Near Death Experiance

Fundamentalist Christians don't like reports of near death experiances for the same reasonthey tend to secretly frown on miracles or news that Jesus Christ may actually return this week. If it's real they don't like it and if it points to God rather than themselves, they don't like it.  The only things they like to talk abut are dry theology, and the dryer the better, or else allude to some change in circumstance in their own lives that's purely natural but when they interperet it they make themselves the center of their own story as though their own circumstances made them God or something.  

Now we'll go on with our near death experiance early this morning.  

I came across the radio in “game mode” and it only gets that way after a power failure or something and I wasn’t aware of their being any- - certainly not in the past few minutes.  I turned on and it was KFI 640.  This guy from South Carolina was talking about near death experiances and this guy was from an area where everybody is a fundamentalist and don’t believe in that stuff.  But he was struck by lightning and had a series of experiances after this involving much of the same imigry you’ve heard about before as far as being out of the body and the tunnel leading toward the light and all and talking to a guide.  I was more inclined to take this guy seriously if for no other reason than I am starved for hearing something new and not the same old clap trap you hear from those preachers all the time.  The book of Revelation just doesn’t cut it for me these days.  It’s too steeped in theological ritual and there is no way a person could just “have an experience like that” out of the blue, and so incredibly detailed and has to be pains takingly deciphered and all.  The caller said he got the feeling that we are connected with everything else in our world. He seemed definitely changed by the experience.  I’d go for an experience like that if it changed me for the better and not for the weirder.  That’s what I’m afraid of.  After this I went outside and saw all three cats around.  Tinker looked at me as she passed and I said “Hi, Kitty” and she walked on.  Perhaps I should have continued to listen to the program. 

Since I have so much coffee already in the jar I did not go to Chris’s room for more coffee to be charged for.  I keep playing this on and off game with Chris.  I need to keep track of just how much money I owe him.  I went to the med room at five after five.  I got cough medicine because I knew they have it now.  I did not use my inhaler.  I did get my Ativan.  I turned on KNX radio at five thirty.  Since I had food  around I didn’t go to the candy machine for anything at ten after six.  I had the radio on still but tidied up the room a bit.  I didn’t know when or even if Augustine would be cleaning the room.  We had corn flakes for cereal for breakfast.  This was followed by a single piece of French toast and butter and syrup.  There were two strips  of bacon.  There was coffee.  It was not quite five after seven when I entered the dining room.  If the official eating time is seven now, I wish they would come out and say that. 

Like Shooting Fish in a Fish Bowl

Israel has a clear advantage in any wars they start with the Palestinians.  Israel has leaned a lot more heavily on the United States than Hammas has leaned on either Iran or the Soviets.  And of course Saudi Arabia and those countries of the Gulf don’t even care about the Palestinians. They have more or less left them to fend for themselves.  Apparently Israeli troops tried to interfere with the last day of Romadon celebrations. Arabs living with Israeli citizenship have now entered the fight and fighting in the streets is going on now.  Israel is bombing Gaza and the PLO back to the stone age.  They have bombed out their tunnel system where the civilians run and hide from the bombs. Israel bombed the Al Gizera building in Gaza.  Israel’s iron dome is working out pretty well keeping out Hammas rockets. I haven’t heard Joe Biden take a definitive position on this war.  From what Morning Joe says- - neither side has an incentive to stop this war.  I guess killing of PLO children is necessary.  This relation between Israeli and Palestinian hence seems set in stone.  It can never get any better because Christians say the Bible teaches eternal enmity between Jew and Arab. 

 I was going to post a blog today to the effect that this time “God is really dead”.  They preach an infinite god but say that the knowledge this god has given man is very finite and we aren’t going to get any more.  There is hence a finality to this knowledge.  You ask how can I be so sure of this?  First we have the closed canonization of scripture.  Then there is the passage in scripture that whoever adds to this book God will add to the plagues in this book.  And if you take away from anything in scripture God will take away your reward.   We can never learn anything new.  If I am not among the chosen before the foundation of the earth, no amount of faith can make me be among the chosen.  There are two questions any terrorist could “break me” with.  One involved whether I have found supreme happiness as a Christian and a satisfaction that can be reached in no other way.  The answer is no.  The other question is whether I believe in Jesus and the Trinity and Eternal Life more strongly than I believe anything else in my life.  The answer again would be a resounding “No”.   Hence I’m able to say “I am not a Christian”.  I am a deist.  I do believe a deist believes in a living god, but not one who that’s worth praying to for petition of things you want accomplished in your life and nobody to sing these worship songs to.   There was some bizzare stuff discussed on Tuesday about obeying the laws of the land in Romans 13.  I bet you didn't know Donald Trump was still president, did you?  Stuff was said this day that would curl your hair.  I seem to have near nothing in common when it comes to morals on the subject of fundamentalist Calvary Christianity.   Therefore I say to you "I am not  a Christian".   

