Same Old Story - But With A Different Ending

We now continue with the Jesus story begun on the previous posting.  Check there.  Who's to say this isn't the original one and the Biblical one is the alteration. 

On Monday November 20^th (we are assuming) Jesus observed the animals and the birds in captivity in the temple and makes a whip of stems and goes and drives the cattle and the sheep out of the temple and many are egging him on to go do it.  They are Nazarites who came along with him to Jerusalem.   The temple police arrest Jesus and seven of his disciples, don’t ask me which ones, and fiveofthem escape and are never heard from again.  Judas is among those who ran away from the conflict.  When asked by onlookers whether Judas was one of his disciples, Judas denies being a disciple now but pretty much disowns him saying that Jesus is a menace to society.   Jesus and the seven disciples are put in a holding dungeon few people know about and their hands and feet were put in irons.  Meanwhile all of the people, many of then Nazarites are preparing to riot and the cries of “Save Now” can be heard.  In this case it’s the saving of the animals.  Jesus said “God’s house is meant to be a temple of prayer but you have turned it into a slaughter house”.   Jesus also said “As a sign of my authority to do this I say “Tear down this temple made with hands and in three days I will build up a temple not made with hands”.   Jesus continued to be pressed about his authority to act and Jesus then asks them a question about John the Baptist and where did he get his authority”.   The council is unable to answer the question for reasons given in the Gospels.  Jesus says “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things”.    Later on they haul Jesus out of the dungeon upon Judas saying he’s claiming to be God now.   Jesus is asked if he is a mortal man like any other man.  “With like passions”.   Jesus tells them he gets tired and hungry just like any other man.  He needs sustenance.  He also needs to be in prayer often, for he tells them that without the aid of the Father, he can do nothing”.   They throw him back in the dungeon with the others and they grill him what he talked about and Jesus says “Everything is cool”.   

Meanwhile Judas is watching the rioters with alarm.  They don’t have enough men to arrest them all.  In the midst of this chose three men dressed all in black come in and enter the prison complex.  The guards are scurrying around wondering if they are needed elsewhere.  The three men unlock the dungeon and unlock the irons and Jesus and the seven disciples are free.  They are told, “Remember, none oft this ever happened if anybody asks you.  Occasionally in the corridors people would see Jesus and his disciples being led out by the three angels of God or whoever and they would be stared at and be told “You didn’t see this.  You won’t remember this”.   They were told to go to John Mark’s parents.  They had a courtyard with a wrought iron gate and Jesus says Hi to Rhoda, the servant.   He sees a twelve year old boy hanging around and a disciple asks his name and he says “I am John, who is called Mark”.  And Jesus said “You will be instrumental in the spreading of the gospel in the coming years”.   They are escorted to a large upper room.  There they have a lot of maps to map out an escape route.  They are told that they will be headed to Egypt.  There Jesus said “There is much to learn from the people in Egypt.  They leave on foot without benefit of horses or donkeys.  While they are at John Mark’s house is when Jesus says “Up till now you haven’t had need of purse or sword.  But we no longer have access to the money Jesus kept for us.   Jesus says “He that lacks a sword must sell his coat and buy one, if you have to”.  Jesus disciples say “But Lord, winter is coming and it will be betting cold out”.   They are told that Egypt headed south is a safer destination than staying in Palestine, headed north or west, because Roman troops would soon be looking for them.  The disciples then ruminate among themselves.  

Somehow Mary Magdolane finds Judas and she complains to him “Jesus left without taking me with him”.   Judas says “There is a lot of danger on the road with highwaymen and rapists”.   But Judas also tried to let it be known that he thinks Jesus has taken leave of his senses and needs to be rounded up and found for his own good.  Judas contacts Roman soldiers that he knows.  He knows some who are good temple Jews, though in secret.  He enlists them to form a posse to bring Jesus and his disciples back.  But he’s having trouble getting volunteers he heeds.  There is a lot of talk but little action.  A whole day goes by and finally he’s comfortable that he’s found a mounted group that can catch up with Jesus and his disciples.  He knows the road Jesus will be traveling because Saturday night at Bethany he saw road maps that Jesus never bothered to share with his disciples that night or any other.  He shows the maps to the Roman troops.   Of course they can’t just go off duty unless they falsify some records and hope they aren’t discovered or else they themselves would be brought up on charges.  They take off southward.  The terrain is rough but it is rougher for Jesus and his men not being mounted.   This is now Tuesday and Tuesday night at nearly midnight they catch up to Jesus and his disciples at an encampment.  Jesus had set up a system where a few disciples would stand guard while the rest of them could get some sleep.  Jesus had a saying “Are there are not twelve hours in a day.  Move while you have the light.  The night is coming and is indeed here when no man can work”.   They approach with their lanterns and torches, for there was no moonlight.  Peter is the first to rouse and cuts off the ear of one of the troop’s personal servants.  This is the only healing Jesus is on record as doing, putting back the ear.   Jesus asks them “Whom do you seek” and they say “Jesus the Nazarite”.  Jesus said “I am he”.  He adds, “If you are seeking me then let the others go”.   They think about it a while and think it would be a pretty good idea.  After all, what can the headless body do by itself?   They are slow in escorting Jesus back to Jerusalem.  I would imagine they chained him to a trooper so they could get sleep at night.   They arrive back in Jerusalem about mid day Thursday.   They put Jesus in a holding cell.  Meanwhile as anticipated both Judas aand the troops are in trouble and Judas isn’t much help in saying “We did it for the Kingdom of Heaven”.   He said “We hope to bring about a paradise that is ruled by the temple priests”.  

