Today's Question: What Happens after the Low Hanging Fruit has Already been Picked?

"Doing more of what has Failed so Spectacularly" is kind of my Mon and particularly my Dad's basic philosophy of child rearing, seems to me. 
This is an appropriate topic with which to conclude this "run of posts" for the Escape From Egypt" blog for the time being.  As you know there was one of these TV movies involving the "Ten Commandments" where some Egyptian was almost lamenting about how much he and his associates claimed to know about Everything.  He said "We wise clerics of Egypt have an almost painful knowledge that we are the sole posessors of all Scientific Knowledge there is to know".    But then skip to the time of Jesus and we have "Dana's complaint" and it's such an enlightened remark I'm crediting him every time I refer to it.  He said "If Jesus were so in posession of all scientific knowledge, how come he didn't know about anti biotics or germs or safer anesthetics and the like".  Excellent question.  I wish I'd thought of that.  So how does the Tea Party fit into the whole "Living in the Past" scenario?  Some of these tea baggers just can't help themselves.  For instance Chuck Smith at a rather awkward attempt at humility once said "I don't want to stand in the way of the next great move of God.  This church is fine for 1969, but who knows what things will be like decades in the future?  I don't want to be in God's way, locked into a mindset where I'm holding down the rest of the church".  Or words to that effect.  Now the Tea Party is ironically thinking "In terms of the Past" and with a mind set and methodology that is no longer suitable for today's reality.  For instance those on the right, and even Judy refer to those who "dream big" and are the next great inventors, or how a man can be born in a log cabin and become President of the United States.  Rush Limbaugh for one loves technology and growth and inovation.  But he too has fallen into the trap of "Living in the Past" looking for "That next great break-through".  The thing is, that if there WERE to be some "leap of science or technology" that would transform our life styles- - people with a Ted Cruise or Marco Rubio would be the last to think of it.  How here is the article kited from George Washington's blog, and you can read the sad specifics for yourself.

This is not doom-and-gloom for society–it is only doom-and-gloom for the current unsustainable arrangement (Plan A).
The Grand Narrative of the past few centuries goes something like this: from religious authority to secular authority, from agriculture to industrial, from rural to urban, from local to global, from periphery to center, from decentralized to centralized, from low-density energy to high-density energy (from wood to coal to oil/natural gas), from industrial to communication technology, from gold to fiat currencies, from linear to non-linear (complex/fractal), from local scarcity and high cost to global abundance, from islands of prosperity to continents of prosperity, from cash to credit, from collateral to leverage,from productive to consumerist and from sustainable to unsustainable.
Many of these linear trends are running out of oxygen or reversing. Rigid hierarchies are being disrupted by self-organizing systems, centralization is being disrupted by decentralization, lower density alternative energy is distributed rather than concentrated, commodity costs are rising globally due to demand outstripping supply and leveraged credit is destabilizing financial systems across the globe.
In the past few decades, the growth narrative has depended on “the Next Big Thing” –the new disruptive technology that drives wealth and job creation.
In the early 20th century, the next big things were plentiful, and they clustered around transport and communication: autos, highways, aircraft, radio, telephony and most recently the Internet.
The progress of technologies tends to track an S-Curve, with a slow gestation (experimentation that drives rapid evolution of innovations), a period of widespread adoption and technological leaps, and then a maturation phase in which advancements are refinements rather than leaps.
Air travel is a good example: the leap from open-cockpit aircraft of the 1910s to the long-distance comfort of the DC-3 in the 1930s was enormous, as was the leap from the prop-driven DC-3 to the greater capacity and speed of the 707 jet airliner.
But since the advent of the Boeing 727 in 1964 and the jumbo-jet 747 in 1969, very little about the passenger experience of flight has changed (or has changed for the worse): the envelope of speed is little changed, and efficiency has improved, but these are mostly invisible to the passengers.
My 1977 Honda Accord was extremely safe, reliable, powerful, efficient, comfortable, etc. Improvements in the past 37 years since have been modest in these fundamental technologies. (I actually prefer the smaller, older, less luxurious Accords.)
Once computers reached the Mac OS X/Windows XP level, improvements have been of marginal utility. The lack of blockbuster medications–and the skepticism regarding the efficacy and cost of existing blockbuster meds–raise the same question: maybe the low-hanging fruit of present technologies have all been picked.