President Joe's Wish List

 Joe Biden gave his version of the state of the Union speech.  The chamber holds sixteen-hundred people but there were two hundred people in there.  They didn’t interrupt as often with applause.  Biden spoke softly and didn’t project like Trump did.  The speech was well written but the delivery was a little flat.  Much of the last part of the speech was just a recitation of all of the bills that Biden to pass.  The speech ran for over an hour which surprised me.  The medication guy came while the speech was in progress just after seven.  Then I went out for a smoke.  Then I caught the Republican response given by that Black guy from South Carolina.  I can’t figure out that speech.  He said he was for everything Biden was for but he says Republicans had their own bills but the democrats wouldn’t consider them because they want the socialist agenda and Washington interference in the family.  He said it was Trump who got the vaccines out so quickly.  He said that Biden wants to keep the schools shut to deny children an education.  He spoke of his own adverse dealings with the police.  After this speech was a lot of talking head commentary by the news media.  I had it on four the entire five and coverage went till eight.  Hence I didn’t not see Two and a Half Men.  After this it was Chicago med.  I went down at nearly eight thirty for cough medicine at the med window.  I had the TV on till maybe ten to nine.  I slept better than I did the night before.

I went to the Bible Study a little after two.  I had a Cactus Cooer first.  We listened to a couple of worship songs.  We studied Romans seven and eight.  Rose was in attendance but she didn’t read.  I read quite a bit out of the “new living translation” that Elizabeth uses also.   Since the law is given a human metaphor that means when the law dies it’s like a husband dies and the woman is no longer bound by the marital laws but is free to remarry.  There is the line about doing the things you would not do and not doing the things you should do.  Who will deliver me from this body of death?  If Paul has the right to ask it then so do I.  I feel like I am in a body of death sometime.  Romans eight has the lines of “There is now therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.  There is also Paul’s favorite scripture of “All things work for good that love God and are called according to his purpose.  The next verse says we were all chosen ahead of time anyhow.  Then we did a lot of intercessory prayer.  After this it was about three twenty and I went and laid down.  We had a BLT turkey sandwich for dinner and Fritos.  We had amberosia for dessert.  Since I was tired I ordered tea instead of juice.  But I was so tired I didn’t notice much of a lift.

Changing the Rules Police Opperate Under

 Tomorrow is Armenian genocide day and Joe Biden is officially recognizing it after all these years.  The Turkish government has us blackmailed or something.  I’m a day late to do a posting for Earth Day.  I’m glad we’re more conscious of Earth Day now than we used to be.  Someone on the TV said a few months ago, I don’t remember who, that it’s hopeless anyhow and that it’s already too late to try and restore the environment. There is that anti police law that is getting passed by the House.  Police will no longer have limited liability, whatever that means.  There will be no more choke holds.  Someone suggested they be required to have four years of college.  That will weed out a lot of the jocks that only want to join the police force to beat up people and throw their weight around.  If this bill passes it will fundamentally change the way police operate in this country.  I am sure there would be massive police protests coast to coast if by some flook of reconciliation or whatever the bill did pass.  Joe Mansion would not go along with it and we need him.  They say the jury verdict in Miniapolis has already had its effects on various police departments with changes of policy.  In terms of a virus update the numbers are headed back up.  Now I guess California will be stuck in the orange zone because things aren’t continuing to improve like they were.  People have stopped getting vaccinated.  Supply is up but demand is down and now you don’t even need an appointment any more.  

I want to talk about Computer Devolution.  Things peaked about fourteen or fifteen years ago and now they are devolving into something inferior.  Word took off dictation from voice to print like they used to have.  They no longer have file search like they used to have.  And I have complained endlessly about what they did to Word Art taking out all of the best stuff.  They have also taken away background colors you can use to color objects.  Of course Media Player is a disaster.  They got rid of the RIP command for copying discs.  And they got rid of their vast music selection department as did I Tunes.  Windows took off “photo processor”.  In every way things are getting cheaper.  Of course I’ve never liked this particular computer I have now that I have had for coming up on three years now.  People don’t care about regular programs any more.  But if you want to talk about the internet even here I think we are being cheated.  Google only refers you to certain cites and if you want to go to other sites you need to get to you’ll have a heck of a time bringing them up.  Of course they have reputation defender now where they scrub everybody’s site so you never come across anything bad about a person or institution.  In short it seems as if people would be inclined to have less respect for the computer industry than they used to have.  Everybody is being herded to the same places so they all read the same things. 

