The Verdict - Speaking the Truth

This was last night's Jeopardy question last night about the words Ver and Dict, being Latin for "speaking the truth".  If one renders a verdict or decision on a case one should certainly be seeking justice and speaking honestly.  But people like to invent things in the Constitution that aren't there and to deny things that are there.  There is a provision in the US Constitution that says "No debt shall be questioned that is incurred by this government".  Yet in 1917 during the spending of World War I Congress instituted this thing called the "debt ceiling".  The thing is that subsequent bills by Congress itself have contradicted this bill with obligations such as Social Security.  These are indeed "Entitlements' but keep in mind this is a word people like to play games with for want of seeing the obvious.  It indeed is an "Entitlement".  It is a Right.  It is something that has been earned, and cannot be negotiated away.  I think prenuptual agreements are wrong because they Negotiate Away certain sacred values inherent in the marriage contract itself.  When the Bible speaks of human sacrifice, I believe this entails negotiating away certain inailiable human Rights such as Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.  The people of Florida in 2000 were "entitled", they had a Right, to have their votes Counted.  But somehow this right got negotiated away.  Now in this latest monetary budget bill to avert the Fiscal Cliff- - - certain incentives and come-ons were added.  Disney Corp was given a lot of money as were the big banks and Wall Street.  Also I'm told there were yet MORE deals to finance the off shoring of more American jobs.  The Average American doesn't realize the high level of pork in these bills passed by Congress.  Newt Gingrich said that the Hurricane Sandy bill was "a train that was headed down the track, so congress just loaded up this bill with over fifty percent Pork".  This is something the American people were not told.  With all this gun hysteria out this week in particular, nobody is even thinking about the fact we are heading tword another of those "self inflicted wounds" known as the Debt Ceiling Crisis.  Nobody argues that paying off debt is better than HAVING the debt.  Clearly we'd rather not have it and clearly it would be a good thing to reduce it.  But the idea of using this unconstitutional "Wall" of the Debt Cailing as an excuse to stick it to the poor and the least among us able to provide for ourselves- - this to me borders on the criminal.  It's funny how the Rich are so quick to remind a poor person when he is even a Little in debt.  Yet Jesus Christ himself tought on the folly about point out the puny debts poor people incur- without first aknoledging their OWN indebtedness, perhaps even to God Himself.  Rich people are hypocrites because by everything they say they act as if they themselves Never Need Government and wish somehow it would just "go away" and "leave them alone".  But if this were really the case they wouldn't be trying so hard to take government over, which they have, or to deny the poor and minorities their democratic rights.

 

I was mentally formulating some possible topics for the lead-off posting in “Soap Opera of Life” for a while.  One point of interest that struck me was that character traits per se are not the same as “good” or ”bad” personal accomplishments of life.  These are a mixture of both character and environment and of course opportunity.  You can be the bravest person in the world and still be doomed to a certain death, if the environment is sufficiently adverse- - like Nazi troopers storming into Paris in 1940 or something.  And yet how many Christians such as Fred Price and Chuck Smith- - measure a person’s “godliness” by how big of a church following he has, or what kind of car he drives, or whether he gets tons of fan mail from groopies every week.  The plain fact is that God has repeatedly stated in the Bible that he ideas with the man who often has to stand Alone against his adversaries, and that God is with such a man every bit as much as he’s “with” Chuck Smith.  The strange thing is that Good and Evil are not entirely "opposites".  A list of cardinal virtues and vices will not be exact corilary opposites.  Good is a Proactive force- - and yet our reaction to evil is normally Reactive.  It's a funny thing is that a hypothetical person who is perfect and "never makes miatakes" is not per see "Good".  He just has an absence of Evil.  I have said in my writings before- - even if I see acts of evil - - - that I will forgive a Lot from a person - -  if he shows signs of true Bravery.  Because it takes goodness to poseess Courage.  And this is what a lot of people seem to lack entirely.  It's sheer lack of any character and moral cowardess to an apalling degree.  So it's the extreme moral cowardess of both the tea party and the Born Again Christian community that galls me.

