"- - Actually there Were a few Irregularities- - "

I would now like to do an extended narrative of my first few months as a born again Christian. The story also continues in Part Two in "Karmic Suicide" because it was just too long. Actually I have tried to keep the narrative at a fast pace. Some may wonder how I remember so many details after 35 years, but it’s because I’ve been jotting down notes as I remember things. Actually, I’ve taken on Clifford Irving as a co writer- - so what are you going to do? You remember on Anthology 3 where John was recording “Julia” and Paul was in the booth, and John stops playing and says “Can we take it up right there?” and Paul says, “Actually there were a number of irregularities before that” and a somewhat tipsy John says “What do you mean? It was perfect up to that point”. Well actually, it wasn’t.

On February 18^th of 1976 I was listening to Walter Martin on the radio talking about how you get saved, and I decided right then “Yeah, I can believe that. I guess I am a Christian”. It was in late February that Pete Richards moved out of the apartment where he and his wife had lived. His wife had filed for divorce. Margie seemed like the considerate, caring person who would never do something like that. The previous time I had seen Margie is when they were showing us a house they were thinking of buying in southwest Anaheim around September 25^th of 1975. That didn’t happen. Instead we are to believe “Guess what honey- - I just met someone and we’re going to get married as soon as the divorce is final”. Pete and I still didn’t talk. There had been a wall between us since about late May of 1973. Most all of Pete’s remarks were addressed to my parents when he would come over. In early March I began reading that EST book, that suggested that the way to get out of your personal rut was to do something off the wall and unpredictable. It was a few days later I went to the Wherehouse and bought what would be my last records as an “unsaved” person. None of the three albums were particularly adventuresome. They were three albums I’d been thinking of buying for a long time. They were “Highway 61”, “Muscle of Love” and “December’s Children”.

I was attending Golden West college on that sound engeneering program and I was getting fed up and bored with the class because the mixing board we were to use for the “studio” still hadn’t arrived yet and the year was two-thirds over with. I began skipping classes, and Mom would catch me doing this on one of her frequent days off from her work. I didn’t have a car at this time. I think I sold it to get more money in case I moved out- which I wasn’t particularly planning on doing anytime soon anyhow, and besides, money was absolutely no problem at this time. On St. Patrick’s Day starting this year of 1976 I would wear the same bright green long sleeved plaid shirt. About this time I recorded what would be my last reel to reel tape that concluded on March 19^th and it would be the last recording of any sort I did till January first of 1986.

On March 20^th after nearly a month of living with Dick and Robin, the family was finally invited over to see Pete and how nicely he fit into his new environments. So we met the dog, Toby, and he showed us the crops on the “back forty” he and Dick had planted a few weeks earlier. And everybody met the baby and commented on his blue eyes. Except for me- - who was in some other part of the room or something. It was that Wednesday at school, Golden West, that I heard a roomer that some foxy blonde girl whom I had met two days before, had just died in a car crash. It was that Wednesday Pete Richards was over and parents had gone for the evening and Pete offered to stay and help me do the dishes. It was this evening of March 24^th that I “gave my heart to Jesus” and officially became Born Again. In my writings the next few days, from reading them years later the tone was negative. I wasn’t optimistic. I wrote “My life as I know it is over”. I thought by accepting Jesus that I had “stepped across some line” but I couldn’t tell you what. Dad was on a negative rant about me during this time- -and nothing he said to or about me was positive. Dad had begun seeing a therapist who put him on Prozac. The drug seem to heighten the apathy that was already there.

It was March 30^th 1976, a date established in my actual writings, that Pete Richards announced that Dick and Robin were thinking of moving out of their house sometime, because “when the baby gets older, running out into traffic will be a problem”. Of course the dog is several months older than the baby and Toby never had a problem with running out into traffic. But then again, maybe humans are not as developed as animals. It was that weekend on a rainy day that Pete was over talking to my parents on one of his increasingly frequent visits over. Oddly Pete still had never, not once, invited me to a Bible study at his house, which had been held most every Monday night since last August. Pete was saying that parents weren’t properly disciplining the baby and he would keep saying “Whack his but- - - just whack his butt”. It was the very next Monday, April 5^th that Pete announced that Dick and Robin had just moved out and moved into an apartment. I was bewildered by this news. Apparently they couldn’t take Toby with them, and they had left a number of garden tools and some furniture in the garage. Were they planning on coming back? It was three days later on Thursday evening of April 8^th that the subject was first broached of my moving in with him into the Palm St. house. I expressed numerous reservations about making the move. But I was facing a wall of three on one, if not four on one if you count brother Al, on this subject. They acted as if I were idiotic for even thinking of not doing it. The question arose of just when I might move- and suddenly the crystal ball becomes very fuzzy. There was also a female house guest who was still living there- - with Pete alone. That night I had a nightmare I won’t go into here. The next early morning dawned bright and very sunny.

On April 13^th 1976 it was some election day so I voted at Savanna HS, which was not our usual location. After this I went to the Palm St house to help move Pete’s furniture into the livingroom. Dick and Robin were over and they had the baby with them. This is the first time I actually made eye contact with the baby there in the female “house guest’s” room. I got the funny feeling the baby seemed to know me. More time passed and there was no news on moving. Still Pete had not one time invited me to a Bible study, or any other activity for that matter. It was Saturday night the day before Easter and we were coming home from my Aunt and Uncle’s in Upland. And brother Al launched into an obscenety laced tyrade against Margie, Pete’s wife. I still could not understand why we never saw Margie. Only hearing one side of a story smacks a little too much of Gene Scott and when he would talk about his wife, but never by name. It was a week later Saturday the 24^th of April I guess, which was the very last time I attended a Movie with my parents. We went to see “All the President’s Men”.

Sunday the first day of DLST then, we made another visit to the Palm Street house. I was beginning to become bored by these visits and I hadn’t even moved in yet. Still there was no definite move-in date. Also Pete still had yet to invite me to any Bible Study. Since I didn’t have a car, crashing the party wasn’t in the picture. I found that I actually preferred taking the bus to Golden West. I was taking that sound engeneering class on Monday and Wednesday and an Electronics class on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Mom would drop me off at the Beach BLVD stop on her way to work and the bus would go right there. Coming back I would take two busses, that were efficient. Finally the word came down I’d be moving Friday when Dad had a day off. That Wednesday was the last day I’d ride that bus and the last time I went to the sound engeneering class. By now they did have their 24 track mixing board or whatever. But I still didn’t get to use it. Even if had been allowed to, I would want a lot of time to myself to experiment on the thing. Thursday April 29^th was the last time I would visit the Hasket branch library in a long time. I remember that the Jacaranda trees were in full bloom.

Well Contrary to what Charles Laughlin famously said in a movie "You're going to have to hear this one in installments" because the posting was just too long, and the two first posts of the month cut cut off and I can't count on you people to read the side bar links. So go to "Karmic Suicide" there this whole story line continues for several more months.

