IF the rumor is true....

And I said IF...

The Palin pick will be withdrawn, and McCrazy will look, well, INSANE.

Talk about NOT vetting....

My prediction for McCrazy's Veep....

Update: Probably Palin. A private jet into Cinci/Dayton area: "A Gulfstream IV from Anchorage, Alaska, flew into Middletown Regional Airport in Butler County near Cincinnati about 10:15 p.m. Thursday, said Rich Bevis, airport manager. He said several people came off the plane, including a woman and two teens, but there was no confirmation of who was aboard."

Looks like I was wrong, again. Good choice.

Still, the only two candidates left on the main page on InTrade, are Palin and my guess, Tom Ridge.
---------------------------------------------
Fer better or worse, ya heard it here first:

Tom Ridge.


Although I really would like to see Palin. Or Kasich.

Pawlenty is blah.

Crist is better, but still pretty blah.

KBH is risky and they don't like each other.

Leiberman is insane, but hey, this is McCrazy here.

If he picks Romney, his butt is toast. The un-likeablity factor there, will be insurmountable.

To edit this a little, I forgot my favorite candidate/TV preacher/Governor: Mike Huckabee.

The Huckster would be a breath of fresh air, bring crunchy-Cons into the fold, and be an enormous treat during the debates.

He hasn't got a prayer.

Too bad.

Demo Convention stage -- a BAD fashion choice....

Dateline: The "Heartland"....

Well, looking at the stage design for tonight’s Demo Convention finale, I can’t decide whether it’s an old set from the TV Star Trek, or something they borrowed from The Scientology Convention.

I keep expecting David Miscavige, Tommy Cruise and Spock to walk out with Obamamania to the worship of an adoring crowd of blue-staters.

Maybe Nancy Pelosi can find a “virgin” - or at least an intern - somewhere in her delegation that they can sacrifice.

The Only King -- A repost from Old Hop's Hideout....

I will be voting -- I'll be voting for Ron Paul. And, there are several local issues that need my attention as well. Local politics, at least partially, still work. But this is a worthwhile post....


The Only King

Let all those that seek thee be joyful and glad in thee; and let such as love thy salvation, say always, the LORD be praised. As for me, I am poor and needy; but the Lord careth for me. – Psalm 40:19-20

John Taylor of Caroline County, Virginia (1753-1824) was a political prophet. The historian William Appleman Williams said Taylor, “made the best case against empire as a way of life.” Taylor knew where collusion between elected government, central bankers and businessmen would lead. He had witnessed what had happened in England with its perpetual wars and overreaching colonization. He hoped the several American states would choose the quiet path of small commerce and local farming.

Empires are predicated on “creative destruction.” Their health depends on expansion which hinges on internal improvements, growth, and managed trade, all of which are debt-funded – the hidden tax from which some privileged enterprises profit. People follow their leaders. Americans are debtors as their government is in debt – just as the British fell into debt. This is empire as a way of life.

The Christian may find himself impoverished, but he possesses an inner joy that no man or government can take from him. He submits to the powers that be at every level and renders tribute as due; but his confidence ultimately is not in those earthly powers. He has no king but Jesus.

American Christians live in an empire whose leaders are populist demagogues. They are inundated by the same slick marketing techniques that sucker millions of unregenerate voters. Government is the messiah. Listen to the evening news: three quarters of the stories involve issues related to some government problem or proposed government solution. We are saturated with the notion that government ought to do something. This is empire as a way of life.

In John Taylor’s day there was no such thing as sacrosanct universal suffrage. Wise men once knew that great numbers of the populace did not have the understanding of competing philosophies to cast wise votes. A high school diploma or a baccalaureate degree does not a responsible citizen make. We Americans are generally well-trained but not all are well-educated. We vote for the best-looking and the most eloquent with the most promises.If ever there was a time in the nation’s history that people ought not to vote – especially Christians – that time is now. Taylor Somers wrote,

"...spend your time on election day doing something creative, productive, and useful, instead of wasting time at the ballot box. Paint a picture, write poetry, compose a song, learn economics or philosophy or literature; it’ll do so much more good than voting [which] thereby legitimizes the jokers who see fit to rule our lives."