Sometimes we have idioms in the English language that may seem illogical.  For instance we say “loosen” and “unloosen” to mean the same thing.  We talk about a “disgruntaled” employee, but I have not once heard of a “gruntled” employee, or know what one would be.  Sometimes “narrow based” or “narrow minded” can refer to completely opposite actions.  For instance if you construct an “narrow” IQ test it may be one which will not allow for the subtalties of very stupid people or very smart people.  You may be able to answer questions way more challenging than the ones on that test- - and are Judged adversely, merely because you are brought “down” to the level of the test.  So it’s like if the person writing the test only has a 105 intelligence then you are comdemned to being rated at 105 intelligence, yourself.  Often though the exact opposite problem exists.  On these political tests they give you- - they “point” or if you will “directionalize” the answers- - they telegraph or target the “correct” answer in advance.  This is your High Kurtosis phallocy.  There are all sorts of far left and far right questions on that test.  The wide ranging nature of the test is not the issue here- - but they want all of the “scoring’ to show up at some ethereal “point’ or spike right in the center of the test- - and are content to have the wings or “tails” spread way out to the left and to the right.  These people, though they show up on the test- - are dismissed as “too far out to take seriously” and all.  Some people say that conservatives are “anti intellectual” but I regarded Dad as a bit knee jerk and anti intellectual because when I would make an “intellectual case” for Conservative Christian thought say 35 years ago- - it would be dismissed not for any academic reasons but for the same sort of lazy “generalities” the tea party people employ now.  They case their arguments not on any Facts, but rather these “memes” they have been brainwashed by and don’t require any cognitive thought.

There are memes in society that survive independent of any fact.  One on that list was this adage that “Well you know.  I’m like a tea bag.  When I get into hot water I only get stronger”.  This is physically a flat out falsehood.  Tea bags that have been in hot water for a long time only brew tea that is both weaker and more bitter than a fresh tea bag.  And then there is the one about how “whatever doesn’t kill you will make you stronger”.  You need only to consult with a heart patient to see the folly of this.  Those people who actually DO have a cholesterol problem, where the rating is above 250 or something- - are in fact in more danger from consuming that chocolate milk shake, then I would be, for instance.  The fact that the LAST one didn’t kill you, or that last cigarette didn’t kill you- - won’t make you “stronger” to face the next one.  Of course then there is this notion about - - - generosity to the poor.  They say “If I give this starving person a meal, he’s only more likely to be at my door asking for another meal tomorrow”.  But what’s left unsaid is that “But if I deny him- - if I get lucky he’ll die of starvation in the next 24 hours and I’ll never have to face him again”.  This whole idea is that if a want or need is granted then “They’ll only want or need the same thing again later” is a silly line of argument.  Maybe God, if he’s looking for example for a really “low maintenance pet” should just adopt a pet rock, and this will solve a lot of his problems.  Dead people have no feelings and never complain about anything”.   Then there is the meme that only rich people “Know the value of a dollar”.  This one is so absurdly false and more likely than not it’s the exact opposite.  POOR people are the ones who truly know the value of a dollar and what it can do for them, and are more than willing to work for money, because they DO know the value of it.  It’s rich people, on the other hand, who are so obsessed and preoccupied by their MONEY that they will pay a business manager a huge commission to insure that poor people or the government never get a penny of it.  According to Judy, every rich person out there like Mitt Romney must “have really worked hard” and of course understands “Biblical economic principles” (mean greed and love of money) and as such because they are rich then Godliness is imputed to them, and you can’t attack “Godly” people!

