonder who the key vote was. The House, with it’s Republican majority is expected to act on the bill immediately and send it to the President’s desk for signature. One provision allows wire taps without a warrant. Another allows the ransacking of business records, and the third provision has to do with “lone wolf” terrorists. It’s what the American People seem perfectly happy with. According to the guy now speaking on C-Span, “roving wiretaps” have been used in drug cases since 1986. However I imagine that is with a warrant. In February the extension of ninety days was voted on. Now they want to extend these provisions for four years. They want to extend the definition of a “foreign power” to a “lone wolf” terrorist in this country. There is “no particularity” in the business and library records provision of the bill. The democratic speaker doesn’t believe sufficient review hearings have been carried out, and suggests that they do before the bill is extended. Rand Paul is speaking right now making an awful lot of good points about “probable cause”. The standard now is “relivence” , which could mean anything. If your bank doesn’t report to the government if you conduct a transaction of over five thousand dollars, they will be in trouble. People can look at your VISA card and get a monthly profile of your expenses, like if you are seeing a psychiatrist. He just quoted Benjamin Franklin who said “He would sacrifice your civil liberties for the sakes of security will end up getting neither”. “If the government were comprised of angels, we wouldn’t need the fourth amendment”. But on the other hand should we elect a man who turns out to be a despot, we could all be in big trouble. When the patriot act was first passed apparently few congressmen read the full bill. This is a dangerous precedent for such radical legislation. It’s so seldom these days that you actually hear a debate on C-Span that this is refreshing.

Tim Pawlenty busted up a sweetheart deal where bus drivers had to only work fifteen years to get life long health care that the tax payers pay for. Pawlendy has scaled back pensions of state workers so that they conform more realistically to actuarial tables. He says if he’s president he’ll only replace one government worker for every two that retire. I agree with him that Obama did not “fix the system” in terms of the fundamental problem of cost containment. We still have the looming problem of increasing the debt ceiling for the nation. I don’t need to remind you of the economic ramifications if we don’t. Yesterday President Clinton was whispering in Paul Ryan’s ears telling him to compromise and get the problem of medicare taken care of. I think even Bill Clinton sees the hand writing on the wall with this one. Pawlenty plans to put out his own medi-care reform plan very soon. I get the feeling that his plan will be even more radical than the one by Paul Ryan. Tim Pawlenty has traveled extensively all over the mideast. He goes along with the general idea of a troop draw-down in Iraq and Afghanistan. Pwelente also says there may be weapons systems that we don’t need.

In soap land Raphael broke an antique liquor canister on purpose and then left. He’s playing a dangerous game and didn’t hold the bluff very well. Elvis wants to bump him off altogether to insure that there are no further “complications”. Nicole and Taylor are having a cat fight. I haven’t seen Carley lately when she wasn’t spaced out.

Yesterday that guy that shot Gabriel Gifford was declared incompetent to stand trial. He had an insane outburst in court that some think was staged. Obviously to carry out such a cold blooded crime took a lot of volitional planning. The experts will be evaluating him for the next couple months. Just throw him in prison right now.

They think they caught the guy who beat up that SF Giants fan but they are stalling on the details of the line-up. If it isn’t the guy it’ll be a bummer all around. One suspect is still at large. I just hope they don’t decide to eliminate beer sales altogether. Sometimes, things can be spoiled by one bad apple.

The founder of Face Book, a company that has only been around since 2004, now is granting hundred thousand scholarships to anyone who fancies themselves an inventor and wants to skip college. College will continue to be less and less worth it as debts in excess of fifty thousand dollars become common, and the job situation deteriorates.

Roselyn Carter was talking about “meals on wheels”. I can’t help but think of that cat and mouse gag where a cat was asked what heaven would be like for them and they mostly said “It’s a place where I can catch all the mice I can eat”. And the mice were asked the same question and so many of them said “I would like to roller skate just once in my life”. And so a stream of roller skating mice went by the cat in heaven, who was just waiting for them. Sometimes you have to be careful asking what you want.

