These Are Ugly Times

 Imagine there's no Pizzas

A fate that's worse than Death

Or an aging Peter Pan, now

He got all strung out on Meth

Imagine there's no shootings

We can go and make a Plan

Fat Boy will be done and downward rolling

Once the shit hits the fan

This Governor Christie thing is not going to go away.  I have a feeling it’s just beginning.  I honestly can’t imagine how they are going to cover it on all these Network Press Conferences this weekend- - except Christie is counting on there being no “full court press” by David Gregory or George Stephopoois, and certainly no follow up questions.  It amazes me that Christie could talk and talk for two hours and say absolutely nothing factual, that might shed one ray of light on this whole mess.  But he’s a lawyer and that’s what they get paid to do.  Jabber on even if they don’t have a leg to stand on.  Deborah Bono was apparently that democratic candidate for governor who ran against Christie last time.  The name doesn’t register.  Apparently there was some “rule” that Christie had set up that nobody could give more than three hundred dollars to the Bono election campaign because at that point the names became Public, and the Governor would find out about it, and he would take swift political retribution on whoever it was that dared to- - what? - - “Exercise Free Speech” as the Citizens United case states.   Apparently the port and bridges director was a guy named Robert Durando (?) who actually shut down those lanes on the George Washington Bridge, but he was threatened by a guy named Wildstine, of repercussions from the Governor if he didn’t comply with this order.  I guess the question hangs in the air - - just how the Hell could orders be issued in the Name of the Governor of New Jersey and yet the Governor himself claim to “just not know anything about it”.   He claims not to know that NJ Mayor he victimized.  Governor Christie personally traveled to Ft Lee to apologise in person but the Mayor apparently would have just assumed the governor not come.  Probably because he knew he’d only be buried in a rhetorical bucket of bullshit.  But at least we’ve gotten to the bottom of one mystery.  We now know why FOX news and Sean Hannity and the rest, though they don’t like Christie and call him all these names such as leftist and “working with democrats” and all, why they all changed their minds, as if on cue.  It’s because the tea party right secretly or not so secretly LIKES the sort of strong arm tacticts that Governor Christie did even if it does bear a striking resemblance to the sort of “Chicago political thuggary” that they tried to pin on President Obama.  And keep in mind that Governor Christie is the chairman of all the Republican governors now, and they are every bit the threat, if not more right now, than John Boehner and Congress is right now.  That’s a scarey reality but we can do something about both this election year of 2014.  Unfortunately chapters of this saga have yet to be written, and like Days of our Lives- - don’t count Evil out because they’ll have new tricks up their sleeve.

There is this Florida Senator Bob Graham who apparently isn’t there anymore.  And he was doing a radio interview on explaining why so much of the documents in the 9 – 11 “official report” were redacted, just as there were redactions in the over two hundred files that they turned over to the authorities today in the New Jersey case.  And he said, “Well I would tell you, but then I would have to kill you”.  But he went on, “But I’ll give you a hint.  The biggest topic brought up there rhymes with Baudi Ababia.”   People in FOX news and on Sean Hannity say that a lot of Obama “scandals’ are unearthed in Robert Gates’ new book.  But that is silly because it isn’t news that Hillary Clinton came out in favor of the “Surge’ in Iraq and Barock Obama was against it, because both positions were in accordance with previously taken positions.  As if to illustrate that tired litany of charges from yesterday, Sean Hannity today reviewed them once again, including things like Eric Holder should be indicted and fired for “gun running to drug cartel mobsters in Mexico”.  OK we get it.  FOX news is never going to tell us anything actually worth knowing.  Kathlene Sabelius apparently should lose her job because a Web site wasn’t initially working properly.  Some caller said “Well that problem has been fixed now”.  To Sean Hannity that didn’t matter.  Actually it says in my notes here there was also something on the Bill Mar program-  perhaps where the “Baudi Ababia” remark was made.  He better watch it or some “Powers that Be” will yank him off the air like they did with Phil Donahew ten years ago when he was getting a little too close to the Truth.  There are too many secrets in government.  We’ll never get to the bottom of the alleged Bill Casey deal with Iran in 1980 either, that got Ronald Reagan elected President.  I don’t want to talk about the fall of 1980.  There were a lot of changes going on in my life then- - and let’s just say that wheels were set in motion then, which, for a lot of things down the line did not work out at all well.