The costs of our lifestyle continue to rise, due to financialization, cartel/fiefdom skimming, higher energy costs, bureaucratic bloat and related systemic causes. 
 At the same time, more of our collective consumption is being funded with debt, which is another way of saying that present consumption is being paid for with future income.
For the past two centuries, each Next Big Thing magically created more wealth and more jobs. The progression has been straightforward: production moves to lower-labor cost areas or is automated/mechanized, and labor moves to providing higher-value services.
What if we’ve run out of Next Big Things that generate more jobs? What if the next big thing is Degrowth, i.e. consuming less and doing more with less? This is a problem, as the Status Quo has optimized only one pathway: higher consumption, costs and debt.Any reduction in any of these three collapses the system.

Labor-saving software/communication technology has chewed through much of production and is now feeding ravenously on the service sector. As costs inexorably rise, enterprise has only one real way to reduce costs: reduce labor. As a result, the current Big Thing–the world-wide web–is the first technology that is not creating more jobs than it eliminates.  Many smart people retain the faith that technology always creates more jobs than it destroys, but if we look at our daily lives, I see little evidence to support this faith. Thanks to technology, sole proprietors in information/design businesses can create the same output that took multiple people just 20 years ago.

In my view, the Status Quo has no Plan B, not just from habit and the desire of those in power to retain power; we collectively have a failure of imagination. We cannot imagine a world that consumes less, generates fewer conventional jobs and reduces debt rather than creates more debt. The only strategy left in a systemic failure of imagination is to do more of what has failed spectacularly.
Why the Status Quo Is Doomed (June 27, 2013)
A Degrowth economy is not only entirely feasible in my view, it is the only way forward. The low-hanging fruit of Next Big Things have been picked, and wearable computing (Google glasses, etc.) is simply not a global growth engine. Robotic vehicles will eradicate millions of jobs without creating any more jobs at all; manufacturing self-driving cars will add very little labor to the manufacturing process.
Wages are no longer an adequate means of distributing the surplus of an economy. But this is not doom-and-gloom for society–it is only doom-and-gloom for the current unsustainable arrangement (Plan A). Plan B is actually a better plan, though few are able to see that yet.

Nothing New Under the Sun

I watched the Mc Laughlin Group.  Once again it was another four on one pile-on.  They said one thing (there?) that struck me really odd, and that was that Armenia is in FAVOR of the Soviet occupation of Crimea.  Would somebody explain THAT one to me?  Though our Federation has never liked Armenians, as kind of a policy.  Probably because we’re pro Turkish.  They talked about that Supreme Court ruling with a concencus saying that Labor Unions would now be liberated to give to more candidates of their choice.  That may be fine for the eleven percent of the work force that’s still Unionized.  The ruling still sucks big time.  Then they talked about this spy leaking United States military secrets to Israel.  Even Mort Zuckerman, the resident Jew, is opposed to this man’s “early” release on principle.  After the Lockerby Scotland guy who got out early “because he had a termanal disease’ and didn’t - - I don’t think we want to be used in that way again.  Then of course they had to trash the President for his “Dance in the end zone” or whatever on Obama Care.  It’s funny how so many of these metaphors could be much better employed on George Bush while president- - but weren’t.  We had enough both respect for the office and basic patriotism, there were certain things we just didn’t say.  I have wondered for a long time why they don’t dedicate one half hour show to just a replay of the five panelists predictions- - perhaps over a period of the last two or three years.  I think it would be really good for a belly laugh- - because they are such wild things you never hear again.