The True Nature of World Oil Supplies

You've heard the expression repeated endlessly, "Drill, baby drill". Dr. Levy thinks if gasoline prices are this high a year from now it will insure that President Obama won't be reelected. According to Dr. Levy it's President Obama's halting of oil drilling in this country that is responsible for today's high gasoline prices. Nothing could be further from the truth. More of the tea party set have virtually no background in world economics today. The truth of the matter is that the United States hit "peak oil" in 1970 and US production today is only half of what it was in 1970. The US uses 25% of the world's oil supply with only 5% of the world's population. The US actually produces 8% of the world's supply of oil, but that in fact we only have two percent of the known world's reserves. The rest of the world is fairing only a little better. World production hit "peak oil" in 2006, which was five years ago. With world demand in places like India and China going exponentially up, I think you can begin to see the problem we are facing. Even if the undeveloped oil should go on line immediately, exprets project even then that we are close to peak oil there, too. Only when you go to more exotic means of obtaining oil from rock and sand, is there even a glimmer of hope, and not a lot at that. That "oil guy" yesterday was delivering about the same speech as he delivered five months ago. He hauled out all these charts showing things like each and every new discovery world wide, and as you see the discoveries are becomming smaller all the time. It's nutty to say that if we drilled Alaska oil that we would add significantly to our supplies. The plain and simple fact of it is that oil companies aren't drilling because the oil is just too expensive to reach. And this is not going to change. Thom Hartman has said that the Koch Brothers or something once cornered 85% of the market on the world's oil supply but then they shorted it. What this would mean is that I pay top dollar for their oil, with the privvelege of selling it back to them at a forth percent discount when the price goes down. I don't know anyone who would take that deal. While it's true that oil prices of crude may drop significantly in the next year or so as this economy has a relapse, the sad truth is that ANY time this economy gets going again high gasoline prices will swat the economy back down. You can't win. Unfortunately our alternative energy research is about as enimically funded as our current Space program. The government can't afford to spend that kind of money now, so we better hope that there is some rich person who is. Things like people seeking alternate forms of transportation including bullet trains or bicycles, or getting a job closser to where they live, or else using a hybred car, which uses less oil- - -these forces will tend to keep gasoline prices from rising too high. In short, the overall energy situation looks grim.

President Obama could be in real trouble with the Jewish lobby if he doesn't reverse his position on Israel giving back all their land over the past 44 years. I doubt this concept of such abject accomodation to what are basically terrorists will set well with the American people. Anti Islamic fever has been at a peak these past few years. Islamo-phobia is pervaisive in society. He will also find himself in big trouble if he expects any of his Health Care plans will be funded by this congress, and maybe the next one. The American people have made their position loud and clear on this Health Care issue. While they don't like paying high insurance rates, they would rather do this than have "government rationed health care", which is what they perceive we will have. If the President wants to make himself useful, why not advocate for this one percent stock transaction tax that people are pushing for. I know others want it fixed at only a quarter percent, but I say one percent will be four times as effective at curbing speculation, as well as raise four times the revenues. They abolished the quarter percent transaction tax in the Johnson administration because they claim they had a surplus of money.

In one or more Star Trek episodes they predicted that Public Commercial Television as we know it would not last much beyond the 20th Century. We are seeing indications of the growth of "narrow-casting" but so far the four networks as we know them appear alive and well. They say that today's teenagers watch very little regular TV. After all these video games are so engrossing they are like TV dramas unto themselves. Obviously the availability of Movies on DVD is impacting people's choice for an evening's entertainment in a big way. I'd like to know how many people actually watch all 150 stations on their cable TV menu.

