DEVELOPING A BACKBONE

Perhaps this should be the last paragraph of this blog rather than the first, but I'm going to risk it. Have you seen these old movies, and I bet there are several of them, where someone becomes a hero and accomplishes a lot of brave or heroic, or perhaps even seemingly miraculas acts and tword the end of the movie some mysterious woman in a slinky dress appears and says, "You think you did all that stuff yourself? Well, you didn't. You had help." And then she would allude to some secretive mafia type organization, or perhaps some occultic organization that "greased the slide" so to speak. You know what my favorite line in the movie "Oh God" is? I don't agree with every theological statement in the movie but I have respect for the point of view. My favorite line in the movie is when God says to John Denver, "Remember: You have the advantage that comes from knowing". I think some of us can "know" things. We might call it psychic awareness or "God" or "The Dark Side" or perhaps even the "Orion Federation". There is some point in life where we have gotten a free pass to visit the higher realms and be aware of things that in the natural we wouldn't be aware of. Just today I was trying to get into a web site that wanted my whole identity and E mail address and stuff so they could send me an eternity of spam. Yet I've been to the web site before but I was "bounced" with a link inside, so that I bypassed their usual screening apperatus.

There was a substitute on KTLK for Randy Rhodes, who was apparently ailing today or something. He was kind of one of these hysterical Ken Galliger types, only of the left rather than the right. When I see a person like him I get uneasy because I'm thinking "What if he's faking it and in reality believes the opposit of what he's saying?" He was trashing "limozine liberals" and the Grammys and the Hollywood elete community in general. He seemed upset that the Dixie Chicks were honored with five Grammy awards last night. I don't see why? They've earned it. But his point, behind all the hysterics, was that "Where were all these people four years ago when the Dixie Chicks were banned by over 200 country radio stations for their statements about George Bush? I guess I don't care. But perhaps I should. Should you judge a person on how he acts "when the chips are down" or how he says he wishes he had acted later? Actually I have to agree that from a religious point of view it is how you act "When the chips are down" that is the true test of your character. Remember: God sees what you do when nobody is looking. You may recall I have related how Stewart Sutcliffe has often complained to me that the Beatles should never have fired drummer Pete Best just as they were on the verge of becomming famous. He had been with them through all the dark days at the Cavern club and in Hamburg, and had record with them on their German record. He had drummed on the four songs that impressed George Martin and EMI enough to want to sign them in the first place. More importantly, Pete was THERE when they desperately needed a drummer. But fashion often rules over deeds. It's kind of like a Christian evangelist bringing a lot of riff raff into the Church. People who are basically flakes and just in it for the glory and the fawning attention they receive. I guess that's what Hollywood awards are all about - fawning attention. I'm sure Anne Baxter's characters knows all about that. (as George Sanders would say) So now what's his name on KTLK is upset because the Dixie Chicks got five Grammys. But according to him the music they did five years ago was better than the album that got them the award. Of course Bob Dylan knows all about getting a Grammy for one of the worst songs lyrically he's ever done. Or is that it? Do you have to "Serve Somebody" to get ahead. Do you have to kiss Hollywood ass and play on their guilts? I don't know. They say to be the most successful invester if to buy stocks when the pit of your stomach is churning from anxiety. There is a Christian song that goes "When I was worthless Lord you bought me". I'd like to change that lyric to "I was actually worth something when I came to you but now if I try and leave you, what will the Devil do with the piece of garbage I've now become?"

Of course this whole bit about developing a spine and moral integrety and doing what is right and brave even "when you don't think anybody is looking" goes to this democratic congress. They were elected by the voters to end the war in Iraq. But now that they are in power they are lilly livered cowards. Today is Abraham Lincoln's birthday. What if Abraham Lincoln after he was voted into power on an anti slavery mandate said, "You know- - I've thought about it and if I were to military engage the Rebels at Ft. Sumpter some people might take it that I'm against slavery. And I wouldn't want to jeopardize the economy of the South because that just might turn out to affect us all". President Lincoln could have been a marvelous side stepper and excuse maker if he had wanted to be. Look at all the prancing and side stepping Hillary Clinton is doing". She says she wants to be like O Bama and the other democrats with her "Me, too" rhetoric. But she won't say she made a mistake voting for the war. The difference between Hillary and me is that I will admit I was lied to by the government. But I don't believe picking the best choice at the time is really a "mistake". I consider a mistake not doing something or doing the wrong thing when you knew the facts at the time but for whatever rationalistic reason chose to ignore them. I think getting rid of Saddam Hussein was a good thing. I cringe when I hear these democrats like John Kerry go "Oh for the good old days of Saddam Hussein. Things were a lot safer when he was in power than they are now". If I were a Shiite I would echo John Kennedy's words "I would not trade place with any other time. I welcome the challenges of today". Iran says it doesn't want to fan the flames of war. I don't know whether to believe them or not. But I'll tell you if I were president, I would at least dialog with them and see if we couldn't at least work out some kind of a deal to stop the killing in Iraq. But with Hillary I get the feeling she'll just say anything she thinks she needs to say for the fall election of 2008 against her probable candidate opponet, Rudy baby. The long and short of it is the democratic congressmen are a bunch of whimps for not cutting off funds for the war and Hillary is a whimp for not leading the effort. That's what we need to do. The guy this afternoon convinced me. We need to cut off funding for the Iraq war. Pure and simple. You know, I think one year is plenty of time to withdraw 90% of our troops and we could redeploy the other ten percent to the borders or to help the Kurds or something. That's my oppinion. What do you think?

You know, some Christians say "If we had lived in the time of Capernicus or Galilleo we would not have opposed those great men as the Church did". These people are great Monday morning quarterbackers. You know in reality today's Born Again Christians would be leading the pack. They say "If we lived in the time of Martin Luther we would not have approved of his anti semetic remarks". Well, that anti-semitisum grew to be accepted and the prejudice was nurished and it grew to lruition and bore the fruit of Naziisum. These Christians say "If we had lived back in the time of Paul we would have come down harder on Philemon than Paul did. Philemon was a slave owner who was "asked" to forgive a runaway slave. You know what I think? I think today's Christians would be screaming for vengance and retrobution against that runaway slave. Back then there did not be a kind word for the Jewish faith or nation of Isrial. But today Christians fawn over Isrial the way that Dennis Prager fawns over Christianity. They don't really care about it but it helps their image. Many people such as Dennis Prager speak of a generic "Brand X" religion. It doesn't matter WHAT religion you are. Just as long as youre religions. So if youre in a religion like Christianity that aids and abets anti Semitisum, that's still better than no religion at all. I don't true religion is about "posing". True religion is about Courage, as in Profiles in Courage, a series that was out when I was a teenager. Believe it or not some people are enough cosmically focused to view their actions of the moment less for their pragmatic value and more thinking "What will God think of this action at the Last Judgement". Oh. Here's one. Do you know why should should actively believe in the return of Christ? (or in the Shiite's case the return of the Immam Mahdi?) It's simple. If you believe your founder will return you will be true to his words and not screw around with his teachings, or become a "Dyspensationalist" and re-invent God in your own image as dyspensationalists do.

If any of you have had trouble following this blog it's merely because I was a little less restrained in letting my thought processes take me where they will. If I had to map out this whole Blog in outline form and then fill it all in with fleshed out detales the whole thing would probably take two or three times as long to write.