Cheney Booed at Yankees Game

I wasn't surprised when I first read this article, because I thought that Cheney was being booed for wearing a Yankee hat in Boston. But I was wrong; the Game was in New York. Things are certainly not going very well if you are Vice President and sitting in a hometown stadium with the hometown colors and you get booed. We know New York doesn't like him. And certainly New England doesn't like him after wearing the Yankees hat. Actually, who outside of New York actually likes the Yankees?

link


How long will it take for the rest of America to catch on?

47% say Bush is Doing a Poor Job in Iraq

Rasmussen Reports latest Iraq attitude poll is interesting if you compare it to last week. Last week 22% of the people polled said that Bush was doing an Excellent job in Iraq. I don’t know who these people are, but they must be sitting in from of cable TV watching old movies, because that number has not changed this week. However, Last week 15% of the people polled said Bush was doing a fair job in Iraq. This week that number fell to 12% and number of people saying Bush was doing Good fell a point. These people moved into the “Bush is doing a poor job” category, which is now up to 47%. This just illustrates the polarization that Bush hath wrought on this country. The compassionate conservative who told us that he would unite not divide the country has done the opposite. I sure hope that he doesn’t tell us he is going to make the country safe, because surely the opposite will come true.


link

West Texas Metaphor

One cultural phenomenon in West Texas is the metaphor. The metaphor allows one to get an emotional point across by painting a picture with a few words. And, for some reason, West Texas seems to be the home of the American metaphor. It's funny how our president from West Texas didn't really pick up on this form of communication. I don't know if it is because isn't really from West Texas, he just moved there or because he takes after his father and he doesn't really have the vision thing. What I really think it is, is that he has speech writers that aren't from West Texas.

I thought that since it is such a colorful mood of communication I should try to use metaphors in my own writing. I don't know how easy it is to come up with new metaphors, because I haven't really tried. And, I always wondered if those guys out in West Texas just re-use metaphors, or if they think them up on the fly.

It is so amazing to me that Bush is a puppet in the hands of the Republicans that know what they want. Cheney leads Bush around like an Iraqi prisoner on a leash.

So, there you have it, my first metaphor that I have created on my own. It's copyrighted as all my material on this web site, but out of generosity feel free to use it as you wish.

The All-Volunteer Army is Over

The army is now calling up retired or discharged soldiers. The draft isn't far behind.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml" title="http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml" target="_blank"http://www.reuters.com/newsAr...;jsessionid=BYIZHX00IYWXE CRBAEZSFEY?type=domesticN ews&storyID=5546191

Bush the Goofus

Is the image of Bush the Goofus making him more appealing to his constituents? The redneck southerner drinking a beer and thinking, “hey Bush is the kinda church-goin’ guy I can relate to.” When the left rails on Bush for being an uneducated idiot the right wing applauds him louder. When the left says he has made horrible mistakes the right says so-what, he’s human. Is this the goal of the Republican Party. Present Bush as an idiot to appeal to the Idiots on the right who don’t know any better. Are we all playing into the Right wing hand?

If you remember how Hitler appealed to the working man by giving speeches in Beer Halls and appealing to the baser needs. Hitler did the same thing. Hitler managed to use the idiots in Germany to elect him as Chancellor. This was the first step in massing power.

Don’t be frightened, but maybe Bush is even more evil than we thought.

How can America deal with the cultural divide?

I would say that many things are part of culture. Tradition is culture passed down through families and organizations. Hate is taught to children through culture. Passion is demonstrated by example through culture. Religion and National Heritage are also a major part of the equation.

So, if you describe yourself in terms of these things you are describing your culture and how you fit into modern society. Groups from different cultures often disagree with each other. Different cultures value different things. For example, if you identify yourself as an Irish American Catholic you will know about certain aspects of life based on this culture. You would be aware of Celtic music and dance. You may have strong feelings about the British. And, you most likely value story telling and language to a very high degree. None of these things are bad. But if your wife is an Italian American Catholic you may find some issues in which you strongly differ with each other. One may be the value of educating women. Another may be your parents’ attitude about your marriage. These are major issues compared to the rather simple questions of which traditions should be passed down to the children.

These cultures all exist in the United States today. However, a large group of conservatives have told us that we are currently fighting a “culture war.” So, if all these different cultures exist what is the “Culture War” that the right wing is talking about?

The right wing as a group has an idea of culture. There are reasons they use to defend their idea of culture, but if they were to try to define culture and write it down they wouldn’t agree on to many things. I believe that they would claim “Old Fashion Tradition” as the traditional aspect of this culture. One important aspect of “Old Fashion Tradition” is religion, by which they mean conservative Christian. By language they mean English. By values they mean northwestern European. But not everyone living in the United States share this culture. The liberals on the other hand suggest that everyone needs to live their own culture and be tolerant of other cultures. This is the concept of multiculturalism. But living in a multicultural society is not that easy. Especially when you are trying to teach your children to follow your cultural ideology when the others are following their own culture.

I have heard people say, lets just do away with culture. Put it in a box and live without culture. But, we can not put it in a box, because culture is who we are. Instead, people need to realize what culture is in the context of those around us. Different people view the world through their own culture. If people don't accept that others have their own culture there will always be conflict.

Culture also makes the society run smoothly, or not so smoothly. For example, is chitchat and gossip at the post office acceptable? The people in line could either accept the slow line as a matter of course, or fly off in a rage because of the lack of efficiency. This is one of many cultural norms that we need to live with. Democracy itself is a cultural norm. Voting and being an educated voter are things that are changing in our current society. But, as many countries know you can’t legislate culture. The French have been trying to control French culture for years, but English words and English Rock songs have slipped through the cultural boundary.

The solution may be the same solution that was used for the dictionary. We should simply agree to describe current culture and all its nuances instead of prescribing what culture needs to be. In this way people can know what to expect when you are in West Texas or Maine. You can know how to behave and what is unacceptable. As things change, the cultural review would be rewritten. Oh, I guess that’s why we have different laws all over the country (and world).

Wearing Dead Things

I re-read my Rodeo story, and I realized that I had left out the political part of the story. It was a rodeo after all, so the whole family decided to dress the part. I had some western wear left over from my days in Texas. I had cowboy boots paid for by the US government. I had a western cut shirt and jeans. And, of course I had my name belt.

My wife and kids also had western wear that hadn’t been worn since our last trip to Texas. The kids became interested in the stuff they hadn’t seen in so long. When they asked me about my belt buckle I told them that it was made from Sea Turtle. “Ewe, yuck!” the kids said. Why did you buy that? I told them that I didn’t buy it. Your mom bought it for me as a present. “Ewe, Mom how could you buy that for Dad?” My wife answered by saying that she bought it back when she was a Republican and she didn’t know any better.

“Ewe, Mom, you were a Republican?”

Compassionate Conservative Mode

George W Bush has begun calling himself the Compassionate Conservative once again just in time for the election. Almost 4 years ago after he stole the election George W Bush tried to put a pretty face on this idea. He tried to reach across party lines to Liberal Christians in a show of unification. But that was all it was, a “show.”

Now some of the Liberal Christians who were had a bill of goods back in 2001 are speaking out about Bush’s non-support for them. You can read one account here:

http://www.cleveland.com/politics/index.ssf?/base/news/1088415062 31641.xml" title="http://www.cleveland.com/politics/index.ssf?/base/news/1088415062 31641.xml" target="_blank"http://www.cleveland.com/poli...

It looks like Bush is a do nothing on this domestic policy. It’s a wonder that he has any credibility at all.

Republicans Don’t Like Freedom of Speech

Apparently Republicans who claimed that they didn’t care about Michael Moore’s new film Fahrenheit 9/11 are now caring about the commercials for it. The film describes how George W Bush deceived the people of the United States and continues to deceive us to this day. George W Bush has every day 24 hours a day to tell us what he is doing and he continues to lie until he is found out. Now the commercials for the movie take pieces out of the film that portray the president is natural light, the way he really is. Republicans have now claimed that the ads for this movie should be considered political ads.

I think that Republicans need to look at themselves. They are the party of free enterprise. If they what an honest man to run for president they still have time before the election to select one. If they want to film a documentary about the president doing something good, then they should have the president do something good and film him doing it. They have tried this for three years, and he has been caught in his lies. Hopefully Americans will see the truth before it is to late.

Here’s a link to the article I am referring to.

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascitystar/ne ws/politics/9020972.htm" title="http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascitystar/ne ws/politics/9020972.htm" target="_blank"http://www.kansascity.com/mld...

You say Ro-dee-o I say Ro-day-o

I took the kids and the wife to one of the Republican bastions of California, the rodeo. Cowboys from all over California were there. They did manly things in manly ways. They rode horses and chased cattle and sold rodeo stuff. But, I was surprised to see that there were young adults and kids competing in some events. And, there were women competing against men in some of the riding events.

The rodeo is a three-day festival, and we only went for Saturday, the middle day of the three. Some events were only one-day events, and some, like Bull Riding, are three-day events. Some of the events are much like the county fair, they show off their horse, or the saddle. Other events are pure speed events, like a horse race. I will describe some of the more interesting and unfamiliar events.

Most people know about Bronco and Bull riding; they seem to be the stereotypical representation of the Rodeo. The mainstays of the rodeo are: people falling off bulls and getting trampled or crushed, people breaking their arms because they were twisted in the ropes and people getting thrown. However, have you heard of these events?

