Many college professors will tell you of the importance of Critical Thinking. Yet so few of us practice it. Often you will be told in logic classes for instance of the basic absurdity of so many adds on TV, as well as so many politician's statements. But few people take them to heard. Certainly Gingrich and Santorum don't, for they regard College life as for "a bunch of snobs". Newt Gingrich is what is referred to as "A Stupid person's idea of what a smart person ought to be. I caught Newt on Face the Nation today. Here is an example of what I'm talking about. He has been so pig headed about getting out of the presidential race and endorsing Santorum so that the tea party can have a better chance against Romney at the Convention. But he's too pig headed to do that. He's too proud. John Mc Cain has warned Newt of the folly of his actions and how he fears for the future success of the Republican party. Of course say no more. In tea party reasoning - if John Mc Cain says it it's wrong. John Mc Cain was the "liberal traitor" who blew it for them in 2008 according to the tea party, and if they'd had a "real conservative they would have won". Then Newt says "It's silly to think an extended contest is bad for a party. We decided on John Mc Cain early on last time and we lost, but the democrats fought all the way till June with Barock and Hillary". Reality check. Randy Rhodes was saying at the end of February that "the race for president was all over and Obama won. He has the math". After this elaborate steps were taken to bend the convention rules and not allow Hillary's name to even be placed in nomination for "image" sake. And even the content of speech was closely guarded. Contrast this with John Mc Cain when - - the Tea Party virtually "took over" the convention with flame thrower right wing speeches. And Mc Cain was so completely unsure of himself in desperation he picked Sarah Palin to playcate the right. And so clearly the democrats won with a united front, but the Republicans could never come together and they are about to repeat that same history now, four years later.
Sixty Minutes has this former Mossad leader Degan or whatever. I guess it isn't "Degar", that would be a French artist. Anyhow his father was killed by the Nazis and he grew up with the adage of "Never again". He was a holy terror to the Arabs and the PLO and organized death squads. One time his group carried out an assasenation in a Hotel. The assasenation went down but there were video cameras, and the World saw for themselves exactly what the Israelis had done. Now he is talking Peace. He says as we have been saying that it just "Can't be done" as far as preventing Iran from obtaining Nukes. Even Israel says that the best they can hope for is forcing a Delay in weapons development. We can't do that knock out punch, because Iran has at least four nuclear facilities deep underground, and some say as many as twelve. Dick Chaney issued a White House memo advising the President to take out Syrian Nukes in 2007 or whatever. Bush rejected it but Israel took the ball from there and took out the Syrian nukes. But they won't be able to do that now. Now this say Degan - - is out of the Mossad. And now had turned against the Netenyaho administration and they are saying "It's pay back" because they believe his current opposition to any War with Iran is strictly out of spite and getting even. But the fact is we need to properly "vet" a world situation before we jump in and take action we won't be able to take back. The whole taking out the Nukes thing could get really messy on the world scene and people like Romney and Newt don't see it. All they see is the young men in their shiny uniforms in perfect formation - heads held high. They don't see them when they are coming out - - bloody and dispirited - - often feeling abandoned - - and disillusioned about War.
You know both men and women have a "vetting process" for the opposite sex. For women it's making sure a man has status and earning power and macho leadership. Her adage is "vaya con dinero". Obviously some women are better at this than others. For a man, he too has a "vetting process" for women. It's called sex. Men are like samplers. They like to examine the merchandise before they buy. They are looking for an ideal help mate that will fulfill their fondest sexual fantacies. Men have the genetic desire to "spread their seed around". This proved a positive evolutionary trait on former times, both because the world wasn't populated, but also because the DNA gene pool needed as much variety as possible, and for a man's legasy to continue the more people of varied genetic nature that were connected to it, the better.
The Times They Are a Changing. Robert Schuller is out of a job for the first time since 1955 being dispossed from his own church by a bunch of Catholics who renamed it from the Crystal Cathedral to the "Christ Hope" Church or something. Well, it was a good run, and Schuller certainly helped a lot of people, with prayer warriers on the phones and up their in their prayer tower, praying for them.
