What happened to the old cartoon strips showing people painting themselves into a corner? I suppose most folks can no longer relate to varnishing or painting floors. But alas, it certainly comes to my mind considering the situation Obama has found himself in; he has in fact painted himself into a corner.

We can hope McCain will choose a VP people can have some confidence in, many of us realizing the Senator’s geriatric side is too much in evidence to expect him to carry the whole load. But as I was recently sharing with a friend, the Democrats are in such disarray one wonders how McCain can possibly lose no matter who he chooses as his running mate. As extreme as that sounds, it’s the way I see it.

Politicians are not noted for being artists, so I don’t wonder Obama has painted himself into a corner and wants to slide concerning his relationship with his mentor and spiritual advisor Wright and some others, that he wants a pass demanding Imus be fired while his own hypocrisy like that of Jackson and Sharpton be overlooked by voters. But this is not going to be overlooked by voters, and the more the MSM tries to spin in favor of Obama the more convinced voters are going to be he is a racist demanding his own double standard of Affirmative Action be applied in his favor. And should he win the Democrat nomination, which I very much doubt, things are going to become increasingly ugly.

The more charitable might think of the expression “Please be patient; God isn’t finished with me yet.” In this way some people have expressed the idea they are a work in progress and perfection should not be expected of them, that on the contrary mistakes are going to be made along the way as God attempts to smooth out the rough spots in people, the potter fashioning the clay. But the threats we are facing as a nation do not allow of much patience; the threats are real and real specifics addressing them, real action is demanded to be taken in the face of these growing threats.

But it may be our species is a “work in progress” by God and this would indicate he (she, or they) has a great deal of patience. The great works of sculpture like those of Michelangelo evidence not only the artistic genius, but the enormous patience of the artist. So if the universe is the work of God, as I believe, a work of Intelligent Design, it seems reasonable to me to suppose it began in the mind of the artist and each part of it requires not only the genius of the artist but extraordinary patience and an extraordinary amount of attention to detail. At that, even the greatest works of art upon close examination are going to show some imperfections. It is because of these imperfections real artists never believe they have done the best of which they are capable. And perhaps it is this way with God as well.

The Old Testament does grant the possibility of errors on the part of God, and there is the recurring theme of certain individuals being a disappointment to him, failing of his expectations of them. How very like family, these failings are; no perfect parents or children, aunts, uncles, and so on. All may be said to be works in progress ongoing to the time of their death, and in most cases a great deal of patience is required all along the way, both on the part of the persons for themselves as well as toward others.

When I was involved with the gun business a fellow brought me a new Browning semi-auto in .30-06 caliber. It was a beautiful rifle, but he wanted to trade it in for another gun. When I asked why he wanted to trade it he pointed to an infinitesimal scratch on the top of the receiver. He explained that while attempting to mount a scope he slipped with a screwdriver and made the scratch. This fellow was such a perfectionist that despite this being easily covered by bluing he would always know it was there, and this ruined the rifle for him. True story.

While inconceivable to most people, this fellow had what some might call a “fetish” concerning his demand for perfection; at least when it came to guns. I didn’t bother pointing out to him that if he looked closely enough he would find tool and machining marks in the finest gun ever made; that no gun existed that would fail to show such things upon close examination. But I did understand his explanation concerning the imperfection resulting from his own carelessness, and while some might call this a nearly psychotic reaction it is something to be found among many people about various things; it is even reflected in the story of the Deluge and God’s intention to destroy all of humankind.

My novel “Donnie and Jean, an angel’s story” is largely autobiographical. In the book I write about a stepfather that was a master machinist, and one of the things he could do was construct model airplane engines from the casting of the parts to the final machining of them. He especially loved to build model airplanes, and one that I recall was a beautiful model of a Piper Cub, so complete it had a joystick that would actually operate the control surfaces exactly like the real plane.

We lived at the time in a second story apartment in Cleveland, Ohio. When my stepfather had finished the model, he took it out to the back porch with me following. I thought he might try sailing it from the porch to the backyard as I had seen him do with some others. But no; to my utter consternation he set fire to the beautiful model and then tossed it from this upstairs porch! Why do people do such things? Maybe the stepfather demanded such perfection of his work he had to destroy the model because somewhere along the line it hadn’t measured up to his standard? I have read of similar incidents with artists and in a way this stepfather was such an artist.

America could do with an artist, and while we don’t really expect one as our next president and none are being offered neither would we want one so temperamental as to demand the kind of perfection exhibited by that stepfather or some “Hitler” that would destroy the nation because it failed to meet his standards. For the most part we Americans are pretty practical people; what we want is someone capable of doing the job. The job doesn’t have to be “perfect” by the standards of an artist, but it does have to be practical; and while we may appreciate artists we need someone practical.

“My head is made up!” I loved that line by William Bendix in “The Life of Riley,” and the program was a favorite of mine on radio during the 40s. Of course, there was also that signature line “What a revoltin’ development this is!” and “Digger” O’Dell “the friendly undertaker” always made us laugh. But that line “My head is made up!” reminded me of Obama’s speech and something in “To Kill A Mockingbird.”

When Calpurnia takes Scout and Jem to church with her Reverend Sykes welcomed the children, but she is upbraided by some in the congregation for bringing “white chillun” to their church. As one of them accusingly pointed out to Calpurnia “they got their church, we got our’n.”

After church the children are trying to make sense out of things. So Calpurnia tries to explain it by telling them “You’re not gonna change any of them by talkin’ right, they’ve got to want to learn themselves, and when they don’t want to learn there’s nothing you can do but keep your mouth shut or talk their language.” In other words, as per Chester A. Riley “their heads are made up.”

It was while my good friend Byron, the Episcopal Priest, and I were discussing the issue he gave me a very nice compliment saying I made a good apologist for Obama’s mentor and spiritual advisor Jeremiah Wright. From my own experience in places like Watts I had told Byron I understood the anger and hatred Wright had for Caucasians and America; that once you come face to face with the abject hopelessness and despair of those trapped in the ghettos of our nation you have to accept some of the ugly realities of the racism of Wright not learned in any softer fashion.

That Jeremiah Wright is voicing the hopelessness and despair of so many Negroes is understandable. But it would be a mistake to think Obama believes any differently now than during the twenty years he has attended Wright’s church. The leopard has not changed his spots no matter how hard he tries to disavow them, no matter how some in the MSM try to spin and defend Obama. There was no declaration of an epiphany from which he emerged changed, suddenly realizing he had been brainwashed for twenty years and all at once saw the Damascus light blazing about him.

However, anyone that belongs to an exclusive club and mixes only with those in such a club invariably becomes secluded from the real world about them. Such a fantasy world is commonly that of politicians, not excepting Obama, the wealthy and powerful, but also applies to those of fanatical religious beliefs that only associate and mix with those likeminded. Of such is Jeremiah Wright and those of his congregation like Obama.

But as an apologist for Wright I go back to the beginning of slavery in America, to Lincoln’s War and what happened during “Reconstruction,” the decisions by the Supreme Court and actions of politicians that increasingly made for the situation Negroes find themselves in today that have created those like Jeremiah Wright and his followers.

I have the utmost regard for Tyree Toliver, the pastor of St. John Missionary Baptist Church in Bakersfield for many years and have written about him several times, often tuning in to his broadcast Sunday mornings. His sincerity is so unfeigned as to remind me of the words of Jesus about Nathaniel, “Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile.”

Both Toliver and Wright know the conditions of Negroes in America, they both know the obstacles but Toliver preaches an old time Gospel message of hope and redemption devoid of any hatred while Wright preaches a “gospel” of hatred for Caucasians and America. The real difference is a matter of choice based on a point of view. But when someone’s “head is made up” and “when they don’t want to learn there’s nothing you can do but keep your mouth shut or talk their language.”

Some thirty years ago I read a very short article about an old fellow who was quite a storyteller. In old age he lived with his son and daughter-in-law but he had a group of youngsters including his grandchildren eager to hear his stories of the old west, of battles he had fought, of rustlers and gunslingers, cowboys and Indians, and the children would hang on his every word. But one day, his son brought home a TV and placed it in the living room where his aged father would sit and the children would gather about him to listen to his stories.

In no time at all it was that TV that captured the attention of the children, and the old man found he had lost the audience for his stories. A few weeks passed as the old fellow would sit there, trying to get used to this “monster” that had stolen away all he had that made life meaningful to him and had left him alone with none of the children any longer interested in either him or his stories. But one day, the old man couldn’t take it any longer. Drawing out an old “Peacemaker” he had carried for years while actually living the events of the past he would describe to the children he took aim and fired a bullet right through the TV screen.

