President Obama held a news conference yesterday morning. He wants to go for the big package of four trillion. He doesn't regard John Boehner's "compromize" of a two trillion dollar deal as anything to grasp at. Obviously the President is right if the goal is to cut the deficet. Boehner should hail this wish of the President to make it four trillion. But clearly these republicans have another agenda, like to not have any deal at all so they can blame the President before partisan crowds. Otherwise I learned little. People on KTLK have been talking about this guy named Eric Cantor or something who sells U S treasury bills short, betting against the economic welfare of his own country. Some say he’s in a powerful enough position to make his hopes come true. The dream of these republicans is to crash the economy. I see no moral up side to anything the republicans are striving for. There really isn’t much to blog about that everybody isn't already aware of. Clearly there is no deal from Sunday night’s meeting with republican leaders at the White House, or any meeting that has (or will be?) held subsequently. Now they are saying they should have a deal by July 22^nd but that’s not until a week from Friday. Most people’s minds are sealed tight allowing nothing in unless it comes from Rush Limbaugh or Larry Elder or FOX news, or one of the tea party members of congress. Some would say "but the rich pay a disproportionate percentage of income taxes". I guess that's all how you look at it. As Thom Hartman says "Nobody goes out to a job and "earns" four hundred million dollars a year". You can't call what Rush Limbaugh does a "gainful occupation". Certainly not in three hours on the air. But it's funny how possesive people can get about the money they swindled from other people. Clearly the republicans are "running the country" right now the same way Judge Ito "ran" the O J Simpson trial. Basically everything that happens is the call of the tea party right. People like the Koch brothers or Rupert Murdoch will give thumbs up or down on a particular idea and that's pretty much it. The decision has been made. (Selah)

Michelle Bachman’s husband runs a Christian anti-gay clinic, where they can “pray away the gayness”. Now we hear Justin’s son “Sonny” is gay. I hope he lets me have all the girls who have a crush on him. For some reason even though the average American buys the tea party line on most issues, the gay thing won’t work. They may be tea baggers but don’t take their abortions and their gay sex away from them. At least that’s what Larry Elder thinks. We hear all this clap trap about "How the American Founding Fathers worked tirelessly to end slavery" and then we hear that those enemies of capitalism are "imposing slavery" somehow on the tax payers. One guy on Thom Hartman today admitted he could not think of one person "who wants to make all the incomes of every American citizen equal". What they forget is for "the invisable hand of the free marked" as Adam Smith talked to work, it means there has to be some economic traffic cop to make sure everybody plays by certain rules. Thom Hartman says the underlying danger of Capitalism is monopoly. They want to and have thrown out the Shermon anti trust act. It would seen now the American people think what amounts to "insider trading" is "fair". Congressmen "bought and paid for" is "fair". Apparently cutting social security payments to cover the tax breaks of the ultra rich is "fair". The average American is more concerned about the troubles we’ll run into if we RAISE the debt limit. They are far less concerned about a national default and the economic ramifications if we DON’T raise the ceiling. This is how ignorant the people are. But again- - the interest at least NOW we pay on the debt is low. But it won’t STAY that way if we default. The American people are just too stupid to see that these republicans all want to CRASH the economy till they can get elected next year. They think we are so fickle that if things are BAD ENOUGH then somehow we’ll think Obama CAUSED it all and that the way to CURE it is to get rid of the current administration. It’s a pure fantasyland motion the tea baggers are pitching. Of course they aren’t the “ultra rich” any more, they are the “Job creators”. And now even the President is beginning to talk about these “Job creators” being “Insecure” and “Unsure” about the future all on account of the fact that the President keeps raising all of these taxes. And if we just had a republican in there all these “insecurities” would be gone and jobs would appear like magic. It’s shallow rhetoric for shallow people. Nobody has the balls to tell the American people they’re all a bunch of assholes.