Let's talk a little about the Mayan Calendar and I'm assuming that grand 387 year cycle is right that I heard on that radio program. "387" used to show up on our snail mail as "387 Desolation Row". I think that was the cubic inch displacement of one of the bigger Dodge engines back in the'sixties. At any rate - - maybe it's 394 now that I think of it. Anyhow - - close. So the Church is pretty much finishing up Cycle 4, and as a dog dies so dies the church. That's a Bible verse parody in Eccliastes. Anyhow the previous date is 1618. This is when Keppler and Gallileo were shaking up the science world with "Undeniable truths" more power than you know who's. The Church was never the same, literally. It was only a few years later during the thirty years war that the Catholic Church lost an awful lot of it's power, and the English Bill of Rights in 1648 followed not long after. If you go back another 390 years you come to the era when Ghenghis Khan was knocking at the door. I think I was a prominent officer in his army in a previous life. This empire of Ghenghis Khan they say is the biggest land area Empire the World has Ever Known. This empire was instrumental in preventing Christian influence east ward. After this Marco Polo visited China and stayed there over twenty years. They say back in those days "traders viewed time differently" where people expected to spend Years in a far away land. The Chinese leader wanted Marco to send Priests over. I wonder if he was planning on killing them. Any how Marco Polo traveled first at age 17 with older people, and then set out on his own. And he course he brought back news of marvels such as gun powder, and introduced pasta as we know it to the Italian diet, and also set loose the whole idea of expanded trade with China for the mutual material and cultural benefit of both. This was all in the twelve hundreds. If you go back another four hundred years you have the demise of the Mayan Empire itself. If you go back yet another four hundred years you come to the era when the Huns were sacking Rome and Ancient Society would never be the same again. Ironically the Catholic Church was just putting their finishing touches on their theology, which would remain unchanged from then on. But in cementing its own position - - it was at the sacrifice of the rest of the Roman Empire.
We have that school teacher on Sixty Minutes who first put a math video on You Tube to help a relative in the seventh grade with her math. He was surprised all sorts of people were logging on and watching his videos. Now he runs the Sol Khan Institute and has the endorsements of no less than Google and also Bill Gates. He breaks down Math concepts to their simplest componets. The way to do Math and any subject is to start with Basics and keep it Simple, and then work on the details one by one. They say they have flip flopped the student's school day. They received their instruction off the internet at home, and save class time for working on assignments and getting private tutorial help in school. The guy looks a little Lebonese or something. He's a young guy and he's just getting started and may be revolutioning the Math and Engeneering world of education, and this author can only give his heartiest endoursement. That's what we need today.
Some may have a question as to whether I contradicted myself on the whole "brainwashing thing" one moment saying I'm for it and the next posting against it. Let me clarify right now. There is nothing wrong with maintaining or "washing" your brain to keep it efficient. But this is not what Christians are about. You've heard the adage "Love the fetus; hate the child". My adage to build on my plumbing analogy is "Love the pipes, hate the sludge". Here is where I part company with Christian. The Christian HATES the whole idea of even Having a Mind or a Brain to think with. Intelligence is almost right up there with Sex as the Original Sin. But as one evangelist once said "The best cure for wrong use is not NON use but Right use". But to a Christian back before Adam and Eve ate the apple, neither sex nor intellectual curiosity were known, and to them this is how it should be. Gnostics of course have a rather vague premise that "Any form of reproduction only weakens and devolved the resultant product". So the whole idea of "seeds of knowledge" or "building on things" is anathemal. And of course the sin of the Tower of Babel was manking working together to build something memorable. This again is a No - No. So it's no wonder that Christians carp at each other like angry birds. And all they want to do is to bring the rest of us down to their level. Rather than doing you any favors by taking his "Gospel" to heard, your Christian friend only wants to put you in the hole that he's in.
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