Self Defense Isn't Such a Bad Thing

In George Washington’s blog now they lead off with an impressive 20/20 ABC video that makes a strong case that guns are the great equalizer and give the law abiding citizen a fighting chance against crime.  It is pointed out that there are no statistics on the crime that was NOT committed because the potential crime target was carrying a piece.  Often the mere sight of a gun is enough to get the intruder running.  In Washington DC the murder rate skyrocketed AFTER they issued a thirty year ban on all firearms within the District of Columbia.  The 20/20 piece goes on to say that there is NO documented evidence of Any gun legislation ever accounting for a drop in crime statistics.  It is pointed out that Britain is the most violent country in what used to be called the EEC.  (I’m old school)  There is a city in Georgia that actually mandated that every citizen own a firearm and the crime rate actually went DOWN.  Of course felons would much prefer a total gun ban because the scariest part of robbing someone is not being caught by law enforcement, but rather the possibility that the victim might be armed and shoot back.  Of course you see evidence in history of this fact.  The Nazis made the Jews turn in their weapons and a few years later they were easy pickings to be carted off to concentration camps, knowing the Nazis would face no resistance.  Passivity is not the way to deal with an aggressor.  This is one of the all time greatest lies in the Sermon on the Mount, among so MANY lies Christianity routinely tells all the time.  This bit about “not knowing” is itself an important weapon in fighting or preventing aggression against you.  The worst thing that can happen is (A) for you to declaire a uilatteral peace and B for the enemy to know all of your weaknesses in advance.  BOTH of these things were the case with Pastor Bill Halliday, which is why that relation with him turned out to be so very injurious to me.  The idea that anybody not suitable for employment because of whatever “disability” and this alone barring them from owning a gun - - is an insult to vast segments of society.  I recommend that everybody watch this 20/20 segment in George Washington’s blog.  It will really turn your head around on this issue.  Of course I think even Rush Limbaugh pointed out that this idea propounded about “Ape not killing Ape” in the movie Planet of the Apes, is the biggest crock of Bull to come down the pike.  If gorillas had the dexterity to fire weapons, you can your Aunt Jenny that they would be firing on humans, if those humans themselves were not armed.  As to the idea of the “gun free zone”, I guess this is a new term we will all have to get used to.  The idea is that sometimes in these mass shooting cases, at least according to ABC, there ARE armed people who take down the shooter before he can kill that many people.  And again- - these mass killers don’t care if they themselves are killed.  That isn’t the issue.  The issue is - - they want to get in the guiness book of world records to be the number one taker of human life of all time and gain their perverse sense of fame and immortality that way.  It’s pointed out- - the question is raised “If a burgler were breaking into your home, which would you rather have- - a gun or a telephone?  You can use the telephone to call the cops and they will get over there just in time to photograph your dead body.  Think about it.  There is one more aspect of this gun issue I have to bring up that has ticked me off for decades.  Michal Jackson the long time KABC talk show host, used to repeat this adage we've heard endlessly lately about how "Most likely a gun in the home will kill a family member before it will ever be used to stop an intruder".  The only thing is I've heard that host Michael Jackson himself had a conceiled weapons permit.  I think all those rich liberal Hollywood types have conceiled weapons permits issued by the city.  But only the hoy palloy elite people of the city get to have them.  If there is one thing I can't stand it's a person making claims about "The way things ought to Be" that he doesn't for a minute actually believe, himself.  It's also kind of an economic class issue.  It could be argued that the tea party people are actually arguing that the lower classes of - - the rest of us - - have the same inherent rights that elite liberals have always had.