We are not between the devil and the deep blue sea. Refusing to participate in media-rigged elections is not the shirking of one’s sacred civic responsibility – it is rather an eloquent protest. As Neil Peart wrote, “If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.”For the Christian we might add to Somers’ list praying, worshiping, studying the Scriptures, and doing simple kindnesses for family, friends and neighbors. The choice is for community over empire; for King Jesus over of the latest, media-manufactured messiah.

If John Taylor were with us today he would no doubt agree.

McCain's VP pick process....

I can see it now:

Dick Cheney, head of McCrazy's VP search, has emerged as the leading candidate.

Love and Loved Ones....

"This is how God's love was revealed among us: God sent his unique Son into the world so that we might live through him." -- I John, 4:9

Loved Ones, may you experience the Love of God and His Salvation through belief in Jesus, the Unique and Only Begotten Son of God, who shed His Blood for you, died on the Cross and rose again so that you may be Saved.

I pray always that we will meet in heaven.

Goodbye and hello as always.

Name Above All Names....

I was recently having a public conversation with four intelligent, educated people when the subject of Religion and it's influence in society came up.

It was a round-a-bout conversation, short sentences and even shorter opinions. Several Religions were mentioned: Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity and especially the various forms, both main-stream and fringe, of Protestantism.

At different times throughout the conversation the names Allah and Buddha were mentioned. I mentioned the name "Jesus", in a normal conversational voice, and volunteered that what I meant by "Christian" was that I believed that Jesus Christ had died for my sins, and that by accepting his gift of Salvation I believed that I had been given, though His Grace, eternal life.

All four people visibly flinched at the name "Jesus" -- before I mentioned my belief. The conversation quickly changed subject and soon ended.

I wonder what causes that? Guilt? Fear?

These people are my friends, but I have the feeling that if any one of them had to choose between having eternal life through the Grace of God in His Son Jesus and eternal death, they would and will choose death.

I was so sad.

Here's an article that explains the way that I feel and what I believe.

Name Above All Names - by Karen Hancock

Before I was saved, I didn't like to talk about Jesus. A believer friend recalled to me later our conversations about evolution and the Bible, and how the discussion would roll easily along until the moment he mentioned the name of Jesus Christ. Then I would close like a teapot lid slamming shut. He was right. I can still remember how uncomfortable it made me to speak or hear that name. Jesus Christ. No! I don't want to hear about Him. Let's talk about something else.

What is it about that name that it carries such power? It's okay to mention God, or Allah or Mohammed or Buddha -- but Jesus Christ makes people squirm, makes them want to mock and laugh, or get angry or talk of something else. And is there any other name quite so commonly used as an epithet? Did you ever wonder why?

Perhaps because His enemy has made such widespread attempt to belittle it, to degrade it, to make it seem like something silly, or stupid, something only the ignorant or the weak or the gullible are interested in. But maybe also because the name draws your thoughts to the person, and the person has a claim upon your life. The Bible tells us that God has placed the desire for eternal things in the heart of every man, and that in the end, every knee shall bow to the King of Kings. I believe that all of history revolves around this one Man, and that on some deep level, everyone knows it, either to embrace Him or reject Him.

So what do you think about Him? Just who do you think He is?

A famous historical personage? A good teacher? A Jewish holy man?

According to the Bible, we have all fallen short of God's righteousness. Few would argue that, for we all know our own failings. None of us is perfect. Except for God. And someone who is perfectly righteous can not fellowship with someone who is not. Like light and dark or gravity and anti-gravity, they cannot be together. If righteousness were to accept unrighteousness, it would no longer be righteousness. If justice were to accept injustice, it would no longer be justice.