Cattle Sorting – This is an event where two people on horses need to sort cattle in the order requested by the judges. Ten bovines are numbered with signs from 0-9. The judge will give the team three numbers and the two cowboys (or cowgirls) need to sort them. This is much more difficult than it sounds. Suppose the three bovine required are 1, 2, 3. The cattle tend to stick together. So, one cowboy tries to find the first one and separate it from the pack. However, once you separate one from the herd the rest want to follow. Ideally the three you want run together to the place you want them to go. This was so hard that out of the ten teams we watched only two actually were able to do it. The stands cheered when those two teams succeeded.

Wild Cow Milking – This was my favorite. A wild cow was set out into the arena. One cowboy ropes the cow. The second cowboy grabs the rope and tries to control the cow. The roper jumps off the horse and takes a bottle to the udder of the cow and tries to get some milk into the bottle. Once he has achieved the milk in the bottle he runs to the finish line where the judge determines if there was enough milk in the bottle. Assuming all the requirements are met the fastest cowboy wins.

Cow Hide Racing – This is a simple race where a horse pulls a cowhide with someone riding on it. All I can tell you is that the rider's knuckles must be bleeding when they finish.

The Wild Horse Race – This is just as the name describes. Several teams of three each attempt to take a wild mustang, saddle it, mount it and ride it around a barrel.

Going to the rodeo is one way that I am reaching out to the conservatives who were the majority of the rodeo participants.

Joseph C. Wilson

Joseph C. Wilson was the brave American Patriot who exposed the deception of the Bush administration. In an act of revenge the Bush administration leaked the name of his wife and exposed her as an undercover operative. Obviously this was treason, and someone in the Bush administration was responsible. There were only eight to ten people who had this information, and the others in the administration are shielding this traitor.

Listen to this American describe what happened in his own words:

link

Yesterday, the Bush-Cheney campaign, losing any last sense of decency, placed a disgusting ad called "The Faces of John Kerry's Democratic Party" as the main feature on its website. Bizarrely, and without explanation, the ad places Adolf Hitler among those faces.

What would Bush's minions be saying if Kerry had done the same thing? Remember the outcry when MoveOn had a Hitler ad earlier this year?

What ever happened to Bush’s weekly TV address?

About six weeks ago Bush’s minions said that he would address the nation every week for six weeks until Iraq was handed back to the Iraqis. What ever happened to that? The first one was broadcast on NPR, but not on TV, except CNN and Fox News. Then what happened? Anyone know?

Split in the Republican Party

Here’s a link to this news story: link

This is more than just the rejection of a spending plan. This shows that the Republican Party has become split over some issues. This was the party of “tow the party line” politics. Republicans never felt comfortable voting against the party leaders, because it meant a lack of support at election time. The Republican Party holds a grudge when it comes to voting record.

Well, Republican politicians are now faced with falling in line with the president and following him to defeat in November, or unhitching their wagon from him and venturing off on their own. Finally a few Republicans (~50) have decided that common sense is better than following the Bush clan off the cliff.

If Dick Cheney blurted out the F-word on the Senate floor as reported wouldn't it have been on C-Span? If so, under the newly passed law I believe Cheney should be fined $500,000.00 for uttering this expletive.

The FCC needs to investigate this.

Response to “Attack on Christmas”

This is just not right. Why should someone attack such a wonderful holiday? After all, who can argue about a holiday that you get all these great presents and stuff. If there is one great holiday, then it must be Christmas.

Oh, I just re-read the post title. It says, “Attack on Christians.”

Sorry.

In the spirit of Rosana Rosanadana: Never mind.

Why are Conservatives and Liberals the way they are?

Conservatives don't want change. They are afraid of change. Some moderate conservatives wouldn't mind some very small change if you can prove to them that it won't make two big of a difference in their lives.

Liberals are for change. How much change and how quickly is the question.

The political spectrum in the US is more conservative than most countries besides Japan and Middle Eastern countries. This is because religion is full of old rules that the religious conservatives don't want to change. They are afraid God would come down and smite them if they change the rules.

By the way, the current rules help the top 1% of the rich and wealthy. Conservatives are afraid that changing the rules might cost them money as well...

Anyway the only thing that is constant is change!

Bush Slings Mud

This doesn't sound very presidential. Bush has really got in to the mud slinging here. Let's just call the Democrats generic names. I am surprised, he usually leaves this to his minions.

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I thought that Cheney was a born again Christian. A good Christian shouldn't be using the f-word. He shouldn't even know what it means.... :-)

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyI D=5509471" title="http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyI D=5509471" target="_blank"http://www.reuters.com/newsAr...

I think that the Fundamentalist Christian Republicans who didn't want to support the Family Leave act should read the Bible. Every man should be entitled to one year off work to please his wife.

Deuteronomy 24

5 If a man has recently married, he must not be sent to war or have any other duty laid on him. For one year he is to be free to stay at home and bring happiness to the wife he has married.

Never Re-Marry Your Wife

I didn’t know this. If you divorce your wife you are not allowed to re-marry her. I guess that’s just good family values.

Deuteronomy 24
1 If a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house,
2 and if after she leaves his house she becomes the wife of another man,
3 and her second husband dislikes her and writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, or if he dies,
4 then her first husband, who divorced her, is not allowed to marry her again after she has been defiled. That would be detestable in the eyes of the LORD . Do not bring sin upon the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.

Was David a Good Guy or a Bad Guy?

I was just browsing the Bible when I found the following passage.

Samuel 18: 24-27

24 When Saul's servants told him what David had said,
25 Saul replied, "Say to David, 'The king wants no other price for the bride than a hundred Philistine foreskins, to take revenge on his enemies.' " Saul's plan was to have David fall by the hands of the Philistines.
26 When the attendants told David these things, he was pleased to become the king's son-in-law. So before the allotted time elapsed,
27 David and his men went out and killed two hundred Philistines. He brought their foreskins and presented the full number to the king so that he might become the king's son-in-law. Then Saul gave him his daughter Michal in marriage.


I began to think about this. David is supposedly one of God’s special guys. Saul was also supposedly a good guy. This whole arrangement just seemed so disgusting to me. Purchasing a bride with the foreskins of the enemy. Now we have people in the White House who think that this is a good idea. How long will it be before Bush sells one of his daughters in reward for a terrorists head?

I Am Voting For You

Fifty percent of eligible American voters don't vote. So, the way I look at it is that since I do vote my vote counts for two. I'm voting for one other person and me. So, if there is someone out there who doesn't vote, then I'm voting for you. If you don't like that, then vote for yourself and one other person like I do.

Of course I am hoping that you want to vote the same way I do then we will have more people to vote Bush out of office. But, if you don’t want to vote the way I do, then that’s OK too. It’s the American way.

Companies May be Under Reporting Pollution

Imagine that, companies may be under reporting how much pollution they are generating. So, the EPA requires companies to file paperwork stating how much pollution they generate. This year there is a 5% increase in the amount of pollution reported. Let me get this straight, they increase reporting how much they are generating and no one doubts that it might be more.

Fortunately there is an independent group that goes around and tries to keep these companies honest. And, what did they find. They found that companies are polluting 4 times more than they claim on their report. Of course, they didn’t measure every company, but the ones they measured in Houston, Texas polluted 400 percent more than they reported.

http://www.courier-journal.co...

How Many People Are Going to be Suckered in This Time?

George W Bush used the description “Compassionate Conservative” in order to win the 2000 presidential election. But, this was a misnomer. George W Bush was not compassionate when he gave money to the wealthiest 1% in the form of tax cuts, half of which were on taxes on dividends from stocks. How many people had a burden trying to pay taxes on dividends? A typical monthly dividend on one million dollars is around $500.00, or a yearly income of $6,000.00. Obviously the taxes on this under the old tax scheme was less than $2000.00, and now it is less than $1000.00. Don’t you think that a millionaire can afford $1000.00 on money invested in the stock market? Obviously those with more money in the market are going to be effected more. The sons and daughters of the wealthy living on trust funds that the never earned any of the money are those who are effected the most. Shouldn’t we encourage these people to earn their money instead of encouraging them to sit on their assets.

Now, George W Bush is going around the country telling people he cares about them. He is telling them that he has ideas for health care. This is a joke. If he cared he would have worked for health care while he was in office. Why should we give him another four years to squander again?

Here are a few facts about Cheney and Halliburton including sources for those in doubt.

Vice President Dick Cheney was Halliburton's CEO from 1995-2000. In addition to providing him with a massive salary and bonus for just eight months of work in 2000, Halliburton's board of directors voted to give Cheney a $20 million retirement package when he resigned. Following his departure from Halliburton, Cheney retained possession of 433,333 options of Halliburton stock. [Washington Post, 9/26/03; Richard B. Cheney Personal Financial Disclosure, May 15, 2002; May 15, 2003; New York Times, 8/12/00; LA Times, 7/24/00; AP, 7/18/02]

For months, Cheney denied any involvement in Halliburton contracts. On "Meet the Press," he even said "...I have absolutely no influence of, involvement of, knowledge of in any way, shape or form of contracts..." [NBC News, "Meet the Press", 9/14/03]

Time Magazine recently reported on a smoking gun email between the Department of Defense and the Vice President's office showing that Cheney's office "coordinated" a multi-billion dollar, no-bid government contract for Halliburton, his former employer. [Time, 5/30/04]

As an example of overspending, Halliburton billed the government for 36 percent more meals than were served. In all, Halliburton charged $186 million for meals that were never delivered. [Detroit Free Press, 6/16/04]

A Halliburton subsidiary was criticized for abandoning numerous $85,000 trucks with flat tires, housing company officials in a five-star Kuwaiti hotel, raising prices for gasoline deliveries in Iraq and ordering empty trucks to crisscross the country to run up the gas bills. [Detroit Free Press, 6/16/04]

If my last mp3 file post worked, then listen to this one.

