NO FLY ZONE IS IMPOSED ON LIBYA

The Security Council imposed a "no fly zone" in Libya at last. I never thought they'd do that because they had seemed inclined not to. But it's good news for the people of Libya no matter how it happened. It means is Kadaffy does not stand down immediately from his air offencive against the rebels, that his anti aircraft artillery will be taken out by British jets. So far there are conflicting reports as to whether Kadaffy intends to pull off his jets, or be subject to bombings. Any way you look at it it's good news for the Libyan people. People like Monica and Pat Buchannon from the Mc Laughlin group don't like it because it's occurring during a liberal presidential administration. That's how Republicans get when the opposition is in power. We'll all just have to keep our fingers crossed on this matter. Of course some commentators fear this could drag the United States into a third war, but I just don't see that happening at all.

Now they have to remind people on the West Coast not to take those potassium iodide capsules used to ward off radiation effects. This is because the radiation that arrived today on the West Coast is only one billionth of the danger level. Of course any one of the reactors could completely melt down at any time. But they don't want to try the Cheyrnoble solution yet, which is to bury the entire complex in sand and concrete. They want that as a last resort, but in my opinion perhaps a "last resort" done now will prevent danger to personnel and everybody else in the immediate future. My philosophy is to remedy a problem while it's still not too big to deal with it. This will be the final posting on this blog for a while, and I'll see you on another blog in a few days, but I haven't checked to see which one that is yet.

OK HERE IS A SHORT QUIZ OF BEATLES SONGS OPENING LINES

"You'll never know how much I really love you"

"Close your eyes and I'll kiss you"

"I've got something to say that might cause you pain"

"This happened once before"

"You tell lies thinking I can't see"

"Here I stand, head in hands"

"I've got a word to say- about - - "

"Is there anybody going to listen to my story"

"Sir or Madam"

"When I wake up early in the morning"

"Let me tell you how it will be"

"In the Town where I was born"

"Day after day"

"I told you about Strawberry Fields"

"She was a working girl"

"Joan was quizical"

"When I find myself in time of trouble"

WHICH BEATLE CD DID I NOT QUOTE FROM?

WELL, IT'S THE SAME OL' SAME OL'. Don't you get tired of news that's in constant rerun. I sure do. It's like a radio man calling a baseball game play by play only he's getting his information long distance and suddenly the connection is broke. So all he can do is review old plays or tell what he "expects" to happen, or perhaps report the hitting of a foul ball, since they are the only things that don't change the count after a while. We were all waiting for that magic two week period to elapse so that Congress could have a knock down drag out debate on the national budget. But now that's not going to happen, because guess what? They passed another three week extension. It seems that C-Span has very little of congress actually in session making speeches and debating various bills these days. Is there nothing to talk about? Well, you have Governor Scott Walker. OK we know he can't be recalled till he's been in office a year. Who made that rule? If you learned your husband was a homocidal maniac the day after you married him and he was wanted for five murders and is suspected for others, would you have to wait a year before you could get an anulment? I don't think so. All we hear is that Governor Walker is getting his way and will continue to get his way for the foreseeable future. We keep clinging to the promise of a left wing "tea party" of our own this year. There are a lot of recall efforts in the pipeline, but how many are becomming reality? We have a lot of people on death row here in California, but how many people have you heard of being exicuted lately? Sometimes the wheels of justice grind oh so slowly. Randy Rhodes was chiding democratic voters for not going to the polls last November. Well that's because they were disgusted with this fence straddeling president and feared even if things stayed exactly the same that nothing would get done because this President is content to twiddle his thumbs till the next election. Oh, by the way, whatever happened to Joe Byden? He was the one ray of hope. He is more popular with many Americans, myself included, than the President himself. But Thom Hartman believes he has been muzzled by the powers that be, because now is not the time for directness and honesty, or getting to the root of the real problems. (Selah)