Randy Rhodes now has issued a flat out “fatwah” or whatever that nobody on SSI who is there because they are “unable to work” should have the right to own a gun.  She says if you are fatigued or under “mental stress” or PTSD or these people in the South with their “mad money checks once a month- - should be out of hand barred for life, apparently, from ever owning a gun.  I would never own a gun.  But I have never been on conservatorship and have never been ajuticated by any court to be “mentally incompetent’ and how I ever got on SSI is a mystery to this day.  It’s just some mysterious strings that Mom knew how to pull.  But since I am now 62 aren’t I about entitled to “begin drawing retirement” anyhow soon?  There are a lot of professions where you are really considered too old to work by age 62.  One guy suggested that the national guard have some “auxiliary adjunct” where ordinary citizens could own guns and be technically part of a “well regulated militia”.  Randy Rhodes came out against this.  She questioned whether people, even the military, should be able to take their gun home at night for private use.  And she also said something about how all the ammunition should be in a locked box and nobody given access to it without “it being part of a specific mission”.  I think of these old Andy Griffith films where Don Knotts alias Barney Fithe was allowed one bullet and that one bullet was kept in a special place.  I’ve heard people say that they own a gun but it’s kept in a locked safe and it’s not loaded anyhow and the amo for it is somewhere else.  How the hell is that going to work out for you in a real home invasion crisis where the lives of your wife and kids is in jeopardy.  “Excuse me while I work the combination to my safe where I keep my gun”.  Oh excuse me again- I have to look for the bullets.  I can’t remember where I stashed them?  And the criminal will say “Oh then, I’ll help you look.  And I’ll just help myself to this jewelry as my commission”.  Randy was maybe just a little over the top today referring to guns that haven’t been purchased as “potential human life’ and “snow flake babies”.  And those guns in police impoundment compounds are all saying “Don’t destroy us.  We’re valuable.  We still have something to give”.  I don’t know what kind of a “non destroy” policy Tuscon has for it’s impounded firearms.  (Maybe the impounded guns have to go before a gov "death panel" to give final approval on melting the guns down, and turning them into something that's actually useful.) What is clear is that nobody is ready to come to any real decisions on this issue.  I had Mike Huckibee on earlier on a San Francisco radio station.  They claimed they were the only conservative radio station in town but minutes later I came across a Rush Limbaugh station in Oakland, and Rush Limbaugh was also on in liberal Santa Cruz.  My point is that if conservatives can make such powerful inroads here in the heart of liberalism- - - there is precious little hope of ever getting anything done on the whole gun issue.  The American people are just not ready for it.  Rush Limbaugh is outraged over an Executive Order that President Obama has not even issued yet, but they are all sure it will a be vast and wide-sweeping denial of everyone’s gun rights.  Joe Byden is meeting with the National Rifle Association today so apparently even Joe isn’t convinced as to exactly what we should do on the gun issue but is welcoming more input from the far right.  And now there is this new concept that has been introduced called “The gun free zone’.  They now claim that since “gun free zones” have been set up in Europe, that gun attacks on civilians has skyrocketed, and the saying is alive and well that “The only way to stop a bad person with a gun, is a good person with a gun”.  I’m saying this now.  Maybe we on the left should just drop this issue for now because from my vantage point, the issue is unwinnable.  There is just too much entrenched anti gun regulation paranoia out there to even discuss this subject rationally.  And we don’t want to add “mass hysteria” to all our other crises.

"And now, a break for Local Affairs".  When they got done cleaning in here over the lunch break it smelled of mildewed dust with kind of a burnt smell like a heater going on for the first time, which isn’t the case.  I think they just use dirty mops and dust cloths so that the room is dirtier than when they began.  We had grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch and potato salad.  I had a second helping of potato salad and another half sandwich.  They had finally refilled the pepper for my noodle soup.  We had an apple for desert.  We had meat balls and rice and gravy and brocolli for dinner.  Our side got vanilla ice cream.  The other side got raspberry.  We've been doing a little photo encores in our lead-off images, because (A) I haven't done new photos in a while and (B) most of you probably haven't seen them anyhow.

 OF COURSE it takes little imagination to invision what would happen if the black slaves of the South had firearms.  There would be no "Yes, massa" and "No, massa".  They would merely have to pull their conceiled piece from their coat and point it at the Lord of the Mansion.  Then they could invoke the John Kovel doctrine (of KFI) and blow the guy's head off without even giving him an oppertunity to speak for himself on the grounds that "Well, you know he's guilty of SOMETHING - - even if I can't prove it.  And if he isn't, his ancestors sure are!  On the live and local program they said that Fredrick Douglas is not mentioned at all in the “Lincoln” movie, though he was perhaps the individual most instrumental in ending slavery.  I guess they are imputing to Abraham Lincoln some far reaching vision of a new America like Obama and Health Care- - - that in fact Abraham Lincoln didn’t have.  It’s very understandable that Black people would be upset by this distortion of history.  Of course the idea that these tea party people think they could take on the entire US Government is rather silly.  They don't really believe that.  Besides, their side already fought the Civil War once- - and they didn't fare so well.  I don't for the life of me see why they'd want to try it again.

I watched the soap opera at one.  I can well see why Clowie would want to give Kate Roberts the finger and then send her on her way empty handed.  I wouldn’t have warm and fuzzy feelings about someone who tried to murder me, either.  Particularly if husband Philip “kicked her to the curb” when he found out he wasn’t the father of Parker, which I am coming to suspect is what happened.  Rather than bother Clowie and Victor- - perhaps Kate Roberts should have a real sit down chat with her own son, and have him tell her exactly what happened.  Samantha is still doing the yo-yo thing between two lovers.  I think she needs to be honest with both men and make it clear to each that neither one owns her, and that it might be a long time before she comes to any long-term life changing decisions.  Whichever one walks away from here upon hearing that news- she can just go with the other one.  Makes sense to me.  I went to the store after two for cigarettes and found myself three cents short of being able to afford a snack without having to break a whole dollar, so I held off.  I haven’t blogged in two days and frankly I’ve been too lazy to do the research necessary to do a good blog.  It’s as I say - -  that the media’s promotion of any story is inverse to its actual potential importance or magnitude.