It's Patriots Day

This is Patriots Day, April 18th 2021.  Last night I believe was Paul Revere's midnight ride.  It's also the day the tea party got started in 2009 with their "taxed enough already" slogan.  If they stick by their normal schedule the Boston marithon will be run tomorrow.  I haven't heard.  Outwardly things are looking pretty good.  Everything is opening back up including theaters and sports arenas.  Dodger stadium opened on April 9th.  According to Sixty Minutes the economy is set to take off in a recovery like we haven't seen since the nineties.  There is only a miniscule change something could go wrong.  The Republicans want something to go wrong to scuttle the recovery by denying vaccinations to people and refusing to be vaccinated themselves and telling others not to be vaccinated and cutting off money for vaccinations.  Nearly half the republicans in congress have not been vaccinated.  Outwardly things are looking pretty good.  It's been a month or so since they have opened up things around here and allow some visitors and allow you to take short trips, like to the store.  Chris has resumed his trips to the bikini bar.  But with all of this positive stuff inwardly I am suffering from some sort of clinical depression.  I worry about my health all the time.  A million things could go wrong.  I want Dr Messina to try a different anti-depressant drug on me and he refuses to do it saying I don't need it and I'm doing fine the way I am.  I think I am a better judge of the fact that I'm not doing fine.  My sense of disorganization has only gotten worse.  As a prime example of that - this is the first blog post I have done in the month of April.

Leo Laporte had a guest on about space travel and notibly landing astronauts on the moon by 2024 and putting a 25 passenger space ship in orbit around the moon in 2023.  They want to charge civilians to take a ride to the moon to say they have been in orbit.  That's safer than landing.  They didn't discuss landing men on Mars in this outing.  Space X got the lunar landing contract because apparently they were the only bidder.  Boeing bowed out at the last minute.  Of course there is talk now that there is water on the moon.  That could really alter the picture of colonization if it's true.

The Dangerous Republican State Legislatures

 This is Saturday March 27, 2021 and I had the Rachael Maddow show on this morning.  In Missouri the state legislature is refusing to enact a health care plan that the people of Missouri voted for several months ago.  This is the new trend in these toxic state legislatures now.  The danger is still out there even with Joe Biden as president.  In Michigan President Trump tried to get the state legislature to decertify the election victory won by Biden several weeks earlier.  They have the idea they can do that.  Trump believed that he had the power by jaw-boning state legislatures into decertifying the electoral vote count.  In Georgia yesterday the state legislature passed and the governor signed a piece of legislation that made massive changes to  the Georgia election laws to insure that the victory of the democrats that year would never be repeated again.  There is the usual practice of throwing thousands of black people off the election rolls done by many states.  In Georgia it’s illegal to even give a Black voter in line a drink of water while he’s waiting hours  to vote.  Of course white people only take minutes to vote whereas black people routinely have to wait in line hours to vote.  They are eliminating “souls to the polls” on the Sunday before an election.  It’s believed that absentee ballots are now being cast primarily by democrats.  This has something to do with the fact that democrats are more afraid of the Corona virus than are the Republicans, who now want only to vote on election day itself.  There are some twenty-two states where these changes are in grave danger of happening.  We need to find a way to get all of these dangerous republican legislators out of office in two years so they won’t menace our electoral system.  But they won’t be able to do it if Republican legislatures have changed all of the laws.  We are reminded by Sixty Minutes that racism is still alive and well in the unlikeliest of places, like in the military, desegrated since 1949 and in the Air Force.  You can’t look a white officer in the eye if you’re Black even if you yourself are a high ranking officer, and you have to watch your body language or not be too assirtive in your voice when addressing a fellow officer.  In one case you may be ignored altogether even if you’re a general. It’s a wonder given all this how General Collin Powel got to get such a high command.