But God loves us. He loved us in eternity past when he looked down the corridors of time and knew we would be sinners in need of deliverance from the darkness in which we dwelt. And so He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, Lord General of the Armies of Heaven, ruler of stars and angels alike – to do something about it. And Jesus agreed to go, giving up the splendor and majesty and power of His divinity in the process. From His love and by His own choice, He became a man, experiencing the limitations and weaknesses of human flesh, and receiving the rejection, mockery and hatred of those He came to save. He allowed mere men to seize Him and beat Him and nail Him to a cross, though He could have taken the life of every one of His tormentors with a word. Instead He chose to allow the mistreatment, so that on the cross he could be judged for the sins of the world. Every sin that every person would ever commit, past, present and future. He took the punishment that each of us deserved.

Did you know that He thought about you, personally, when He decided to go to the cross? Did you know that He thought about you personally when He hung there and screamed as your sins were poured upon Him, the only perfect, sinless person ever to be born? He paid a grievous penalty that was rightfully yours so you could live with God forever. He did it because He loves you as no one else ever has or ever will.

It is His gift to you. And all you need do is receive it. If you have never done so, or even if you're not really sure if you have, you can do it right now. In the silence of your thoughts, you can tell God the Father that you recognize you are a sinner and are believing in His Son for eternal salvation. That is the moment you receive eternal life. Know that by that single, free will decision you have been born into the Royal Family of God, never to be removed, no matter what you do. There is not a sin that you can commit from here on that Jesus did not pay for.

You're going to heaven. Whether or not you'll receive reward when you get there, is another matter. Whether or not you'll ever know in this life the power you have just been given, is another matter. But if you have made the one crucial decision in the life of every person, the decision to believe in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, you can be certain you are saved and will be with Him in eternity, forever.

Jesus Christ. Son of God. Savior of the whole World. Name above all names.

"For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." -- Romans 3:23

"For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten (uniquely born) Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." -- John 3: 16 – 18

"And I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish; and no one shall snatch them out of My hand." -- John 10:28

My aborted YouTube video idea....

Like every other fool, I was going to do myself up on YouTube -- you know, show myself in my environment, etc....

But, I soon realized that there are literally thousands of videos showing angry, overweight, middle-aged (almost) men, throwing computers around offices and generally breaking out of their normal passive-agressive existence.

In related good news for my co-workers, I've decided NOT to bring my gun to work tomorrow.

I can't promise about next week, though....


(Now look here: if you are idiot enough to think I'm serious about the gun thang, then maybe you do need to be shot -- for the sake of humanity, whatever that is....)

Russia, Georgia (Not that one), and the US....

Repost from The Athens News and Editor Terry Smith:

ONE OF THE MOST persuasive arguments against reckless aggression in foreign policy, and mistreating enemy combatants, is that you risk squandering your own moral authority.

In the past week, we’ve seen the results of this twice in our country’s international affairs. First, we had the spectacle of President George W. Bush, the immoral authority behind Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and military kangaroo courts, scolding the Chinese on human rights.

Then, we had trigger-happy VP Dick Cheney lecturing the Russians about aggression in their own backyard. More than anyone else in the current administration, Cheney provided much of the energy behind our unilateral, poorly planned, bogusly justified invasion of Iraq.

Neither China nor Russia deserves a pass on human rights or aggression. I just wish our country could stand tall on these issues, and actually exert some credible influence. But without moral authority, that’s pretty hard to do.

ONCE AGAIN, WHERE foreign policy is concerned, the U.S. broadcast media aren’t covering themselves with distinction. In the days after the Russia-South Ossetia-Georgia conflict erupted, much of our TV news set aside the actual fact situation on the ground, and replaced it with a tidy plot that fits their preconceived notions of right and wrong in the world. As many of us know from watching the Iraq drama, the Bush administration works better when it can read from such a script.

Ask a dozen people on the street who shelled South Ossetia’s capital late last week, producing civilian casualties, and who sent its troops into the disputed republic. Eleven out of the 12 will probably quickly answer, “Russia.”