 

The Art of Practiced Incompetence

I can’t believe some of the political crap that goes on all the time.  Apparently the big banks lost some criminal trial and had to pay out a cash settlement of billions for their mal-feasence.  Every single major bank was involved in this massive court settlement, apparently, including Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Citybank, and Chase.  Only a fraction of the people who qualify for these – restitution settlements, even bother to apply, David Cruise says.  But it seems the “fund” to pay back the money will be ‘administered” by the banks themselves.  I’m not sure what that means but it doesn’t sound good.  They are saying that whatever penalty against the banks was - - it’s far too little compared to the damage they have done.  Of course in all venues of government there is an almost incestuous tight relationship between the regulat-ORS and the regulat-ED.  Sometimes I think President Obama is taken in by this idea of “Constructive Engagement”, which is a rationale George Bush 41 used to give for going soft on Red China.  This was back in the days when we believed “if we’re really nice to these people they won’t violate human rights”.  Somehow the idea persists that regulators have to be “nice” to these financial inatitutions run by crooks.  Of course they have systematically gutted what meager gun laws we have had in the past as Randy Rhodes was reviewing earlier.  There was funding for guns in the house preventing crime, and guns and “mental health” under “disease control” but some gun nut in congress got those funds stripped out.  It used to be that gun stores needed to keep certain records for law enforcement to review to trace gun serial numbers and all, but now those laws have been done away with.  In the military the only time if they care whether you own a private gun, is if they fear you may commit suicide with it.  Of course if they banned assault weapons the price of these weapons would skyrocket, and all these unemployed psychos out there who are short of funds wouldn’t find it so easy to get their hands on one.  There was talk of laws regulating the stockpiling of vast amounts of ammunition and Wall Mart can’t keep high capacity magazines in stock.  Row after row of gun implements is vacant and all you see is “out of stock”.  Sales of ammunition is up ninety percent over last year.  They say that Obama as part of a 2009 credit card reform bill, placed that bit about bringing loaded guns to our national parks and wild like reserves.  We need some kind of a massive purge of our whole corrupt political system and I’m not at all certain about how to go about doing it.  Government is a joke.  David Cruise was talking about these politicians who spend the lion’s share of the time in their eight to five jobs, campaigning for higher office, and meeting with these “consulting firms” to spruce up your image.  Another thought hit me earlier today.  You know Barry Mc Guire sings “eve of destruction”.  But I’m wondering what Barry Mc Guire thinks now, as a Christian, about all this tea party war and gun nut hysteria we are now gripped by.  The idea that a lot of peacenik hippies would embrace a war mongering religion like fundamentalist end of the world Christianity is pretty laughable.  Whoever pulled off that one was pretty slick.  He pulled off the con job of the century.  I think the whole idea of privilege for congress has been extended way too far.  They see themselves as royalty, the way Christian pastors see themselves as royalty.   You talk about “a sense of entitlement’, well this is what all of these people have.  They are shielded from the day to day economic realities the rest of us have to face every day.  Some new study indicates that California schools in total, get an “F” and that there is not one school system in the whole country that gets an “A”.

