Isn’t it Romantic: Beautiful song and one I used to sing and play frequently, but it may be as a Czechoslovakian friend and university professor wrote me some time ago romance is only an electro/chemical biological function of the brain. I replied while that may yet prove to be the case I still believe there is a soul to be considered and there was no arguing P. G. Wodehouse "The musical-comedy lyric, an interesting survival of the days, long since departed, when poets worked,” the evidence of this being our lack of poets now worthy of the title and few people today can name the two great musicals performed with such exquisite perfection the lovers never even kissed and yet conveyed the essence of true romance.

I will never undervalue the effects of my wilderness experiences here in the Sequoia National Forest as a boy in the forming of my own character, the way I perceive life and the values I maintain. But it is in living life with others that gives the voice to our character. For example, as Thoreau pointed out if you are not sharing the things that delight your own soul with others there is a missing dimension in your life; the real joy is not there, and as with Henry what is nature to me if I have no one with whom to share it?

Too many people today fail to find that sharing of mutual delights in their own lives. There has to be someone who gives the color and scent to the flowers, who will make the music meaningful, the moon and stars shine brightly, who makes life a living experience and redeems it from mere existence. The single most important thing to come from such a relationship is the learning to live for the benefit of others rather than selfishly, something that ideally comes with parenthood where the giving is never done with a sense of any self-sacrifice. The family is supposed to be the ultimate expression of this kind of love. Obviously the color and scent of the flowers is there whether you notice them or not; but it is love that causes you to notice them in all their glory and gives real meaning and value to them.

In my opinion the greatest American art form of the twentieth century was the musical play with the genius of such great artists as Jerome Kern, Sigmund Romberg, Rudolf Friml, Victor Herbert, Rodgers and Hammerstein. But for the great Broadway musicals like Showboat and Oklahoma with their emphasis on love conquering all to survive required a national Ethos, which, with the betrayal of our nation by the evil leadership of an increasingly evil system of government fell into dark decline. There remains no more ...bright, golden haze on the meadow.

But poets and philosophers do not flourish in ideological hatreds, in systems of evil where the value of the individual is sacrificed to the vulgar, common cry for unearned bread, in systems where slavery to such evil punishes all efforts to live responsibly and cheats a man of his manhood, victimizes a woman of her womanhood, and children of their childhood. It takes a common culture to produce the great works of art, of love and romance, which the great Musicals exemplified. It requires the genius of that culture to produce hope of the ideals of commitment and fidelity being fulfilled, of a family being able to work with the hope that they are building a future for their children.

My generation of WWII antecedent to TV was not forced to read books. We were born to read, we were readers, and books were a natural and quite normal way of life to us. I was fortunate to be born to a family of avid readers, therefore from earliest memory I was surrounded by and immersed in good books and magazines, an encyclopedia and dictionary, newspapers, learning to read and write very early as a normal progression of life expected of children back then. And there was radio with a multiplicity of programming; that like good books and before the advent of TV required the constant exercising of ones imagination as well as the intellect.

Among the books of my childhood were the novels not only of those like Scott, Cooper, Grey, and so many others, but those by women as well. One of my favorite woman authors was Geneva Grace Stratton-Porter. She wrote her first novel The Song of the Cardinal in 1903. The next story, Freckles, written 1904 is about an orphan who gets a job as a timber guard in the Limberlost, a forested swamp in Indiana. Due to an accident Freckles has only one hand; however, he falls in love with a young girl, the beautiful “Swamp Angel.” The book was made into a film in 1935 followed by a remake in 1960.

A Girl of the Limberlost written in 1911 and also made into film is about a poor girl, Elnora Comstock, who grows up on the edge of the Limberlost swamp. Her father had died tragically, and when her mother is withdrawn and cold toward her she finds companionship with the Limberlost. There she discovers how Limberlost can teach her in ways no formal education could. Sharing a like love of nature, Geneva’s life at the Limberlost from which she drew so much of her writing in many ways prepared me for my life as a boy in the Sequoia National Forest, and for the later friendship and kinship I would find with Henry.

Of all her several novels and writing, Freckles and A Girl of the Limberlost stand out most in my mind. There are two incidents about the young forester that remain vividly to me; the first being his coming across a footprint in the forest made by his Swamp Angel. After pressing his lips to her imprint, the young man uses a piece of bark from a tree to carefully cover and protect this precious evidence of “his angel.” The second incident occurs when the young man is abed recovering from injuries received from rescuing the angel. She declares her love for him at this time, and says he shall have her notwithstanding his seeming poverty, his noble ancestry not then known, and his being crippled.

Elnora was the girl counterpart of me as a boy. Her evident love of nature, her courage, and sense of exploration and adventure made us soul mates from the moment I started reading the book. It was not so much Sheena of the Jungle with whom I related, but Elnora of the Limberlost. Tom Sawyer had Becky Thatcher; I had Elnora Comstock to whom I wanted to be a hero just like the young forester to his angel.

Life has a cruel way at times of making cynics of people. The flaunting of perversion in the universities and Hollywood, substituting the reality of TV for good books and the exercising of ones imagination, trading the coarse and profane literature of those who obviously could never relate to Scott, Cooper, and Geneva, had they even known of them, those who never realized or cared what was being traded for the literary heritage our young people were deprived of, the very best humankind had to offer by way of civilized thought and manners, cheated and betrayed of the real progress of civilization. As a result, the Angel, Elnora, and the young forester have been cheated and betrayed as well, as have I.

Somehow, the sop to women on the part of the committee adding Austen, Cather, Elliot, and Woolf to the Great Books does not go nearly far enough. Honoring the “compatibility of differences” is not seen at the United Nations, nor is it seen in America. Perhaps it can only be seen and understood by those like Elnora, the young forester and his angel, by those who can understand them and enter into the kind of relationship that honors and dignifies the compatibility of differences.

Few today could read either Emerson or Thoreau without yawning or becoming glassy-eyed, few today could read Geneva without thinking her writing altruistic, simplistic, or at the best quaint. But we seek in vain for any marked advance of civilized good manners and morality that has supplanted these works of the past. And like the great musicals where poets last worked America has traded our heritage of great literature and romance, has sacrificed a generation devoted to reading and writing for those things of little value and do nothing to contribute to this generation’s hope for the future.

America becoming that Great City Babylon: As the Scripture has it there is nothing to be gained by answering fools according to their folly because they will only be confirmed in their conceit. The fact that my native state is drowning in a sea of illegal aliens turning many parts of it like Kern County into Mexico North or “Mexifornia” as Victor Davis Hanson calls it suits the agenda of those in power led of Bush that profit from open borders and slave labor and the “Barbarians at the Gates” have long since crashed through by the unnumbered millions.

Fools disregard with foolish and ignorant impunity the firm dictum all nations are defined by heritage, culture, language, and secure defined borders. For the fools to say these are of no importance, that language is of no consequence and our borders cannot be secured is not only lunatic, but leaves the indelible impression such fools have no interest in preserving America as a sovereign nation, that to be an American is little better than an empty term subject to semantic dissection.

Far from anything like the Dust Bowl migration of legitimate American citizens among whom I was born and raised speaking English the invasion of America by Mexico is actually encouraged by the dogs of Caesar thirsting for the millions of Mexican citizens illegally invading America in order to further the agenda of the rich and powerful and all those profiting from this invasion of illegal aliens. Some of the fools supporting this invasion seem to believe fairy tales about noble savages simply looking for a better life. But these savages will never assimilate, they insist on keeping the ways of the thoroughly corrupt and barbarous nation of Mexico from which they have escaped and then wonder why civilized Americans suffering from their depredations are angry and resent their being here.