It is impossible to calculate the loss to children of the storytellers that used to be a part of their growing up. Due in large part to TV very few children today are growing up exercising their imagination the way children of my time did, and there are very few parents now that were blessed with storytellers during their own childhood. And not a few my age can relate to the old fellow shooting that TV, something George Lucas obviously understood in his “RadioLand Murders.”

Harper Lee was correct about the storytelling tradition of the South. The opportunities to visit theaters, art galleries, museums, opera houses, the things the cities of the North had in abundance were scarce in many southern states where the average populations of towns might consist of only a few hundred people and “big cities” were few and far between. Harper Lee called attention to this, emphasizing how important storytellers were under such conditions, of how children would become so imaginatively inventive in creating their own “theater” in the games they would improvise, and how important reading was under such circumstances. Sinclair Lewis and others could poke fun at the provincialism, but the great southern writers like Harper Lee knew the depth of literary riches the small southern communities offered those with imagination encouraged by the storytelling tradition she referred to during the interview by Roy Newquist that appeared in his book of interviews, Counterpoint, published in 1964.

Ms. Lee observed “There are people who write, and then there are people who must write.” And among the latter those who must write bend their efforts to learn how to write well, serving a very long apprenticeship mastering the discipline of writing while devouring the very best of literature that will help guide them in their own writing. And those who have served the proper apprenticeship have learned how important the mechanical parts of language are in conveying their often complex thoughts in written expression, things such as making sure a comma is not lacking or misplaced for example, as well as paying close attention to things like syntax and choosing their words with the utmost care.

But storytelling such as Harper Lee and I knew and experienced as children along with writing of much let alone great value has fallen on hard times throughout America, even in Harper Lee’s beloved South due to the proliferation of TV and electronic devices that do not encourage imagination, human contact and interaction. The stories are there amongst some of us oldsters with a background like that of Harper Lee steeped in the traditions of the South and the stories that come out of such a rich heritage. But children no longer gather around to listen to our stories; the electronic media cannot take the place of storytellers like that old man or those to whom Harper Lee refers. Along with the loss of children reading good books, the loss of a literary heritage is the loss of the storytellers that once meant so much to making America the greatest nation in history.

Be of good cheer folks, read their lips: “This is not a bailout.” And we are also asked to believe open borders and all the trade policies of our government work in the favor of America, and in no time at all there is going to be a federal alchemist that is actually going to turn base metal into gold. No one has to believe in the divinity of Jesus to realize the truth of “the world loves its own.” Unhappily for most people, the world referred to is the dominion of Satan, and trade continues to curse all it touches.

Satan or not nothing has changed since it was first acknowledged those who have the gold make the rules, and they haven’t changed since the time of the old Robber Barons when J. P. Morgan pronounced his dictum putting things in perspective from Wall Street “The public be damned!” But J. P. only voiced the opinion of all those enjoying wealth and power when it comes to the “little people” who pay taxes: If God didn’t want them to be sheared he wouldn’t have made them sheep. Anything said to the contrary about this philosophy on the part of politicians is mere rhetoric.

There is a very good reason as well for the dictum “Religion is a means to keep the poor from killing the rich.” But suppose enough of the poor were following the preaching of Obama’s spiritual mentor and advisor? And suppose a Caucasian preacher favoring McCain or Clinton was to rise up in opposition preaching as forthrightly and loudly Jeremiah Wright’s brand of “balancing the scales of justice?” Who is so naïve as to think religion and race are not major factors in this election? “It’s the economy, stupid!” isn’t going to put the demons of religion and race to rest. On the contrary, they are fomenting factors to which the wealthy are paying great attention, using and manipulating these wherever useful to their purposes.

A story I recall from childhood emphasized something the ancient Egyptians believed and the Hebrews incorporated into their own belief system having to do with weighing a person’s heart in order to enter an afterlife. One of the descriptions of Satan from the Bible is his not only being the deceiver of humankind but “the accuser of the brethren.” It is in his capacity as the accuser the childhood story came to mind.

The Devil was disputing with God over the soul of a man that had just died and piled all his misdeeds on the scale where the man’s heart was being weighed. The Devil named off the many faults of the man, rightly accusing him of many things, loading his side of the scale with all these things. But God called the attention of Satan to the time when the man had saved a mule from dying in a deep pit of mud in which it had become mired. Satan scoffed, telling God the weight of that one good deed could not possibly tip the scale in the man’s favor. Then God began filling his side of the scale with all the mud from that pit until it tipped in the man’s favor and saved his soul.

For those of us who believe there is a God, it seems reasonable to suppose the way we see things is not always the way God does; which stands to reason since we could not be reasonably expected to even know our own hearts much of the time, and one of the more comforting passages of Scripture is where we are told if our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts. And I think of the mud pouring into that scale saving the man’s soul. He could not possibly know at the time the significance of that one good deed or the things God considered of importance to balance the scales of justice. But just perhaps, if we were able to do so maybe more of us would be “lighthearted” as the Egyptians had it, meaning a good heart, rather than condemning ourselves too harshly at times. Though the best advice continues to be “Keep thine heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.” And, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”

I suppose a good heart is preferable to great wealth and the trouble it brings. But I sure hope there is a pile of mud waiting when I die to tip the scale in my favor. Of this much I am certain; if such mud awaits me it won’t be the kind politicians roll in and use to gain power and wealth.

It’s a charming and fetching scene in “The Da Vinci Code” toward the end of the film when Audrey Tautou “tests” her foot on the surface of the water of that pool; then shaking her head in the negative turns with a smile toward Tom Hanks, and as she walks away says to him in farewell perhaps she will do better with the wine.

Miracles, if there are any such, are a never ending source of both contention and debate. Some of the better known stories of the Bible describe various miracles such as the ones Audrey refers to of Jesus walking on water and the turning of water into wine. The problem with miracles is the difficulty of replicating them in such a manner as to dispel doubt among skeptics. There are many instances in which something of the miraculous does in fact occur, things that defy any rational explanation, but they just don’t occur in such a manner they invite scientific scrutiny in the laboratory.

So I understand the punch line; would the flesh and blood descendant of Jesus destroy faith, or would she renew it? And I understand what matters is what you believe. The historic problem with beliefs is separating these from knowledge, and punishing those who do not share someone’s beliefs. This problem is not confined to the religious realm by any means but happens in many other areas of life, though religious beliefs for the most part have earned the infamous distinction of being the more detrimental to world peace. One might well include politics as being dangerous to world peace but politicians are not subject to any system of belief apart from their seeking their own self-interests, and readily change their position in a moment if it serves their self-interest. The same cannot be said of those that are fanatical about their religious beliefs.

I have asked myself the question if all the stories of miracles were removed from the Bible, what would be left and how would the stories of the Bible then read? The same question suggests itself about other stories throughout human history. How might things turn without stories of miracles, stories of various deities, witches, conjurors, seers, and shamans, without astrology and alchemists, and so many other similar things? Would we be the richer or poorer for the lack of these things; would the lack of them destroy faith or renew it? We might conclude there is a need for stories of the miraculous, things beyond any rational explanation, and further conclude it would depend on the story and how it is told.

But there is a difference between hope and belief. I hope there is a hereafter where I will rejoin my departed loved ones and friends, a place where all tears are wiped away, where love prevails and everything will be right with no place for injustice or inequities. But when I ask myself honestly whether I believe this I face some difficulty. I know death may be the end and that will be that. So, do I live in hope or belief? This is not an easy question to answer. And because I have difficulty with the question I have to suppose there are others who face a like difficulty. But I also know how a strongly held belief can confuse anyone looking for answers to such questions.

I believe we humans are spiritual beings; I believe there are angels and demons and the many myths and legends, many of the stories of miracles, have a factual basis. But when I examine my beliefs about such things I discover my hope of a hereafter as I describe is not contingent on these beliefs. It is a hope, and attempting to convince myself I believe this presents difficulties for me; so much so that I cannot conceive of punishing any who disagree with my beliefs. So what kind of “demon” drives some that will commit actual atrocities against those that do not share their beliefs? It is at that point my own beliefs concerning angels and demons come to the fore.