What Once Were Vices Are Now Habbits

We have a new toxic intellectual environment now. And sometimes people's nerves get a little frayed when trying to explain the truth. Al Gore got a little rattled when he lamented that it is no longer proper in mixed social situations, to discuss "Global warming". He laments that these people on the right dish out the same bullshit and shout it back at people when they try to explain the truth. Al Gore says "we no longer have a shared reality is to what science is any more, or what the truth actually is, even when it's provable". Not that Mitt Romney is faring any better than Iowa. Some old folks were getting on Romney's case in a rally in Iowa today saying that they want to know what Romney is going to do to strengthen social security and medicare. Romney had to wait a while for the crowd to settle down and then said, "Do you want the answer to that? Here it is. I will not under any circumstances raise taxes. If you disagree with that then go vote for Obama". And I'm sure they will. Rush Limbaugh says Obama is “Debt Man Walking” and he also calls him “Beroca-lips” and “Obama-geddon”. I'm not really sure but "Baroca-lips" sounds a little racist to me. It was Monday’s absurd rant that I heard live. Judy sent me several letters I need to look at. And of course it was the usual irrational rant of an opening monolog. Rush said that "If insanity is doing the same thing over and over again- - President Obama has doubled down on the debt spending and doubled down again- - and none of it has worked". I felt like shouting at Rush "Name one case of where Obama has doubled down on something that didn't work". Of course the only thing the President has really doubled down on is cutting taxes. Yet the right keeps saying "Obama keeps raising taxes". This is a complete lie. In fact the corporations know that taxes won't have a chance of going up till the start of 2013. Obama had a stimulus plan, which consisted in large part cutting taxes. And those measures expired and now the economy is languishing as a direct cause of the stimulus programs ending. As to Rush giving this Charlton Heston speech about "We did it to ourselves" seeing the Statue of Liberty burried in the sand at the end of the Planet of the Apes movie- - well, this was to somehow "show his outrage" at the US credit downgrade. But guess what? During the recent stock market drop, people actually moved their cash INTO treasuries securities, so that yields are dropping further and their value is going UP. That's a little detail that escaped Rush Limbaugh's notice. Rush also seems MORE outrages after the President agreed to cut 2.4 trillion from the budget than he was before the deal existed. Explain that one? Rush falsely states that there will be NO debt reduction. As to this committee of twelve, we know enough already that there are so many whackos on this committee that any verdict will be useless, and is best ignored. A president Marcus would just let the triggers take effect on schedule, and then the defense budget would be cut, which of course people like Rush would hate. And a President Marcus would also allow the Bush tax cuts to expire when they are scheduled to at the beginning of 2013, and at long last the US government will at least be getting SOME revenue. These people are anti terriff because as Judy puts it, "A terriff is still a TAX and tax is a dirty word. From Washington to Lincoln terriffs supplied almost the whole US government expenditures. From Lincoln to Wilson they supplied two thirds of our cash revenues. And from Wilson to World War II they supplied one third of US revenues. So I say, "Wouldn't it be nice to have an additional 33% cash inflow of revenues?" I say yes. Of course the people are uninformed about the historical place of terriffs. This is because of the communacations bill President Clinton signed in 1996 that in essence moved the News divisions of all the major Networks into the Sponge Bob Square Pants Entertainment division of their companies. When Thom Hartman was working for a media outlet it was a violation for news and entertainment people to even talk to each other. You see how far we've come. There was a liberal on a powerful Denver power-house station that was on at night. In the movie "Talk Radio" he was known as Barry Champlain, and he was gunned down by a long nut. And people said "He put so many negative vibes into the air it was only a matter of time before they would come back on him". This bit was put in the movie as a way of placating the conservative right I imagine. But I think it does a disservace to tell progressives "Just watch it, or you'll get gunned down in the parking lot after work".

There was one political candidate on the internet on the right, who had a bunch of things that should never take place in America and one of them was "If I were President - - no new mosques would ever be built in America". You know, sometimes people get their knickers in a twist over religion. I'm guilty of perhaps "going negative" at times. But I had a dream last night that gave me pause about what sort of things I would bring up in this blog. It was Christmas Eve and I had a chip on my shoulder for some reason, and it had to do with religion somehow. And it was eating at me. And then all the relatives showed up and we were getting ready to all go to Christmas Eve services. (This isn't what our family does but this is just a dream) There were relatives in this dream that didn't even exist. And I was saying all these surly things under my breath. And finally one of them says "I don't think [Marcus] wants to go to Church". And I said, "Yes, I'm going". I didn't like myself in this dream. The last thing I personally want to sound like is a carping old crank who says the same thing over and over, with nobody listening. Other people have their reactions. I have mentioned people that reacted negatively to the lyrics of "Imagine". But I haven't told you my reaction. I think it would be nice to not have to worry about religion, and if we could dial back the religious fanatical hysteria a bit, it would be a good thing. It's just a song, for Christ's sake. It was meant to convey a sentament; not as a metaphysical treaties like Dante or something. But soon after the 9 - 11 attacks, Dr. Laura had "Imagine' playing as bumper music and Laura got upset with that and she said that "I want you to erase this card as soon as possible". I mean, we have to keep those hate feelings going just like Victor and Stephano on Days of our Lives. There was a caller on the Thom Hartman show who got hysterical about the idea of raising taxes. Thom Hartman said to the caller, "Name one case where a country ever cut their way to prosperity. Go ahead. I'm waiting. Name one". The man couldn't think of one, but finally he blurted out "1921". He thought of President Harding cutting taxes from 75% to 25% after World War I. Well, that's just it. We were moving from a war to a peace time existance so naturally you don't need the revenues you formerly did. And with that big "peace dividend" naturally the economy is going to be stimulated. But as Hartman points out, "Wars are often a good way to get government subsedized research and development that would have taken years longer any other way". So there were a lot of appliances and radio to the general audience that was made available after 1920. And these people also forget that among the specific tasks of government cited in the Constitution is the power to levy taxes. This is a power they didn't have under the Articles of the Confederation. Also there is the power to regulate interstate commerce. These people on the right say they are in love with the US Constitution but at times showing signs of never having read it.

So what do I mean when I say "What were once vices are now habits?" I could have said "what once was just a lark has now turned into an addiction" just as easily. Here is how patterns get formed. You decide to take a different rout to work or something one day. And you like it so well you decide to do it again the next day. But it could just as easily be buying a new brand of soda pop that you like. Certain behaviors, even vices, start off as a lark, a diversion. But when a diversion is done often enough it becomes a habbit. And if a habbit is repeated often enough, so the experts tell me, it becomes a character trait. It has virtually become an intrinsic part of your nature. I'm not sure whether Rush Limbaugh started off as the man he's become today. Apparently he never voted at all till the late 1980's. One might infer that he was not political before then. Thom Hartman today tells us that it all stems back to brain chemistry. I guess certain glutimines you eat are turned into milen by the brain. And the brain uses milen to protect important brain cells from memory erasure after you learn something really significant, that you'll need later in life. But for some people alcohol or drugs washes away a lot of these brain cells in the de-milenization process by which the milen gets destroyed and the cells are subject to loss. And so the person forgets the things he learned before that time. John Lennon often spoke of having memory gaps of what happened prior to 1970. That's because he was on Heroin. But this whole "mystery" can be extended to a macro basis in the creation of the Universe itself. As I said back in that famous treaties in September of 2004, one cannot properly of "When" the Universe was created or even "Where" the Universe was created because words like When and Where didn't exist back then. There was no time and there was no space. I have, however, caught myself in perhaps a small error in logic. I have often spoken of "back then the dimensions were not established so nobody knew what they even were. They had to be created. They had to be "defined" in a computer programming sense. There was no prior frame of reference. This is often how it is with a human being who takes a challenging new course in school of which he has no background. Some people get prejudices imputed to them by other people that they couldn't possibly have- - because they are so disoriented and "ignorant" that they have no basis even on which to formulate a prejudice. This is how it is with small children. The logic error I made (if I even made it) is in assuming that all of the potential universes HAD to have some comon point in the past from which all of them originated. This is the great common central creation point when everything and everyone were closser together. But clearly there is no law that says there has to be ANY comon point in time or in space when various Universes come to Be. Some may well be coming into existance right now, for all we know. What I and perhaps you are suffering from is this "God creation" engram, or some might call it the "Back Then" engram. In other words some mystical time when what God did really Mattered. Here is another observation to chew on, from a theological definition of the word "Everything is an Accident". When a clergyman tells you he doesn't believe in an "Accidental Universe" he is lying. Because the word "accident' means simply, "anything that has happened". (Selah) We can apply this in our other topic now. So to say that the "past" point in one Universe HAS TO be the same as the "past" point in another Universe is kind of silly when you think about it. I guess there'd be no way of even testing such a proposition.

There is one more thing that "dawned on me" just this morning. I'm a little surprised none of you readers ever called me out on it before. I said that Einsteins view of a universally expanding Universe could not be correct because expanding involves vector lines and the laws of geometry dictate that the lines HAVE to be eminating from some comon point Somewhere. I was mistaken. Have you ever seen a loaf of bread rise? Well, it rises Everywhere it's allowed to, right? There is a universal expansion of all the air pockets. There are not more air pockets in some of the bread than other places. What I not so convieniently forgot was that I was assuming a universal Stationary point- - in the volume. But if you picked a moving point, as Einstein says, than ANY point could be THEE "stationary point" and all the geometry would accordingly adjust to fit that new perameter. Think about it. Understand this idea MAY explain what was going on in Einstein's mind when he came up with the idea that everybody else was MOVING and "You" wherever "You" were at the moment, were stationery. And as such there was nowhere else that was as far removed from the speed of light that you were- - because they at least they were "moving". But here is one time when the addage "trust motion" won't work. Because THEY all see themselves as stationary, too. But what is strange in this is hypothetically it is possible for someone to be ONE mile per hour SHORT of the speed of light, and still it's impossible to reach, and EVERY other measurement even of mass and Energy gets skewed to adjust to the fact that- - - you don't know it but you're starting from scratch, just like everybody else is. In Einstein's mind- - it's Impossible for anybody to move Slower than you do, and everybody else views reality the same way. There are still gaping flaws in this logic but at least I understand it a little better. Optically you would still see the "Christmas tree ornament" view with the back of the star map virtually flat, optically speaking. It's only what you might call "unnaturally rapid" movement that throws this theory all off and distorts the geometry, as I have illustrated with elipses, hyperbolas, and such. But someone may say of this whole business "Show us Time and then we will believe". Well- - I could point to the obvious doppler effect they've known about since the 1800's for receeding stars. This is due to "red shift retardation of the wave forms". So does THAT qualify as Time for you. You seem to indicate Not. OK think about this one. Here's something you can't prove or even allow with Euclidian geometry. Start traveling in a straight line in any direction anywhere in the Universe and eventually wind up back at your starting point. If they could prove this one, whoever did would be the "Magellon" of Time. For they would show that there is some Other dimension that rules space- - that science hasn't accounted for yet. That dimension is Time.

