For you and me, the fourth of July is a happy time for getting out with friends and taking a welcome break in our daily routines. But for many this is not so. For the humane society this is their busiest time of the year as cats and dogs are traumatized by the fireworks going off and run away. If you're in the liefguard business you can expect more notice swimmers in the water and therefore your day will be busier than usual. And if you're a hospital emergency worker expect to have a busy night with mostly kids coming in with burns and injuries missing fingers or perhaps eyes- - or with major burns on their skin, perhaps from lighting a propane barbecue after just opening the lid, something they tell you not to do because of a potential buildup of gas. I wonder if you're an American Indian how you feel about this or any such holiday such as Columbus Day or Thanksgiving.
Some think the unemployment news for last month is really good and we have all these rave reviews from the Obama Administration, praising themselves and patting themselves on the back. First of all I heard that really for this to be a kosher recovery we would have to average In Excess of 250,000 net new jobs not only this month but EVERY month for the past five years. And nobody is claiming anywhere near that. There were something like 280,000 jobs created last month. And the unemployment edged down to 6.1%. Before you get too giddy over that, what is this were ten years ago and such a figure came out of the Bush administration. Would you be patting yourself on the back then? The real unemployment figure went to twelve percent in 2009 and hung there doing little but minor ocelations for most of these past five years, and now it has finally inched its way down to eleven percent. They haven't kept honest unemployment figures in decades and everybody knows it. As far as I'm concerned when the State of California offers services or potential services that I can avail myself of- - that are not only equal to what they were six and a half years ago- - but adjusted for inflation and I mean the real inflation rate at five or six percent- - then we can talk. Untill then as far as I'm concerned Obama is just blowing smoke out his ass.
Most people thought Eric Cantor was a far right conservative. Most people think Thad Cochrin is a far right segregationist conservative. But if you're on the political right you consider his political victory last week or whenever- - not only a disaster but a crime. Allan West was in for Sean Hannity today, a day I chose to watch that show for the first time in weeks. Apparently West is accusing Cochrin of cheating in the last election by people voting illegally and as such Alan West expects the election to be overturned on Monday. Of course these people live in that alternate reality, a parrellel universe, because they admit that "There is nothing about any of this even on the local news". As far as Alan West is concerned it's a giant media conspiracy of silence. But the reaction of Alan West, and presumably Sean Hannity- - shows what the tea party regards as "normal" these days. You'd think they'd be on cloud nine because they've been running the country these past five and a half years, and they have been obstructionist at every turn. Every act they do to sabotage the economy they expect the voters to blame President Obama on election day for it, which would be a pretty good trick because President Obama will never be on the ballot again. I'm hard pressed to see the appeal of a party that- as one commentator put it "Only likes to cause pain to the average American- - as though the unhappiness of the average American will somehow garner them votes over a democratic challenger.
The writer of George Washington's blog is another person who lives in a parrellel universe. But that's OK. I have the Orion Federation, and he has his belief that the Obama administration conducted a "false flag opperation" last February to stage a coup in the government of Ukrane. This writer honestly expects us to believe that 96% of the voters in that special election actually want to be re-anexed by Russia. Once again there is not a word of this anywhere in the media. And the writer admitted that even if you Google the topic you won't come up with anything. But this is a free country and I respect a right of a man to believe anything he wants, and to have readers who follow every word he says.
I'd like to return for the third posting in a row to this whole Jesus thing. Unlike the Book of Acts, the Four Gospels do not make the sort of specific claims that can either be proved or disproved. So you have to approach it from a different tack. I've been thinking about that song Simon sings in Jesus Christ superstar that goes "There must be over fifty thousand - - screaming Love and more for you - Every one of those fifty thousand would do whatever you asked them to do. Keep them yelling their devotion, but add a touch of Hate at Rome". There is so much we don't know about Palm's Sunday such as "Why did this one time Jesus encourage people to hail him as a leader? And how many were in the crowd that day. I'd be very surprised if it were fifty thousand. But now lets go forward one day when Jesus drives the money changers out of the Temple. I can only assume that loud crowd of whatever size was egging and cheering him on. But we are told that the government leaders were "afraid to take any action against him". They were SO afraid in fact that when Jesus came back the next day and "sat by the treasury' there seemingly was not even any memory of what happened the previous day. Instead Jesus and the authorities are having a spirited dialog debate over the hot religious issues of the day. And then we come to Friday and Jesus before Pilate. One would think that crowd of fifty thousand would be right behind him storming the Pretorium of whatever it's caller where Pilate's headquarters were. We are also informed that in the recent past there had been a Riot where a guy named Barrabus was arrested. And we know the Romans offer swift justice. There are no endless appeals of a death penalty sentense. And yet what do we see. No crowd- - at least FOR Jesus but instead an angry mob that wants to kill him. This is such a great disconuity. As the writer said about Acts, it's as though the entire story were written in segments- - isolate units independent of each other and kind of strung together. So it's like one scene ends - - and leaves us hanging what will happen next- - and then there is another setting - - - completely different. For instance we are told that Jesus told the disciples to carry swords because 'He was numbered with the transgressors". Well, so much for his being sinless. And Judas - - Judas LEADS a "Roman Cohort" of troops to the Mount of Olives to capture Jesus. And this cohort - is easy to spot because they have "lanterns and torches' on a night when there is a full moon! And we are told the disciples fell asleep. Yet the words Jesus prayed FOR his disciples- - is reported faithfully in scripture. We are to believe that Jesus inner bunch of twelve disciples did not even attend his crucifixion. We are told that Judas was filled with remourse over his "foul, bloody deed", and yet Judas "buys a plot of land", and he couldn't have bought it from a Jew because it was the Sabbath, so it had to be from these Romans, whom now Judas presumably considers monsters. But the ammount Judas was paid from the authorities, could not possibly buy real estate, even at first century prices. Many people say that Jesus never played the victim. But they aren't aware of Jesus telling the women to "Weep not for me but for yourselves because it's going to be really hard times coming down" or something like that. "You will say to the mountains - - Fall on us" ect. ect. And then we come to Easter. Remember that crowd of fifty thousand only days before? Well the slightest whiff of a roomer that Jesus had conquered death and they'd be all over that tomb, probably conducting paid tours. Yet- - nothing. One of the most spactacular events in human history is shrouded in almost complete Secrecy. (Selah) Well, not that secret. There was a powerful earthquake that morning, yet at no other place in the entire Bible is this earthquake referred to in the dialog.
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