“Legally Blonde” is one of my favorite films. I only wish the powers running Harvard were as smart as the film portrays. But alas, Elle getting into Harvard and the really feel good ending to the story remains a fairy tale. Life doesn’t usually work that way and not every girl is a very intelligent, beautiful and talented Elle from a doting and wealthy family.

However, while recently watching the film again I was reminded there was a time in America when we had hope of fairy tales coming true in our lives, when the children of my era were raised to believe in fairy tales because America held so much promise of such fairy tales coming true. The Attack on Pearl Harbor changed all that.

There aren’t many of us who recall inkwells in our school desks, of having to use those pens with their black wooden handles of so many years past. But some may have read stories of little boys that would mischievously dip the pigtails of some little girl into an inkwell who had the misfortune to be sitting in front of such a boy.

This memory of long ago came to me as I sit here at my desk writing with the morning sunlight streaming in through the windows. The wonder of it is that at my age I still find wonder and magic in the sunlight, in so many things of Nature that remain since childhood so full of wonder and magic. That such memories are tinged by thoughts of little boys dipping a little girl’s pigtails into their inkwells seems a perverse twist of the way our minds work. No sooner does a pleasant memory come to mind but some other less pleasant or at odd intrudes.

Among the treasures I possess is a scrapbook my mother began keeping in 1939, in which are many artifacts and photos from this date through the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor (mom being there during the attack) and for some time thereafter. When my mother passed away, I unexpectedly found myself the remaining “patriarch” of our family and the scrapbook became mine.

The memorabilia in the scrapbook of my mother’s time in Hawaii includes a matchbook cover featuring the U. S. S. Medusa. My stepfather Joe Brown was a machinist aboard this ship. He made the two beautiful lamps in the shape of lighthouses that are also now in my possession. There are many items of historical interest in the book, things like the daily paper put out to the passengers aboard the S. S. President Taft, the ship in which my mother returned to the states following the attack on Pearl.

The paper’s masthead reads: “Matson Line Wireless. Matson Navigation Company. The Oceanic Steamship Company.” The paper is quite comprehensive, covering the daily reports of the war and includes a warning to passengers not to throw it overboard after reading since to do so might result in being picked up by Japanese submarines. The threat of submarine attack was all too real, and another cause for worry to those awaiting the return of loved ones from Hawaii. To go through my mother’s scrapbook of this era of American history is not only a journey back in time, it is a historical document of the greatest importance, a personal window into that period of enormous upheaval for America and a world suddenly finding itself at war.

For example, there are the many items having to do with the actual attack on Pearl including photos. Mom had also kept a photo album of pictures she took while living in Hawaii, some of beautiful buildings and parks, some showing her with various friends while traveling about the Island. The photos following the attack showed the stark change; there are photos of bomb shelters hurriedly erected and mom and some friends wearing gas masks, a stark and chilling contrast to the previous pictures of an enchanted island suddenly finding itself gripped by fear, the terror of the deadly sneak attack made obvious in the pictures.

I have the RCA Radiogram mom saved in her scrapbook sent by my grandparents with the stark words “Let us know at once if you are safe.” But following the attack America was suddenly in “Lockdown” nationwide with little personal information about loved ones or conditions in Hawaii, and because of the numerous emergency requirements and procedures instituted immediately following the attack my grandparents could not even send the radiogram until December 16. This meant we did not know for many days following the attack if mom was even alive. I well recall how worried we all were until mom was able to send a reply, all the while we were listening intently to every radio broadcast and reading everything possible about the conditions surrounding Hawaii immediately following the attack.

Then there is the “Questionnaire To Be Completed By Evacuees” my mother had to fill out before being assigned transport back to the states. Being a Navy Wife, the questionnaire required particular information of my mother not required of those who were not attached in some way to the military. But among the many things in mom’s scrapbook there are those that tell of a period in American history when the future was bright and full of dreams and hopes for a very beautiful young woman, a wife and mother with a limitless horizon of such dreams and hopes of a future. Then in a violently abrupt instant all these were thrown into the maelstrom of the infamous sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, a shell actually exploding in mom’s kitchen injuring her. Suddenly and unexpectedly hopes and dreams were blasted by that infamous instant of time that threw America into a world war for which neither mom nor any of us were prepared.

As I write, mom’s scrapbook is open here on my desk before me. I look at these bits and pieces of my mother’s life, the many items and photos so important to her, that she believed significant enough to include, though precious to me on a personal level I realize how very important this actual history is. Her scrapbook is something of great historical significance, so much so that it belongs in a proper place housing the artifacts of actual American history ever as much as those of any other. Mom’s scrapbook is worthy of a book being written about it.

However, the keeping of a scrapbook is one of those things like inkwells in school desks and the pressing of flowers in a book that belong to a bygone era. Few children or young people today keep a scrapbook, and I believe this to be most unfortunate. You see, a scrapbook is kept for the sake of memories of family, something one expects to be meaningful to others as well as yourself. But such a thing presumes there is a family to which the scrapbook will become part of a legacy.

It seems at times that, like Ishmael of Moby Dick, I alone am left to tell the tale of my mother’s America, of the America I knew as a child that held so much promise of a future for our nation filled with the hope of fairy tales coming true. And mom’s scrapbook containing the hopes and dreams of a young woman living in an enchanted land called “Hawaii” before December 7, 1941 prove how justified we were in believing in an America my mother and I once knew, an America that used to be. But also proving how in an instant of time everything can change; and I wonder if there will be any scrapbooks like my mother’s to pass on to those like me to tell the tale?

An estimated 100 billion galaxies in the universe, with each containing an estimated 100 billion stars are truly astronomical numbers with which to conjure; and in many ways conjure is the correct word. In fact, it is just too vast, too huge for me to even imagine. And given the immensity of it all what to believe? Well one of the things I come up with is Don Knotts and Mayberry.

With the passing of Don Knotts it occurred to me once more how badly we need to believe in Barney Fife and Mayberry. We Americans have been blessed with those like George Washington as our heritage. Those of us who experienced a Mayberry, Walton’s Mountain, and Norman Rockwell America prior to WWII are blessed with precious memories of the way things are supposed to be. We lived it and know what is missing in America today, what our leaders have squandered and frittered away by betraying such a wonderful heritage. Those of us who have lived long enough to look back far enough know what has been lost, and we can be excused for grieving over the loss.

It was while contemplating this loss, thinking about Mayberry and other like things my mind turned to something philosophers and theologians have long pondered about a possible “hereafter.” My idea of heaven would be Mayberry, a place where only goodness and virtue prevailed, where there is no place for the evil men do.

One of the things that has made it easier for me to contemplate my own death is the thought there will be those loved ones and friends who have gone on before me, those who are waiting to greet me upon my own passing. But I would not want them to be witnessing the failures, trials and tribulations I go through while in this present life. It could hardly be “heaven” where our loved ones and friends witness our ongoing struggles and helpless to intervene on our behalf.

We read in the Bible a description of death comparing it to a seed being planted, one that will grow even as an earthly seed planted in the earth. Our earthly body even as that earthly seed is a promise of life coming forth, and will go through a transformation even as that earthly seed.

My own thought is that we will be “born” into the heavenly life much like we are born into this life. Just as we know nothing at birth but become slowly aware of our surroundings, slowly learning and becoming self-conscious so I believe it will be in the hereafter. How else to cope with the shock of entering into the hereafter? No earthly seed could possibly survive being instantly transformed into its promise of the life it contains.