I thought I had heard everything.  Now Sean Hannity is playing a song ‘Like a bridge in a liberal city, I will close the lanes” and the author by law may not be divulged because ‘He’s in the Sean Hannity witness protection program”.   Now Sean Hannity is indicting any main stream Republican who criticizes Mark Levin, who is “the intellectual of our movement”.  Have you ever been bothered by the fast ricoshet on line?  It’s usually when you’re about to watch a video you’ll see the thing come on and then a second or so later you are redirected to a completely other site, like there’s something they don’t want you to see.   Sean Hannity highlights the saying that no Republican, nobody from FOX news- - wants to talk about Governor Christie for more than a few seconds and suddenly we’re talking about President Obama rehashing the same old tired stories they’ve been boring us numb with for years and years.  Right now Sean Hannity is interviewing a pot head around seventy claims he’s not addicted though he claims to have been smoking since 1964.  These times are too strange.  This is Friday January 10, 2014 and some of us had the vaguest of hopes 22014 might turn out to be at least a slightly saner year than 2013 proved to be.  Now of course we have our first political scandal of the year, that is all of two days old.   In soap opera news- - today’s was a tension filled episode.  Both Stephano and son EJ are trying to clamp a lid on their own personal scandals, using force if necessary.  Then a bit later I went to the courtyard for two cups of coffee.  I went to the patio and saw the reflection of everything on the patio in the glass - - like the sun and shadows and such.  Just then a solid figure walked across the patio maybe fifteen feet behind me.  I turned around and there was nobody there, but the figure kept walking and I turned around again.  Often the first I’ll notice of a vivid sunset is not directly but as a reflection in the glass.  Then I’ll turn around and look.

For lunch today we had kind of a Subway style mixed cold cuts sandwich on a long bun, with ample mustard.  We had coleslaw with it and grapes for desert.  The Oriental guy gave me his omlet this morning, or part of it.  Besides the omlet I had toast and one butter and two jellies.  We began with Raison Bran for breakfast.  Ricardo now says he’s actually prefer giving me my meds at the table because some meds are better taken with food.  Last night I had a dream that I was in the state of Maine at some hippy retreat or something, but I didn’t want to be there, but was only brought along by a friend.  I kept saying “I have other plans for the weekend”.  I was surprised it wasn’t the least bit cold and there was no snow on the ground.  They said “Well the cold front that hit other areas of the Northeast missed us.  And you’re right.  The official reading is seventy degrees now.  Finally at continually pressuring I smoked a couple of joints.  I could feel the drugs working.  But I said contentiously, “If you think plying me with marijuana is going to change my mind you’re sadly mistaken.  It won’t change how I feel, but I suspect it’s making me more talkative.  Some were hooking up with prostitutes or whatever.  I grabbed one fairly tal prostitute that wasn’t that good looking, and I kissed her passionately, and kind of did this erotic “dirty dancing” bit with her.  Then I said, “I don’t feel a thing.  I gotta get out of here”.

Ramos and Sisnelli are the names of the two officers in the Fullerton PD one charged with second degree murder and the other involuntary manslaughter.  Both officers are around age forty.  Kelly Thomas didn’t die for five days.  Jerry Brown is starting a “rainy day fund” when vast numbers of the poor are already having their “rainy day” financially and in major poverty.  Brown says “Taxes are high enough.  California is a high tax state”.   Foster Farms is in trouble again.  Last time it was salmanilla, and this time it’s cockroaches in their food processing area, and the federal inspectors closed the Central California plant down after seeing the roaches on five different occasions.  They want to build a cosway or tunnel under the US 101 in order to make it easy for mountain lions to breed and increase their genetic pool on the other side of the road, so that fathers won’t have to mate with their own daughters.   Eye Witness didn’t really go into the Governor Christie thing in much depth at all but took his words at face value.

We had whole pork chops tonight and these paragraphs must be on some Web formatting from the paste higher up.  I meant to do this file in “Ocean” rather than in lavender but my sub-conscience had other ideas so I left it.  I think we’ll slip a pink in here fairly soon.  With the pork chops we had something like pumpkin squash with an interesting “seasoned” flavor to it, and also mixed vegetables.  We had yellow cake for desert.  I went out to the bakery for a large coffee and a cinnamon roll, expending two dollars.  I guess I know if I run out of money I can always go to the ATM this month.  The lady let me fill my cup to the top before the next batch had completely dripped out.  In other news - - Gabriel is trying to trick Abigail into “telling all” about her encounter with E J Di Mira with the “EJ told me everything” ploy.  Of course E J had sternly warned Abigail that neither of them should spread “what they shared” so to speak.  E J agrees with me that sending Gabriel out to hound Abigail is counter-productive, and that Kate should have trusted him, who knows about these things, and is often better at making sounder decisions with a cooler head.  I went out for coffee in the morning in the courtyard.  But in the afternoon it was cold out and I didn’t want to miss any more of Randy than I had to.  So I went to the liquor store for a large coffee.  They have newer cups now that are thinner, but also the heat gets to your fingers and you have to keep putting the cup down to keep from burning yourself.  I did a second posting of the day-  which is true for Yesterday where this paragraph is from - and it's true for Today as well.

