One of many advantages I enjoyed as a child living in that part of Southeast Bakersfield called Little Oklahoma during the 30s and 40s was some of the superstitions and beliefs of the adults most of them being Okies and Arkies from the Dust Bowl migration. I call this an advantage because such superstitions and beliefs are part of a culture, and lend the spice to otherwise cruel hardships of ignorance and poverty and often help people deal with these.

One old fellow I remember would never eat anything from a can that had been opened from the bottom because he believed this pizened the contents. I never learned where he had gotten such a preposterous notion because as a child being raised to never show disrespect for my elders it didn’t cross my mind to ask this old fellow about it. Besides, his belief about such a thing didn’t really bother anyone; it wasn’t something that he used to take advantage of anyone so what was the harm, and looking back I realize no amount of arguing with him about it would have changed his mind. Over the years I have known quite a few folks just like this old fellow, and most of the time I don’t waste my own time arguing with them. Their beliefs and superstitions may be just as preposterous, but so long as they do no harm why not just leave them be.

But education is very important because we realize a society cannot function and prosper in a civilized manner unless it is made up of educated individuals. I had an aunt that could not read or write. On one occasion she made a cake and mistook a bottle of cough syrup for vanilla extract. The bottles looked the same so the error was understandable, though it did lend an odd flavor to the cake; but had she mistaken a bottle of poison and used that this could have resulted in a real tragedy.

My grandparents used to tell the story about an elderly woman they knew given to burying socks full of dirt in the backyard. When asked about this bizarre behavior she would reply she was burying Beelzebub’s guts. Apart from this mild aberration she behaved quite normally and was a delightful person to be around.

Then there was the old fellow grandad used as an example of how people can carry their religious beliefs to extremes. The man had a deep conviction about keeping the Sabbath and would not do any work on a Sunday, but he had chickens that needed feeding each day. To get around doing this on Sunday, on Saturday evenings he would place a pan of feed on the gatepost to the chicken yard and accidentally hit it with his shoulder on Sunday so it would spill over to feed the chickens.

Every one of these people I have described intended no harm to anyone, they each had peculiar deficiencies but in a way as to add spice to the lives of others. If nothing else, they gave other folks something to think and talk about. When I was a boy living on the mining claim here in the Kern River Valley back before the lake went in we had our own mad scientist, Harold Adams, who was a real genius and a fascinating character. He took a real liking to me and would sometimes share some of his ideas and inventions. However, the grownups would laugh and talk about things like his housekeeper, a younger woman, but there was never anything mean or malicious about such talk; it was simply gossip that added spice to our small society at the time.

One of the things I miss most about my childhood is the sense of community we used to know where neighbors could share stories, visiting with one another, each person having something or someone in their families that were a source of embarrassment but simply accepted as a part of the community while often proving to be entertaining to us children though the grownups were careful to caution us about anything or anyone to be wary of. However, in small communities the grownups could usually count on each other to watch out for children, but the tragedies involving children back then as today were always the result of the lack of proper adult supervision.

WWII was an ongoing time of interest to me as a boy, there was so much excitement all about and even children were involved in the war effort. But I don’t remember it as a climate of fear for me, rather one of excitement and interest, which is as it should have been for children. Perhaps what people are expressing to me now largely because of TV there is a growing climate of fear Americans are in no way prepared to deal with, one of the reasons for this being the lack of family and community for many Americans, families and communities such as I knew as a child where there was allowance for the idiosyncrasies of adults that added spice rather than fear to such communities.

Several times I have shared my thought that the real virtue and character of America is to be found in rural churches and communities, places where the emphasis is on those things of real and lasting value, the things that emphasize the importance of children and families rather than wealth and power. In my opinion Norman Rockwell got it right concerning the real virtue and character of America; but now it seems America has gotten too big for its britches and has forsaken the things of real value that made us a great nation, those things that once made for strong families and communities.

There are those that have succeeded in dividing America into self-serving groups that would make America over into their own image; but such an America is not a nation of communities where there is allowance and understanding for those that add spice to living because of their harmless beliefs and superstitions. Too often now communities have become the victims of violence and crime where parents are afraid for their children both at home and at school, where people must live behind iron bars on windows and heavily reinforced doors.

I spend a good deal of time now in reverie and contemplation, refusing to watch much of the madness on TV that seems to have descended on America like some dark and malevolent cloud of foreboding creating a climate of fear. Through nothing particularly deserving on my part I have come to this last stage of life’s journey and looking back over the many changes I have witnessed in America, realizing it is no longer the United States but a nation divided and fragmented beyond my recognition and without any sense of community.

There was a time within my recall when music and films were fun, when there was humor without being vulgar, crude and profane, humor without a mean and malicious intent and content and parents did not have to fear their children were being brainwashed into accepting things like perversion as an alternative lifestyle. America once had communities where children were expected to learn good manners, correct speech and dress at home and these were supported and encouraged by the schools.

The loss of community with its concomitant failure in education has resulted in the loss of morality replaced by the pervading barbarism that is now the rule in America. Our own government is a continuing reminder of the degradation and corruption of an America without any sense of community and community values with an emphasis on families, which was once the very foundation of our nation and one that also accommodated the spice of beliefs and superstitions, aberrations such as I have mentioned together with a few cranks and crackpots that do no real harm and without which we would be the poorer.

Heritage, culture, a common language and secure borders that once defined America and made for strong communities with moral values and standards has been betrayed for wealth and power, but these will not save America. A sense of community, the very soul of a once strong foundation of American families with faith in God has been sacrificed to benefit the few, but these few will discover that without that sense of community and strong American family values that held America together and made us a great nation they will destroy both themselves and America.

This presidential campaign is focused on TV performance rather than anything of substance, but the first debate between McCain and Obama reminded me of Ed Wood’s Plan 9 From Outer Space. Some of you are aware this film holds the arguable distinction of worst movie ever made, and the so-called debate was such a bad performance I had to keep reminding myself it was supposed to be taken seriously.

But in addition to Wood’s film, there were several times when the scene from Mel Gibson’s film Signs came to mind where Mel and the children are just sitting there in the house staring while wearing their aluminum foil hats waiting for something to happen and I wondered if I should start shaping one for myself?

At the very least last night’s performance struck me as more than a little surreal. These two men are the best candidates either party could come up with, men whose performances bring to mind really bad acting in really bad movies or perhaps another kind of reality from some unknown dimension, or a political structure gone utterly insane! I have to be honest folks; the whole thing on the political, financial, and world front does make me wish Klaatu would suddenly appear to save us humans from ourselves because I just don’t see our species being up to the task.

There are people quick to fault and criticize those of us who believe in God and hold on to Biblical beliefs, but in all honesty does what is happening here in America because of a failed and betraying leadership seem any less farfetched? A far greater number of people have more confidence in the Bible than they do in Congress and in my opinion for very good reason.

The whole of government seems to appear a Rube Goldberg contraption of such mad complexity that threatens to come apart at any time. And rather than worrying about it, worrying about my inability to do anything to fix this machine that seems beyond any human effort to simplify because of its mad complexity never designed to solve simple tasks in the most efficient manner I’d much rather be a member in good standing of the aluminum foil hat society as some already construe me to be.

Watching what is happening right now with those in our government as the financial crisis threatening America gains world attention we are hearing some of these politicians admitting they don’t even understand just what it is they are trying to fix! I’m reminded of Robert Vaughn as the German officer about to be shot in the film The Bridge at Remagen wondering just who is the enemy?

Thoughts of tar and feathers and even worse are running through people’s minds as we are being told as though to encourage even more anger and frustration, thoughts of outright rebellion that the crooks and profiteers must be saved, the wealthy must remain wealthy and powerful in order to save America while ordinary American citizens must pay the price for a failed and betraying leadership! However, just what kind of America is being saved by rewarding the politicians and their companion crooks and profiteers? This we are not being told, but we not only have every right but also the duty as American citizens to demand an answer to that very question!

A large home just up the road from me was destroyed by fire today; the people losing everything they had. There is nothing funny about such a thing. It is believed the fire was started by a child playing with a lighter; and there is nothing funny about that. So why are so many in the MSM laughing and joking about America’s house being on fire, threatening everything ordinary American citizens have? Is it because they think politicians are only children playing with lighters and those in the MSM think this is something to joke about?

Now I know it isn’t just me puzzled and wondering why so many of the talking heads and empty suits on TV news channels are smirking while talking about looming doomsday for America? Are they simply cookie cutter mannequins without a real brain? Or are they the result of some kind of witchcraft that has cast a spell upon them making them believe it is appropriate to smirk while talking doomsday scenarios as though that will assure viewers everything is just peachy while exuding an “Oh well, what the hell, everything will turn out swell” persona as some of these idiots in the MSM keep laughing and joking with one another. That alone should disqualify them from anyone taking these idiots seriously about anything they say.

We know America’s house is on fire; no one needs to tell me that. But when catastrophe is threatening I don’t want someone who casually mentions with a smirk, and by the way your house is on fire. I want someone that recognizes an impending disaster to not only shout out my house is on fire but is grabbing a hose to help me extinguish the blaze! I don’t think many of us get that sense of urgency about impending disaster from the smirking idiots and politicians. Even worse are those of sober brow making pronouncements of impending doom as though they knew all along the house was burning down but never offering any real help to put out the conflagration. But of course the prostituted (my apologies to honest working girls) politicians will line up and say with straight faces how they tried to help and are not really arsonists.

It isn’t likely in my opinion very many of us ordinary Americans are feeling comforted by what is happening in D.C. On the contrary the whole thing seems a charade to keep politicians in power and make the wealthy even wealthier, and it brings to my mind thoughts of that Great City Babylon of Revelation where its destruction causes the merchants of the world to cry out because of the monumental loss of a market for their merchandise “for in one hour is she made desolate” and who will now buy their goods, most of which consist of dainty things dedicated to a wealthy market to satisfy a materialistic and hedonistic society living as delicately as a fop rather than a nation only buying the essential things needed for living.

That short amount of time has always caught my attention. Apart from a huge rock from space hitting us how is America destroyed in such a brief period of time? Nuclear terrorism is a possibility, but from what we are witnessing at the seat of power it looks like neither a rock from space nor a nuclear bomb is required, but our leaders seem intent on destroying America themselves without any other assistance.

Well, I still have my rocking chair and Bible and even the resident cat for comfort. I’m free of debt, own my home and have a few really good friends so I can watch what is happening all about, the seeming lunacy of it all with a degree of detachment. After all, what can any of us actually do to influence either the lunatics or the crazy events now unfolding?

We would like to believe someone is minding the store, America, but I just don’t get any other sense of things than the foreboding of seeming madness all about, and what will either McCain or Obama have to say of any substance addressing absolute specifics to put out the fire and save America? Only adding to the sense of foreboding is the realistic fact neither candidate dares tell the truth about what is needed to save America even if either of them actually know.

