When I was a kid back in 1957 my Dad read a book called “The Hidden Persuaders”, which was on advertising. One of the things I remember from the book is that men would never go for a magic potion that would prevent their beards from growing because shaving is universally considered a manly act. We have to ask ourselves how come some ideas and products “sell” and others only bomb. We know that “The Di Vinci Code” bombed as a movie. He was ingeniously scripted from a great novel and nobody cal fault the theatrical production, yet it bombed. People were not into having premises that had been rejected in “Holy Blood Holy Grail” being trotted one more time around the block. We hear all the time of ingenious inventions and innovations, many involving the production of energy, yet they bomb. HD TV bombed in this country- - or at least was considered an unmarketable concept in this country, even though it took off in Japan, back in the 1990’s. Sometimes success can’t be anticipated. There is a line in “Back to the Future” about someone writing out the words and music to “She Loves You” and telling someone “This is a sure hit”. Really? If we believe one source “She Loves You” released on Swan Records as a single in September of 1963, bombed royal, even though the song was alledgedly played once on American Bandstand. Yet other things such as cabbage patch kids and pet rocks are overnight crazes. Some have said that should Christianity fall on hard times it’s all the fault of the media, which one right wing source accused of conducting a campaign against Christianity. But we know Christianity is a sacred cow nobody can touch. William Randolph Hurst was accused of spawning an environment for the Spanish American War at the end of the nineteenth century. Hurst is rumored to have said to President Mc Kinley, “You give me the pictures and my newspaper will give you a War. The Spanish American war was considered a “good war” because it was one of our “troff” wars, in that it was good for business after an economic slump. Apparently Hurst saturated his newspapers with stories of white women being raped by Latinos in Cuba, and that turned the tide.
Chernobyl was one of those accidents that was and is more serious than people believed at the time. People say only two thousand died, but according to the author of one new book 830,000 people died or will die because of it. Thom Hartman says that they kept reappraising milk in Germany lowering the standard for safety by one hundred fold, meaning that in the end they allowed a hundred times as much radiation to be in German foods as they had formerly allowed so as not to cause a panic in the population. And of course when you eat irradiated food it stays with you. The effects of this radiation were much worse than the bomb blasts on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. . I didn’t know that. Also the touted “safe” nuclear reactor developed in France still involves a lot of Plutonium being dumped into the North Sea, that they aren’t talking about. And nuclear energy is not carbon neutral. It takes a lot of coal combustion to process and refine out all that uranium. In the long run, nuclear is not the way to go. I think we should open up Yucca Mountain, Nevada merely because all of our planning for the past decade or so- - and if this disposal site is not used it won’t solve anything, because there will still be all that nuclear waste lying around in more dangerous forms.
This whole thing with Arizona and racial profiling, just might have a more sinister point to it. It’s not just that a lot of people don’t know how to locate their birth certificate. It’s not that these people won’t accept copies you send away for like I did with the DMV back in September of 2002. Have you ever heard of the practice of “caging”. I thought so. Caging is the practice of being sent a letter you have to respond to and if you don’t they’ll take you off the voter registration rolls. But they will tell you that if you vote they will find you out and you will be deported. This whole movement is just another wrinkle of the birther movement they are using against Obama. People like Pat Buchannon believes there should be a moratorium on all immigration for a while till our “culture” has the chance to assimilate the incoming population. You know that word from Star Trek. “Resistance is futile; you will be assimilated”. People take exception to the language of the native country even being spoken in this land. Of course just as Israel has an demographic Arab problem, so the demographics are not the friend of right wing vote profilers as they see the percentage of minority races growing, and they know that not too many decades from now, perhaps in my lifetime, the white race will no longer be a clear majority in this country. The right winger’s time is short and they know it.
Some people may wonder just what the driving goal of the right wing is. What motivates them to do what they do? What do they ideally hope to accomplish and see in their reconstituted right wing world? You know I talked about sin and vices in that other file but I but none of those vices, not anger - anger is sort of a step along the way, not avarice - ditto -, really encompasses what pushes some of these people- - and that is pure Evil. Evil’s only goal is to derive pleasure from watching other human beings suffer. In “The Misfits”, Marolyn Monroe said to Clark Gable, “You’re only happy when you can see something else die”. Here’s one for you. Who was the first person after the Genisis Creation to take a life by violence? No, it wasn't Cain. It says that God himself slew animals to make skins for Adam. Thus God was the patent to put the idea of violence solving an issue into his children’s head. One time I mentioned that there is a Christian pastor who teaches Universal Salvation. And I propounded this idea to her and her puzzled response was “What would be the Point?” as if the righteous could not experience pleasure without the knowledge that others were suffering in Hell. One time I talked to Pastor Bill Halliday and I said, “You know- - I heard a radio program that said that even if Christianity turns out not to be not true- - its psychological principles are sound- - as far as the golden rule and love for your fellow man is concerned. I believe Pastor Bill’s exact words to me were “That’s a bunch of Crap”. Jesus of KFI has stated that without evil to overcome the good in man would never be known. Does Jesus really believe God is that stupid that he does not already know what is in the heart of a man? If Jesus read his Bible he would know what it says “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil”. Why do these Republicans after attacking the democrats then begin to feed on themselves and drive people like Arlen Specter and Charlie Crist out of the party? My own family’s attitude seems to be dictated by my brother’s wife. They want to deny me money but before money was ever an issue – and for most of my life it wasn’t – there was always friction. Either it was taking drugs - or being mentally ill - or being too religious - or drinking - - or high blood pressure - - or not taking the newspapers out in a timely manner. Their basic philosophy seems too often to be “If you can’t say something bad, don’t say anything at all”. We all know the economic news is getting better all the time. Stocks are up, earnings are up, sales are up, unemployment is down, America’s respect in the world is up. And yet like me with my family - - the very idea that success is likely fills these people with trepidation. You know these people are greedy. They want it all. But I think if God himself descended from a cloud and gave these rich people all the money they wanted they wouldn’t be happy. It’s the whole idea of Taking it from someone else- - like the poor that turns them on. Their life script is “I thank God that I am not like all the rest of the rabble in the world”. Some of them when crossed get very angry. But there is a type of evil person who doesn’t get angry- - any more than the Talosians on Star Trek got angry. Such emotion is beneath them. Bill Halliday doesn’t get angry. His goal in life is to make You angry and then point to how superior he is. The very first letter I sent Pastor Bill I portrayed a Jesus “who had problems just like we all have. A Jesus who wasn’t born on a bed of roses”. I think he must have begun his resentment of me from that moment. The very idea that a Messiah would encounter the same sort of issues ordinary human beings would face- - fills him with revulsion. You know- to those who say that good NEEDS evil- - - I would point to America.. People came here from Europe in the nineteenth century to escape the constant warring of the European nations. Was this a good or a bad thing? To have relative peace and tranquility. If more of the poor and disadvantaged had the good things in life, I think their lives would be much better both for themselves and every life they touch. Good is sufficient unto itself. (Selah)
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