Having To Contend with the Cold Weather

 Everywhere it's holiday madness- - 

At the end of Every Year!

This is bright and early Monday morning just after nine, when once upon a time people used to show up for work.  That’s before school kids all over the plains states had to shiver in the dark waiting for the bus to pick them up at six thirty.  Some of Johnny Wendell’s points are well taken this morning.  I on the west coast have noted that there is a whole lot more prominence of weather stories particularly this year where this whole business about cold and ice and storms in the winter time is somehow seen as news.  I feel for anybody who has to contend with this stuff.   However even I have noticed a whole lot more intellerance for even normal amounts of snow on the ground now.  That said- - I think Johnny Wendell is a bit of a cold blooded freak like Peter that ex roommate of Mike Guerero, ex roommate of mine.  One time when Peter was visiting here on a cold day we were lucky enough to have heat in here, he kept remarking about it being like a chicken egg incubator in here and kept saying stuff like ‘I hope those eggs hatch”.   He says this morning he was barefoot and went outside in the frost wearing nothing but shorts and a tee shirt to get the newspaper (people still do that?) and the official reading then was 38 degrees.  This is in the valley and for those on the east coast “valley” does not necessarily translate as “warm”.    Some people may have been born back east but they’ve been out here a long time.  Some (not that I’d have anybody in mind) were born out here but spent a number of years “back east” when they were in grammar school, but since then (and I hear this a lot) their blood has thinned out.  People, at least me, tend to become less tolerant to cold the older they get.  With me I’ve often wondered whether it is the medication that has “thrown off my thermometer” in recent years.

Saturday night I watched the Mc Laughlin group.  China is showing true foreign aggression in claiming vase areas in waters off its shores- - islands claimed by other nations and such- - and seem willing to go to war over it.  The United States sided with Japan - - because - - WW II not withstanding- - Japan owns many of those disputed islands.  But they say China now has a campaign to extend their military influence way out into the Pacific- - as kind of a warning to western nations not to even think of an invasion.   But if the United States thinks like me- - and I see the other side is really paranoid and “on guard’ about something- - I’m going to ask myself what that “something’ is that they are so paranoid about.  The rest of the show was dedicated to the discussion of either Obama Care or else the economy.  I can’t fault Mort Zuckerman for his distrust of the vibrancy of this economy.   But if he’s talking about more tax breaks for the rich - - in the immortal words of John Lennon - - “You Can Count Me Out”.   And on Stephanie Miller Chris and Jim (?) had some right wing economist guy on and of course he talked about this whole idea of how- - “We need to fix this economy by finding new areas in the US budget to cut” but we dare not attempt to raise so much as another penny from the rich.

[this paragraph typed Saturday] Even these Texas boys aren’t used to the fourteen degree or whatever they are experiences.  There is ice people have to scrape off their car windows, or hit the bleachers with a hammer to get the ice off of those benches.  The ice has snapped power lines and tree limbs and been the source of countless spin-outs.  It’s coming up on five to two on a Saturday December 7, 2013 and we have had rain for most of today.  But when Anita and I were looking up at the sky before breakfast neither of us thought there’d be rain.  Every day I hope for two things, that the weather will get warmer and that I will get over this flu I’ve had since just after mid day Sunday.   I think I jinxed myself at breakfast Sunday morning doing one of these “fleece things” psychologically.    Since them there has been the overall weakness, chills, and persistent cough.   And I had that fear we were going to be kicked out of our room with one of these major scrubbing downs of the walls.  I have the Lifeline envelope opened up and need to respond to that.   Just to catch you up on old stuff, last Sunday I believe, was when I changed the wallpaper from purple flowers to “Metro”, a photo I tend to use this time of year.   Now Federico is saying that Dr Levy will not be here today but he will be here tomorrow “if it don’t rain”.  That’s an expression my seventh grade math teacher was fond of over-using.   So I guess I’ll spend another dollar on coffee from the store, if they still have it. 

Today is Monday December 9, 2013 and the 23^rd anniversary of the Sunday that Bill Halliday got confirmed as pastor of my parents’ church.  Were he to still be there now (and I have heard rumors, thankfully, that he is NOT) it would be a 23 year reign which would blow out any previous record for a reigning pastor by a factor of about three.   (And the majority were substantially shorter)  As you know that Saturday night December 8^th I was recording John Lennon songs- - and had had a fair amount of some kind of whiskey – probably Black Velvet - - and Sunday morning had this splitting headache that “was so bad at times I felt like vomiting”.   But somehow I went to church that morning and everything was fine.  Bill got voted in as pastor with one dissenting vote, and my one regret is that it wasn’t two (as in my vote).  Then we went out to Howard Johnson’s for lunch- - and as you know at that time they had the segregated smoking and non smoking sections and my Dad complained about the cigarette smoke wafting in.  There is another “hysteria complaint” topic for Johnny Wendell another day.  Of course yesterday was the day John Lennon died, and I’m not going to cover all the events of the surrounding days of my life then, although that is an interesting period and I’d like to tell you about it sometime.