As our leaders behave like clowns and lunatics on a world stage creating an aura of fear and giving us no confidence things will turn out well it isn’t at all surprising increasing numbers of people are dusting off Ouija Boards, buying crystal balls, burning prayer papers and incense, consulting astrologers, imploring whatever gods and goddesses they believe in as they try to find something to hold on to in these, to put it mildly, uncertain times. I continue to talk things over with God and departed loved ones and friends, but while I believe in the spiritual realm there is the day to day living requiring constant attention.

It’s surprising how many mundane affairs of life even at my age require daily attention, and while priorities shift considerably in old age some things remain a constant just to keep body and soul together, though I’m grateful I still have my own teeth and a full head of hair. At my age I’m grateful for what I’ve got and increasingly less concerned about what I don’t have; but I have always believed it is the better part of wisdom to not want much and therefore not need much. And with the increasing years so much has changed I come more to appreciate those things that do not, like the mountains surrounding me here in the Kern River Valley.

It is comforting to look at these mountains, seeing the same granite formations I recall from childhood, the very ruggedness and stability of these speaking a kind of peace to my soul much like looking at the stars at night. Loved ones and friends pass away, life changes, but there is always the need for some stability in our lives, something we can hold on to as a kind of center to the personal world each of us lives in, an anchor for the soul if you will that enables us to keep on keeping on.

America is in chaos because of a failed and betraying leadership, our borders wide open with no hope of their being secured short of cataclysmic events demanding they be closed, lawlessness abounds and our laws are a travesty of any form of justice as the rich and powerful use the courts for their own purposes while ridiculing those attempting to live honestly, our educational system is beyond any hope of educating the great majority of children as we are being told by government to expect the standard of living in America to decline.

It is remarkable when I think back to the America I used to know, an America that held so much promise for the future. Now, a rocking chair and a well-worn Bible in my hands, the mountains all about me and the stars at night, the memories of loved ones and friends now in heaven are the things that sustain me. Among the changes over a lifetime no longer having to blow out a coal oil lamp before climbing into bed, no longer having to use an outside privy or pump water by hand from a well, no longer having to use a fireplace and wood cook stove for heating and cooking, an icebox for perishables or a windup Victrola for music. I don’t miss the hardships of the simple life, but I miss the people and the things that made such hardships endurable, even pleasant at times.

Somehow I don’t think people today are going to wear as well as my generation did as the hard times begin to set in with a dreadful earnestness. Too many know nothing of the simple life with all its hardships I knew growing up, and too many do not have those loved ones with their unwavering faith in God now gone on before them to keep precious memories alive. People today are used to all the conveniences of modern living, but for the greater part are totally unprepared for really hard times. A society that has come to depend on government taking care of them is ill-prepared for a government no longer capable of taking care of them in the manner to which people have become accustomed.

There are those faulting Governor Sarah Palin for some of her Biblical beliefs, but such people are for the greater part ignorant of the Bible and most have no theological education in academic Biblical studies. And there are those that are downright envious of her having an anchor for her soul, for having beliefs that transcend anything this world has to offer, for her hope of a better world the Bible promises in the future for those whose faith in God is unwavering.

The scenario for the End Times is that of a one-world government. No one need be a Bible believer or theologian to understand this is the direction the world seems to be headed. After all, can the world afford to risk nuclear annihilation over the religious hatreds of nations like Iran and Pakistan? Can the world afford to risk nuclear Armageddon over oil? In the face of so much fear and uncertainty it is only realistic to accept the most powerful of world leaders will do what is necessary to thwart the risk of nuclear war, even if it means America should become a nation of slaves.

It isn’t possible the tiny nation of Israel could figure so prominently in world affairs, so much so that Iran’s mad mullah threatens to wipe it off the map even at the risk of nuclear war with Russia collaborating! But there it is, a fact that the Bible emphasizes and won’t go away, that Israel is a key element to the End Times of the Bible. But the Bible has much to say about the events that are coming to pass today, events that cause me to believe we are indeed living in the last days.

I have my rocking chair and Bible, the mountains all about, my anticipation of joining loved ones and friends in heaven, the old gospel hymns with which I was raised that continue to bless my soul, these alone are cause enough for many to be envious of me. Scholars are still puzzling over the pyramids and Stonehenge, there is the Doomsday Calendar and problems with the Large Hadron Collider, mysteries from the ancient past continue to confound, but for those of us just like Governor Palin there is assurance to be found in the Bible that God is still in control of his universe and will see it all comes right in the end. In the meantime all the children of God will continue as they always have, to put their trust in God though this engenders much hatred from the children of the Devil.

The problems just recently encountered with the Large Hadron Collider reminded me of the film Contact where some mad religious nutjob blew up that first Vegan designed machine. Now you don’t suppose… Nah, that was only a movie right? Kind of like people taking the Doomsday Calendar seriously, right? Still, some of us find such things a little uncomfortable to think about, that despite the disclaimers there might be some truth to such things. After all, there are the matters of JFK, RFK, etc. Historians are hard pressed at times to make sense of some things, especially when some of these things not the result of obvious human obfuscation fall very close to the paranormal lacking any other explanation; though no academic wanting to keep their credentials would dare admit of such thoughts.

For example, even among those calling themselves Christian the subject of Satan is sometimes a little touchy. It’s one thing for a preacher to caution about the wiles and threats of the Devil from the pulpit, but in general conversation it seems even many good church going people are uncomfortable with the subject much as though the Evil One should be relegated to nothing more than a childhood boogeyman and not to be taken seriously. The Devil is often treated as the story about the specter of the prophet Samuel being called forth by the Witch of Endor the woodcut of which haunted Charles Lamb all his life, though as a grown man he tried to put it aside all the while insisting children should never be left alone in the dark.

Well, what could be the basis of taking the subject of Satan as a real entity seriously? Actually, you don’t unless you want to find yourself excluded from most of polite society. Among the educated such as myself it is not unlike the person that seems quite rational in all respects except for some idiosyncrasy, mildly curious, even amusing but not really dangerous. So I long ago accepted that even among those professing to be Christians any substantive discussion of the world, the flesh, and the Devil in spiritual warfare being a threat would have to at the very least minimize the role of Satan, otherwise I could expect to be consigned to those wearing aluminum foil hats. Nevertheless, I continue to believe our battle is with the Evil One and his servants, against wickedness in high places led of the Devil.

I fully realize any discussion of the supernatural is bound to be speculation lacking empirical facts, though circumstantial evidence does abound in some cases. Some physicists expressed their concern very early that splitting the atom might not turn out to be such a good thing. But after the fact not a few expressed the wish the atomic genii could be put back in the bottle. However, even here the circumstantial evidence of America having the bomb before Germany or Japan strikes me as something more than just a lucky break, some happenstance of history we are still not all that sure about. We can say it was a good thing we had the bomb first, and of course I agree; but why such a bomb at all? In my opinion it may have been the work of Satan the atomic genii was unleashed.

The many benefits of science are undeniable, but most would agree that not all scientific achievement has worked for the betterment of humankind. Science has made it possible to conquer diseases and extend life expectancy and we now have a population of over six-billion people on earth, but without the necessary controls such a population is simply unsustainable given the dwindling resources to keep feeding the swelling numbers of unproductive mouths. And it seems a species that can put men on the moon while unable to solve fundamental problems threatening our planet and our survival is more representative of madness than reason.

What is this horrendous and virtually incomprehensible debt our Triune Federal Dictatorship has burdened us with but the work of Satan, rewarding his wealthy servants while ordinary American citizens are made slaves to this dictatorship and billions of people throughout the world are suffering? It’s an increasingly dangerous and demon-haunted world with nuclear Armageddon threatening. Pakistan and India my yet nuke it out, Israel may pound Iran drawing America into the fray, Russia is growing in power once more and China is dedicated to an increasing nuclear threat. The world seems a powder keg, but the fuse may be lit by some seemingly inconsequential thing rather than anything of real moment at the time.

But people can be very irrational; they can even keep doing the same failed things over and over expecting a different result. While willing to accord such action the label of lunacy it is such a commonplace as to make one question, are there really that many lunatics? To my mind, it is either lunacy or the work of Satan that America seems led of lunatics. But these are not lunatics, yet we are left without an answer to why they behave as lunatics?

We have a failed educational system beyond redemption; our cities abound with barbarians while the price of food, energy, and housing are increasingly beyond the ability of even the most honest and law-abiding to pay. More and more people are going out to their cars only to find their gas has been stolen, thieve are becoming increasingly brazen as the desperation of just trying to make ends meet is driving some to desperate means for daily survival. We are facing a cataclysmic breakdown of law and order in America while those in our government seem oblivious to the problems ordinary Americans are facing in the struggle to survive one day at a time, from one payday to the next and never knowing when the next paycheck may be the last.

While discussing these things with my good friend Byron it does seem things are spiraling out of control. We all look for some word of comfort and hope in the midst of seeming madness all about, but whether from heaven or hell the world seems to be clamoring for some strong leadership to bring order out of the chaos. The Bible does present a scenario of the End Times where such strong leadership appears on the scene, but it will be leadership born of evil. In the meantime, I’ve accepted the role of being consigned to the aluminum foil hat group.

As tent cities arise, as bread lines and soup kitchens start springing up with visions of The Forgotten Man once more while the Devil takes care of his own, the wealthy owning our government and committed to global empire, those of us who know the history of Hoovervilles and Hoover wagons can readily relate to Pat Buchanan: “What we are witnessing is what happens to a prodigal nation that ignores history, and forgets and abandons the philosophy and principles that made it great.”

For those of us who were witnesses to dirt poor in Kern County during the 30s and 40s in places like Weedpatch and Southeast Bakersfield with which I was most familiar as a child the expression is quite appropriate. We didn’t have the panoply of social services in those far off days to soften poverty, people weren’t getting a free ride on welfare checks and Okies and Arkies from the Dust Bowl migration did the kind of work Caesar Bush declared “Americans won’t do.”

It isn’t rocket science that heritage, culture, a common language and secure borders are the essentials for any nation to survive. And whether by a conspiracy of evil design or not, lose any of these and such a nation including America is doomed, and if America cannot save itself it cannot save others.

As it stands, though Governor Palin offers a glimmer of hope I don’t see any future for our nation but that of Babylon of Revelation. As I wrote some years ago, America is running out of time to repent and turn back to God. At this juncture in history there may not be enough time left for even good leadership to save America.

There is the matter of global masters of finance continuing to use America since so much is at stake demanding our nation survive, but only in a mode to serve the purposes of such masters. However, it will not be the America my generation was born into; and unlike the slavery of our past history it will be an entire nation of slaves.