Meanwhile the people of Jerusalem were wondering what had happened to their Messiah.  Many did not know he was back.  Others said he was already dead.  They conducted a trial for Judas and he was given the death penalty for what Pilate believed to be an attempted military coup.  The other troops were still in prison.  At the time they didn’t know when his execution date would be.  Jesus wasn’t tried  until Friday morning.  He had an audience before Pilate.  Jesus played the “Daddy” card.  He reminded Pilate that his father was Roman and also stated that he had never said anything against the Roman government or of even the vaguest attempt to overthrow the Roman government.  He said for nearly three years he  and his disciples never carried weapons but they only had done so now for  self defense reasons in case they encountered any highway men on the road.  Pilate decided to convict Jesus anyhow because his story sounded a little fishy.  But then one of Jesus’ fans reminded Pilate that last Passover Pilate did not free the usual one suspect that he customarily does and now would be a good time to even the score and  grant a belated favor.   When Judas heard what was in store he thought he should be freed on his merits but that Jesus didn’t deserve a get out of jail card.  His reasoning was Jesus was still dangerous to the people.  I think you know the rest of the story.  Pilate decides to give the people a choice.  It was maybe nine thirty in the morning and a crowd had already assembled though Pilate knew that most of those people would be biased toward Jesus.  When he asked the people who they wanted free they said Jesus the Nazarite.  Like I say the whole “of Nazareth” thing is a mistranslation.   When Jesus was free he immediately found a good donkey and set out down that same Egyptian road, though this time he was secure in that he was a free man under Roman law, as though he had done nothing wrong.  Meanwhile Judas was taken out and crucified.  He said of the women who had gathered “Women weep not for me but for yourselves.  For in the end times you will be saying to the mountains “fall on us” to hide us from the wrath to come.  Judas had still absorbed some of the apocraliptic imigry of the day.  He said “IF such injustices are done now, worst things will be done in the last day.   Judas was nailed between two thieves. 

Then there was a partial eclipse of the sun  for three hours from noon to three.  This explains the “darkness on the face of the land” line.  Naturally Judas took it as a sign.  People weren’t that schooled in how solar eclipses work.   Shortly after three Judas said “I am thirsty” and was given gall mixed with cheap wine.  Judas drank it and went into a swoon.  People believed he was dead.  Joseph of Arethmea was a secret follower of the sort of government Judas wanted involving a rule by the priests over the whole land.  It is unconfirmed how Joseph got Pilate to agree to give him the body.  The argument he put forth was that the sabbath was coming and it would be unlawful to have bodies hanging on the cross over the sabbath.  When the forces came to take the body down, which was still alive, one of the convicts said, “Save us, too” and uttered a bunch of other explititives featuring the word “bloody” a lot.  The other convict, whose name was Demas,  said “Do you not fear God.  This man did nothing wrong”.   Meanwhile Jesus continued on his trek to Egypt.  Eventually he met up with Peter and John at the designated place they had discussed at John Mark’s house.  Jesus says “There are only two of you?” and Peter and John explained how the others grew restless and didn’t want to continue with the journey anymore.  Jesus then said to Peter and John “Behold many are called; few are chosen”.  Meanwhile Saturday was the sabbath.  I think you know the rest of the story.  Mary Magdolane and the two other women had never seen the grave, the tomb.  Early Sunday morning they went out to look at it, expecting to find a sealed grave and no expectation that they would find that the stone had not yet been rolled into place.  Joseph had treated the body with spices and wrappings and just left the grave open, so that the night air would revive Judas.  When Mary and the others came in to look at what was in the grave they were greeted with “Who’s there” and were startled to find Judas there still lying in his wrappings.  He said he had been an innocent ritual sacrifice and that he alone had overcome death. 