Then ask your dozen whether the people of South Ossetia want to be a part of Georgia, or prefer to be autonomous, with strong ties to Russia. Once again, most will probably get it wrong and assume that the South Ossetians are being subjugated by the Russian Bear. In reality, most South Ossetians fiercely prize their independence from Georgia, and rejoiced when Russia unceremoniously threw the Georgian military out of their territory.

But if you’ve been listening to Fox News, MSNBC or CNN over the past several days, you probably wouldn’t know any of this stuff. They might have mentioned it in passing, but for the most part their focus has been on the aggressive Russian response to the original Georgian attack.

So when Cheney, Bush and McCain get all hot and bothered about the Russians, they’re assuming that most Americans are unaware of the actual background and chronology of events. (Or maybe they really don’t know themselves.)

I’m not saying that the Russians are without guilt in this crisis — by their brutally disproportionate response to Georgia, they’re telling the world that they will no longer stand for anyone else asserting authority on their borders. But if we’re to respond credibly and productively to world crises, it would be nice if we address what actually happens, rather than whatever trumped-up television drama that our news media and leaders come up with.

Highway Patrol Salaries -- The Revenuers are at it all the time....

Ohio State Highway Patrol Lieutenant in trouble over relationship.

She makes 81K/year as an administrator.

Which brings us to another item:

How much do OSHP Troopers make and are they worth it?

Ohio State Troopers Earn Salary in Speeding Tickets

The top state police officers in Ohio earn far more than their annual salary in traffic tickets issued.

At least 57 Ohio state troopers brought in six-figure revenue from speeding tickets last year.

According to a Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper analysis, the Ohio Highway Patrol issued 563,565 tickets in 2006. Fifty-seven troopers reached the magic "1000 ticket" mark by writing at least that many citations for a number of offenses -- most often for speeding.

The state's top trooper was responsible for writing a total of 1530 citations. With speeding tickets averaging between $100 to $500, that lawman single-handedly brought in between $153,000 and $765,000 in state and municipal revenue.

Although the Ohio Highway Patrol technically receives its funding from a transportation account funded by gas taxes, increased general revenue from tickets allows lawmakers to spend more on other priorities. These priorities sometimes include additional funding for new state police programs.

Trial Lawyers mount class-action suit against "Silky Pony"....

“A man not honorable in his marital relations is not usually honorable in any other.” –Harry Truman

How low do you have to go to make a trial lawyer queasy?

Now we know.

And you just know the kid is his, too.

I can see it now: Trial Lawyers will sue him for defamation, and John-boy "Silky Pony" Edwards will volunteer to take the case... for his usual fee, of course.

And Jesse Jackson (Father to a couple recognized "illegitimate" children, himself.) will offer to "counsel" him, just like he did Prez BC.

Reposted from Hot Air (jeff_from_mpls); I thought this was appropriate:

"If the man himself doesn’t matter, but only his platform, his positions and his policies, then what’s the point of a democratic republic at all?

If the mob is really just voting for an outline of ideas, and not for the man with his judgment, his integrity, his trustworthiness, then we have a system where people are voting directly on legal proposals, like a referendum, instead of voting indirectly for a man whom we trust to judge the merits and faults of various proposals. A man who will be our moral proxy.

If the man himself is of no account, then let's cut the pretense and just vote for manila folders containing party platforms. It seems to me that’s what our politics have been reduced to; and I think a certain segment of the political spectrum is very pleased about this; they’re the ones screaming that character doesn’t matter.

We ought to be ashamed of ourselves for how superficial we are.”

Republican Soiree vs. PBS and Ron White....

Someone was "nice" enough to invite me to the local Republican Soiree and Easter Egg/money hunt featuring John Kasich (Former Congressman and now sometime bloviator for Faux News).

No thanks to the Repub’ din-din and scam session. (And any Demo function, too.)