Harper Lee recreated her childhood in To Kill A Mockingbird. I did the same thing with my autobiographical novel Donnie and Jean, an angel’s story. As Ms. Lee honored those good people she knew in childhood, so I sought to do the same. But unlike Ms. Lee my childhood in Bakersfield though surrounded by the identical people she describes was one in which our little church played a most prominent role in shaping my life. Grandad had built the small church on the corner of Cottonwood and Padre and he was the preacher. The congregation was made up of Dust Bowl folks in our neighborhood known as Little Oklahoma, dirt poor but proud people; and like Ms. Lee I find myself here lately preparing to retreat back into that childhood I recreated in the novel.

Now I have had a few serious discussions with the Lord and my loved ones gone on before me about this prospect; and as yet I haven’t made the decision whether to do so or not. It just seems there is so little I can do to prevent what I believe is coming upon America in judgment that before God calls me home the strong attraction for me before my spirit departs the body is to go back to those wonderful people I knew as a child, people of a simple faith and trust in God.

There would still be the tarpaper shacks and tents, women would still be boiling and washing clothes over open fires in their yards, there would be no TV but we would have radio with all those marvelous old programs I recall so well. But despite the many hardships there would be the sense of community with a focus on God in each person’s life and our little church where such people would come together in simple faith and gratitude, none of whom would ever question God cared equally for each and every one of them, none doubting the good shepherd would leave the 99 in safety and seek and find every lost lamb that strayed from the fold. For us, The Ninety and Nine was not so much a hymn but a fact.

I freely confess during the four years I was writing the novel, reliving the events described, seeing these things and places, the people once more as I did as a child I was loath to leave off the writing when the novel was finished. I had to force myself to come back to the present and it was as though the conversation with the Lord and my loved ones was taking place even back then, though I did leave most reluctantly to come back to the present time and face its many grim realities. And now things have come to such a pass in an America unrecognizable from that America I was born into and used to know that my childhood described in the novel, one surrounded by good and loving people beckons me again, this time not to visit but to stay.

As per Jack Cafferty’s book, “It’s Getting Ugly Out There.” However, it’s been getting ugly for quite some time now and I have to ask myself if America has time for this to take place: If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and heal their land. II Chronicles 7:14

Yes, I do see America in the place of those Israelites of old being given the same message, believing the children of God are not separated by any race or creed, believing America did once have a godly population that like the folks of my childhood were sincere in their faith in God. But as a nation we have turned our back on God even as did those ancient Israelites.

Americans may be forced into government housing, there may be riots, there may yet be troops patrolling our cities and borders, like those ancient Israelites Americans may find themselves sold into slavery, enslaved to the wealthy that own the government. It does seem this is where our nation is headed.

I’m fortunate that I can choose to leave the present and live in the past, in a place called Little Oklahoma I used to know that while in the grip of poverty and dirt poor was a place filled with loving people who worked together to make it a place that was kind to children and believed in God. All I have to do is pick up that book once more, start reading it again and I’m transported back in time to a place called Home. Unlike so many I consider less fortunate I really can go home again.

Governor Palin just may spark a voter revolution in America as Chuck Norris has remarked, and as you know I’m more than a little inclined to agree, a revolution of honesty and decency in government. But the phenomena of the historical implications surrounding Governor Palin remind me of the film Cabin in the Sky where the struggle for a man’s soul is much the same as the struggle we may be engaged in for the soul of America.

When I first saw the film back in the 40s it captivated my imagination. It was showing at the Fox Theater in Bakersfield, and grandad being a preacher took my brother Ronnie and me to see the movie. I guess he thought it would be good for us since it went along with his own religious views in many ways; there was God and his angels vs. the Devil and his demons struggling for a man’s soul, there were good people and bad people trying to assist either God or the Devil in the battle.

Over these many years I have seen the Cecil B. DeMille epics, I have seen the many great films depicting the life of Christ and so on, but despite the monumental efforts and cinematic triumphs of such films none has ever struck me as so close to the very simplicity of the Gospel and the truth of our struggle against the world, the flesh, and the Devil as Cabin in the Sky.

There is no doubt in my mind America needs a revolution, one that will engage Satan and his followers and fight for the soul of America ever as much as good people struggled and fought for the soul of Little Joe. Perhaps there is a sleeping giant here in America, one that the Devil and his followers have thought could not be awakened, a giant that things like political correctness along with so many other assaults against decency and common sense had silenced once and for all.

In this Satan and his followers may have made a fatal blunder because for the children of God some things are just as simple as knowing in our bones that sexual perversion is an abomination to God! And no matter how the Devil and his perverts try to promote perversion it remains an abomination to God! Not just because the Bible makes this clear, but it is the Spirit of God within the children of God, the light of God that declares this to be so!

The children of God know sexual predators are monsters, that a civilized society cannot survive allowing such monsters to roam at will preying on women and children, that once caught and convicted they must be put away permanently and never let free! Unlike the Devil’s servants in the universities, the courts and Hollywood the children of God understand the need to protect children, the need for modesty, for standards of moral behavior and dress, civilized manners and speech.

The children of God understand the need of feeding widows and orphans, but they also understand if any not work neither should he eat! The children of God are not Communists; they understand a personal and godly work ethic of providing for their own and for the common good of a society. They also understand the need of godly leaders that will not steal the bread the responsible earn with their own hands and give it to the irresponsible and unproductive servants of the Devil, nor will godly leaders make it impossible for the responsible to find gainful employment.

There is the matter of needing leaders who recognize the fact that if America cannot save itself it cannot save others, if we cannot provide for ourselves first there will be nothing left with which to help others, leaders who recognize the fact and will act on it that America must save its heritage and culture, have a common language and secure borders or our nation is doomed!

Perhaps Governor Palin will be used of God to galvanize the children of God to rise up and confront the Devil and his servants, to fight for the soul of America even as good people fought for the soul of Little Joe. But if so it will not be a battle fought on a sectarian basis; God’s children are not known by any religious affiliation but by being good people irrespective of any organization to which they may belong.

I’m of the opinion Jesus had it right in declaring the real prophets of God are not found wearing soft clothing or living in kings’ palaces, that they seek neither the approval nor the praise of men. I’m of the same opinion of Emerson and Thoreau that condemned mere religiosity that could never actually confront and deal with the real evils of this world system.

It may yet be the seeds of our destruction were sown in slavery and we are going to reap the bitter harvest of the Founding Fathers not disavowing this evil in our Constitution. Whether or not the battle for the soul of America cannot possibly have any prospect for success when people are being enslaved by a tyrannical Triune Federal Dictatorship born of the Devil, a dictatorship that is determined to destroy America for the sake of a privileged few servants of Satan!

Whether by God’s decree or not I was born to godly and honest people who worked hard all their lives and asked for nothing they had not earned. They provided me examples of true godly living that never departed throughout the rest of my life. Over the years I came to appreciate how they provided me the living examples of the goodness of America at its best. What hope I have remaining for our nation is that the Spirit of God will raise an army of such people to do battle against Satan and his servants for the soul of America, people of unwavering simple faith and belief in God, the kind of people who prove this not by what they say or what organization they belong to but by the way they live their lives.

Who is that “We have nothing to fear but fear itself” speech going to come from? Looks like the Devil is having a rousing good time in Washington, D.C. but then he usually does and it isn’t the first place I would be looking for any of the children of God. Now the fear of God, ah, that is reserved for those who believe the Lord disciplines his children for acts of disobedience, that it is done for their own good and never in anger.

Many are the books and films dealing with the hypocrisy of religious people; the preacher runs off with the choir director and the Deacon steals the offerings. There is no lack of gospel peddlers and the Godfather Trilogy is replete with various hypocrisies in the Roman Church and mimics in many ways the hypocrisies of politicians. We don’t lack for examples of such hypocrisy; what we seem to be lacking is the truth of what constitutes real worship of God which can be defined as obedience, and this wears no label by race, class, or creed.

Long ago the thought occurred to me loving and responsible parents do not demand worship of their children; what such parents want of their children is obedience, knowing that this is the key element for the best hope of their children’s welfare and future prospects. Thinking on this I concluded if God is our heavenly father his attitude must be the same toward his own children. In this respect organized religions often promote a misconception about such things as houses of worship, worship services, and so on.

A willful and disobedient child is a curse to loving parents; far rather a child that is deficient in so many other ways but is obedient to their parents. It was disobedience to God that caused his first children to suffer, but the heartache to God can only be imagined. Though I consider it an allegory for the most part, the story of The Fall has all the elements of the suffering visited upon humankind largely due to disobedient children. If God truly wants the best for his children, what’s with all the disobedience on the part of his children? Are they confused about what constitutes real worship as defined by obedience?

When Israel demanded a king to rule over them the prophet and last judge of Israel, Samuel, warned them they were not rejecting him, but God. He went on to warn the Israelites concerning the many pitfalls of having a king to rule over them, but the people were insistent and Saul became their first king.

Saul began well enough and had some successes in the first part of his reign, but when God commanded he utterly destroy the Amalekites and all they possessed Saul did not do so, sparing their king Agag and taking spoils of the best of the flocks and herds. When Samuel learned of this he confronted Saul in these words: “And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams… Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king.”

Not all of Saul’s pleadings could change the course of the penalty for his disobedience. As Samuel had made clear to the king the true worship of God consists of total obedience and there is nothing that can take the place of such total obedience.

The Old Testament is filled with stories of bloodshed, of sacrificing animals and killing people even at God’s command. But from the beginning of Biblical history it seems the real believers were very few in number, and despite the efforts of God and the prophets to keep Israel on the right track the people kept chasing after false gods and the lusts of the flesh making it pretty tough going for the Lord. After repeated acts of disobedience and rebellion Israel was destroyed as a nation, and only a remnant remained by the time of Jesus.

It is nothing less than miraculous Israel became a nation once again after so many centuries, a resurrection if you will, and I do consider this miraculous. But God had said he would keep that remnant as a witness to himself, and so I believe it to be. Yet even among this remnant the acts disobedience continue, some claiming to be children of God continuing to act as though they can offer sacrifices in the place of obedience.

I don’t believe it matters what your religious system may be; I believe the real children of God are good people that will be recognized as such by simply being good people. I think they are imbued with the Spirit of God that makes them such and separates them from others. These are the obedient children that do not confuse worship and obedience, that never think anything can take the place of obedience, but respond to the light within them that guides their path of obedience to God through the darkness of this world system.

There is no book of rules that define obedience to God; the Decalogue has been useful as a resource but hardly complete. The teachings of Jesus lead in the direction of knowing a personal relationship to God as our heavenly father, so Jesus pointed out all the law and the prophets is summed up in loving God and your neighbor as yourself, that whatever you would have others do to you, do likewise to them.