The doctrine of the “Rapture” has people being transformed in the “twinkling of an eye.”  But I do not believe this transformation could take place without incorporating that parable of Jesus comparing death and resurrection with that earthly seed. It takes time for the seed to transform, and it will take time for us to transform in the hereafter, to become aware of our new surroundings without suffering the same shock should a seed not be carefully nurtured and given time to grow into its earthly body. It may be our loved ones and friends gone on before us will be “gardeners” tending us even as our earthly parents tended us as babies, and we in turn “tended” our own children.

The Bible presents many thoughts on this subject, among them being that of earthly things being the pattern of things to come. While all of this is metaphysical, only speculation, nevertheless there is Mayberry. And for those of us who knew an America in which there was a Mayberry, those of us who knew Norman Rockwell’s America we live in hope of a heavenly Mayberry.

Will you be “Left Behind?”  The portents for worldwide disaster are visible to all and need no elucidation. It’s the story “If you are not paranoid you don’t see the whole picture.” Emerson was gifted in seeing the whole picture. Some one-hundred and sixty-five years ago he wrote, “But in a hundred high schools and colleges this warfare against common sense still goes on.”

The Ivory Tower syndrome was well entrenched by the time Emerson made his remarks, and the recent furor over the failing schools of America continues to be rooted in the universities of America. This insulated world to itself so ignorant of the realities is led by fools that have no concept of the real world in which the rest of us live. Social promotion is a “gift” of the universities, a doomed system without any accountability. And when children are no longer taught reading, writing, and arithmetic here come the social engineers, all good university graduates, to “fix” the problem— Again; and again, all the while “in a hundred high schools and colleges this warfare against common sense still goes on.” What I said years ago of the schools is only more appropriate now: A system for failure could not have been better designed had it been done intentionally.

Alas, our leaders in government, judiciary, media, in our schools are a product of a university system that does not deal with realities; so it is we have an America without any leaders dedicated to accountability and unable to deal with realities. But because of the world becoming increasingly dangerous, and this is a reality, it requires leaders who are both accountable and able to deal with realities. But where are such leaders to be found?

The Iranian President’s vitriolic ranting tirades against the West, Christians, and Jews sure sound a lot like those of Hitler’s, even the voice and gestures are reminiscent of Hitler. Most certainly the crowds being whipped into a frenzy by Iran’s mad mullah are an exact replica of the crowds Hitler “preached” to. And since the whole world knows Caesar Bush had determined to “Get Saddam” before he even took office and without any plan whatsoever for fighting a war to win in the Middle East there is no want of Muslim propaganda to use against America.

As some of us were pointing out at the time, without putting an actual face to the enemy and successfully demonizing him there was no hope of winning any kind of war, and given the stranglehold of political correctness it is easier to demonize Halliburton than Muslim fanatics. And when some of us call for bringing the troops home to secure our own borders we are labeled “defeatist” and “racist.” Since none of this makes any sense, least of all our leadership getting us involved in a Middle East quagmire where there is no hope of prosecuting any kind of successful war, it would be easy for anyone to think Bush a mad man confronting other mad men like Iran’s mad mullah.

What would it take here in America to prosecute a successful war against the gangs and other criminals terrorizing our cities? While I experienced the problem in Watts back in the 60s, it was interesting watching Anderson Cooper’s segment “Stop Snitchin’ “ program. Like the attention now being paid to the vile and violent lyrics of hip-hop and rap, it is far too little and far too late. Nothing short of a totalitarian rule in America can now solve the problem. But that can happen overnight if a terrorist nuclear bomb goes off at LAX. During the Watts Riots I watched as the police and National Guard went in to restore order. The cops would ride four in a car emptying their guns into various stores and buildings, the Guardsmen in armored vehicles would fire .50 caliber machine guns down the streets, and an actual body count was never made. While I slept with a gun by my side, one guardsman I knew kept a box of hand grenades close by. Were it not for my being there, this would all seem like a fabulous story.

But the situation that brought about the riots has only worsened, and the millions of illegal aliens invading from Mexico have only contributed to the worsening conditions in the cities and schools of America. While I applaud those like Cooper for airing the grievances, there is no satisfactory answer to quelling the violence in the cities short of martial law, securing our borders and expelling all illegal aliens. If this seems farfetched, the very same people saying it would take nearly a half-million troops in Iraq, a nation with a minuscule population compared to America, to have any chance of restoring order there refuse to see the same conditions building here in America, conditions that are spiraling out of control and inviting terrorism both from abroad and from within.

America is an acknowledged anomaly in the history of nations, and given world events leading to WWIII may well be destroyed unless we come up with a leadership that puts America first. But equally anomalous is the tiny State of Israel; that it should even exist at all and its coming into being and its survival inextricably intertwined with America. It is here where the Bible must be credited to make any sense of this.

I have my own beliefs about God and a hereafter, but dead may yet turn out to be nothing more than dead. I don’t know; and despite my many years of academic studies in theology and philosophy, I still have to say “I don’t know.” While I no longer stand in a pulpit as a Christian minister and my views about many things have changed over the years my personal beliefs are a comfort to me in many ways as they are to many others, but intellectual honesty requires I separate what I believe from what I know. For example, I believe there are saints and sinners, children of God and children of the Devil, but I don’t know that. I believe it because it makes sense to me, but I don’t know it as fact. My hope and belief is that when I die I will rejoin my loved ones and friends passed on before me; but I don’t know.

However, even if you are not knowledgeable of eschatology you might be surprised at the credence being given the End Times as described in Scripture. Glenn Beck certainly seems to believe this, but it was when I watched the interview with Jon Voight I was impressed with Voight’s obvious concern, actually, he said “fear” for the direction he believes the world is heading. His thoughts and fears are no doubt fortified by his daughter Angelina Jolie’s experiences as a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Refugee Agency.

Joel Rosenberg’s “Epicenter” is not the ravings of a lunatic; far from it. My mentor Charles Lee Feinberg, Ph. D., Th. D. and Dean of Talbot Seminary was a Christian Jew; he referred to himself as a “completed Jew.” More than that, he was a fundamentalist Christian who believed the Bible and wrote several commentaries as well as being the leader selected by the Lockman Foundation for the New American Standard Bible, of which I have a treasured Pilot Edition signed and given me by Dr. Feinberg, and he was my guide while I studied the Bible and built my personal library of over 5,000 volumes of the very best of Biblical study books and commentaries.

It was Dr. Feinberg who called my attention to possibilities of actual Biblical prophecies, some of the more profound being those of Ezekiel, whom God had appointed as a “Watchman.” Perhaps Ezekiel was describing his supernatural view of the universe when he wrote of “eyes all about.” For those of you that have not read this book of the Old Testament please do so, and for those of you who have read it, perhaps even studied it consider my article about galactic black holes possibly being the “eyes of the universe” in the context of the prophet’s description. Maybe Ezekiel had a vision of the universe he was trying to describe, maybe the “eyes” were satellites or TVs, but I believe he was describing a prophetic vision.

The prophecies of Daniel in the OT and those of John in the NT together with those like Ezekiel’s and others may be in fact supernatural, and it would be marvelous if God were to intervene in world affairs, delivering us out of the darkness of fear, greed, and hatreds prevailing worldwide threatening nuclear Armageddon. Whatever anyone’s opinion, there is no disputing the fact that nothing short of supernatural can account for the tiny State of Israel being so prominent in world affairs; so I don’t wonder John McCain would tell Tim Russert Iran getting the bomb would mean Armageddon, or Condoleezza Rice mentioning “birth pangs” in relationship to the crisis building in the Middle East. To read only the book of Revelation seems too much like reading the daily newspapers today.