Just one more thought here. How many of you have ever heard an Evangelist say, "Of course we Christians are all brainwashed, but at least I''m picking the person I want to Wash my brain". I would assume that would be to wash all the milen out of it so you can excersise "the ultimate forgiveness" and that is the forgiveness of yourself. This is something my Dad seems to have mastered well. We have a lot of "Back formation" of words these days. We have things like "Analog signals" and "Desk top computer" and "Land line phones". And one day we may have the Romulan-esque term of "Unclocked Space", as some specialized subset of space to people "know what you're talking about. Here is another back-formation word. Natural Man. There is that line in Jane Eyre that goes "We are not here to conform to nature". Which raises the question of "And what is the real reason Joseph Haydn's voice didn't change till he was eighteen?" OK, I won't go there. They have chemical castration. They also have chemical lobotomies. Dr. Zeus and the other apes are well versed in the uses of certain forms of specialized cutlary. There is a line in an Elvis Costello song that goes - - She says "You'll never know Him", 'cause I'm a natural man". So what is a "natural" man. There's an Adam and Eve zinger that's so good I'm going to save it for a later time. God should really pay me not to use it. But it all comes down to Marcion and his declaration that "Nature" was part of the Jewish Creation god. The Gnostics have the same notion, though not to as paranoid a degree. Many Protestents have the notion that "Nature is evil". You know Rush Limbaugh has it, if not in exactly the same sense. St. Paul has practically come out and said "Angels are evil". And he also said that "The realm of the spirit" was evil. Put that in your pipe and smoke it. So is it any wonder that so many Christians are both anti "Nature' and anti sex? I'll repeat the quote again from Clement of Alexandria, "Not all Truths are True, but only those Truths that bring Glory to God". And of course Rick Perry fancies himself as the embodyment of all truth. You know Jesus Christ once said "He who has seen me has seen the Father". Oh really? Then Adam and Eve rode around on dinasaurs, and Cain got his wife in the land of Nod out of thin air or something. And the angels go "from one end of the earth to the other". So now the world is flat. So, if I can't believe him to know that the earth isn't flat, I guess I won't sweat the heaven and hell thing. And if "What goes into a man does not defile him" than I guess there is nothing in the Torah about eating pork. But Jesus, you also said that "You came to fulfull the last jot and tiddle of the law". How are you going to do that when you just threw out a part of it? But if you believe "He who has seen me has seen the Father" I guess that is going to be your view of God. That is - one of highly limited knowledge.

Before the Director Gives the "Cut" Sign

In late morning news in the early morning, it seems the mission was not successful in Wisconsin. The democrats only managed to recall two republicans out of six and they needed to recall at least three. I don't want to say "I told you so". I really don't. And the usual charges are made that it was just "too much to hope for" and that maybe mysterious votes appeared out of nowhere, or there was just so much money or whatever. The bottom line is that the democrats did not achieve their goal yesterday despite all the hype about a "counter tide".

Now we can start indenting paragraphs. Today is Tuesday August 9, 2011 and so far no reception problems on KABC Eye Witness News today. Today is the day of the Wisconsin primary and they’ll have the results, hopefully after six PM our time. But I wouldn’t hold my breath. I know Randy and the gang are all hopeful but that tea party money is an awful lot to overcome and we’ve been let down before. And of course Randy is right in that “No child left behind” has probably made teachers “teach to the test” so that besides reading, writing, and arithmetic there is no civics or social history or even higher science that might threaten religious dogma that’s sacrosanct in Texas. And of course we are cheered by poll after pool now that the tea party has fallen into disfavor with the American People. I’ll begin to believe it when the votes come in. The Iowa straw poll is apparently this Saturday on the State Fair grounds or something. That’s an appropriate place for a freak show. I guess the tea party is going to be bussing all their whackos in as usual. You know, for being against “bussing” they have sure been doing a lot of it.

Some people like me don't cotton to the idea of teaching "gay history" to our grammar school children. Somebody made a joke, I don't remember who, that from now on we were going to have politically correct "gay math". And they would be using examples such as this: If the park ranger inspects the restrooms every ninety minutes, how many partners can a gay man safely "service" between inspections if he takes an average of twelve minutes to service each partner?

Jerry Brown has announced a possible shortfall of income for California if the economy and particularly spending does not pick as was predicted when we cut all those tax rates. Well, that’s what happens when you listen to the experts. As to school days being twelve days shorter- no kid is going to mind. Given the way teachers waste time in class anyhow that time could be more than made up for by running a tight ship, as to both how teachers and students conduct themselves.

Well that old pipe dream of a brand new football stadium in downtown LA has taken a step closer to reality as the LA city council gave twelve aye votes in favor of the notion of building a “state of the art” facility. And “if we build it they will come”. Lets hope their patron saint isn’t Linus oh Halloween. So exactly which city are we going to steal an NFL team from? Oakland? That’s the most logical choice. You see everyone else has already made their outlandish deals with NFL owners and built a new stadium. I think five years is way too optimistic.

Last night it was ABC news and Jeopardy and mainly Wheel of Fortune after that. The Simpson’s had a rerun from just two weeks ago. Then it was some batchelorette program or something I wasn’t watching. I was on line typing yesterday’s blog and posting it while it was still fresh in my mind. You know I really think these tea party people have gone way over the line. They can’t pretend to call themselves patriotic Americans these days, and really, they never could. The original slogan was “No Taxation without Representation”, but as I have stated they were able to block legislation passed in the house the first two years with 41 senators overruling the majority, who probably only represent ten or twelve percent of Americans. Of course I sense even business is turning against them seeing that if implemented, their policies would actually be BAD for a lot of peoples’ business.

We had chicken teriyaki tonight- and they keep changing recipes. Loretta says they just got a new cook and she’s a young Mexican and Loretta is hoping she can at least make some decent Mexican dishes. We’re all wishing that. Any how I used the Kikoman soy sauce on the thing and believe me it definitely helped. I mixed it with the rice. There were mixed vegetables with lemon pudding for desert.

In the morning I made coffee. I’m not going to run short like I did two weeks ago. We had corn flakes for breakfast with scrambled eggs and sausage, and toast with butter and jelly. I had the Stephanie Miller program on. Sometimes people fighting lost causes use humor as a coping device. Last night I looked at that Nicole Sandler video Tim sent me. Nicole doesn’t look at all like I pictured her. I pictured her as a lot better looking. I’ve gotta go back and view more of it with all of that ALEC stuff. Today it’s the left that gets to play Joe Mc Carthy, flushing out and exposing all these right wing subversive shadow groups with designs on taking over.

On Days of our Lives they just announced that Maggie Horton was officially dead, having died of a gun shot from a mafia family style feud. If you believe that I’ve got this orched plantation in Texas you might be interested in about now. If you think they are going to kill off a leading character like that. I don’t know, but I think Jerald Ford was still president when Maggie first appeared as a character. And that grieving woman in her thirties, Jennifer Horton, wasn’t even born yet. I can’t really fault Stephano’’s side for firing the fatal shot, if Victor really was going for his gun. What are you supposed to do? I was telling you that Maggie should have minded her own business and let the men work out conflicts for themselves. I guess we have to fall back on the book Eccliastes - -in that there is a time for Peace, and there are other times when you should bide your time and think about it.

David Cameron is in big trouble now because this right wing epidemic has really swept over Europe. And the Prime Minister of England has drunk the right wing Kool-Aid and put some ill advised measures into place cutting youth programs and creating an adverse economic environment. Last night I never advocated violence. Violence is for cowards. But there are things you can do that might not be strictly legal that can still achieve your goal of having your opponent by the balls.

These people talking about a child’s food preferences being conditioned by emotional associations have it ass backwards. I believe the opposite. Certain tastes and fragerences and smells are bio-chemically determined, by each person’s own DNA chemistry, and these scents can influence your emotions. But ask any kid and he will tell you he doesn’t need any reason to like or hate something.