I’ve had 72 years of experience with Kern County suffering from this invasion by the barbarians from Mexico, I’ve seen the Mexican colonies sprout all over and wherever they colonize the pattern of violence, blight, crime and corruption follows. Our schools and social institutions deteriorate by attempting to accommodate a barbarian population that has no interest in becoming civilized and literate Americans or learning anything of American history, but on the contrary insist on forcing their language and their ways upon legitimate American citizens. And those profiting from this invasion have no interest in preserving America as a sovereign nation with a common language and secure borders and are betraying our nation on every hand in collusion with the politicians and judges they buy.

That any American for any reason encourages this invasion shouts TREASON! And for my part, Caesar Bush leads the way in this treason. But from the time of an ancient Pharaoh that learned the painful lesson about the ultimate high cost of slavery to the seeds of our own destruction as a nation being sown in slavery, something I believe Benjamin Franklin realized, we then passed into the kind of wage slavery that caused Henry Thoreau to pronounce having a Southern overseer was bad, but having a Northern one was worse! And only those unlearned would accuse Thoreau of not knowing whereof he spoke. Those that would stoop to cavil seem to know nothing of the efforts by Thoreau as an abolitionist or seem never to have read Walden or his tract on The Duty of Civil Disobedience.

Lou Dobbs, Glenn Beck, many conservative pundits have been addressing the issue for years and I applaud their efforts, especially those of Dobbs who refuses to kowtow to the traitors of America and calls illegal aliens exactly that: Illegal Aliens! But Dobbs is a very well educated man and knows the distinction in law between legal immigrants and illegal aliens, something of which the media and their toadies by and large seems ignorant. But taxation without representation by extorting legitimate Americans to pay the bills for this illegal invasion by Mexico continues unabated that the rich and powerful having the rule over America may continue to become increasingly richer and more powerful.

Apart from those swallowing the politically correct line of magically transforming illegal aliens into immigrants by whatever description is those profiting from the invasion of the Mexican barbarians, those not only in agriculture but all the dogs feeding at Caesar’s table and drawing a paycheck based on this invasion. Welfare, jails and prisons, police are my state’s growth industries along with the many social services, schools, and multiple agencies employing people in various capacities whose paychecks are based on this illegal invasion. But if your car is stolen or totaled by an illegal alien, if you are injured or robbed, if any loved one is murdered by an illegal alien here come the enemies of America to deny either compensation or justice to legitimate American citizens as the illegal aliens simply skip across the border.

Reagan betrayed America and opened the floodgate to millions of illegal aliens for the sake of profits and I have no doubt our masters like Caesar Bush and whoever follows him into the White House, those in Congress and our own state legislators are attempting to dissolve our borders and make us over into a kind of EU, and the globalists intent on power and profits will eventually win the day because there will be no one with the power to prevent this and the Devil wins by default. The most hurtful thing of all for Americans like me who lived through the era of WWII is seeing the enemies of America being those born here who enjoy the benefits bought by such sacrifice of lives only to be betrayed, their lives sacrificed for the sake of global corporations and the politicians and judges they buy selling out and betraying our nation wholesale for the sake of power and profits.

It didn’t take Jesus pronouncing the wealthy having little chance of entering heaven, we are drowning in a sea of the evidence of such evil resulting from the rich and powerful. That web of evil prevents any attempts to civilize a barbaric and corrupt nation like Mexico; it keeps the nations of Africa, the Middle East and throughout the world in a constant condition of evil and corruption. Blood diamonds will continue to be traded for profit, arms will be manufactured on an increasing scale and those profiting from the resulting bloodshed will continue to profit as they always have.

My native state is being sacrificed to the barbarians from Mexico to profit the wealthy and feed the dogs at Caesar’s table. America is being sacrificed to the lust for power and profits for the few holding America hostage to their mad dreams of empire. But in my opinion America cannot much longer endure as a sovereign nation when our enemies are those of our own house and it suits the agenda of the wicked to divide and conquer our nation for the sake of power and profits.

The Biblically and theologically illiterate knowing nothing of Biblical studies ignorantly dispute the story of Noah preceding the Gilgamesh Epic, dispute a Pharaoh arising that knew not Joseph ultimately leading to the Exodus and eventually the miracle of Israel by God’s intervention and decree becoming a sovereign nation once more in modern times. That such a thing as Israel could have happened apart from God’s intervention is to me ridiculous.

My believing in God and a hereafter where I will be reunited with loved ones and friends gone on before me, believing Satan is real, believing there are angels and demons leaves me vulnerable to every kind of attack by those wise in their own conceit, the fools that make a mock at sin. But whether I am correct in my beliefs or not, whether I am the fool rather than these others there is no disputing this is no longer the America I knew and whose passing I mourn that saved the world from the Axis Powers, an America the whole world is indebted to for the enormous sacrifices that were required of my generation to win WWII.

Now that I am elderly and no longer have the strength to do physical battle in the arena of this evil world system it is this generation’s turn to make of America what it will. And if my native county and state is any indication it will no longer bear any resemblance to the America my generation knew, sacrificed for and loved. And for those saying “good riddance” to that America I can only wonder at the kind of America they are choosing in turn. Personally I believe it will be the Great City Babylon of Revelation. And because I believe the world lies in wickedness where the Devil rewards his own and gives power and riches to those that do his bidding I don’t believe anything Lou Dobbs et al. do or say will have any effect on the course of events.

Mysteries: The X-Files: I Want to Believe should be a box office success since so many of us are fans of the series. Roger Ebert said after previewing the film "It involved actual questions of morality, just as The Dark Knight does. It's not simply about good and evil but about choices."

If there is in fact a hierarchy of deities I wonder about their choices? You see, I believe there is a foundation of facts underlying the many mythologies of ancient peoples, but the facts have been obscured by the loss of artifacts supporting them and all that remains is the monuments and glyphs, stories and legends in which ancients attempted to preserve the facts in various fashions. Poets were our first historians, telling stories in such a memorable way they would be passed on to future generations. But through the continued recounting of such stories it is no wonder their factual origins would be lost to antiquity.

There has to be a reason for life on earth to have taken some very and even diabolically curious turns, a reason for life to form hideous creatures like the dinosaurs for example, for life to become nature red in tooth and claw, for human life in too many instances to be in the words of Thomas Hobbes “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short,” believing the inherent selfishness of individuals and nations inevitably led to the conflict of Emerson’s musket worshippers. And while Hobbes distrusted democracy he acknowledged a “voice of the people” through duly appointed representation being possible but Leviathan remained the better choice.

Apart from his native genius Hobbes did have many historic examples from which to draw his conclusions, and even Emerson and his disciple Thoreau built upon those conclusions pointing out that all government is wicked due to the evil men do, that government is continually susceptible to corruption and the abuse of power held in the hands of a few, and those few never of a noble class but the ignoble selfishly seeking power and wealth through wars and enslavement, that for this reason a Leviathan, a monarch would be the better choice notwithstanding the ancient caveat the king may be benevolent and wise but his son a fool, and the cautions of Machiavelli always there to be heeded.

The prophet and last judge of Israel, Samuel, warned the people that in demanding a king they had rejected God, that God in turn would give the people a king that would enslave them. Despite this explicit warning the people insisted on a king and the result was Saul, a man that while fitting the popular perception of what a suitable king should look like was a disaster for Israel. If I see America as the Great City Babylon of Revelation the only wonder to me is we have lasted this long in view of past attempts at national suicide and fully expect this latest attempt to succeed as our nation drowns in a sea of corruption, lies, and perversion.