Terry Gross from NPRs fresh air interviewed Gene Simmons of the band Kiss. The mp3 here is the last question she asked him. The whole interview is to large to post.

So, right click on this link and download it.

http://www.geocities.com/mforbush/TerryGrossin terviewsGeneSimmons-Last.mp3" title="http://www.geocities.com/mforbush/TerryGrossin terviewsGeneSimmons-Last.mp3" target="_blank"http://www.geocities.com/mfor...

OK, here's my first attempt to post an mp3 file on my geocities web page. This is an audio of Rush Limbaugh telling us that the Abu Ghraib prison torture was just a fraternity prank.

http://www.geocities.com/mforbush/limbaugh-200 40504.mp3" title="http://www.geocities.com/mforbush/limbaugh-200 40504.mp3" target="_blank"http://www.geocities.com/mfor...

It looks like you can download it by right clicking on the link and clicking on save target. Try it and let me know.

The Anti-Science Bush Administration

George W. Bush continues to do a disservice to the American tradition of scientific discovery by his Christian Fundamentalist ban on stem cell research. John Forbes Kerry has met with 48 Nobel laureates and drafted a 38 page document describing the administration of "manipulation, suppression and misrepresentation of science" on issues like biotechnology, global warming and nuclear power.

The story is here: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/0...

I don’t think this is any surprise to most people who follow the news, but I hope people who haven’t been, or are just beginning to follow the news see this man for what he is. He uses his Fundamentalist Christian ideology to effect the science policy of the United States.

Republican Science is "practical science."

Unfortunately major scientific discoveries have never been foreseen. In the 1980s the Republicans managed to kill the Superconducting Supercollider in Texas even though many Republicans from Texas tried to convince Bush I to continue funding it. In the end scientists couldn’t justify building it, because they didn’t know what they would find. The whole point of this experiment was to explore the unknown. Since the fundamentalists believed God created everything 5000 years ago there wasn’t anything to learn about the creation of the universe. Instead, Europe will be exploring the same science and may shortly have some major discoveries to add to their acclaim.

Republicans under the control of Christian Fundamentalists are well on their way to destroying the American scientific prestige established by many great European scientists that immigrated to the United States in the last century.

Draft Bruce

What do you think about having Bruce give an anti-Bush concert in Newark , NJ during the Republican Convention? If you like the idea then click here:

http://www.draftbruce.com/" title="http://www.draftbruce.com/" target="_blank"http://www.draftbruce.com/

It seems that Rumsfeld had secret connections with Iraq that go way back. Here is the evidence:


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Rumsfeld must be working for the enemy.

Cheney Doesn’t Know What He Knows

So, Cheney may or may not have information that he may or may not have turned over to the 9/11 commission.

The following is from the Village Voice: http://www.villagevoice.com/i...

Cheney, the administration's leading war hawk, has been the most vociferous promulgator of the Iraq-Al Qaeda connection, touting it repeatedly in speeches and interviews on national television. He went on television after the latest 9-11 Commission reports, saying, "There clearly was a relationship. . . . The evidence is overwhelming." He called the press "irresponsible" for suggesting a disparity between the White House position and the commission's findings.

Asked by a TV interviewer if he was privy to information about Iraq's links to Al Qaeda that the 9-11 Commission did not have, Cheney replied, "Probably." This led the heads of the commission to say to Cheney politely, through the press, that it would be nice if the vice president would come forward with any new information he has.

Chairman Kean, a former New Jersey governor, said he was surprised by Cheney's remark and would be "very disappointed" if the White House had held back information about Al Qaeda. His vice chairman, Lee Hamilton, a former Democratic congressman admired for his foreign affairs expertise, said, "It sounds like the White House has evidence that we didn't have. I would like to see the evidence that Mr. Cheney is talking about." As of this writing, there's been no indication that Cheney has sent the commission new information.

------------------------- ------------------------- ------------

How can the American people not see the wool being pulled over their eyes? How does Cheney retain any credibility at all? Why do the reporters just leave these things unanswered? When will America wake up?

Electoral Votes

As the election gets closer more emphasis is going to be placed on electoral votes. As most people know, it doesn’t matter how much the country goes for Bush, California and New York are going to go for Kerry. It doesn’t matter how much the country goes for Kerry, Texas and Georgia are going to go for Bush.

I have found two web sites that have accumulated state by state data that is then being used to predict the electoral picture of the 2004 election. Both sites will show you which states Bush won in 2000 and the ones he is leading in 2004.

Electoral Votes are distributed based on the population distribution of the country. They are based roughly on the number of senators and representatives each state has. The District of Columbia also has electoral votes, even though they don't have senators or a representative.

The distribution of electoral votes has changed from 2000 because of migration in the United States. People have been moving from the North East Industrial areas to the Southern and Western Sun Belt for many years now. The net result of this migration is that Bush states have gained electoral votes, if you just look at the states that Bush won in 2000. Those states now have 9 additional electoral votes and Kerry states have 9 less. Florida with 27 electoral votes would still make the difference.

Look at these web sites:

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/Electoral" title="http://www.rasmussenreports.com/Electoral" target="_blank"http://www.rasmussenreports.c...%20College%20Table.htm

http://www.electionprojection.com/elections2004.html" title="http://www.electionprojection.com/elections2004.html" target="_blank"http://www.electionprojection...

Why Should Any Christian Religion Be the Correct Religion?

The different Christian Religions interpret the Bible in different ways. Compare the rules for Unitarians, Catholics, Southern Baptists and Pentecostals and you find a wide variety of interpretations. There are many more Christian religions with many different ideas. Look at these particular issues: Communion, Baptism, Confession, divorce and marriage. There are so many different stands of the issues. Look at prayer, religious images, song, evangelization, ritual and grace. Remember that only one man, Jesus brought us the Christian teachings and there are many different opinions on these issues.

Now, look at the Jewish tradition. There were certain traditions carried over to the Christian sect of Judaism. Some bits and pieces were thrown away. Jesus didn’t make the decision as to what should be thrown away, so who’s to say that these were the right things to throw away. Remember, God told the Jews what laws to follow back in ancient times. Christians began the tradition of not eating meat on Fridays. Christians threw away the idea of pork being unclean meat. Christians threw away kosher tradition. Christians threw away circumcision.

Even Fundamentalists interpret the Bible the way they want, because they need to decide which of the contradictions is the one to follow. If not, why don’t fundamentalists cut their hair the way Hasidic Jews do? Why isn’t the bride’s head shaved like it says in the Bible? Someone decided that that wasn’t important any more.

Changing People’s Minds (Part II)

The War on Terror is about changing people’s minds. The only way to change a person’s attitude is to change their culture. So, how can America change Middle East culture? I am not exactly sure, but I know force is not the answer.

Look at the American South after the Civil War. The North used force to get their point across. During reconstruction the North sent carpetbaggers to take over the government and teach the Southerners how to be Northerners. Did it work? No, the South continued to work against the North. Segregation came back and Southerners had slavery in a more subtle way. Black sharecroppers may have been placed in an even worse position than they had under slavery. Poll taxes prevented the poor blacks from voting. Southerners ounce again controlled the economics and politics of the South.

Do you think that Iraq is any different? Why and How?

The new governing council and new government in Iraq is like the Southern Governments after the American Civil War. Eventually the people with power will manipulate the system and regain power. Or, worse another extremist group will take over.

Unless the culture of the ruling class becomes conducive to Democracy it will not last.

Changing People’s Minds

This morning while I was listening to NPR the commentator was describing the results of the latest NPR election 2004 poll. The interesting thing about this poll did not have to do with who people liked for president, although that was presented. The interesting parts were the questions aimed at finding swing voters. People identified themselves as swing voters if they said that it would take much for them to change their minds. Seventeen percent of likely voters were identified as swing voters. The rest of those surveyed had their minds made up and they were not likely to change their minds.

However, when the swing voters were asked specific questions as to what would make them change their minds they often said: “more information.” This survey was set up in such a way that the pollster would give the person the information that they sought from speeches that the two candidates have given. In this way the “more information” problem was resolved. What was found by doing this was that most of the so-called swing voters were still locked into their original choice even with the additional information.

So, it turns out that voter turnout will be the predominate force in the 2004 election. If there is a high voter turnout Kerry is likely to win. If there is a low voter turnout Bush is likely to win. This is because conservatives are conservative. That means they are creatures of habit and most likely to vote no matter what. Issues and emotions on the other hand motivate Liberals. They vote when there are major issues and emotions are running high. Based on the current state of the US Kerry has a very good chance in November.

Who Does God Talk To?

Depending on your religion you may believe that God has spoken to various people. Jews and Christians believe that God spoke to Abraham, Moses and many other prophets. Christians believe God knocked St. Paul off of his horse. Moslems believe that God spoke to Mohammed. Mormons believe that God spoke to Joseph Smith Jr. Even in modern times many people claim to have heard messages from God. Jim Jones took his followers to Guyana because God told him to. David Koresh told his followers how God was speaking to him.