One topic I resolved to lead off my next blog posting with was yesterday after lunch.  As you know we had a lousy lunch with their weird type of open faced turkey sandwich and mashed potatoes and corn.   But then Janet greeted me in the hall and offered me a big muffin and a big cup of coffee.  It’s no doubt the first time I’ve been in her bedroom in three months and the first time I’ve gotten either coffee or any kind of pastry from Janet in just about three months.  This was a humungus muffin if you call it that- - with cinnamon topic and goodies.  But now I’d like to jump back to Sunday morning.  Every day I wake up and wish another of things.  That lamp switch is getting screwier and screwier- - - as far as being able to get the thing to turn on.  I’ll have to have you-know-who look at it and maybe he can slip it into his schedule sometime in 2015.  I had the Today show on briefly.  Then I got a visit from John Lennon.  This is something else that hasn’t happened in a long time.  John just wanted to tell me that he agrees with my coming down hard on Mandella because he embraced violence.  However later during Meet the Press said something else to me a little less reassuring.  He said “You are like Mandella in that you use non violence as a tactic rather than it being an overriding principle with you”.  That’s kind of a hard statement when looked at first off.  But I will say that I am like the police dept in that I believe in resolving things peacefully if I can.  But yes I do believe in “the appropriate escalation of force when that becomes necessary”.   We had oatmeal for breakfast followed by a waffle and a half.  Before breakfast I weighed myself and found I’ve lost four pounds in less than eight days.  When you cough you expel a lot of moisture from the body.  I think Stephanie probably has it worse than me, because it affected her voice.  But it’s like every day you dare to believe “this is the turning point” of both the sickness and the cold.  But I’d like to mention that in the “Arimid” period John Lennon would know about - - that I regarded violence or at least “forceful response” as a God given right or even “natural right” if you will- - in situations.  Where the glitch comes is when I first heard that I thought “Oh you mean when your enemy has his back turned you knife him in the back in a moment of weakness”.  That isn’t how I mean it.  But as I said I believe non violence is “the voluntary act of giving up rights you have”.   It does you no good for your enemy to know things you will NOT do to retaliate against me.  If your enemy has a list of all the things you will NOT do, then he’s able to work you like a yo yo.  This is why as President I would never promise not to use water-boarding, for example.  I believe it’s a promise almost by definition- - I as leader of the free world have the inherent right NOT to make.   Maybe it’s some misplaced reliance on the Golden Rule but I expect my enemy to reason if he sees me acting in a civil manner tword him to think “My enemy is being civil.  Perhaps now is an opportunity I should take to revolve my differences with him, before things change”. 

In terms of John Lennon songs, on Breakfast with the Beatles they said they would “go year by year”.  They played tracks from just about every major studio album except I didn’t hear tracks from the following - - “With the Beatles”, “Yellow Submarine”, “Let It Be”, “Lennon” or “Sometime in New York City”.   Chris Carter said he played “Isolation” off of “Lennon” and that it was Julian’s favorite song, but I was out of the room.  The last some of the morning that I heard was “I’m Losing You”, which is a some that always takes me back to my relation with Laura at the time- - and that’s another story to be told on another day.   It’s funny that Mandella Lived to see his dream.  John Lennon and all those “non violent’ people like Ghandi and Martin Luther King, or even Malcolm X - - didn’t.   I see Malcolm X as a prophet of the Black Muslem church who was killed for his beliefs in racial tolerance.   It’s funny today how many are trying to rewrite history saying that is- - for example Ronald Reagan would have embraced Mandella if it were today and how Ronald Reagan support Mandella.  Now people like Ted Cruise are even in praise of Nelson Mandella.  The right appears to be adopting him as if he were their own. Well excuse me if this is one writer who doesn’t engage in this orgy of “piling on”.  I will say this about Mandella.  It surprised the hell out of me that there was NOT a blood bath after he won the election in 1994, just like there was in Cambodia in 1985 when the hard core communist Poh Pot took over then.   So maybe to that extent I mis gauged the situation.  If you ask me whether I would vetoed a bipartisan bill in 1986 passed by the US Senate- - my answer is “I don’t know”.  After all I was a Christian and my leaders on TV were advising me not to embrace Mandella.  After all I couldn’t even bring myself to vote for Dukakis but sat out that whole election of 1888 - - and I’ll be frank- - one of the big things were those Willie Horton ads.