We read God had appointed Pharaoh to his position of prominence at the time of the Exodus in order to show the power of the Lord in delivering his people. But according to the story, the Israelites had been crying out to God for nearly four-hundred years to be delivered from their “cruel bondage.” Now, we live in a world of over six-billion most of whom live in cruel bondage of one kind or another, a situation that has lasted far more than the years of bondage for those Israelites.

The stories of the Bible are fascinating to read and I am grateful for those like Dr. Feinberg who taught me to study the Bible academically. But in all my years of Bible study, though I have departed from any kind of Christian orthodoxy there remains a “spirit of truth” throughout the book I cannot bring myself to deny.

And what if Bush has been appointed by God to fill the position he holds as Bush claims, but being in the position of the Pharaoh of the Exodus rather than the deliverer of America? Whether or not it seems Bush is leading America on a course of destruction, and I don’t find any fault with those whose hopes are in God to deliver them, who believe in “looking up for their redemption draweth nigh.” Whatever your beliefs there is no discounting the dangers to an America in which “in a hundred high schools and colleges this warfare against common sense still goes on.” That this warfare against common sense is so evident in our own leadership brings with it the gravest foreboding concerning the outcome for America. It doesn’t matter what one believes about the Bible, what does matter is the self-fulfilling prophecy of any nation whose leaders are dedicated to power, greed, and corruption rather than being dedicated to the benefit of the whole nation.

Along with the “miracle” of the State of Israel and its prominence both in Scripture and present world events there is the anomaly of so much scientific achievement and promise facing a growing dark and ignorant hatred by Muslim nations for all of Western Civilization. There is the growing possibility of Gog and Magog arising as alliances are forged against America and Israel. So, even with the risk to my own academic qualifications and credibility I increasingly place more credence in the Bible than the words of politicians to make any kind of sense of a world seemingly bent on its own destruction. But I am the beneficiary of the goodness America used to represent to the world, the beneficiary of the hope our nation once represented to We the People. And so much of this goodness of America was rooted in Scripture I don’t wonder that I am drawn more to this and the sincere goodness of those like my grandparents, Dr. Feinberg and Pastor Tyree Toliver than any other, and in this there is more to my mind of common sense to be found than anywhere else.

Since I post to other sites and sometimes get some less than flattering replies I found it interesting the blog at my hometown newspaper The Bakersfield Californian has one person advertising his blog is for conservatives only. One immediate problem with this is the person doesn’t know how to write, and I would not want to be judged as a conservative by his inability to write correctly. Conservatives suffer enough from accusations of illiteracy and being called names by those considering themselves to be superior.

Well, I won’t be posting any comments on this person’s site since my one remark was deleted. I had noted the Californian blog had proved to be even-handed, more so than many, that I had found “delete” and justifiable complaints to the webmaster have been sufficient to counter the bullies and illiterate abusers of the King’s English.

I suppose since I still think a world-class brothel in downtown Btown would be a heck of a good idea that alone would remove me from being considered a fire-breathing conservative. There is the matter of my supporting the legalization of prostitution and marijuana, my supporting birth control and abortion, euthanasia, and my opposition to the death penalty.

However, my support of Christianity as a civilized religion, my position that we need to secure our borders and expel all illegal aliens, rid ourselves of ballots in foreign tongues, anchor babies, and “Press one for English,” that America needs its heritage, culture, language, and secure borders to survive as a nation do not suit those that flatter themselves with the label of “liberal.” Neither does criticism of the universities, my membership in the NRA, my outspokenness for the armed citizen and right to carry laws endear me to the left-wing.

But I am adamant in my condemnation of Caesar Bush and Company; I believe the Bush administration will be recorded as the dirtiest, most corrupt and inept in America history. I believe the troops should be brought home immediately to secure our own borders, and politicians and their corporate masters should be held to account for their betrayal of America for the sake of slave labor, their betraying America to other nations for the sake of profits.

Being rather pragmatic I don’t expect the movers and shakers in my native county of Kern to jump on the bandwagon for a world-class brothel gracing downtown Bakersfield. Neither do I expect a county so reliant on slave labor from Mexico to start pressing for expelling illegal aliens and securing our borders. But looking back over the several decades of my life in Kern County I continue to be grateful for a good metropolitan newspaper and more recently a blog where people can express themselves and differing views are shared.

Short of catastrophic events such as a nuclear bomb going off by accident or design there is little hope politicians are going to stray from their course of greed and corruption to solve the problems of America, and even less hope in my opinion for that of leaders in other nations. Say what anyone will, I continue to believe there is a Biblical scenario unfolding and the nations of the world are acting out this scenario. With the prevailing lunacy worldwide, I find myself increasingly drawn to philosophical speculation in an attempt to make some sense of it all. And though there is more than enough here on earth about which to speculate, there continues to be much in the stars as well.

There was more to the story when I was writing about Emerson’s essay “Circles,” and his emphasis on the eye when addressing circles and spheres. Jesus said “The light of the body is the eye.” Visible light is such an infinitesimal part of the spectrum, but it is what we rely on to make our way through life. The pupil is a “black hole” with a surrounding iris that responds to light. The black hole of the eye, the pupil, admits light to be transmitted to the brain where the light is transformed into pictures to be interpreted by other parts of the brain. This is the way galactic black holes are thought to operate, pulling in the material around them including light that may “interpret” this material leading to galaxy formation. Much like our brains experience an “incandescent” moment before we take any action, such incandescence has been observed in galaxies and may be the result of black holes during their “interpretative” cycle and action is undertaken.

It may be no coincidence, this linkage that might exist between the design of our eyes and the design of galaxy forming black holes throughout the universe. It may in fact be evidence of Intelligent Design where the operations in the universe dependent on the properties of light coincide with the way we function in reacting to light also, and even blind people are influenced by some wavelengths of the spectrum. And perhaps there is a connection between that “all-seeing eye” on our dollar bills and “secret” knowledge. Notwithstanding the Sphinx and the pyramids, stories of Atlantis, when I think about the unusual, not to use the word “miraculous,” achievements of humankind leading to space exploration and computers I cannot but help wondering if there is not some mystical influence involved, some relationship between the design and function of our eyes aiding our intelligence and that of black holes throughout the universe.

Though Emerson mentioned several examples of the importance of circles and spheres in nature, of first importance the eye, I would call attention to the fact nature favors round trunks in trees and plants as well as many other things much as the universe favors orbits and the spherical shape of stars and planets. Where would baseball, basketball, and soccer be without spheres? Imagine baseball using square balls. This is much more than an amusing “imagine;” there is obvious intelligent purpose to the design of baseballs and basketballs, why they are spheres rather than blocks or rectangles, so why not black holes, stars, and planets? But if I were to ask someone why a baseball isn’t shaped like a square block they might reply “That is nonsense; it wouldn’t work.” And if I were to ask some scientists why the earth is a sphere rather than a square block their answer is no better than that of the reply concerning a baseball: “It wouldn’t work.” But there is no satisfactory answer to the question of why the earth is a sphere, and after all the facts and theories are exhausted all we know for a certainty is that otherwise “it wouldn’t work.”

Well, of course we know an earth shaped like a square block wouldn’t work. What we do not know despite great advances in science and physics explaining so much is why the universe favors circles and spheres rather than squares and rectangles. And the politically correct science of the universities especially will not allow of the kind of intelligence involved with the design of a baseball being the cause of our earth being a sphere, though “it wouldn’t work” is not an answer and any student at the mercy of professors dares not question the why of this, nor do those scientists at the mercy of the universities for their academic credentials. And labels in lieu of understanding, labels like “gravity” and “magnetism” do not mystically convey understanding of these, which is why some scientists say the greater part of our universe is not only unknown, but unknowable.