Now they are worried about computer hardware and software programs being pre loaded with viruses from China that can somehow be "switched on" in the case of some national crisis. They say even the United States may buy missile guidance systems from China that have a back door "kill switch" that can paralyze the United States in the case of a nuclear attack, just as we and Israel did to Iran with their nuclear generators. He put on systems that routinely gave out false data that made their systems inopperative. So now the question is do they quarentine your I Pod at the airport terminal gate? Of course now they have gone beyond just inserting things in the rectal cavity. So even doing a vasoline inspection would be of no avail. Now they are surgically implanting explosives in the body cavities of people and sewing them back up. Even if a human would be hesitent to undergo this, how about an animal. How well do the airlines screen our pets? You might have a killer pooch on your hands. I can't help but think all of these issues are going to come to a head and maybe five years from now they'll declare some kind of a fasciest state where all civil liberties are suspended on an ongoing basis. By the year 2014 it will be a case of dealing with a collapsed economy where nobody will want to fly anyhow, so the problem, perversely may solve itself. They used to have a saying "Goldwater in 64, hot water in '65 and bread and water in 1966". I don't see any swelling tide of the American people rising to put a stop to any potential mass abridgement of our civil liberties. With each passing year it seems a mere five years before was "the good old days". The seeds of a national police state are being sown daily and now they are germanating and sprouting. There are no voices from the left saying that there could be any downside to ever increasing security paranoia.

Before we go any farther I’d like to check myself in that I think I violated one of my own moral precepts by referring to someone I’ve never met as an “asshole”. I don't think it's a good thing to parrot oppinions of others just "to make yourself look more important", although a lot of conservatives do. This individual whom we’re calling “Candidate Z” is the one whom we said was musically talented and innovative, and got vague writing credit for several songs merely on the strength of his innovative guitar playing. If I ever meet them after I’m dead (probably unlikely) I wouldn’t them throwing the previous posting in my face. You know I believe it’s OK to call people like Hitler evil, or Columbus the “rapist in chief” or other disparaging names because these things are historically well documented. But to buy into personal imuendo and impressions of others as gospel- - -might be a position that I should rethink. For that matter any dead people whom I have claimed to have met, and I have not in fact met them, would have the right to be offended at me. Actually I admire the talent of “Candidate Z” even though he’s been dead for over forty years.

YOU'LL NEVER RUN AWAY FROM YOU

Well, as Joan Rivers says, “Can we talk?” You know it’s time to speak frankly about things. Today in Dr. Levy’s class we talked about existentialism again. To me exestentialism should be debating "what is real and what is not. What is valuable and what is not". Should something you deeply believe the with certitude be counted as valid even if there seems to be no way you can "prove it" in the laboritory? But somehow this doesn't seem to be what exestentialists are really interested in. Today I pointed out a number of things I hope didn’t escape people. Number one is that it may be OK to have an “existential crisis” maybe two or three times in your life, but to have a “crisis” every day makes no sense. If you have a problem with your life then “fix it”. But some people don’t want solutions and they don’t give solutions, they just want to roomanate around in circles having conversations with themselves. Your being in the room with them is superfelus. Your remarks don’t matter because they are so adept at doing the whole conversation by themselves, yet they fool themselves into believing they are “helping you”. Also this bit about how “money can’t buy happiness” is a recurrent theme in their sayings. But there are tea party existentialists out there, believe it or not. I’m never sure how this “money can’t buy happiness” them squares with their policies on not raising ANY taxes even if it throws the country into a debt crisis. Of course there are any number surveys that show the rich really ARE happier than the poor. So if you’ve heard otherwise you’re being lied to. Exestentialists like to talk a lot about "finding meaning" in life. Do you think Rush Limbaugh ever contemplates his place in the Cosmos? Somehow I think not. Also Dr. Levy read a poem today about a chance to “buy” one of two kinds of life. Either get a life where you are “just good enough” or another life where you’re Florence Nightengale, Ghandi, and Che Guevara all rolled into one where you “aim to make a difference in the world”. In the poem there was a line about “Well, why can’t I buy some product in-between?” And Dr. Levy scoffs at this notion as “compromise”. This is the realm where the perfect becomes the enemy of the Good. You see it a lot in Calvary Christianity. What they fail to notice is that people like me were “continually not good enough” when they were in and among Christians. Increasingly I became an outsider. To me “being just good enough” would be a major step forward in acceptance. Take my Dad. (No, literally – take my Dad, please!) .Then there is this notion of “Digging down deep in yourself to find the answer”. Even among Christian counselors you hear this one. They don’t believe in God- - - really. If God is there- - who is gagging him so that he can’t speak. He’s free to express his opinion if he wants to. And you hear things like “You’ll find the answer in due course”. Well, I have found the answer. It’s all a bunch of bullshit. Then you have Dr. Levy’s vision of a “hide and seek” God, as if God were a girl who plays “hard to get” or something. According to this line of logic, Lucy isn’t yanking the football away from Charlie Brown all those times just to be mean, she’s doing it because “When you succeed the victory will be that much sweeter” or something. These existentialists to me seem major jerk-off artists. There is a major truth in life that “You’ll never run away from you”. Most existentialists are trying to “sell you something”. It may be a pointless addiction or obsession they themselves are plagued with, but they want you to have it, or more to the point they will want you to NEED it. They will tell you all the usual things people value like a good job or a quicker brand of oatmeal, aren't important. They usually want you to put your life on hold and listen to them and by the way if you don't then you just "aren't spiritual" or something. There is a Dylan line “You shouldn’t let other people get your kicks for you”. If you are a Christian as least as I lived it you seem to forever be in another person’s shadow, and THEY and not YOU decides what IS and what IS NOT important. (Selah)