If you knew that the world as we know it would come to an end on a certain date obviously it would affect the decisions in your life. If you knew it was coming on September 28^th of this year- - you probably would have taken your money out of the market anyhow to spend it on a good time. And of course you would go into debt as far as your credit cards would let you. Perhaps some people would take a chance on some new hobby or sport they’ve always wanted to do and if they ended up in the hospital they’d know there was an exit date. I think many people it would be like a vacation for them- - - because it’s time they would give themselves to “Live” and damn the consequences. People who are “walk ins” may indeed go through the same mental process. Thinking “I’m on leave - - this isn’t my real body”. Of course this would not be a conscious thought. But if they had a certain goal engram, they may well be less inhibited about trying to achieve it now.

Like I said in the last file, I sure wish I HAD come up with these lyrics. Burt Lombard wrote a lot of good compositions after he separated from "you know who" who informed the world that this "Thin White Duke" was not indespensable. "The Thin White Duke" was a later name given to him by Mal Evans. (of course after he was dead) In one fictional account (?) he was earlier referred to as a "Druid Dude".

I’ve got a word to say –about the things that you do

You’re telling all those lies – about the good things that we can have if we close our eyes

I left you far behind- -the ruins of the life that you have in mind

And though you still can see – I know your mind’s made up you’re going to cause more misery

Although your mind’s OK – try thinking more of just for your own sake

The future still looks good – and you’ve got time to rectify all the things that you should

Do what you’re gone do - -and go where you’re going to

Think for yourself ‘cause I won’t be there with you.

Some slight Beatle Album realignment. The following is my idea for a reorganized “Let It Be” album that could have been released in May of 1969 not ’70.

GET BACK (With the original planned “Blue Album” balcony cover.

Two Of Us (original album version)

I Dig A Pony (original album version)

Mailman, Bring Me No Bad News (as on Anthology)

Rock & Roll Trilogy (as is on Anthology)

Dig It (original album version)

Let It Be (anthology version)

Don’t Let Me Down (KMET bootleg version)

Side Two

I Got a Feeling (Anthology version)

For You Blue (original album version)

Teddy Boy (anthology version)

The Long and Winding Road (anthology version)

One After 409 (original album version)

Get Back (January 30^th rooftop concert version)

As you can see two songs were dropped, and not because neither was on the KMET bootleg version. One never got recorded and the other is accounted for below. But if Phil Spector wants to, he can put out a “Long Winding Road” EP with the four Phil Specter orchestral arrangements. The Beatles need in an album to fill the long evolutionary gap in early 1968. The following album doesn’t affect either “Yellow Submarine” or the Hey Jude single. But it captures a little more of that psychedelic quality before it’s lost entirely. Also three more Harrison songs see the light of day.

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE (Suggested release date June 1968)

The Art of Dying (if they had recorded it)

The Inner Light

Lady Madonna

Not Guilty (as it appears on Anthology)

Across the Universe (original 1969 mix, of course)

What’s The New Mary Jane? (as on Anthology)

Side Two

Helter Skelter (original album version)

Dear Prudence

Glass Onion (original album version)

Cosmically Conscious (if they'd done it then) 2:00 short edit (Paul)

Isn’t It A Pity? (if they had recorded it)

Revolution No 1 (longer edit about 5:30) "approx length"

We added a short track so we're simplifying the text. We're using the “Inrumental” intro to Vol 3 of anthology instead of “Revolution 1” on side four, and this move will shorten up that side. Take out “Dear Prudence” and “Glass Onion” and replace the space with “Good-bye, My Love” (unreleased.) This will shorten up side one. Yank “Why Don’t We Do It in the Road?” off side two to shorten it. And side 3 I’ll go ahead and list out, because it’s too complicated. It gets shortened, too. I thought that “Yer Blues” would appear more dramatic in-between two quieter songs. Of course in a vinyl world of the sixties- groove space is a consideration.

Birthday

Why Don’t We Do It In The Road?

Mother Nature’s Son

Me and My Monkey

Sexy Sadie

Yer Blues

Long, Long, Long Time

EXOTIC BIRDS AND FRUIT Suggested America only Capital Records release February 1^st, 1967

I’m Really Down (single B side)

That Means A Lot (anthology version)

If You’ve Got Troubles (anthology version)

Norwegian Wood (anthology version)

And Your Bird Can Sing (anthology version)

I’m Looking Through You (anthology version)

Twelve Bar Original (anthology version) 3:00 edit

Side Two

Tax Man (anthology version)

Rain (single)

Paperback Writer (single)

Strawberry Fields Forever (original version seven clear through) (minus trailer)

Got To Get You Into My Life (anthology version)

Beatles 1966 Christmas record (unreleased)

Yes, I guess an album like this would be more likely as a bootleg.

Time For The Tough To Get Going

The problem with progressives today is that they have become extrordenarily lazy and unimaginitive. You know there is an old saying "The best defense is a good offence". What we have to do is to be one step ahead of the tea party. We can't spend all our time just reacting to what they do. We may say "oh this or that is unfair and they shouldn't do it". Or we try to justify ourselves with a defense of "But look at how centerist I am and how much I am willing to compromise". Of course we know the tea party's slogan is "Never compromise", and guess what? It's worked beautifully for them. Back in the old days people studied in the school of civil disobediance. It's kind of a forgotten art. Many may say "Well the media will only ignore us anyhow so what's the point?" What we have to do is engineer some kind of protest that they CAN'T ignore and will really hit them where it hurts. We can't compete against them with money, that's for sure. But people like Sol Allinsky thought of ingenious ways to pull stunts that would cause havoc like have a "piss in" at O Hare airport where all the urinals were systematically tied up causing chaos. We need to think out of the box, even incorporating playing Dirty, Donald Segreti style. Now the President is good at the artistry of campaigning and making sure everything looks "good for the camera". But have you ever heard of the addage "the revolution will not be televised". Don't do your planning on cell phones or face book or anything that can be traced by the government. Do it the old fashioned way. Meet at people's homes or whatever. Use pencil and paper. One of the things we need to do right now is get several people to enter the Primaries against Obama. The President has become useless to us. His philosophy is too much in the Mark Bove vein. He likes a comfortable life and be well respected and well paid- and he hates surprises and loves to choriagraph everything down to the last detail. This makes for good artistry but if it has no substance, it's pointless. As I said, Obama's 2004 speech at the Democratic Convention was one of the most pithy, vapid speeches I've ever heard in my life. Some may say "we democrats can't afford to go through a contested primary". We can't afford NOT to. Even if we enter Hillary Clinton, Joe Byden, or perhaps a newer guy like Dick Derbin, or perhaps bring back Russ Feingold- - and they ultimately lose, their presence still "raises the bar" and will force the President to put out a little more effort. Let's face it. Everybody knows Obama has an excellent change of losing big next year. If we are destined to lose anyhow, shouldn't we go down swinging. We need to think of new, imaginative political strategies. It would be good if more people listened to progressive talk radio. You should be more proactive in letting your friends know. You can do all that local party stuff like Thom Hartman talks about but believe me, we're going to need more than that. We need to come up with our own slogans instead of letting them define and frame every single issue under the sun today. We need to redefine what "normal" and "centerist" are. You know even before he was nominated, people were saying that Obama was doomed, because by virtue of being Black or whatever, he was in instant lightning rod to fire up all sorts of hate in this country that had been lying dorment. And instead of these hate mongers being embarrassed, the media has embraced them. But if we engage in civil disobediance on our own terms and hit them in ways they never counted on, we can turn this thing around. How interesting that in no other country is the left so passive. They are having their problems too with reactionary parties. But you know the saying is true that "The only thing necessary for evil people to win is for good people to do nothing". Think hard about that.

The stock market didn’t react at all well to the credit downgrading by Standard and Poor’s on Friday after the market close. That was the safest time to announce it. It’s only a tiny downgrade but still not what the markets were expecting. Michelle Bachman was talking about “people blaming the tea party for it” and the crowd behind her began cheering. I listened to Rush Limbaugh for extended periods today. He wasn’t making any sense, of course but just trying to come up with fifty ways to attack the President. He has made this one man the object of all his hatred, rather than the array of liberal groups that used to draw his fire. The Dow Jones Industrials were down over six hundred points and the drop was steady all day long. The President spoke at ten forty or so. He kept delaying the time. I ended up getting bored. That’s my usual reaction to the President these days. Rush Limbaugh said he was disgusted at “how this could happen to America” as though he actually cares. He also said that he knows Standard and Poor’s would have only decided not to downgrade if the President had accepted that “Cut, cap, and balance” bill passed with “bi-partisan” support in the House. Of course that’s not the story Standard and Poor’s are saying publicly, speaking rather of tea party recklessness. It’s all so insane today. Who would have guessed this country would come to its end by everybody suddenly going Mad. Bill Mar was saying some insane things on his show about what democrats ought to do. Today’s situation doesn’t merit comedy. It seems like every day you hear someone on the right make a statement even nuttier than the day before. Precious metals, particularly gold, is up. This is one thing contrary to what I have been predicting. But I could stress my concern is not distance from peak price, but rather a short distance in time, before the whole thing comes crashing down. This is what commodities do. They hit a speculative peak frenzy and then crash. We are over $1,700 now and at this level being over two thousand seems likely, but it won’t be for long.