In many instances the rule of kings and governments throughout history resemble fairy tales, and of course those that write the histories of such are given to much embellishment distorting the facts lest they offend and be punished, and even the very symbols of these past kingdoms becoming obscured. In my own brief span I have witnessed what should be recent history revised and obscured to suit the various agendas of those in power, so much so that I have every reason to believe those in power have lied to us and continue to lie to us. Who will tell us the truth of JFK and 9/11 for example, and if it was indeed a question rather than a statement most of us could be excused Pilate’s “What is truth?” pertaining to what those in our government tell us.

 “Former NASA astronaut and moon-walker Dr. Edgar Mitchell — a veteran of the Apollo 14 mission — claims aliens exist. He says extraterrestrials have visited Earth on several occasions — but the alien contact has been repeatedly covered up by governments for six decades. Mitchell, 77, said during a radio interview in Birmingham, England, that sources in the federal government who had had contact with aliens described the beings as ‘little people who look strange to us.’ He said supposedly real-life ET's were similar to the traditional image of a ‘small gray’ — short, slight frame, large eyes and large head. Mitchell also claimed human technology is ‘not nearly as sophisticated’ as the aliens' and ‘had they been hostile,’ he warned ‘we would be gone by now.’ “

It isn’t likely in my opinion that Dr. Mitchell is lying, and who would be in a better position and more qualified to know the truth of such things as he describes? I saw three discs hovering in the dawn sky overhead in a triangular equidistant formation years ago while camping in the desert just south of Edwards AFB and am more than inclined to accept Dr. Mitchell’s word about such things. That the ancients including some writers of the Bible may have seen such things and attempted to describe them should come as no surprise no matter how fanciful to us moderns.

I accept that just as the accounts of past rulers and governments now read like fairy tales just so our own government fits the pattern of seeming a fairy tale that if someone undertook to write an account of America’s government as it presently exists would read like a fairy tale to some future civilization, but unlike some others a very grim fairy tale in its conclusion. There is no question in my mind that governments being corrupt by their very nature would choose to prevent their general populations from knowing anything that might work to the detriment of those holding power. At that, the mysteries of past civilizations and their literature, artifacts and monuments remain largely unexplained.

The story of Creation and The Fall in Genesis is based on facts in my opinion. That sex has been a curse to humankind falling especially hard on women is a fact in my opinion, though the serpent and those two special trees in the Garden is a continuous source of much speculation. Certainly I would like to know the actual facts behind the stories, I would like to know if a council of gods determined to create humankind in their image and what their actual purpose was in such a creation, the facts behind the Tower of Babel and the resulting confusion of tongues.

And the story of Noah’s curse upon Canaan the son of Ham, this is one of the more curious of OT accounts. That history has proven to be a verification of this curse is a mystery, but one shrouded in the heinousness of Ham being so despicably perverted as to thwart even the best of theologians either Jewish or Christian to fully explore. In few other instances is something so unclean and perverted found in Scripture as to have theologians so reluctant to even give their opinion. But whatever it was, it was far more than Ham merely mocking his father’s drunken nakedness, something of such a magnitude perhaps that of perversion so diabolical as abusing his own father thereby leaving traces of such abuse making Noah aware of what had happened and to call down this historical curse by Noah upon the sons of Ham forever after!

Will science eventually come to the fore and explain the many mysteries of life and its origin, of our universe and our planet? I doubt it. I’m of the same mind as that of some scientists that there are things not only unknown to us, but unknowable. For my part I wonder what took scientists so long to explain the aurora borealis? One might suppose the answer should have been obvious what with so much attention given the phenomenon over past decades, but to come up with an answer just now? Very curious. Tariq Malik: “The research is detailed in the July 24 online edition of the journal Science. First discovered in the 19th century, magnetic substorms are recurring energy bursts stemming from the release of charged particles — collected from the sun's solar wind — in the Earth's magnetic field. The high-energy particles zoom down the Earth's magnetic field lines until they collide with the planet's upper atmosphere to create dazzling, shifting colors in the aurora borealis…”

There is a seeming never ending supply of mysteries for the Twilight Zone, the X-Files, etc. In the meantime I accept Satan presently rules in a world dominated by his evil servants; that he gives power and kingdoms to whomsoever he will and Jesus did not dispute Satan’s claim to these. And while Dr. Mitchell said of extraterrestrials “had they been hostile…we would be gone by now” I do have cause to wonder if they are simply biding their time? If it is a matter of choices, and Jesus was correct in saying only a few would be saved out of this world system and the rest destroyed I will continue to believe in God as the ultimate arbiter of these things by whatever means, that “eye has not seen nor ear heard, neither has entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those that love Him.”

Sound and Fury Signifying Something: While lunacy abounds in our government and throughout the world, on August 23 we will be treated to the annual Rubber Ducky Race here in the Kern River Valley. The duckys will be released into the river at Kernville and people will cheer on their favorite duck. It is comforting to find this degree of sanity in the midst of so much madness, and I find it a cheerful note sounded as though in defiance of the cacophony of maddening noise and bad news all about.

But speaking of cacophony, among the blessings I enjoy here in my small part of the Sequoia National Forest is not having some brainless twit cranking on the thumping noise that rattles the windows of neighbors often accompanying the abuse of illicit drugs. Those that live among such barbarians or are subjected to this noise from cars in traffic have my utmost sympathy. I spent many years beginning in childhood as a musician and singer and know the difference between noise and music. But then I was raised by and among those with civilized good manners and taught what used to be courteous thoughtfulness toward others, something increasingly lacking in today’s America.

Homosexuals have promoted a brainless term homophobic as though anyone with a normal revulsion to perversion has an irrational fear of homosexuals. One has to suppose the homosexual propagandists depend on people being ignorant of what the term phobia really means. In just the same way the Devil has succeeded in passing off brainless, mind-numbing noise as music.

A scene that used to occur in some old comic strips was that of a child being given a toy drum. Now kids do have a way of banging on things and there was a reason why Tin Pan Alley got its name. But the comic strips would have someone eventually accidentally stepping on the child’s toy drum in order to stop the incessant, banging noise. These days it seems some people can’t distinguish the difference between noise and music. But as a matter of fact I never could stand the noise of Gene Krupa no matter how many people of my generation called it music. To my ears, his noise was little different than that of some drugged out people today.

Admittedly some of the music from the old days was just plain fun, the music of Spike Jones and the songs of Phil Harris and Tom Lehrer and the old Red Buttons song Strange Things are Happening comes to mind when I consider the blatantly obvious efforts of so many in the MSM shouting they want Obama as president, though in my opinion the Devil controls the American media as effectively as Hitler and Goebbels did that of Germany. TV and Hollywood devoted to noise, mayhem, violence, destruction and perversion it is only to be expected the Devil is the master choreographer and leads the orchestra, and his is not full of sound and fury signifying nothing, but quite the contrary. It’s the Devil’s work to make people go brain-dead through noise and drugs, to cause people to become callous to civilized manners and living.

I was once employed as a machinist in Culver City. The place had a large sheet metal shop and the din was so horrific I wondered the workers didn’t all go deaf! These days I suppose OSHA would require ear protection in such an environment, but it seems America is overwhelmed by the din of that sheet metal shop.