Today is January 8th and it's Elvis's birthday and he would be 78 if he were still alive.  Richard Nixon will celebrate his one hundredth birthday, so to speak.  They say there are more Centenarians in the north and east USA and fewer per general population in the South and most of the West.  There are more of them per capita in urban regions than rural.  Two years ago brings two anniversaries.  It is the anniversary of my falling down the stairs and skinning my knee through my pants- - on the rug, all the while filming the action.  There is a brief brief break in the footage for a second or so when I clicked the camera off but then a second later I click it back on so it's rolling again, so you see documented what happens.  And of course Gabriel Giffards was gunned down and almost killed.  There was an armed shooter in the premisis who in an effort to protect Giffards almost shot the man who eventually protected her.  Armed guards assure nothing - for there are times when even a Security Guard is instructed not to shoot into a crowd for safety reasons.  Giffards says she is angrier now about the whole state of our gun laws than she was a few months ago, which is understandable.  Now she is actually in a viable position to take the fight to the Republicans and we wish her Gods speed.  Today I finally got my finances straightened out with the Queen Bee around here.  But the way I plowed through that sixty dollars from my mother in less than two and a half weeks - and that doesn't even count the two small debit card purchases at the liquor store, it may be the first time I feel poorer after getting paid than before- - because I realize how high on the hog I've been living.

Today’s soap opera featured the bizarre details on the paternity of Daniel’s son Parker.  Victor looked upset.  Now there’s someone else he’ll have to cut out of his will.  They actually showed two year old Parker today, for the first time, with Maggie.  It seems that nerd guy who was a computer hacker Stephanie had hired had a crush on Stephanie.  But Stephanie had romantic leanings tword Philip.  But Philip was married to Melanie at the time and was unavailable.  But the nerd computer guy thought he could change all this by saying that Philip was the biological father of Parker.  It’s like the ghost cast from two years ago coming back to haunt us.  Jennifer tripped over a box on the front door stoop.  She must be a klutz.  Lucas may not be buying Will’s statement that he’s “down with this marriage” between Nick and Gabriel.  But now there is a fourth person who knows this paternity secret, and that’s the new Black brother of Lexi or whoever he is.  The thing is - - Will is such a total flake that if the field were wide open for him to move in on Gabriel- - he’d just blow it again.  I spent a lot of time on the patio smoking  In the mid afternoon I brewed up the last three coffee spoons in the can, finishing it off.

THE WHOLE ENCHALADA.  I HAVE AN IDEA FOR MARKETING THE RED, THE WHITE, AND THE BLUE :"BEST OF' BEATLE ALBUMS TOGETHER  BUT SINCE THERE IS AN OVERLAP OF THREE SONGS BETWEEN THE BLUE AND THE WHITE WE REMEDY THIS SITUATION BY JUST ELIMINATING THESE THREE SONGS ON ONE OF THE ALBUM.  DIG THIS LINE UP.

CD number one of the White Album

GETTING DOWN WITH THE BEAT   (the "rapper" drumming of Strawberry Fields from CD number two of Anthology II)

HELTER SKELTER PART ONE  (The "slow version" on Anthology III)

DEAR PRUDENCE

GLASS ONION

INSTRUMENTAL INTERLUDE  (the opening track of Anthology Vol III)

WILD HONEY PIE  (slip in a few seconds longer pause than normal)

BUNGALO BILL  (fade at final bassoon part)

STEP INSIDE, LOVE / LOS PARANOIS  (from Anthology III)

HAPPINESS IS A WARM GUN

 - - - - - vinyl break here- - - - -

MARTHA, MY DEAR

I'M SO TIRED   (KLOS version with the weird added guitar part)

BLACKBIRD

PIGGIES (with reversed stereo channels)

ROCKY RACOON

DON'T PASS ME BY

NOT GUILTY

WHY DON'T WE DO IT IN THE ROAD?

I WILL

JULIA

GOOD-BYE, MY LOVE  (KLOS popular track)

CD number two

BIRTHDAY

YER BLUES

WHAT'S THE NEW MARY JANE? (from Anthology III)

MOTHER NATURE'S SON

ME AND MY MONKEY

SEXY SADIE

HELTER SKELTER - SLIGHT RETURN  (do the entire Mono mix of the song, but then tack on the original stereo album version after the second fade)

LONG, LONG, LONG TIME

- - - - - vinyl break here- - -

REVOLUTION NO. ONE  (KLOS and You Tube video exclusive version.  Begin a slow fade taking up about fifteen seconds after the six minute mark)

HONEY PIE (reversed stereo channels)

SAVORY TRUFFLE (reversed stereo channels)

CRY, BABY, CRY

BROTHER CAN YOU TAKE ME BACK? (extended KLOS exclusive version)

REVOLUTION NO. 9 (reversed stereo channels)

GOOD-NIGHT