Sixty Minutes had a thing on just how corrupt our banking system is, that I’d never seen. It seems they have lost the paper documents on all the mortgages that have been foreclosed on such that they cannot contact the owner to evict them. In their rush to slice up bad debts and reinvest them they did everything by computer and had all of these various people to sign “Linda Green” to a document. These people get paid ten dollars an hour and do over a thousand signatures a day. The thing is not a single person has gone to jail or even been charged from what I know, of all this mal feasence. Now they have these lines of people waiting to petition their banks for renegotiating their mortgages. I guess some of them or homeless or whatever. Then they had the Paul Allan segment. Paul Allan was “the dreamer” of Microsoft, and this episode has aired before. I know what it’s like to be overshadowed by someone. But it’s a good thing Allan got a little assertive so that he didn’t lose out in his one third ownership of Microsoft. They seemed to imply that with all his money and various interests and pipe dreams, that Paul Allan still is not happy, and they point to the fact that he has never taken a wife at his age. Bill Gates seems like a soft spoken person, but some people turn into a real hard-ass if you scratch just below the surface, but it’s a side of their personality many never see. When you've dealt with a person like that in your own life you come to appreciate their true problem. They had M & M on and everybody can shout “White Power” at his concerts. Meaning that a white person has attained to the status of a Black. He seems to have mellowed his songs a bit since his substance abuse problems. And perhaps it’s because of his kids. But I respect people with an acute mind for words.

As to the lengthly thing on my Christian past, some may argue that going into a 35 or 40 year time-warp is really not relavent for today. I disagree. Christianity is not in “the past”. Sure you get out of a raging stream with rapids pulling you down fast, and you think, “well, that’s in the past”. But the minute you get back in the stream again it’s no longer “the past” but very much the Present. [name withheld] was the guy I was referring to who seems to have been “gotten to” by the forces that Be. He’s the last person I would have expected to have been brainwashed by the tea party set. I would like to pretend that everything is “kopesetic” (to use a Richard Powers term) between Christians and myself. After all in my life I can’t avoid them. But I also can’t share with them, either. Part of solving problems in life is - - having the sheer courage to even Find Out "who your friends really are". Many people would rather not push that issue thinking that if they just "go through life one day at a time" that in day "when the time is right" their ship will come in or something. Some people have more circumstantial liabilities than other people. I particularly lack respect for anybody who doesn't even really care about "doing better than they have been" because why chase the brass ring when you were already given the brass ring as a baby in the cradle? Some people have a reputation for being intelligent but it somehow never shows up in accomplishments. The fact is that no matter how "gifted" you are or how good of grades you got, if you aren't exerting yourself now- you are letting the cosmos down, and will have to account for that in the Last Judgement, if there is one.

You Shall Know They By Their Fruits

Yes this is a long blog, like the long version of Godfather II

or "The Sun Also Rises" or one of those other intellectual

masterpieces that you didn't read in High School

My Advice: If it seems long - Take Up Speed Reading

Last night I had a dream, which is one of the more positive dreams I had. Of course by way of review the night before I had that dream about a movie coming out about the shooting of John Lennon. Well, there are no Lennon movies coming out but Julian Lennon had a new album coming out that’s supposed to be a good one, and the first single from it will be out September 12^th. Last night I had a dream that I forget a lot of but it conveyed the idea that lies can be desguized in many forms and often are lies of omission or implication rather than direct lies. Even “deceiving spirits” can lie to you, if you believe in that sort of thing. And yes, dreams can contain lies, if you actually believe any of them. But the other part of this dream involved the song “War Pigs” by Black Sabbath. And in this dream the song started out in one Tibettan or Napalese monestary and made a giant circle around the mountainous regions of SW Asia. Before returning to the starting point and the church set up some special altar or something

The upshot of all of this is- - I was wondering how come Black Sabbath was soon dropped from that famous 22 group listing of mine, the first of which I think was June of 1978. Of course I think “War Pigs” was listed as one of the very first songs on “Assylum Earth”, the very first “ZAC” album back in May or June of 1978. But it got me to wondering why Black Sabbath is one of the most vilified rock groups of all by “Jesus Freaks” for those of you old enough to remember that term. The first time I met Valerie M on April 18^th 1971 I asked if she was a Jesus Freak. And she responded “I’m a Christian but I’m not a Jesus Freak”. As you know in the first five years of exposure to Calvary Christianity- - there is one person whom I can lay the blame at of my not becoming a Christian at that time. I think you know who that is. Later that summer I was talking to Valerie and she mentioned that Black Sabbath was a group she was interested in. One would think that Black Sabbath would be a good Christian evangelization tool. But they have never been deemed as such. The line goes “Well they sound good on a lot of their lyrics, but that only means that they’re all the more a Satanic deception”. The message in the songs is to love God and hate and fear the devil. The Devil is equated with war such as in the lyrics “Generals gathered in their masses. Just like witches at black masses. Evil minds that plot destruction. Sorcerors of death’s construction”. There are lyrics in other songs equating God with Love. Something a lot of Christians, like Gene Scott and Walter Martin claim doesn't correctly portray God. They say things like "God has love, but Power is the thing that keeps him on the throne", and "The Bible is filled with references to his forgiveness but is literally OVERFLOWING with references to his wrath." There is talk about "finding the lock on your heart" and about the rapture and escaping earth and Satan and all his slaves. And there are songs about the evils of drugs and the terrors of the unsaved in the afterlife. So I say again, what the BLANK is wrong with Black Sabbath? Of course Jesus Christ Superstar was also condemned by them as “Not of God”. A lot of the early Calvary Christians seemed to have an aversion to crosses. In the early days they were both suspicious of any main line denomination, or for any religious movement that didn’t originate in Southern California.

But you know it is written ‘You shall know them by their fruits”. Arguably it’s less important how a movement began than where it is now. Back then two things they had going for them they do NOT now is that they had a “direct experience” with SOMETHING. They could point to God’s (?) direct intervention in their lives. Another thing they had back then they most assuredly lack now is Love. Of course their love was never really real and I found that out. One person attending their services might say “Well they have me really convinced they love Themselves- - - but they seem to despise the rest of the World, and I fear, maybe me”. All pretence at something non political, as in far right wing is completely gone now. They have adopted the tea party “talking points” hook, line, and sinker. Even the bit about the end of the world was mostly a kind of “come on” for new converts, preferably with this existentialist nihilist streak that Chuck Smith talks about. First they turn you into an extentialist with no hope, and then they can begin to work on you. They themselves are of course happily married and grandparents by now. Well those of them that weren’t shown to be either gay. or serial marries and divorcers abandoning their kids. Today it’s EASY to “decide not to be a Christian” what with people like Neil Savedra on the radio, who should be renamed “Satan’s little helper”. He helps people such as me feel really GOOD about not being a Christians. I’ve told you that George Carlin line about leftovers. “Leftovers give you two separate good feelings. When you decide to save them you feel good, “Gee, I’me saving food”. And when you go to eat them two or three weeks later you get another good feeling when you throw them out, “Gee, I’m saving my life”.