It is well said if you could keep the first commandment there would be no need of any others. If your heart is right before God, if you are really a child of God you will do what is right, and any act of disobedience, sin, will weigh heavily upon you until you make things right between you and your heavenly father. It’s a good thing the story of the Prodigal Son is available to us, together with so many other instances of how God treats with his children, of how he wants to forgive us our trespasses even as we do of our own children. Now if only America after squandering its inheritance could return as did that prodigal son.

The fact that the film I Married a Witch has continued to delight me since I first saw it in 1942 should be a caution to others that I want to believe in things far beyond the powers of mere mortals. But for those too scientific to subscribe to things of the supernatural I say to them I find myself in good company with others that believe in God and things like angels and a hereafter, though I’m not at all sure whether the film has the Lord’s approval. But somehow I don’t think God holds my delight with the film against me. I believe God fully understands our need of things that transport us beyond the grim realities of life into things like stories of Camelot and so many others, and understands our not wanting to give up the fairytales of childhood, especially in light of the bad news that so often seems to dominate.

For example the grim reality is that Draconian solutions are America’s only options, and since they are truly Draconian rather than anything of politics as usual no politician dares address these solutions openly, but the force of the circumstances due to the thoroughgoing corruption in our government will eventually leave no other alternatives. Politicians are not stupid, but they are corrupt and self-serving; they know there are no solutions to the problems America is facing apart from drastic measures they dare not utter, so they engage in glittering generalities in order to get elected. It really would be naïve for anyone to expect politicians to engage in specifics about the issues and the needed solutions since they know they would be pilloried in the MSM should they do so.

There are some very smart people talking about economics right now especially in light of recent events like the Mother of all bailouts and shudders on Wall Street. But I don’t expect to hear any of them alluding to the fact that trade curses everything it touches, that wars, even our own Revolution and every war since including Lincoln’s War are fought for profits in one manner or another no matter the rationale for them and the only real winners are the wealthy. It is trade that underscores the truth the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. But it is a truth that also underscores the words of Jesus concerning the perils of riches that the wealthy are among the most unlikely to enter the kingdom of heaven, and like Henry Thoreau I very much doubt the spark of divinity burns in everyone. On the contrary, I believe it burns in a very few even as Jesus said of the very few that are going to be saved.

Those of us old enough to recall when a penny was real money and you could really buy things for that one cent and there were no credit cards learned very early you had to keep a careful and detailed budget and not spend beyond your means. As a boy I had a collection of pennies, nickels, and dimes I kept in a Mason jar, this was my see-through piggybank. Just looking at that collection of coins represented real wealth to me because of the fact that even a penny in those far off days was of significant value.

However, socialism’s Free Lunch politicians going all the way back to the time following the death of Lincoln lying to get elected and lying to stay elected, each one out-promising the other that productive mouths were going to feed the unproductive we oldsters are not surprised by the “news” America is bankrupt. We knew that a long time ago when we realized there really was no such thing as a budget for our Triune Federal Dictatorship that came about after Lincoln’s assassination; that it would continue to tax and spend as though there would never be a tomorrow.

But the time of reckoning is at hand, and as America continues to take on more of the characteristics of that Great City Babylon of Revelation people are not going to care whether America’s savior comes from heaven or hell just so long as the Devil’s MSM with its shameless bias favoring Democrats convinces them they are voting for a savior. Governor Palin offers a glimmer of hope based on her not being the typical politician and her proven abilities, but McCain will have to win the election for this to happen. And no matter who wins those Draconian solutions will be the only ones viable, solutions that will result in concentration camps and troops in our cities and on our borders.

The book of Job in the Old Testament is fascinating and believed to be the oldest of the written accounts of Scripture, having to do with events long before Abram appears on the scene. It is in this book Satan is included among the sons of God, and when asked where he has been makes the claim of “going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.” Satan says this in a proprietary way as though the earth was his special domain, something Jesus credited in The Temptation and is affirmed elsewhere in Scripture. In my own experience I have no reason to doubt the earth is Satan’s domain according to the Biblical record; there has to be a reason for evil continuing to be triumphant, the wars of men unrelenting and the power of Satan as a fallen son of God would explain this along with the bad things happening to good people.

I’m not a fundamentalist, but I am a believer in many of the things recorded in the Bible, having not only made it a lifetime study but having studied the very best of scholarship devoted to the book. Throughout the Bible there are things that ring true to my heart that require no defense of these to anyone; it is sufficient to me that they ring true. But there have been many times in my life that I have wished God had sent me a warning of some impending disaster, times when I have done things I should not that I wish God or one of his angels had prevented my doing. I know I’m responsible for my own sins, but it is sometimes difficult to accept I cannot keep others I love from sinning. This thing of being solely responsible for ourselves before God, unable to intervene on the part of others we love is a sober reality to me.

Job offered prayers and sacrifices on behalf of his children; but this did not prevent Satan destroying them. As a boy while attending Roman Catholic churches it occurred to me to offer prayers on behalf of my brother Ronnie in case he forgot to say his prayers. Attending Mass, the confessional, prayers to the various saints, reading the Sunday Missel, saying the Rosary, blessed medallions, holy water, the Eucharist and other items were a prominent part of authorized worship. So, like Job of his children I decided to say prayers for Ronnie in case he forgot. Apart from this oddity in and of itself is the further oddity of never mentioning my doing so to him.

Our personal relationship to God is exactly that: Personal. So if anyone wants to find fault with some of my beliefs they should keep that in mind and pay more attention to their own relationship to God than to mine. After all, they are not going to stand before God in my place but in their own. Good shepherds will feed the flock and fight the wolves, but their thoughts should always be on their primary function of being right with God before they try to correct the errors of others.

I have no way of knowing if God is going to spare America from his wrath by raising up someone like Governor Palin to lead the way out of the impending crises threatening our nation; it is a stunning thing to even consider, but it is a question I don’t believe anyone can answer. For me she offers a glimmer of hope. Even so, the force of circumstances will demand something be done, and done quickly to save America. And at that things may already be beyond anyone being able to save our nation. There is no certain trumpet sound to be heard; only a cacophony of voices with no specific solutions being offered by those in power that would save our nation.

The Devil does take care of his own and this may mean the complete enslavement of America. There are many who could easily say this has already happened and the wealthy throughout the world will ensure America survives to serve them in their cause of ever greater power and wealth.

I’m grateful to have been born and raised among those who believed the Bible, for dear loved ones that made sure I knew the Bible and treated it with reverence. I’m grateful for the Sunday school teaching, the many good people I would come to know along the way that believed in God and lived the faith they professed. I certainly wish there would be an “Awakening” calling on millions to turn to God and forsake sin, but I’m acutely aware that unless God intervenes in a literally miraculous way this is not likely to happen.

I still have the precious memories, the photos and mementoes of those gone on before me that never doubted their faith in God; I still listen to the old gospel songs, and continue to turn my thoughts inward to a time when America did seem to be blessed of God. But about five years ago as I stood looking out my backdoor to the wonders of my natural surroundings here in the Kern River Valley the strange thought entered my mind, “This is no longer my America, it is not the America I was born into and used to know.” And for the first time I faced the question of whether I could ever accept this nation that had become so foreign to me.

I never fail to count it a supreme blessing I was born and raised in America, but now it seems my native homeland has forsaken both God and me, and I wonder if God will even give America time to repent and turn away from the direction it is going and turn to God. There are many unanswered questions with which I struggle; but while I make no claim of orthodoxy in regard to any organized religion of this much I am certain: Unless America does turn to God I don’t believe there is any other way we can survive as a nation.

Most Sunday school dropouts like politicians have forgotten the Bible stories they may have heard as children. How easily such people keep the trappings of religion while denying the power of God, seeming never to realize the truth of Jesus’ words “The kingdom of God is within you.” But nature itself is a continual reminder to me of the truth of this with every butterfly or hummingbird I see. While there are many saying “Peace, peace,” where in such people do you see “the peace of God that passes all understanding”? It is difficult enough to hope and work for world peace but what of peace within yourself, the peace of that kingdom of God within you?

The thing I loved about the preaching of Tyree Toliver of Saint John Baptist church in Bakersfield was the great sincerity of his words; he was “an Israelite indeed in whom was no guile,” a man who actually lived what he preached. We know better than to expect such a thing from politicians, but why should there be such a dearth of sincerity on the part of those professing to be children of God? Give me an enemy I can admire for their sincerity rather than allies without such sincerity; give me sincere praise from such an enemy rather than the insincerity of false friends.

“Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.” And while no one is going to accuse any politician of genuine humility it remains true that God gives grace to the humble but resists the proud. While the world, the flesh, and the Devil are the battleground for all the children of God there is no lack of caution in the Bible concerning the many pitfalls of the pride of the flesh, the danger of arrogance leading to insincerity on the part of those professing faith in God.

Since the Devil’s crew are hard at work trying to make this election cycle about matters of “faith,” attempting to frighten people about things like Governor Palin’s personal beliefs while ignoring or attempting to minimize those of Senator Obama it should be evident to the children of God just where the enemy is revealing his hand. After all, the children of God are told they are not to be ignorant of Satan’s devices, not to wonder if the ministers of Satan should appear as “angels of light.” It seems to me the Devil is sure serious about his job, but I’m not so sure about those professing to be the children of God.

Fools continue to make a mock at sin, but the children of God are expected to take sin with the utmost seriousness and not to fall in with those Emerson and Thoreau accused of the hypocrisy of expecting their reward in heaven while refusing to deal with evil here on earth. It is the caution we find in Scripture and reiterated by philosophers that evil is the inevitable result of good people doing nothing to confront and withstand evil.

I take a lot of comfort in believing love covers a multitude of sins; it is this that gives me hope of joining loved ones and friends gone on before me. I take comfort in the Scripture that proclaims “If our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts” all the while remembering to guard my own heart with all diligence because out of it are the issues of life, also remembering the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it, that it is not within a man to direct his own steps, but rather depending on the Spirit of God to direct our steps.

Throughout the decades of my life I have witnessed the “old time religion” ridiculed in books and films, and despite my departure from orthodoxy I continue to maintain it was this old time religion that enabled the Greatest Generation to win WWII and provided the glue that held America together throughout the war, that inspired Norman Rockwell’s America, that compels me to believe the real virtue and character of America is to still be found in the small towns and churches of rural America, not the big cities.