I wanted to talk about “deconstructing a lot of these astro-projection myths”. I think I words boomeranged on me when I was talking about John Lennon a couple of postings ago. What I was saying is that- - it would be ludicrous for me to think I somehow would be able to astral-project myself into the world of the Beatles. Actually not only are people ignorant of other’s lives, they are often ignorant of their own. A scientist would say your only means of intelligent input and memory is your brain’s ability to process information and make logical sense of it all. To assume something more like “being surrounded by a chorus of heavenly angels cheering you on” is pretty darn fanciful. To say life goes beyond death is still something for which there seems to be absolutely scientific proof. People who seek Death as a remedy (they way Christians CLAIM is their goal) is merely running away from yourself. As I said in class today people not only literally sleep too much, like around here, but they also sleep-walk through their lives. They go to work and don’t really think but act on reflex all day long and day follows day in an unconscious blurr. This is how it is. You don’t remember each individual day because your brain doesn’t regard it as important. Only certain moments stick out and register in our brains with emotional tags to the memories. There may be that period where work piled up or there was an office crisis. It may be the day you got that promotion. It may be a day you happened to read something or learn an adage from a friend that opened up your mind. You actually learned something. We’d all like to go to heaven or “the sixth dimension” or what have you. So what is your mind doing during these long periods of “mental unconsciousness”? What’s happening to the mind when you day dream? If you really WERE off in some sixth-physical-dimensional realm like I have described, don’t you think it would be mentally stimulating? If you really DID or HAVE BEEN someplace “out of this world” don’t you think you’d have a whole lot to tell us? Don’t you think you’d be “changed?” I was going to write a long paragraph on my first four & a half months as a Christian from March 24^th to early August of 1976. I may do that sometime but not today. But I wasn’t “taken over by another entity” either by Burt Lombard or the “Holy Spirit”. You can and I do trace it week by week that I was always me and reasoned like “Me” would. There was no “change” in me. I ACTED different because I thought I was EXPECTED to. It’s what you call the old “prime the pump” theory. If you prime the pump, then God will finally “kick in” and start pouring out that super-abonance of spiritual blessings like Chuck Smith always about. It never happened. “Helping God out” is really an insult to God, if you think about it. You know “Well God- - you’re still cogitating with that giant brain of yours- - but in the mean time I’m trying X and Y”. “Running ahead of God” is about as easy to do is running past a rock out-cropping in the desert. In terms of the whole “Burt” thing like I say the first time I used “Burt Lombard” was in an alias of a one page letter I wrote to “somebody in the media’ in late June of 1976. I figured I dared not use any other alias of the past because “I don’t do that sort of thing now that I’m a Christian”, so I used a NEW alias. If there is one thing religion DOES do if you don’t “sleep walk through life”. You are MORE and not LESS aware of all your problems because you are constantly thinking “I wonder how God would go about solving this one”. So you are doing all that existential evaluation stuff. But you’re also being busy lied to and propagandized to death on a regular basis, then this makes true thinking a lot harder.