 On Breakfast with the Beatles they played the Cowbell set again.  Naturally I love this set because it's really me singing on the first three songs.  Now 'All I Gotta Do' is to prove it.  Though I think one or two songs they played- - was a metal pipe and not a cowbell, and also the “Monkey” thing they say is really a “fire engine bell”.   They also played Sgt Pepper in the original order of the first vinyl cut on this date on April sixth.  The flow is more logical in terms of lyrics because “Benefit” is talking about most stuff “splendid time” being yet to come.  And also the whole bit about “the mind wandering” is a perfect lead in to “Lucy in the Sky”.   Having “She’s Leaving Home” at the end is a nice touch, and it’s the faster speed mono version too, where Paul’s voice isn’t groggy sounding and Lennon doesn’t sound as drugged out.   They also for perhaps only the second time played the “original version” of Revolution 1, all the way through- - with all the bits.  Also on this date “Mark I” was recorded- - which was apparently a term for any untitled song, as well as an early computer.  I like “The Void” myself.  They started the show off with a lot of really early pre EMI recordings.  All in all, a good show today.  I listened to the rest of Breakfast with the Beatles which featured “Something in the way she moves” by James Taylor and three different versions of “Something”.  It was the George Harrison guitar demo, and then an interesting version by Paul, and then a live version by Derek and the Dominos, which they didn’t credit.  Then it was Leo Le Port and Chris Marquardt the photography guy was on.    

Kentucky beat Wisconsin in the NCAA in the late game and U Conn beat Florida in the early game.  But the thing is neither game was broadcast on CBS.  Shame on them!  ET was more important.  Someone said that stood for “extra testicle”.   Once again at dinner just like a previous night I developed chills though not as bad as earlier in the week.  We had a decent pasta and tomato casserole that could almost pass for spaghetti, with tube pasta.  There was corn and that bread pudding again.  I went out to the bakery for about the last of the coffee in the pot for a large cup.  Fortunately there was already a bottle of milk out, but it wasn’t cold.  It was ABC network news.  There is still no material to post a blog about.  Everything in the media is a rehash of yesterday’s news.  When they actually get around to finding that plane they should let us know.  The Chinese Government reports they’ve heard pinging but nobody else has.  Are they toying with us again?   I missed the Santa Anita derby also yesterday, which I had been intending to watch. 

Given the scarcity of news this past week- - let's make another observation about "Will come cosmic hand come down and rescue the "good people" from the ravages of this present world?"   OK this one is pretty much a pipe dream whether it's 2014 or 2017.   Actually at the pace things have gone down hill these past five years I don't think we'll even make it three and a half years to October of 2017.   Six months is an eternity in Politics, after all.  When things "go down hill" on the international scene, they can deteriorate pretty fast.  I think the years 2011, 2012, and 2013 set new lows for political and societal depravity in this country and so far 2014 doesn't seem to be as bad - yet.  It all hangs on the election.  Not to play "God" or anything but if there is a Personal Being there at all (which I have denied frequently) maybe He is thinking "The political divide is so obvious now there is not even a Need to Have these midterm Elections because I already know how everybody is going to Vote, anyhow".   In the Bible there is this principle of making the division between Good and Evil obvious to all, and God in history seems to brings things to this point before he acts.  You know if the Democrats win- - the Republicans will grab their guns and retreat to their bunkers with their food supplies they say FEMA is conspiring to take away from them, and they'll wait it out.  However if the Republicans take the senate and no liberal Justices are replaced with liberals as they retire, this country won't be a place a lot of us could care to live in anyhow, and emigrate to Canada or something.

I went for coffee in the courtyard at two o clock and then went to Dr Levy’s class.  All of the usuals were there but we spend virtually all the time either eating bagels or else checking in, and Dr Levy didn’t even get to John Powell and David Shaner.  He had to rush off.  We had an “everything” bagel with jalapenyo cream cheese.  I had a whole big bagel cut in half, and then another half from Joe Drisco and then Dr Levy gave me another whole bagel with cheese to eat later.  That’s living high on the hog.  We talked about Lisha being on Facebook, and Sammy’s problems.  I admire the positive attitude Sammy has because I assure you if it were me I’d be moaning and complaining when I wasn’t spitting nails of frustration.  I may do a blog post today however- - - there is essentially now no news on Network News.  It’s all just fluff.  If you want to have any idea what has gone on in the world for the past –  - twelve hours or so, as one would logically expect from a Newspaper- - don’t expect to get it on ABC World News Tonight.   I think we’re about done.  I don’t anticipate any new Power Points in the next few days.