Now, most of us have cultural influences that tell us which of the above stories we take as truth and which of these stories we call nonsense. The truth is that know one was privy to any of these conversations, so know one can know which of these stories is true or false. So, when George W. Bush claims that he feels it in his bones that God wants him to invade Iraq he is acting on what he believes is communication with God. When suicide bombers believe that they are doing God’s will they believe that they are communicating with God. No one will be able to change their minds by killing their fellow Muslims. No one is going to change George Bush’s mind by showing him how much danger he has put our country in. They all think that God has called them and logic plays no roll.

Camping

I spent the weekend camping with my kids. It wasn’t an intentional Father’s day camping trip. Instead it was a 4-H club camping trip. Yes, Dr. Forbush, the liberal, is involved in the conservative 4-H group. But there are liberal 4-Hers. Take the Dixie Chicks for instance. But, I do have to admit that if we split up into liberals and conservatives at a 4-H activity I may be standing in the corner by myself more times than not.

This was going to be a family camping trip, but my wife managed to find a reason not to go. She doesn’t really care for camping, so this gave her a couple of days to take a breather from the kids.

However, this weekend I took the kids camping. We packed up the car when I got home from work and we managed to get to the campground just before sunset. We had the tent set just as the darkness fell over the campground, and we cooked our dinner by lantern. This sounds like roughing it, but the campground that we were at was anything but roughing it. They have a swimming pool, miniature golf course, Ping-Pong tables, craft center, library, cafeteria, general store, four playgrounds, and an adult center. This is not the camping that I remember when I was growing up. The campground consisted of nearly 90% RVs and trailers. Most of these people are retirement age people who live out of their RVs and travel around the country. Most of the RVs have satellite dishes set up in front of or on top of their RV. The place reminded me of a trailer park with wheels.

So, Saturday we woke up and went on a hike. The place we were staying at is called Thousand Trails, so the kids expected to do a lot of hiking. But, this particular Thousand Trails only has one trail that goes around the boundary of the campground. I expect that the other 999 trails are spread out over the other Thousand Trails campgrounds throughout the country.

After hiking we went to the swimming pool for an hour. We left when everyone had turned a lovely shade of blue. By this time the kids were hungry. Since we had done this before we were prepared with nonperishable lunch back at the campsite. We had fruit, vegetables, crackers, sandwiches, pickles and a few other snack foods. After lunch we played Ping-Pong and Putt-Putt.

Being the semi-camping trip that it was we all got in the car and went to Saturday evening church, and then went back to the campground. This whole weekend seemed to be a clash of cultures. Roughing it with Swimming and Ping-Pong. Leaving and returning with ease- from the wilderness to the city and back. Seeing all the people “camping” in their RVs with satellite TV.

Of course the 4-H part of the camping trip culminated in the Saturday night picnic meeting. The kids all played baseball, which was a good change of pace. The baseball game in the field brought back memories of my youth and all the softball games we played in the summertime. That memory was shattered when my son came dragging off the field with an injury. He was pitching and the batter hit the ball directly back at him. My son was nailed in the forearm with the ball. The ball struck him so hard that the stitching was imprinted into his arm. I didn’t think that it was broken, because he could move his fingers and wrist without severe pain, but his elbow was touchy. So, my wife is taking him to the doctor as I write this today.

The rest of the weekend was more of the same: more Putt-Putt, more Ping-Pong, more swimming.

Minimum Wage

Every few years politicians want to raise the minimum wage. And every few years the opposition to this idea doesn’t want to raise the minimum wage. In a wealthy country like the US we should make sure that large corporations don’t take advantage of the low-income labor we need to run the country.

So, why don’t politicians decide to index the minimum wage to inflation, or deflation? There should be an acceptable minimum wage that both sides of this issue can agree with. Then we should index that acceptable wage to the cost of living. This means that the arguments over this issue would be put to rest.

Everyone should agree that it is unacceptable to pay wages so low that people don’t have enough money to rent a place to live.

Here’s a link to Kerry’s latest proposal:

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml" title="http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml" target="_blank"http://www.reuters.com/newsAr...;jsessionid=OBOLVYLLRHQ0I CRBAE0CFFA?type=topNews&s toryID=5460187

State by State Polls

For all you poll maniacs out there I found an interesting web site that puts all the state polls together to create the current electoral vote count. There may be more web sites like this, but seemed to have presented the poll data from many different places and they try to be fair to both sides.

http://www.electionprojection.com/elections2004.html" title="http://www.electionprojection.com/elections2004.html" target="_blank"http://www.electionprojection...

As of June 12th they have Kerry winning.

Electoral Votes: Bush 222, Kerry 316
Popular Vote: Bush 46.5%, Kerry 51.6%

They do much more analysis showing the effect of Ralph Nader in each state.

On Being a Father


The traditional definition of a father as wise and having a solution to every problem - as being head of the household - doesn’t seem to apply to our generation. Today it doesn’t matter what gender you are - you can fill the role of the family father. A father is someone who is the provider of the family.

1) The father of the family provides basic needs of food and shelter. I provide my family with their basic needs by earning a living. I work at the expense of sharing time with my family. As many of you do, I work more than the obligatory 40 hours a week and try to balance this with family time.


2) The father of the family provides learning experiences. Some of these little lessons in life may be the things his kids will remember for a lifetime. I provide many experiences for my children, by taking them on adventures, by taking them to church, and by sending them to school . The toughest learning experience of all is preparing them to venture off on their own.

3) The father of the family provides guidance. Beyond teaching there is guidance. Just because a child has knowledge doesn’t mean he will use it. Just as a one-year-old needs someone to catch him when he takes his first steps I stand by my children as they venture out into the world. When my children lack confidence I provide encouragement. When they run into an obstacle I try to guide them to where they want to be.

4) The father of the family provides a role model. Children need someone to look up to, and the father is certainly in the spotlight. I hope my children look at me and see the person they want to become.

5) The father of the family provides a community environment. I provide a community environment by working through the parish and the school, by volunteering for activities.

6) The father of the family provides discipline. All children need limits, and sometimes enforcing these limits require a loving discipline for any child testing these limits.

7) The father of the family provides security. Not only do I provide a place for my children to come to when they think the world is out to get them, but I encourage them to become secure in who they are so that they become strong enough to stand up for themselves.

But why does a father do all these things? Why would a father take on these responsibilities? Why suffer the pain? Why sacrifice so much of one’s time? The answer is love. Love brought these children in to this family and love supports them when they are in need. So, most of all, a father provides unconditional love.

Don't Take the Bible Literally

I was listening to a Christian radio station this evening. You hear all kinds of goofy things when you tune into these stations. Tonight an author was discussing his new book on the evolution of the Bible. He didn't call it that. He was upset with how the revised versions of the Bible didn't say exactly the same thing as the older version of the Bible. Well, this makes sense, because language evolves. In fact, the means of words change over time. If you revise the Bible you need to keep the meaning straight for people who read the Bible now.

One example of this is where Jesus tells his audience about the difficulty a rich man has getting into Heaven. Jesus says that a rich difficulty in getting into Heaven would be like a camel passing through the eye of a needle. At first glance one would think that that was impossible. Some people I know thought Jesus meant that it would be difficult to thread camel hair through the eye of a needle. But, actually there was a pass between the mountains called the eye of the needle. Jesus used this example, because he knew that people at the time would recognize that a rich man would have difficulty with his fully loaded camel passing through the eye of the needle mountain pass. People with less wealth would have a less loaded camel and pass through the mountain pass more easily.

Anyway, the author continued to talk about how the Devil or Satan was working to create subtle errors in the newer versions of the Bible. He continued to claim that the King James Bible was the true word of God and the only Bible that an English speaking person should read. The King James Bible is a literal translation of a Greek text that was passed down through the generations. So, since 1611 when the King James Bible was translated literally the newer versions of the Bible have changed. The author was upset that newer versions used different words to connotate different meanings. The author had total disregard for the fact that the words in the 1611 version of the King James Bible have changed meaning over the 400 years since its translation.

Now, if we consider the change in meaning over 400 years, just imagine how the meanings of the Greek words have changed over 1600 years. Language evolves over time, and that is why scholars continue to have a job translating the Bible over the years.

This of course does not even consider the choice of writings about Jesus that where passed down with the Church's OK. Many documents of Jesus' life were preserved as the Dead Sea scrolls and have shed new light on the Life of Jesus.

So, the most important thing to understand when you read the Bible is to remember not to take it too literally.

Anyway, if anyone is more interested in this try this link:

http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/txt/bib/BibStudy/05Ve rsions.html" title="http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/txt/bib/BibStudy/05Ve rsions.html" target="_blank"http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/tx...

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan plans to visit Sudan soon to press Khartoum to do more to help the people of its Darfur region caught up in one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, he said on Thursday.

How long will it take for the US to help out in this humanitarian crisis? Will Bush do any thing at all? How can he justify his Iraq invasion when he isn't willing to take charge in this crisis? Remember, al Qaeda was nutured in its early years in Sudan. It is now known that al Qaeda was responsible for shooting down the Blackhawk helecoptor in 1992. Will Bush be hands off or hands on in the Sudan? Time will tell.


http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N173 55454.htm" title="http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N173 55454.htm" target="_blank"http://www.alertnet.org/thene...