Passing the Dr Phil Test

This is a version of the gospel where Jesus and seven of his disciples escape to Egypt eventually and Judas is crucified on November 24th AD 29.  We're just giving you the first part of it in this blog post.  I don’t deny the sovereignty of Jesus; on the contrary I affirm it.  Still I would like to suggest an alternate path to “sitting on the right hand side of God in heaven” where all power has been given unto him.  In the story I am forming in my mind, there are various things- though minor- that Jesus says and does that vary ever so slightly from the Jesus of the Gospels.   I could call the story “I’m on the Lamb, but I ain’t no sheep” from the BOC song.  Another alternative title is “The Real Gospel of Judas”, as opposed to the gospel of Judas we’ve heard about all these years where he’s only doing Jesus’ will.  The Judas in this story isn’t a very likable fellow and he isn’t driven by personal doubts or pangs of.  conscience

I have Jesus and his disciples going to Jerusalem around November 20^th.  This is five or six weeks after he was there on the Feast of Tabernacles and I’m excising the stuff in December from the narrative I went to propound like it didn’t happen.  I question whether John chapters nine or ten are anointed.  In chapter nine Jesus says that the blind man’s blindness was caused neither by his sin nor his parents’ sin, but that the glory of God might be revealed.  I know God well enough to know that God is not that hard-up for cheap glory that he’s willing to inconvenience a man’s whole life all for a quick rush of praise from others.   Besides the story falls apart when you realize that my vision has not been healed that that’s a whole lifetime of inconvenience.   God doesn’t reason that way.   Also in chapter ten we have all of the “I AM” statements.   I am the door, I am the good shepherd.   I am a loaf of bread.  I am a block of wood.  In the text Jesus says he has the ability to lay down his own life, and if he has the ability to lay his life down, he has the ability to take it up again.   Life doesn’t work that way.  Nobody has ever died and then decided they are going to take up their old life again.   Jesus also uses the analogy of the shepherd who becomes the door so that the wolf can’t get in with going past the guard.  That would mean that for the chosen, no bad person or thing can get to them to mess up their life and do them harm.   Jesus also in this chapter says “My sheep know my voice.  A robber they will not listen to”.    If I were truly a Christian I would fixate on the voice of the Church and know that I knew I was among the chosen.  

Dr Phil says that we are given a choice of happiness or being “right” but that we can’t have both and Dr Phil says, “I would rather be happy than right”.  I would turn around and say “If I can’t be right, I know I’ll never really be happy”.   A lot of us have inner morality we can’t violate.   Trying to fake like you’re a Christian to “go along to get along” hasn’t worked for me.   Also Dr Phil says “You only miss the Church because you miss what you wish that it were” and not how it really is.  That phrase is telling.  Dr Phil also has another saying, “How’s THAT working our for you?”   People get asked that question as a taunt of something they’re trying out for a few days to see if it works.  I became a Born Again Christian over forty years ago.  Someone has every right to ask me “How’s THAT working out for you?”   Also we’d never talk about the cross if Dr Phil has his way.  Dr Phil asks a person to tell his hard luck story over and over and says “Are you sure that I’ve got it now?”  And the person will say “Yes, I believe you understand”.  And then Dr Phil comes back with the bombshell of saying “Don’t you EVER bring that up to me again”.   With these four sayings of Dr Phil you’d think he would never be a born again Christian.  Yet he is a professing Christian.  Of course he’s been a Christian “BT” or “Before Trump”.   I haven’t polled him to find out that whether in this “Trump Era” that Dr Phil still feels the same way even with every Christian and his dog making affirmations of both Jesus Christ and Donald Trump.  