Many have likened reincarnation is lighting one candle with another and then blowing out the first candle, and then asking the pilgrim "What has been transferred"? If you actually want an answer to that question I'll give you one. Heat energy. That's all. The physical property of the flame comes from the material from the second candle, and not from the first. In point of fact the second candle could have gotten that heat source from any number of places. I got to thinking about this and the whole bit about Jesus saying he brings "eternal life" and all. The thought hit "If God really gave these people something Eternal and lasting, they wouldn't keep coming back again and again to seek more of it, as though they had never gotten it". Of course reincarnation is something we normally don't believe in here in "the west" because it somehow seems a little creepy. Some like Mr. Richi from Cypress argue that any after life consciousness is impossible because our brain cells no longer function (as Stephen Hawking says) and therefore any life beyond this one can't exist. But for people who wake up in a different life- - it will seem very real to them, even if their memory of past lives is a total blank. We still don't know what "consciousness" is. We don't know whether or not it's just cell chemistry and neurons. Sometimes stating the obvious seems redundant. Unlike your Hindu guru, you don't have an endless supply of Time. While time is as of nothing to God, it is valuable to you, and if God doesn't know that reality YOU live under, one must question whether God is actually all knowing. If I had to summarize what "Being brought to NOW means" I'd say it means coming to a state where your priorities in life have become crystal clear to you, and nothing is going to deter you from your set course. (Selah)

Things We Shouldn't Just Assume

They say that Isac Newton "discovered" gravity when an apple fell from a tree and hit him on the head or whatever. Well everybody before him always "assumed" that UP was up and DOWN was down and that was the end of the matter. When I was young I assumed that Time and Space naturally went on forever. Nobody had to create them, they just existed on their own. When a baby cries he "assumes" some parent will hear him and attend to his needs. We we grow older we see the utter foolishness of this assumption. The trouble is some Christians are still looking for some cosmic hand to reach down and save them from their troubles. In Ezekiel they assumed that Jerusalem and the Temple of Solomon would always go on forever, because as far as anyone can remember they have always been there. The Babylonians had a thing or two to say about that. And we in modern society have come to assume things our ancestors wouldn't dare assume. For instance that when we switch on an appliance it will work and there will always be hot and cold water running from our taps. And when it isn't so we think it's the end of the world. Many people think life itself will go on forever because "as long as they can remember" they have always been alive and cannot imagine any other kind of existence. But once again we are assuming things. The Aztecs assumed some Messiah figure was going to come from the Sea and somehow bring about a great new order. What they actually got was something entirely different. And we here in America assume that Democracy is something that we will always enjoy and that our constitution is safe. But once again we don't know this. 35 years ago I was among those who assumed that if Red China adopted things from our economy, then other western values like Democracy would naturally come along with it. We have all had a rude awakening there. We used to assume America would always be number one in things like education and invention and scientific inovation. We assume that we will always be able to vote on election day. Even in the middle of major wars with as the Civil War and World War II we took time out to go through a Presidential campaign. But today we appear to be losing our influence. Our votes become increasingly meaningless as corporate lobbyists take over the halls of congress and write our legislation. We'll be lucky is our own representative even reads a bill before he votes on it. Increasingly we are being manipulated by the media. It isn't enough that they poll us on everything to death. Now the media feeds us a story and we like good sheep believe it and then they take a poll, which somehow justifies what they are doing. Elections are no longer battle grounds of the best ideas but rather "horse races" where you don't want to be caught backing a losing horse. As you know my betting theory is "With football - bet favorites; with horse races - bet long shots". In my oppinion favorable odds on a race horse are your quickest way to the poor house. America lacks the will to do the things it has to do to get Industry back in this country. I believe that people who actually work for a living ought not to pay higher taxes than those who don't. For the longest time, Government has worked counter to the basic Puritan work ethic we were all raised with. Government prides itself on inefficiency, and counts its own existance the most important thing of all to be Preserved. Neither political party is guiltless when it comes to these things. Personally I liked Bob Dole's 1996 campaign slogan of "building a bridge to the past". We could use something like that. I think in general the American People are informed about a lot more issues than they used to be, including every manner of medical condition, which used to only be spoken of in hushed terms in a doctor's office. There should be a way the American People can unleash their intelligence to somehow revitalize the halls of government, and again make the people a relivent force in their own Government.