The consolations of religion are many, but the rational part of my mind declares those that believe they have a religious duty to punish any who disagree with them brings on those personal beliefs concerning angels and demons. And if I am to have angels and demons in my own belief system, then it must admit of miracles as well. This is where things become somewhat obscure once more. Do I hope there are in fact angels and demons, miracles, or do I really believe this?

The Bible describes faith as the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. But can you have hope that is not based on belief? Is faith a synonym for belief? Some suppose so; but I don’t find it necessarily so. The last verse of I Corinthians chapter 13 has it there abides faith, hope, and love, that the greatest of these is love. I certainly have no argument with the conclusion, but it seems the writer wanted to distinguish between faith, belief if you will, and hope. Perhaps the writer faced the same difficulty I have with hope and belief.

While I have experienced things miraculous, things that defy rational explanation, no part of my hope is based on these. Nor do I have any beliefs about such things I am willing to punish others who do not share a like belief. Ah, but when I lay my head on my pillow at night I go to sleep in hope. And it isn’t miracles or beliefs that get me through each day; it is hope. However, it is not the hope that things will eventually come right in a demon-haunted world, which I believe it to be, but in the world to come. Or as the Bible has it, hope that is seen is no longer hope. Opposed to beliefs that can injure yourself or others I don’t think anyone is made to suffer for hope.

It was fascinating to read the recent article about how baby sand dollars manage to survive. Ah, if only we humans had the same degree of intelligence. But we seem bent on proving we aren’t even as smart as baby sand dollars.

Once the dust has cleared perhaps Barack Hussein Obama will check into a celebrity rehab center and his wife will announce she is no longer proud of America. The people who hoped for real change through Obama have my genuine sympathy; but now that he has made himself a pathetic figure asking everyone to believe the unbelievable about many years of the relationship with his mentor, the unabashedly racist Jeremiah Wright, he is doomed. His attempts at disavowal have made him appear not only pathetic but willing to sacrifice anyone, even his closest friends, in seeking power. No one can survive the issue of hypocrisy and betrayal of trust on such a scale. Obama is now thoroughly discredited and tarred with the racist brush and he can’t escape it. If he ever had a chance at the nomination, which I very much doubt, that is now gone.

Well, there may very well be riots but little can be done about that; it is just too easy to fan the fires of racial hatreds. Much like the cries to impeach Bush and bring the troops home now to secure our borders some things just seem unpreventable or beyond our power to accomplish. And given the immense power of the money interests on a global scale controlling our government it would seem such unrest as with the refusal to secure our borders for the sake of slave labor serves the purpose of these interests. It’s all well and good to point out knowledge is power, but without wisdom knowledge only becomes a tool of those with the power of wealth making knowledge a servant to their purposes.

Giving him credit for his avowed purpose to make knowledge the servant of wisdom, this would explain the assassination of John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert. But we have come to such a sorry pass as a nation that not only do we not know the truth of these assassinations, we have been lied to for so long and on such a massive scale no one knows when those in our government are telling the truth about anything. If there are in fact conspiracies involved with things like the Kennedy’s and 9/11 they are on such a scale as to leave us numb with incomprehension, that such evil on such a scale could exist in America! We accept such things commonly happen in third world countries, but in America? Unthinkable!

Well, not really. There was such a time in America, but not anymore. And especially not in an America when gold hits $1,000 an ounce, oil is well over $100 a barrel and our government is so blatantly in bed with moneylenders while bread and milk are becoming “luxury” items for ordinary working Americans. And given a government that has proven itself to be capable of lying on a massive scale, without any accountability to ordinary Americans but takes care of its own it isn’t any wonder few of us are not willing to credit conspiracy theories of some kind.

But it is a great weariness to write of such evil over which none of us have any control; the masters and rulers throughout human history have never deviated from an evil course in pursuing power and wealth, and those having the rule over America are of kind. So, how about a different kind of conspiracy, one in which scientists and archeologists conspire to withhold the truth?

As though reports of UFOs and government cover-ups about these were not enough to cause speculation, all those squared stones used in walls and monuments of the past just could not have been done by humans without some “outside” help. This might be considered a flight of fancy on my part, a welcome diversion from the evil men do threatening to ruin America, but there is just something about watching programs viewing the stone walls and monuments of the ancient past that causes me no little consternation.

Many of you have watched programs dealing with the issues of Atlantis including the one in the sea off the coast of Japan. There have been many computer generated images of Minoan architecture along with “reconstructed” castles, the cities of the Mayans and so on. My own fascination with ancient Egyptian culture and monuments like the three pyramids of Giza has led to my questioning the theories of those purporting to be “experts” about such things, and the attempts to demonstrate how such things might have been done are for the most part very unconvincing.

I’ve had a lot of experience in the building trades, and I am expert in masonry. But when I see videos of walls and structures built of very large, squared stones I am nonplussed. How many of you have ever taken a large stone weighing about a hundred pounds and tried to shape it into a smooth rectangular shape? Then try to imagine doing this to a thousand such stones for a wall or other structure. I can envision a few hundred laborers working like ants to do something like this, but it seems improbable all these hundreds are skilled masons.

Like the various theories of how those three pyramids of Giza may have been built and how great obelisks were set in place none of these make any practical sense to me. And when attempts are made to demonstrate such things on a smaller scale, they fall far short of being the real thing, much like comparing a kite with a modern airliner.

I can’t bring myself to believe those who have dedicated their lives to science and archeology are involved with a vast conspiracy. But neither can I accept many of the theories I read and programs we see on TV as “explanations” for some things that simply make no sense according to the theories offered. Every once in a while something pops up to tell us ancient people had access to technology not thought possible to them.

It was fascinating to read the recent article about how baby sand dollars have learned to survive; and I couldn’t help thinking that if only we humans were capable of exercising the same degree of intelligence as a baby sand dollar we wouldn’t be bending our efforts toward “bigger and better” means of our extinction as a species, but rather would be attempting to be more user friendly toward our planet and dedicating more of our efforts to understanding how those thousands of stones were squared off and proving we can be just as smart as baby sand dollars.

Historically, men having power over women do not want to legalize prostitution since this is a device to maintain male dominance. So, call the woman a “whore” but men get a pass. Make it a felony for women to solicit sex for money, but for men willing to pay and they get arrested it is only a misdemeanor any other mitigating factors aside. In just this manner women are not equal with men, women are considered of lesser value than men. The patent injustice of such a thing is there for all to see; but women should get smart to the fact that men want it this way in order to maintain their dominance over women.

Recent events having to do with prostitution are justification to repeat something I wrote back in January, 2007. Now, perhaps, more people are willing to admit the reasonableness of my suggestions back then:

When I wrote an article questioning whether marijuana is now Kern County’s real cash crop few dared respond to that. But as the noose tightens around the quasi-legal dispensaries statewide we have to wonder where the money trail leads for a failed and phony “war on drugs?” But you know, I have written about this for so many years now it just doesn’t seem to be worth the effort any longer. If I’m going to tilt at windmills, I would like to leave a Quixotic legacy of my vision for making my hometown of Bakersfield the envy of merely pretentious people that roll their eyes over any mention of Btown by my continuing to suggest to the city fathers that turning the Padre Hotel into a world class pleasure palace is the right thing to do.

I deign to say if a poll were taken most people would agree politicians are whores. But in my opinion this is demeaning and degrading to “working girls,” since there is really no honest comparison. Politicians treat elected office as a license to steal; they enjoy the drugs and prostitutes they treat as perks coming with election all the while denying such things to We the People. We even see celebrities facing charges that politicians routinely escape.

There is no denying the hypocrisy of the whole thing. Neither is there any motive but money in denying We the People the same perks like drugs and prostitutes politicians demand as though they were the only truly privileged class in America. But then, I remind myself that one of the benefits of old age and having no empire to protect is being able to speak my mind. No one has to listen. But now honestly; what real argument can be made against my suggestion for the Padre? For those at least mildly interested in my proposal for the Padre, here is a brief recap of a few things I wrote to justify my position:

January 21, 2007

A kindly word for the “working girl”

One of the things I would like to see here in the Kern River Valley and in downtown Bakersfield is a “gentleman’s club,” you know, a brothel. But not just a whorehouse, an upscale nicely appointed palace of vice right out of a Hollywood production. Ideally these places would also provide marijuana legally. Such establishments properly regulated and taxed would be a real boon to local economies.