In my new story we again start at Jesus and his disciples in the home of Mary and Martha in Bethany on that Saturday night.  We could open with Jesus wrapping up a Sabbath service, which would be a first for any Jesus movie.  We would Segway into the “message session” with Mary Magdolane and the expensive perfume and Judas complaining about the cost of the perfume but also alluding to the fact that these “message sessions” are a regular occurrence and not a one-time thing.  Jesus responds that he’s her money and she can spend it any way she wants and then he adds “You’re only jealous because she is giving me love that you are unable to give me”.    The disciples all want to know is what happens when they ride into Jerusalem and Jesus tells them that they worry too much.   Jesus says “Things will work out the way they are meant to work out”.    The next day, Sunday, you have all of the Hosannah stuff going on and Jesus saying the rocks and stones would shout out if every tongue were to go silent.   You also have Jesus’ Greatest Hits, where he talks about asking and seeking and knocking and you’ll get an answer and having faith as a mustard seed to move mountains.  You also have the parable of the widow and the judge and persistence in prayer pays dividends.  But you also have stuff about living in an era of peace, and God will call the peace-makers sons of God.  We just live in a world where they follow the Golden Rule and we are all brothers and also children of God.  Also we must not live in a world where man oppresses man or where God oppresses animal.  Because Jesus is a Nazarate, a fact that will play in later on, and so you have the idea of only eating fish and also of growing your hair long.  The old woman giving her two mites was featured this day.  Judas wants to pay her a generous amount from the contributions they get and Jesus restrains him saying “If you reimburse her you’ll be taking away her heavenly reward”.   Judas is a little insensed at this proclamation.  That evening, Sunday evening, they are again in the house in Bethany.  Now Judas and Simon the Zealot want to know where this is all headed.  Judas is concerned because the previous month allusions were made about Jesus being born of fornication with a Roman soldier, and also that he called certain Jews children of the devil. And Jesus says “Anyone who does the works of the devil is a child of the devil”.   Philip asks why more people weren’t healed today.  And he says he wants a road map of faith.  And Jesus says that everyone has to work out their own faith.  This is their lot in life.  And if they have sufficient faith they will be able to do all things.   Jesus is asked about taking over rulership and Jesus says “First there is only one thing that needs to be done. “ and Matthew says “Yeah, one thing- - which is usually a really big one”.   The next morning, Monday morning, they passed by the same fig tree again- - the one Jesus has cursed the day before and now the tree is withered and missing almost all of its leaves having lost them in just one day.  The disciples say “This can’t bode well for the Jews” and Jesus says “you’ll find out”.  

I’ll continue this narrative on another day.  Quo Vatis means “Where are you going?” and the question is to where Jesus is going this week is something I as the script writer need to provide an answer for unless I want to bore my audience, if it’s something other than going to the cross.   And it is. 

Revitalizing the Simpsons after Thirty Years

This is Monday January 20, 2020, Martin Luther King Day.  In a few days we’ll have a new moon and it will be the start of the Year of the Rat in Asian countries.   The US Senate is working on a holiday trying to organize the rules for Trump’s impeachment trial that starts tomorrow and will be covered on the networks.  Jeff Flake was on channel two and he says he chose not to run again for the Senate rather than to sacrifice his principles.  He was a guy who was in the news a lot a couple of years ago.  “Paracite” won best movie in the Screen Actors Guilt Awards alias the SAG.   There were three horse deaths at Santa Anita on three consecutive days of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  Yesterday two horses collided in training and one horse had to be euthanized and the other was uninjured.  Two geldings broke their ankle on Friday and Saturday.  It seems a high percentage of the deaths has been from geldings.   Meanwhile Prince Harry is saying now that he “had no choice” but to separate himself from some royal duties.  The queen is said to be in a bad mood coming home from church.  She didn’t greet people.  There seem to be a lot of bad feelings.  Of course the Tabloids in England are playing the race card and there is absolutely no place for that.   As you know around here the hanger rod collapsed in the closet Friday morning and this is Monday morning already and Augustine has made us wait three days and he won’t be here till tomorrow.   Harry and Magen will no longer be addressed as “your highness” in public.  And apparently they have to give back three million dollars.   Prince Harry and Magen both wanted to do commercial stuff but the Queen would not allow that happening part time.  They either had to be “all in” or completely removed from royal duties.  

Without a warning, they should advance the Simpson’s plot 28 years skipping from 1992 to 2020 as far as maturation of characters is concerned.   They are dropping Apu because the character is said to be racially insensitive with a white guy voicing Apu since 1990.  The series started in December of 1989.   Here is how I would do the characters.  I would have Homer and Marge living in the same house.  They would remark that at the Quickie Mart that Apu retired just last year.  I would have the death of grandpa Simpson also occur just the previous year after living over thirty years in the same board and care home.  There is no need to update his image because he already looked like death warmed over.  But they would do repleated flashbacks of rememberances of Grandpa Simpson by Marge and Homer.  I would have Homer Simpson look not that different except maybe a few wrinkles.  I would also have him take on some of his father’s habit of telling long and confusing stories with no point to them.  I would have him recently retire from the Nuclear plant.  The government finally stepped in and closed the place down to to dangerous conditions.   He would still hang out with Carl and Lennie at the bar but I would have them reluctant to tell all the times when each of them screwed up badly.   And of course Homer took a lot of time off to take the cure for alcoholism that never really worked.   The deal was to give Homer "early retirement".  They would pay him just to get rid of him and this would occur before the plant was even shut down.  I would have Marge look grayer and a little frumpier but basically not change that much except she is a little more grandmotherly and sentimental.   I would have Bart Simpson at age 38 to be a good looking adult and married to a really hot chick and they would also have a son and daughter.   Lisa I would have married to Milhouse for the past ten years.   I would have Lisa developing a weight problem and looking like a slob now and losing all interest in her former successes and interests.  They have been trying to have children and there is talk of adopting but the doctor says Milhouse has “tired sperm”, which comes as a surprise to no one.  I would have Milhouse look surprisingly like his father.  I would have Maggie as by far the most successful and intelligent and articulate in some scientific technical capacity.   There would be a few new characters introduced naturally to fill out the story.  Maybe you could bring back Nelson from prison serving 25 years for some fatal stabbing in a fight.    Maybe bring back Dr Hibbert for an episode as some dottering old man out to consult with Milhouse and Lisa.   I’d have Bart as a police officer or something.   On second thought I’d have Bart as an assistant DA doing paperwork for his boss all the time.  