I’ll be at home watching another PBS program on the raping of the taxpayers by the corrupt US/Iraq Goverments and featuring cash payouts to terrorists, Kellog-Brown & Root and Halliburton and the search for the missing Billions-with-a-B of our/my money.

Oh, and while I’m watching PBS, I’ll be sitting naked in a leather chair, eating Cheetos, a’la Ron (Tater Salad) White.

McCain going "Negative" early on.....

McCrazy IS using Karl Rove’s company. That’s why he’s going neg so early.

Big mistake. The people who are impressed by these ads are already voting for him. The swing voters he is after will, for the most part, be turned off by this crap.

Obamamania can be stopped by focusing on the issues. Unfortunately McCrazy’s whole approach is unfocused and confused. He is letting Obamamania get away with the warm and fuzzy stuff and not addressing the particulars that will require pointed responses from Obamamania.

We have one candidate who wants to give away a gas tax holiday, and another who wants to give another stimulus/cash advance with nonexistant money.

They are hopeless and we are doomed either way.

Cops Lie Under Oath -- Surprise, Surprise....

... and they do it ALL the time.

Re.: NY Bicyclist's Mugging.

"...Clearly, Officer Pogan was in the wrong. Even Commissioner Kelley and Mayor Bloomberg said so.

What is interesting is that so many people who don't think Pogan did anything wrong in brutally attacking the cyclist, also seem to ignore the fact that Pogan blatantly lied in his police report.

Also, everyone is up in arms about cyclists - saying that cyclists deserve what they get because they ALL run red lights and disobey traffic laws.

Think about that statement next time you "cross between, and not at the green" or otherwise jaywalk or go 4 miles per hour over the speed limit or do a 2 mile per hour roll through a stop sign. Do you think in every one of those cases that Officer Pogan would be justified in clocking you in the head so that you fell to the pavement at 15 mph? Without even giving you a warning?...." -- by K9 Patrol

Several times I have been a personal witness to this truth:

Law Enforcement Officers (LEOs) lie all the time.

Usually they get away with it. Usually they get the benefit of the doubt from courts, where their unwitnessed testimony on everything from traffic violations to serious felonies is rarely challenged.

In this instance they don't.

Here's hoping that more of them get caught out.

The Point of this Whole Presidential Campaign....

I don’t like either candidate. Neither will solve the problems of out-of-control spending and big government.

The only thing I can hang my very-Libertarian-but-extremely-realistic hat on is “Who is going to appoint SCOTUS candidates?”. That pretty much makes up my mind for me….

Think about it:

It all depends on how quickly you want your way of life and your freedom of choice to vanish.
It still will, but your choice of candidate will determine how quickly your life will change — for the worse.

The Drunk in the Balcony and the Greenwich Village Drum Machine....

The Drunk in the Balcony and the Greenwich Village Drum Machine....

Well, last night was the Steve Earle concert at Stuart’s Opera House in Nelsonville.

Four years ago I saw SE right there in Stuart’s, and it was one of their best concerts. Not The Everbodyfields, but... I should have taken set list notes. Forgive me.

For you ultra-serious SE fans, I suggest you just skip this review -- OR go and buy a Chris Knight CD. It’ll do you good. As for me, the best part of the night was the salad at Casa Nueva, an hour before the concert.

Opener: surprise, surprise, it was Allison Moorer, or MRS. Steve Earle. Since 2005 -- one year after I last saw an excellent SE concert. I wonder....

Start from the SE start: I’ve been playing SE songs for years. And years. And years. But I’ve always found him a little spotty compared to my favorite songwriters. For every gem, there are four or five duds.

Ta-da! Dud.

This is way low of me. Way low. But Mrs. SE stole the lower half of one of Hillary Clinton’s pant-suits. Not a fashion choice you would often see at a SE concert. There, that’s over. I’m not a fashionista, but heck, this was just the beginning of a bunch of bad choices.