Tell Me Your Favorite News Source and I’ll tell You Who You Like in November

This is quite interesting. A new poll is out showing that people who watch Fox News favor George Bush 2 to 1, while those who watch CNN favor John Kerry 2 to 1. Is it the perspective of the news that effects the person you favor for president, or is it your ideology that effects which news source that you choose to watch. Do you want to find a channel that you tend to agree with when you watch the news?

People really are polarized in their choice of news source, and their choice for President. The country has not been this polarized since the Vietnam War. Today with instant access to news people even have stronger feelings about the world. Back in the 1960s most people did not feel as if they had all the facts. Today, the opposite is true. People believe that they have all of the facts. Rush, O’Reilly or Fox has told them all they need to know.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/Media" title="http://www.rasmussenreports.com/Media" target="_blank"http://www.rasmussenreports.c...%20Partisanship%20June%20 17.htm

Another Administration Fraud

The last 9/11 commission hearing is happening today in Washington. In this hearing the events of the morning of 9/11 are being examined. From the testimony so far today it is clear that Bush didn’t know what was going on and what to do. Dick Cheney was the person that gave the order to shoot down commercial jets. This is another piece of evidence that shows that George W Bush is not the guy in charge.

The American people should be frightened to know about this. But, it is just another fraud perpetrated by this administration.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyI D=5449156" title="http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyI D=5449156" target="_blank"http://www.reuters.com/newsAr...

Linking Stuff

Listening to the right wing talk show hosts this morning and Bush’s response to the 9/11 commission report was daunting. Everyone continues to tell us that there was a link between al Qeada and Iraq. They have backed off from the initial conjecture that Iraq was behind 9/11, but they continue to use old information to support this claim. They continue to sight a CIA report that said the Mohammed Ata meet with an Iraqi official in Prague before 9/11. Well, the report released yesterday says that this meeting could not have taken place because Ata was in the US during the weekend in question.

O’Reilly concedes this, but he uses earlier meetings in Sudan - 10 years earlier – as evidence of a connection between Iraq and al Qeada. Since the commission report describes these meetings as unsuccessful and the two parties could not agree to work together we should realize that collaboration did not happen. This would be like saying that Nixon was a communist because he went to China and had high level meetings. Or that Ronald Reagan was a socialist because he met with Gorbechev in Moscow and in New York and in Iceland.

Now Bush is standing firm on this and reasserting these links. This is a blatent lie and hopefully the American people will see through it.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A4897 0-2004Jun17.html" title="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A4897 0-2004Jun17.html" target="_blank"http://www.washingtonpost.com...

Economics Bush Style

George W. Bush and his handlers have said that his election bid hinges on the economy. Well, maybe he hasn’t said it exactly like that. Instead he told us over and over about how great the economy is. How there is a sudden upturn and jobs are being created left and right. Since most people know from personal experience how the economy is doing, why does the conservative right continue to tell us how great the economy is? It is because they know that the likely Bush voters vote with their pocket book or wallet. Republicans place money above all else. If the economy is doing well then people will vote to keep Bush in office.

So, will Bush, Rush, Paul Harvey, Sean Hanity, Bill O’Reilly and the rest succeed in fooling the American people into believing that the economy is better than they actually experience it? Sadly this could be the case. People are willing to believe that the economy is doing well even if they personally are out of work and looking for a job. Especially Republicans, because they share the Reagan optimism. They know that their government didn’t mean to give all the relief to the wealthy and to take it away from the unemployed. They know that if they are lucky they will soon be wallowing in the sea of cash they have always dreamed of. If the wealthy didn’t get all those breaks then how will he get his breaks when he has all this money coming to him?

Well, since Bush has begun his propaganda mission the question on how Bush is handling the economy has been falling. 37% of those polled believe that he is doing a poor job on handling the economy. So, even though some jobs numbers are up in the last few months the people who are being effected by the economy believe that it is getting worse. Why?

Well, gasoline is something everyone needs to buy every week or so. The price of gasoline is going up. Every dollar more they spend when they fill up their tank is a dollar less they can spend on other things. People notice this. Some people have friends who have been out of work for months. These are good guys and gals who can’t find a job. Some of these people have settled for lower tier jobs in fast food places, retail or restaurant work. Even if you have a job, if it isn’t as good as the one you got laid off from, then you still feel like the economy has let you down.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/Bush_Economy_Rating.htm" title="http://www.rasmussenreports.com/Bush_Economy_Rating.htm" target="_blank"http://www.rasmussenreports.c...

Robert Bryce on Fresh Air

Journalist Robert Bryce, author of Cronies: Oil, The Bushes, and the Rise of Texas -- America's Superstate. He says the Iraq war is an example of how Texas politicians and corporations have taken leading roles in America's foreign policy and energy policy.

I listened to this radio show, and it was very interesting. Too bad that that the Republicans and the Right wing guys out there wouldn’t listen to anything like this. Bryce tells everyone how the Neo-cons out planned the Iraq war for self-interest. He has found important evidence to support his hypothesis.

http://freshair.npr.org/" title="http://freshair.npr.org/" target="_blank"http://freshair.npr.org/

The audio can be found at: http://freshair.npr.org/day_f...

Iraq and al Qaeda Unlinked

A new 9/11 commission report shows that there was no connection between Iraq and al Qaeda. You would think that this report would finally put an end to the conservative public’s misguided view that the Iraq War was needed because of 9/11. Well, I don’t think so.

It turns out that after the first Gulf War al Qaeda was gaining power in Sudan. The Sudanese government encouraged a meeting between Iraq and al Qeada. So, they did meet with each other. The meeting went badly and the two groups that hated the United States could not agree on a common plan. The conservative talk show hosts have already jumped on the band wagon of saying that this report proves that al Qaeda and Iraq were planning attacks together. The truth is that the secular Bathist government of Iraq could not see eye to eye with the Fundamentalist Muslim al Qaeda terrorist group.

In the end, this is one more reason why the Iraq conflict was unjustified.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml" title="http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml" target="_blank"http://www.reuters.com/newsAr...;jsessionid=FR1XYLD4XLI50 CRBAEZSFFA?type=topNews&s toryID=5438743

Afghanistan as Model for Iraq

This is great. Bush thinks that Afghanistan is a good model for Iraq. So, we are going to have war lords in charge of Iraq and a drug trade to bring money into the country. Or, maybe Bush thinks the oil in Iraq is like Poppies in Afghanistan.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyI D=5429656" title="http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyI D=5429656" target="_blank"http://www.reuters.com/newsAr...

Halliburton

Dick Cheney has continued to say that he has no interest in Halliburton. But, it looks like his ambivalence toward Halliburton is not quite ambivalence. Cheney has been instrumental in getting 7 billion dollars worth of no-bid contracts for Halliburton. No-bid contracts means that Halliburton does not have to compete for the contract. What happened to the Republican idea that competition enables us to get the best work for the lowest price? Republicans always say this, but give them the reigns of government they give the contracts to their friends. This is just another example of Republicans talking out of both sides of their mouth.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nati on/ny-ushall143849790jun1 4" title="http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nati on/ny-ushall143849790jun1 4" target="_blank"http://www.newsday.com/news/n...,0,3217157.story?coll=ny-nationalnew s-headlines

Enron

The Enron business practices that were perpetrated on the state of California are evidence that when businesses are deregulated will take advantage of the situation. By deregulating the energy industry records of transactions were never going to be reviewed by independent auditors. This allowed Enron to artificially create demand to force prices up. This practice has been used in the gasoline industry for years now, but the Oil industry has been able to hide the evidence. The difference with Enron was that they were so bold as to keep records of these illegal practices. Finally, tape recordings of the blatant disregard for decent social behavior in favor of making money shows that these large companies need to be regulated in order to keep them honest.

More tapes were released yesterday:

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml" title="http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml" target="_blank"http://www.reuters.com/newsAr...;jsessionid=QUCOJMROWQLNG CRBAEZSFFA?type=topNews&s toryID=5418461

Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves

When we were living in Europe we took a trip to Rome. My daughter was 2 years old and my son was 8 months old. We took the train from Hamburg to Italy, so we didn’t have a car. We had a stroller and a German baby buggy. The German baby buggy must have weighed thirty pounds or more.

So, you can imagine this American family pushing a buggy and a stroller walking the streets of Rome. We walked all over the city -- the Forum, the Vatican, the Coliseum and many many churches.

One morning we were walking through a crowded section of town. Suddenly I felt someone get just a bit to close, while the put a newspaper up against me. I reacted extremely fast and I found myself holding a girl by the front of her shirt and my wallet gone. Her sister was standing next to her yelling at me to let her go. I was in panic mode and my wife still hadn’t realized what had happened. She continued to walk along and talk as if I was walking next to her. She turned around and said, “What are you doing,” as I held this girl by the front of her shirt.

“They took my wallet,” I yelled to her as she turned around. At this point a circle of people formed around this girl and me. Their Gypsy mother appeared standing on a little mound beside the sidewalk. The girl I was holding started to say what ever she could to make me let go of her. She said, “Hey you want to see more?” and she lifted her shirt up. I kept saying, “I want my wallet back, Where is my wallet?” A member of the Italian Navy told the mother and the girls to return the wallet in Italian. Moments later the wallet appeared off to the side, obviously tossed as people were looking the other way. I let go of the girl and picked up the wallet. My wife said, “Check it, make sure the credit cards are there.” When I did I found our money and claim checks were missing. I started yelling again and the same people turned around to see what was going on. The Navel officer told the mother that he would get the police over here to sort this out if the money didn’t show up. And, off to the side in the same place the wallet was thrown the money and claim checks turned up. I was still missing 10,000 Lyre – about $10.00, but I wasn’t about to worry about it any more.