Imagining The Way Things Could Be

 I wanna say right now - I Am Not A Bully - - and I'll beat the Crap out of anybody who even Looks at me with a note of suspicion as though they don't Believe me on this".

 Here's a news flash. At the George Bush "libary" they filed "Where's Waldo?" under mystery and suspense.  Did George Bush really do a painting of himself sitting on the toilet- or is that just a roomer?  Stephanie Miller has been hyping this "Rolling on a River" remake with "John and Pam" from "Oh-Hi"-O".   I'm uncertain whether certain portions of the Stephanie Miller show are replays this morning, at least on the Chicago station I'm listening to.  But they've been talking about this "Jo-har" terrorist guy being put on trial in Boston and people are saying that "Prhaps Johar" should be tried as an Enemy Combatant".   They hare some interractive program at the George Bush library of "What decision would You make in this particular crisis?"  Probably better ones than Bush made.  But the whole Furtelizer plant explosion in Oklahoma was brought up again - - and the plant was near a school and probably violated a whole lot of common sense environmental considerations.  Apparently the gun lobby nixed the idea of a program to track Explosives, which would be instrumental in tracking down a lot of terrorists.  Is it true that "The only remedy for a bad man with a pressure cooker is a Good man with a pressure cooker".  Or should we have just armed the whole onlooking crowd at the Boston Marathon with guns- and that way we'd have a half dozen people firing randomly as any suspicious person with a back pack.  In terms of meranda rights, it was right that Johar should not have been granted these rights right off because of the public safty issue, and we know how Jack Bower in terms of great extremity of public safety - - will engage in the most severe form of torture to extract the answers he wants.  Some have wondered if the whole city of Boston could be "shut down" to capture two people - - could the President "shut the whole country down" to go through and conthiscate weapons?  Well it got me to thinking, anyhow.

Ed Schultz was saying "If a trusted associate of yours- - comes under suspicion of telling a Lie or concealing an act done in Your name which could cause you great Harm- - would you Fire them without even Hearing their side of the story- - and say to them "Why the Hell would you Do something horrible like that, that was so damaging to my future carrier?"  Wouldn't you even give this trusted Friend of yours at least an Oppertunity to Defend themseves in all of this before you Termanated them?  It seems the E mails that revealed this- - were released just before some statute of limitations ran out.  Many of these E mails were heavily redacted.  It seems virtually impossible to me that this lady won't "turn" and become State's Evidence knowing the potential seriousness of the crime she'll be charged with, which could be considered "economic terrorism" and I'm sure there are laws covering this.

 Then the whole bit about elephants was brought up.  This whole segment appears to be a replay of a show aired around the first of this year (ten or so days ago as of this writing) and I tracked down my remarks in Word, but I can't find any record of it in any blogger posting, but it's one of those segments I certainly intended to publish.   Circus elephants of course undergo a who lot of mental torture.  When I think of the training of elephants I think of that guy on Star Trek Next Generation who kidnapped Mr Data, and he knew how Data's moral programming went and he knew just how to manipulate someone more powerful than him who could kill him in an instant- - by using key phrases and commands to inflict a lot of lot of mental torture in Commander Data till he did what the kidnapper wanted him to do.   Of course if it's true that these elephants are confined to a quarter acre, this is absurd.  It seems the earth is to tamped down after a while it becomes like concrete and it hurts the elephant's feet.  But what is really cruel is the electrification of the foliage around the place so the elephants cant engage in"unauthorized eating"  (The Torah has a thing or two about depriving animals of grazing rights)  There are a few remarks I'll past in here, but not in the initial posting.  OK I guess it will be in the initial posting.  Here it is.  I did a blog post yesterday but am unsure whether I want to do one today on open space for elephants.  Really they would need at least two and a half acres, and preferably ten acres, or the dimensions of your typical elementary school.  That would give the elephants space to roam, yet in a confined enough space that people could still see them.  The idea of confining an elephant to a quarter of an acre is ludicris.  At the very minimum 10 acres divided up into quarters.  The idea of circus elephants doing their tricks voluntarily- - is false.  Circus people have discovered that elephants being judicious animals can be subjected to a form of mental torture.  Elephants grieve for their fallen comrades and often go back to mourn their loved ones’ bones & check them out.