“How y’ goin’ t’ keep ‘em down on the farm after they’ve seen Paree” is a somewhat melancholy refrain of the truth of the matter from WWI. But the big cities have always been a metaphor for debauchery; and the Tower of Babel, the story of Lot in the Old Testament, God calling on a shepherd to lead Israel, Jesus using so many references to shepherds and farmers, so many things reminding us that if you lose touch with nature you risk losing touch with God. Emerson and Thoreau wrote much on this theme, and it has been a common theme throughout human history. The big cities are dedicated to power and wealth, and eventually enslaving the inhabitants to the power of tyrants while those close to the soil and nature are more inclined to consider the works of God in their everyday lives.

A potted plant, a lawn or small garden, a canary in a cage, Fluffy or Fido may be as close to nature as some city folks can get; but whatever it is there is the heart’s need for maintaining some contact with nature. I’m blessed here where I live in the Kern River Valley with nature all about me; the critters, rocks, trees, and mountains, the clear night air where the moon and stars shine brightly for my eyes to see, these are a continual source of contemplation and communion with nature and its Creator.

People can create a form of worship while denying the power thereof; but nothing can take the place of God revealing himself through nature, the heavens declaring his glory but also butterflies and hummingbirds. It was necessary for Jesus to withdraw alone to the wilderness, it was necessary for him on occasion to take his disciples to solitary places for close communion with God apart from the distractions of the cities, and “Better a tent in the wilderness than great wealth and trouble therewith” is still good advice in my opinion.

Because of The Fall nature is red in tooth and claw, the whole of creation groans for its redemption. But we humans still have the responsibility of tending the garden, our planet while we are here. However, we are not doing a very good job of it. Density populations crowding people together like rats in a cage, overpopulation, populations in places never designed for human habitation, deforestation, polluting the oceans, rivers, lakes and our air, the list goes on of how we are fouling our own nest.

We love our furry companions, never forgetting we should love our children more. But in how many instances does it seem the laws do more to protect animals than children? As human beings it would seem there should be more concern for children than animals, but in actual practice this is too often not the case and we should be asking what our priorities ought to be since when it comes to children of such is the Kingdom of God, their angels always behold the face of the Father, and unless you become as a child you will in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven.

I’m not unmindful of the enormous problems we are facing as a species, of the problems we are facing as a nation, and even as I sit here writing surrounded by the wonders of nature these problems are at the forefront of my mind. There is the frustration, even the anger I feel at times because I can do little or nothing about these problems. And then I remind myself it is not my place to solve these problems, but rather to condemn evil and do what is within my power not to make any contribution to the problems that would make them worse than they already are.

Wordsworth was correct, “The world is too much with us; late and soon…” The Christian expression “It takes time to be holy” has its proper place in meditation and contemplation, this drawing apart in communion with our own soul, and to neglect this part of tending our own soul is destructive of any quality of life. Taking time to smell the roses is more than a cliché, it is an imperative to the quality of life.

Thoreau despite his baseless ego in too many instances was astute enough to realize communion with nature was a prerequisite to a quiet and contented soul. Once relieved of the obligations of family to care for I removed to this solitary place in the valley, choosing a writer’s solitude over the many entertainments and excitement of the city. Not many have that kind of choice, but for those of us who feel we are in better company with nature than with that of the social institutions of society it is the wiser choice. And though you are unable or unwilling to make such a choice, there is still the need to find some place of solitude in communion with your soul, to seek the kind of peace the world with all its turmoil throughout cannot offer you. “Our Father which art in heaven” together with communion with nature remains a splendid way to keep our souls at peace.

Like most people there are those whose opinion and advice I value and there are those I don’t. Ever since Governor Palin has become a polarizing bombshell on the political scene the MSM and Democrats are in obvious disarray. It was certainly obvious Charles Gibson was totally unprepared and left foundering. He simply did not know what to do with a candidate like Governor Palin who was so honest and straightforward, a candidate that did not back down on her opinions and tried to give honest answers. Does Gibson himself know what the “Bush Doctrine” is? Not hardly. For that matter I have cause to wonder if Bush knows what he is doing at any given time, let alone having anything I would dignify by the term doctrine.

In the film Some Came Running Dean Martin is dumbfounded by Frank Sinatra telling him he is going to marry Shirley MacLaine! “But she’s a pig!” Dean exclaims in disbelief. Regardless of the person using the “pig and lipstick” expression, no matter what the context in which it is used it is always demeaning of women and to me it is inexcusable no matter who uses the derogatory expression, and I make no distinction between McCain and Obama or any others on that! One might excuse Obama on the basis of just plain stupidity and bad timing following so close on the heels of Governor Palin’s use of the gender specific term lipstick, but I don’t see any of his supporters suggesting this as an excuse.

But Sarah Palin for Vice President is something so historic in presidential politics we all have many unanswered questions. In so many ways Governor Palin is charting unknown waters where politics has never gone in America. “Barefoot and pregnant” has only been spiffed up in many cases to meet the demands of more enlightened terminology while women continue to be thought and treated as of less value than men.

My hope is that God gave Senator McCain the wisdom to choose Governor Palin as his VP. This possibility came up yesterday while my good friend Byron, the Episcopal Priest, was visiting. During our conversation I shared the thought from the Old Testament where God says Pharaoh was given his position of power that God might display his own power by bringing Pharaoh down while setting the Israelites free to serve the one true God.

This might be disregarded as whimsy on my part except for Byron taking it seriously. He is a real scholar and respects my opinion on matters of serious import as I do his. In this case, while we engaged the thought in conversation he told me he would need some time alone with his thoughts on this matter in order to render an opinion. I fully understood since it had taken some time for me to give it any serious consideration; but once the idea had taken root in my mind there was no dispelling it, and I have tossed to and fro before even writing of it. But knowing those who think me mad are not going to change their minds, it became important to me to share the thought with those more kindly disposed toward me.

America has not yet suffered the plagues of Egypt though earthquakes, fires, floods, the high cost of food and energy rising with no end in sight do threaten, but there is no questioning we need a “Deliverer,” a Moses that will lead us out of the plague of politics as usual in our nation, the kind of politics that has betrayed and sold out our nation for profits and plunged us into unimaginable debt and refuses to secure our borders for the sake of slave labor benefitting only the wealthy while ordinary American taxpayers continue to be extorted by taxation without representation to pay the bills for illegal aliens. The question is whether McCain/Palin will act on the things essential to our survival as a nation, preserving our heritage and culture, fighting for a common language and secure borders?

Whatever one’s thoughts about McCain I have long thought the White House has needed a strong and resolute woman of Governor Palin’s integrity, a woman to provide wise counsel to the President while never losing the feminine attributes God intended a woman to have. There are many who would agree to this point, but then that heartbeat away comes to the fore; a woman as the President of the United States? My God! And as I thought of our need of a Moses to deliver America from the plague of politics as usual it came to me: My God!

One of the criticisms I have with Sinclair Lewis’ Elmer Gantry is the fact that Lewis had not really done his homework concerning religious fundamentalism, and it was impossible for him to put himself in the place of a true believer. As a result, an otherwise good and very worthy work of writing suffered from the lack of authenticity. This was the same weakness of Robert Duvall in his film The Apostle. Sinclair Lewis did succeed in making his religious prejudices well known, but the lack of authenticity hurt his literary effort to be honest about such prejudices.

Belonging to any organization, donating time and money to it presupposes the person supports that organization whether it be the Elks Club or a church. You are known by the company you keep, who your friends and enemies are, your manner of speech and dress, so many things go into the perceptions of people about other people. Nowhere does this seem as important as in the political arena where perception is everything does indeed seem to be the rule.

Smart people do and say stupid things, and say what they will the “let’s move on people” still supporting Barack Hussein Obama despite his insulting of Governor Sarah Louise Palin with his atrociously juvenile “pig and lipstick” remark and his obvious lack of judgment in doing so refuse to acknowledge the fact you can take Obama out of the Jeremiah Wright church but you can’t remove the Jeremiah Wright from Obama. Come on now, 20 years listening to such racist and hate-filled preaching is not gone by some feat of political legerdemain!

The people supporting Obama would love to tar Governor Palin with her church affiliation but that isn’t going to wash. Anyone knowing anything of theology would never compare her religious beliefs with those of Jeremiah Wright and Obama. His attempt to throw his “former” spiritual leader under the bus only served to prove nothing is beneath Obama and his supporters in an attempt to win. And the uglier this political cycle becomes the sharper the perception will become of the candidates rather than any specifics of how they are going to solve the very dangerous issues facing America.

Senator Obama tries to shout down his obviously intended insult of Governor Palin calling it a “made up controversy,” but the insult stands just the way it was intended by Obama. This alone would prove his dangerous inability to hold the highest office in the land, and he cannot shout down his affiliation with those like Jeremiah Wright et al. Like the insult of Governor Palin, Obama’s past is there to be known and read by all though he and his supporters are working overtime to erase certain segments of it. Personally, I don’t doubt Obama’s real attitude toward women is contained in that insult directed at Governor Palin.

Obama is a phony and has crashed, an empty suit that will say and do anything to win, even betraying his friends. Governor Palin is an authentic person of real integrity, and though Senator John McCain has many points against him the wisdom he showed in choosing Sarah Palin as his VP tells me there is more to John McCain than his detractors are willing to admit, and most certainly more to him than there is of anything of like sort to Obama. Perhaps Obama should have taken flight training then he would have understood the importance of lift and altitude, the dangers of a spin as a metaphor for his crash.

As a pilot I have never cared for helicopters, I like to look out of the cockpit and see wings on an aircraft. A very real concern to me is that helicopters have the glide angle of a rock when things go wrong. But those many years ago when I was a student pilot putting the aircraft into an intentional spin was part of the training program. I thought it was a lot of fun but this was changed later when the maneuver was considered too dangerous and was dropped as a requirement. I recall seeing the placard on an AT-6 control panel declaring Do Not Put This Aircraft Into An Intentional Spin. Several fatal crashes during training due to spins proved the wisdom of this warning.

You have to learn a lot of things while learning to fly an aircraft and earn your wings; but it is too often the lessons that don’t “take” that may bring about a disaster. The crash here at the Kernville airport August 31, 2007 is an example, something I wrote about at the time. Just from the description of how the crash occurred spelled for me in large letters PILOT ERROR! September 10, 2008 KGET: The fiery plane crash that killed six people near the Kernville Airport … was caused by pilot error and nothing else, the National Transportation Safety Board has ruled. There were six people on the four-passenger plane, and even though two were small children, the plane was too heavily loaded, according to the NTSB report…

As the information became available to me immediately following this tragedy I knew the pilot had failed to compensate for density altitude. Hot-High-Humid are the catchwords for the careful and knowledgeable pilot. The pilot in this case had made too sharp a turn for the prevailing conditions at the airport where the density altitude was far higher than the pilot allowed for, especially since the plane was overloaded. As a consequence the plane immediately lost lift during that tight turn and plunged to the ground like a stone. Most of his flying had been done where HHH was not of primary concern; in this instance it proved of fatal concern.