Unemployment Level Holding Steady at 6.6%

They said that something like a hundred and ninety thousand jobs were added last month.  This looks like a good figure but it's still not robust.  Unemployment stayed where it is at 5.6%.  Keep in mind there is a net loss of jobs regardless what the tea party reminds us all the time.  The overall employment level in the nation is nowhere near what it was six years ago.  We complained about them then but by today's standards they appear almost idyllic.   Of course at the same time everyone reminds ourselves that no tax bill can be passed or spending authorized without the vote of this republican Congress.  So when they complain about the way government is now they have nobody to look to to blame but themselves.  Still it's almost good news that the economy didn't tank this winter with all the Sequester and the weather and republican non cooperation working against this economy.

Of course people are talking about the Fort Hood shooting of a few days ago, and how Fort Hood in Texas is almost a breeding ground for these kinds of psychos that seem to crop up there.  But I will say this about these seretonin uptake inhibitors.   Many people get screwed around and crapped on by life.  And the people that do it to them are counting on one thing- - that the person will be so self absorbed and down in the dumps with mental paralysis - - unable to think or make decisions - - that even if the RATIONAL decision IS to take your own life or to kill somebody - - they won't do it.  So I guess you could say these drugs take the moral restraints off - - while at the same time dulling feeling, which would include the anticipated reproach of society and fear and guilt of what would happen if they DID do what they were planning on doing.  But it could be that it's not as though the drugs themselves CAUSE them to DECIDE to commit a violent act, which would have never popped into their minds, otherwise.  Well, that's my "medical" opinion, so to speak.

In terms of the Supreme Court ruling of the other day, the decision still is not a blank check to give as much money as you CARE TO to any one candidate.  It's just you can skirt the "limit" by doling your money out to a hundred and fifty republican candidates.  So in effect, the legal limit for spending has been raised a hundred and fifty fold, or however many candidates you care to spend your money on.  Some "apologists" for this decision say "This decision will increase campaign donation participation".   No it won't.  It will decrease the voice of the average voter, no matter how much he gives of his puny earnings.  Clarence Thomas of course wanted to remove ALL caps on spending.  But then Clarence Thomas is a mindless "plant" or droid or something without a brain but votes the way others instruct him to vote on cases.  He has no accademic mind or taste to study either the words of spirit of the Constitution.  I'm looking forward to the day when Clarence Thomas is impeached, because he NEVER should have been appointed to serve as an Associate Justice of the High Court by Bush 41 to begin with.

These next two paragraphs are late insertions.  It was pointed out to me that when a car company such as GM declares bankruptcy - -all sins the corporation comitted of "may have comitted" to quote Jerald Ford, are pardoned, never to be brought as legal issues by anybody even in Civil Suits.  So people with a beef with GM about  production quality and safety issues- - they're out of luck.  However people who get student loans from the government are BARRED from declaring Bankruptcy.  Go figure!   By the way if you're Biblicly inclined- - there IS no provision in the OT Torah for sins you "may have comitted".  In fact the one time in the Bible this phrase "may have comitted" is employed it was Job interceding for his sons, so he offered in fact the WRONG kind of sacrifice anyhow in a manner NOT prescribed by law.  Pastors would have you to believe there is a "may have comitted" provision in the OT but there is not.  I looked.   And perhaps this phrase of "may have comitted" was used by President Ford because being on the Warren comission - - perhaps - - Richard Nixon, who was in Dallas on November 22nd 1963 - - in some way was complicit of the taking down of President Kennedy.  We don't know.