I agree with the Democratic Virginia governor to not allow any guns at this big second amendment rights rally today in Virginia.  You don’t want to have agitators from “The Base” or any other exreme right wing groups at this rally where violence might break out like it did with Charolette a couple of years ago.  The key to being a political leader is to protect the public and “insure the peace” and if that means slapping on a few executive orders than so be it.  Hopefully the next Democratic president will usher in a climate of more peace and harmony.  You can do a lot with speeches and I think Joe Biden is just the sort of candidate who will do the trick.  

The Kansas City Chiefs are going to the Super Bowl in Miami for the first time since January of 1970 or fifty years.  That’s a long drought.  KC beat the Tennessee Titans by a score of 35 to 24.  I just reviewed the entire game on Google sports.  It was 17 to 7 Titans at one time but then the KC Chiefs came back just like they did a year ago.  That game started at noon and ran till after three.  The game ended when the Titans ran out of luck on fourth down.  In the late afternoon the SF ‘49ers beat the GB Packers 37 to 20.  Most of Green Bay’s scoring was late in the game.  When I first tuned into this game it was San Francisco 21 and Green Bay nothing.  Then it was 27 to nothing before Green Bay began scoring making it 37 to 20.  The game ran till about six thirty.  There was confetti and trophies and celebrations with both games.  Then Sixty Minutes had a thing on wild life.  They had great white sharks in the first segment.  Shen “Jaws” game out in 1975 there were far fewer great white sharks in Cape Cod or any place else.  The sharks have made a comeback thanks to conservation laws. Then it was a thing on wolves in Yellowstone.  Wolves were completely wiped out in the early 20^th century in the western United States.  About a hundred of them were reintroduced to Yellowstone in 1995 and they have a stable population and have organized themselves into ten packs.  Only the Alpha Male mates with the females.  I didn’t watch the third segment on animal photography.  I was getting my medication or something.  At eight it was NCIS on the CBS network.   I think “God Friended Me” has about bitten the dust.   I so enjoyed picking each episode apart.  

Wasting Time in the New Year

In the news the defense secretary denies that four embassies were targeted by Iran to attack.  Of course if a cabinet member disagrees with the president he runs an immediate risk of getting fired by Trump, as so many high officials have.   We have heard that Hillary was exhonorated by yet another investigative committee, that has not gotten attention in the press.  And we have the crisis of the Royals.   It seems they are having a big pow-wow today with Prince Charles and Prince William and Queen Elizabeth about this “family crisis” and whether Prince Harry will be stripped of his royal title of the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall or whatever it is.  Where do they come up with these titles?  Maybe from reading too many Harry Potter books.  You would think in this day and age in the 2020’s that a man would be free to earn his own money and that he and his wife would be free to live wherever they wanted to.   What is Prince Charles’ roll in all this, except it’s the first time his name has been in the headlines since Princess Dianna died over twenty years ago.   They had a lot of Nancy Pelosi on the internet yesterday telling of her strategy for waiting three weeks to submit impeachment charges to the Senate.  It appears it was a fruitless endeavor.  The only thing that came out of it was three weeks of negative headlines for the democrats.   We have some fifty year anniversaries.  “Come and Get It” was released as an Apple single yesterday fifty years ago by Badfinger.  The Jackson 5 has been around fifty years.  If Michael Jackson were still alive he’d be sixty.  He was ten years old when he got started.   Nobody ever heard of Chicago, the band till fifty years ago this month, or at least I hadn’t.   January 3^rd was the fiftieth anniversary of  the recording of “I Me Mine”, the last time the Beatles recorded together as a group.  In my personal life I’ve been putting off going to the dentist and I still haven’t gotten that haircut.  I have the cash for that now.   