After things started to calm down, the Navy officer said to us, “Be careful, don’t let them get your money. Find a hiding place to put it.” Another lady pulled her bra up to show my wife the zipper where she kept her money. We then put our money in the baby carriage with my son.

It looks like George W is making nice with Clinton, what's the deal? I haven't a clue, but I'm suspicious.

http://www.dunnconnect.com/articles/2004/06/14/a p/Headlines/d836vae80.txt" title="http://www.dunnconnect.com/articles/2004/06/14/a p/Headlines/d836vae80.txt" target="_blank"http://www.dunnconnect.com/ar...

Bush Wastes Tons of Money

Three months ago, George Bush's political guru, Karl Rove, had a plan. In March, the New York Times described it as an "aggressive and precise 90-day media strategy" intended to "strip Mr. Kerry of [his] positive image."

The Republican National Committee even made boastful threats -- one Bush advisor predicted that support for John Kerry would quickly unravel, saying "He peels like an onion." George Bush's media strategist Mark McKinnon was all aflutter about how much fun it would be destroying John Kerry's support. "We just see this as the greatest window of opportunity," he gushed.

Those 90 days are over today.

I'm not sure how Karl Rove intended to celebrate the end of his carefully-planned 90-day blitz of attack ads. But I'm guessing it wasn't by reading that his candidate trails John Kerry in national polls by as many as seven percentage points.

That's right -- 90 days after the Bush campaign unleashed their relentless, $70 million stream of negative and misleading attack ads, we've got the political momentum on our side. Why? Because John Kerry is presenting a positive vision for the future of our country, and our campaign has people like you, firing back against George Bush's negative barrage.

Poll Date John Kerry George Bush
Fox News June 9 45 43
LA Times June 9 51 44
Gallup June 8 50 44
Zogby June 7 44 42
ARG June 3 48 46

Super Soakers

When you have children at some point you need to decide what to teach your children. Some people opt out of the process by letting the public schools or the church teach their children. But, as most people know every teacher has their own spin on the idea of what is important to learn.

Now, for most of history the local culture dictated what to teach to your children. Some cultures emphasized story telling, music, sports, and war. In the United States of America today many different cultures have come together to form a basic culture of Democracy and ethnic cultures placed on top of those. Because of this diversity it is no longer clear as to what is expected to be taught to your children.

For example, in a local neighborhood I have observed two distinct ways of raising boys. One group of fathers find pride in telling their boys to go out and pound the hell out of the neighbor kids. They find verbal abuse to be funny and physical abuse to be manly. When the other group of parents confronts the fathers, the fathers espouse the wisdom: “This is good for the kids, they need to prepare for the real world.” This group believes that physical domination is the key to success in the world. This may be true in the construction and manufacturing trades, but not in the white collar world that we hope our children will aspire to.

You may have noticed that I am no longer unbiased in this description. This is because I clearly fall into the second group of parents. I believe that the kids need to be strong but gentle. They don’t need to use their strength to prove that they have it. They need to physically exercise and be strong.

An example of this happened this weekend. My kids were invited to a nine-year-old’s birthday party. At the party there were super soaker type squirt guns. These guns put out an enormous amount of water. The nine-year-olds were squirting each other, but their aim wasn’t quite steady, so the kids would get hit a little at a time. My eleven-year-old could hold the squirting water an a person’s face for nearly 30 seconds. The kids were practically drowning in the stream of water. I told my son that even though he was very good at this it was not fostering a pleasant party experience. But, I know that there are parents out there who would just say, “Boys will be boys,” and let them have at it.

So, the political point here is that the overwhelming majority of the boys will be boys philosophy are fathers who are Republican Bush supporters. And this mentality fits into the Republican mentality of the stronger you are the more success you will have. So, it seems that there really is a culture war going on here, and it goes deeper than whether you like Bush or Kerry.

Bush and Schwarzenegger

Last night I was driving my kids home after an activity and they decided that they were going to play a game. Let's play Bush and Schwarzenegger they said. I was curious as to how their game was played, so I didn't want to influence the game. My son who is 11 yelled, "I get to be Bush."

My daughter who is 13 said she wanted to be Schwarzenegger. My younger daughter protested, "I want to be Bush," she said. My older daughter said that someone had to be Cheney. She told my younger daughter, who is 9, how to talk like she was about to have a heart attack.

"No, you sound like you are constipated," she said.

My son piped up, "That would be funny, we could do Cheney on the toilet." They all laughed.

My older daughter said, "No, that won't work, how can he tell Bush what to do while he's sitting on the toilet."

My son tried to talk with a Texas accent saying things like, "Hey, what do I do now? I'm so stupid." Finally they said, "Dad, you be the reporter and ask us questions."

So, I said, "What are you guys going to do about the economy?"

My son said, "Duh, I don't know."

My younger daughter said, "I can do a better Bush than that. The economy, I'll kill it. I'll kill it twice. (Dramatic pause) What's the economy?"

The entire car cracked up, me included. It was great!

Bush Doesn't Care About Polls

Bush claims that he doesn't care about polls. He doesn't read the newspaper. He just does what he does and just doesn't care what anyone thinks.

Then he hires one of the best polling authorities.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/12/politics/c ampaign/12campaign.html" title="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/12/politics/c ampaign/12campaign.html" target="_blank"http://www.nytimes.com/2004/0...

Greg Palast

Is there really freedom of the press in the United States of America? Greg Palast might argue no. Greg Palast is an American reporter who works for the BBC in Great Briton. Why is he working for the BBC? This is because no American media giant will hire him. In Great Briton however he extremely popular and well known.

Greg Palast has done investigative reporting for many years using documented evidence to back up his stories. In his latest research he shows that 92% of the voters on the felon rolls in Florida actually had the right to vote denied. This story is largely ignored in the United States, because the US media giants don’t want to make waves. But, the evidence is there and big media won’t run the story. This is important, because Bush won the Florida electoral votes by not counting these thousands of voters who were turned away. The best we can do now is to have people keeping an eye on the polls in November.

Greg Palast has written a new book, and you can find it at amazon or any other bookstore. So, maybe his stories will get out there. Or, read his stuff on the web at:

http://www.gregpalast.com/index.cfm" title="http://www.gregpalast.com/index.cfm" target="_blank"http://www.gregpalast.com/ind...

Maj. Gen. George Fay, who is investigating the role that military intelligence officers may have played in abusing Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison has resigned because his rank isn't high enough to investigate who is responsible.

http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=1916337" title="http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=1916337" target="_blank"http://www.npr.org/features/f...

What Is Patriotism?

It is often said that patriotism is love for one's country. In the United States, patriotism should also be a love for individual freedom and constitutional democracy. That means full public debate and majority rule in which the right to dissent is honored.

The mark of a true patriot in a democracy is not to blindly agree with every government decision but to constantly test those decisions to see that the general welfare is adequately served.

Treason is the opposite of patriotism. It means seeking to overthrow government or actively assisting a nation's declared enemies. But some who pose as patriots may be traitors seeking - either deliberately or unconsciously -- to overthrow democratic government and substituting some form of autocracy.

At one time, even the U.S. Army was worried about that possibility.Near the end of World War II, the Army issued Orientation Fact Sheet 64 warning that the country "has its native fascists who say they are "100 percent American". . . .and would work under the guise of 'superpatriotism" and "superAmericanism." The document advised: "We can best combat (fascism) by making our democracy work."

George Washington also warned against false patriotism: "Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism."

It was the great English writer Samuel Johnson who declared: "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."

Other views:

Teddy Roosevelt: ". . . .to announce that there must be no criticism of the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile but is morally treasonable to the American public."

Brian Morton of the Baltimore City Paper: "When a government seeks to paint any opposition as unpatriotic and any dissent as treason, when it uses its allies in industry and the media to hound skeptics and blacklist celebrities, when it attempts to paint legitimate questions of policy as either a vote for America or a vote for dictatorship, that's not freedom any more. That's fascism. Smart people know the difference."

The late Republican Senator Margaret Chase Smith: "Those of us who shout the loudest about Americanism are all too frequently those who... ignore some of the basic principles of Americanism - the right to criticize, the right to hold unpopular beliefs, the right to protest, the right of independent thought."

Mark Twain: "In the beginning of a change, the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot."

The Liberal Elite

I was listening to Thomas Frank discuss his new book today. His book is called, “What's the Matter with Kansas? : How Conservatives Won the Heart of America.” In his interview he brings up an interesting point that I hadn’t thought about before. It is the idea of the Liberal Elite.

Frank tells us that the conservative media has used the Liberal Elite as a way to forward their ideas and explain their ideology. I would go one step further. I believe that the Liberal Elite is the whipping boy for the Republican Ideology. Within the black and white world of conservatives there needs to be a bad guy that the group can point it’s finger at. They can describe in absolute terms the bad guy as the Liberal Elite. Anyone with a brain knows that the Liberal Elite does not really exist, but if you posit a liberal idea you become the enemy in the eyes of the Republican. This is a very powerful tool for a mass rebellion ideology. Point out the bad guy and go after him. Paint a picture of the bad guy and sick the dogs on him.