It does seem to me people are becoming more uncomfortable left alone with nothing but their thoughts, though they know silence is golden and everyone needs some amount of solitude and quiet time to nourish their souls and a healthy mind. But it is becoming increasingly difficult to escape the noise surrounding them. My last school contract position was as a Stanislaus County Resource Specialist, and I don’t doubt the rise in autism diagnoses along with some other things leading to the increase of using prescription drugs to modify behavior in children has somewhat to do with the noise infants and children are exposed to today.

However, since even the archangel Michael dared not upbraid Satan I’ll give the Evil One credit for not being stupid; otherwise it would strike me as exceedingly curious the GOP could not do better than McCain. I don’t wonder the media has avoided showing much of McCain since he does give the appearance of having one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel. Not quit cadaverous, but pretty close to the work of a mortician.

Me? I’m going to focus on things like the Rubber Ducky Race and other things if not of greater importance are at least not the workings of lunatics and the Devil and count my lucky stars I am removed from the noise surrounding so many either unable or unwilling to escape it.

Chocolate Chip Cookies: Not to disparage fine cookery as an art considering how seriously some people take it, one must suppose there are those seemingly born to eat far more than they need as a way of life. The epidemic of obesity plaguing America would seem to bear this out. And while I have dined in the finest restaurants San Francisco has to offer, such culinary artistry is for the better part lost on a man like me, a man of simple tastes.

I recall several times fishing Bull Run Creek years ago and frying the trout over an open fire on the blade of my machete. Not exactly haute cuisine, but it suited my idea of fine eating in that marvelously pristine part of our forest. However, when I was a boy living on the mining claim here in the Kern River Valley my grandmother did balk my grandfather’s and my considering the cooking of a great horned owl on one occasion.

There are many men who take cookery very seriously, a fact to which many great chefs give testimony. My youngest son Michael is visiting and his culinary skill is unsurpassed. I don’t recall eating so well in a very long while. If he manages to stay for any length of time I might actually gain some weight on my lean frame.

However, cooking has never been high on my list of priorities; just a necessary chore to be gotten out of the way as an alternative to starving. While attending undergraduate school, a roommate of mine was of the same persuasion. The menu one night was beans and cornbread, both of us raised to southern cuisine. I was in charge of the beans and it was this roommate that mixed the cornbread. We waited for the oven to do its job; and we waited, and waited. The stuff just didn’t seem to want to bake properly. Long past the appointed time when it should have been done, we removed it from the oven. It hadn’t risen, and what we faced was a pan of a substance that would have done good service as a yellow Frisbee. The material seemed to be vulcanized like rubber and had the same pliable, plastic consistency.

Now he and I were intelligent young men. It didn’t take us long to discover he had used baking soda rather than baking powder in his recipe. Well, we ate the beans and forewent the cornbread. But there was no denying the fact that, as men, we would have done well to have the proper guidance of a woman in our lives.

Notwithstanding the great chefs, Nero Wolf, and the Barbecue addiction of men, women seem to take such culinary tasks more seriously than men with the exceptions like my son Michael, and under their direction the kitchen doesn’t usually become a research laboratory. And I doubt any self-respecting woman would find herself cleaning hominy off the walls and ceiling of her kitchen; the result of circumstances to which we men fall victim at one time or another. In this instance, while heating a can of hominy on the stove in a pan of water I was interrupted by a phone call and forgot to punch the necessary hole in the can. It exploded like a bomb. But I imagine many a bachelor could tell of similar accidents.

I wish to make a confession, confirming some suspicions of a few readers. Yes, like Faulkner and some others I do write under the influence of drugs. My drugs of choice are caffeine and nicotine. Glad to get that off my chest. But while sitting and musing it occurred to me as per some comments I have received over the years concerning my writing that I do, indeed, write for a readership a notch above those to whom Bartok is a form of speech heard in gin mills or grog shops rather than the composer. And I do prefer to reminisce and write about the old days compared to what constitutes life in America today.

An old flying buddy of mine, a retired fighter pilot, and I were having coffee at the airport swapping hanger stories. He related an exchange of views he had just had with his wife. Seems my buddy loved an old car of his, a Continental convertible he kept on blocks in their garage. Eventually his good wife decided he ought to get rid of the thing to make room for her car. Over a period of time, according to my buddy, this took on the form of nagging. “Just last night she said to me ‘Why on earth do you have to keep that old thing anyway? What is this with you about old things?’” He replied, “Sweetheart, you had better be grateful I like old things.” A word to the wise.

I know I am becoming somewhat preoccupied when I go into the bathroom and pick up my razor to brush my teeth. Didn't work of course; but it did remind me of once trying to put the broom in my refrigerator. I have a lot of fun referring to my bachelor way of life. While there are many books about this fascinating subject on the market, there may be room for another. I believe I can make a contribution to the body of knowledge.

For example, a visitor to my little cottage in the country might notice the collection of buttons I have on the bookshelf behind my workstation. Simple explanation: I often lose a button on a sweater, coat or shirt and keep them all in a neat pile where sometime after the Rapture or Millennium, whichever occurs first, I might actually get around to sewing them back on. In the meantime, I know exactly where they are. Such things remind me of an old comic where the punch line was always: Bachelors are a sorry lot!

Once in a while I mention something of my culinary achievements since even single men living alone occasionally have to eat. I'm not really into food as my wiry frame evidences; but I do, on rare occasions clean off the cobwebs, evict the spiders and fire up my stove. I have a very good reason for mentioning cooking; I find a lot of humor in it. Also, as an admitted ploy, my bachelor approach to the subject elicits a lot of sympathy from the ladies. I know they feel sorry for me and I can use all the sympathy I can get. I have visions of some lovely lady reading something I have written about my cooking and thinking “That poor man; there must be something I can do to help him?” There is.

No, modesty forbids. But aside from cooking, I'm a fairly normal man in some respects and even Batman was constrained to tell Kim Basinger, “There is something else that you have that I want.” And we all know Batman wasn't talking about Kim's attributes in the kitchen. And, speaking of cooking, I wonder if any of you other single men have had the experience of trying to make chocolate chip cookies?

Now most people can sympathize with the need for a chocolate chip cookie. And I don't mean those things in bags at the supermarket filled with objects that make hockey pucks and poker chips seem pliable and tasty by comparison. No, when the craving for a genuine chocolate chip cookie comes upon you, you are ready to do anything short of holding up a bakery to get one. The real addict, I suppose, wouldn't even be prevented by this expedient.

So here I was; faced with the need for the real thing, a chocolate chip cookie fix that could only be satisfied with the genuine article. Being an adventurous and inventive sort I decided to give it a try. But not having all the exact ingredients like chocolate chips, I improvised. A little hard working around the chocolate chips, but hacking up a couple of Hershey Bars and tossing in a few Hershey Kisses with a dusting of Carnation Chocolate Drink seemed to be satisfactory. There were also a few green M&Ms, the gift of a lady friend with a sense of humor. I tossed them in as well. Like the small chunks of Hershey bars and the Kisses they might make the batter a tad lumpy, I thought, but would probably soften satisfactorily during the baking process.

I'm used to reading directions and have never joined those pitiful creatures that, after the disaster and all else has failed, read the directions. So I staved off a potential catastrophe by noticing that the recipe I had scrounged off a bag of candy called for Whole-Wheat flour. What's wrong with the white flour, which I had on hand I wondered? What have these people got against white flour? Are they prejudiced? What real difference could it make to use white instead of brown flour? Wouldn't the cookies just come out a lighter complexion?