In terms of that demo 7.4 earthquake they just showed on TV you can retrofit your home for a few thousand dollars.  You can put these steel support plates in as many as twenty stratigic places in your home- - where beams will press against vital walls and stuff- - in what seems to be a mass design flaw in the way they used to build homes.  The question is whether it's just cheaper to buy earthquake insurance and not have to worry about spending the money necessary to remedy this problem   I don't think you can even Buy earthquake insurance in California and if you could, it would most likely have a premium in excess of three thousand dollars anyhow - - and you'd still lose your house AND most likely you would get paid the full equity price of your home when the earthquake happens due to price inflation.

Rush Limbaugh the other day kept talking about "being independant" and on your own.  Sure it's a wonderful feeling.  It wasn't MY idea to get on SSI like I have.   As a Christian the best thing that could have happened to me was "being on my own" so to speak without some overlord.  The only time of the twelve year period we are talking about is from later 1981 to the first of July of 1985.  It was just those four years.  Some people think that brow beating a person NOT to do something will somehow make them decide not to do it.  Not if you completely LACK being psychologically in touch with that person.   Take Gabriel on the soap opera.  I mean Samantha has told her to stay away from Nick, when she pretty much as no Right to tell either Gabriel or Nick to Do or Not Do ANYTHING.  As to breaking into Gabriel's house while they are having sex- - - I would make it clear to Samantha that the next time she pulls a stunt like that- - I'm calling the Cops.  In fact I'd call the cops THIS time.  The only thing that Salem police force is so wink wink look the other way- - if you can get away with murder like Will Horton did, then certainly it's easy to overlook a charge of Breaking and Entering.   In my own life- - I would have been slower and more- - Deliberative about getting my Prophecy Book published - - if I had gotten LESS resistance.  But if a decision IS actually in MY control- - I'm going to do it- - before I'm talked out of it, because that's what my family does for a living.  The Kings of Negativity.

I just wanted to say about the Rapture date this year of - - around October 12th.  - - - that, if that date fails then 2017 is another excellent candidate with perhaps superior credentials if one employs numerology.  It would be the year of the Fire Cock.  Actually I've had no less than four Fire Cock housemates over that twelve year span of time I was talking about.  I also heard (from the Black Panthers) that the Rooster used to be the logo for the Democratic Party in Southern states.  And they are firey.  If "seventeen" is indeed some sort of "cycle" number - - it would approximate the period from the Supreme Court "electing" President G W Bush- - which could be taken as the final "disconnection" between the People and the Government.  It would just incidentally also move the "Beatle Moon" into perhaps better allignment- - and would kind of move the date of the Rapture to John Lennon's birthday.  Well, we'll see.  Chances look pretty good for one or the other of those years.  If you are wondering about "the status of Nations" at the "time of the end"and do we qualify now, that's an interesting point you brought up.  You see only NOW is it aparent that Shiite nations such as Syria and Iran, are listed as the agressors along with Russia - - - the word "Rosh" appears in the King James and perhaps the New English versions, but not in others.  Saudi Arabia and environs  (some say that "Sheba" is really Yemen and not Ethiopia) are protrayed as the victims- - along with Israel herself, who get wiped out at the time just after the Rapture.  There is some sort of Christie style "clearing of the decks" so that the Antichrist, again from a Suni nation it would appear - - not from Iran or western Turkey or Greece and not even Egypt - - but anywhere else is a candidate - - This Man can now take over unopposed as Larry Norman says in the song "666"  when he sings "in the midst of the war, he offered us Peace".   It is the belief of this Author and also of the Koran that true Jews and "followers of the book" worship the same God.  If this is indeed the case, then it would figure (to quote John a bit out of context) that God has "other sheep that are not of this fold and to them I must minister to".  (Selah)