If I've gotten one message from "God" over the past few weeks it's to never portray Jesus Christ as weak or in any way vulnerable or subject to human emotions that might inspire sympathy.  Scientology has a thing against "sympathy engrams" so you're not supposed to allow it to enter your mind what was going through Jesus' mind when he contemplated his own upcoming suffering on the cross for our sins.   The messages I've gotten from "God" have been rather devoid of anything you might call love or compassion.  All of them have been pragmatic and coldly analytical.   There has been a tendency to NOT identify with others but concentrate on yourself.  God says "Don't worry about how I treat others- - - I haven't treated you that way, have I?"   This idea that one should engage in the relentless pursuit of Truth is not an idea God is very fond of.  He prefers to just be believed.  And if you don't "just believe" you might up paying a price.  

Last night they announced the Bible study about twenty after five.  That was too early.  I needed to finish drinking my coffee and go out for another cigarette.  I watched part of the ABC network news but at a quarter to six they announced again that Norma’s Bible study was already under way.  I followed the singing and ended up in the wrong room.  I moved into the dining room when the singing stopped and Norma was not there.  Then Norma came in a few minutes to six.  She asked for prayers and there were very few.  She prayed a nice, all-inclusive prayer.  Her Bible study was a brief one.  It was on the first verses the second coming of Christ.  First we are saved from our original sin in the Garden of Eden.  This is the first resurrection.  Then “If we don’t hear our name called” to be resurrected then, we have to wait a thousand years where then our destiny will be in the Lake of Fire.  Then we had our fried chicken and I got a thy and a drum stick and two pieces of bread.  She came by with orange drink.  After eating the chicken I was still hungry.  That was OK because a few minutes later Cathy Larsen showed up at the door with a piece of chicken for Joe and another one for me.  I went for medication after that and also had a cheese sandwich.  The Tennessee Titans were beating the Baltimore Ravens at the start of the fourth quarter and I can only assume they won.  I had to watch with the sound off because of Joe’s edict.  I switched to “Major Crimes” and slept through part of this show.   The thing is when I do go to bed I sleep OK;  it’s just that I wake so darned early.

The score when I saw it was 28 to 12 GB Packers over the Sea Hawks.  That turned out to be the final score.  I’m glad Seattle got defeated.  I don’t like Seattle.   I watched the ABC network news and then I dozed off a little.  By the time I had the game on at six it was already the second half.  The game was over by a quarter after seven and they were showing cartoons on FOX.  “Bob’s Burger” is the most nauseating of all the cartoon shows they show on FOX.  I had up Yahoo Sports this morning and they broke the scoring down by quarter and Seattle had a spurt in the third quarter but it wasn’t enough.  They showed clips of the game.  Sixty Minutes had a thing on Venice sinking, which we are all familiar with.  They’d have done better to have a piece on the Austrailian fires.  They an area the size of West Virginia is in flames.   Then I got my medication and smoked.  That thing on the tennis star from Mayorka, Spain was boring and I don’t know why they had it.  It was a dud night.  I had “God Friended Me” on but I fell asleep, which is a bummer.  I was hoping to get material for blogging today.  

Second Thoughts

I've had second thoughts about my oppinion that Trump made the right move by killing Sulimani.  It seems maybe he was too high ranking of a figure for us to just "take out".  Apparently he is the equivilant of third in line in the government.  It's like killing the secretary of state.  Iraq has officially kicked all of the US troops out of Iraq despite the fact that 3,500 have just been added.  Trump says if Iraq objects to this then he’ll sanction them too just like he sanctioned Iran.  Iran of course announced that it won’t be abiding by the terms of the nuclear treating signed by Kerry in March of 2015.  And of course the people of Iran are more united than ever against the United States but are unified among themselves and now support the government there.  There is another reason why maybe the timing on this bombing was bad.  In the first place Trump is lying again about an imminent threat against Americans.  He has no eviedence for it.  He just made it up to make him look more justified.  But also Sulimani was carrying an letter to Saudi Arabia appealing for datente.  So it was in an act of peace making that he was bombed to death.  The timing on this seems a little wrong.  As you can clearly see there are a lot of reasons to have second thoughts on this whole thing.  Maybe there are good reasons why neither Bush or Obama went after him.  The Orion Federation has come out against the killing of Sulimani.   They are so reluctant to announce their positions on anything I’m surprised.   I haven’t heard how our action fares in international opinion.  Trump is going to bomb cultural and religious sites in Iran if Iran does anything to respond to the killing.  One site for every one of the 52 hostages in 1979.   I guess the US Senate is going to have a debate on all of this stuff tomorrow.   What I want to know is whose side is God on.  If Allah is really on Iran’s side I guess now is the time for him to prove it.  But God is on our side we don’t necessarily need to be right in our cause if God has declared us “right” by the fact that he allows us to continue to win our battles.  John Boulton has said he wants to testify at the impeachment hearing whenever it gets going.  Lindsay Graham is sponsoring a resolution that they don’t even need charges to deliver an acquittal or dismissal of the charges they don’t even have before them.  