Sizing Up President Obama for 2012

I will not be voting for the President in 2012. The first reason is that he may not qualify under the Constitution because of that clearly computer-generated birth document he submitted a month ago. Also as you know the whole Bin Laden thing is a deception because the President was called off the golf course Sunday morning and told about it. The decision had been made because the President refused to make it. There is extensive documentation of the conversations that took place in the White House on this issue. Another reason is is that the President, like George W Bush before him is a tool of Wall Street and has done everything he can to "re-inflate the bubble" that countless Web sites have discussed in detail. Another reason is the economy itself. Less than two years after the trough of the 1982 recession late in the year, Ronald Reagan was reelected. It is now some two years after the trough of this current recession, which has gone on some three & a half years, the longest of any downturn since the 'thirties. The president can no longer continue to blame the previous administration. The President has not been nearly forceful enough in speaking out against certain psudo-investment practices, many of which were banned after the financial crash of 1907, over a hundred years ago. The President's position on abortion is abominable, even to the point of suing hospitals and doctors for allowing aborted fetuses to live, if they weren't already dead. Also the whole secrecy of the President's past I find troubling. No matter what President Bush did, it's out there for public scruteny. The President has broken countless political promises. The President, like Bill Clinton before him, refused to prosecute offences of prior administrations. I was about to vote for President Bush in 1992 when the indictment of Casper Weinburger came out and it was a reminder of all the corruption that had taken place, so I voted for Ross Perot. Then Bill Clinton stepped in and said for the unity of the country he would drop all further legal action. And this President has done the same thing with respect to President Bush. May I remind our leaders that in legal cases it is "The People" verses any defendant. It isn't the action of one man but rather to uphold the principle of law and fidelity to the Constitution in general. He may call it "grace" but it's a grace that is not his own to grant. The only way would be to let "The People" decide whether they want to drop all charges against the former administration. Under Reagan a lot of people were prosecuted. A lot of the banksters were prosecuted and went to jail. This time around Obama is letting it all slide. I advise anybody to watch "The Two Mrs. Grenvills" if they think being counted innocent by the legal system is any picnic. Doesn't this President ever think about his accountability to God? I think this president spends way too much time traveling to other countries. The last time I checked my Constitution, the duties of the President didn't include "perpetual Tourist". I can't believe everything else is so "In Hand" that the President has that much free time. As far as this budget is concerned if anyone heard his speech last January they would conclude that this President was "Out to Lunch". There is no way any of that wish list was going to get passed. Two years ago when we weren't as in debt as we are now, the democrats didn't spend their money wisely when they had it. In general I think this president is a poor leader with an apalling lack of ability to inspire confidence from the American People. I don't like the President's reversal of his position on gay marriages, and now thinks he is for them. I don't know who the parties will choose. But personally I think we need to get off of this two party kick and the false choice of tweedle-dumb, and tweedle-dumber. The stark fact is that most of the selection process for President will be carried out in 2011 rather than 2012. In that year it will be more of a case of "sitting around waiting for Christmas" more than anything else. This recession isn't going away and you know that if you work for state and local governments and have lost your job. Many of the high comodity grain prices were spurred because of this Ethanol kick the world is on now, which in retrospect is a very inefficient fuel. If I feel like this, with all these sentaments, just imagine how a Conservative feels? (Selah)