Oh, well, I went to the store and got some of that peculiar brown flour; but the recipe called for oatmeal as well as flour. I had oatmeal but I didn't want oatmeal cookies, I wanted chocolate chip cookies! What was this concoction that called for oatmeal in chocolate chip cookies? To heck with that; I knew what I wanted and I forewent the oatmeal and simply increased the amount of flour accordingly.

Butter. I was out of butter; and I wasn't about to make another trip to the grocery store this month. Ah, but I had margarine. Just add salt and presto: Okie butter, right? But the recipe called for salt. How much more should I add to compensate the substitution of my salted margarine for butter? Oh, well, about another smidgen, a technical cooking term I had picked up from one of the truly great chefs, my great-grandmother. I utterly disdained the raisins and walnuts the recipe said I could add. Wonder they didn't say to add dandelions in my now thoroughly suspect recipe.

Another conundrum; why did I have to mix the dry ingredients separately from the eggs and butter (margarine)? Why get two different bowls messy? I'm beginning to believe that like religion cooking has its mysteries, which remain such in order to intimidate those who are not members of the priesthood. But I am not a superstitious person and I am not going to be daunted by such attempts of charlatans who are trying to bamboozle me with mumbo jumbo and incantations, mystic symbols like lb., oz., cp., tsp. and tbsp. Instead, I mix the whole shebang together in one bowl and start stirring the tar out of the mess. Sometime into this procedure, I look inquiringly at my blender. No, on second thought I have had my share of disasters with that infernal machine.

Preheat oven? Whatever for? What a waste of gas. Cookie trays— I don't have cookie trays. Why in the world would any self-respecting bachelor have cookie trays? I go out to my shed. It is well supplied with materials and tools for doing the usual maintenance and repairs on house and car. Ah, hah! I find some sheet aluminum from a job that required cutting and fitting for replacing some steel sheeting on the roof that had rusted out. With a couple of pieces approximating the size my oven could handle I had that problem licked.

Deposit the cookie mixture on the trays in the amount of a tbsp. for each cookie. Thought they had me there but I knew what the mystic symbol Tbsp., stood for. However, this heathen and bigoted list of instructions, symbols and incantations now said that I had to grease the trays before depositing the globs of batter! These idiots say I have to grease the trays before baking! Now I've greased many a car. But grease for cookies? What kind of grease; bacon, wheel-bearing, axle? Nah, I really knew they meant something like Pam or Crisco. I'd read about the old Crisco parties in the past.

But I didn’t have the recommended grease for the pan and not nearly enough margarine left for the job. How about WD40 or LPS I wondered? I had those. I even had some bacon grease I saved in can on the stove just in case I wanted to have scrambled eggs and no bacon handy (I had not resorted to a largely vegetarian diet at the time). No sweat. I'm a good metallurgist having been a tool and die maker. Cookies were not going to stick to aluminum. Besides, I suspected the WD might leave some aftertaste and I wasn't partial to bacon-flavored chocolate chip cookies either though they might not be too bad. No, I wasn't about to risk that after my gargantuan efforts up to this point.

A final problem; how close should the dollops of batter be in order to avoid having a single cookie measuring 16 by 16 inches? Being a man used to using precision measuring instruments like micrometers and verniers, I guessed. Cooking time? Another obstacle. The now hated recipe said 8 to 10 minutes. I checked at 8 minutes. Not done. I checked at 10 minutes. Not done. At fifteen minutes they were done. Now if you are a normal person of normal curiosity, you are probably wondering how the cookies turned out. Great; apart from the 36 the recipe said would result came out to be closer to 96. I had to suppose that somewhere along the line during this Herculean effort at making chocolate chip cookies I probably made some sort of miscalculation.

Things have settled down quite a bit here in the Kern River Valley after the recent fires and floods, so I celebrated the beautiful morning by going to the dump. We are so spoiled here in the valley without any traffic, no long lines anywhere including the local DMV, terrific senior services and medical services, no violent crime or graffiti and the beauty of nature surrounding in all directions. I don’t generate much in the way of household trash so it takes nearly three months before my small truck has enough to make the trip to the local landfill necessary, but sometimes like this morning it is worth the while to just make the drive up to Kernville and around the lake while admiring the beauty of it all and count my blessings that I can live here.

Since I first came here in 1948 with my grandparents to live on the mining claim that is now Boulder Gulch Campground I have never lost my appreciation for this area and the beauty of it. Granted the lake going in and people moving here over the years has changed things considerably since I was a boy roaming the forest and fishing the Kern River and Bull Run Creek, but most of what remains like the surrounding mountains hasn’t succumbed to what some consider progress. We still have abundant clean air and water without any taint of industrial pollution, and you can still catch fish without any hint of mercury in them. Our valley remains the crown jewel of Kern County, and would retain that distinction if it were located elsewhere in most parts of America. But alas, the barbarians having never learned civilized ways are in evidence around the lake and along the river, leaving their trash scattered about for others to pick up after them and occasionally defacing or destroying public facilities.

Occasionally things can get hectic and what with fires and floods, all the firefighters and equipment it reminds me how quickly people face disaster and how much we depend on those we need to be there in emergencies. Police are often maligned but when you really need a cop we depend on them being there, and while things are really horrific in some areas of America and you wonder why anyone would even want the job any more here in the valley the local police do a great job for us folks. No small reason for counting my blessings I can live here.

I do live an enviable life of solitude for the better part with only the forest critters and the resident cat for company, ideal conditions for a writer, but when I do venture forth like this morning’s trip to the dump I’m reminded to be grateful I no longer have to live in places like downtown Los Angeles. Here I am treated to the evidence of a healthy environment; the butterflies, hummingbirds, quail, doves and baby lizards that tell me I am favored over many that are facing deteriorating conditions for habitation, places where children never see a butterfly or baby lizard in the wild, too often not even being able to see the stars at night.

On the way back from the dump I stopped at the Von’s grocery store and people would smile at me, and even if we didn’t know each other we would greet each other with a friendly “Howdy.” I sat on the tailgate of my truck for a while and viewed the surrounding mountains and people would smile as they passed by, often exchanging that friendly greeting with me. It was nice not to have to hurry anywhere. Of course, at my age I’m seldom in a hurry about much of anything.

We face an increasingly ugly and dangerous world, I often refuse to even turn the news on because I neither need nor want the reminders of how ugly and dangerous things are becoming. But here in the Kern River Valley people can still smile at each other and say “Howdy” without risking some gang member shooting you. I can sit in my yard without worrying about becoming a drive-by casualty of the inner city wars.

Fires have threatened and will doubtless continue to do so and I was once flooded here in Bodfish, but you will understand why I believe I am blessed by God above so many others just being able to call this part of the Sequoia National Forest my home all these years.

Slice, dice, and spell it how you will baloney remains baloney and after that pic on the cover of the New Yorker hitting the MSM no matter how the spinmeisters attempt to deflect the criticism a lot of people are sticking a fork in the Obama’s to see if the roast is done. Roast or toast, you do kind of wonder who was really pulling the strings from the shadows for this particular cover of a magazine held to such liberal, lofty and elitist standards? Wait a minute; I think that may be it. Just between you and me, my personal belief is the Devil offered the New Yorker a better deal.

This is just an opinion on my part, but doesn’t the New Yorker want someone in the White House that would be friendlier to the global corporations pulling those strings from the shadows, including someone with real experience qualified to prosecute wars and would have no trouble getting what they want for the military, someone that wouldn’t hesitate to pull the trigger? If threatened, most of us want a very experienced cop that isn’t so politically correct he is afraid to pull the trigger.