Four songs into Mrs. SE’s brassy-voiced, just off-key-enough-to-be-annoying, and ultra-mediocre guitar-playing set, she launched into a cover of Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now”. At that point I headed for the bar/entrance hall down below and got a second coffee – no easy feat for a newly-reformed drunk: it was better in the bar than staying to listen. My immediate thought was that it would take three plays of a double-live Fred Eaglesmith CD to excoriate this from what is left of my brain. Two minutes later, I was followed by my much-much better half, who just rolled her eyes and headed for the Marietta IPA. That’s it for Mrs. SE.

A little t-shirt, overpriced CD and DVD break and then, heeeeeeeeerrrrre’s STEVE!

He’s always a better guitar player than I expect him to be. When he plays with a band, he’s never THE guitar player -- so you forget that he is a better-than-average player -- despite the use of the same three turnarounds for each verse/chorus in every song. He has great timing, rhythm and beat. This is important, as the last two live acts I’ve seen as a paying customer were Will Kimbrough and Tommy Womack, both of whom, and especially Kimbrough are really GOOD players. Both are also wonderful, concise, well-rounded songwriters who are not living on their laurels. (And who don't make up the majority of their songs while recording their latest efforts.)

The sound was fairly good. Vocals could have been better, but heck, the sound man can’t fix enunciation.

That said, SE’s first five or six tunes were good. Good playing and fairly good vocals. Heck, it’s Steve F’n Earle. Ya know what I mean? Sure ya do. Jericho road, Jerusalem, Someday, Ellis Unit One - more folks need to hear this stuff!

Next: The Drunk in the Balcony. Yep. There’s always a drunk in the balcony. And he’s always a major nuisance. This one was. But he was also something that both the Bush administration and Steve Earle need: a Truth-Teller.

Steve Earle is using a DJ operated drum-machine and loop technology! The last guy I saw using loops was Bruce Cockburn. SE ain’t BC.

The DJ looked like a fey version of John Goodman. He sported a little superior smile on his fat little fey face that smacked of arrogance. He had a “moog” t-shirt that just gave off that new Greenwich Village ultra-hipness that SE is now evidently a part of. He spun his little turntable squeakies. He thumped his finger-activated drum-pads. He had little maracas running in the background, interfering with some spare but nicely timed dobro from SE.

(Note: SE was from Texas. Then Tennessee. Now it’s Greenwich Village. Pardonne-moi, but AMERICANA is Texas and Tennessee -- not Greenwich Village. Sorry, it’s just not. Folk music, yes -- NOT Americana.)

Then came “The Drunk in the Balcony”. Usually I hate these guys. I want to pay bikers to kick his ass. Heck, I wanna join in on the ass-kicking. But in this case HE was the hero -- not SE.

After the first DJ aided massacre, we heard this slurred voice from the balcony: “Throw the drum machine in the dumpster.” (This is obviously a take-off of the lyrics to SE's "Week of Living Dangerously".)

After the second DJ mess: “Throw the drum machine in the dumpster and fade on into the sunset.” (A very poetic Drunk in the Balcony, now.)

After the third DJ abortion: “You ain’t all that! Throw the drum machine into the dumpster.” (By now I think I have a man-crush on this drunk.)

SE brings MRS. SE out for a duet. They CO-WROTE it! It’s turrible. Three-year-olds have throw-aways better than this. The drunk in the balcony is back and I want to buy him another but he’s still stuck on the drum machine.

The COVER of Copperhead Road. If you don’t want to do it right, don’t do it. I KNOW it’s your song. I’ve done it so many times, I don’t care if I ever hear it again, but if you feel like you have to do it, please do it right.

I did like the posing at the end. There's something pretty f'n funny about a guy in a plaid western shirt, baggy jeans, old cowboy boots and stringy hair doing a broadwayesque version of a guitar hero pose, complete with hip thrust and fist in air. I'm fairly certain it was sarcasm on SE's part. Either way, very funny. Maybe it's his way of dealing with the nine-thousandth repeat of Copperhead Road.