Of course we have the whole nuclear reactor melt-down saga playing itself out in northern Japan. I guess there have been three major explosions in the four reactors in the complex. One of these knocked out the protective lining of the fuel rods, and also the water above the spent fuel rods is gone.They say this thing could actually end up worse than Cheyrnoble because there is more radioactive fuel involved. People wonder why spent fuel rods are a problem. That's because there is a threshhold point where the Uranium mixture is effective, and that is at about 3% uranium 235. I guess they isolate or enrich the uranium for more 235 in a centrafuge or something. And when the rate falls below 2% 235 and the rest the standardl 238 (with a half life of over a hundred years) according to Hartman then the fuel is no longer effective for sustaining a fission reaction. It it obviously is still radioactive. Hartman says that there is no "safe" level of radioactivity. He says that cancer is a manner of probabilities and that even one alpha particle could knock out a key component in a DNA strand. It seems the way DNA cells become cancerous is that the element that governs the rate of mitosis is not there and so the cell divides uncontrolably. If another part of the DNA is missing the cell eventually ceases to function and dies, and the body destroys it. But when it's caused by radioactivity, the body doesn't know what to do with it so ignores it. The three key dangerous substances among many are radioactive Iodine, Strontium 90 and Cesium 137. You heard about these latter two in that Barry Goldwater commercial in 1964. Strontium 90 replaces Calcium in bones. And the body thinks Cesium is Potassium. And the body treads radioactive iodine like regular iodine and it does right to the thyroid and causes cancer. Normally uranium decays into lighter substances. But sometimes plutonium is spontaniously formed. Usually you have to deliberately create plutonium in a cyclotron bombarding uranium atoms with alpha particles. I believe Plutonium gives you "more bang for your buck". Of course alpha particles are released in radioactive decay and strike other atoms and makes them unstable. A uranium atom left on its own will continue to transmute into elements two places over on the periodic table, until it comes to lead where it stops. On the other end of the spectrum lead is the heaviest of all standard metals, if you don't count bismoth, which I know little about. Lead will stop gamma rays. Hartman was talking about photons being the problem. However for instance even though in a medical X ray it's photons that react with the film to produce an image, it is the shortness of the wave itself that carries the photons that is the problem. Besides all this there are things called comic rays, also known as cosmic particles. These particles are neither stopped by lead, nor by the earth itself, but come from space in all directions. I believes these are the things Chuck Smith contains nutrinos. These nutrinos are things that can change a computer disc so that no disc is safe. They say "errors" occurr all the time in computers, but the computer sees the problems and "fixes them" kind of like the human body. For instance if you enter the command COMP DISC or whatever in DOS and enter "This is a sample test" on one disc and "This is a simple test" on another" the computer will assume that a nutrino flipped the eight place from a zero to a one, and say an error has occurred. But unlike computers this won't work with DNA. You can't change some mystery murderors DNA into O J Simpson's DNA by the "decay" process. It just won't be readable at all.

You know this brother of Raphael on Days of our Lives isn't all bad. Raphael is the new chief of police in Salem, and his brother was just caught by a security camera trying to pass stolen goods at a pawn shop. It seems he wanted the jewelry to get money to hire a P I to find the killer of his sister, Adriana. I guess his sister, who herself had engaged in drug running activities, was someone he could identify with. Of course the others seem to be able to forget about Adriana with ease, because she is the one person who knew the truth about Samantha. She knew Samantha was guilty of attempted murder. Of course now due to an easy touch judge, the guy is out walking the streets ready to mennace other women. Now they want Raphael to let the brother "Dabio" (?) live with him and his wife in their spartment with two small kids. Why do I get this feeling the nuttier an ideas in on a soap opera, the more likely it is that it will happen?

You all may have seen last Sunday's Sixty Minutes episode. I'm talking about the one with the Iraqi informer who admitted the whole story about Saddam Hussein producing weapons of mass destruction. This man used to work in this vitamin factory, which he later said was just a cover. But he left and traveled to other Islamic nations including Morocco. He ended up in Germany, but the German government was thinking of expelling him. So he made up the most spactacular hoax story this side of Clifford Irving. He said he was a personal Eye Witness to the delivery of toxic substances in the lab and produced elaborate schematics of the lab and said exactly how it was carried out. Our CIA interviewed him. They had fierce internal debate among themselves but in the end said the guy's story was credible. Of course this is something that George W Bush was just waiting to hear, because he had professed a desire to go to war in Iraq as early as 1999. I guess you should never elect a man with a triggerable obsession as President. I can only wonder in the case of my own life whether that Reverand - - a "man of the cloth' I keep referring to, the Asshole from El Paso, didn't receive some phone call by some guy with bogus information about me. It had to be someone who really despzized me and wanted to get back at me. I have a couple of candidates. Any how, if you already have a proclivity twords hate, then all you need is something to trigger it. Many of you are wondering how I got back from dinner so fast. "Just how early do you eat there, anyhow". Oh didn't I tell you? I actually moved back to Chicago in 2005 and didn't tell anybody. I've been working with Howard Richards' old buddies from the Wrigley dynesty. The organization has been working on long term plans to overthrow the U S government. We'll have one more posting in this blog and then we'll switch blogs.