For that very small minority that might object to such a thing, consider the fact Walt Kelly made so clear in Pogo when discussing the presidential elections a “Vice Party” was suggested and Churchy asks Owl, “Deep down, wouldn’t you be for vice too … given the chance?” My dear brothers and sisters, no matter how you slice it a Vice Party is exactly what both Republicans and Democrats represent. Were these honest vice parties I would find no fault in that. But one of the problems I have with this is politicians of every stripe allow of every kind of vice among themselves including prostitution and illegal drugs, often at taxpayer expense, but hypocritically deny these vices to We the People! And quite frankly this makes me mad as hell! Why should the very vices politicians treat as their personal domain coming with elected office be made illegal and denied ordinary American citizens?

While historians and behavioral scientists have not made it much of an issue, sexual frustration may account for many of the wars of men as well as many of the more noble achievements. After all, for many men and women a cold shower just does not suffice; and much of our history as a species may well be understood in the light of sexual frustration on the part of both men and women.

Now I am all for traditional marriage and families as the foundation of all civilized societies. I am a staunch supporter of the sanctity of marriage, the sacredness of the marriage bed. But I am at least equally opposed to the kind of hypocrisy that denies sex is a normal function of the human species and makes it a crime for relieving one’s sexual frustration by simple mechanism of economics. There is all this foofaraw over abortion, so many women claiming they have the right to determine what to do with their own bodies while at the same time denying the “working girl” the same right. And what of the men in Congress and elsewhere that legislate and pass laws self-righteously denying women this right to their own bodies? Hypocrites!

The right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness should have included prostitution. After all, this was thriving at the time of the Founding Fathers, it was quite acceptable in most of the civilized societies at the time and throughout history, and it is doubtful the early years of our government could have been successful without a plentiful supply of bordellos. If our early legislators did not see these establishments as threatening to home and hearth, what happened to change their minds? All the other biological functions of the body are carefully attended, enormous amounts being spent on bathrooms for example, why the normal function of sex is suppressed is the stuff of history and books by the thousands...

However, the historical male dominance that makes whores of women while men have escaped any such pejorative appellation, at the same time denying the same right to women hiring themselves a man to satisfy their normal sexual desire, does make for the steamy novels, plays and films that take full advantage of this dichotomy in most cultures. And the refusal of men to accept women on the same basis they excuse themselves makes for an industry where women pander to the lust of men, making fools of men in the process. But men seem to excuse their foolishness in this regard while penalizing women and holding them in contempt. Consider the man playing the fool exclaiming “I never had to pay for it!” as though that was a proclamation of his “manhood.”

Since I am known as a writer of humor, it was gratifying to receive so many notes from people who got a laugh out of my suggesting I would like to see a “gentlemen’s club” in downtown Bakersfield. While many people commenting understood the significance of my support for legalizing prostitution and treated it with the seriousness such a thing deserves, it was the name “Bakersfield” being associated with a fancy, legal whorehouse that tickled not a few funny bones. And by golly, I’m tired of Bakersfield being the butt of derisive jokes having this image problem and propose doing something about it!

While I was born in Weedpatch, I have always considered Bakersfield my hometown. And I have fond memories of the Dust Bowl folks among whom I was raised, many fond memories of our little church and grocery store on the corner of Cottonwood and Padre, and I know firsthand the kind of nobility associated with the best of those Okies and Arkies with their polite southern manners and speech so characteristic of long held traditions of such things.

But let’s face it folks, when anyone says “Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Malibu, San Francisco” these names conjure up a certain image. And, when anyone says “Bakersfield” this conjures up a certain image; and it certainly is quite distinct from that of the other cities mentioned. And people are not going to confuse CSUB with Stanford or Berkeley. However, perhaps because of my being born in Weedpatch I may be a tad more conscious of and sensitive to the name of one’s birthplace, and maybe that has something to do with my sticking up for Bakersfield. That said I do understand the importance of perception, and I want to do my bit in changing the perception of Bakersfield. And in my opinion a world-class brothel in Bakersfield would do exactly this.

When confronted by God, Adam was quick to blame both God and Eve for his transgression: “The woman you gave me; she did it!” And ever since that time women have borne the brunt of the curse all the while “seducing” and “defiling” men and called by many men and their religions “unclean” and “a sin by definition.”

Harper Lee had some marvelous insights about religion in her masterful novel “To Kill A Mockingbird,” in which she has Aunt Maudie pointing out to little Scout how some fundamentalist preachers denounced women as “a sin by definition.” Then to emphasize this, Harper Lee has Scout asking Aunt Maudie “Is that why Mr. Arthur stays in the house, to keep away from women?” Aunt Maudie replies, “I’ve no idea.” She goes on to explain “… but sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whiskey bottle in the hand of—oh, of your father.” When Scout protests her father never drank whiskey in his life, Aunt Maudie replies in explanation that men like Scout’s father Atticus at their worst were better than some men at their best.

An old friend of many years once wrote me he thought women confused sex and religion. As I thought about that it occurred to me women do seem to have a predilection for “men of the cloth,” and as I began to write about this, putting some of my speculations and conclusions on the subject in my book “Birds With Broken Wings,” one of the reasons for women being such easy targets for the clergy goes all the way back to The Fall. The story of Eve tempting Adam and his succumbing resulting in God’s curse upon all humankind has made women as the temptresses and the cause of such trouble throughout human history looking for a way to cleanse themselves of their being “a sin by definition.” And there is the ancient legend of “Lilith,” the seductive wiles of Delilah, Jezebel, and so many others to add fuel to the smoldering passions leading men astray concluding women are a sin by definition.

Now Mr. Arthur, Boo Radley, was the neighborhood boogeyman, someone children were warned to stay far away from. But Harper Lee must have taken delicious delight in having little Scout ask Aunt Maudie whether this neighborhood madman stayed in his house in order to keep away from women so as to stay pure and not to commit sin with them and cheat himself of his chances at going to heaven. I can just imagine how Harper Lee loved putting that question on the lips of little Scout to Aunt Maudie; talk about getting in a proper jab at the Bible Thumpers, professional “Celibates” and Pulpiteers across America!

But, who better to get close to than some rabbi, priest, or preacher as a way for women getting closer to God and wash away their sins? That this sometimes results in the preacher running off with the choir director is almost legendary. So it was my old friend mentioned how women sometimes confuse sex and religion, and this too often is the case.

So, when someone like Governor Spitzer falls prey to a smoldering temptress who are we to judge him harshly? Well, maybe because like Harper Lee the stench of hypocrisy and mendacity surrounding such men is more than we can bear and we recognize the preacher is the one at fault; not the choir director. And we know the Bible in the hand of some men is worse than a whiskey bottle in the hand of some others.

Several things in my opinion are not wrong, but they sure are illegal. Drugs, gambling, prostitution, but where would those like Governor Spitzer be without these things being illegal, how would Al Capone and The Godfather have made a living? Of course, when something is illegal those on the wrong side of the tracks breaking the law do time and politicians like Spitzer et al. usually get a pass, and if all money laundering schemes were abolished I doubt any politician could possibly survive. It’s just as well I’m not in control of things because I would abolish capital punishment, make marijuana and prostitution legal and require mandatory birth control for those unable to provide a proper home for children.

What I wish both liberals and conservatives would do is go after businesses like Countrywide that as far as I am concerned are really into money laundering, something I mentioned in WG when the ads began appearing. When you have hundreds of billions of dollars worldwide coming in from illegal sources, a primary reason for politicians refusing to secure our borders, you must have a number of entities to wash the money and many of those in the United Nations are in my opinion complicit. After all, the love of money doesn’t have any scruples or recognize any borders or other limitations.

Here in America, apart from the mortgage money lending scams, don’t you wonder about some of those commercials and know in your bones they simply can’t be selling enough of that junk to turn a profit? Moneylenders are infamous for extortion, but what about the junk peddlers? Ever ask yourself how some of these outfits including those at the local level, I refrain from mentioning some in Kern County, are selling enough merchandise to afford those endless commercials? Sometimes when viewing these I get the feeling TV stations are in a “don’t ask, don’t tell” mode concerning advertisers.

But just try to get a handle on the whole real estate business and you are soon drowning in a sea of paperwork designed to obscure the trail of slime and money laundering that includes everything from the lowest real estate peddlers to architectural combines, the construction industry, escrow and title companies, all of which have bought politicians and judges at the local, state, and federal levels; and sometimes, albeit rarely, one of these is caught and brought to justice; though more often those like the Clintons and Whitewater get a pass and Bill hands out pardons wholesale in the end. But the Clintons, Bush, Cheney, et al. are just symptoms of the disease and such is the way of the world we live in.