You know I'm titling this posting in tribute to a statement that Ted Kennedy did at his brother Bobby's funeral in June of 1986.  He said "Some people see things as they are and say - WHY - - but I imagine things as they could be and say WHO NOT?"   We'll be talking more about "Imagining" as the posting unfolds.  But right now I'd like to relate a story I just came up with.  It's kind of like one of those Rorshock ink blot tests, that you can interperet any way you want.  (That's the way Lennon would have wanted it)  Picture a very rich man- - such as Mitt Romney with his vast world wide wealth and off shore accounts.  And he meets this guy who is someone different, almost like an Angelic personage.  And this is a man who is friendly tword him and has always liked him and has been wanting to meet him.   I say that, because it's not like some cigar chomping crime boss in a smoke filled room in a plush chair in some darkened expensive wood panneled room with venician blinds.   And this guy says "I can guarentee you a good after life.  I will give you a Free Pass to where you want to be.  All you have to do is give me- - not a tenth, but a hundredth of all your wealth.  And you know for a Fact that this guy has the power to do all of this.  If you give him but one percent of all your wealth - - he will Guarentee that you successfully Cross the Goal in Pitfall and win the prize.  Now if you fail to give this man the Money- - this does NOT mean that you won't have a good after-life, but now the outcome of that is at least in Doubt.  So would you do it?  Would you be a fool is you did not do it?  You tell me.

Unemployment numbers are down to 6.7% and once again these January figures are way down on the percentage number, but only 74,000 jobs were added, which as you know in the Real World, means a net job loss, as droves of people continue to Exit the jobs market.  I'm wondering now if massive numbers of individuals will become street bums, since they won't be getting unemployment coverage.  But I'm doing a reversal of my position on Minimum Wage.  As you know I tend to -except in extreme cases previously outlined - - do not believe Minimum Wage should be used to influence the wage market.  However two things have compelled me to change my position on this.  The first thing is that- - minimum wage is no longer teenagers flipping burgers after school for a few extra bucks to take a girl out on a date.  It's bread winners with kids they have to support and this job is their only employment.  That means vasst numbers of wage earners are not AT or only very slightly above getting minimum wages.  The other thing pertains to the rising unemployment that is said to come after a minimum wage hike.  I've checked the figures and most often the minimum wage is passed near the top of an economic cycle, which means rising unemployment would have occurred anyhow as the economy cycles down. Someone's eleven year old son said to his father, "What's the use of getting good grades when graduates of MIT with a high degree aren't assured employment, but some doofice on TV can screw up in life and make an ass of himself and get big media notoriety and funding.  This eleven year old kid is one smart cookie.