"If you don't want to be a bum you better chew gum"

I’ll call the following paragraphs “BLOWING OFF STEAM”.

You know I’m getting really pissed off at President Obama as well as people like Monica and Pat Buchannon on the Mc Laughlin group. Obama is kind of like a guy standing in the middle of the road in danger of being hit by both sides. He ventured out on a limb far enough in the Wisconsin thing for people like Pat and Monica to label him as a meddler who lost- - and was beaten “by a possible vict presidential candidate”. I only wish Scott Walker would run for Vice President. That would be his fastest road to political obscurity and it would sure get him out of Wisconsin. But like a poor golfer the President didn’t “follow through” and actually do enough to take a stand for Unions, which he had the power and prestige to do, to actually get the political victory. I’m also getting pretty pissed at this doctrine first voiced by Larry Elder that the United States only goes to War for “National Security” reasons, which is a code word for we need the oil. If Iraq was famous for growing broccoli there would never have been any conflict there. Instead of such obsolete reasons such as freedom and liberty and humanitarian intervention to stop a mad man from oppressing his people- - today’s Patriotic Right only sees war as a way to maximize profits by building armlements and making these not so secret deals with Blackwater and Haliburten. Lisa Marcauski can talk about oil drilling all day long but the stark fact is that the United States uses 25% of the world’s oil supply, but we only have two percent of the reserves. Our supplies are so depleted that even though prices are seven times what they were twenty years ago, it still doesn’t make sense to uncap and re-open old wells. And of course now someone is running adds that Franklin Roosevelt and George Meany never favored Labor Unions for government employees. I sure never heard them say that. The only person I’ve even heard broach THAT subject was Ken Galliger during a brief time when he had his own show on KFI. His show was noted for such pressing topics as people using telephones in cars, and not turning on the bathroom fan after they use the toilet. And now you have adds with John Kovel hammering people for choosing to ride a bicycle to work instead of driving a car. You know, if someone started the roomer that John and Ken were really gay lovers, they could sell a lot of books.

Now some Jewish pilgrims got nabbed for having these phalacteries on their wrists where they keep pieces of the Torah. They were labeled a security risk. You know even Eleanor Clift said “Well- we can’t say whether the United States will intervene in Libya. After all things could get really bad there and we’d have to”. My response to that is two words, Bull and Shit. You don’t tell the US they “have to do” anything. Just like you don’t tell God what he “has to do”. People say this “Bulsh” such as “if things get really bad in your life God will intervene”. I’m sure the Jews in Eastern Europe thought the same thing during the 1940’s. I am confident that the biggest Lie in the entire “Oh God” movie is the line “Remember- - I work best under pressure”. That’s when God completely falls apart. I know from personal experience. What ever happened to the adage “A stitch in time saves nine?”. Don’t you think we might reincorporate that one into our US foreign policy?

Well Chuck Shumer still believes Nuclear reactors are safe. You know I think it’s worth at least thinking about going nuclear- - at least for a while- - maybe twenty or thirty years, until we have perfected these pipe dreams like solar panels on the roof or cold hydrogen fusion. The 8.9 earthquake on Friday morning was the largest Japan had ever had and one and all agree that their safety measures worked admirably, for what they were designed to do. Around here people are talking anew about December 21^st 2012 when the Mayan calendar ends and caticlismic thingts begin happening in the world. But I think both Christian and otherwise alike have to bear in mind that “certain things you just can’t plan for”. You have to take them as they come. As such, such an apocraliptic event would be the great equalizer, like a well executed intelligence test. People will have to rise or fall on their whits alone. Thus the adage "you can't take it with you" takes on new meaning because there are events so big you have no basis of comparison to draw upon.