Even in animals, to peer deeply into their eyes is to see intelligence. But there is a marked difference between the kind of intelligence to be seen in the innocent eye of the partridge Thoreau described and that of a predator like an owl; and even as those wells and windows of the soul, human eyes declare our thoughts and intentions, just so with other creatures. Were we to be able to peer into a galactic eye, a black hole, would we be able to see intelligence there?

Do cosmic forces determine life; do such forces control life on Earth? “The rise and fall of species on Earth might be driven in part by the undulating motions of our solar system as it travels through the disk of the Milky Way, scientists say. Motions of our solar system are similar to Earth’s biodiversity cycle.” Ker Than: Space.com

But even should the theory prove to be true, which could be construed as giving some basis to astrology crediting the influence of the stars and planets on life, what other than intelligence could make the determination of what species are to be born, survive, or perish? In some fashion T-rex had to give way for humankind to be born and survive. But was there intelligence behind both the creation of dinosaurs and their extinction? I credit both benevolent and malevolent ID because it would take a diabolical mind to come up with something like T-rex. And I question some of the achievements of science like opening the door to nuclear bombs, whether the same kind of malevolent intelligence responsible for T-rex made such knowledge available to humankind that may yet be the cause of our own extinction.

While I don’t want Gort calling the shots, it would be wonderful if Klaatu could come to our rescue. But what are the chances of intelligent life elsewhere in our galaxy or others? And even so, what if Michio Kaku and other physicists are correct in surmising that if other civilizations existed in other galaxies they may have reached our stage of nuclear development and destroyed themselves, this accounting for our not hearing from these other civilizations?

The recently announced discovery of planet 581c is getting a lot of deserved attention. According to theory the newly discovered planet “should have an atmosphere, but what’s in that atmosphere is still a mystery and if it’s too thick that could make the planet’s surface temperature too hot.” The problem is that despite the hyperbole this newly discovered planet holds little prospect of any intelligent life, and all too often because of funding sources and some downright dishonesty such discoveries are propagandized rather than being held to strictly scientific interpretation and guidelines. While visible light is such an infinitesimal part of the whole spectrum, the conditions favorable to intelligent life is an even more infinitesimal part of such a spectrum, which is why there is room for debate whether our solar system, an acknowledged enigma, an anomaly in the universe may in fact be unique.

Notwithstanding the hyperbole and even dishonesty to be found among scientists and in the universities there remains to my mind the entrancing thought intelligent life may yet be found elsewhere in the universe. Fancy takes many forms, and much of the fanciful has led to and found fulfillment in scientific discovery. And who knows but what science may yet discover black holes are in fact the “eyes of the universe?”

“The Lord sure has made some beautiful worlds.” I saw “Forbidden Planet” in Redondo Beach when it was first released in 1956, and was tremendously impressed with the film. I was knowledgeable of Shakespeare and Greek mythology so I had some recognition of a very literate script, but for its time it was the marvelous special effects that held most of us spellbound. However, that remark made by the ship’s medical officer while looking at the viewing screen for the most part went unnoticed. It would not only be noticed today, but would be unthinkable for any film character with scientific credentials. Things were not always that way, and Forbidden Planet is a reminder of this.

From childhood I was drawn to the stories of Jules Verne and other early SciFi writers, and we children were certainly drawn to Superman as an extraterrestrial good guy making him an instant success with us. We lived in an age of heroes so Superman fit right in with others fighting evil and evildoers. But somewhere along the way our heroes became increasingly less heroic, and scientists in films were no longer giving the Lord credit for making some beautiful worlds.

But while Emerson and Jules Verne might have had some intuition of it from their knowledge of the Bible those fascinating circles, black holes in galaxies that are so inviting to astronomers and drive the curiosity of many of us remind me of the words of Ezekiel, “... and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel.” This seems to be descriptive of what astronomers are discovering about black holes and our universe.

While no longer belonging to or attending any church, I continue to tune in the broadcast of St. John Missionary Baptist in Bakersfield most Sunday mornings. And though not caring for some of the music, my reason to tune in is the sincerity evidenced by the congregation and its leader Tyree Toliver. He impresses me as a man such as Jesus described Nathanael, “Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!” While no Bible commentator to my knowledge has explained it to my satisfaction, you will note Jesus did not use the narrow word “Jew” of Nathaniel, but the encompassing word Israelite having direct relation to Jacob, and beyond that the encompassing message of Jesus, the Gospel that would not make a distinction between Jew or Gentile as Jesus would explain to the Samaritan woman at the well, and his point in the story of the Good Samaritan among others.

As Jesus of Nathaniel, I don’t believe there is anything of guile in Pastor Toliver; he preaches a consistently simple, non-discriminatory message of right and wrong and gives direct answers to direct questions. You know where a man like Toliver stands and brothers and sisters, agree or disagree, that is what we have a right to expect of leaders, most especially of those who stand in the pulpits of America. Tragically for America, we cannot expect such from politicians including politicians passing themselves off as “preachers.” But Pastor Toliver serving in the same church for 50 years, his being 84 years of age speaks of both the confidence his flock has in him as a faithful shepherd and the mature experience of many years to commend him.

It would be unthinkable that Pastor Toliver would ever teach or countenance the beheading of anyone for the “glory” of God, that he would ever teach hatred of anyone that is not a Christian. Toliver stands for those things that are right about Christianity as opposed to any, religious or political, that takes advantage or teaches hatred of others just because they do not believe as he does. He takes his stand on the Bible as he understands it, and he denounces sin as he understands it. But he would never preach jihad against unbelievers; rather, he preaches as the Bible teaches that the war by the real children of God is against the Devil. Saint or sinner, child of God or child of the Devil; it’s an either/or proposition in the Bible and one that seems to be verified throughout history, especially by applying the standard of the Golden Rule.

Though written by men (no women allowed in the final canon) the Bible is a truly remarkable book, one that has had more influence in the world than any other; and though Newton and others changed the world through science, when it comes to religious philosophy the Bible reigns supreme. A hodgepodge of writings in some respects, there remains a thread throughout leaving no doubt of the genius behind some of the writings. The stories in the beginning chapters of Genesis bear the imprint of ancient truths, and the serious, knowledgeable scholar recognizes the descriptions of creation bear the imprint of scientific knowledge far beyond what we could possibly credit the ancients apart from either knowledge of the facts or some kind of intuition like that of Newton and Einstein.

To credit the words of Jesus claiming to come that men might have “light,” one might suppose he had some knowledge of black holes, as per my supposition concerning Ezekiel. Granted most take the words of Jesus in respect to offering the light of God’s truth to men, nevertheless I find it fascinating his meaning may have gone all the way back to the Genesis account of creation, much as the comparison between the opening remarks of Genesis and those of the Gospel of John.

Gifted with articulate speech that separated Homo sapiens from other creatures, and eventually developing writing the genius of our species is that of being able to put abstract thought into written expression. The Bible as a collection of some of the greatest of these abstract thoughts continues to have much to offer provided one is able to take it as a collection of such thoughts rather than a book that has too often been abused for fabulous and sectarian purposes.

Whether or not there is any legitimate case to be made for scientific knowledge on the part of Bible writers long before science as we know it came into being, even without eisogesis there is an uncanny aspect to many of the Biblical stories that seem to be compatible with science. And beyond our science the question of good and evil remains. It is here where the stories of Satan and demons, of both good and fallen angels find credibility to me as an explanation for what would otherwise appear a lunatic world in the grip of lunatics.