I don't know how strong or pervasive the "hate lobby" really is in this country.  In terms of the popular vote or one man one vote, a question I thought had been decided decades ago, the democrats would win all over the place.  Someone said the Democrats are actually represented by 43 million moreAmericans than are the Republican half of the senate.  If we got DC statehood this would help out a little.  Rush Limbaugh is dead but his legacy of hate lives on.  The goal seems to be not any appeal to basic fairness or logic but rather just to come up with ways to keep the black and the poor and the young down- - - "in their place" one might say.  Things could turn around because Biden doesn't have the array of enemies that Obama did during his first term in office, which is the only time he accomplished anything in congress.  Hopefully the economy will be doing better in two years and the corona virus will have all but disappeared.  People will see their futures as brighter with a Joe Biden presidency.   Obama on the other hand was saddles with that horrible recession that began in late 2007 and the smartest thing he could have chosen to do was decided 2008 was not his year to run.  I would like to see more of Biden's foreign policy unfold, and preferably Russian influence will fade into the background. 

Right now it’s a quarter to ten.  Time has been whizzing by this morning.  Yesterday I had Thom Hartman on till lunch time.  We had that roast pork with gravy.  Not a regular pork chop but another cut of meat, with gravy on it.  It’s that combination I don’t like with sweet potatoes and broccoli.  I was offered more honeydew for dessert.  But they give you an unripe melon and I’m not going to take seconds on that.  After this it was the Gary and Shannon show.  I continue to have trouble with this space bar.  I watched Days of our Lives at one.  I made myself coffee because I had been tired all day.  But all this black coffee did was upset my stomach.  I went for two o clock bingo.  They were late in getting started.  It was a battle to get them to close the window.  People wanted to set up outside but  it was too cold and windy.  I played a game and a half.  I didn’t win anything.  I left during the second game because I had active bowels.  I had had active bowels all day but still haven’t taken anything for it.  The second game wrapped up pretty quickly.  By the time I came back down to go to the store minutes later the second game was wrapped up.  I bought an eight-pack of chocolate donuts and a big cinnamon roll and a single pack of strawberry Clippers.  I ate the donuts that helped to ease my touchy stomach.  I managed to get a little shut-eye but the rest didn’t bring healing.

I roused at four thirty and it was time for dinner.  I wasn’t hungry but went down and ate a full meal anyhow.  We had one peperoni pizza and one plain pizza.  We had a Waldorf salad and sort of an apple pie with crispy things on it for dessert.  When I left there I was stuffed and felt spacey in the head.  I felt dog tired the rest of the evening but this too was an illusion because my bowels were still churning.  I thought of getting an Ammonium AD at eight but decided against it.  Coffee had dubious results.  It didn’t make me feel more awake but only tended to make me feel sicker.  It was the local news and the NBC network news.  Then it was Access Hollywood and Two and a Half Men.   I think the medication came almost seven thirty.  I had on “Who’s line is it anyway?  My fear was that I would not get right to sleep, but  I did. 

I told you I talked to Glen about going on that two week psyche evaluation.  I don’t want to do that till Joe and Paul and Chris have returned and I get to talk to them a while.  Shannon finally made it out of her room.  It seems she was sick for three days.  I miss the usual people.   I even miss Larry Barton and he’s been gone a long time.  Joe has been gone four weeks as of yesterday.  One of the things I would ask Sarah if I thought about going would be how many of our usual clothes can we take with us?   Also the all important questions of do we get cigarettes and coffee.  And will I continue to get my Ativan or will that be discontinued as part of an experiment?   Glen said I would get my own private nurse once I left there.  I would be reevaluated and might not even return here.  The bottom line on all of it of course is money.  Someone’s getting rich off of this whole problem.  But would it help me?  Everybody knows I could use a psyche reevaluation.  The question is will it really be only two weeks, or longer?

Black and White World

 . We live in terms of black and white morality.  More and more it looks like there are good guys and bad guys.  It dawned on me this morning that I need to banish negative thoughts of God and only focus on the good things I know God has done for me.  After all it is said we worship a good and loving god.  The god of Trump Christianity is anything but good.  And he's not against making moral compromise after moral compromise till there is no discernable core of character left.  It is my contention that salvation shoud be a matter of moral character rather than some profession of "faith"  because anybody can do that.  The political right is totally unashamed of their moral poverty.   Sixty Minutes featured three scarey stories.  The first one was on intimidating judges of all stripes but liberals seem to be the ones most targeted.  One female judge came home to witness her son being shot, who was their only son and in college. The husband also suffered serious injuries.  President Trump has been directly threatening judges and this is another impeachable offence they never got around to charging him with.  The middle store was on the mass torturer Assad of Syria, who had been the leader there for a long time.  Russia is allied with them and by inference Trump is allied with Assad.  He doesn’t seem to care what goes on there.  Many prisoners were tortured horribly for months and some as bad as having their eyes gauged out.  Assad is responsible for poison gas banned after W W I and nobody cares- not even the Obama administration.  The third segment was on Q-inon or however you spell it.  It started off as a guy named “Q” who was a riddler and game player.  The organization really didn’t turn really violent and vicious till Trump was in danger of losing the election.  This is when all of the mass violence and organization took place. And the scarey thing is they have infiltrated Christian churches and pastors seem slow to recognize the problem.   May I suggest that the church should not be "slow" to recognize such a serious problem.  It should be readily apparent at first fight.  A really good Christian should be one who spotted Trump's moral failings at a glance and didn't need a house to fall on them before they realized it.  I'm glad we have Biden as President now.  Hopefully we are on the road to some sort of societal stability and things can only improve from here.