Well, we’re headed for coffee break in a few minutes and we still have a little radio air time to fill. Maybe I’ll pull out my Mister Roberts lucky charm that Dr. Levy gave me to insure that we don’t all get hit head-on by some passing intra-galactic battle ship. In the morning on KLOS Beatles they said that “Cry Baby Cry” contains the word “breakfast”. I never thought the word “breakfast” occurred in those lyrics. Of course as you know in late February of 1968 according to Federation lore, John Lennon said to me “I want my life back” and so I had to leave. But later he must have changed his mind because according to Federation lore again, “Denise De Lovely” is responsible for the authorship of at least two Beatle songs, “Bungalo Bill” and “Cry Baby Cry”. This later one may have been spawned because Denise’ mother kept cranking out one kid after another and Denise had three younger siblings (and two older ones) and by the time of the third kid going through the crying, whiny stage, Denise sighed “Will this ever end”. Remember you heard it here first.

This posting will be added to, at least a little- - - later.

OK I hope you all enjoyed your 48 hour shore leave. If you name is called you will respond, and for anyone who didn't make it back in time, the appropiate action will be taken. And somebody better tell Lady Ga-ga that "blanket parties" are not sleepovers with a girlfriend.

I actually researched the history of some of these occupation last names.

Abbot Archer Baker Barber Barker (as in carnival) Bartlet Bender Bishop Bailor Boxer (as in packing?) Butler Bowman (confirmed) Cantor (singer) Carpenter Chancellor Carver (sculptor?) Chandler (candle maker) Clark (clerk) Cleaver (butcher) Cobbler (shoe maker) Cook Cooper (barrel maker) Duke Dryer Earl Fisher Forman Forrester Gardener Hunter Hooker Jagger (surgeon) King, Knight Lord Mailer Majors Mason (stone or brick) Marshal Masters Miller Muler Minor Page Parker (?) Pickler Planer (wood worker?) Planter Potter Priest Praitor (Roman officer) Queen Ranger Roper Shamus Shepherd Skillman Stainer Sergeant Singer Skinner Spinner Smith Stoner (mason?) Striker Tanner Taylor Tinker (inventer) Trapper Walker Weaver Wrangler

The Joys of Yiddish

Briss

Caput (“broken down” “inoperative”)

Goot Shavas (“Have a good Sabbath”)

Heist (major theft of valuables)

Kabosh (“hex”)

Kosher (“trustworthy” or “legitimate”)

Leheim (“to life!”)

Mench (“stand up guy”)

Mishoognah (“crazy’)

Mozzletov (‘good luck”)

Putz

Schlep (“lift” or “carry”)

Schmuck (“hood ornament”)

Sheister (“confidence man”)

Shnook (“sucker” or “patsy”)

Shtoop

Tookus (‘ass”)

Yenta (“matchmaker”)

Zilch

And now for the anti-Semitic bigots guide to spotting a Jewish name:

Look for any name that ends in a

–man, -baum, -burg, -stein, -witz or –feld

Also look for Biblical names such as Levi, Solomon, Benjamin, Reuben, Isachs, or Jacobs. Or any name with “gold” in it. Also other names that are giveaways such as Getz, Sachs, Kofax, Koehn, Fiedler, Wiesonthol, or Roth. But this won’t work with Jews who actually live in Israel.

THE CONTINUED MARCH OF THE RIGHT WING

I don't know about you but just after the 2006 elections when the democrats took over congress, I felt hopeful. I figured all this stuff about impeaching George Bush and putting the screws to those in government who had done wrong, would soon be reality. Were we in for a nasty surprise. Now we on the left are still reeling from the results of the 2010 elections. It's probably our fault because we couldn't turn our people out to vote and make a difference. Now we are embabbled with the struggle for the very concept of survival of labor unions in this country. Last night in the Wisconsin legislature they did an astounding thing. They couldn't pass a state budget because fourteen senators had walked out denying the republicans a quarum. When you think about it, this is what a filubuster is actually for. They are to prevent the cramming through of ill-begotten legislation and giving the opposition time to muster their forces and get the real truth out. So last night the Wisconsin legislature stripped out of the bill anything to do with the budget, because "monitary issues" can't be acted on without a quarum. So what was left was their real goal to begin with, of gutting the power of labor unions, and denying workers the right to collective bargaining. Governor Scott Walker is power mad. We know this. But protesters at the State Capitol began saying that the action was illegal because it violated Wisconsin's "open meeting" laws. It's a good thing Wisconsin has a liberal tradition, because at least they've got some good laws on the books. They can't schedule s major vote without at least 24 hours notice, and they only gave 54 minutes notice, I'm told. Of course the Koch brothers and all the money mad people who put Walker in power in the first place knew that time was not on their side and with each passing day they were losing ground. Some republican senators, some of the nineteen, were threatening to jump ship. Also polls indicate that at least two republican state senators would not survive a recall, if put up for a vote. Basically what you have like people on KTLK keep saying, is a major wealth redistribution program in this country from the lower fifty percent to the upper fraction of one percent. So in reality all of these republican governors are working off a national "corporate" agenda, rather than acting in the interests of their own states. Now the protests have spread to other states like Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and even in Idaho. Once again as in 2006 I feel we are at a crossroads and in a position to get something done and to turn the political tide. I hope we are able to do that.