OK folks here come the dead rock stars once more.  Last night I was planning out a whole interview I was going to do with myself- - around Halloween of 1980 in Cincinatti, where Jim Cooper and I were for quite a number of weeks in the fall of 1980 because Jim was visiting old friends and relatives and I just needed to get away.  But John Lennon became aware of the content of this interview and said "That interview has so many good ideas in it, you should save it and dedicate it to a whole posting to itself".  I got to thinking about that and decided that would be a pretty good idea.  In terms of 'Imagine" we're giving you a PARTIAL answer to our longstanding question perhaps going back five, or six, or seven years.   We said that the song "Imagine" was a musical rip-off of a song out several months earlier in March of 1971.  We'll give you a little clue to help you out.  The song has the line in it "Into my room he creeps - - with his BLEEP all long and hanging down" and the correct word for BLEEP is 'hair" but people "imagine" something else.  Of course I've left the answer to this question "just hanging out there" for a long time.   What I want is the song lyric tag line at the end of the chorus".   (refrain)  "It's all you need do, and I'll know it's all True" to quote King Herod from Jesus Christ Superstar.   We have another ANSWER for you.   The Bryan Berne song about "What song would I bring with me on oldies request night?"  The answer is "Tell me you love me for a Million years" by the Cassinos, I believe.  Actually this song first began to get popular in January of 1967 and on the last Saturday that month  our church group went on a snow trip to Wrightwood.  And I imagined a situation where you and your girlfriend would spend a fun day in the snow and- - would stop into some coffee shop nearby- - and you'd sit around drinking coffee and eating a piece of pie all warm and cozy in the building.  That's what I see as the "geshtaldt" of the song.  Of course the previous Sunday night, our fellowship was meeting at the usual room and it was pouring down rain outside and someone in the group said of the trip, "Hopefully it's snowing there right now".   That afternoon something is "indellibly etched into my mind" that is in question it really happened.  The radio that afternoon was debuing two new Beatles songs, "Penny Lane' and 'Strawberry Fields Forever".   But you didn't imagine the final trumpet riff.  Once "Rareties' came out- - you got to hear that final trumpet riff once more.  "I tot I taw a puddy tat - - I did!  I did saw a puddy tat!"   And now I'd like you to name the most under rated and under played Paul Mc Cartney song in his entire carrier.  This song was running through my mind this morning.  This song reminds me of Stewart Sutcliffe.  His "spirit' to me is running through this song.   I'll give you a few hints.  If you're a Breakfast with the Beatles fan your odds of guessing the song are enhanced.  The song is not "Ivan", which used to be played a lot- - but if you guess "Ivan" you're thinking along the proper channels.  Kurt Cobain tweeted "It's not a track on Red Rose Speedway, is it?"  No.  It is not on Red Rose Speedway.   On a final note- - Stewart Sutcliffe while he was alive and was a member of the Beatles, used to sing "Love Me Tender" in Hamburg.  This would be the Beatle Find of the Century if someone could locate a recording of this track.  They just released Beatle Recordings of 1963 but Apple gave away the farm because I got to preview all of these tracks I cared to hear.  Some are interesting - but you don't buy a whole cow when all you want is a glass of milk.  Of course in January of 1967 I learned that "Love Me Tender" used to be called "Auralee" during the Civil War.  Of course speaking of coincidence - - this was the very time when "Rock and Roll Star" was rising fast on the charts by the Byrds.   Now they are doing the nine o clock news, which is really the 11:00 news.  They have all these statesman freeways there like the Eisenhower, the Stevenson, and the Kennedy.

Caught in a Whole Lot of Lies

With the exception of OJ Simpson taking the stand testifying in his own defense at the Nicole and Ron murder, what we saw displayed today at Governor Christie’s press conference was the greatest display of bold faced lying, one lie after another, that we are ever likely to see in a public hearing.  Rush Limbaugh even caught him in a major lie that those with any kind of legal background would pickup instantly.  Christie testified that “For two nights I’ve been sleepless, tossing and turning over this issue”.  However Christie also testified in some detail that “I never heard about this story at all till after my workout yesterday morning when I was apprised of the situation”.  Clearly that would be at best be - - One Night of sleeplessness, and not two.  Christie claims that he never even MET the mayor of Ft Lee.  You know this is false because Ft Lee is a major “terminus city” of the George Washington Bridge.  That’s my understanding.  Nobody ever asked Christie that I’m aware of the all important question of “When you as governor became aware of this four day marathon traffic jam on the bridge backing up traffic for miles and even keeping Paramedics to their appointed rounds- -  - as governor surely you must have then have made a massive inquiry as to just what went wrong”.  But today he claims it’s all a complete surprise.  Christie said “I’m not a vindictive or bullying type of person.  I’m just emotionally expressive” as though people don’t know the difference.  But there are three or four major political vendettas played out in just the previous two years.  One involved a State Senator who went against Christie- - and Christie retaliated by just eliminating his senate district.  In another case there was this Political science Rutkers University professor who was specifically appointed by Christie to this board in charge of drawing the redistricting lines.  Apparently the process called for an independent vote tie breaker.  The good professor said “The democratic map seems a lot more workable and stable tome”.  Christie responded by cutting the funding for Rutkers University political science program impacting many innocent students.   But now we are to believe Christie doesn’t have a vindictive bone in his body.  And yet as in the text below you will note that last month’s Christie was making jokes about the massive traffic snaffoo.  That strikes me as a mighty un-funny issue.  Nobody was cracking jokes at San Francisco airport when that near fatal disaster occurred last summer on the bay.  There are just certain things you don’t joke about.   But now we learn that since someone from the New York side had to cross over into New Jersey and reopen the bridge- - THAT guy was retaliated against.  And as you will note from the text- - these hand picked associates of Governor Christie - - “tell him everything” and “we are like a family”.  I have no doubt that’s true.  Just as I have no doubt that if one of these people HAD - - done it on his own - - that man would have been instantly fingered by Governor Christie within a DAY OR TWO last September, when the event took place.  We wouldn’t even be talking about this now.  People don’t go against Governor Christie.  They’re afraid of him.  Now they’ll even purger themselves for him, at least to a point.  But this is an interstate commerce interference, and therefore a Federal Crime, and those federal investigators can be relentless and they’ll break witnesses down.  Rush Limbaugh in a clip played by Randy Rhodes said “Fox news is the only media outlet that isn’t exploiting this story because all of the other media outlets are salivating to take Governor Christie down”.   Since when did Rush Limbaugh join the Christie for President committee.  I thought the Tea Party hated the NY Governor.  Unless, of course, they themselves know they’ve really got no one else.