They passed out the diabetic syrup packets yesterday at the table early.  Actually I’ve had those and they are pretty convincing.  John Powell got one.  The rest of us had to wait till five to eight - - thereabouts- - for our waffle and a half and sausage link.   I was musing- - and thinking that what if Ghandi were kicked off that train in South Africa for being “colored” and it turned out that the Apostle Paul had been waiting at the next train station and praying for a car in first class to open up so he could spread his Missionary stuff.  And Ghandi sees him boarding and kind of eyes him suspiciously.  And others around question St Paul’s racial credentials and say “He writes in Greek.  He’s not one of us”.  And Paul says “I am a White - - Greek”  along the line of you-know-who.   And the train official says “Actually this man’s father is a pure blooded Roman- - - he represents this Empire’s finest.”   And then I was thinking of that Beatle song and now it would be parodied with man skits such as these on fractured world history.  “Everywhere it’s bigotry- - - at the end of every year”.    And I thought “I must have tapped into John Lennon’s energy to come up with that one” and John Lennon, who was still there says, “It’s a lot easier to “tap into someone’s energy, as you put it, if they are still Alive”.

Nelson Mandela's Violent Legacy

I have never liked Mandela's "Cosmic Vibes" and therefore classify him differently from Revolutionaries in other countries or even here at home.  But the buzz now is, as the article states "Were it not for the use of Violence, the government would never have been reformed".   It's only too bad Jesus Christ didn't get that word.  There might be a whole lot fewer dead Jews in the world today.   None of my Cosmic friends have anything good to say about Mandella.  Before we get too ga-ga over him just remember that our government has Mandella on the terrorist watch list untill 2008, and that Mandella worked with the Chinese Maoist Communists, the hard core variety.  Here is the LA Times article.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s first black president, is a giant in the world of liberation heroes, up there with Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.

But unlike Gandhi, who said that nonviolence and truth were inseparable, and King, who famously declared that violence was immoral, Mandela embraced armed struggle to end the racist system of apartheid.
To many South Africans, particularly within the African National Congress, Mandela was a great man partly because of his willingness to use violence, not in spite of it.  Many believe apartheid would have endured much longer if he hadn’t rebelled and overturned the ANC’s long-standing nonviolence policy.  PHOTOS: Nelson Mandela through the years
As a young man, Mandela’s favorite sport wasn’t a team sport like soccer, with strict limits on contact. Boxing was what thrilled him. As a young politician, his rhetoric was angry, uncompromising and inspiring. His aim was to incite revolt.  In the early 1950s, the ANC and the South African Indian Congress launched a nonviolent operation of strikes and protests called the Defiance Campaign against the unjust laws of apartheid.  By 1953, Mandela had decided that it wasn’t working. He felt that the ANC’s leaders — old-fashioned, traditional figures such as the party’s president, Albert Luthuli — were out of touch with reality.    In September of that year, he made a speech in the Johannesburg suburb of Sophiatown that was to be later famously known as the “No Easy Walk to Freedom” address.
FULL COVERAGE: Anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela dies
In the speech, Mandela said the ANC had to come up with new plans for political struggle.
“You can see that there is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow again and again before we reach the mountaintops of our desires.  “Dangers and difficulties have not deterred us in the past. They will not frighten us now. But we must be prepared for them like men in business who do not waste energy in vain talk and idle action.”  In 1956, during a trial at which 156 ANC leaders and activists, including Mandela, were charged with treason, he told the court that he supported nonviolence as a principle — not true at the time; he supported it only as a tactic — because he knew he and others could be convicted if he said otherwise. The trial dragged on until 1961, but Mandela and the others were acquitted.   The Sharpeville massacre in 1960, when South African police killed 69 protesters, was the last straw for Mandela and other proponents of armed struggle.  Mandela carried the day at a series of all-night meetings with ANC leaders in mid-1961 to set up the ANC’s underground military wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe, or Spear of the Nation.
PHOTOS: The world reacts to Nelson Mandela's death
Mandela’s opponents said that if the ANC embarked on violence, the regime would massacre more civilians. Moses Kotane, secretary-general of the South African Communist Party, argued that continued nonviolence could work if activists were more imaginative.  Mandela met with Kotane for a full day to try to change his mind. He argued that South African activists had to consider an armed revolution because angry young men and women outside the ANC were ready to take up arms, and if the ANC did not lead them it would become irrelevant.    Finally Mandela believed he had won Luthuli’s blessing to form Umkhonto we Sizwe and embark on violence. But the timing was terrible. In October, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced that it was bestowing the previous year’s unawarded Peace Prize on Luthuli, an enormous symbolic victory for the ANC. Luthuli backtracked and again espoused nonviolent methods of resistance against apartheid.