Speaking of the United Nations, eight years ago when I proposed a Constitutional amendment to protect children from molesters I enquired of the UN whether any nation in the world had a provision in their foundational charter of government directed specifically to the welfare of children. Not surprisingly, none have any such provision. Because of this I eventually became involved with UNICEF because a few thinking people realized after doing the research this was a rather unusual situation and it aroused their curiosity. It isn’t often someone approaches the organization with an original query. But as things began to unravel because of so many scandals and money laundering schemes, I lost all confidence in those at the UN and UNICEF being genuinely concerned for the welfare of children.

If you don’t read The Huffington Post you are missing something good. Unlike Ann Coulter, Arianna has never asked to be removed from the mailing list for The Weedpatch Gazette; and, after all, even Alec Baldwin is capable of making real sense at times and Arianna has done a terrific job of garnering some of the best and brightest to her publication.

For example, this morning I went to Jamie Lee Curtis’ brief article about looking up rather than down and really enjoyed her simple and direct writing about the problem of too many devices in our lives that prevent eye contact, human to human communication. And though Jamie did question parenthetically whether there ever were any “good old days,” my being old enough to pronounce on this I can assure her that when it comes to human communications there were indeed some good old days in which this took place; but you have to go back to an age before TV to really appreciate this having been the case, a time when children and adults read good books and magazines, listened to radio, saw really good films, and so forth. These things gave us all something to talk about, and there was a far greater sense of “community” at that time in America than there is now.

Admittedly I have a pretty dim view of the world; and especially of America’s prospects for the future. But those of us raised in Norman Rockwell’s America, the nation that fought and won WWII and reflected in the values of Little House on the Prairie, The Waltons, and Mayberry had every reason to believe in the future of America. But to all the “Toto’s” out there, we aren’t in Kansas anymore. How well I recall seeing the Wizard of Oz when it was released; sheer, wondrous magic for me; but I can’t go back to 1939 and see it for the first time again; however, as with the America I recall from so long ago how I wish I were able to do so.

“Cabin in the Sky” was a very memorable experience for me. I saw the film at the Fox Theater in Bakersfield when it was released in 1943, and as a youngster the impact on my imagination was considerable. Being born and raised among Christian Fundamentalists and grandad being the preacher in our small Little Oklahoma church on the corner of Cottonwood and Padre in southeast Bakersfield I had considerable Bible learning with which to assess the film, and a pretty good understanding of it throughout. Grandad’s thunderous preaching of hellfire and damnation had made a mighty impression on me, so I was rooting for Gabriel, Little Joe, and Petunia throughout the movie.

It was easy for me to relate to the business of Lucifer Junior and Gabriel doing battle for the soul of Little Joe and Petunia doing everything she could to thwart Junior’s plans, and the scene of the Devil’s headquarters with all that refrigeration equipment reminded me of my grandparents’ ice house on the corner of 4^th and Chester downtown; though the teaching I had received about hell being a place of fire and brimstone did cause me to wonder about the Devil and his minions needing such an icebox to be comfortable. I had the idea hell filled with flames was the Devil’s proper abode.

Just goes to show how things can get a little mixed up in a child’s mind when it comes to religious instruction. The Lake of Fire is where the Devil and his angels along with all those damned to perdition are going to end up; so why wouldn’t that refrigeration be appropriate to hell’s headquarters while concocting plans to get the soul of Little Joe? But this still jarred with the idea of hell being the Devil’s domain and his being comfortable in the heat without need of air conditioning. Then to confuse matters further, there is the Bible teaching of the lost being cast into outer darkness. This doesn’t seem to jibe with the flames of hell. Well, the thousands of books, literally, written on the subject have only added to the confusion, which, given it is all speculation anyhow is understandable.

To be fair, it isn’t just religion that becomes confusing about things like heaven and hell; just try to make sense of our own government. I’ll say it again; politics is a dirty business, it attracts only those that want power and authority over others, something no truly good person wants, it appeals to many of the worst traits in human beings and no truly good person wants to become a politician. Politics is a dirty business and it appeals to dirty people that lie to get elected and lie to stay elected, reflecting the opinion of Sam Clemens that an honest politician “is one that hasn’t had time to sell out.” But I go a step further in saying the person has to sell out in order to become elected in the first place, something with which Emerson and Thoreau agreed; and upon further reflection I am sure Sam would have agreed as well.

But I never think of politicians among the “saved” or any of those that are going to escape the flames of hell, or that outer darkness whatever it may consist of. Politicians are among the “lost” of the Bible in my opinion. Jesus said not many are going to be saved, a pretty grim assessment, and I doubt there will be any politicians among them.

However, when it comes to the distinction between saved and lost my mind is drawn to the parable of the Sower and I keep thinking about seed and life. Studies of Soteriology include not only the doctrine of Free Will but that of Election as well, Predestination as some have it. But just who are these “elect” of Scripture? It is virtually impossible to come to agreement on the issue as the literally thousands of books on these subjects bear witness; whole schools of theology have grown up around the issues oftentimes setting “brother against brother” in the process.

The matter of “nurturing a tender conscience” as the Scripture has it requires an effort of the will. But where does this leave those like babies that have not matured to that stage where they can even consider matters of conscience? Now if I were farming I would not choose to plant foxtails, however in thinking about the universe filled with galaxies I do wonder about the Sower of these, if in fact the universe itself is not a reflection of the enemy in the Parable of the Tares coming in under the cloak of darkness and sowing foxtails in the lot. Maybe Jesus was really on to something in this, since in the end the angels are sent in to separate the good from the bad.

This is how I view the world, that both good and bad seed are planted. Some seed does not have the germ of life, some never produce fruit for one reason or another, some grow to be politicians or the monsters that prey on women and children, the tyrants and despots of history. But as Jesus pointed out, every tree is known of its fruit and you don’t expect both bitter water and sweet from the same fountain. And this is how I view politicians in particular.

It was in all seriousness I wrote some five years ago of the coming “Hoovervilles” once more to America. At the time I wrote about this I recalled the Economics professor many years ago who told me it wasn’t like Herbert Hoover got up one morning, looked out his window at the White House and said to himself, “My, it looks like a nice day to ruin the country.”

Well, it didn’t take prescience on my part to consider the coming ruin of America; a lot of us university types of the maverick persuasion involved with brainstorming the problems besetting our nation recognized the familiar patterns of history and knew America could not possibly immunize itself from human nature or the path of all tyrants once they gain power over the masses. But I was, and continue to be one of the few that see not only the coming Hoovervilles once more, but those concentration camps and troops guarding our borders as well. Oh, it isn’t that others don’t see these camps and troops coming but many of them are fearful of addressing the issue. I’m not more courageous than they are; I just don’t have family, fortune, or position to be threatened and as a consequence have a lot less to lose by doing so.

There can be no doubt all of us would be somewhat more settled in our minds if we believed those in our government were in their right minds. But there is little to assure us of this actually being the case; in fact, it would be easier for me to consider them being in the majority lunatics. What other group of people like those 545 having the rule over us anywhere else in the world would fail to be considered incapable of tying their own shoelaces let alone running the affairs of a nation? But in all fairness, our major problem is a collective one in which we appear to have 545 lunatics rather than just one or two calling the shots. As to conspiracies, ah, then it comes to a possible 545 lunatics being the masters of 300 million people unable to deal with the lunatics. Now that would appear to be a well developed conspiracy or just plain crazy!

Don’t you love that part of the film “Independence Day” when the admission is made that reports about Area 51 and hidden flying saucers being a fiction is “not entirely accurate.” What; a conspiracy not only to hide things of such magnitude from the Great Unwashed but from the President? Unthinkable! Well, of course, that part about the President is pretty unthinkable. Unless you factor in someone like Bush, and then you begin to believe his handlers don’t trust him with anything sharper than a rubber ball and Laura ties his shoelaces for him.

But when it comes to conspiracies, of course Tony Blankley reads The Weedpatch Gazette otherwise he wouldn’t be quoting me about the “Promised Fence” along our southern border will not be built because Republicans in Congress want the cheap (slave) labor from Mexico and Democrats want the votes of these slaves. But if Tony had really been paying attention he would have realized I had pointed out in WG the Triumvirate cabal comprised of all 545 members of the ruling class of America want all Americans to be wage slaves, and he never mentioned the Roman Church wants all those good Catholics from Mexico to bolster its numbers and coffers, which have been somewhat depleted since pervert priests are being sued by their victims.