There is certainly a case to be made that our solar system may in fact be unique in the universe, and if so might explain why the history of humankind has been one of violence and wars as the various gods are in contention and the battle continues between saints and sinners, the children of God and the children of the Devil. While science continues to provide some answers the mysteries of life and death, the mysteries of the universe continue to become ever more mysterious. And while I grapple to make some sense of a chaotic world, the many theories of origins, I find a lot of comfort in the words of Pastor Toliver who has continued to be a faithful shepherd preaching a simple message of “This is right, and that is wrong.” The good pastor and those like him in the churches of America represent the best of what we should all be as human beings; “Israelites indeed, in whom is no guile!”

“Men at some time are masters of their fates: The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings.”—Shakespeare, Julius Caesar

While it seems our Federal Triune Dictatorship is dedicated to making America a nation of “underlings,” from the most ancient of times people have been drawn to the stars looking for answers to the meaning and purpose of life. Things leading to the story of the “Star of Bethlehem” are easily understood given the history of astronomy beginning with astrology, and astronomers of old understandably credited the stars for influencing the human condition so Shakespeare was comfortable in his assertion of “our stars” notwithstanding the era he was describing in the play, and even today the astrology of the ancients leading to modern astronomy enjoys credibility among many believers. And given so much seeming lunacy worldwide, some find comfort in believing the stars hold the answer.

For those following the many astounding discoveries being made in astronomy the wonder of it all is enough to make one question how our tiny, infinitesimal speck in the cosmos could have the attention of any gods? But refusing to credit any basis of truth to the many myths and legends of antiquity is quite beyond me. And when I lower my gaze from the mysteries of the stars to the horizontal there are things on earth equally mysterious unless crediting influences quite supernatural if not extraterrestrial. Even as astronomers are attempting to solve the mysteries of the universe, their discoveries so far leading to more mysteries than answers, in just this way I’m willing to credit a “mystery of evil” a “spirit of iniquity” that has plagued humankind from the beginning as with the Genesis story. Yet, I also have to credit Shakespeare’s observation that many of the faults I see lie in ourselves, not the stars. And when I find us becoming underlings rather than the masters of our fate I look to humankind, not the stars, for answers.

Six Muslims purposely make themselves targets of suspicion at an airport, alarming passengers and crew. Why? So they can expose racism and hatred of Muslims? Not hardly. They threaten to sue both the airline and passengers that reported them, and in doing so make anyone fearful of reporting suspicious activity for fear of being sued. This makes it easier for Muslim terrorists to infiltrate. Does it occur to the lawyers supporting the diabolical scheme of these Muslims that they endanger all of us and make a mockery of those saying something should have been done about the VT monster all the while lawyers are ready to pounce if any action is taken to prevent such monsters from carrying out their schemes against innocent and defenseless law-abiding people?

In just this same manner some Jews want the Menorah and Hanukah to share the same prominence and given equal status as Christmas Trees and Christmas, rid America of things like the Easter Bunny, schools using the phrases Christmas and Easter vacations, and public displays of the Decalogue or they will sue to get their way. The agenda of perverts, the various agendas of minorities demanding special status by fiat of laws, all making their demands by the bullying threats of lawyers often aided by the deep pockets of the ACLU using taxpayer money to sue We the People who are extorted to support this anti-American organization. And those pointing such things out are bullied by a few, forcing many conservatives to keep quiet or go along to get along.

But the politicians and lawyers seemingly dedicated to the destruction of America are aided by an utterly shameless MSM and lesser media showing videos of the VT monster spewing out his venomous hatred and plaster the pictures of the monster all over the news channels, even the front pages of newspapers including my hometown paper, The Bakersfield Californian, all of which is certainly a form of perversion giving the monster the very notoriety it sought, thereby continuing to victimize its victims and grieving loved ones and friends over and over again. What I found surprising was so few in the media calling this monster a “gentleman” when so many of them have no trouble calling other murderers, rapists, and child molesters “gentlemen.”

We are appalled by Muslim fanatics posting videos and pictures of beheadings, but our own media will glorify (and that is the correct word) a monster and call itself “civilized.” Then when the cry is raised against such a thing, some in the media will defend themselves by saying “But we aren’t glorifying this monster, we are only reporting the news.” But this is a lie. In fact, it is such an obvious lie that many of us have just cause to wonder if some monster were to make a video of beheading its victims here in America this would not be aired and the pictures posted in newspapers and magazines? After all, the precedent has been established by the media in its treatment of the VT monster. Who doubts the media is encouraging copycats wanting the same glorification.

It is a lie when the purveyors of perversion, pornography, and violence in films and video games, in so-called “entertainment” and “children’s programming” say they share no responsibility for an increasingly violent America. It is a lie when politicians refusing to secure our borders say they share no responsibility for the increasing violence in America, even in our schools caused by the invasion of millions of illegal aliens from Mexico for the sake of slave labor and aiding drug cartels. It is a lie when our government tells us it has no responsibility for the poisoned foods coming from China and elsewhere. It is no wonder those like Rosie get a hearing for things like accusing our own government conspiring in 9/11 when outright lies including “I can’t recall” by government leaders and their toadies is a commonplace. There are just too many evidences of being lied to, there remains the Warren and 9/11 Commissions, things like the Clintons, Ruby Ridge and Waco, the outright lies of Bush and his cronies, the list of infamies against We the People goes on.

Many of us are angry with the way we have been betrayed by our government, by the way the bias in the media skews things toward political correctness rather than the truth, by those that would disarm law-abiding Americans making us ever more vulnerable to criminals that suffer no constraint of laws, all the while knowing every citizen is in harm’s way and the police cannot be everywhere, that the courts cannot even protect witnesses to murder and too often grant criminals more rights than their victims.

The nations of the world seem more intent on fomenting wars than peace, on increasing violence than scientific achievement, and so I find myself pondering the imponderables of things like singularities and other mysteries of the universe rather than trying to understand why our own leadership seems intent on destroying America. The answers may not lie in the stars, the faults in ourselves are obvious, but I have more hope in the stars providing answers than I do in world leaders including our own.

Certainly an E.L.E. may occur, there are many threats to our world from outer space, but all the while realizing the fault of our own destruction should it come to that has a far greater probability within ourselves, not the stars. If the MSM, if Hollywood, our politicians and judges, the ACLU, NAACP, La Raza, “Press one for English” and open borders, the glorification of VT monsters is really a reflection of what We the People want then we have only ourselves to blame for the resulting destruction of America, having become underlings and the architects of our own destruction rather than the fault to be found in the stars.

People are not often as bad as they are made out to be in acrimonious divorce proceedings. Alec Baldwin may be one of the exceptions. If you heard the whole tape being aired of Baldwin going off at his daughter you can understand a judge barring him, at least temporarily, from having any contact with her. “An enraged Alec Baldwin unleashed a volcanic tirade of threats and insults on his 11-year-old daughter, Ireland, calling her a ‘thoughtless little pig,’ and bashing her mother Kim Basinger—and TMZ has obtained the whole thing unfiltered and raw. And we’ve learned, a family law judge was so alarmed after hearing the tape, she has temporarily barred Baldwin from having any contact with his child.”

Listening to the tape, I heard Baldwin also telling his daughter she was stupid and didn’t have any brains. Folks, most of you would agree it doesn’t take a Ph. D. in Human Behavior to know you don’t tell any child they are “stupid.” As adults, we know people do stupid things, and none of us are immune to doing stupid things. But for any adult to call a child stupid is something really stupid, in fact, it is an uncivilized thing to do and not confined to the vulgar and profane passing itself off as “entertainment.”