President Obama's Pathetic Report Card

OBAMA'S PATHETIC REPORT CARD	January 2009	TODAY	% chg	Source
Avg.. Retail price/gallon gas in U.S.	$1.83	$3.704	79.6%	1
Crude oil, European Brent (barrel)	$43.48	$105.02	147.7%	2
Crude oil, West TX Inter. (barrel)	$38.74	$104.78	155.9%	2
Gold: London (per troy oz.)5	$853.25	$1,469.50	70.5%	2
Corn, No.2 yellow, Central IL	$3.56	$7.33	88.1%	2
Soybeans, No. 1 yellow, IL	$9.66	$13.75	42.3%	2
Sugar, cane, raw, world, lb. Fob	$13.37	$41.39	184.7%	2
Unemployment rate, non-farm, overall	7.6%	9.4%	23.7%	3
Unemployment rate, blacks	12.6%	15.8%	25.4%	3
Number of unemployed	11,616,000	14,485,000	24.7%	3
Number of fed. Employees, ex. Military (curr = 12/10 prelim)	2,779,000	2,940,000	2.9%	3
Real median household income (2008 v 2009)	$50,112	$49,777	-0.7%	4
Number of food stamp recipients (curr = 10/10)	31,983,716	43,200,878	35.1%	5
Number of unemployment benefit recipients (curr = 12/10)	7,526,598	9,193,838	22.2%	6
Number of long-term unemployed	2,600,000	6,400,000	146.2%	3
Poverty rate, individuals (2008 v 2009)	13.2%	14.3%	8.3%	4
People in poverty in U.S. (2008 v 2009)	39,800,000	43,600,000	9.5%	4
U.S.. Rank in Economic Freedom World Rankings	5	9	n/a	10
Present Situation Index (curr = 12/10)	29.9	23.5	-21.4%	11
Failed banks (curr = 2010 + 2011 to date)	140	164	17.1%	12
U.S.. Dollar versus Japanese yen exchange rate	89.76	82.03	-8.6%	2
U.S.. Money supply, M1, in billions (curr = 12/10 prelim)	1,575.1	1,865.7	18.4%	13
U.S.. Money supply, M2, in billions (curr = 12/10 prelim)	8,310.9	8,852.3	6.5%	13
National debt, in Trillions	$10.627	$14.052	32.2%	14

Approaching two and a half years of this President being in office, his time is about up. I see little indication this statistics will look much cheerier a year from now. But if you're into either precious metals or in oil futures now I'd advise you to sell, because prices will drop in the next year. I said it a month ago and I'm repeating it again. Despite the hype of the media, this is still a very sick and perhaps terminal economy.

You know one "Monument" I'd like to see done away with in Washington is the one dedicated to Christopher Columbus, otherwise known as the Rapist in Chief. It should make any true Christian ill to have this man's name associated with Christianity as some of these "Heritage" web sites insist it is. America has always been a genocidal people as per witness of how they treat the American Indians. But this President and all those who agree with Roe verses Wade are guilty of a Holocaust that far surpasses the one in Germany during W W II. The Eagle is known for killing off its siblings in the nest. So it seems our President is vicariously guilty of the same thing. The following three paragraphs are excerpted from a longer Mailing I received.

Let me pause to acknowledge that I don't typically like using these kinds of tactics when discussing the issue of abortion. The truth is it doesn't matter whether the child being killed is the next Beethoven, Bach, Edison or Einstein. What makes human life valuable and worthy of protection is that it is human life, bearing the inviolable image of the Creator. Life is valuable because of what it is, not what it does -- whether that's making beautiful music or being tone deaf, inventing a light bulb and unlocking spectacular scientific mysteries or needing help tying shoe laces...or yes, leading the most powerful nation in world history.

But this unfolding bombshell regarding Barack Obama's family is highly instructive given our president's life-long commitment to defending abortion. The simplest scenario arising from the story is this: President Obama had a half-brother or half-sister who, rather than having the chance to thrive and succeed as he has, ended up in a dumpster in London. The more complex reality for the president to grapple with is that it is not that far of a stretch to assume, given the complexities of his relationship with mother Ann Dunham, that Barack Obama, Sr. might have preferred the same end for our current president.

Such a scenario, beyond offering a brand new perspective on Obama's memoir Dreams from My Father, would provide the most pro-abortion president our country has ever known with the same chilling realization that so many of us born after the disastrous Roe decision encounter: had it not been for the strength and resolve of loving, pro-life mothers, we could have been legally slaughtered.

