Moral Failings Come in Many Manifestations

We all know that John Edwards had a moral failing in 2006. He had an affair with campaign aid Riley Hunter. We also know he was prepared to run and did run for President. In one of his early post election speeches after he had lost he said "I am prepared to take this fight all the way to the convention". That resolve didn't last long. Edwards as much as said for people to test the man and that means the morals he lives by. Now while Edwards will admit to the affair he won't admit to the child produced being his. But he refuses to take a paternity test. I supposed we could say that just about all candidates have skeletons in their closet and sexual infadelity is one of the milder moral failings when you come down to it. There are many much worse.

The biggest news continues to be George Bush's moral sell out to the Chi Coms. He attended the Olympics even though the Chi Coms decided to "punish" the President for making comments against the Chinese government while in Thailand the other day. The press corpse plane was not allowed to disembark and those people had to in effect stay hostages on that jet for three hours. If I had been the President I would have ordered everybody to leave right then and go back to America. But as Randi Rhodes puts it, when you're a debtor nation you need to learn to kiss a lot of ass and suffer personal embarrassments. Now those bikers who wore the gas masks because of Beijing's bad air are being made to "apologise" for their remarks. As Randi Rhodes also points out- - their children, from one child households in the first place, are kidnapped by the government at age four "If the government thinks the child has a body for athletics" and trained rigerously for ten years, so they can be a winner in the olympics. Say what you want to about Jimmy Carter, he had the moral backbone not to go to the Moscow Olympics because they had tanks rolling through Afghinistan. Short a demonstration of Ghandi dimensions, I don't see how protests can do any good at this point. There is the air pollution you can protest, or their child sweat shops, or their prostitution rings, or the fact that they persecute religion groups and even groups who practice yoga. And then there is their Tibitan policy. And now we hear of protestors who object to dog and cat fur being used in coats. One issue that hasn't come up yet but may is biased judging. We don't know to what length these Chi Coms will go to win.

And now we have Vlatimir Putin attacking the sovreign nation of Georgia in the south. The thing is we can't as Nixon might have and said "We don't meddle in internal affairs" because this is a sovreign nation. Apparently the whole thing got started when Russian dissidents were protesting inside Georgia and the Georgian military put down the rebellion. The Russians accross the border didn't like that and like Germany before them, sought again to somehow establish a "Pan Russian Empire" and so attacked. I think Mc Cain is showing more backbone on this issue than George Bush is, who by all reports doesn't intend to do a thing about it, the same way Johnson did nothing about "Prague spring" and the Czechloslavakian invasion in 1968.

I feel the need to further explain my stance on Christianity. I think it is "expediant" to call myself a Christian for the many reasons mentioned on the last posting. There is always a question whether one should make moral compromizes with his beliefs if it "serves some greater good". I suppose the "greater good" could be no more nor less than "rocking the boat". After all telling Christians I have known WHAT I believe NOW can serve no real purpose other than to alienate and start a lot of arguments. At this point I value friendship over "being right" because "being right" is a quality I have a surplus of, to put it in trade terms. I would like to use another of my Star Trek analogies to further make my point. Commander Reyker was once approached by a secretive elete group of Star Fleet who talked of an illegal project they had going because they had contrary to treaty, stolen a Romulan cloaking device. Reyker was enlisted as an "opperative" to keep his intentions secret from his own captain. So they literally traveled up this "asteroid oriface" to this one crevace where this device was kept. They secreted the device on board with the Captain (being told a cover story) knew nothing. But then the Romulans sealed them in using a photon torpedo or something. They then "volentiered to help" and "after a thorough inspection of your ship in our hands for a few days, you'll be free to leave". At this point Reyker talked about how "Up untill this moment I had the luxury of not having to make a moral decision but now I have to" and he ratted the other conspirators out to the Captain and the ship turned themselves in to the Romulans. Where this applies is that there are times in the past where I felt my Christianity itself was giving me "bad karma" and I got myself into situations which, had I never been a Christian to begin with, I would never face. I hope this helps explain my thinking.

The date 8 - 8 would be written in computer binary linto as 10001000. This is also the number 136 and if I'm not wrong this number is also 8 times 17 as well as a "triangulation" of the number sixteen, which in itself hakes it a highly jinxy number. For more in the cryptic news corner- - -the Yesterday and Today album cover has a hint about Mark Campbell's current incarnation. Also the song listings- - the last four songs represent a possible affair between Pete and Robin that was more strife twords the end because Robin was in love with Howard, Pete's step brother but after Howard died, Robin pined away for Howard (who never loved her to begin with) and forgot all about Pete. We have two song lyrics for you now.

"She Told Me Not to Mess Around"
"But I done let the Deal go Down"

"When it's eight, nine, ten, eleven, too"
"I'll be going strong and so will you".

This last one refers to songs eight through eleven, the last four on the album. Also if you have a "paste job" Ringo's black shirt shows through. Pete Richards is a drummer, as Ringo is. Also the image covered up involves a possible (actual) baby. I've got one more quote I want to get in that's not related to anything discussed now, but we might come back to at a later date.

It's not the Pope; It's the Pop that I'm Worried About
-Harry Truman 1960