What this means is that if the conservative movement continues to grow in power the ideals of the “Liberal Elite” will be attacked at every level. So, what are these ideals? Well, since this method has been used to attract the working class to the Republican Party, one quality is a college education.

A member of the Liberal Elite is anyone who has a college education. If you start talking with big words, you may be accused of being a member of the Liberal Elite. With this definition and the group hate mentality being fostered by the Republican Party you may soon find yourself being attacked by a group of rampaging conservatives if the Republicans continue to gain power. But seriously, the demonization of the educated person is going to have a lasting impact on this country. You can see that it already has. People don’t care if our president has a brain in his head. “Oh, isn’t it so cute how Georgie says those sillly things,” can be heard coming from the mouths of conservatives all over the country. That is because the Republicans have managed to devalue the college education by spreading the myth of the evil “Liberal Elite.”

Kerry Takes The Lead 51% to 44%

It looks like Kerry now has in a solid lead over George W Bush. I can’t believe that it has taken this long for people to realize that the guy in the White House has a loose screw. But, what can I say. Not everyone pays attention to politics. Hopefully people will look at the legacy of Ronald Reagan and realize how different George W Bush is from Ronald Reagan. Maybe some of the former Democrats are moving away from Bush because they finally see what his view of the world is. It lacks vision, just like his father’s vision.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml" title="http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml" target="_blank"http://www.reuters.com/newsAr...;jsessionid=GRGO2SYBYELGI CRBAEZSFFA?type=politicsN ews&storyID=5395116

But, as we know from 2000, winning the majority doesn’t mean winning the election. We still have to make sure that the swing states realize just how bad Bush and his policies are.

If anyone wants a Bumper Sticker: https://www.moveonpac.org/stickers/

Abortion Again

Will this ever end?

Abortion is a religious argument. People who want to outlaw abortion want the law because of their religious beliefs. People who want women to have freedom of choice want it because they don’t agree with the Fundamentalist point of view.

Ask yourself if there should be a law against bleeding. Live cells from your body can die if they are taken out of your body. It would be a good idea, because it would prevent people from doing risky behavior. But, should it be a law? We even know now that under the right conditions a blood cell could become a new human being. The conditions may be complicated, but scientist could likely be able to clone a blood cell into a stem cell and then the stem cell could be introduced into an egg and the egg into a womb and a child could grow. At the time of conception the fertilized egg is just a mass of cells. Extracting a potential baby is not the same as extracting a fully formed baby. The mass of cells is not viable without the mother. If the mother were to fall and kill the baby should we charge her with murder? Or manslaughter?

This is the same line of argument that those who want to make laws against abortion are using to justify their stance. Just because an egg is fertilized doesn’t mean that it will grow into a baby. The body naturally aborts many eggs. Primitive Women knew that a baby could be aborted by drinking small amounts of poison and this method, though risky, was used by many into this 1900s. So, women are going to use this and other methods no matter what the laws are.

But, the greatest argument for free choice is the separation of the government from our right to worship as we please. Not every religion says that abortion is a sin. Atheists don’t believe in sin at all. Laws should not be made because one group thinks that something is a sin. So, by claiming separation of Church and State the government should not make religious law. If one believes that abortion is a sin then they should not get an abortion. If they do not hold this belief then they should be aloud to exercise this freedom of choice. Republicans should be for freedom of choice, because the government shouldn’t be involved in our business. People who do not hold these beliefs should be allowed to exercise their freedom.

Torture

Now this is confusing. George W. Bush is an avowed Christian who should be using his life force to get closer to Jesus. However, based on these new memos his administration was trying to figure out how they could make torture legal. Whether they decided to use torture or not, trying to find their way around the laws is just not the Christian thing to do. Didn’t Jesus tell us that everyone is the Temple of the Lord. If you desecrate a human being you are desecrating the Temple of the Lord.

For all you who thought that Abu Ghraib was an aberration; some rouge soldiers acting on their own initiative I suggest that you read one memo yourself:

http://www.npr.org/documents/2004/dodmem o030306.pdf" title="http://www.npr.org/documents/2004/dodmem o030306.pdf" target="_blank"http://www.npr.org/documents/...

There happen to be three of these memos that we know of so far.

So, do we just chalk this episode up to another anti-civil behavior of the Bush administration? How can any decent person support a man who thinks that it is justified to use torture on another human being? All of these so-called Christians in this country who support George W Bush because he wants to make abortion against the law somehow think that torturing living adult human being is AOK. I think that these people need to think about the morals of a person who would want to do this.

Carter and Reagan

It’s a little bit ironic when we look at these two presidents. Carter was the Democrat, which before his time was the optimistic Party of change. “Life sucks now, but we can make it better.” could be the Democratic Party motto. The Republicans on the other hand were the dower and wealthy old men sitting around a table with cigars.

When Carter came into office he faced several problems as every president will face. The two most dominant problems dealt with the Middle East. First, the price of oil shot up through the roof because of the OPEC cooperation. Second, the radical Muslims over threw the Iranian government and took American hostages for over 400 days. Carter dealt with the problems by being honest and giving the American people the facts. The consequence was the morale of the country dropped. People don’t want to know the facts based on this experience.

When Reagan became president he did the opposite. He told the country a story. He made the country imagine a place that didn’t exist. He told us that we only had one problem, the evil empire. Oil wasn’t a problem. There weren’t any poor that didn’t choose to be poor. The thing was that everyone just went along with the emperor and didn’t comment on his apparel.

So, we learned that the American people like to hear lies, and our leaders continue to them to us.

Bush Knew About Torture

So, it turns out that the upper echelons of the Bush administration did know about the torture in Iraq and in Cuba. They discussed it and decided that the Geneva Convention didn’t apply to the United States. There was a memo that was drawn up by a lawyer stating why the United States could conduct torture. Rumsfeld and Ashcroft knew about the memo and the president was briefed on its contents. How long will it take for the American people to see the administration for what they are?

Check out the link:

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=1000010 3&sid=a7STpDlieNrY&refer= us" title="http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=1000010 3&sid=a7STpDlieNrY&refer= us" target="_blank"http://quote.bloomberg.com/ap...

Imagine

Imagine that George W. Bush had a magic wand and he waved it and wished that we won the war in Iraq and there was now an American friendly democracy in the Middle East. I know this is hard to imagine, and I'm sure the Bush administration hasn't thought this far ahead, but would the War on Terror be over? The answer to that question is NO! How do we know that? Because Rumsfeld told us that the War on Terror would be a "Long Hard Slog?" No, the reason the War on Terror would not be over is because Iraq has nothing to do with the fundamental reason that we have a War on Terror in the first place.

So, why do we have a War on Terror if it isn't because Saddam attacked the World Trade Center on 9/11/2001? We have a war on terror because the Fundamentalist Muslims think that it is unfair that they are God's chosen people and they don't live as well as the American infidels. If they do everything for God according to the Koran, then why don't they have everything like the Americans? So, why is the war in Iraq going to fix the problem? It isn't!

What will the new democracy in Iraq do for the United States? It will show the Arabs in the Middle East just how well off the US is. It will show the Arabs in the Middle East how the oil taken out of the ground can generate 10 times the wealth for the managers than the owners of the wells actually make. This is sure to make the Arabs happy.

So, what should be done if this plan isn't going to work? Well, a number of important questions need to be answered. For example, which countries actually have the largest Fundamentalist movements? The answer would be: Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Egypt. That's great, because we are allies with all of these countries. What we need to do is work with these governments and get them to control their fundamentalist movements. This can only be done through the Mosques in those countries. An education program needs to be established. And, maybe we could leverage off the effort to control our own fundamentalist movement in this country.

Fundamentalist Christians

When I was a student at Texas A&M University I found my first political conflict. I had grown up in Ohio and the Fundamentalist Christian wasn’t very strong there yet. The first sign of fundamentalism in Ohio for me was when my dad bought a Bible to read during lunch. It seemed a bit strange, but not so unusual.

So, when I moved to Texas I began to learn about the ways of the south. Being a Yankee I had some ideas about the south and most of them were wrong. Most of the people weren’t much different than myself. The people I met had an interest in science, didn’t buy into the creationism or flat earth mentality. There were exceptions though. There was a preacher who screamed and yelled at everyone who walked by him. He yelled out to everyone telling him or her to get themselves saved.

Now, I was raised Catholic, so I considered myself Christian. I believed in Jesus. However, little did I know about this strange type of Christianity. Of course I was curious, and I knew a fair amount of Christianity because I had gone to Catholic schools for 17 years.

I listened to the Preacher at lunchtime for several weeks. He did the same thing every day. He got a crowd of students around. It was like a cult of Christianity, where the saved Christians encouraged the new people to come in and listen. At some point the Preacher would say that all the non-Christians were out of the community and the Christians should remain to pray together. It was a very us and them mentality that made the Christians feel good about themselves and have ambivalence toward the non-Christians.

The worst part of the whole experience was that there wasn’t any discussion. If you didn’t have the answers the preacher wanted then you didn’t know the Lord. Then you needed to read the red part of the bible. Soon you would be “smart enough” to give the “true” answers to the preacher. Then you could be saved. It was really sad. The zombie Christians couldn’t think for themselves.