I guess it's this same 26 year old republican who's been doing all of these "sting operations" against the political left. His latest victim is someone at Public Broadcasting. He was caught on the phone making remarks some may infer to be embarrassing. Now his job is in danger. Of course we know the media is as nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs to begin with. CBS fired Dan Rather because of a technicality. Now the very existance of Public Broadcasting is in jeopardy. The Republican congress of the United States has apparently voted to cut off all funding. If PBS doesn't get funding, many local stations may not survive. This is just what the opposition wants. I know that KCET was having to make cutbacks of their PBS programming in order to stay financially above water last year. Of course PBS itself is a slave to corporate sponsors, also, and no longer do the sort of cutting edge journalism for which they used to be known in the past.

Apparently the United States and the Obama Administration has decided to abandon the Libyan people. Mirimar Kadaffy has been stepping up his military ground and air advances- - and is making inroads among the rebels. The tide appears to be turning in Kadaffy's direction. As for ourselves the defense department has mapped out three options. We could commit military ground troops. I understand why we don't want do to that because we are already tied down in two wars. But there are things we could do in coordenation with NATO. We could institute a "No Fly Zone" in Libya. But as Gates says "The trouble with this is that we would have to do some bombing of instelations and it would mean the destruction of Libyan property". My response to this is, "So when has that ever stopped us before?" The third option is to give covert or perhaps even overt aid to the Libyan rebels. This to me seems like the first thing we should be doing, but for some reason Obama and Gates don't want to. I sense it's that broken moral compass the Obama Administration seems so beset by. Are we a nation that believes in freedom and liberty or not? Just because it isn't our side that's doing the killing doesn't make it all right. I'm really getting tired of all those who want to rewrite history and declare Kadaffy our good buddy now and a reliable world ally. This is one issue where John Mc Cain and I agree.

Finally there is this congressional investigation of Islamic Terrorists and "self radicalization" that goes on among young people in this country. But if the truth be known this action is seen as an outrageous affront to a major world religion of over a Billion people. Terrorists come in all shapes and sizes and colors of the spectrim. If the truth be known there are more white terrorists in this country than Arab or Islamic ones. Why don't we investigate right wing Christian hate groups. Personally, I think a lot more could be accomplished by doing that. Still we all knew that when these Republicans were voted into power that they would ignore pressing economic concerns and waist their time on wild goose chasses, investigating people who by in large do not constitute a threat. I'd be tempted to say "It's all just a show piece for the media' but it might be more than that. I'm sure there's a lot of religious bigotry out there, and many would like to insert the phrase "Christian nation" all through the constitution.

THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT GETS EVEN WEIRDER

Mike Huckibee this past week has pretty much shredded any credentials he had as a Christian. I had hoped that being a Christian he would judge people on their merits and not roomer and imuendo and prejudice - not to mention stuff that's outright made up. Huckibee said this past week that Obama was influenced by his father and grandfather growing up as a youth in Kenya and that the President has an unnatural (and un American!) anti Colonial bias. He says this is because President Obama romantacized the Mao Mao gangs in Kenya that rebelled against Britain a century or whatever ago. The only association I have with the "Mao Maos" is some gang in a Pat Boone evangelical movie. But obviously the far right is really up on these kinds of things. I think Mike Huckibee has blown whatever slim chance he might have had of becomming the Republican nominee for President. All of these people seem to self destruct sooner or later. I just wish Obama would pick his battles more carefully. He won't take on the whole secretive policy of our foreign policy with its back room deals. He still wants to cut all the WRONG things in the federal budget and ignore the elephant (or elephants) in the room. But he picks this time to say he is now against the defense of marriage act, which he was for in the 2008 Campaign. Why raise this issue at this time? If you're going to draw a line in the sand, shouldn't you make on an important issue that affects all Americans? I don't regard personal morality as a left verses right issue.. I believe you can stand on the high moral ground and also be a strong, effective progressive. But I'm still picking up an aimless, directionless vibe from this President. Just because the other side is self destructing, doesn't mean we have to do the same.