The milenials are into astrology, which is making a come-back.  It's more from am emotional support and analysis point of view rather than any fortune telling thing.  As you know there have been no astrology predictions about Trump one way or the other.  I don't even know for sure what sign he is.  I think his birthday is in the summer time.  There are no indications from astrology whether Trump will win or lose the upcoming election.   Retrogradees of mercury were discussed.   These occur a couple of times a year and last for several weeks at a time.  So they aren't uncommon.  They are supposed to mess up people's communications.   Retrogrades always involve a westward motion.  But it's interesting if an echo of the sixties culture is coming back.   In my personal life things are jinxy right now.  Maybe it's an adverse time for me to be communicating.   

Is War With Iran in Our Future?

The answer to that question is a resounding "No", in my oppinion.  As you know for the past day or so we've heard about the death of noted Iranian terrorist Cassim Sulimani, or however you spell it.  He was taken out by a fleet of drones striking Baghdad international airport in the wee hours of this morning.  Unlike my democratic friends, I think his demise was the only appropriate response by the Trump administration to all of the stuff Iran has been doing to us.  He was a noted terrorist going back to the Bush administration, who had an oppertunity to kill him but passed it up.  The Obama administration decided to do nothing about him.  Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have all come out against the Trump action fearing an escalation of tensions with Iran.  But as the president said today "Our goal was to prevent a war with Iran and not start one".   Later on a convoy of Iranians was also taken out.  Thom Hartmann with two n's has come out on his radio program this morning saying that this action will guarentee a war with Iran for the next Democratic president taking office a year from now.  Admittedly Donald Trump  is like an insurance policy against war with Russia or any of its allies.  This protection will be gone next year and Russia and Iran may want to test the resolve of the next democratic president.  One caller even resurrected a forty year old Bible prophecy saying Russia and China would attack the US Israel and Saudi Arabia.  The caller saw the Shiites being on one side of the conflict and the Sunis being on the other.  I think the guy is full of horse manure myself.  I'm not worried about any war with Iran.  I've predicted war with Iran myself in past decades and I've been wrong.  I just don't see it in the cards.   I'm more worried about the economy the next democratic president will be facing.  They say that the Federal Reserve has been propping up the banks till now but when a democrat gets into power they're going to yank the rug out from under him and he will face a major economic recession almost immediately.  As to the price of oil, I'm not worried about that.  World conditions are very different from what they were forty years ago.  There will be no major spikes in oil prices because no Mideastern country has the power to do that now.  The United States has become a major exporter of oil.  Also because of all the hydrolic fracturing we have done to get natural gas, we have that fuel to lean on- - not to mention all of the wind and solar power that is online now.  Also cars are much more efficient and other energy saving measures have been put into place.

It was just over a year ago when we reissued the compilation "One Person Plus the Truth Equals a Majority".  This is a year ago Cosmic Tides.  Unfortunately the Federation is no longer as vocal in support of this album as it was then.  Elizabeth Warren's star appears to be on the decline.  The fact is that women and minorities appear still in this year to be at a distinct disadvantage.  It's unlikely that Joe Biden will pick Warren as his Vice President.  Perhaps Budajudge will if he gets in.  And I know that's not how you spell it.  So sue me.  It's still possible in this day and age that we may still see two white, straight, men against two white, straight men.  I don't think the year of the woman is going that well.  I think Camile Harris deserves a shot at something.  Her withdrawal from the campaign came all too soon.  I still think she has a lot to contribute to any ticket. 

Are Liberals Just Losers?

In the news on this Friday January 3, 2020 we have the Iraq embassy crisis.  We quelled the disturbance of the Iranian insergents that were trying to take over and cause another forced withdrawal of the embassy like Bengazi, but tensions are still mounting and now we have bombed Iranians in  Baghdad and a high Iranian official was killed.  But so far Trump has shown leadership so I don’t fault him.  In other news we have the vaping situation.  The Trump administration has banned all fruity flavors of E cigarettes including mint.  The only ones allowable now are menthol and regular tobacco.  I don’t think this is an area where the federal government should be getting involved.  It’s better left up to localities.  I’m kind of a fan of  the free market and public service announcements.  If I were president I would not declare war on the vaping industry.  Still there are those who say the Trump administration  has not gone far enough.  You can’t please everybody.  In the end you sometimes end up pleasing nobody.  We have the fire situation in New South Wales in southeast Austrailia, which has been bad for weeks if not months with a raging inferno down there and people evacuating to boats in the water and temperatures in the forties, and that’s forty degrees celcius.   We have the mountain lion saga called the mystery of the poop patrol.  I didn’t know they regularly examined  the poop of mountain lions to see if they have eaten any human flesh but apparently they do.  They found out that a mother and two of her cubs dined on human flesh the other day and since once you develop a taste for human flesh you’ll kill again, the solution is to track down these three mountain lions and kill them dead.   I happened to think what if the Christian church did that.  “Once you have tasted Truth you develop a taste for it and won’t be satisfied with a lie anymore and so have to be hunted down and exterminated”.   Finally we have the story that Julian Castro has withdrawn from the Democratic Presidential race.  This is a sad thing.  There seems to be an ongoing purge of minority races in the Democratic presidential race.  You’ve been the withdrawal of Camille Harris and Cory Booker and now you have a third minority to withdraw.  If there was a derth of minorities before in the twenty or  so presidential candidates, now you don’t have any.  Pretty soon it’s all going to be white males.  Elizabeth Warren is lagging in the polls and the concencus opinion seems to be that voters have a prejudice against women.