AS LONG SUSPECTED - SEVEN TIME TOUR DE FRANCE VICTOR LANCE ARMSTRONG IS A CHEAT
Sixty Minutes featured a lot of documented evidence that Lance Armstrong cheated on his 1999, 2000, and 2001 Tour de France bike races. The main guy seemed a little on the frozen expression side and looked scared of something, possibly having his own lies found out. I don’t know. The charges include blood doping, or taking ESO or some initial drug to boost red blood cell production. He also took testosterone, and also cortisone. Besides this he got transfusions of his own blood two weeks into the bike race to replace his “tired blood cells”. Now the government is saying he bribed officials, and at least one urine test result was suppressed. The main guy said “Nobody could win nowadays without taking something the way they go zooming over those mountains”.

The Bush Administration is at it seemingly from beyond the grave. We know of the numerous 9 - 11 memos they received warning of the danger and disregarding. Here's more fuel to add to that fire. But also last night there were ethical questions involving "how far you will go" to make the Mafia make you think you are one of them. It was an government agent accused of feeding law enforcement data to the Mafia to thwart key arrests. Then it was another guy accused of espianoge because he was a whistle blower. The government before 9 – 11 was ready to implement “Thin Thread” a sophisticated computer telephone data gathering and sorting system. Clearly a lot of problems would have been prevent had we adopted this program as 2001 dawned. But the Bush administrated wanted a private corporate opporation, that ended up spending 1.2 Billion and still accomplished nothing. Sixty Minutes went on a second hour. On the Simpson’s it seems Ned is dating Mrs. Krabopple. I watched two different segments of this show and apparently it’s the season cliffhanger. They are taking a viewer poll.

Now the Supreme Court with Justice Kennedy in the lead of a 5 to 4 decision, says that 40,000 hardened criminals must be released from California prisons due to over-crowded conditions. I don’t understand that one. How many are sex offenders? I thought we had built new prisons out the wazoo and had solved that problem. I fail to see how a matter such as prisoner overcrowding is in the jouristiction of a Federal Court. I'm sure other states throughout history must have had worse problems than ours over the year. Since when are common prisoners entitled to Five Star accommodations anyhow? Ronald Reagan flung open the doors of mental institutions in the 'eighties largely creating the heralded "Homeless people crisis". In no way am I saying people shouldn't have their chance, but to do it in mass all at once caused a national chaos. I thought the idea was to get criminals OFF the streets and not put them ON the street.

I guess the town of Joplin, in SW Missouri was wiped out by the latest tornado and 390 people were killed. Now they say maybe a quarter of the town of the town was wiped out. It's a sad fact that in the nation's heartland, "If spring has come, you know the weather is going to get a lot worse." So much for the red, red robin bopping along. Perhaps in the Star Trek era c ouple of centuries from now we will have devised a way to prevent these kind of killer tornadoes. But today is not that day. In Minneapolis they also had a tornado. The Mississippi is a declining danger.

Tim Pollente threw his had in the ring for President today, as anticipated. Now they say Governor Perry of Texas will reconsider entering the race, and some hope that Chris Christie of New Jersey will reconsider and ditto for Jeb Bush. As it stands now the field for a lot of plum voters is wide open to Polente. Of course most all of them think they all have to pass the Paul Ryan litmus test. We don't know but what such drastic measures may become a necessity. At least with Ryan's plan we can strike a "deal with the devil" to preserve some Medi Care coverage untouched.

No Words For My Love (i e - "God")

