Today the Senate passed the payroll tax cut extension bill. Psychologically it was Newt Gingrich who was pushing hard for this bill’s passage even though Republicans had opposed just this very thing a few months back. This bill signing takes out of the hands the opportunity for Republicans to call the President obstinate. Of course in the bargain we get that Canada to Texas pipeline. Who would have guessed that we would be piping oil TO Texas? But if we don’t grab the oil, the Canadians will only sell it to China. I assume that provision for drug testing the unemployed is still in this bill. Who is paying for the two-month extension of the payroll tax cut working its way through Congress? The cost is being dropped in the laps of most people who buy homes or refinance beginning next year. The typical person who buys a $200,000 home or refinances that amount starting on Jan. 1 would have to pay roughly $17 more a month for their mortgage, thanks to a fee increase included in the payroll tax cut bill that the Senate passed Saturday. The White House said the fee increases would be phased in gradually. The legislation provides a two-month extension of a payroll tax cut and long-term unemployment benefits that would otherwise expire on Jan. 1. It would also delay for two months a cut in Medicare reimbursements for doctors that is scheduled to take effect on New Year’s Day. The House is expected to act on the bill early next week. Two more months of the Social Security tax cut amounts to a savings of about $165 for a worker making $50,000 a year. At least that’s something. The conclusion of the year-end payroll-tax debate was unexpectedly shadowed by a side issue, TransCanada Corp.'s Keystone XL crude-oil pipeline, which is supposed to be built from Canada to the Gulf Coast, subject to U.S. approval. The administration has postponed its decision until 2013 because of environmental concerns. Republicans have touted it as a "shovel ready" job-creating project, and pushed language to force the administration to make a quicker decision. Its inclusion in the payroll-tax compromise was expected to help win support from conservative House Republicans who had opposed the payroll-tax break. Democrats called it a pyrrhic victory because they expected the administration to reject the pipeline project if the decision is accelerated. Moreover, they argued that the concession to the GOP would mean little to most Americans. Merry Christmas, taxpayers!
Leo Le Port is bothered about this “S O P A” bill or the Stop On-line Piracy Act” that will supposedly enable the federal government to shot down any site they suspect of piracy. Naturally nobody involved with computers likes it. This is the House bill. The Senate has their own “Pipa” bill or- - Prevent On-line Piracy Act, I would suppose. The trouble is that our laws are made by idiots who know nothing about the internet because they all appear to be relics from another era. There seems to be a major move, along with that preventative detention bill, and the Patriot Act - to get Americans used to a severe limitation of their rights. Leo has little tolerance for idiocy. I don’t know whether people like Dr. Levy are worth writing to at all these days, because they show no signs of comprehending the material, and are too proud to admit they don’t know everything already.. This is a major problem. Apparently it isn’t just site closure, but the power wants the power they have in Michelle Bachman’s beloved Communist China to actually block user access to sites the government deems as either dangerous or illegal, and apparently there is also stuff about terrorist activity thrown into this bill. They were going to vote on it today but have put that off till the middle of next week, giving us sane ones the opportunity to rally forces to our side and stop this bill in its tracks now.
You know this is the 21st Century and time is going forward and not backward so we are going to have to learn to solve our problems because they aren’t going to just go away by themselves. This means things like energy and fuel efficient cars and alternative forms of energy, and ways that will and won’t work as far as our US balance of trade is concerned. And though the deficit is an important problem it is not the number one problem for us now. There are other things such as getting all the groups in this nation to get along or at least co exist with one another. This includes the gay and the straight, and the Midwestern hick and the urban black and the Latino immigrant alike. It means the greens as well as well as the techy science people, who will probably the ones coming up with many of those solutions we definitely need. It means vast financial and wall street reform that goes way beyond Dodd – Frank. It means an aggressive re-establishment of the Civil Liberties of Americans who are in clear and present danger of losing them. It means giving up our prided ignorance and prejudice. When you look at all of these factions and interests we have in this country - - the International corporatist represents only a small fraction of these interests and as of now they are represented by congressmen, senators and lobbyists far out of proportion to their numbers. You have to realize that the economy under a President Perry or a President Bachman would be no fun at all for virtually any of us. But the fact that Ignorance seems to be so highly prized these days as a proper education in US History seems to be out of fashion, makes the work of progressives that much harder as far as educating the voters. We to some degree must “condescend” to the level of the tea bagger in order to communicate with them in some language that they can relate to. They need to