Soul sleep is a troubling doctrine for Christians.  This is for a number of reasons.  Neil Savedra says that the return of Jesus Christ shouldn't be very important.  The Bible sees it otherwise.  Neil sees a world where if worse comes to worse and God does nothing for you you can look forward to death, which won't be countless lifetimes away like with reincarnation in Hinduism.   Soul sleep would say that nobody has risen in two thousand years and that the check written for our salvation at the time of the cross still hasn't been cashed yet.  Satan still holds the deed to planet earth according to these people.  Once you die according to Neil all of your fondest desires and fanticies come to pass.  You don't care about other people any more but are too much in exticy over some drug induce state of sheer bliss that you never want to leave and never want to think about anything else.  Neil would almost have it we can throw the book of Revelation in the dust bin of history.  It is something people study but aren't supposed to take seriously. But if there is no resurrection by now the question arises is will there EVER be a resurrection from the dead alias "The dead in Christ".  The opperative word there is Dead.  Another opperative word is "falling asleep", which Christians are described as doing.  This to me means reverting to an unconscious state.  It did occurr to me that if you're conscious and having thoughts, perhaps troubling thoughts- - maybe you even think you're in Hell- - - -but if you think therefore you ARE and this case you are NOT DEAD.  You know you're not dead if you're thinking and having thoughts.  Which means you didn't die in that car crash.  You may think you did but you didn't because if you really did die you wouldn't know it because all consciousness would be gone.  And you'll stay that way for as long as the Lord wills, which could be thousands of years or even longer.  Chuck Smith speaks of "moving into his new house" but that house is still under construction.  This is the view of those who would take a strict rendering of what the Bible teaches and not add their own thoughts in. 

Happy Presidents Day

.   The big news of the day is that President Trump was acquitted on the impeachment charge by a vote of 57 to 43.  But you needed ten more republicans to vote for a guilty verdict and that didn’t happen.  Seven is fourteen percent of the Senate and that’s a start.  Senator Mitch Mc Connell voted to acquit but he still had some harsh words for President Trump and has left open the possibility that criminal chargers could be filed.  The final speech and final vote were taken in extrordenary haste.  But now Trump can celebrate President’s Day in peace.  After this was the local news and a little after six thirty I turned the sound down for a while.  I went to the med room for my medication at ten to seven, which was my habit before all this quarantine business got started.  About seven Leah knocked on the door.  She had a bag of clothes for Joe that had been missing for over six months.  Joe is not sure.  At least he will have clothes this week.  At seven KNBC nad a salute to Black History month and Black power and all of that.  At seven thirty Ellen Degenerous had some sort of game show she had on I didn’t understand.  I watched till eight and then Joe suggested I turn it off.  I didn’t sleep too badly for much of the night.  I had some dream about helping out with a Mark Bove service.  And there were also new inventions.  One could suspend the laws of gravity if you knew how to balance the “force”.  The other involved modifying and re-dimensionalizing objects manipulating them like a computer image.

Of course I think I had my head together a year ago more than I do now but don't tell God that.  Last night on Sixty Minutes they had Bill Gates and his impossible demands to institute Global Warming including a zero carbon footprint.  A thought occurred to me listening to him last night.  Maybe the problem is Impossible to solve and we should all just wait for Jesus to come back.  The other segment of note was on the dangers of Russian computer hacking.  They get into every nook and crany of security and bypass all precautions designed specifically to invent such a thing.  Ukraine has the problem really bad there with all of the common electronic devices ordenary people have like their I phones won't work.  They have shut that nation down and could do the same thing to us.  Well, Happy Presidents day.  I continue to have a multitude of health issues.  Pray for me if you feel like it.