It still remains to be seen who the choices for VP will be, and there is a lot riding on this choice. However, even those at the New Yorker must have realized the polls don’t reflect the reality of voter choices, and few are ready for a Negro First Lady like Mrs. Obama no matter how well some think of her husband. If nothing else the New Yorker reflects what is considered class and good taste among the upper classes, and Mrs. Obama misses this by a whisker as wide as Mississippi.

Voters actually do consider race an important factor, they consider gender an important factor, and many understand how a President and First Lady present an image of them and America to the world. StarKist wanted tuna that tasted good, but we want a Charlie with good taste. However, that doesn’t account for the present occupant of the White House but it accounts for a lot when it comes to his wife; and that does make a very considerable difference to voters.

I ask myself if anyone like George could have won without someone like Laura, and I seriously doubt it. Many share my opinion Laura Bush is the only touch of class in the White House, and I don’t believe we are going to settle for Mrs. Obama to take her place; and especially not after that New Yorker cover so well expressed the impression both she and her husband have made on ordinary Americans notwithstanding the polls and MSM.

When I read To Hell and Back many years ago I thought Audie Murphy had the right slant on religion saying a soldier’s god would understand him. The very brutality of kill or be killed in warfare does not discriminate on the battlefield though an occasional Sergeant York or Audie Murphy may survive and become heroic icons. But it seems to me the people most in need of killing are those that make the wars, and we seek in vain for the Sergeant York or Audie Murphy to slay these beasts in America because such beasts have always been politicians and the wealthy that buy them; and the Devil takes care of his own.

Our government being comprised of politicians is a black hole representative of the Prince of Darkness, one that captures all the light of truth and makes it disappear. The Bush administration dedicated selling out and betraying America for the sake of empire and globalization for profit will be known as the most inept and corrupt in our nation’s history, the most infamous example of the black hole of government, but are we about to breach the event horizon where America as a nation will disappear? To watch what is happening in Congress leads me to that conclusion. While Bush and his cronies seem totally oblivious to anything but their own power and wealth those in Congress are no different nor are the members of the Supreme Court. None are held accountable and America is enslaved to a Federal Triune Dictatorship, one that swallows all light of truth and forces ordinary Americans to dwell in an increasingly evil darkness. And virtually all government agencies seem to be more representative of black holes than anything desiring the light of day be shined upon them.

God made the light and pronounced it good, separating the day from the night. Every culture has its way of distinguishing their thoughts on the subject of light and darkness. Jesus claimed to come as a light into the world to deliver from the darkness of sin, and it is accepted that some love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. I very well recall the expression “The lights of freedom are going out across Europe” and it seems America is poised on this very brink now.

It took the assassination of JFK to cause me to confront the fact my government was lying to me, and on such a massive scale as to be truly mindboggling! Following that realization I began to question many things including our involvement in WWI and WWII, Korea, and eventually Vietnam. Throughout all these conflicts the rich and powerful became richer and more powerful while things became increasingly dangerous for America, and Americans became increasingly the slaves of government. Are the present wars fomented by our government making things better or safer for the average American, or only making the rich and powerful richer and more powerful.

On the face of it the refusal to secure our borders is an act of treason by our own government, but none will be held accountable for this act of treason. We realize if illegal aliens were torturing, murdering and raping the families of politicians and judges our borders would be sealed in an instant. But so long as they live their protected and insulated lives of privilege and wealth politicians and judges will not lift a finger to protect ordinary American citizens from the depredations of illegal aliens. And those profiting from the slave labor and drugs from Mexico buy the politicians and judges they need ever as much as the Godfather in the film.

The evil in our government is so deep and pervasive when I first saw that obviously fake clip of Iranian missiles it reminded me of that scene where the Carcano carbine was being held aloft and displayed as the weapon that killed JFK. Ridiculous! Being a gunsmith and even owning one of these weapons at the time and knowing its limitations, that no one being an expert in firearms would ever choose such a gun for such a task I knew then someone was lying, but why? And over the years learning how those in government have lied to We the People repeatedly from WWI on I have no confidence whatsoever in our government to tell us the truth about anything.

But while the stench of mendacity and corruption in our own government must reach up to heaven other nations are in no better case and some like Mexico and those of Africa and the Middle East even worse so I ask myself why those nearly cartoon like pics of Iranian missiles? Like that Carcano carbine didn’t the Iranians know such a ridiculous thing wouldn’t fool anyone qualified to discern the truth from a fiction? Or as in the case of JFK and possibly 9/11 is the truth so dark and sinister that reason of healthy minds is repulsed by the unclean thing? I strongly believe this to be the case.

If the Iranian leadership wants to provoke an attack by Israel it would be understandable they would be doing everything possible to do so; but to what real purpose and why such a clumsy attempt as those missile pictures? But I remind myself that wars are not always provoked and waged for profit, though the most evil will bend their efforts to profit from wars.

Emerson’s Concord Hymn and Archduke Franz Ferdinand come to mind as shots heard round the world have altered the course of history. But I remain of the opinion that no matter how dark the deed whether the murder of Lincoln or the Archduke while some are the result of passion there are always those dispassionate and amoral that take advantage to turn a profit, or even the most sinister that will murder those like Kennedy to further their own ends to enslave Americans for profit.

The insanity of it all is evidenced by Iran’s mad mullah, but such insanity is mirrored by our own government. The seeming madness of those in Congress presents an image of a stage play in which all the actors are lunatics, each one intent on the destruction of America. In my opinion the Devil has written the script and is in charge of the choreography, and anyone of a sound mind cannot fail to see America being represented on TV as a nation of imbeciles. But the books have been written outlining the decline and fall of America notwithstanding the Bible and the Evil One’s part in the end of the age.

Some believe Mother Nature is mad as hell and not going to take it anymore! I have my own front row seat provided by Mother Nature surrounded by the mountains, rocks and trees here in the Kern River Valley. Remember Orphan Annie’s “Leapin’ lizards!” I can actually see the lizards doing this in my yard as they frolic among the rocks and the tiny baby lizards are among nature’s cutest little critters. I’m entertained by the numerous quail and doves along with other feathered friends, the jewels of nature are well represented by butterflies and hummingbirds. And though the fires rage throughout my native state and smoke lingers in the air hereabout while I listen to the constant sound of fire fighting aircraft passing overhead I remain safe.

The all too typical oppressive heat of a Kern County summer makes things difficult for me at times, nevertheless I’m grateful to be free from want and have managed to escape not only the fires but the dire poverty inflicted upon so many by the selfish lunatics in our government, so I am well established to take stock of the situation and offer my views of how I see things. I do question why I should be so well favored while so many are suffering, but I have no satisfactory answer.

With Russia threatening America and the Israelis getting ready to attack Iran things are bound to get interesting in a hurry. A privileged planet, a Goldilocks planet, a unique world in a unique solar system of the universe with intelligent life capable of believing there is a God and responding. Of course it’s a minority view in respect to our earth and intelligent life, but it’s one corresponding to the somber pronouncement by Jesus that very few are going to be saved; and here in America one only has to view and listen to the Devil’s control of the media, especially TV to believe our nation is going fast to hell.

Devoted to programming filled with violence and perversion, mind-numbing drumbeat noise TV may well be thought run by the Evil One, and even many so-called “news” channels push idiotically grinning people obviously in need of a brain slavering over celebrities while the world is going to hell you can’t help but wonder who gave them their jobs and believed they could be taken seriously?