OK, a lot of my blog readers think that I’m Out To Lunch. Well, in this case they are right because I have spent the half hour doing just that- eating lunch. But I want to talk a little more about some of these metaphysical theories people have, such as “string theory”, and Thom Hartman mentions string theory as a possible explanation for the origin of the Universe, but I’m not sure how. Many use the illustration of violin players all playing different tunes. Someone else talked how a whole symphony note could be replicated in all its complexity just by using sine waves. It was in late May of 1982 when I think we said that when Beethoven wrote a symphony it not only had to be brilliant but it “had to have a quality of inevitability about it”. When people talk about going to heaven or “Meeting our maker” certain obvious problems present themselves. Many tie going to heaven to a date, like the date you died. So you’re like a new recruit in some private boarding school not knowing your ass from a hole in the ground and you walk around not knowing who your friends are or what the rules are. Some may say that your birth in eternity began the day you got Saved. But even at that you hate this DATE in time like March 24, 1976 when you suddenly ARE when you WEREN’T before that. So you have this aspect of novelty or unfermiliarity about heaven, and- - perhaps if you are saved- - you constantly fear that others with Seniority over you like Chuck Smith and Greg Laurie or Mario Merillo will be calling the tune. How much better to have the Mormon model where Heaven is a Return to a state you existed in before you were incarnated on Earth. You remember the preacher at Bob's funeral a couple months ago said that "we are now in the second act of a three part play". After all it seems silly to me for a state of Timelessness to be delineated by that fixed moment in time, either when you died, or when you got Saved. But there are other problems. If you read the Bible you get the idea that when Jehovah was young and didn’t know better he gave man free WILL and gosh darn it- - Mankind actually decided to USE the Free Will God gave him to try and better himself. So God says “That’s the last time I’m ever going to make That mistake again” and so in Heaven it will be a place where neither Sin, nor Free Will is tolerated to any degree. Oh I know Neil Savedra talks about free will- - but he doesn’t believe in it. If he did he wouldn’t keep such a tight reign on the content of the show. Another area where Neil Savedra is talking out of his ass is when he says “You can’t truly have Good without the presence of Evil”. Given this axiom it would follow that Heaven is not a GOOD place, because there is no Evil there. In my prophecy book I taught that man HAD free will in the Garden but that he forfeited it when he sinned. And I went on to say that the more sin you have the less free will you have. So in my model, Heaven is a place of perfect free will and that Hell is a place of actually NO free will. But people believe these “strings” go across the whole Universe. They speak of gravitons being different in that they are circular strings and so much weaker than they otherwise would be. The analogy is used of hearing the balls clink on a billiard table- - and what you hear is an indirect manifestation of the actual impact. In my current model of the Material Universe- - - Ether is what gives space it’s actuality, and gives gravity its actuality. I don’t believe you can attach the equivalent of a water filter on your faucet to somehow “strain out” the gravitons, and from then on once these are eliminated, you would have a gravity free world. And you know my position on anti matter. It can’t exist in our space. Period. And if my adage holds true about “the type of space the substance is surrounded by is dictated by the substance itself” it makes me wonder where I or You or Anybody could even EXIST in heaven. I just don’t see it. For one thing a wise person once said “If you truly LOVE someone then you love the things he or she loves and hates the things he or she hates. This isn’t true with God. To quote from the movie Rain Man, “I get the feeling if I were to cease to exist- - he wouldn’t notice it- or even Care”. So much of Christianity is dominated by Marcionite thought in which “God made a horrible mistake even creating the cosmos”. Roy Masters carried out this idea in saying that deriving pleasure from things like music, or loved ones, or even pets, is a self indulgent sin. So I’ll conclude that at the present time Heaven is something I can live without- - because devoid of the things I love- - - or even time itself- - I guess I just don’t see the Appeal of it.

Here we are typing in “Normal” format on an overcast Sunday May 22, 2011, and “In my Life” is playing now preceded by “Girl” on KLOS. Blog readers of mine may question whether I’ve been in ”normal” mode for weeks now. When I turned on KLOS they were playing “Eat at Home” and continued through side two of “Ram”. Of course when the Ram album came out fourty years ago today or whenever most of the people in my social circle thought the album was a little sappy and sentimental and too heavily dominated by that “late Beach Boys” sound as in post 1966. Mc Cartney admits to being influenced by “Pet Sounds” like on the Pepper album, but at least John was there to keep his influences in check, and not go absolutely nuts. Of course as you know a lot of the crowd I hung out with was into hard rock allright, but also into things like Chicago blues and British blues. This is utterly absent on Ram. It was early February of 1982 when I bought “Rare Hendrix” followed by “Roots of Hendrix” a few months later. If you love psychedelic blues and want to be in seventh heaven, these are the albums for you.