And one more last-last thang: if you are such a liberal, that big, black Silver-Eagle better be running on F’n vegetable oil. And remember, Steve Earle is a “union guy”, and thanks to him, there was a bass player and a better-than-average drummer signing up for unemployment tonight, replaced by a fey John Goodman DJ.

My take on the whole thing: God Bless Fred Eaglesmith. And Steve Earle ain’t Steve Earle anymore.

NPR - Bad Poster Children choice....

Well here's the link.... They are trying to make their points, but the poster children they have chosen are... uhhhhh... well... see for yourself. And here's my reply. Not that they are going to acknowledge it.

If you had picked a couple starving people, or at least left off the photos, your story would have had more bite.

I realize that they may not have “healthy” diets and probably eat too much starchy carbs (A lot of it while watching Springer, I’m a-guessin’.), but they sure don’t make good poster children for what you are trying to accomplish.

Now it is true that I do not know these particular people, but I’m bettin’ that if you picked them up and drove them to work or school they would still drop out of both. Time and again.

I don’t have the answer of how to do it, but you have to change this culture of dependency.

Times will get tougher before they get better, and those of us who now unwillingly pay the freight for these people will not be able to carry the extra weight much longer. Of course we have no choice right now; the government forces us to provide for them.

The upshot of this comment is that you need to provide better examples and that sooner or later circumstances will be such that even Almighty Big Brother will not be able to care for either the deserving needy or the undeserving freeloaders.

MIses Meets Poetry -- Xenomoney, by Rosmarie Waldrop

Xenomoney: From Promise to Tautology

One thirty-fifth of an ounce of gold for a dollar. The treasury was obliged. Till 1973, when the US Government canceled. Such obligation. Since then exact resemblance for exact resemblance, exact same bill for exact same bill. And nothing, neither gold nor silver, in back of the mirror. (If there had been would it reveal scenes of Vietnam? Reasons of the fourfold increase in the price of oil?)

Cut loose from any fixed equivalence, the dollar sets sail and floats off-shore on market forces. Into uncertain foreign waters and computer screens. Xenomoney.

No more physical reality of a country to guarantee it. Xenomoney belongs to international business that trumps princes and States. No history or traceable origin. Like zero outside 'natural' language. Anonymous. A bubble from no sinking ship.

Here creditor does not know debtor. Though they are joined together in one long chain. He cannot examine balance sheets of every link. He can only bite his fingernails. And remember a river in Poland or New Jersey.

Of course it's long since money went beyond being pure medium of exchange and infiltrated the category of "goods." Itself bought and sold. Both object and medium, thing and token, commodity and sign for a commodity, it signifies itself. As if a photograph could not only lose its reference to your dead wife but make you forget what is a face.

No more "grounding" of money signs in some prior, natural thing. Just as zero did for numbers—what "thing" could zero possibly refer to? Though Mesopotamia is split crosswise and dollarwise.

Money now creates its own significance. In the only terms available to it. Money is time. And can be bought as a financial future. According to qualities that are precisely not according. And are thought to burn open sexual parts.

Rosmarie Waldrop

Higher Powers and Mixed Martial Arts fighting....

Can you tell where the local newspaper notice leaves off and my imagination begins? I thinks you can.

Saturday’s Higher Power Mixed Martial Arts' event “Fight Night” has been canceled.

The event will be rescheduled, but no makeup date has been announced yet. For more information call 740-777-3670.

Cancellation was due to a Trademark infringement suit filed in Heavenly Municipal Court by Alcoholics Anonymous.

Saint Peter's representative, The Crabby Fat Guy, will be hearing the case during Happy Hour at Leo's Bier Haus on East Main Street in Lancaster.

Higher Power MMA has filed counter-suit against AA on basis of Religious Discrimination. They claim that their Higher Power can beat the snot out of AA's Higher Power.