In the novel Fate is the Hunter a series of very slight things nearly lead to the crash of an airliner; those slight things taken together nearly amounted to a catastrophe. Had not Sinclair Lewis been a gifted writer Elmer Gantry might have doomed him. Had not Robert Duvall been a gifted actor The Apostle might have doomed him. Obama is neither a gifted writer nor actor. Nor is he a gifted speaker, as those without any prejudice realize. In my opinion he and his supporters have completely misjudged the density altitude of their campaign; they may not have put it into an intentional spin but the result is the same; it is overloaded, the air is too thin to provide the needed lift and it is going to crash.

Long before this $200 billion “Mother of all bailouts” many of us were already aware the Federal Triune Dictatorship of America exists for We the People in no other capacity but to make all “the little people” slaves to the wealthy that own the government, which is also the primary reason our borders remain open for the sake of slave labor from Mexico and why We the People suffer the treasonous indignity of “Press one for English.” When Clinton was President he simply pardoned all his crony thieves and Bush has had Halliburton et al. It’s the Devil’s game and those trying to play by any other rules are the designated chumps. The tyranny of our dictatorship is organized thievery that only rewards the dishonest.

But I still believe Jesus was correct in saying it profits nothing to gain the whole world if you lose your own soul. The Devil’s crowd is facing a real nightmare in Governor Sarah Palin not only because she is a woman, and a brilliant, very strong woman with personal integrity threatening the Washington establishment, but because she has a soul and understands what this actually means. That she is a beautiful woman with a beautiful soul is even more daunting to the Devil’s crowd. The Devil’s propaganda is that such women are only useful in serving the lusts of men but never to be given power over men, a useful device of Satan that makes virtual slaves of Muslim women and continues to play an ugly and evil role right here in America.

The real virtue and character of America is found in the small towns with their rural churches across our nation, churches where people are not led of shepherds in fine clothing living in palaces but believe they must give an account to God for their lives. People who read their Bibles, memorizing portions of it and engage others in doing so is an American tradition long before we became a nation. And while the abuses of religion and the Bible are to be found throughout, the Bible was America’s textbook from the beginning. The fearful thing to the Devil’s crowd is that Governor Palin does not treat the Bible as a showpiece, to be ostentatiously displayed by those like Clinton and Bush et al. but to be treated as a living part of Governor Palin’s life and beliefs. There are no “lost books of the Bible” so much as the Bible increasingly becoming a lost book to Americans. And there is a real threat to America in this.

The Devil’s crowd treats this election like a Hollywood audition rather than pressing for specific answers to the very real and dangerous issues threatening America; the Devil’s crowd will give a pass to Senator Barack Hussein Obama’s racist church and minister but ridicule Governor Sarah Louise Palin’s church and minister. But the hypocrisy of this like that of Oprah Winfrey is obvious to all. However, Governor Palin and many others of us have every right to recognize and call attention to the Devil’s work in manipulating the media for propaganda purposes favoring the destruction of America, favoring those that deny heritage, culture, a common language and secure borders are essential to saving our nation. The Devil and his crowd rants, rails, and howls at any hint of Biblical, Christian morality while applauding perversion and violence, the thoroughgoing corruption in government, all those things that work to the destruction of our nation.

It’s a whimsical thought there may be as much variety among beautiful souls as there is among beautiful flowers, but I suppose God intended there be variety among souls even as with flowers. It may be that souls are planted like seeds and as with gardening it takes careful attention to things like weeding and making sure the soil is such as to nourish and grow a healthy plant, which is the responsibility of the gardener, something I think Governor Palin takes fully to heart.

However, if you sometimes find yourself thinking “I’m a lonely little petunia in an onion patch” as the song goes it may be you’re in the wrong garden. The difference between those things with a strictly utilitarian function like an onion as opposed to those things of beauty like a rose is that each have their place and no man in his right mind will give a woman an onion rather than a beautiful rose in tribute to her beauty and expressive of his affection, nor would well-mannered and civilized people fail to understand the need of both function and beauty in their lives. “We’ll live on love” generally lasts only so long as the basic needs of function lasts, and God must surely understand this better than we do though I believe he expects us to understand this as well.

The Parable of the Sower continues to draw my attention, and throughout the decades of my life I have come to know the truth of it. Some seeds are bad, and some soil is bad. The problem is that weeds will often grow where they are not wanted, where they may even prove to be harmful.

Many of us know the battle waged against dandelions when we have tried to keep a beautiful lawn weed-free. But as a child didn’t you enjoy picking one of those marvelous white puff balls of a flowering dandelion and blow on it in order to watch all those little winged seeds fly off? Children aren’t thinking of them as little winged devils seeking out a place in which to take root and grow another dandelion plant, it’s just a fun thing to do.

The Devil offers us many opportunities to have fun, but tending to our souls is a matter of the most sober attention to keeping them weed-free. John Bunyan’s remarkable Pilgrim’s Progress is as relevant in today’s world as it was when it was written. There is a famine threatening America, a famine of souls that are being starved out and the Devil’s weeds are taking over. In the Parable of the Tares Jesus pointed out an enemy, Satan had sown the weeds, but in the end God will have his angels separate the good fruits of the harvest from the weeds.

While I believe America may very well be Babylon of Revelation this does not prevent my trying to be a Watchman on the Wall, it does not prevent me attempting to do what I can to call attention to those things I believe are threatening America. This is where I believe Governor Palin is coming from; she is going to do what she believes God has called her to do on behalf of America. The proof of her sincerity in this, the proof of her having a great and beautiful soul is in the enemies she has made and is continuing to make as the Devil gathers his crowd in an attempt to destroy her.

One need not be a Christian, one need not have any religious beliefs or affiliations to hate and despise bullies, to appreciate the need of fairness and justice in order to have a civilized society. On this basis alone it really matters to the survival of America whether a candidate like Governor Palin who represents both function and beauty at its best is being treated with fairness and justice or whether the Devil is going to win the day against her by the ugliness of lies and innuendo. As with your own soul, it is a matter of personal choices that will discriminate in the end between those who are sensitive to the difference between those things of eternal value and the things of this world that will only pass away.

Without any pretense or caveats bowing to political correctness in starkest terms I will say the racist message delivered by Oprah Winfrey with her blatant hypocrisy in denying Governor Sarah Palin the star treatment she gave Barack Hussein Obama and his family is patently obvious to all. But in her blatant hypocrisy Winfrey joined all the rest of the Devil’s crowd in the media attacking Governor Palin not seeming to realize that in so doing they are in my opinion actually causing great numbers of people to come to her defense that might otherwise not have done so, and I have no doubt this double standard of hypocrisy and how very much We the People resent it will be made known in November.

Winfrey had every right to choose her candidate, which she did and stated so without qualification or apology from the outset. But then to attempt by lame disclaimers to legitimize her excuse for not extending equal treatment to Governor Palin puts things in the proper perspective of just how hypocritical Winfrey is; abusing her power like a bully, and in this bullying hypocrisy she has a lot of company in the media. To underscore just what a hypocrite Winfrey is who doubts that if Governor Palin were not a Caucasian woman posing a threat to Obama, and a conservative Caucasian woman at that, she would have been courted. It’s the Devil’s propaganda that racial discrimination is somehow peculiar to Caucasians here in America.

The Devil’s media would have the whole world believe Americans have no moral standards; that all the things Senator Obama represents are good, all the things Governor Palin represents are bad. Obama’s pastor (totally discounting the hypocritical disclaimers like those of Oprah to the contrary) damns America and is praised by the Devil’s crowd, Palin’s pastor encourages standards of Christian morality and is damned by the Devil’s crowd.

It is of vital importance for We the People to know the candidates by both their friends and their enemies. It is important for us to know that Governor Palin has made the “right kinds of enemies,” and by this standard she has my approval, and by this standard Obama’s “friends” has earned my disapproval. In like manner no matter how many perverts would like to convince the world San Francisco represents America, this is obviously a lie from the very pit of hell! Americans are better than perverts, the government or the media would have the world believe!

Unfortunately none of the candidates dare address in specific terms the things that are needed to save America, things like securing our borders and expelling all illegal aliens, making English our national language by law and doing away with ballots in a polyglot of foreign tongues and the treasonous “Press one for English,” but this election cycle has been made into a media circus more representative of Alice in Wonderland than anything approaching the grim realities our nation is facing.

But it isn’t all about ratings; it is all about the Devil’s work in trying to destroy America, and the battle for ratings by the media is just another of the Devil’s tools. The fact that Governor Palin has been subjected to more intense scrutiny by a villainous media in a few days than either Obama or Biden in years proves the point; the fact that her children and her personal family situation is under a scurrilous microscope never turned on Obama and Biden is proof of the hypocrisy at work throughout the media.

The Devil takes care of his own; but where are the children of God in all this? They are not distinguished by any race or politics, they are not distinguished by any particular religious affiliation but by the way they live their lives. But the world loves its own while hating the children of God. In this same way those that are attempting to force an agenda of perversion and political correctness on all Americans, preaching their various gospels of division will have their part with the Devil and his angels in the end. I actually believe this. And while there are many points of disagreement between me and the various forms of religious orthodoxy I do believe there is a hereafter where we will all have to give an account to God for the deeds done in the flesh.

Whoever wins the election most of us want change from the kind of hypocritical standards of politicians that hold themselves above the laws we the Great Unwashed are supposed to abide by. But unless we have a government that holds itself accountable to higher standards than it has so far there is little hope anything is going to change for the better no matter who is in the White House. And if my favoring Governor Palin as offering some glimmer of hope for the better is construed as prejudice then I would hope those like Oprah Winfrey would be held to the same standard of such judgment.

A column I wrote a few years ago comparing politicians to used car and real estate salesmen provoked an acquaintance in the R/E business to call me and complain. During the conversation I commented about agreeing to disagree, but she would have none of it and hung up on me. There are some points where people dig in their heels and agreeing to disagree is off the table. This is the situation surrounding Governor Palin; her suddenly being thrust into the limelight is, to say the least, polarizing. And much in the way of Val Kilmer in Tombstone saying to the fellow who was insulting him “Does this mean we’re not friends anymore?” some friendships are being strained over her candidacy.

Many years ago while playing and singing in some of the honky tonks I quickly learned the wisdom of the three subjects you do not discuss in bars: Religion, politics, and the Civil War. That was good advice then, and it remains good advice in the bars. After all, the topics are generally women/men “are no damned good” and usually suffice to pass the time in liquid camaraderie. But my not being a drinker I was always able to keep a clear mind while listening to many of the stories from others, especially women, and some of these eventually found their way into my book Birds With Broken Wings.