Well, not to give either myself or Tony too much credit this whole thing about a promised fence was typical of the feather merchants in DC, and no one should have taken it seriously from the beginning. As to suggestions of a “conspiracy,” well, telling the story of the wholesale betrayal of America and selling out our nation to the highest bidder by politicians and their corporate bosses intent on globalization for power and profit has been an ongoing refrain by many including me for quite some time.

But rather than tag this betrayal of America as a conspiracy, I’ve taken the tack this bunch betraying our nation are either lunatics or servants of Satan, doing his bidding which would be the destruction of America. From my point of view, America has long been a thorn in Satan’s side since liberty and freedom are antithetical to his diabolical purposes. But then, aren’t these antithetical to all tyrants and despots throughout human history? So, what need of considering Satan when the results are the same whether or not? Well, perhaps because it makes it easier for me to name a specific protagonist rather than spread myself too thin. And, too, even for me it’s difficult to believe all 545 of our masters are in fact lunatics. All of them evil yes, all of them lunatics no.

It wouldn’t have gotten the attention of the local media as one of our deputies having to shoot a dog mauling him, but a dear friend here in Bodfish was attacked by a turkey the other day. Of course, some will think about that rabbit threatening Jimmy Carter, nevertheless anyone that knows anything about Nature red in tooth and claw knows there is always the unexpected. And when it comes to critters they are full of surprises, and this includes turkeys. Alfred Hitchcock would have had fun with that.

As my friend explained it, she was walking up the street to visit a neighbor when from out of nowhere this large turkey suddenly attacked, pecking her so badly it left bruises. Anyone with experience around these large birds knows they are capable of inflicting some damage, but you don’t expect one to suddenly appear on a residential street and attack you. Some of us have experienced what geese can do in such a manner, but such incidents usually occur in a barnyard.

Come to find out, the turkey belonged to someone living down the block that also had chickens, but keeping such livestock in my friend’s neighborhood is not permitted by law. Nevertheless, the fellow had them. A can of pepper spray would have come in handy, but why should anyone walking on a residential street expect a turkey to attack them? Dogs yes, but a turkey? Just goes to show, you simply never know how to prepare for everything. I suppose you would be wearing body armor and carrying a machine gun these days “just in case;” but while the law may be lax when it comes to having turkeys not so with machine guns. In fact, many places prohibit even carrying a can of pepper spray.

But some years ago my grandfather shot a bobcat in his backyard. This would not be so remarkable had he not been living in Redondo Beach at the time. For those of you familiar with the good old South Bay of SoCal, you know firing off guns there is generally frowned upon; but so are bobcats in that location. As it turned out, someone thought it was keen to have a “pet” bobcat; and one night it wound up in grandad’s chicken coop. And yes, he wasn’t supposed to be keeping chickens; but hearing the disturbance grandad went out gun in hand, and seeing the bobcat in his chicken coop plugged the critter between the headlights.

The neighbor was somewhat bent by grandad shooting his pet bobcat, but with grandad having proven his ability and willingness to shoot wasn’t inclined to press too hard. But this left the cops, who had been called because of neighbors hearing the gunshot, with a tough case. As it turned out, the boys were smart enough to let it go. The guy should never have had a bobcat and grandad shouldn’t have had chickens, and he shouldn’t have been shooting a gun in his backyard. But sometimes, when the police are left to their own discretion a sense of fair play prevails; and none of them wanted to face the pile of paperwork that would ensue.

Well, life in the country here in the Kern River Valley can get interesting at times. The turkey incident called to mind the time I was awakened just before dawn by something trouncing on my roof. It turned out to be a marauding flock (11) of peacocks. What to do? By the time I had contacted the various agencies concerning the problem I wasn’t sure whether I was going to be arrested for making a crank peacock call. Fortunately for me, in about three days the flock disappeared; I figured they had gone back to San Francisco or some other likely location. But not even Animal Control would tell me if peacocks migrated in such a fashion, and when I asked whether they were good eatin’ I was sternly warned against shooting the critters.

Anyhow, the story was so good by the time I finished writing about it that it was featured with a full page spread in the Kern Valley Sun complete with colorful peacock pictures, though I’m still not sure whether the local deputies and those at Animal Control do not continue to view me with suspicion as the guy that makes crank peacock calls. But if you don’t think peacocks can be a problem, you have never heard one of these critters go off like the demonical shriek of a dozen cats with their tails trod on!

I do recall thinking about peacock repellant at the time; was there such a thing on the market? Alas, after the peacocks left of their own volition, whether to NBC or San Francisco, I didn’t think about it any further. But the turkey attacking my friend called this to mind once more. And then I also remembered the “Mormon Repellant.”

A high school student of mine years ago was a talented artist; and he was given to drawing cartoon features much like the Chick booklets favored by Christian Fundamentalists. One strip he drew showed a man running off some Mormons with a spray can of Mormon Repellant. It was supposed to do good service with JW’s as well or any other funny book peddlers disturbing people in their homes. But my calling his attention to such a thing being a tad overzealous the young fellow realized such cartooning was in poor taste and repented of his wickedness, nevertheless the thought of such repellant remained with me.

Carrying the thought further, wouldn’t a can of politician repellant be kind of neat? Of course, the ideal would be having such repellant that would work by simply spraying it at your TV screen; but not even SciFi has progressed to that ideal as yet. In the meantime, there is still an attack turkey out there to contend with, and I’m not sure what will come of that. However, if it chances to wind up in my backyard, well, I’m not sure about peacocks but I know turkeys are good eatin’ and I’m still pretty handy with my Beretta.

When the perps aren’t driving police squad cars into the lake it is nice to remember the Kern River Valley is host to a wide variety of butterflies and birds, so much so that our area is called the butterfly “Mecca” of California and birders throughout the world come here every year to view our feathered friends. Living here over so many years it is easy to take such things for granted, but I know we shouldn’t; such grandeur our valley offers should never be taken for granted.

Unfortunately, crime is increasing as per the recent episode of the squad car winding up in the lake. The picture in the papers shows the car very clearly; but a good friend told me only the antennae of the car could be seen at first but this made it easy to spot, hastening the retrieval. I thought a picture showing only the antennae would be a nice touch.

Beauty is no joke, and those who appreciate beauty don’t make jokes about it. It is one of the reasons I have never liked sexual “humor,” most often directed at women as objects rather than persons. There are few things so dehumanizing as making women, or men for that matter, the target of jokes relating to sex. If you think about it, no politician could survive being made an object of jokes, which easily lap over into outright ridicule. So why would people be given to jokes that ridicule women and beauty?

Walt Kelly had it we joke about things we don’t understand; death for example. But there is no joking about beauty; like life itself it just is, and wherever we find beauty there is mystery as well, which while fascinating is no joking matter.

As I recently shared with a very dear friend, many of the mysteries that I am compelled to study and turn over in my mind appear as though I were viewing them through a kaleidoscope, and though often very beautiful don’t really make much sense. Still, like the butterflies and marvelously colored birds hereabouts some of the mysteries I am compelled to examine and study can be appreciated for their beauty. The major flaw with all beauty is that of too close inspection; you do not appreciate a great work of art for example by viewing it through a microscope. Yet, there are things of such minute structure their real beauty can only be appreciated by using a microscope to examine them.

Fresh, green leaves are beautiful. But when I was a boy and got my first microscope one of the things I examined was a fresh leaf from a grapevine. To my amazement I could actually see fluid pulsing through the veins of that leaf! It was then the full realization dawned on me that plants were indeed living things, and the inner beauty of that leaf came actually alive through my microscope. But it was a form of beauty not to be appreciated in the same manner as some manmade work of art; this was beauty of an entirely different sort, the beauty of the Creator no matter the attempts of religion to claim or define such a Creator for themselves, as though beauty and definitions of beauty belonged to any one individual or group of individuals.

But it often occurs to me that not everyone appreciates beauty; in fact there are too many dedicated to the destruction of beauty, that will deface it at every opportunity. Some out of ignorance or envy, some maliciously out of real hatred for beauty. So, I count my blessings that I live in an area with an abundance of natural beauty, but increasingly this beauty is marred by those that will drive a police squad car into the lake because they seem never to have learned, or don’t care to know we humans are responsible for beauty and are its caretakers.