Another thing Christians hate are Mormons and Mormonism. This whole hate thing tword Mormons is something I could never get into. I remember back when I was a teenager or maybe younger and there was a meeting at my house with prominent members of my denomination. And there was a Mormon representative there, too. And they all attacked him for “stealing converts” because if they had truly made the effort they could have been successes in their former denomination. Of course, and Loretta said it just the other say, is “Mormons truly care about people”. This is an element that is so sorely lacking from all these mega-churches, with the exception of Robert Schuller. I’ve heard quite positive reports from people who have gone there. So it seems to me that main line Christianity needs a check-up to inquire as to their health. What are their problems with Mormonism and are THEY really right in their own positions. Of course Mormons reject the Trinity. We all know the Trinity didn’t come on till about AD 300 or so. When Tertulian first proposed the idea he was labeled a heretic. Mormons believe the gifts of the Holy Spirit are for today. At this they are in opposition to all sorts of people you’d never suspect such as Chuck Smith and Fred Price - - not to mention Neil Savedra, who dismisses tongues as “something low level Christians do to make themselves feel important”. Should I quote the Lennon line here? “As soon as you’re born they make you feel small. By giving you no time instead of it all. Till the pain is so big you feel nothing at all”. Of course with prophecy Walter Martin made the Papal edict years ago that “The office of Prophet is extinct in the modern church”. Of course they do prophecy in church- sometimes even in tongues- - but it isn’t really prophecy but something they call “exortation”, which is basically another word for bullshit, because if none of it comes to pass- - -it’s YOUR fault for even bringing it up. So let’s work our way down the list. Mormons believe your soul existed before you were born. So they are at odds with Tertulian on this one. And not only this- but Calvary people would have it that your life really began the day you accepted Jesus, not before. So, what’s the other thing. Oh yes, that great mother of all evils Baptismal regeneration. Walter Martin and the “correct” Christians fight against this one tooth and nail, I think because the Cults are more diligent to follow Biblical teachings than others are. But oh they sure get worked up over this one calling it “salvation by works”. I think they have one more problem with Mormonism that is particularly evident today and that is keeping politics and political preference out of Church affairs. Here again even Christian friends who weren’t formerly political have now become resonance chamber loudspeakers for the tea party’s talking points. It’s like someone else put those words in their head. Just to get general for a moment- - - I get suspicious of people, even the President, who is unable to think on his feet. They do fine as long as their reading from a teleprompter, but Lord help them if you ask them a question or interrupt them “while they’re in the flow”. They are like a person in the bathroom with verbal diaria, and they wish not to be disturbed. So you know right off John Huntsman and Mitt Romney are going to have real problems with the tea party right on this whole Mormon issue. The Mormon brand name kind of connotes a person of temperance who has thought things through and controls his tongue. This isn’t the tea bagger’s style. You see republican after republican giving up their former views to adopt the tea party talking points. You’ve seen it with Mc Cain, you’ve seen it with Romney, and even to a small degree with John Boehner. Think about it.

Let’s just look at a few other things to see “how firm a foundation” Christian dogma is built on. You’ve heard of the term Grandfathering, or “Grandfathered in” haven’t you? It may date back to your grandfather being a slave and being denied the right to vote or something- but I’ll be more specific. One decision in “The Brethren” book that outraged me when I read it had to do with some park that some rich person willed this southern city. And one provision of the will was that this park always exclude black people, or the property would revert to someone else in the Estate. Well with the passage if Civil Rights public access laws, the park was integrated. And so someone brought a law suit- - -and they WON- - at the U S Supreme Court! The court went with this “grandfather provision”. Hypothetically suppose Ronald Reagan decided to change the laws on qualification for Welfare in the state of California to cover only the “truly needy”. But suppose the attorney of a black Welfare Queen with her Cadillac and all, was told she could be “grandfathered in” for life under the old law and they could Never cut her off. This is how it is with ten epistles of St. Paul. They were “grandfathered in” meaning they would never make it into the cannon today using the same process. So you have things like St. Paul claiming that Jesus would return in the lifetime of himself and the other apostles. Some would say “Obviously at that point St. Paul is at error”. Neil Savedra said that “last things” such as God’s judgement on earth is “not important”. And many “higher criticism” theologians agree that the “Olivet Prophecies” were not given by Yeshua the Nazarene, but were tacked on later from another source. And there is also a contradiction about whether the antichrist would enter and profane the Temple, or whether it would be destroyed Centuries before the antichrist. One way or another Jesus is in error because BOTH statements are attributed to Jesus. So Jesus is not innerent. And Walter Martin says things about “New Testament practice is not new testament doctrine”. There’s a real Orwellian statement for you. So the people in Acts were just “wrong” for failure to baptize in the name of the Trinity but Jesus only. This was one of those “wrong practices” Walter points out. And of course they were communal- - - or “Communist”. This too is “new testament practice” according to Professor Martin. But some would say “But it’s only voluntary- - it wasn’t compulsory or conthiscatory like the Bolshivic government was”. Wrong again. If you sell something and give money as a gift to the Church they will ask you “Where did you get it” and also “Have you got any more you are holding out on?” The right to privacy is another problem with some churches, like breaking a pastoral confidence. There was an example of this in Inheret the Wind with the example of “The little Stephens boy- - - who drowned” and therefore the person couldn’t believe in God any more. This incident was related by the main character in open court in public, as a justification for the adage “People who don’t believe in God usually have some kind of personal issues”. Nowadays the term “Having issues” is a euphamisum for “Mentally Unballanced”. I found this out when I started going to the Fullerton mental health clinic in 1999. And some would believe that gay people are not entitled to their confidentiality but if a pastor finds out a member is gay he prints it up in the next issue of the Church newspaper. Well right now it’s close to dinner time. But I’ve made my points. The Christian church indeed has a lot of “Issues”.

The bottom line is that the fruits of right wing Christians are bitter and inedible indeed. John Mc Cain today on Meet the Press seems to have backed off from his almost human, rational moment of the other week. He said “Look, Standard and Poor’s had downgraded US securities. Don’t kill the bearer of bad news. It’s because they know we haven’t gotten serious with our national debt problem”. Well, that’s just not true. Others have said “Nobody questions the objectivity of Standard and Poor’s”. Yes they do. S & P made a clerical error of two trillion dollars in their accounted, and the President, to his credit, has endeavored to point this out. What Mc Cain may be right about is that he claims the President never came up with a concrete plan. They would not be able to have claimed this about a President Marcus. Because I HAVE made several, decisive, concrete proposals as to how we could trim our deficit, and then some. Romney now says that he is against the debt ceiling deal. He would rather that we default. It would seen that Allan Greenspan said that there is “zero probability that the US would default on its debts”. Someone else said “If it were possible I’d give the US a quadruple A rating”. These people regard it as moral to move corporations overseas where the people work for pennies an hour, including young children. Suddenly the term “economic nationalist” is a dirty word. At the same time wars of choice are considered sacrosanct. At least in the early days of Calvary Christianity, you kind of got the idea that those people, being former hippy peacenicks, regarded War as a bad thing, if not actually evil and even Satanic. But this notion was soon dispelled. John Mc Cain also complained today that President Obama is improper in his sudden withdrawal of troops in Afghanistan because the Talliban will secure victory the moment we leave, if they haven't already. President Obama will probably end up listening to these war mongers. He has yet to draw a moral line- - on anything. President Obama once said "We are going to be as slow and deliberative about getting out of Iraq as we were impulsive and careless about getting in". I happened to think what if the fire department came to a burning building where I was trapped inside, I'm not so sure I'd want to be "slow and deliberative" about getting me out. To me it's a clear case of "get that fire axe swinging". This whole idea of wars of choice and "perpetual war" is alien, and in the long run, mentally unhealthy, for American society. Dylan said he could see through their masks "like I can see through the water that runs down my drain". Abraham Lincoln once said "I don't absolutely have to have God's blessing, but I must have Kentucky to win". Now George Bush 43 says “I don’t listen to my father, I listen to my Heavenly father” when he pursues his perpetual wars of choice, and Obama has followed right in his footsteps. Bob Dylan spoke against these people in the song Masters of War when he wrote "Like Judas of old, you lie and deceive. A world war can be won, you want me to believe". Actually these people still DO believe in this “end times” stuff but not in a micro way, for their own lives, but rather for a macro way. They don’t want to go to Hell but they wouldn’t mind turning the rest of the world into anuclear contaminated inferno after they’re gone. They think some cosmic hand is going to cone down and save them at the last moment. So they don’t care about the earth of energy conservation or ecology. They don’t care about people in other less priveledged economic classes, other than make the security gates a couple feet higher. They expect A plus police protection and care little whether or not local budget cuts cause phones in poorer precincts to ring off the hook when locals call 911. Their views on “eminent domain” are that property rights for the rest of us don’t exist, and if they want anything they can hire some lobbyist to secure it for them. And they sure do value squirreling their money away in some off shore account, and are suspicious of the idea of an honest business where there is actual risk. Likewise on their talk shows they avoid risk at any price - -and shield themselves away from any information that hasn’t been filtered to their liking. As such as have “information ghettos” today, which are actually Mis-information ghettos. If there are space aliens out there, now would not be at all a bad time to make yourselves known. I hardly see how we could do any worse.

Getting Used to the new "Normal"

You people noticed I decided to "punt" on that last posting. I figured you could look up David Brock and those other people. I thought Grover Norquist was a person you needed to know the background of and that was the best way to do it. I guess of us have just been sitting and deciding what to "make of all the developments in the past few days". Well, I would have thought that since it was only a trillion that needed to be cut immediately, that perhaps we could cut out MORE than that in unneeded areas such as defense, and reallocate that money into a much needed jobs program. We never hear about reallocating funds to where they are most needed because everybody in congress has their pet projects which can't be touched. Therefore, everyone else suffers. Clearly the latest unemployment figure is a little misleading. I have wondered that since they stopped counting all those people who dropped out of the job seeking market, have they remembered to refigure them BACK IN to the employment pool once they reenter? It's not just a "new normal" that we have to get used to as Americans but we also have to constantly keep adjusting to some new program that is being cut this coming year that was there last year. This is why I say the economy is still in a process of contraction because were it expanding, even a little, this constant governmental pruning back process would not still be ongoing. People can get used to a new normal in their personal lives but this government subsedized job drain overseas cannot go on indefinitely. People didn't like Ross Perot even though everything he said proved to be dead on accurate. I guess I would raise the rhetorical question: Since when was it not OK to be Right?