Assuming none of the candidates is assassinated, a sober possibility, at least no one can say this election cycle is boring. Some of the speeches yes, but not what is swirling around the candidates themselves. Personally I wish politicians were still making speeches to the sound of cocking pistols in their audiences, but now they are surrounded by armed guards everywhere and packing heat to listen to any of them seems to be off the table also.

Of all the political films my favorite remains Gore Vidal’s Lincoln with Mary Tyler Moore and Sam Waterston. The film so accurately portrayed the shenanigans of politics it should be required viewing for college students, though I maintain Lincoln’s War was an unnecessary attempt at national suicide and the seeds of America’s destruction had already been sown in slavery, a problem the war did not resolve and has only been exacerbated by the institution of a Federal Triune Dictatorship with its welfare and wage slavery.

While I am encouraged and applaud Governor Palin’s sudden appearance and maintain it was the wisest choice McCain could have made I have no illusions about making any substantive changes in the way our government operates no matter who is in the White House. The specifics of our nation having been betrayed and our being plunged trillions of dollars into debt defy any politician addressing the solutions to our problems. The specifics would have to address the fact that heritage, culture, a common language and secure borders are the only hope of saving America; and just how would these be accomplished? Even with McCain/Palin in the White House, short of cataclysmic events overtaking America demanding the needed Draconian solutions to our problems there is little hope of any substantive action being taken to save America.

From a Biblical perspective I continue to view our nation as the Great City Babylon of Revelation. Governor Palin certainly is a refreshing change from the usual way of politics in America, and I’m encouraged by her candidacy. But I’m not naïve to what is actually needed to do the things necessary to move our nation off the path to destruction the Devil’s crowd has already paved for America.

For nearly four years I was totally absorbed in the writing of the autobiographical novel Donnie and Jean, an angel’s story about two twelve year old children growing up in Bakersfield during the 40s. I became a virtual recluse during those four years, seldom going anywhere except the post office and grocery store. Then there was three years writing Birds With Broken Wings. Writers are generally absorbed in their projects and content to be alone with only their thoughts for company. But my critique of To Kill A Mockingbird was a curious undertaking, and during the two years of writing that the occasional visitor would ask why I would do such a thing?

But I had no ready answer to the question until I came to realize Harper Lee had written so much better than she knew in creating her literary masterpiece, and by the time she did realize this there was the need to withdraw and take time to understand it. What I came to understand was more than a book becoming a friend, some books do become such to some people and TKM became such a book for me. But more than that I came to understand Harper Lee had actually written the Novel of the Century before it even gained this distinction in literary circles. As such it deserved a very special place demanding great attention be paid to it. But I was also becoming aware that America was increasingly an ignorant and illiterate nation, an increasingly ill-mannered and violent nation, that the great literature of America was being traded for tawdry trash aided by TV unable to stem the tide of ignorance and illiteracy.

There is a question of just what responsibility the individual has for choices, and does God hold us totally responsible for the choices we make? I don’t question divine intervention in the affairs of humankind, I do believe this happens. But when it comes to the matter of individual choices I struggle with this concept. I do know I can choose my friends, I can choose what to read or what films or TV programs to watch, and in making such choices I know whatever I feed my mind has a lot to do with the kind of person I am and the way I think.

A great work of literature such as TKM demands a distinct kind of attention being paid to it, the kind of attention that requires thoughtful analysis of the details that make such a book a truly great work of literature. For some of us it goes beyond that, it causes us to continue to make reference to it in our own thoughts and writing, in our conversing with others. The actual points of reference demanded by TKM remind me of the closing scene in the film The Wind and the Lion where Sean Connery asks the fellow “Isn’t there one thing in your life worth losing everything for?”

We never know when something may come up that will so absorb our attention all else falls to the wayside; in its way it is not unlike falling in love when the object of our affection causes all else to pale to near insignificance. But an idea, ideals can have the same effect. The real loss in America is the lack of hope for a future; but a future is dependent on ideas and ideals that inspire hope; and when people fill their minds with those things that do not contribute to ideas and ideals and forsake those things that would contribute to making good choices in their lives there is nothing left but an empty void people attempt to fill by the things that will only perish in the using.

To be sincere in our convictions is an admirable thing so long as these contribute to a healthy mind. But when such sincerity becomes grotesque it is invariably due to holding the wrong convictions, and this is often due to not separating what we believe from what we know. There are certain things I believe but I’m not certain about my own ignorance because there are too many things I do not know, and like Leo Stein I question the wisdom of others because I question my own. I do find wisdom in some Scriptures, in others like Emerson and Harper Lee, but the best of such wisdom comes from the admission of their questioning their own wisdom, their questioning their own motives in coming at their own beliefs. And just who you choose as your authorities on any particular subject, about your beliefs tells others much about you.

Because America is at the mercy of politicians and has been betrayed and plunged trillions of dollars into debt by the most corrupt and inept administration in our nation’s history I see no way out apart from truly Draconian action on the part of the leadership of America, and no matter who is elected solutions to problems of such magnitude our nation is facing are not likely. But thanks to John McCain Governor Sarah Palin may go to Washington, and at least she does inspire some hope and that is more than any other politician is offering; unlike others she represents the hope for real change in government. Quite obviously she has made enemies along the way; but it is important for We the People to know these are the kinds of enemies that out of a good and tender conscience we would want her to make.

But Governor Sarah Palin is being subjected to bullies attacking her and this forcefully reminded me of something from Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird. While Tom Robinson as Harper Lee pointed out was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed he might have had some slim hope had he not been honest and said he felt sorry for the girl! The moment the words were spoken the shock of this was palpable in that courtroom, and too late Tom realized the magnitude of his enormous error: He just said that he had felt sorry for a white woman!

About eighty years after the events of the era Harper Lee describes in her masterful novel things have improved here in America, but race and gender continue to provoke many of the same ugly prejudices they always have. But even back in the time of the setting for TKM Harper Lee knew of good people like Sheriff Tate who would pronounce in defiance of the very laws he was sworn to uphold and refusing to expose the truth about Arthur Radley killing him: “Bob Ewell fell on his knife.” And in her childhood wisdom little Scout understood the neighborhood mad man now known as the guardian angel of the children saying to her father when Atticus asks if she can possibly understand, “Well, it’d be sort of like shootin’ a mockingbird, wouldn’t it?”

Sheriff Tate had made a distinction between committing a sin and the laws he was sworn to uphold; for him as he declared to Atticus it was a matter of conscience, and when his conscience came into conflict with the law he yielded to conscience and in essence became a lawbreaker, even as civilized and good a law-abiding man as Atticus being in agreement. But would Atticus have chosen to go along with Sheriff Tate had not it been a family matter? But there it is; something that could be construed as an abuse of power, but one with which most good and fair-minded people can readily relate and agree.

A while back I wrote the real virtue and character of America could be found in the rural churches throughout our nation, churches supported and attended by the good people who were raised to be civilized and law-abiding, only wanting to make an honest living and live in peace with their neighbors. But few are so naïve as to think a lynch mob cannot be made up of one’s friends and neighbors despite the patently obvious hypocrisy of those like Bob Ewell who referred to himself as a “God fearing man!”

The present lynch mob out to get Governor Palin I am sure are for the most part good people, and nothing I say should be construed as forgetting many of these are the same kinds of friends and neighbors that came into conflict with their prejudices in TKM. However, there is no little Scout to save Governor Palin from the lynch mob despite some of the cruel attacks on her pertaining to her children, but I’m compelled to make the attempt understanding as I do the comparison between her as a woman today in a merciless media spotlight, a media that has already proven its ugly prejudice, and Tom Robinson in that courtroom.

There are many excuses being given for some people attacking Governor Sarah Palin, but no good reasons for resorting to attacks out of obvious envy and jealousy. Ugliness is always the enemy of beauty, of civilized good manners and speech, and we are left to wonder how Barack Hussein Obama would fare if he and his family were subjected to the same scrutiny and vitriol Governor Sarah Palin and her family have been, if he were not the darling of the ACLU and a Hollywood media circus being applauded by Democrats sold out to a welfare mentality regardless of his dubious past and present associations.

Governor Palin has at least succeeded in flushing out some of the very worst of the vermin in America from under their respective rocks, and now they are being exposed to the light for the execrable creatures they are. It is one thing to disagree with a political opponent; it is another thing to attack children in order to get at the opponent. This may be politics, but with the introduction of Governor Palin on the national scene blindsiding some of the enemies of America they have declared war on a candidate’s family and children declaring they are now fair game and it’s the Devil’s game, one he relishes!

It would be naïve in the extreme to think race and gender are not going to be prominent, if not decisive factors in this election. I continue to believe it was lunacy at the most charitable for the powers of the Democrat party to ever advance candidates like Senators Clinton and Obama. I can’t get past the What in the world were they thinking? But once it was decided by the powers of the GOP to give Senator McCain the nod and he decided on Governor Palin I thought it the wisest choice he could have made.

This election cycle is going to add more meaning to Cafferty’s It’s Getting Ugly Out There. While America is being ripped apart, our leaders, Republicans and Democrats, refusing to secure our borders for the sake of illegal alien slave labor from Mexico, betraying and selling out our nation at every opportunity here is a fresh face, a woman endowed with a great mind evidenced by her eloquence and life’s accomplishments and having integrity that for once would do our nation honor being attacked by the very people that should be thanking God for giving us the chance for some honor to be restored for America after the most corrupt and inept administration our nation has ever endured! Senator McCain knew he was not choosing a “pal,” but someone who would be her own person, someone he could rely on for an honest answer from a sincere heart and mind to honest and sincere questions; someone that actually believes there is a soul of America in need of salvation and will do all she can to save America.

Things are going to get increasingly ugly this election cycle. But the Scriptural imperative remains, and one I believe to be of utmost importance: “Guard thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.” I can’t answer for another, but I must answer to God for myself. And if some want to consign me to the outer reaches for speaking my mind, then there is nothing I can do about that. But eventually in my opinion we will all answer for matters of conscience, and I believe Sheriff Tate was correct in his opinion of sin in respect to Boo Radley, a sin he was not about to have on his conscience when he had it within his power to make the decision he did.

If Governor Palin has ever abused her power of office we don’t presently know that for a fact, but just how deep do her enemies really want to dig into such a thing? In my opinion she despises bullies ever much as I do, and sometimes it takes extraordinary measures to confront and overcome bullies. One thing is certain; her bullying enemies will not dig that deeply into either Obama or Biden’s abuses of power. The patently obvious hypocrisy in this instance is as palpable as the shock of disbelief in that courtroom when Tom Robinson dared to say he felt sorry for a white woman!