Are liberals just losers?  The conservatives have defined the terms of this elections.  Nancy Pelosi is now the bad guy because she won’t allow a final vote on impeachment by the US Senate despite the fact that they’ve been on vacation and weren’t scheduled to take up the matter for a few days anyhow.  Like we have said before, President Trump is content never to rise above 45% in the polls, if that because “He’s been able to get the things he wants done without a majority”.  And he’ll run and win again this election never having reached a majority in the popularity polls.  This is a new era.  In the old days a president was said to be in real trouble of his approval numbers dipped below fifty percent.  Not any more.   It’s funny how  it’s said the media is left wing and yet Trump has no trouble getting his “Message” out there.  It never stops, like North Korean propaganda.  We are pelted with it day and night.  There seems to be some overriding Force out there like God Almighty insuring that Trump will continue to be president for another four years, if not longer.  Both Clinton and Obama would have won third terms if they were allowed to run.   Some of you might say that Jesus was the ultimate under-dog and yet he arose victorious.  I would say that Death was a good carrerr move for Jesus.  Once the Church was through with the live Jesus, they killed him because a dead Jesus was safer to preach than a live one, that might have been in danger of messing up their  theology.  Of course every now and then someone talks about the “Real Jesus”.   Nobody seems to want to know about the Real Trump so why would they care about the real Jesus.  Tassitus spoke of Jesus as running afowl of the Roman Empire.  He also speaks of the next sighting of Christianity was in Rome – which hated the  government and the government hated them too.  There was no Church littergy in Tassitus view of Christianity.  There was no Big Brother church.  There was certainly no Apostie Paul with his many epistles with their rules and regulations in Tassitus view of how Christianity was in the first century.  But God Almighty seems to have decreed that we need an overriding Big Brother where Church and State are merged as one.  (Selah)    

Joel Olsteen’s crowd promises you either fortune or fame

Just when you think you’ve got it now they’re playing a different game

If you’re looking to get saved you better go back from where you came

Because the Church doesn’t need you and man they expect the same

We trans-morphed these song lyrics into what we want them to say.  This is after two thirty on Sunday December 29, 2019 and I posted earlier today.  We are in halftime as the Raiders are playing the Broncos in Denver.  If the Raiders won and a bunch of other stuff happens like Tennessee losing then the Raiders make the play-offs, something neither the Rams nor the Chargers were able to do this year.  They still have time in the first half.  I was just picking on Joel Olsteen because he’s popular and a convienient target.   I was just reading in “Rocca Rolla” from last winter.   You have the reissues of “A Lover’s Question” and also “Rock and Roll Rewind” in case you are curious.  “The 2018 Christmas Album” is listed in “Cosmic Tides” where I’m posting now.   They’ve had it a lot warmer in here the past few nights.  Yesterday I shaved at about quarter after three because there was a lull in the songs.  After dinner I went to the store and bought a pack of crumb donuts and strawberry Clippers.  But I want to check my bank balance before spending money today.  Yesterday I felt altogether healthier than I do today.  Yesterday I sat next to Gene, who has been sick.  There are people saying “Everybody is sick around here”.  I haven’t noticed as much coughing as I have in previous years.

This morning they were doing “Famous Lasts” on Breakfast with the Beatles.  I didn’t make the connection for a lot of songs.   A guy just inspected our bathroom because he says the room directly below us had water dripping from the ceiling.  The weather is a little warmer today.  For lunch we had a chicken and broccoli casserole and white rice.   We had red Jell-O for dessert.  The Raiders are moving to Las Vegas next year and the Rams and Chargers are moving into their new stadium in Inglewood.  In the early game the Lions played Green Bay on FOX and Kansas City defeated the LA Chargers.  Since Miami beat New England then Kansas City gets to host a play-off game two weeks from today and they get next week off.