Moe Kelly was on at nine and he was discussing the death of Nelson Mandella, which was announced just before two our time yesterday afternoon.  I got on computer searching World Net Daily for dirt on Mandella because I’ve heard some unsavory stuff about him and I was thinking here is one area where me and the right might agree.  But oddly, aside from the usual paranoid articles they run,  WND only had praise for Mandella.  Even at Fox News they weren’t sure how to react.  They said he did a lot of good things, all the while reminding us that he was a communist.  And I mean he worked with the Chinese Maoist communists- - the hard core stuff.  And at some point he said that terrorism was now necessary because we weren’t getting our way through traditional means.  While I’d like to be in sympathy with that line of thinking, I want to know “how far is far”?  Because I’d heard Mandella and his wife, Winny, were some of the lead people in the “Necklessing’ of people they didn’t like.  They would apparently tie a tire around their neck and kill their victim by setting it on fire.   I guess what bothers me about Mandella is that everything sounds all too propagandistic.  I wonder if it’s how the right wing felt or feels about Obama.  It’s like it assumes mythic perportions and engages in sugary platitudes- - rather than describing either his mind set or the specific things or incidents in his life.  I checked the Wickipedia but wasn’t sure I could trust that.  Rush Limbaugh will put a screwey dimension on literally anything.  He said “When you come down to it, Nelson Mendella much more resembled Clarence Thomas than he does President Obama”.  I was flabbergasted.   I wasn’t sure, aside from the sheer shock value of the remark, just what interests that specific remark was meant to “stroke”.   Right wing terrorist communists who are against affirmative action but still sabotage the government.   Nancy suggested I get more exercise.  That just might be a good idea. 

The unemployment rate figures came out this morning and the rate is down three tenths of a percent to .7% - - which is good news, and so naturally Rush Limbaugh is in a state of consternation about it.  Rush is upset because for the first time in eons there was actually an increase in government position employment.  Rush went on to another of his self referencial phalicies.  He says "Well they rigged the figures in the fall of 2012 to make the economy look better".  But yet when the figures were revised (as Rush suspected) they were revised in all the ways that would make the economy look Better.  But if THOSE figures were artificially high- - is Rush Limbaugh saying that the Obama people are paying Street to make Stock prices seem higher than they are.  But then Rush says, and I quote "You know for a fact they are going to bolster the economic figures to a rosey enough figure to get a democratic congress elected".  Well now, who am I to argue with the words of the Master?  I admire Rush's concern about "bubbles", but why wasn't he concerned about it when it mattered?  This is just another Moe Kelly case of "Being handed money you can't spend".  But it just boggles my mind why Rush Limbaugh would not just say "You know I had my concerns about President Obama, but he really has turned out to be a great President for Wall Street".   But Rush is so obsessed it's all label to him.  Like if Chicago is the President's home town, his side will cheer when Chicago gets turned down for the Olympics.  And some kind of a weapons accord with Syria is horrible news for Rush.  Now an old term is being revived.   They want to do these “free enterprise zones’ where they cut taxes for corporations in the inner city to “help them through the recession” or something, and in exchange they privative police, fire education, and track pick up services.  Gee, why doesn’t everybody do that?  These dingbats on the right have no concept that the reason why their screwy ideas weren’t adopted fifty years ago is because they are just that.  Really dumb, screwey ideas.  I guess I have a problem wrapping my head around the notion that the American people at large will say that governments in bankruptsy or- - long time employees being cut off without a penny- - or even their own low wages, are somehow “just the new normal” that once you “adjust to it” everything will be better than ever.

  If you think Mandela was a brave man- - he lied in court about his non violence and the trick worked.  A real Revolutionary would not hide behind a lie or a technicality like this.  I think it's entirely different if you're in some kind of a shooting war with authorities- - and another thing if you are like Al Qaida engaging in terrorist acts just to kill of maim people.   Even Green Peace has their standards about violence they will and will not engage in.  And remember he got life and got out in 1990 and spend the last 23 years of his life a free man.  And just how many “lifer” felons do you know in this country who run for and get elected President?  I’d also like to know where South Africa fits in the UN votes.  How many times has he voted with the United States, as opposed to what you might call “the communist block”?