Pat Buchannon on the Mc Laughlin group was discussing the Syria situation and how many people Assad has killed. And now only 14% of the Syrian people now support Assad because both the protests and deaths have become wide spread. And Pat said "And Assad is going to look and find himself surrounded by his enemies and look at his neighbor Muberek, and realize that the United States will not be a faithful ally with him either". And I'm scratching my head in wondering when in history Assad became allied with the United States? I missed that chapter in the history book. Of course Saddam Hussein was another "loyal ally" of ours. But the Saudi Arabians, Bush's buddies, wanted Hussein gone, and so we did their dirty work. But if Buchannon is done with the crocodile tears for Assad he can look at our defense budget and realize that it won't be doomsday if it's cut. But apparently this gang of twelve, that is- three representatives from the four heads of congress- -will not dare deadlock because cutting defense at all is something they most dread. So like Assad in Syria- - we may find ourselves supporting wars that only fourteen percent of the people want. Even among Republicans in this tea party dominated congress, the figure is probably only 55% but that will be enough to prevent any defense cutback. Apparently the life expectancy in men is even now only 76. This means I only have just over fifteen years to live. My Dad should have died about the turn of the milenium, and my Mom is pushing four years past the deadline. But more importantly if these figures are right it means this idea of women catching up with men in "dying early" is a myth and that men still die a full five years earlier then women, which is 81.

In Wisconsin they will be putting this whole notion of tea party revolution (or whatever) up for a vote on Tuesday, and we'll know a lot. People forget of course that Ronald Reagan was far less extreme in his beliefs than they alledge. For instance Ronald Reagan talked about the "truely needy". Well, we sure have a lot of "truely needy" people in America today. They said that Ronald Reagan was anti labor. But Reagan was President of the screen actors guild. They say he wanted to bust all unions. No, all he did with the air traffic controlers was to state, accurately, that their strike was illegal. I really can't picture Ronald Reagan denying people pensions and benifits that they voted to and agreed on. Ronald Reagan raised taxes dramatically in California after he got elected. Ronald Reagan also spoke of America as a whole and not some special intrest of the elite. Ronald Reagan favored cutting loopholes, not creating them. Ronald Reagan didn't believe in unnecessary wars. Ronald Reagan actually delivered speeches that were positive and inspiring, and not carping and negative like Rush Limbaugh. Ronald Reagan believed that the way to air an issue was to present it to the people, and not make some back room deal to snuff out all dialog or voter scruteny. Of course with today's rules, which are nonexistent, it seems no ammount of concentrated political funding is off limits to any campaign, so that any rich person can flex his political muscle at any place and at any time regardless of whether its a local issue or not. Some say we ought to haul off and go for public campaign financing like they do in other countries. I'm not sure I'm quite "there" yet, but give it time.

I'm sure Rush Limbaugh takes comfort from the five hundred stock market loss on Thursday. After all if it's bad news for the economy it's bad news for the President and therefore Limbaugh loves it. Actually one has to question just how "recessed" this economy is with all these people buying all these new electronic guismos that I can't afford and in many cases wouldn't want. Of course a prudent person would have sold stocks two or three weeks ago just as a prudent move, not even knowing the outcome. Now they say Standard and Poor's made an accounting error of two trillion in figuring US finances for that downgraded AA rating. Of course errors of a couple trillion are nothing to Rush, the way he throws around figures. I told you months ago that we were headed into a deflationary cycle and this would be ongoing as prices of everything, including stocks and gold and energy such as oil fell. Someone said that George W Bush was the ultimate Keynsian economist because he cut taxes. But Hartman states that John Maynard Kaynes never advocated "cutting taxes". What he DID advocate were government jobs programs. He got so extreme he suggested if you hired one man to dig a row of twenty holes and another man behind him to fill them back up, that both men would have money to spend stimulating the economy and in the end REAL jobs would be created because of this. They say a vast majority of Americans prefers government job creation bu these cuts in the budgets. The President keeps saying we're going to do something but he hasn't. Chris Matthews pointed out that government jobs lead to auxiliary jobs where small business can get involved. Those on the far right say that government expenditures "crowd out" private investment and risk taking, though they show NO statistics to support their claims. It would not surprise me one bit if the unemployment rate turned around again and began heading upward. More stimulation will be needed when unemployment coverage for a lot of Americans runs out at the end of the year, and it will soon show up in reduced demand. So I say if you haven't already sold precious metals, then do so now. If you're in Dallas, Texas you may like it that the cost of electricity isn't higher than it already is. Your heart has to go out to those people putting up with temperatures in excess of a hundred degrees for 32 straight days and counting.

Of course according to Bernie Sanders it seems that the poor will be first on the priority list of things to cut as somehow being the "least vital" expenditures. So you can expect almost the entire one trillion to come out of the hides of poor people. Of course we could shave a trillion from the defense budget and we'd still survive. At the very least we could cut five hundred billion there and never miss it, particularly because defense expenditures have TRIPLED since the days of Clinton according to someone, and also because we are supposed to be pulling OUT of new wars, rather than getting into more. They are cutting tours of duty to nine months. Our troops will like that. Bernie Sanders did not vote for the debt deal. I think that vote should be exercised if the outcome FOR settlement is assured without your vote, and pray more people don't reason like you. "My vote won't matter" Clearly if the President would have announced that he wasn't running WHEN I told him to announce it- - this whole problem would be no sweat off his brow. It is said that in the elections of 2010 at least in Florida where the survay was conducted, that the tea party percentage who showed up at the polls to Vote was in the high sixties, whereas with democrats and liberals it was in the low forties. Even Rush Limbaugh has warned of a politician repeatedly snubbing his political case. Of course we have this phenominon now of the "low information voter" that has to be catered to. I think "misinformation" voter is more accurate, and "brainwashed voter" is more accurate still. Political times being what they are- - you can't count EVER on "common sense" taking over, because as the saying goes "A lie has traveled half way around by the time the Truth gets its boots on".

They made a big thing out of it being Lucille Ball's one hundredth birthday today. But two neglected stars are Joan Davis and Gail Storm. Gail Storm did "My Little Margie" and also sang the songs "I Hear You Knocking' and "I'm a lonely little petunia in an onion patch". Actually she was considerably older than "21" in that series being born in 1922. I would have never guessed in my youth that she was actually several years older than my mother. Lucille Ball was already rather long in the tooth being in her forties when "I Love Lucy" was on the air and in her fifties when "The Lucy Show" aired. As for Joan Davis she starred in "I' Married Joan" with Jim Baccus back before he became a cranky old man. There is a song on that Demento album called "Delicious" that is Jim Baccus and Carol Channing, I think. But neither that nor the next song is labeled, "The Scotsman" by Brian Bowers. At least on my copy. One other case where I got an album with two things not identified are on the Original "A Piece of History" 1977 Hamburg album by the Beatles. Since them they have "cleaned up" and enhanced the sound on CD. Also my copy is missing four tracks, "Twist and Shout", "I Saw her Standing There" (with the Peter Gunn guitar riff) and "Ask Me Why" and a song I've never heard called "Remonicing" by Buddy Holly. However two tracks are not identified on my album - "Mr Moonlight" and a song unique to this album called "Where Have You Been All My Life". It sounds like the Cherrels or one of those Reigel VII groups, but I don't know. But "I Married Joan" and "My Little Margie" are two under-rated sitcoms. I was under the impression that "My Little Margie" had new shows on ABC till mid 1957 but apparently I have neither the year nor the network right.

They say they’re found strong evidence of liquid water on mars because some streams appear to form on slant areas when the weather gets warm, and then disappears. When they were announcing an upcoming launch to Jupiter and that would involve a "crew" I thought I was hearing news from the future. It turns out there are several advanced robots involved. They say the moon used to be two moons, because a smaller moon that followed it around a billion years ago finally crashed into the back side of the moon we don’t see and that’s why that side is rockier than the side we see. Interesting theory. I've never heard the Federation say anything about this, but obviously this was way even before their time.

Some of the mathematical permutations of the Craps odds we discuss may have been neglected. Still I don't think I'm far from the right figure. Of course, like a time at bat, you'd never expect a round to go on this long, but this is just in case it did. People on shows like Deal or No Deal think they can somehow escape cumulitive odds, but they can't in the long run.