It is usually a mistake for outsiders to judge what goes on in a marriage, or to make judgments about what happens between people leading to divorce. However, many of us also realize things can get really ugly in some divorces, even to the point of the adults abusing children involved, trying to gain some advantage. But whatever the circumstances between Basinger and Baldwin, there is no excuse for his barbarous tirade against his daughter. It was a most uncivilized thing to do no matter what, and his daughter should never have been the target of Baldwin’s outburst. No civilized person would ever want such a man or woman around their child.

But bitter divorces are not the only place we find Baldwin’s brand of incivility; it even occurs in the most academic environments as well. Which emphasizes Thoreau’s observation the civilized man is only a more knowledgeable savage, and oftentimes the thin veneer of civilized good manners is the only thing that keeps us from coming to blows with one another. And in many cases, humor can take the sting out of acrimonious arguments.

For example, Democrats doubtless have their own version of this: A driver is stuck in a traffic jam on I-95 south, just out of Washington, DC. Nothing is moving north or south. Suddenly a man knocks on his window. The driver rolls down his window and asks, “What happened? What’s the hold up?” The fellow replies ”Terrorists have kidnapped Hillary Clinton, Ted Kennedy, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and John Kerry. They are asking for a $100 million ransom. Otherwise, they are going to douse them with gasoline and set them on fire. We are going from car to car, taking up a collection.” The driver asks, “On average, how much is everyone giving?” The fellow answers ”About a gallon.”

Intelligent Design: It is fascinating to find words like “fuzzy” and “ghostly” being used by scientists in attempts at understanding the universe. But if you read the entire transcript of a recent interview with theoretical physicist Paul Davies you will find such words being used by him. The following is a brief extract of the interview:

Cosmic Log: Why does the universe seem so fine-tuned for the emergence of life – including intelligent life capable of asking that “why” question? Believers simply say that God did it, while scientists are trying to come up with complicated extradimensional multiverse theories to explain our lucky break. Theoretical physicist Paul Davies takes a completely different tack in a new book titled “Cosmic Jackpot.” He argues that the cosmos has made itself the way it is, stretching backward in time to the very beginning to focus in on “bio-friendliness...”

Q: One of the issues you’ve been looking at over the years is the intersection of science and religion. Do you find that these new ideas – about the cosmic landscape, for example, or the quantum nature of the universe – are informing religious or spiritual thought as well?

A: Well, they clearly impacted greatly, because we’re talking about why the universe looks like it’s been fixed up for habitation. For most people, the first interpretation is, “Well, God did it.” What I’m saying is that gets us nowhere at all. It just shoves the problem off to some other realm. But saying “God did it” is no worse than saying “the laws of physics did it.” They both basically appeal to something outside the universe. The problem with saying God did it is that God himself or herself is unexplained, so you’re appealing to an unexplained designer. It doesn’t actually explain anything; it just shoves the problem off. But to say that the laws of physics just happen to permit life is no explanation either. What I’m trying to do is to go beyond this rather sterile back-and-forth between religion and science on these ultimate questions. We’re trying to come up with a new set of ideas, in which we try to let the universe engineer its own bio-friendliness. So we try to find the explanation from within the universe. Now, that’s perfectly consistent with having a universe that has some sort of deeper meaning or purpose, but that meaning or purpose is intrinsic to it. It’s not imposed upon it by an external deity. So these ideas obviously have theological implications...

That comment by Davies “the cosmos has made itself the way it is” falls far short of the answer he says he is seeking. In fact, after reading the entire transcript of the interview it appeared to me Davies was more engaged with metaphysics than science. So I am not surprised at his inability to answer the hard questions by resorting to the very same subterfuge of which he accuses theologians. And I find his avowed goal of seeking answers by the scientific method highly suspect. I believe his acknowledgement of the “unexplained” will remain just that: Unexplained. In the meantime, he may sell a few books. But then, books about angels continue to be a hot market item, though Billy Graham did not do himself proud with his which I found to be an embarrassment those years ago. Many other authors since have proved equally embarrassing on the subject.

It is unfortunate that even in the most civilized environments that word “stupid” has been used on both sides of the debate over ID. Granted the shadow of the Scopes’ Trial overhangs some of the debate, but to use only a simplistic evolutionary theory as the catch-all for what is only theory in too many cases is at the very least intellectually dishonest. But one does not have to look far to find such dishonesty on both sides of the debate.

As science does make progress in giving us more understanding, one of the more uncomfortable things being discovered is the fact the universe is not bio-friendly. Because of this, people like Davies resort to the metaphysical attempting to make an argument for the universe being bio-friendly when the facts thus far would seem otherwise. But to accept the facts of a universe not being bio-friendly is not where some of those in science want to go. And for most hoping life exists elsewhere in the universe or our own galaxy, even our own solar system the results thus far are disappointing to say the least. In fact, it seems scientists are inclining to the idea our solar system is an anomaly that more readily falls into the Davies’ “Cosmic Jackpot,” more of luck than anything scientific leaving only the metaphysical as an alternative.

Failing any answers to life and death, the two greatest mysteries of all, it would be well for those engaged in debate about origins to at least be civilized and leave the name-calling to the really stupid people like Alec Baldwin.

What other than perversion can possibly explain why the MSM would continue airing the cold blooded mass murderer Cho? Over and over this demonic face and its words are being shown with no end in sight. The demon’s victims did not have a chance to leave words and videos, they are not speaking from their graves, but it seems a perverted media can’t get enough of rubbing the faces of the grieving relatives and friends in the ongoing pictures and words of the monster that took the lives of their loved ones. Perverted! But what other than perversion is driving the many violent films and video games, the violent cartoons for “children’s programming,” the violence and degradation of women in so much “music.”

The horror of watching the Twin Towers being hit by planes and collapsing with such loss of innocent lives transfixed us on 9/11. From this should have come the slogan “Remember 9/11!” if America was to have a slogan prosecuting war against the Islamic enemy. But unlike the attack on Pearl Harbor, America was denied either a slogan or even a face put to the Muslim enemy that attacked us. On the contrary, Bush and Company first of all made sure their Saudi friends were quickly spirited away. Then, the diabolical plan began to unfold for the phony “war on terrorism.”

Maybe corporate interests were involved preventing the continued showing of the towers being hit and collapsing, the continued reminder of Muslim terrorists attacking America. After all, Big Oil was at stake so it wouldn’t do to continue reminding Americans of what had been done to us by Muslims attacking America for the glory of Allah. And I have to wonder, if the massacre at Virginia Tech had been conducted by a group of Muslim terrorists, would this have gone the way of “Remember 9/11” or would a perverted media be showing the pictures over and over again?

Frank Loesser’s patriotic song of 1942 was being sung in churches of that era including our own small church in Little Oklahoma. We children especially enjoyed it, even as we enjoyed singing this together with the military anthems of the time in school like “Anchors Away” and “Wild Blue Yonder.” Another favorite of the time was “On a Wing and a Prayer” we sang in both church and school.

One can be excused for thinking America is fast becoming a “war zone” no longer confined to ghettos and barrios, but we don’t have the music to confront the madness. What we have is “music” adding to the madness by glorifying racism and the degradation of women together with the empty promises of politicians and the hand-wringing by the elite telling those whose lives are being threatened we must give up our guns. To which I say, Praise the Lord, and pass the ammunition.