Otis Campbell, spokesman for AA, referred to the counter-suit by claiming that it wouldn't be a fair fight, as "they have just one Higher Power, while we have many.", and offered to "meet them (Higher Power MMA) in a cage match at the nearest Pentecostal Church."

More forthcoming.

To Love One's Country....

Let me say first that I am neither an Obamamaniac or a McCrazy. And while I still have a conscience, I may not vote it, and therefore my vote may very possibly be up for sale. Email me with offers. You can pay up via PayPal.

I have exerpted most of this, and you can read this entire post from John McCollum's blog: Ears To The Track.

The very thoughtful follow-up post to this article can be read here at Ears To The Track.

To Love One’s Country
(Also entitled “The Post That Erased Any Chance I Ever Had At Being Elected To Public Office.”)

...I’ve noted with interest and not a small amount of consternation this election cycle’s focus on “loving America,” and I’m interested in exploring what it means to love one’s country, and whether or not it’s important to do so.

Michelle Obama said something like, “For the first time in my adult life, I’m really proud of my country,” and the pundits and bloggers reacted as if she said, “For the first time in my adult life, I survived a 24 hour period without sacrificing a toddler on the altar of Baal.”*....

...First, I just want to say that I really do think that there is a double standard when it comes to evaluating what constitutes anti-American perceptions or actions. The far right in our country (and probably in every other country) has very effectively crafted the perception that support for nationalistic militarism and ethnocentric exceptionalism are the primary means for demonstrating one’s love for the Fatherland.

Thus, a (black) pastor who says “God is judging this country because of its economic and military injustices” is immediately and effectively labeled “an America-hater,” but a white pastor who says, “God is judging this country because of its sexual immorality” is regarded — at worst — as being moralistic and outdated. In both cases, the pastor “hates” the nation’s moral record. In only one case does the accusation that the man “hates America” stick. Likewise, people who oppose the country’s drift toward secularism at sexual tolerance may still be considered “good, patriotic Americans,” but those who oppose the nation’s march toward imperialism are somehow seen as exhibiting civic deficiencies.

My friends on the far right would probably acknowledge that this double standard exists, but they would probably see it less as a misjudgment and more as a confirmation that liberals do indeed hate America.

...Double-standard aside, I’m not really sure I see “loving my country” as being particularly high on my list of moral imperatives. Don’t get me wrong — I do love my country — I just don’t think that patriotism is necessarily one of the higher virtues, or that lack of willingness to go to great deals to demonstrate one’s patriotism is an indication of one’s suitability for good citizenship, or even good leadership.

I could make my argument from a secular standpoint, but I’m more interested in exploring the scriptural aspects, since “God and Country” are so often linked in this discourse, particularly among us evangelicals.

In the scriptures, I’m commanded to love a lot of things: my God, my neighbor, my wife, my enemy…I’m never commanded to love my country. In fact, if “loving my country” means that I demonstrate preference to someone based on their ethnicity, their nationality or, for instance, their loyalty to America’s foreign policies, I think I’ve pretty much undermined a very important aspect of Jesus’ mission on this earth — to make his temple a “house of prayer for all nations” and ours, to “make disciples of all nations.” And when I’m willing to value American lives over, say, Iranian lives or when I’m willing to promote America’s economic interests over the interests of the world’s poor simply because I’m American I may actually demonstrate my infidelity to the only Kingdom worthy of my allegiance.

I guess I’m grappling with what it means to “love my country.” I do recognize that being born American, much like being born white, has afforded me many opportunities that I didn’t earn, and that I don’t deserve. I am grateful to God for all of those opportunities. But I also am deeply conflicted about what those opportunities and privileges require of me, and what blind spots they provoke, and I think that promises of allegiance and demonstrations of fealty to any temporary, earthly kingdom creates an untenable level of moral debt to a creditor by whose terms I cannot abide....

Again, you can read this entire post on John McCollum's Blog: Ears To The Track.