Sure, there are those who will fault the cops for such a thing to happen; some will even get a chuckle out of the event. But in the broader view, here is where the kaleidoscope comes into play attempting to make sense of the picture as you turn the device around, enjoying the beautiful display of colored patterns emerging all the while knowing there are those that are the enemies of beauty, but also knowing there is a purposeful design to all things beautiful whether we appreciate the designs and their Creator or not.

The verse from Proverbs (4:23) is good advice; but it presupposes one has a heart to keep. I’ve been reluctant to point out the obvious, but here goes: Politicians don’t have a heart. Or, perhaps to be more accurate they don’t have a soul.

Emerson labored mightily with his ideas of the “Over Soul,” but in the end he could not help but give in to some confusion common to transcendental thinking. But it is difficult to divorce our minds from such thinking if we confine ourselves to humans comprised of body, soul, and spirit since there is confusion about where the heart is in such a definition. Whatever it is that animates at birth and departs at death is generally thought to be the spirit, but the soul is what the Bible declares needs “saving.”

However, where does the spirit belong in this? Again, the Bible has it that the spirit quickens, gives life, that the flesh profits nothing; but what of the soul? That seems somewhat indistinct when trying to separate what the terms heart, soul, and spirit really mean. Oftentimes the terms are used interchangeably, and one would be hard pressed to attempt being exact because of the confusion often resulting from such interchanging of terms.

The Genesis account has it God breathed the breath of life into the Adam and he became a living soul. Without getting into the discussion of male and female the distinction is God is a spirit, and through his spirit gave the Adam a soul through this spirit. The theological case is that only humans have souls as opposed to the beasts of the field. But what the soul is, exactly, this is not defined. But the Scripture has it, “The soul that sins shall die.” However, when it comes to heart, soul, and spirit the terms are quite confusing because they are not exact. Can there be anything with a claim to having soul without having heart? Can anything be “spirited” in the best sense of the word without heart and soul?

It is confusing. And when it comes to how many angels can dance on the head of a pin to read the many theological twists and dancing on the issue of heart, soul, and spirit is a labyrinth of obfuscatory reasoning, and just where does the “mind” come into the discussion? Ah; now it becomes even more confusing. We can leave the Bible and theology to struggle best they can and resort to our dictionaries. But lo and behold; even these leave us with confusion! Well, in an attempt to sort through the confusion I have concluded politicians have neither hearts nor souls. That’s just to cover my bases; and if they once had souls, then I conclude they fall into the category of Faust.

So, I am willing to entertain the notion politicians had souls with which to bargain with Satan, and he may be in the business of collecting souls, though to what purpose is anyone’s guess. What would the Devil do with them? More to the point, just what value would you put on the soul of a politician? Anyone have change for a penny?

No matter how you try to define your soul, what about babies? Do babies have souls? The Roman Church grappled with the question and came up with the doctrine of “Limbo.” But Pope Benedict XVI called for a commission to consider this doctrine. After long hearings and discussion it was concluded baptism was essential for salvation, but with a caveat. Father Paul McPartlan, a British priest and a member of the commission, said: "We cannot say we know with certainty what will happen to unbaptised children but we have good grounds to hope that God in his mercy and love looks after these children and brings them to salvation."

Ok, so the church didn’t take up the question about politicians. But babies and very young children simply had to have a place in the theology of the Roman Church. For my part, the theologians of the church should have paid more attention to the “age of accountability” than caving to putting the whole affair off on God. But the theologians of the Roman Church are not dummies; these are exceptionally well educated and intelligent men. However, it is for this reason that despite the Pope himself being such an intelligent scholar the theologians of the church realized the wicket was becoming increasingly stickier the deeper they delved into his request to address the issue of Limbo.

But in the case of Protestants the wicket isn’t any less sticky when it comes to the doctrine of salvation. Realizing this, Sinclair Lewis in “Elmer Gantry” used the ploy of “infant damnation” in an attempt to hold the feet of fundamentalists to the fire on this point, though because of his animus Lewis came off rather clumsy in this attempt.

One of the reasons I don’t believe there can be any “theory of everything” in physics is because unless we know exactly and precisely what life and death are such an understanding of everything is not possible. Life and death remain the greatest mysteries they have always been, but when people talk about the soul they are talking about life and death, they are talking about what the very essence of life really is, and to “sell one’s soul” is the common phrase used for describing what people consider to be that part of life of real value. People engage in various descriptions of their concept of the soul, but it generally revolves around a belief that we humans do in fact have a soul, and few throughout history have confused this idea of having a soul with any other living creatures. Spirits yes; souls, no.

So, I began to ask myself whether all life can best be described as the Parable of the Sower. Some of the seed was trodden down and lost to birds; some fell on rocks and withered; some fell among thorns and were choked out, but some fell on good ground and grew as hoped.

Henry Thoreau must have had the parable in mind when he commented on Nature’s profligacy concerning life, how much of life is wasted, given to death and decay. But “heathen” as he proclaimed himself, he hazarded the hope that life is eternal, that the blade of grass might give up the ghost but only die down to its root; and from this root spring back to life once again.

But as Henry together with all farmers knew there was quite a process to agriculture, that the proper cultivation of the soil, the proper sowing of seed, the need of moisture and keeping weeds at bay are all essential to expectations of a harvest. Without these things in their proper order, a harvest is not possible. However, farmers also know there is such a thing as “bad seed.” I have come to think about the possibility of such bad seed among human beings.

Nature is profligate about seeds, casting thousands of seeds expecting the majority to die, but casting the thousands so some might survive. Nature, unlike human beings, is very pragmatic. But farmers must be equally pragmatic, knowing not all seeds have the “germ of life” in them and making every attempt to plant only good seed, that which has this germ of life.

The bad seed cannot “grow a soul,” the farmer must have seed with a soul if he is to plant in hope. I cannot consider the hundreds of millions throughout the world born to nothing but suffering and dying and not view this in the way Nature handles the casting of those thousands of seeds knowing most will die to no purpose, in a sense these are seeds without a soul. But in saying this, I am also saying only that seed, the good seed of the parable, has a soul; in short, an “age of accountability” that grows a soul that just may apply to human beings.

Many versions of the idea of an age of accountability before the soul forms have been advanced by many cultures throughout human history. Some systems like reincarnation attract many believers. Others like the various forms of Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam struggle with attempts to define their terms. Since it is all speculation what really matters to me is what I believe, but this isn’t easy to pin down in many cases; and questions surrounding the soul is one of these cases.

But recalling that line by John Wayne in “The Shootist,” it may very well be that our souls are what we make of them. The question then remains at what point in life are such decisions regarding our souls being made? This is the crux of the Proverb “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” However, one must first grow to that point of being able to discern the affairs of the heart in order to be able to keep it with all diligence. And here we are back to the original confusing elements of these things; the body, soul, spirit, and mind. So, when anyone attempts to define the soul and separate this from the other elements of human beings they have their work cut out for them, especially when your lover declares they are yours, “heart, mind, and soul.”

As Jesus pointed out and all farmers know, not even all good seed is equal. Some seeds bear more plentifully than others, but the fruit remains good since it is born of good seed. And a tree remains known of its fruit, or as “The Shadow” had it: “The weed of crime bears bitter fruit,” another way of saying there is good seed and there is bad seed. There may be good souls and bad souls, or, there may be some without a soul, some who never grow a soul.

Did you ever look into the eyes of someone and pronounce them “soulless?” I have, on several occasions. Such a thing may have a far deeper meaning than many are willing to credit, but I don’t doubt it is one of the things the Pope’s theologians had to consider and was sufficient reason for them to draw back from attempting to answer the question of Limbo definitively.

Among many of the mysteries surrounding us is why Jews should be so prominent and influential in such disproportion to their actual numbers in America and throughout their history? And why should the tiny nation of Israel figure so prominently on the world scene today? Why does the Old Testament continue to hold so much fascination for people? Why is credence given to claims concerning “Chosen People?” It’s a mystery, so much so that it has spawned many diverse theories of theology including some that would give crackpots a bad name and make UFO abductees appear credible. And why did the History Channel call Joseph a “Jew” in the presentation about his wife Asenath when there was only the one son of Jacob, Judah, from whom the Jews descended? The earliest reference to Hebrews included all Israelites, but through time the word Hebrew became synonymous with the word Jew, though some are still dedicated to finding the “lost tribes of Israel.”