But much of religious TV broadcasting is of Satan in my opinion. To watch the shamelessly embarrassing antics of some of these charlatans is to wonder why God would put up with such fools trying to make God look foolish? Years ago I formed the opinion too many churches were trying to compete with Hollywood, and the result has been an absolute travesty of anything approaching what the churches used to be. However, while “the church in the wildwood” can’t make it to the big time there remains “no place so dear to my childhood.”

Teachers can’t win competing with Hollywood and TV, and neither can the churches. The schools are there to teach children, not entertain them. And the same can be said of the churches in respect to their congregations. Like Benjamin Franklin I believe the churches should serve as a moral basis of instruction for people, places where people can gather together to fulfill the need of congregating for the good of society, but never in competition with the theater.

While the Gabriel Tablet is getting some attention those of us with theological backgrounds find no surprises when it comes to either Messianic or resurrection stories. And while my own personal belief is the Bible is true in many instances, that God did in fact speak to some people and the voice of the Lord is heard in those many passages that have the ring of truth to me, I don’t credit the story of the divinity of Jesus above that of all the children of God having that very same divine parentage. I do credit Jesus passed on things he had learned of God, that like some others of the Bible he had a particularly teachable spirit. But I am not about to blame Jesus for the many abuses of religion in his name or for megachurches and TV evangelists.

Sinclair Lewis had fun with those like D. L. Moody and Billy Sunday much as some others did with radio preachers who would tell folks “Put your hand on your radio and be healed,” but it was Aimee Semple McPherson, though denied by many, who in my opinion truly fascinated him; so he made Sister Sharon Falconer a fascinating woman. And I always appreciated Lewis’ dedication of Elmer Gantry “to H. L. Mencken, with profound admiration.”

Through the many twists and turns of my life I’ve had cause for doubting many things of religion no less than Lewis, but there are some things in the Bible and Nature that proclaim God is, things not bound to any organized religion but common to many people such as myself with no religious affiliation.

But if things continue to become increasingly interesting, things like Israel attacking Iran I won’t be surprised to learn a whole lot of people are going to get religion in a hurry. I just hope it won’t be the religion of politicians and TV hucksters.

Ours may be a privileged planet; intelligent life may yet prove unique to earth. And if so, it might serve well to take heed to the words of Jesus that only a few are going to be saved. Whatever the purpose of God in Creation, it seems it is one that requires only those very special few that live their lives in accordance with the universal gospel that clearly teaches us to honor God in our lives and do unto others as we would have them do unto us.

Things have really heated up here in Kern County with soaring temps and the fires still burning. Maybe as Rhett suggested to Scarlett there isn’t any hell, but it takes people to make for a living hell on earth. I happen to think such people are the servants of Satan, and if not there is a pretty good chance in my opinion things will turn out that way regardless.

Ask any alcoholic and they will tell you no one can save them but themselves; and not every alcoholic wants to be saved but when it comes to sin many want salvation. It’s the theme not only of the Bible but of some of the greatest writers like Sinclair Lewis. Had he not been able to use this theme to weave his word tapestries like Elmer Gantry he may have remained an unknown. Sin, like sex, sells, and there is always a ready market for stories that emphasize the human propensity for sin. If it were not for sin, the point of many stories like The Scarlet Letter and sermons like those of Jonathan Edwards focusing on hypocrisy would be without basis and many a moral would be wanting.

As I write ashes from the Piute fire are falling about and the smoke is making breathing difficult even for those without respiratory problems. But it brings to mind the phrase hotter than hell, and the forecast is for those high temps so characteristic of Kern County in general and Bakersfield (Bako) in particular of over one-hundred degrees to set in and make life even more uncomfortable for many. However, here in the Kern River Valley we are not experiencing any actual threat of fire as yet and hoping that will remain the case though that phrase hotter than hell is going to be the watchword even here.

But one cannot mention hell without the Devil and sin coming to mind and in one sense we have sin to thank for some of the greatest art and literature including the Bible, and without sin many an artist and writer would have little to work with. After all, it isn’t the milk of human kindness that sells newspapers it is sin in one form or another. The world, the flesh, and the Devil reign supreme over human efforts to shed light on the path of humankind, frustrating the efforts of the noblest working for peace because while fools make a mock at sin there are many of them making a profit by it.

It is a mistake to sell the Devil short; he isn’t stupid and he isn’t a caricature running around in a red union suit with horns, tail, and a pitchfork. He could hardly have earned the title Arch Deceiver and be so ridiculous or easily discerned. According to the Bible he was created a beautiful angel but fell from his place of honor through his pride, and if the serpent in The Garden the most beautiful and intelligent of creatures. At that, it seems from the book of Job he is included among the sons of God and even Michael the archangel had to treat him with respect according to the passage in Jude. I’ve always believed it was a particular stroke of genius placing that brief but very powerful epistle just before Revelation.

When some deride me for being a well educated man but believing Satan is real, I need only point to the art and literature by some of the most gifted and greatest minds believing the same thing to silence naysayers. It might be truthfully said the Devil is more real to many people from the lowest to highest rank than God; or rather more personal since so many feel their connection to the Devil a closer relationship, a point made in the film Tombstone when Kurt Russell sees the part of the Devil in Faust was played by the beautiful girl and says in amazement “I’ll be damned,” and Val Kilmer replies “You may indeed; if you’re lucky.” Sin and sex; remarkable, really, how the two seem conjoined as though to validate the story of The Fall and its consequences.

But after all the jokes have been told and all the fun poked Satan is the one left laughing and there are the wars of men while women try to make homes, the fact the greatest nation in history, America, refuses to protect children from the monsters of Satan preying on them, too many of our legislators and judges chosen by the Evil One loosing such monsters time after time to continue their depredations against children. If for no other reason than this I would find sufficient ground to confirm my belief Satan is real. And if that generation of children without natural affection, children acting out the role of demons rather than humans is a sign of the End Times it does seem America is bent on producing such a generation of children. And since the children of a nation are its future, this causes me to have a grave foreboding about the future of America.

Walt Kelly enjoyed poking fun at organized religion and had the Fox, Seminole Sam, pointing out the Devil was where the real money was to be made. While there is a lot of money to be made in religion, Walt knew it was the Devil’s work to profit from religion. Walt may have credited the words of Jesus that the children of God are not in the “business” of religion; that the real prophets do not purport to speak for God on the one hand while faring sumptuously and accumulating gold and mansions on the other. Too many of these servants of the Lord are no better than Tom Lehrer’s Old Dope Peddler.

A hierarchy and council of gods as one might assume from the beginning chapters of Genesis and in Job is anathema to monotheistic religions, and yet I’m more inclined to the pantheon of the Egyptians and Greeks with this reservation: A Supreme Deity may well be the ultimate Creator of the universe and giver of life while at the same time allowing for the creation of lesser deities and some of these mixing with humankind in some fashion. And from the Biblical stories and some other mythologies something went horribly wrong, and it became hell on earth ever since.

But given the very strangeness of the universe and the mysteries right here on our own planet there is room for speculation of great variety including gods and goddesses, demons and angels, and no one person or organization has a monopoly on such speculation. And while the Bible prompts much speculation much of even the most fantastic variety is provoked and arises from the discoveries of science.

Even if the Ethiopian can’t change his skin as stated by Jeremiah, the question is would he want to? Barack Hussein Obama meets St. Peter at the Pearly Gates and tells him he was the first Negro President of the U. S. When St. Peter asks him when that happened Obama replies, “About twenty minutes ago.”

