DONALD TRUMP: NEWEST VIP BIRTHER

Political candidates in today's campaigns are really showing either their
hypocrisy or stupidity.  That Trump still wants to see Obama's birth certificate and refuses to believe that the Governor of Hawaii remembers when he was born.  His belief that the governor couldn't possibly remember a birth 50 years ago refuses to believe his parent(s) were friends.

So that makes me ask if he really believes he has a chance to be chosen as a Republican candidate or run as an Independent.  We are led to believe some people run, knowing they won't be elected, because of the money it brings in.  That would not seem to be the most likely reason for Trump, and publicity would not seem something of which he needs more.
He falsely accuses of Obama spending millions of dollars fighting legal suits challenging his citizenship, when in fact, others have paid legal fees for filing their frivolous suits over his questioning the legitimacy of hi8s being an American.  Or, like the Koch brothers, is he acting in the interests of Wall St. and making sure as much money stays with the rich while keeping the poorer getting even poorer.

For a long time I have wondered whether there is a conspiracy or I have just watched a lot of people  wanting to declare Obama not a real president and, actually, only proving their own stupidity.

REPUBLICAN SENATOR LUGAR WANTS A CRYSTAL BALL

Rep Sen Lugar

Today on Meet the Press, David Gregory interviewed Bob Gates and Hillary Clinton.  Both were very clear on the answer to the questions as to how, why and what are we doing in Libya.  Their segment was followed by an interview with Senator Richard Lugar, (R) Ind.

On 3/24 Senator Lugar was calling for Sen Kerry to hold hearings on the Libyan war immediately.  Senator Lugar was disturbed that we have not goals and end plans clear....emphasis on the 'we' being Obama.  He spoke as though it was totally a US action mentioning, early on in his comments, nothing about the UN Security Council or coalition.  How statements are made, with omissions as factors certainly can skew a picture badly.  With some validity he referred to our lack of knowledge about who or what the forces are that would replace Gaddafi, intimating a  sense of 'the devil you know is better than the devil you don't know'.  Meanwhile he admitted to having had a telephone call with Obama who had laid out answers.  Senator Lugar seems not to have heard them, or perhaps it was that they did not change his preconceived notions for which he wants to hold hearings (probably with people who do not have the answers either)..  He remains convinced we should not be involved with the Libyan Civil War.  We can all be grateful that Lafayette did not feel the same during the American Revolution.

People look for answers that don't exist yet about the future. Random variables being as unpredictable as they are, the consequence of many actions can not be anticipated. A valid point Sen Lugar raised is that nothing has been said about where the money will come from to pay for our participation.

Tom Ricks  a Pulitzer Prize winning former reporter for the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post. He writes a blog at ForeignPolicy.com and is a member of Center for a New American Security, a defense policy think tank,    was the only one who did not speak the language of gloom and doom.  He spoke practically; that the rebels might not win and our efforts may have been for naught. He did not suggest we should not assist the Libyan rebels in their attempts..

3/4 OF THE SENATE GOP DOES NOT BELIEVE IN SCIENCE

Scientists are not Chicken Little

We have been 'dumbing' down for a number of years.  A few years back 'intelligentsia' became a dirty word.  Since I was recently accused of being on the brink of starting a conspiracy theory when I quoted Osama bin Laden as having said he was going to break the US economy and, "since it is broken, did he have a hand in it? " I have tried to just deal with 'just the facts' for all the Officer Friday.s that might chance upon my blog.

While the Senators don't believe in evolution, global warming  or education, I fail to understand how they got to be Senators.  Did we ever fix the rigged voting computers?  How can a country with so many Nobel prize winners draw so little respect for the innovators of our society.  There is so little respect for legislators, that few intelligent people want to run for a job with the corruption and stupidity attached to it.

Our whole federal system of elected officials seems to have gone weird.  When Le Page, governor of Maine, insists on removing a mural of workers from the Labor Department walls I have to wonder if we have somehow attached to a parallel universe.. If I were someone who did drugs, I would wonder if I had O.D.'d.  Looking at people holding public office and getting to speak on TV 'news' feels as though I am seeing them through amusement park mirrors.  Seeing so many men covering their baldness with a little hair on the top of their forehead makes me wonder who sets the TV rules.  Personally, I would rather listen to an watch a bald man who makes sense rather than one who is so vain he fails to see he is as successful as someone trying to hide behind their finger.

For the entire Robert Benson article of the GOP Senators who mock the veracity of scientific conclusions and research internationally, click here.l

THE ABORTION DEBATE HAS A NEW AUDIENCE

Horrors, I've just listened to a new generation arguing against abortion with all the same arguments that were shot down when Roe vs Wade was passed.  Someone quoted 'some' research that showed that 96% of abortions are for vanity!  I suppose they don't believe the Holocaust happened and that Obama isn't a US citizen..  Will they ever be exposed to the real facts of life?

Right now, it isn't people just disagreeing and offering a good debate on any subject.  Too many are as paranoid as McCarthy and as ignorant of the world and most hermits.  The rest have been brainwashed by a variety of convincing snake oil salespeople.

If only people could accept the fact that a fetus is a 'seed' of life only and not yet a person it would be more accurate.  But those who are still stuck in B.C. thinking, refusing to accept neurological fact, will preach to others while proclaiming the government should get smaller and stay out of people's lives.