It isn’t a new thought, but it is one certainly worth considering that holding God accountable may be a higher form of faith. I’ve talked this over with God, and though still awaiting a reply I do wonder when I first began writing my book “Hey God! What went wrong and when are you going to fix it?” whether it was not an exercise in not only holding God accountable for the mess on earth leading to so much human misery, for so much death and destruction, but also exercising a higher form of faith? Several philosophers have expressed the thought that doubt is a form of faith; then went on to put their thoughts into written expression. But it is quite a different thing to confront God as did Job or become angry as did Jonah, to share your exasperation with God as we find in some of the Psalms. And while I have not accused God of indifference, I have been quite confrontational with him.

Still, not to let God off the hook I understand the child cannot be expected to understand the parent’s teachings and warnings. And grownups at times do crazy things from a child’s perspective they learn were not crazy at all as children grow in maturity and understanding. But some of the things that grownups do remain crazy, just as Mr. Raymond pointed out to the children in “To Kill A Mockingbird,” things like racism.

But there is some justice to be found in New Jersey’s Governor Corzine winding up in the hospital. Like many of those in positions of power he believed he was above the laws ordinary citizens are demanded to obey by choosing not to wear a seatbelt. Now we learn the SUV in which he was traveling driven by trooper Rasinski was going 91mph at the time of the crash. Was the trooper speeding at the urging of the governor? I suspect so, since the governor could have easily commanded he slow down. But I’m willing to bet the trooper will be held responsible for speeding, and who is going to hold the governor responsible for not obeying the law? After all, from the White House on down the flunkies are there to take the heat when things go wrong and corruption is exposed among the powerful.

The real irony is that the governor through his own disdain for the laws ordinary American citizens are demanded to obey like seatbelts and speed limits led to his missing that opportunity to show his “leadership” against racism, and his “compassion” for the Rutgers’ basketball team by abusing and further humiliating Don Imus. I have no doubt that like Jackson and Sharpton, Corzine was positively salivating over that one.

To read about the Muslim fanatics terrorizing innocent people in southern Thailand, nations in Africa and elsewhere is to make sane people wonder at the extent of the lunacy gripping the world. I don’t doubt Mary Winkler shot her husband out of fear of him, that he may have been abusing both Mary and even his own children. I’ve known people in such a grip of lunacy like Mary may have been that they were not accountable for their actions. But there is a distinct difference between the kind of lunacy driven by the fanaticism of Islam and that of Mary Winkler, and there is a profound difference between the purposeful murder of the innocent and killing in defense of your own life.

How I wish some sane person had been qualified, armed, and able to gun down the lunatic at Virginia Tech. But the anti-gun people would have us believe guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens pose a threat by increasing gun violence. Those opposed to gun ownership, those opposing right to carry laws seem oblivious of the fact the barbarians wishing to do us harm suffer no restraints of law. But few of those wanting to disarm law-abiding citizens live in areas taken over by gangs; though even in the best neighborhoods you will find elaborate security systems, barred windows, and steel doors.

The “law” chose to look the other way while I carried a gun in Watts, but it was on the basis of mutual understanding knowing many of the drug dealers coming on to the campus at Jordan carried guns as well. And there were the “wienie wavers” that might go beyond exposing themselves in classroom doorways and really flip out with a gun as happened in Virginia and elsewhere. And the cops “couldn’t be everywhere.” As it was they had their hands full just trying to deal with the all-pervasive violence in the community of Watts, let alone the schools.

We desperately need the National Guard on our borders, not places like Afghanistan and Iraq. We need a leadership that proves itself law-abiding before those like the hypocritical Corzine and so many others demand a law-abiding citizenry. Even the most obtuse are now having to confront the fact America has been teaching violence together with corruption in government to children for decades; but the corporate interests have no more concern for this than politicians have for selling out America to foreign nations and refusing to secure our borders for the sake of slave labor from Mexico.

It is an admonition to Kings and rulers from ancient times, “what need of punishments when you have virtuous leaders?” I’ll continue to dialogue with God, since I have a more reasonable expectation of answers from him than I do from our leaders. And perhaps this will prove to be a higher form of faith in God while I have none in the “princes” of this world. In the meantime, Praise the Lord, and pass the ammunition. Security begins with being able to protect yourself and your family.

The legends of Genesis and other parts of the Bible continue to hold fascination for me. What was the basis for the story that due to violence filling the earth God was sorry and repented for creating humankind, admitting to error in doing so, and determined to wipe out his creation? But whatever God’s intentions the violence did not stop with the Deluge; and in no time at all picked up where it left off. And whether of God, the Devil, or human invention we now have the potential for destroying the world.

Then there is the story of Satan, a god himself, who became the adversary and accuser of humankind, a creature whose dominion is all the kingdoms of the earth according to Scripture, and he goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. It is difficult to totally discount the supernatural of demons and spawn of Satan in the guise of human beings given the continued violence filling the earth as in the time before Noah. Even those opposed to any religious systems of thought are hard pressed to come up with an answer to the myths and fables which surely have their basis in facts somewhere in the past, and I don’t think studies in neuroscience are going to provide all the answers to the presence of evil or be able to explain the monsters among us. These remain the mysteries that stories like those of the Bible attempt to answer.

We are drawn to stories like that of crop circles because we are by nature a curious species. More than that, there is something attractive to our minds about mysteries. The old radio show “I Love a Mystery” was enormously successful because of this, as are the whodunits covering a wide spectrum of entertainment. Are crop circles entirely the result of hoaxes or might there be some kind of “energy” in the soil producing them, perhaps even extraterrestrials? While it is easy for most to discount anything mysterious about crop circles, there are many such things that do not admit of solutions and are not easily dismissed.

In his 1841 lecture entitled “Circles” Emerson went on at some length supporting the idea of mystery attaching to circles and spheres, even calling attention to the remarks of Augustine and other worthies in this respect. That the sphere to which we attach the most profound importance is the eye may be a clue to the very mystery of the universe itself. That atoms are spheres and their particles having orbits, that the universe seems to favor spheres and circles evidenced by the shape of stars and planets with their orbits may be clues to the mystery. The discs of our sun and moon have been worshiped and such worship engraved in stone by many.

My own thoughts about time being a circular continuum without beginning or end reflects the thoughts by some philosophers about the nature of God and the universe, and there is nothing to date that would refuse consideration of the universe being spherical. This idea suggested itself to me from the design of the atomic bomb requiring a sphere of explosives that had to detonate precisely and uniformly to accomplish the goal of critical mass, a “Big Bang” if you will. String theory is fascinating and perhaps the Universal Lyre suggested, even a Sea of Consciousness may find their place in spheres and orbits without any of the constraints of three dimensions or linear time.

While I have made some of my thoughts on this subject known, “Will the Circle be Unbroken” and “Casting a Line for Celestial Fishes” among many other articles over the years, the calling of Einstein’s equation and Hawking’s concepts of time and the universe into question because they do not account for life and death, what confronts us is that estimated 96% of the universe scientists call unknown, and some even call “unknowable.” That leaves room for an enormous amount of speculation, but it is the kind of speculation of which Emerson was an adept intellectual giant; and I continue to believe he eventually fell silent due to two things: The realization he had no one to talk to who would understand him, and the fear those thoughts he was being led into were too heretical and fearsome to share.

Though Emerson resigned himself to being alone with his thoughts, giving himself over to what society he had to while away his remaining years, he did express some pique in his eulogy for Thoreau. Henry had held promise, but failed to live up to the promise, and Emerson felt this disappointment keenly. That some would now say Walden continues to be read while Emerson has become “a hobby for antiquarians” is only to emphasize the low estate to which real intellectualism has fallen in America and the reason for Emerson’s disappointment in his young student.