Mysteries abound, but it only exacerbates the situation when the preeminent “teacher” in America is TV making it ever more difficult to try to get through the distortions of history; and when it comes to the Biblical “mystery of iniquity” the mind reels with what Goebbels could have done with this resource! Small wonder illegal aliens have become “immigrants” throughout the MSM and among politicians. No more mere formalities regarding any legal status for illegal aliens in America, with a wave of the media wizard’s wand all illegal aliens become immigrants. But try telling this to any judge where the distinction remains a point of law, where legitimate immigrants must go through the proper channels for citizenship since to immigrate, as opposed to migrate, means to settle permanently in a foreign land. And no other nation in the world but America would stand for such obfuscatory, propagandizing nonsense as calling illegal aliens immigrants!

The nonsense in the MSM calls to mind “Pyramidiots,” which is a catchy pejorative for those devoted to one form or another of Pyramidology but I consider it is a very uncharitable one, especially given the fact despite the pronouncements of experts given to various theories of construction no one today can account for how the three most prominent Giza pyramids were built, why they were built and if the “Orion orientation” is true how and why this was done or the reason they were finished with smooth, polished limestone surfaces reaching a pointed apex. But despite the unknowns the Masonic influence given to mysteries is given the prominence of that smooth-sided pyramid reaching a pointed apex on our dollar bill and those at the Louvre.

There is mystery and intrigue surrounding these alien-appearing structures, the largest one at the Louvre presenting problems for anyone attempting to count the exact number of the panes of glass, and for a while an urban legend grew about the number being 666 which was quashed. Still, you would think the exact number would be easily determined by the plans of the architect, which quite oddly turns out not to be the case, and those attempting to count the exact number physically come up with different sums. The mystery deepens with the point of a large inverted glass pyramid converging on the apex of the small stone one, something that made for visual splendor in the film “The Da Vinci Code.” Mystery surrounds the reason for this particular, and peculiar, design, as it does for those three Giza pyramids.

But there are only three such alien-appearing pyramids in Giza, so why four on those old Royal Crown Cola bottles and at the Louvre? I suspect a fourth one was added to throw people off the track. The mystery deepens when you consider only one appears on our dollar bill. Why not all three? I know the story; the Masons. And my, oh my, talk about trying to get through the obfuscations and distortions of history in attempts to get at the truth!

Given the distortions of history and the mysteries abounding perhaps you can understand why I believe those in politics practice the “dark arts,” that there may be that secret room in the White House and perhaps in the halls of Congress where séances are held, where conjurors, soothsayers, seers, and astrologers ply their trades. The real story behind those 545 people ruling America would probably be what each of them does in their “secret chambers.” As to their worshipping the Devil, well, perhaps that would appear a tad cynical though I have cause to wonder.

Since I believe there is a Devil and he chooses whomever he will to fill positions of power it would be of great interest to me to know how the various contenders for the Oval Office approach the Evil One to gain his approval. They all had to make their Mephistophelian deals on their way up, but does the top dog have to be the one most capable of emulating Machiavelli? Mussolini kept “The Prince” on his nightstand, but in every case where a leader begins to think he can one-up the Devil he is taken down. The Prince of Darkness, the Prince of the power of the air is not to be slighted by any of his subordinates.

Well, before anyone finds fault with me remember we still have the devotees of the mystical arts, we still have Rosicrucian’s, Theosophists, Swedenborg continues to have followers, Nostradamus and Cayce remain popular with many and there is enough mysticism about to satisfy anyone with a need for such things, and you can get dizzy from a search of the literature on all the subjects I have mentioned.

Lord knows there are enough legitimate mysteries here on our planet, in our solar system, our galaxy and the universe to please any mystery hunters without the supernatural or occult being a factor. But you can’t possibly view what is parading before us on either the political or world scene without having questions concerning the occult.

Now admit it, wouldn’t you give a pretty to know what our presidential contenders do privately to gain favor and influence their gods? Why, just consider the gyrations they go through to influence voters and you can’t help but see them in the role of necromancers of every description, though I’m not inclined to credit them with any form of witchcraft, astrology or other associated things with the intention of really helping America or anyone but themselves. But given the history of tyrants and despots, the astrologers and seers are always there in some fashion. And despite our “scientific age” I somehow suspect this is still the case. After all, there just has to be a diabolical reason for these androids, these plastic mannequins with their dead eyes, mechanical voices and inane, programmed, empty, vacuous rhetoric performing on the stage of America.

As Emerson pointed out, politicians are only socially acceptable pickpockets unsuited for any noble profession else they would never become politicians, since the class is despised and politics is the chosen calling of those wholly given over to corruption, greed and avarice, to those worst traits most despicable to the civilized mind. And at no time in America’s history have the reasons for Emerson’s dour conclusions and condemnation of politicians been as evident as they are today.

But the 545 people comprising America’s Federal Triune Dictatorship are the result of “one man, one vote” in which the irresponsible vote themselves the money responsible others earn; something those like Ben Franklin knew would be the doom of our nation should it ever come to pass. Charley Reese is correct so far as he goes in calling this Triumvirate the cause of the woes of America, but the root cause was spelled out in Professor Claude G. Bowers’ definitive book “The Tragic Era” detailing what is euphemistically called “Reconstruction” following the death of Lincoln resulting in the wholesale abrogation of our Constitution in favor of “forty acres and a mule” that put the unscrupulous in power with the imprimatur of the black coats and has maintained that power structure ever since.

Now, with over half the people in America receiving government checks of one form or another and on Caesar’s payroll the other half is losing the ability to keep up, many of whom are only wage slaves at best and the slavery of the antebellum South has been replaced by that of Henry Thoreau’s “northern overseers” in the form of slavery to a Federal Caesar. But Henry’s pretense of a “tax revolt” did not result in the severe punishment facing those that refuse to pay their taxes now, and at no time in history has the power to tax been the power to destroy so evident as it is in America today. On the face of it, the case can be made that the present mad Federal Triumvirate comprised of those 545 people to whom Reese refers is intentionally directed toward the absolute destruction of America.

Checks and balances have gone by the board in large part due to Lincoln’s War, and accountability in government at every level is now conspicuous by its absence, evidenced by every “commission” and “committee” dedicated to exonerating the guilty, never holding anyone at Caesar’s table to account for the flaunting of every measure of the rule of law and the manifold crimes committed against ordinary Americans. And the corruption in government is so transparent today that we are rapidly becoming a lawless nation in which jails and prisons can’t be built fast enough. The problem, however, is that none of those close to Caesar are held to account for flaunting the laws ordinary Americans are commanded to obey, and this obscene flaunting of laws by the rich and powerful is understood by others to be an excuse for flaunting the laws as well.

America is ruled by evil people, politicians and their corporate bosses, dedicated to an evil system of government that can only continue to perpetuate evil. Were illegal aliens for example killing and murdering the children of the 545 presently in power our borders would be secured and the invasion of America by the millions of barbarians from Mexico for the sake of slave labor, drug and human trafficking would be halted immediately.

But if anyone should stop for a moment and attempt to analyze why the “right people” are not being killed by illegal aliens, why those in power much like university professors not only seem to live in a vacuum protected from the ugly realities of the want and ignorance of the Great Unwashed, but continue in power you are stymied for an answer to the question. Certainly the roots of our Federal Triune Dictatorship can be traced, the many evils of this Triumvirate are manifest everywhere we look, but what is to be done about it; that resists any plausible and practical answer. And short of some catastrophic event like nuclear terrorism, worldwide famine and pestilence on a Biblical scale or other will probably continue to resist any plausible and practical answer.

And so, as the Bible has it the “mystery of iniquity” continues as it has throughout human history, a history filled with wars and violence of every description in which evil has the upper hand while millions are slaughtered and sacrificed to the ambitions of a few, “Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne.” And our government rather than accept criticism continues in the vein of Henry’s accusation “Why does it always crucify Christ, and excommunicate Copernicus and Luther, and pronounce Washington and Franklin rebels?”

As the lunacy of it all parades before us in the garb of presidential contenders, the lunacy is made manifest in none of them addressing specific answers and solutions to the specific and monumental threats we are facing as a nation. On the contrary, the very lunacy of expecting politicians to do so is a manifestation of our nation being doomed by lunatics driven mad by their lust for power that in their madness cannot appeal to Americans, but to the mad divisions and factions still believing the promise of “forty acres and a mule” is the answer to our problems as a nation.