Another High Court Blow to Fair Elections

Randy Rhodes has been talking about today's Supreme Court ruling where they have completed the damage done by Citizens United.  Now they are saying that any rich person can give as MUCH money as he cares to not just to political action committees, but to actual specified Candidates.  Of course they say that the reason why they did this is "Because you can't really pass laws about - - Expressing Gratitude".  That's a Mafia expression you know.  When you do a favor for a friend of a major nature you tell him "The day will come when you will have the opportunity to express your gratitude" meaning that he'll do a favor for you.  Bob Dylan said it long ago in a song I can't quote too often, "Money doesn't talk; it swears".  In short - - money is an obscenity in politics.  One things liberals are a lot better at doing is going out and quoting from the other documents of the constitutional era such as the Federalist papers, a document I'd love to read all the way through sometime.  It was stated that we need a first amendment for "Free Speech" and listen closely "Because elections are not enough to insure clean government but we need to make sure that there is a communications link between the government and the people All The Time for the redress of grievances and put public pressure on something or a problem our public officials have been ignoring.  Keep in mind that money is neither Speech nor Free.  In case you didn't watch that it - - "Free" speech.  Not "Pay to Play" government.  It was stated that money actually walls out and insulates these government officials FROM the common man and preventing the common man from being listened to.  (Selah)   Now they are saying that Cirrus or somebody wants to buy CBS Radio in a further concentration of the communications media.  All of this is wrong.  Steppinwolf said it long ago "Now government is a Monster and Will Not Obey".  (Selah)

And in case you forgotten the original cry of the Colonists was "No taxation without representation".  Well now we "Have the best government money can buy".  Both Hillary Clinton owe everything to Wall street in a desperate effort to raise money.  But still I hear two thirds of the Big Money goes to Republican candidates, although this may be changing as republicans get increasingly whacked out in their political positions.  Now they say four years of Hillary will be just like the twenty years we've had of Clinton-Bush-Obama before them.  Clearly we need some candidate on the Left - - "perhaps an unknown" as someone put it today- - to step up to the plate and run.  The voices of the left need to be articulated.  But the tea party has never had it better than under this Administration with the lowest taxes they've ever had, and the least prosecution of Wall Street crooks there has ever been, the most agressive pursuit of Al Qaeda there has ever been, and the most illegal Aliens deported than there have ever been.  Why aren't they happy?  Maybe because Rush Limbaugh's numbers in Los Angeles are tanking- - since Rush has moved to "Patriot Radio".  Here is a case where money actually overrides both public oppinion and ratings.  But in fact the tea party are WELL represented in Congress.  First by gerrymandering, but also by the US Senate.  Even when the democratic party ruled both houses- - ten percent of the senators had forty percent of the vote and this was enough to prevent any legislation the house approves- - from passing the Senate because of the filibuster ruler.  Of course we know those ten percent of Senators are from red states.  So there IS no "taxation without representation".  You about OVER representation and Welfare for the Rich Corporations.  That's the way it is in reality.

Monday Night there was a major report years in the making on Global Warming that I have not yet covered.  It basically states "Twenty plus years ago we said that action should be taken right now because if the situation is as bad as we think it is- - by the time we know without a doubt- - - for sure- - it could well be Too Late to reverse the trends.  Now that day is here.  This report says that Global Warming is a fact without question and that it IS indeed too late to reverse the mounting percentage of C02 in the atnosphere, but perhaps we can stave off the worst of the effects of global warming if we act now.  According to Rush Limbaugh he says that eight percent of the global warming gasses are from cow farts.  This violates common sense of course when you think of all the dirty smokestacks and cars burning fossel fuels there are in the world - - at an alarmingly growing rate in third world countries particularly.  Clearly even if what Rush said were to be true it would mean if the entire world became veegans overnight, we would still reduce the global warming threat by eight percent.  Still Rush has a point in that a lot of energy in tractors and fertelizers and such is expended to grow grains that will be consumed not by human beings but by animals- - if you don't count all of this methanol farce which now everyone sees as a bad idea.  We need to permanently retire the expression of "Drill, baby drill".   Hopefully- we are making progress on the alternative energy front.