Well, Chad from "Days of our Lives" was talking about getting used to being a Pisces because his mother lied about his birthday. The thing is there is evidence my mother lied about my birthday. There is evidence in my baby book that strongly suggests I was actually born on February 25th. and not December 31st. There are other details I'd rather not relate at this time. Sometimes you see photos and notations that appear to have dates changed. Some photos are inconsistent with other photos of the "same time". There is also that related remark of my Great Aunt who alledgedly said at Christmas time to my mother at dinner "What are you going to give birth too, a mouse?" because she didn't look that pregnent. And yet supposidly I was born with full birth weight, but even that is under dispute because there is a note of "hypoplasia" on one document in my baby book. Someone thought I had a defective brain at one time, even though now my cap size is larger than average, so go figure. I think the hospital mixed up some documents. Of course I gave that book back to my parents and that in addition to a couple of long letters I had written to them mysteriously disappeared when my Mom moved out of the house.

The unemployment rate has now dropped to 8.9%, which is the lowest it's been since April of 2009, or several months AFTER Obama book office. In California the rate is down to 12.4%. They say 192,000 jobs were added last month in a broad spectrum of economic sectors. Someone said the greatest job losses now are not from construction or anything, but that governmental jobs themselves are in a recession. Of course gasoline prices are only $3.35 in the majority of the country but they are almost four dollars here. That's what people tell me. I haven't gotten around to stations myself lately. This will put a definate dent in the economic recovery and they say each penny in price rise takes a billion dollars out of the economy or something. The Republicans are still pushing this mantra that cutting governmental spending equals new private sector jobs, which makes absolutely no sense at all. They keep talking about "freeing up" and "unshackling" this economy. I know this. The bottom of the 1982 recession occurred around December first. But by July of 1984 the economy was back and "America was back". Well, we are about the same approximate period from the bottom in 2009 in the summer time, and we are in no way out of this recession, and the end of it isn't in sight.

In Libya, Kadaffi is counter-attacking. This is not going to be an easy thing like it was in Egypt and Tunesia, but we could see a protracted civil war in Libya. Even in the east now which used to be considered "in rebel hands" Kadaffi is again attacking. The world seems content to let this whole thing play out without interference. Of course people in the media extol the virtues of having a strong man like Kadaffi or Saddam Hussein in power because it unites the nation and surpresses rivalry between warring tribes. I never thought of Libya as a divided nation. This whole situation may soon become "background noise" in the media as the people become tired of the story, kind of like the BP oil spill, which seemed to go on intermedibly.

People continue to believe that God "respects mans Free Will" and won't interfere with it. Of course anybody who doesn't subscribe to the theology of Neil Savedra is going to spend eternity in hell. And of course they say "God doesn't send us there. We go there of our own free will because we reject Salvation". I was thinking of this whole Free Will farce and how silly it is in light of the fact that the destiny of civilization was mapped out "before the foundation of the earth" as it says in Revelations. It reminds me of an answer to a question Gene Scott gave. When someone asked Gene if God could make a rock too big for Him to lift, Gene says, "Yes he could, but he's not dumb enough to do it". Well apparently God IS too dumb to know Free Will is a farce if he's pre programmed the destiny of the planet in advance. Many hope that world peace is somewhere in the script. But keep in mind that "God's ways are not our ways". God is functionally A-Moral, which means his motives and actions cannot be questioned or judged. So pray for peace if you want to, but in response to the saying "there are no Atheists in fox holes" I would say that perhaps an Atheist is the best person to turn to in times of crisis, because his mind will be in touch with reality and not be clouded by the drug of false hope.