But both men were exceptionally well educated, and both were well acquainted with the science of their time. Both men made, and continue to make their contributions to my own philosophical speculations. For example, Henry writes of fishing from his boat one night when the thought occurred to him he might cast his line upward in the dark toward the stars, “Thus I caught two fishes as it were with one hook,” one from the heaven above and one from the water of Walden “which was scarcely more dense.”

Long before his time atmospheric pressure had been discovered and measured. Even the ancients had a concept of an “ocean of air” that swirled over the earth, that element in which birds were supported and moved even as the fishes in water. But the comparison Henry made of this atmosphere to water “which was scarcely more dense” brought to my mind the vacuum of space. What if space is only a vacuum to our physical world, to that minute 4% of the universe we understand? Might the enormous part we do not know and understand be as dense though unknown to the physical as the comparison Henry made between the water of Walden and the atmosphere above it? And who knows but what those given to transcendental meditation of such things are “transported?”

I believe my departed loved ones and friends are a part of that which is as dense an “atmosphere” as that in which birds fly and fishes swim, the atmosphere in which we live and move in our physical bodies. Studies in the properties of light hold much promise for discoveries yet to come, discoveries that may yield understanding of things now considered “supernatural.” Certainly our minds work in an atmosphere without any physical limitations, and that by itself is supernatural.

Henry remarked on stones dropped in water and the resulting, concentric ripples emanating. It is one of those curiosities that speak of heavenly motion represented to our eyes. Not the smallest insect moving on the calm water of Walden could help but mark its presence; and those ripples small as they were still made their mark on the immense world about them. And so it may prove when we depart these bodies our presence will be marked by our entering the infinite circle of time and eternity in an atmosphere scarcely less dense than that in which we now dwell.

This I know; while watching those modulated concentric circles moving outward from a stone dropped into the smooth waters of a lake there is something that quietly speaks to me of circles without beginning or end, evidence of a circular continuum of time and the universe, of immortality though without the proofs required by our present science.

When any society condones, and even encourages violence, especially violence against children that society will pay the price. When a society teaches children there are no moral absolutes and they may do as they please without adhering to any civilized standards of behavior, when every manner of violence and perversion is approved by society and called entertainment children know such a society has no concern for them or their welfare, that such a society is proving to children it is INDIFFERENT! to them.

Prologue

At one point in Harper Lee’s masterful novel, little Dill has run away from home. Scout thinks his folks must have mistreated him and this was the reason he ran away. But Dill tries to explain it wasn’t this at all. As he says to Scout, “That wasn’t it - they just wasn’t interested in me.”

Scout thought this the oddest reason for running away from home that she had ever heard. But Scout had people who cared about her; people like her father Atticus had made her feel important to him, had made her feel loved and needed. She couldn’t possibly understand Dill’s point. But I understand it all too well. It is the thing that after many years of working with children in the schools led me to say to parents in respect to children, “Things aren’t as bad as you think, they are far worse!”

I began to realize that we have evolved a society that actually behaves as though it hates children. And children know this. What little Dill was trying to explain to Scout is what has led to things like the massacre in Littleton, Colorado and other places. I can sum it up in one word: Indifference!

American society has taught children that no one cares for them, that society is indifferent to them. Dill’s folks didn’t beat or mistreat him. What they did was tell him: All right, we bought you all the toys. Now, go play with them and leave us alone! This is America! We have bought our children all the toys and then told them: Now, go away and leave us alone!

A normal child will do anything for attention, including inappropriate, even anti-social, behavior in order to get the needed attention. Indifference, as ignorance, is a real killer as we have witnessed in Colorado and elsewhere. When a child is made to feel he or she is of no consequence, is not loved, is not even wanted, that child has all the potential for becoming a monster, a curse rather than a blessing. Don’t expect a child to understand what is adult responsibility. America has failed miserably, as a nation, to cherish its young, and as Atticus Finch said: The bill is coming due!

When any society condones, and even encourages violence, particularly violence against children, that society will pay the price. When a society teaches children that there are no moral absolutes, that perversion is acceptable and approved by society, that all manner of violence and perversion is approved and called “entertainment,” children know such a society has no real concern for them, that such a society is really INDIFFERENT! to them.

I have lived long enough to know you cannot make someone care, but it does take an entire society to raise a child. And when that society engages in the madness so well represented by its refusing to make children the real priority while continuing to pay lip-service only to concern for them, which children easily recognize as hypocrisy, when that society through its indifference to children teaches them there are no moral boundaries or absolutes, that society, that nation, has no future.

No, you cannot make people care. But you can act. You can do your part as a good citizen in confronting the evil that is destroying our children and our nation. There are far too many people who may be good people, but they are not good citizens. If you are too busy to be politically active, you may be a good person but you are not a good citizen. As a result, the children pay the price for apathy and indifference on the part of adults who have the sole responsibility for the future of children. And America as a nation will eventually have to pay the price for this.

Only wisdom will lead us away from our present indifference and put us on the right path to making children the priority they must become before it is too late. Not all the social engineering, not all the laws or tinkering with the multifarious aspects of the problem will avail unless people genuinely act on behalf of children and their future, unless Americans overcome their indifference toward children.

What would you think of a teacher that intentionally set off an explosive device as a demonstration for his pupils? Well, this used be part of my approved course of instruction.

The madness of Columbine, of 9/11, of Iraq, and today’s shootings at Virginia Tech, it is no wonder I long for the Norman Rockwell America I used to know. The incredibly different America people my age knew prior to WWII and thereafter during the 40s and 50s seems like a fairytale akin to the stories about King Arthur and Camelot in many ways, abounding in legend rather than fact. Even the America of the 60s now seems like a fairytale. Take for example my building an explosion forming device while I was teaching vocational classes in Watts during that period of time “Burn baby burn!”

Having spent a number of years in the aerospace industry before becoming a teacher, I was an expert machinist and tool and die maker, very knowledgeable about metal machining and forming, foundry and heat-treating procedures, virtually every aspect of machine shop practice. I was also a qualified gunsmith and very knowledgeable about explosives including gunpowder and dynamite. A few other things learned along the way prepared me to teach auto mechanics, electronics, drafting and construction trades, woodworking to mention a few.

Mine was an era of the practical skills, and though I loved good books and took an undergraduate major in Literature there was always the need to use both hands and mind. I was not only always reading I was always constructing something. And with the beginning of the space industry there was much going on that aroused my curiosity, and having learned about the introduction of explosion forming of metals I decided to add this to my course of instruction for my shop classes in Watts.

One most important thing that enabled me to fit into the community of Watts and Jordan High was the people knowing I could teach kids the practical skills essential to their getting a job. No matter I was a Caucasian, I knew how to do things and I could teach kids how to do these things. Not the “unimportant” stuff like history, but the really important things like how to run a lathe and mill, how to weld and how to fix a car. These were the things the people of Watts and their children esteemed of real value.

The principles of explosion forming were simple enough though very complex in procedure, but unlike the large structures needed for industrial use the device I needed for the classroom had to be a tabletop model. And as such, rather than the plastic explosive used in industry my demonstration device would have to utilize a very small explosive charge. But since I had an entire machine shop at my disposal, I designed my device in a way it could use a .22 caliber round intended for the guns used in construction for driving nails and bolts into concrete and metal structures. A device using a centerfire cartridge would have been simpler to machine than the offset firing pin needed for a rimfire, b