Polling Data

Like many people have said before me, the US presidential election isn’t won by an overall vote, but on a state by state electoral vote. So, in the last few days there have been some positive developments for John Forbes Kerry.

If we look at the May 8 polling data we see that the Bush - Kerry race was a toss up. http://www.detnews.com/2004/p...

Now, with some state by state data coming in we see some new developments. In particular, Virginia is now looking like a tossup state. The poll shows Bush leading 47% to 45%, which is within the margin of error. http://www.rasmussenreports.c...%20Jun%204.htm

This may not seem like a big deal, but because Virginia is a “Southern” state this really is a big deal, because the Republicans have framed Kerry as a Massachusetts Yankee Liberal.

But, that’s not all. The North Carolina data also shows the Kerry – Bush race to be a tossup. Or maybe just Bush leaning state with the new poll data showing Bush 48% Kerry 44%. http://www.rasmussenreports.c...%20Carolina%20Jun%203.htm

But, don’t click next yet, because Maine which was clearly a toss up state back in May is now clearly a Kerry state with the latest poll showing Kerry leading: Kerry 54% Bush 35% http://www.rasmussenreports.c...%20Jun%205.htm

More positive Kerry data is coming as people get to know him better

Social Darwinism – Not Evolution

It’s funny how the Republicans believe in Social Darwinism, but not Evolution. The whole philosophy behind the current Republican party is “I’ve got mine and if you want yours just work hard make money and move to a place where you can have a nice clean environment.” This, of course, is social Darwinism. If you want to be stupid and spend your money on the poor go ahead and spend it. The current Republicans don’t believe that an educated public makes for a better government. Instead, they believe that a poorly educated public is good for them, because it enables Republicans to be re-elected. An educated public would never put Republicans in office that doesn’t care to conserve the environment.

This same Republican Party wants to teach non-science Creationism in the public schools. But this doesn’t matter, because if you have money you buy a good education in a private school where they teach evolution and not creationism – of course unless the private school is a fundamentalist school.

Republican Ideals are moving more and more to a “protect your family by making money and buying what you need” mentality. How could an educated public support these goofy ideas? That’s easy, with the poor state of the US education system people don’t think that its worth while to learn enough about the candidates to vote.

Of course the entire misinformation package floods forth from people like Reductio ad Absurdum, and the poorly educated pubic can not see through the fogged rhetoric.

And so it goes.....

More Ronny

Over the weekend I usually don’t get the same opportunity to blog as I do during the week. But, I did learn about the death of Ronny Reagan over the weekend and I wanted to write a blog. But, I just couldn’t get all my thoughts together, because there was just so much to write. I’m sure this first stab at it won’t be my best, but I’m still making an attempt at writing something anyway.

First off, I really liked Jimmy Carter as a president, which isn’t the generally held opinion of his presidency. He was a smart and warm president and he knew what needed be done to get the country moving in the right direction. He just didn’t have the communication skills required to get his ideas across to the American public. This was a big problem!

So, when Ronny was elected I knew why people liked him right off. The problem as I saw it at the time was that he was a brilliant actor who was able to show the appropriate emotion when giving his policy speech. I couldn’t stand how he was able to sucker people in to his ideology by presenting it as the American way. But, I still had to admire him because he had certain ideals and he worked for those ideals and compromised on things he didn’t care as much about. While he was governor in California he passed sweeping abortion rights reform allowing freedom of choice all across the state. He raised taxes in his first year as president to stave off the ridiculous borrowing that was going on.

However, Ronny also forged the deal with the devil by working with the fundamentalist Christians. Under Reagan the Fundamentalist Christians began taking over the Republican Party. He wasn’t able to keep religion out of politics, because of his ideal that people with religion would make for a moral and right America. This was a naïve view of religion. Ronny grew up in California and his view of religion was much different than someone who grew up in the south. He didn’t know about the dangers of fundamentalism.

Also, I believe the worst legacy that Ronny left us with is the belief that the administration can run the government without the president. After Ronny was shot his mental functioning went down hill. However, the administration was already underway and much of the days to day tasks were automated. This automation gave the impression to the Republicans that having a good speaker to deliver policy is all that was needed from a president. This view lead the Republicans to pre-select George W. Bush as the candidate of choice in 2000 and lead to the debacle we have in Washington, Iraq and the world today.

Syndication

I don’t know if you’ve noticed this or not, but tblog syndicates all blogs on weblogs.com

I don’t know when this started, but I have noticed that the number of hits has gone up on my blog. However, the number of comments per hit has actually gone down. So, are we getting more channel-surfers here at tblog?

About the Name "Forbush"

There exists at least one line of Forbushes that descended from a lone Daniel Forbush who had been illiterate and therefore had no idea of the great efforts the bureaucrats of time had made in trying to spell the name Forbes pronounced with the Scottish brough. Although the Forbes name has a wonderful history associated with it, the Forbush name has come to acquire a history of its own. In the short 350 year existence of the name Forbush several distinguished Forbushes have made their mark on the history of the United States of America.

One of Daniel's sons, Deacon Thomas Forbush distinguished himself in early Colonial America by being a town leader and pastor in the town of Westboro.

Daniel's Grandson David was an Orderly Sergeant at the Battle of North Bridge (the Concord part of the Battle of Lexington and Concord) which opened the Revolutionary War with England in 1775. David was so close to the action he was splattered with the blood of Captain Isaac Davis.

There is the famous ornithologist Edward Howe Forbush who wrote "A Natural History of the Birds of Eastern and Central North America" Mifflin, 1939 among other works.


Even a physical phenomona bears the Forbush name.

Forbush Decrease :
The observed decrease in cosmic ray activity in the earth's atmosphere about a day after a solar flare. The Forbush decrease is believed to be caused by a shielding effect of the magnetic fields contained in the plasma cloud emitted from the sun at the time of the flare.

The Tide is Turning

The tide is turning and people are sick and tired of the debacle in Iraq. Major conservative talk radio is putting the Iraq situation on the back burner waiting for Karl Rove to send in his orders. The administration is talking about Gay marriage in an attempt to distract the public from the Iraq War. George Tennent resigned from office in an effort to jettison one albatross from the administration, albeit the wrong one. If they got rid of Karl Rove, Cheney, Rumsfeld or even Bush they would be making progress toward a non-fascist America. However, they chose to get rid of one more guy that was already outside the secret circle. One can only hope that the American people will see the administration in the Christian Fundamentalist light they represent. They want to repress American personal freedoms for the love of their conservative Christian Fundamentalist God that most Americans do not agree with.

Maybe the US will learn from this stupid president and his misadventures. Hopefully Americans will learn these three lessons:

1) We need to elect a president with a brain in his head.

2) We need to stay out of other people's business.

3) We need to worry about domestic problems, such as terrorism in our own country and social security and education and US business and jobs and the economy.

So, let's get rid of the idiot in office!

Bias in the Press

I was just listening to a public radio discussion centering on a new Pew Research Center survey that shows where the average journalist is found in the political spectrum. It turns out that the average journalist is actually Libertarian in the political spectrum. They are left on social issues and right on fiscal issues. This is mainly due to the fact that most journalist come from well-to-do backgrounds, and take low paying entry level jobs and work their way up through the organization. Through their reporting they become understanding of the minorities, different religions, different lifestyles, different ethnic groups and the world in general.

However, in this latest survey they use social issues in order to determine what side of the political spectrum journalist fall into. They ask three questions:

1) Do you believe it is necessary to believe in God to be a truly moral person?
2) Do you believe homosexuality should be accepted by society?
3) What is more important, personal freedom, or having a government safety net.

Of course, the first two questions are social issues and they are weighted against the one fiscal issue. On the fiscal issue, local reporters actually mirrored the general public, while the national journalists were slightly to the left of the

From these three questions it is determined that journalists are to the left of the American public. So, Baptist Churches are jumping on the band wagon telling the world that they were right, Journalists are Leftist Commies: http://www.floridabaptistwitn...

It is quite interesting to look at the survey and compare it to the press that it is getting.


The Pew Report can be found here: http://people-press.org/repor...

One press story on the report: http://www.editorandpublisher...

And, a San Francisco version: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/art...

Talking to Myself

This is interesting for me, and maybe someone else out there in cyberspace. I took the first few entries in my journal written as dated back in 1975 and comments I made to those journal entries made back in 1998. This could go on forever, but I don’t think that it is that interesting. So, basically this is me talking to myself.


November 20, 1975 "Thoughts, the will to think"

I started this book because many times I have had exciting thoughts and if I wrote them down on a single piece of paper they would be lost for sure. To start this book I will have to tell you a little about myself if you are to understand any of it.

I live in Mentor, Ohio on Hayes Blvd. off Ohio St. off 306. I go to Lake Catholic High School. I swim on the West End "Y" Swim Team. I enjoy Math and Science mostly advanced but not too advanced. I usually make predictions, fantasize and create drawings of strange objects or mechanical devices. I design houses. I love to figure out unproved facts (or if they're proven, I don't know about them). My hobbies are collecting coins, listening to rock albums, raising fish (or any other pet for that matter), shooting off rockets (when I feel like doing these things, but not all of the same things at the same time), playing Monopoly, Swimming (as I mentioned before) and that's about it. Oops I like to read Science Fiction, and this writing may show it in some places.

April 1998

Thoughts, the will to think. That's a very nice comm