Last night I watched the Mc Laughlin group last night and I was in for a funny surprise. It seems three fourths of the group believe Obama was not wrong to have made that speech on Israel on Friday or whatever. Pat Buchannon for one thinks Israeli president Netenyaho treated the President shabbily because the reality of the thing is that the world as a whole wants to see a Palestinian State in the mideast. Now I hear that the U N, that bastian of Satanism, plans to seat the PLO deligates in September as an official representative of the yet to be sanctioned Palestinian State. So it would seem that the President was just thinking in the broader international perspective. The Federation, of course, was delights with the President’s speech. I don’t know. Can you really get the leader of a Nation for some fifteen years to make consessions with a gun to his head?

After this it was Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune. At eight Hawaii 5-0 was new on CBS instead of SCI. So I booted the computer and took a walk down memory lane. I read entries around mid June of 2007. I was actually thinking of posting on line the entire long entry of June 17^th 2007, which actually covers about two days of stuff. The cast of characters is different from now. This is the period when I was evidently trying to quit smoking, and playing chess with Marcus. In the game reported I actually beat Marcus, which didn’t happen that often. And he didn’t take the loss well. Marcus and Cindy hadn’t been here all that long, and would both only stay a few more months. Not Cynthia Little but the fat lady with the sanguine personality. Of course the big event was going to parent’s house to visit Dad there at home for perhaps the last time. All five nuclear family members were in attendance without the wives. It’s a little depressing to read the dialogue. Of course back in June 1971, if not earlier, I had predicted that June 16^th of 2007 would be the end of the world, apparently at a quarter to three. So naturally I was wondering “what I would be doing when the world came to an end”. If I had that day to live over again I think I would have done something different, but I’m not sure exactly what. As you know the past two summers a jinx has descended on me starting about June 10^th of both years. In 2009 in particular I was not a happy camper that summer as one bad event after another washed over me. I didn’t sleep all that well last night- - and I think I kept having dreams that I was a bad person somehow.

In the morning I got up late and got coffee from Dana. I had Good Morning on and they were talking about Donald Trump. All of these “reality” shows are taking on a highly scripted, soap opera quality. It used to be I watched Apprentice to get a feel of what it’s like to apply for a job and be examined and scrutinized. Then you have all these shows like “Lost”, which gotta be scripted. And of course it’s get all slobbery and sentimental over Opera Winfrey’s last TV show. I guess I’ll check in just to see what is doing, and maybe be qualified to comment on it. We had oatmeal for breakfast and a fried egg with toast and butter and jelly. Coffee was half generous. I watched Meet the Press. That Daniels guy, who I had never even heard of two weeks ago, isn’t running for president anyhow. Tim Pollente will be announcing. John Hnutsman looks to be another centrist alternative for the Republicans along with Romney. Paul Ryan is an articulate, clear headed person even if his ideas are dead wrong. He presents them well. But it would be stupid for him to leave his current job to run in a race in which he would most certainly be one of the many losers. The Iowa straw poll vote usually occurs in August.

Of course December 21^st 2012 will be here before you know it, and that will be another occasion for media hysteria. We all need a diversion to take our minds off reality. They are playing “She’s So Heavy” right now. One thing Paul is inconsistent on is the blues by himself. “Smile Away” is a good song, and there are some others. Of course one album I always thought Pete Richards would like, though I don’t think he’s ever heard it, is that “Masters of Reality” album with “The Blue Garden” on it, that I bought in early May of 1989. It’s almost the last vinyl album I bought, “Naked” by the Talking Heads being the final vinyl album around August first of 1989. Both of these albums are worth buying in vinyl if only for the art work. There are times when I think vinyl albums sound better anyhow. I guess I’ll smoke a cigarette. All five birds were in the cage today. It’s the first time I’ve seen both dark gray birds in weeks. I sure wish they had included “Good-bye My Love” on Anthology. Others make these decisions.