You know you shouldn’t laugh at such a thing, and some wanting to dance on the grave of Jesse Helms believe the story about Obama meeting St. Peter would be characteristic of the late and not everywhere lamented senator. But over the years I have taken a lot of criticism as a Caucasian for expressing my opinion the seed of America’s destruction was sown in slavery, for expressing my opinion that I believed Benjamin Franklin who I think was every bit as prescient as Emerson foresaw this very danger to America when he attempted to have slavery abolished by our Constitution.

I wonder if the same people consigning Helms to the outer reaches of perdition will have the same attitude to the Newsweek article Blackout? “Despite Italian Vogue's recent black issue, the international fashion world still prefers white skin. In a tidy piece of cultural synchronicity, last month saw both the arrival of the latest issue of Italian Vogue, which exclusively features black models, and the debut in earnest of Barack Obama's presidential campaign as the Democratic nominee. Race has been a singularly polarizing, and thus creatively compelling, issue for centuries, but Obama's emergence onto the national and international stage has brought the topic out from the shadows. Sadly, in the modeling industry, attitudes about race aren't nearly as progressive as they appear to be in the political world. Italian Vogue's initiative has prompted some industry dialogue about why black models remain marginalized, but the issue runs across the entire color spectrum, affecting more than just black people. In the fashion circuit of cities like New York, Paris and Milan, or extended to a more international network of major cities like Sao Paulo, Tokyo and Bombay, racism is alive and well. Despite vastly different cultural and geographic contexts, and the unique physical characteristics of each country's citizens, in most places, light is still right…”

Sigh. There is no getting around it. While Obama gets all the favorable press his wife will remain a major obstacle. It is true that politics is about perception but this is nothing compared to what people perceive as beauty, and the standard of beauty is as the article states “in most places, light is still right.” It is Fay Wray in King Kong and in every Hollywood production and even in other nations throughout the world, that beautiful light skinned women of whatever race is the standard of beauty when it comes to perception. Despite all the university spawned political correctness and racist hyphenation the perception of beauty remains light skinned.

Are the sons of Ham truly cursed to be hewers of wood and drawers of water, or are we what we are solely by accident of birth alone? Was it fated the nations of Western Civilization, light skinned, largely Christian and Bible oriented were to accomplish the greatest advances in science and the arts while the dark skinned continued in barbarism? Or are these things only a matter of the accidents of birth and geography? Whatever one’s thoughts, there can be no dismissing reputedly the wisest man of his time, Benjamin Franklin, while at the same time attempting to have slavery abolished by our Constitution continued to prevail on others of the Founding Fathers to look to God for guidance and encouraged prayer in all their decisions; though in my opinion they failed to find the proper guidance from on high in respect to slavery. Then again, I wonder if this issue ever entered into their prayers? I would guess not.

Lincoln had the good sense to pronounce he did not know which side God was on during the attempt at national suicide, but he also expressed wonder that Negro leaders would refuse his offer of relocation choosing rather to remain in a country where they would never be considered the equal of Caucasians. But by this time it was too late, and in the relatively short time between “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights” and Harriet Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin with its aftermath that seed of slavery had become a harvest of evil disaster for America.

A house divided cannot stand; but Lincoln’s War only exacerbated the house divided ignoring the fact that Jesus was referring to Satan who was not divided against himself. But the seed of the evils of slavery had been sown throughout America and neither a Civil War nor all the laws since have been able to get rid of the resulting weeds in our garden. And only the angels of God are going to be able to separate the good fruit from the tares the Evil One has sown in the night.

Some were amazed and asked “Is Saul also among the prophets?” and when Jeremiah Wright pronounced “The chickens are coming home to roost” perhaps he also prophesied better than he knew. If one sows the wind, only a whirlwind can be the expected harvest. Our own Supreme Court has played the role of Devil’s Advocate in pronouncing equality by laws that can never be achieved in reality, but has rather resulted in the making of classes of professional victims throughout America.

Earl Warren did not have to live with the chaos resulting from desegregation; he and the rest of the court would continue to live opulent lives of privilege protected and separated from the realities that it was only to be expected Negro children would find the Caucasian doll the prettiest. Children in the nations of Africa would have made the same choice as the Newsweek article Blackout emphasizes. The cited irreparable harm had already been done with the introduction of Negro slavery and what Brown v Board of Education did was prompt what became known as white flight and hasten the whirlwind. Today, the schools throughout the inner cities of America are filled with violence as I know from personal experience, the dropout rates are catastrophic and little in the way of educational goals is being met. In far too many cases there is no father in the homes of these children and the attitude toward and the treatment of them is that of their being human weeds.

Open borders and globalization is all about slave labor. Those in our government and their corporate bosses refuse to secure our borders for the sake of slave labor from Mexico. And no matter who becomes our next president this situation is not going to change.

When I ask myself who is behind all the violence and perversion being flaunted on TV and by Hollywood, what motivates legislators and judges to protect the monsters that prey on women and children the only satisfactory answer I can come up with is Satan. I credit the stories in the Bible to be drawn from facts in many instances. Among these is war in the heavens brought to earth, an enmity between the Evil One and his followers against the children of God and this accounting for the prevalence of evil throughout all of human history.

America has been an aberration in many ways, a success story unparalleled in history. But believing as I do that our nation is the Babylon of Revelation I conclude the seed of our destruction bringing us to this tragic and prophetic end was sown in slavery. Being of sound mind I cannot but hope I am wrong; but being of sound mind I cannot dismiss the signs of the times, and in my opinion these do not bode well for America. Perhaps this is because I cannot help but see the irony in those words at the beginning of our Declaration of Independence knowing such fine words crediting the historical caveats chose to ignore the realities of which I believe Benjamin Franklin was aware, and it would be interesting for me to know where Jesus would begin cleansing the Temple today?

There is a reason for stars, planets, baseballs and marbles being spheres, but when Emerson wrote his fascinating essay Circles he didn’t know about plasma life forms though Mel Gibson may have been aware of them. However, I’ve always credited Emerson with his towering intellect having a degree of prescience about many things and he was certainly aware of crystal balls which may have had their origin in the plasma life forms as spheres being studied by physicists while those involved with metaphysics know them as paranormal orbs. And perhaps what existed as the seed of the universe was an orb.

Plasma Life Forms - Spheres, Blobs, Orbs and Subtle Bodies by Jay Alfred, Life-Like Qualities of Plasma will leave some people numb trying to absorb the possibilities, since any study of such things is not only steeped in physics but metaphysics as well. Mention of transparent and translucent orbs is to be found in ancient texts as well as more contemporary literature often described as behaving like intelligent entities and have a history of appearing in photographs. I recall someone sending me copy of a photo in which three small orbs appeared looking like soap bubbles that she said were not seen when she snapped the picture. Since she was a professional photographer I had no reason to doubt her story, especially since such occurrences are so commonplace. And no, not all are the result of indulging in magic mushrooms.

Now I do have my Val Saint Lambert crystal frog, but it just doesn’t seem to have the essential characteristics needed for scrying. It just sits there with nary even a ribbit out of the critter, and despite the reputation of crystal skulls I believe nothing can take the place of a crystal ball. I’ve checked out the various purveyors of crystal balls online and haven’t quite made up my mind yet whether to purchase one, my frog having failed to deliver.

Wonderful SciFi classic; The Blob, and I still enjoy it for the classic it is. But the actual physics and metaphysics would have orbs being more likely than some gooey substance; however an orb would not have fit the plot so well. Yet