All The Right-wing Conspirators

.The actions of these shadowy figures on the Republican Right needs to become better known. Grover Norquist was the guy who made the remark about "Shrinking government will it's small enough to drown in the bathtub". Grover Norquist is a prime puppetier on the political scene today because he's the one who secured the "no new taxes" pledge from all the Republicans running in 2010. Should any of they break this pledge or displease him in any way he says he will "primary" them. Personally - this could be a good thing because chances are that any replacement candidate wouldn't be as whaco as the original. Randy Rhodes has been talking about everybody in the “Vast right wing conspiracy” that Hillary talked about in February of 1998. Norquist has been active back to around 1994 and engineered the Republican takeover of congress that year. Jack Abramoff is another figure that I first heard when Rush Limbaugh mentioned him on his show in an adverse way. At the time I thought he had to be a democrat because Rush never mentioned that he was a Republican. He was involved in that whole Indian gambling casino thing with Ralph Reed, who was head of the Christian coalition. The money would be raised by anti gambling moralists and then be funneled to favored India tribes, who want to beat out other tribes for the gambling casino licenses and business patronage. These kinds of Christians have no moral principles. Another figure is David Brock. This guy came up with the “a little slutty and a little nutty” pertaining to Anita Hill. But he saw the error of his ways and wrote “Blinded by the right”. I have never read this book but I should, and all you people should, too. In fact they should do a movie called "All the Right-wing Conspirators" or something which dramatizes all of these lives and events the way only Hollywood can. And if there is a little over-acting that's OK because a lot of people are dense and won't get the point otherwise.

Grover Norquist became involved with politics at an early age and in his early teenage years Norquist volunteered for the 1968 Nixon campaign, assisting with get out the vote efforts.^[11] He enrolled at Harvard University in 1974, where he would obtain both a BA and MBA. While in school, Norquist was an editor at the Harvard Crimson and helped to publish the libertarian-leaning Harvard Chronicle.^[12] Norquist has said: "When I became 21, I decided that nobody learned anything about politics after the age of 21."^[11] He attended the Leadership Institute in Arlington, Virginia,^[13] an organization that teaches conservative Americans how to influence public policy through activism and leadership. About this same period Thom Hartman dabbled in libertarianism because he was just starting out in business and libertarianism seemed like a neat idea. I was a fan myself of Harry Brown, a libertarian, myself during this period. He believed at the time you should have some sort of underground "safe house" or a cabin in the woods in case "the worst" happens and econimic riots are breaking out everywhere. I strongly suggest that you get a podcast of Randy Rhodes' August 4th show. We have some background material below but you can bet this is only scratching the surface and has probably been largely purged of anything that might be too revealing or make him look too shady.

Norquist is best known for founding Americans for Tax Reform in 1985, which he did at the request of President Ronald Reagan.^[15] The primary policy goal of Americans for Tax Reform is to reduce the percentage of the GDP consumed by the federal government.^[8][16] ATR states that it "opposes all tax increases as a matter of principle."^[17] Americans for Tax Reform seeks to curtail government spending by supporting Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) legislation^[18] and transparency initiatives,^[19] and opposing cap-and-trade legislation^[20] and Democratic efforts to overhaul health care. Cap and trade pertains to energy use restriction, basically. In 1993, Norquist launched his Wednesday Meetings series at ATR headquarters, initially to help fight President Clinton's healthcare plan and eventually becoming one of the most significant institutions in American conservative political organizing. In 2009, Norquist received $200,000 in annual compensation for his part-time job (24 hours per week) with Americans for Tax Reform, plus an addition $22,419 other compensation from the organization and related organizations.^[22]

Early in his career, Norquist was executive director of both the National Taxpayers Union and the national College Republicans organization, holding both positions until 1983. Afterward, he held the positions of Economist and Chief Speechwriter at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce from 1983 to 1984.^[23]

Norquist traveled to several war zones across the world to help support anti-Soviet guerrilla armies in the second half of the 1980s. He worked with a support network for Col. Oliver North's efforts with the Nicaraguan Contras and other insurgencies, in addition to promoting U.S. support for groups including Mozambique's RENAMO and Jonas Savimbi's UNITA in Angola and helping to organize anti-Soviet forces in Laos. The trouble is that yesterday's ally is today's avowed political enemy of the US like the Muhajib in Afghanistan.

In addition to heading Americans for Tax Reform, Norquist serves on the board of numerous organizations, including the Hispanic Leadership Fund, Indian-American Republican Caucus, and The Nixon Center. He has long been active in building bridges between various ethnic and religious minorities and the free-market community through his involvement with organizations such as the Islamic Free Market Institute, Acton Institute, Christian Coalition and Toward Tradition.

In business, Norquist was a co-founder of the Merritt Group, later renamed Janus-Merritt Strategies. Norquist also serves on the board of ParentalRights.org, a grassroots organization dedicated to adding a Parental Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution.

In 2010, Norquist joined the advisory board of GOProud, a political organization representing conservative gays, lesbians, transgendered people, and their allies, for which he was criticized by the Family Research Council. Norquist is a member of the board of directors of the National Rifle Association,^[26] the American Conservative Union,^[2] as well as the Advisory Council of GOProud,. Norquist is the co-founder of the Islamic Free Market Institute.^[28]

In 2010, Norquist, whose wife was born into a Muslim family, emerged as the most outspoken Republican foe of politicizing the mosque-in-Manhattan issue, saying:

"This is a distraction from a winning game plan… It is very stupid, when Republicans are poised to win an overwhelming victory in November over Democratic spending, to focus attention on this issue."^[29]

He has also "announced his plan to assemble a center-right coalition to discuss pulling out of Afghanistan to save hundreds of billions of dollars."^[30]

In a CPAC 2011 speech, David Horowitz accused Norquist of having connections with the Muslim Brotherhood. Working with eventual Speaker Newt Gingrich, Norquist was one of the co-authors of the 1994 Contract with America, and helped to rally grassroots efforts, which he later chronicled in his book Rock the House.^[12] Norquist also served as a campaign staff member on the 1988, 1992 and 1996 Republican Platform Committees.^[2]

Norquist was instrumental in securing early support for then Texas Governor George W. Bush, acting as his unofficial liaison to the conservative movement.^[12] He campaigned for Bush in both 2000 and 2004.^[32] After Bush's first election, Norquist was a key figure involved in crafting Bush's tax cuts. The Wall Street Journal's John Fund dubbed him "the Grand Central Station" of conservatism and told The Nation: "It's not disputable" that Norquist was the key to the Bush campaign's surprising level of support from movement conservatives in 2000.^[33]

Norquist, along with Bill Kristol, Ralph E. Reed, Jr., Clint Bolick, and David McIntosh, is one of the so-called "Gang of Five" identified in Nina Easton's 2000 book by that name,^[34] which gives a history of leaders of the modern, post-Goldwater conservative movement. Humorist P. J. O'Rourke has described Norquist as "Tom Paine crossed with Lee Atwater plus just a soupçon of Madame Defarge".^[12]

Since Norquist's opposition to any and all tax increases implies that even deficit reduction agreements that are dominated by spending cuts should be rejected (since such agreements are still not entirely spending cuts), he has been identified by some policy makers as an obstacle to deficit reduction.^[9][35]

Norquist's national strategy includes recruiting politicians at the state and local levels. Norquist has helped to set up regular meetings for conservatives in many states. These meetings are modeled after his Wednesday meetings in Washington, with the goal of creating a nationwide network of conservative activists that he can call upon to support conservative causes, such as tax cuts and deregulation. There are now meetings in 48 states.^[36]

In 2004, Norquist helped California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger with his plan to privatize the CalPERS system.^[37] In Virginia's 2005 Republican primaries Norquist encouraged the defeat of a number of legislators who voted for higher taxes.^[36]

Norquist favors dramatically reducing the size of the government.^[12] He has been noted for his widely quoted quip: "I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub."^[38]

He has also stated, "Cutting the government in half in one generation is both an ambitious and reasonable goal. If we work hard we will accomplish this and more by 2025. Then the conservative movement can set a new goal. I have a recommendation: To cut government in half again by 2050".^[39] The Americans for Tax Reform mission statement is "The government's power to control one's life derives from its power to tax. We believe that power should be minimized."^[40]

Norquist is the author of the book Leave Us Alone: Getting the Government's Hands Off Our Money, Our Guns, Our Lives,^[41] published on March 11, 2008 by HarperCollins. He has variously served as a monthly "Politics" columnist and contributing editor to The American Spectator.

Norquist and Americans for Tax Reform were mentioned in Senate testimony relating to the lobbying scandal for which Abramoff pled guilty in 2006. Norquist has denied that he did anything wrong.^[36] Records released by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee allege that ATR served as a "conduit" for funds that flowed from Abramoff's clients to surreptitiously finance grass-roots lobbying campaigns.^[43]