Let’s talk about 501-C4 tax exempt groups.  As you know, you and I cannot make a political contribution, no matter the size, and claim a tax deduction for it.  The IRS will be all over us.  And it’s the job of the IRS to screen 501-C4 applicant groups to make sure that they aren’t political to get this priveliged tax exempt status.  So nature if there is anything Political in their name, be they from the Left or the Right, they will be flagged.  So basically the Tea Party is putting President Obama on trial for the IRS - - doing its job.  The scandal is NOT that these groups were audited, but that Every One of them, GOT their 501-C4 tax exempt status, without exception.  There is no scandal, except for that Randy Rhodes caller.  He wanted to tie it in somehow to the coverage of Governor Christie today.   Keep in mind groups like the Heritage Foundation have this privileged status- - and apparently I didn’t know David Koch, father of David and Charles Koch was the founder of the John Birch Society.  I thought it was a guy named Robert Welsh.  Apparently the Kato institute building is fancy and ornate and plush- - but the Kato Institute gets tax exempt status.  It seems that Washington DC is awash in right wing groups, that just might take over and run the place one day.  Keep in mind- - these groups are the ultimate in political groups.  Now they can give perhaps in excess of forty percent more than they could before to their favorite congressman - - because of their tax exempt status.  So it could be argued that President Obama is aiding and abeting his own undoing.  Just like we actually subsidize businesses who relocate to China or whatever.   It’s strange but it’s as though minorities at the border in the abstract see two signs greeting them.  One says “No Wetbacks Allowed Here” and the other reads “Help Wanted”.  It’s a paradox to them.  I look forward to the day when all of these right wing groups get swept out of Washington, and I’m sure the democrats will happily pay moving expenses to move back to Wyoming or wherever they came from.  If all they have to attack the Obama administration are these tired horses such as this IRS so called scandal, and “Fast and Furious” and Bengazi, or perhaps that Obama is hostile tword the nation of Israel, I don’t know- - then these groups have zip and should just pack it in right now.

HERE ARE SOME OF GOVERNOR CHRISY'S REMARKS THIS MORNING

I will tell you, though, it's been written a lot over the last couple of days about what a tight-knit staff I have and how closely everyone works together, and that is true. And ever since the time I was U.S. attorney, I've engendered the sense and feeling among the people closest to me that we're a family, and we work together and we tell each other truth, we support each other when we need to be supported, and we admonish each other when we need to be admonished. I am heartbroken that someone who I permitted to be in that circle of trust for the last five years betrayed my trust.   I would never have come out here four or five weeks ago and made a joke about these lane closures if I had ever had an inkling that anyone on my staff would have been so stupid but to be involved and then so deceitful as to just -- just to not disclose the information of their involvement to me when directly asked by their superior. And those questions were not asked, by the way, just once; they were asked repeatedly.

On a personal note - - I plan to at least sharply reduce smoking in 2014 and am not entirely willing to give up all of the progress I made in those eight days I had no money at all to buy cigarettes.  In terms of the Cosmic Stuff and messages from Dead People - - as of now I plan to scale way back on this and have no immediate plans to do anything in this area.  What I hope to do if I can- - is to tie in some sort of Metaphysical or Cosmic Awareness- - to real life events that can be demonstrated- - both as to the wisdom of not believing "There are realms we don't know about" but also if possible some clue or Indication that "other realms" as such actually exist other than just my Word.  I guess I'm tired of doing the Johnny one note solo act.  I need to put my energy into things that are applicable into actually making me into a better person.