ANOTHER DISGRACEFUL

SUPREME CUURT RULING

Today the supreme court ruled that people don't even to have the right to privacy even at a tragic, personal time like a funeral. In this case it's the funeral of a fallen vetteran of the Iraq war. In this case some Baptist Church organized a mean spirited protest just a few hundred feet from where they were conducting the funeral. This so called church insists that God is punishing America for allowing gays in the army and that if gays die they deserve to die for their sun, and moreover God is cursing America for her sins and if it weren't for our allowing gay culture to poliferate in society, then Al Qaeda would be no threat to America. A lower court had a sensable ruling and ruled that the berieved family was entitled to damages. But the ruling was appealed. The Supreme Court didn't have to take the case but they did and ruled eight to one in favor of the "God Hates Fags" protestors. Thom Hartman says it's really a typo. It should be "God hates figs". The lone dissenter on the Court ironically was Allito who rightly concluded that these were not garden variety protestors but deliberately sought to cause the funeral party further grief. I don't see how you could arrive at any other conclusion. They have papperatzi laws, and also laws against harrassment, and you can obtain restraining orders. Unfortunately not in this case. More and more it seems that this Bush Court has lost its moral compus.

You know the sheer greed of the rich knows no satiation point. You remember Mr. Potter in "It's a Wonderful Life" and people saying "Why does he penny pinch the poor. He can't possibly spend all the money that he has. And Peter Baily said, "The man is sick in his mind and sick in his soul". You know that Ebonezer Scrooge said "Why do they have to pick the people's pockets once a year every December 25th? Of course there are some who say that wanting the uber rich to pay 39% is "stealing from the rich" and violating the tenth commandment. And so today we hear these cries anew about "stealing from the taxpayers" to pay for frivelous services like police, fire, and paramedics. But it isn't the "taxpayers" who object to proper public use of their money, but rather the ultra rich who won't be happy untill their tax rate is zero, and indeed the tax rates of many of the biggest US corporations is zero. We are forever pelted with nonesense such as "You know that public jobs programs take away the money the private sector needs to generate jobs". Please explain how doing a job nobody else is doing is "taking funds away". Thom Hartman says if we raised the income tax rate back to seventy percent then we'd not only run surplusses, but we could actually resume building the infrastructure of this country and investing in the future and making America strong. But instead today we have these absurd Republican governors who 86'd a high speed rain line accross Florida from Orlando to Tampa. These people say "We don't need federal money" even if it would generate a lot of jobs.

In Wisconsin we have this joker, Scott "Wanker" as he's known in our circles- - where he slashed the rate the richest people of Wisconsin pay- - and of course now there is a deficet and hence an "emergency". I am looking for the day when state and local governments no longer have to make NEW cuts in their program with EACH successive year. Of course you know that he wants to steal pension funds of employees that they are entitled to every penny of because they agreed in advance to contribute part of their salaries. This is not "tax payer's money" but it belongs to the employees who earned it. I've talked about some of these points before in prior postings, but they bear repeating. Now governor Wanker wants to say you don't have to have a teaching credential to teach. he wants to eliminate means testing for handing out private school vouchers. And he also wants to eliminate Math, Science, and technical education. The esteemed governor is also shooting for a four day school week, which is every kid's fantasy.

You know many Christians like me used to pray "Send a revival to America". Even in the earliest couple years of the Bush Administration I prayed this prayer. I don't pray it any more. I realized around 2005 when Justices Roberts and Allito were confirmed that "The price of getting a judge who will overturn Roe vs Wade is just too high, because he'll be screwy as hell on all the other issues. We had undisputed rule of Christianity in Europe for a thousand years. As Dr. Phil would say, "How did that work out for you?" You know when I came here and got on medication, stuff like the after-life just no longer made sense to me. The seemingly firm primises I thought were in the Bible turned to sand upon closser examination. Later on about 2004 I began listening to Neil Savedra on the radio. I realized something because this man on KFI "put the pieces together for me" and I at last saw Christianity for the pathetic religion it was. I saw this "commonality of things that I didn't like". And the final blow to my faith, assuming it wasn't already gone, was this whole Tea Party madness that was launched by Sarah Palin in 2008. I realized that Christians themselves had been infected with this madness, swallowing each and every talking point. We need a candidate for president in 2012 who is willing to draw lines in the sand and say what are and are not acceptable ways of thinking. We have lost our moral compass. If the dead could talk I'm sure the Founding Fathers would be horrified at what the tea party people have done to their constitution.

In California our snow pack is 125% of normal. They are just about ready to admit we are no longer in a drought. However they say farmers are still having problems with water allocation. And people are suggesting that Jerry Brown just go on an pretend we are still in a drought. The more Jerry Brown morphs into the woman he ran against and beat in the last election, the higher he rises in the approval polls. I don't know how it happened that this "hippy generation" of ours has morphed into people running the government today who are more conservative, by a long shot, then their progenitors.