Meanwhile, we seem to be headed towards an oligarchy, if the Koch brothers get their way.  I will grieve for democracy for the few remaining years of my life and hope that my needs will not exceed my income as food and all product costs double or triple.  Marketers play on,  Even toilet paper rolls are now narrower, but contain more sheets.  I'm sure someone used a calculator to squeeze a bit more profit out of each sheet offering the illusion of more sheets. .

RELIGIONS HAVE A LONG HISTORY OF DYING

Greek Gods

Research is showing that more countries are giving up religion by their people.  One research description writes as follows:   "In a large number of modern secular democracies, there's been a trend that folk are identifying themselves as non-affiliated with religion; in the Netherlands the number was 40%, and the highest we saw was in the Czech Republic, where the number was 60%."  Click here for more on the research.

Even if we were to believe as Karl Marx did, that "religion is the opiate of the people." we must also believe that there are times when humans need opiates.  The most widely used medical prescription for a morphine drip is when a patient is dying and in severe pain.  How humane of us since we don't allow a patient to take his/her own life and spare the inevitable gruesome demise. Yet, comics joke that people ready to die tend to become religious, 'studying for their finals'.  It is hedging all bets, so to speak.

The real question being asked is, "Religion going extinct in most Western countries -- Why does it still dominate our politics?"  The second obvious question is why is it being tolerated when it is a violation of the Constitution to use religion in governing.  The separation of church and state is pretty clear, is it not, in the Constitution?  Why have we turned over the country to these ideologues?

RESEARCH ASSUMPTIONXS AND ERRONEOUS CONCLUSIONS

Today I heard a newscaster relate the findings of some research on women.   The conclusions were bizarre .  From what was mentioned, researchers took a random number of women but with no mention of criteria...it was apparently those who meditated and those who did not,  Their criteria was not specific to stress level, hormones or chemical balance.  They then concluded that women who meditate have much less stress than women who do not.    To me, that is a chicken and egg sort of issue.  Might it be that only a woman who is capable of relaxing and freeing her mind is capable of meditating.  I do not meditate because I have ADD and can't sit still that long trying to empty my head.  For me that is far more stressful than other techniques I have used to handle the rare stress I may feel.   In fact, I am rarely stressed feeling stressed..

While I have no problem with whatever people find that works for them, I do have a problem with assumptions based on faith...the assumption here being if you can teach yourself to relax, empty your head,  think positive thoughts, you will help yourself become stress free. Might it be that those who are capable of reaching the necessary state are also capable of a degree of self-hypnosis? What if your stress in increased by your inability to take 15 minutes of your day to force yourself to this exercise because your body wants to move and your senses scream that they are idle and need more than an empty head.?

No matter what I try to focus on, I usually am asked to see things in a one-size-fits-all perspective.  Meditation, like so many other things,  only works for people capable letting go the need to keep their senses engaged like a juggler...always more than one ball in the air.  I find that engaging all my sense keeps me calm.  Since my world is usually seen as a half full glass, I don't have to work at not thinking negatively.  I don't worry about anything over which I have no control and live as Nikos Kazantzakis  describes on his tomb, :"I fear no one, I want nothing, I am free"

LEGAL SPAM

It is currently legal for companies to tap into your computer clicks and file away all sorts of personal information about what you buy and where you go on the Internet.  This is so they can better tailor advertising to what may suit your needs and tastes whether you wish it or not.  Another concept of 'one-size-fits-all' gone astray..

I am what might be called a senior-senior.  However, All the drug stores who offer me a discount on any prescriptions I transfer to them are wasted as I take no prescription drugs.  My hearing is still relatively acute so I don't need free hearing tests so that I will buy thousands of dollars worth of hearing aids.  I live in the home from which I intend to live until I die unless I lose my health and mind.  I drown in offers of free home appraisal and offers to sell my home.  In either case I will not be in need of a town house or "cottage" at a retirement home which requires astronomical down payment and monthly fees and which sports several levels of opportunity for care before your cremation.  Nor am I looking for a nursing home though they seem to be looking for me.

While my knees are not great,  I do not need a hover chair or scooter, nor an electric chair lift from my  basement to the second floor for which I could trade my annual food budget and jujst float up on my own. If I dare to buy a product from a disabilities catalog  (I happen to like talking clocks though I am still sighted) I am advised whenever there is a new model of raised toilets, walkers, shower aids, and every other goodie known to man for people who are missing their senses or mobility.

Actually, I prefer getting this legal spam on my computer because deleting has not yet caused carpal tunnel syndrome.  However, I begrudge that I am totally ignored when I try to stop the demise of trees. Those poor dead trees no longer give off oxygen but bring me catalogs of fashion for the black woman (though I am Caucasian), products for pets (though I don't own one), and (because I bought a sexual aid for a shy patient once years ago) I am unable to turn off the equivalent of the ocean salt machine of offers for titillation that would make a woman-of-the-night blush.

Since my ISP provider likes to make decisions for me as to what is junk, whether I wish it to or not, I must, therefore, go through my junk folder for those misdirected.  The mail provider also thinks it is kind to put back deleted items that have not been opened, assuming that I might be missing something of import to me!

I am a modern Diogenes who is looking for someone who will not try to make decisions for me!