understand that there is no causal connection between the wealth of multi millionaires and whether or not their job is secure. Conservatism has become bastardized as a concept. Even Christianity has become bastardized as a concept. People seem to be expecting less and less in the way of any form or moral credibility from their religion than they ever used to. Even Salvation doesn’t mean what it used to. Tertulian the theologian- - in rebellion against Marcion perhaps - - sought a certain "physicality" of the human Soul I find hard to accept, though many do. What he advocates is kind of a "soul karma", which would be fine if we were all Hindus, but we're not. The Bible teaches the Soul is a gift to each of us directly from him at birth, and God has in mind a unique individual destiny for each of us apart from our parents or ancesters. However another view has cropped up. Tertulian teaches that our soul is determined at conception by our parents and the "genetic nature" of Their souls. This same line of reasoning goes we still have the "seeds" of Original Sin from Adam in our souls. So people like Thom Hartman remind us that people on the right view the common folk as evil and if corporations are “neutral” that gives them moral superiority. Of course since God does not really exist- at least in THIS world- - all the preachers have to do a Norman Bates every Sunday- - - speaking for a God who is long dead- - probably in words God would never have used. And they not only speak for a God they so desire the presence of but don’t have- - that in their minds they actually Become God. And since they have now become God - - therefore of “God” tells us to do something or believe something- like the tea party platform- - we are in danger of Hell fire and damnation if we don’t do so. Some have pointed out the problem about the Virgin Mary passing on this original sin of Adam to Jesus- - and therefore have said Mary herself was Immaculately Conceived without this original sin, so she could not pass it on to her son. So how do we deal with that? Some people believe in the "trifercation" of Man. People like Roy Masters and Chuck Smith will say that our soul that we got from Adam is very much alive. It's just our Spirits that are dead so if you have not been Born Again then you are like a wild beast in the Savannas of Africa, unable to control your own Beastly instincts. Masters goes so far as to condemn Gospel music as "soulish" because while it makes your "soul" feel good it does nothing for your Spirit, which presumably you can only cultivate by joining Roy Master's foundation for human understanding. Some on channel 40 have gone so far to say that the blood of Jesus won't wipe out certain kinds of sin, such as if some ancestor of yours was involved in some form of witchcraft or occultic activity- - you yourself may be affected in ways you don't even know. Even Neil of KFI gets into the act by saying that "Well you know the consequences of certain acts (like Adam eating the apple) still live on even after your saved and you can't escape things that were set in motion in the past even after you're saved. Therefore they reason that since “the bill will never be due till after your dead” in terms of their own credibility report card- - these Authorities like Newt Gingrich can tell all the lies they want to on God’s credit card- - at least till the bill comes due. And they say if we turn planet earth into a polluted Armageddon- - well maybe some magic hand will swoop down and save- - well “the elect” - - and so “the elect” at least will never have to face accountability. My response to all of this is "Then what the HELL is the point of it all???" In my book we are all responsible for our OWN actions whether or not we had holy water sprinkled on us when we were infants. And that means the Tea Party, too. I also subscribe to the addage of "Morality was made for Human Beings, not Human Beings for Morality" so if some theologian lays some "trip" on you - - about "God's Morality" I say, "God doesn't have any" (Selah)
I wanted to comment just a bit on that metaphysics particle physics thing we did recently - heading up the blog I was just in a few days ago. That’s probably brain strain for some of you. First of all there is a typo where I have splitting “protons” when I clearly meant “splitting photons” and “photons” is the word I use in the rest of the file. But there is an obvious problem with mass verses speed. For instance if a three ton sattalite were to come crashing down on me at 26,000 mph and a few minutes before it hit the earth it lost ALL of its mass- - then it would not MATTER how FAST it was traveling- - period. If it were headed right tword me I could just throw up my hands like volley ball and bounce the thing off my hands. That’s how things with no mass behave. My ONLY reason to describe photons as I did was because of E – M C 2 and all of that. It’s not a rationalization I would have used on my own. Rather, my own inference is that photons DO have naturally occurring mass do to the mechanics of UV flourcence. This is where a light wave of higher energy like UV hits electrons of a molecule and knocks a few electrons into a higher orbit, kind of like a billard ball principle. And after spending a moment or two in a higher atomic shell than normal, the electron comes back down to its normal shell- - but in the process now emits light waves- - but of lower energy or frequency than originally received. I just wanted to clarify that.
Just to add a remark on bloggers new "edit" window, they got rid of font size and centering and font color. I used to use centering a lot. So I don't know what the deal is.
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