The Republicans rely on a climate of fear to maintain their political power.  People say that all they have left are aging white males.  I would modify that to be men over 35 from the "American heartland" and places like Orange and San Diego counties.  But many of this core conservative group is also poorly educated and listens nightly to FOX news to be misinformed.  Apparently FOX is famous for telling outright lies and putting up false graphs.  Even in the past few days there were scads of people saying "We'll never make it to seven million on the health care thing because we'll have to do two million in the final week or so and that just isn't possible".  Of course the final figure, as of now is7.1 million signed up.  Apparently FOX puts out graphs which depict Six million as being about one tenth as high of a bar as Seven million.  When FOX knows they have lied about a false graph or something- - apparently they will do a thirty second retraction of the story perhaps at twelve thirty at night when nobody is watching.  Last Saturday Dr Levy said that Germany and France have a top rate of income taxes of 75% and that the average person living in these countries pays sixty percent of their pay check to the government and all they get is inferior health care where there is a really long waiting period to even see a doctor. (As opposed to this country where things are perfect)  It would seem the actual rate in Germany and it looks like France too is 45% and the average person pays a lower rate than that.   It's just another case of people on the right wanting to believe something.  They need to believe false information.  Someone compared our nation now to South Africa while it was still ruled by minority White people.  The message we can all take away from Nelson Mandella is that "sometimes we need to resort to violence to get the job done".  Obviously even as small and decline percentage the tea party has- - so much of that is from poor uneducated people living in "The heartland" that if these people ever saw the light- - the tea party would never win another election.  Apparently it's the one year anniversary of that republican report saying "Our party has got to overhaul its message if we are ever going to start winning again".   For a while they thought "We don't need to change our actions- - just our speech - - our rhetoric" but in the end these tea party people were incapable of even doing THAT.   Now not only is the dog whistle speech back- - the references are becomming increasingly more blatant against the minorities and the poor.

Of course Liberals are far better at quoting passages from the Bible IN CONTEXT than are the conservatives.  In fact one thing I agree with Walter Martin about is his saying of "A text without a context is a pretext".  Indeed many of the OT passages quoted in the New Testament to support Christianity would be laughed right out of the Christian Research Institute- - if they weren't already in the Bible in the NT.   I'll give you one.  Chuck Smith quotes the Genesis passage of "The scepter of Judah will not depart until He comes whose right it is to rule forever".   If I were just your average Joe truck driver- - or a liberal reading this passage back before Christ came I would be thinking "Oh good- - this means that once Jerusalem gets into power they will STAY in power and will never lose their right to rule- - until the Messiah comes and takes us right into the melinial age".   That's a normal reading of it.  But according to Chuck Smith it means that just before Christ was brought up on charges "The people of Israel lost the right to inflict the death penalty".  This by the way is a false assertion not borne out by history.  But Chuck says it because after all if Jesus was the Messiah then - - - - then what?   That means maybe in two thousand, twenty thousand, or two hundred thousand years- - the Milenial Age will come on earth at last.  You actually hear very few Bible quotations at all from the tea party people since their loyalty is to Ayan Rand and not the Bible anyhow.

It's funny how they sugar coat the whole gay thing on Days of our Lives.  They had a gay bachelor party but even they would not show a male stripper stripping down to a speedo with a bulging crotch.  And sticking Gabriel and the baby into the mix kind of softens the blow and somehow makes them seem more "normal"even though it's really stranger.  Perhaps the anti gay people are right.  Why can't Gabriel marry both Sonny and Will in a convienient threesome - and baby makes four.  And of course to get over the awkwardness of NOT being married in a Catholic Church - - by a relative who is a Priest- - well, that Priest just had to be de-frocked so that he is no longer in the picture.  As far as I know not one time has Will Horton ever met up with or had a conversation with Father Eric, though Eric is eager enough to make moral pronouncements on everybody else- - even Nicole Walker.  Another awkward issue that was skirted is all of Sonny's old boyfriends- - who certainly must have heard he was getting married- - which even they must think is beyond strange because "our kind of people just don't do that sort of thing".   Well, they aren't hitched yet, and something- - and I say hopefully - - could still go wrong.