For some this election like the attitude of Sheriff Tate and Atticus regarding the death of the evil and cowardly bullying Ewell will be a matter of conscience rather than any abuse of power, so this is not to find fault with those who act as a matter of conscience. Yet being mere mortals conscience can be a most unreliable thing from which to act. If some mistrust Governor Palin on the basis of conscience then that is their call. But if they react out of the same motives that condemned Tom Robinson they are no better than that jury that condemned an innocent man because of their prejudices, but Tom Robinson had passed righteous judgment and declared them the guilty parties. In this case an uppity woman is the one causing so much shock and disbelief and some are reacting out of anger that this uppity woman doesn’t know her place, but the facts of the case pronounce her the innocent party. However, recognizing this would require sincerity and a good conscience that understands injustice for what it is.

This is in no way an attempt to compare what finally happened to Tom Robinson because of the ugly prejudices that condemned an innocent man to death just because of the color of his skin. But there is a legitimate comparison to be made to the kinds of ugly prejudices that are becoming evident in regard to Governor Palin just because she is a woman, many of them no different in their own way to the ugly prejudices Harper Lee so masterfully described in TKM, the kinds of prejudice that led Mr. Raymond to say to the children that when they got a little older they wouldn’t cry over such injustice, that only children understand and do so, the things that led Atticus to say “Maybe we need a police force of children.”

Last night Governor Sarah Palin showed all Americans what she has that John McCain recognized in making the wise decision to choose his VP. Governor Palin has the potential for greatness! And the flawless delivery of her speech proved she is not only one of the very few truly gifted and articulate speakers I have ever heard, but proved she has a rare and brilliant intelligence evidenced by the way she delivered her speech in such a flawless and self-assured manner. Who would not be proud to have Governor Palin in the White House with her rare and brilliant intelligence being such an articulate voice, and the voice of someone with real principles for We the People!

But Governor Palin’s speech also showed America and the world that she is a most formidable force to be reckoned with, one that has the Democrats not just afraid but now actually terrified! The shameless double standard and bias of the MSM and elitists fawning over Obama must now reckon with We the People who heard a Real American speak last night, and our voices are going to be heard in November!

If the dirty politics and smear campaign of the Democrats, the MSM and others that have shamelessly given a pass to Senator Obama treating him like some Hollywood celebrity rather than a politician while vilifying Governor Palin, who is far more qualified to be President than he is, continues in the same vein the only thing they will accomplish is driving more people to vote Republican in the coming election. So let them do their worst; last night We the People heard a voice raised on behalf of Real Americans, those of us who believe in God and believe government is to serve the people!

While we are experiencing some relief from the oppressive heat here in the Kern River Valley it did not surprise me to find a garter snake making itself at home on my front screen porch reminding me summer has not had its final say. I long ago learned to walk carefully barefoot in the dark if I had to get up during the night because of the occasional lizard or even a snake, but slippers pose their own risks as anyone that has seen Arachnophobia knows and from childhood I had been taught to shake out my clothes and shoes in the morning before getting dressed just as I was taught to use a stick to clear out and discomfit any unwanted arachnids in our privy.

It was when I turned on the light in my bathroom once only to discover a very large tarantula on the sink I decided it was a good idea to occasionally turn on lights even if you don’t think they are needed. But old habits are hard to break and not using electricity unnecessarily, a lesson from childhood, I’m reluctant to turn on a light if I don’t have to. And living alone I know my way around here in the dark, the old saying “home is where you don’t bump into things in the dark.” But the old saying disregards the chance encounters while barefoot in the dark with assorted reptiles and spiders.

Grandad had just gotten a mineral light and I was out looking for tungsten traces around our mining claim when I discovered scorpions fluoresced and glow a beautifully brilliant blue, but I little realized how abundant those critters were around our place until then. Up to that point I had been used to going barefoot all summer long, but after that discovery I made sure to wear my tennis shoes when wandering about in the dark thereafter. Of course if we had suffered the curse of those cruel goat head stickers around our place, the bane of barefoot children and bicycle tires, I couldn’t have gone barefoot day or night.

A Utopian world would allow children to go barefoot anywhere at all times, so I may be forgiven for thinking the world has it in for children especially. There shouldn’t be any goat head stickers, broken glass, rusty nails or tin can lids to injure children while going barefoot. Ok, so I recall some of the womenfolk in Little Oklahoma in their flour sack dresses going barefoot as well but these days calling attention to this might be construed as sexist. However, for those of us raised with Lil’ Abner and Snuffy Smith such a thing should be allowable, especially since the menfolk were nearly as likely to be barefoot in our neighborhood.

As a matter of fact, I’m barefoot now as I write taking advantage of the warm weather while I can. All too soon I will once more have to bundle like an Eskimo, wearing heavy socks, sweat suit pajamas and stocking cap to bed and literally sitting on that small propane heater to get warm in the mornings. Then the cat will be on my lap when I come in here where I write while I try to type around her, something that has become a routine for both of us over the past few years.

But why let thoughts of coming winter interfere with what I am enjoying of summer? I can also enjoy thoughts of the coming autumn season when things begin to change, nature preparing me in an unhurried fashion for thoughts of winter, but the time to enjoy what we can of life is the very moment in which we live. I’m blessed with not having to hurry about much of anything anymore, and since I have no say in the matter of the changing seasons I’ll just take what comes along.

With all the snapping and snarling going on right now in the political arena I remind myself that like the change of seasons I really have no say in the matter apart from casting my vote in November. I don’t flatter myself that my opinion of things matters much to those in power but my opinion does matter to me, and if I prefer to go barefoot regardless of the opinion of others there are none I must mind to persuade me differently.

Still, the world is full of goat head stickers, reptiles, spiders and scorpions so it is the better part of wisdom to be properly shod to meet the circumstances. This doesn’t prevent me, or you gentle reader, wishing the world were kinder to barefoot children, or even some of us oldsters that still like to go barefoot.

Those of us who are given to talking to animals cannot help wondering if any of them have a sense of humor or laugh at themselves or each other. There are some intriguing studies done about this that offer some insights, but the cat has yet to share any feline jokes with me, nor have any of the critters I have come across in my wilderness wanderings ever said to me “Say, have you heard the one about the travelling bear?” But if the critters were capable of intelligible human speech I often wonder what stories they might tell?

Looking into the eyes of some animals you cannot fail to see real intelligence there, but just how this intelligence works in animals is not clearly understood and is often unpredictable. While some animals like dogs can be trained to do extraordinary tasks, there is always that unpredictable characteristic in animals that distinguish between them and humans. Even understanding this there are some that will say, “I wish my wife or husband was as well behaved and loyal as my dog.”

Human beings among the more civilized have developed standards of manners and laws that are expected to be adhered to and differentiate them from the barbarous. The seemingly erratic flight of butterflies lends charm to these delightful jewels of nature, but would be grotesque in some other creatures. However, the behavioral patterns of all living things are something that has always invited scientific study.

Despite all the marvelous computer generated graphics and the various theories it still does not seem possible to me that life came from the Big Bang, and I continue to believe life came from God after the creation of the physical universe as described in Genesis, though I believe the Devil may have gotten here first with some truly diabolical and grotesque life forms before God created Adam and Eve.

It’s almost a scene out of Frankenstein where an infinitesimal electric charge has to be induced in order for in vitro fertilization to take place and scientists do not know the reason for this. We know such energy is required for life, but do not know what this energy is, “this fire of life we carry about  in these mortal bodies.” Until we know exactly what life and death are these will continue to be the greatest mysteries of all, the greatest mysteries they have always been. At that, these may continue to be unknowable.

The “God particle” is a misnomer since the Higgs boson if found by physicists will still be a creation of energy, the source of which will still be unknown. Energy produces motion which produces phenomena does not explain the energy. But I continue to applaud the scientists that keep poking their fingers into the empty light sockets risking the jolt and Dee Dee looking at that button saying “Oooo” and then pushing the button. The Darwin Award does not do justice to the many survivors of “I wonder what this thing does?” Not a few such things among others have elicited the occasional “Heath! You stupid idiot!” from my own lips.

A living cell continues to be one of the great mysteries of life, and scientists have yet to understand the mysteries of this literal miracle of life. The more that is discovered about living cells, the more mysterious these become:

Evolution Continues to Be a Hard Cell: By Frank Sherwin, M.A. September 2008. The increasing amount of research at the cellular level has boded ill for the naturalist who insists that life must be interpreted (strained?) through a Darwinian explanatory filter. For instance, recent studies have focused on ion channels, which are passages designed to transport charged atoms (ions) through a membrane formed by a specific protein or proteins on the surface of cells. Energy (adenosine triphosphate, or ATP) is not required; instead, passive transport is utilized in this very complex gating process. In 2006, researchers discussed a unique bacterial voltage-gated potassium ion (Kv) channel from the genus Listeria. They stated, "The fundamental principles underlying voltage sensing, a hallmark feature of electrically excitable cells, are still enigmatic and the subject of intense scrutiny and controversy…"

No less mysterious is the fact of our solar system, something I continue to believe is unique in the universe. As with studies of living cells, studies of our solar system seem to point to a unique structure, one in which a planet exists capable of supporting intelligent life:

September 2, 2008. New Study Shows Solar System is Unique: TFOT (The Future Of Things): Research conducted by a team of North American scientists shows our solar system is special, contrary to the accepted theory that it is an average planetary system. Using computer simulations to follow the development of planets, it was shown that very specific conditions are needed for a proto-stellar disk to evolve into a solar system-like planetary system. The simulations show that in most cases either no planets are created, or planets are formed and then migrate towards the disk center and acquire highly elliptical orbits…

But the contributors to the Kurzweil Report as yet have not put their finger on “Ah, sweet mystery of life at last I’ve found you.” I still watch the old Nelson Eddy and Jeannette MacDonald films, I still thrill to the operatic music and the old songs I recall from childhood. Few things serve so well for renewal of purpose than music that lifts the soul. What exactly the purpose is remains a mystery; but I suppose Moses struggled with “I AM” in answer to the question of God’s name.

What about sports? Well, I kind of lost interest when the Dodgers left Brooklyn, though flipping channels I come across the occasional football game. It was while watching the cheerleaders for the Dallas Cowboys the other night that the thought crossed my mind those girls were probably missing choir practice, making the sacrifice in order to inspire football players. Yes, it has been some time since I followed sports.

We all know how ugly life can be, but those of us so fortunate as to be able to make some parts of it beautiful have an obligation to do so for the sake of a healthy mind. Just as we choose our friends we choose what books to read, what films or TV programs to watch, what music we listen to, how much time we devote to things for self-improvement. It is all too easy to get caught up in the anger and frustration of the times in which we now live that diverts attention away from the things that make life really worthwhile for those of us so fortunate to have the choice.

Many of us attempt to keep up with current events, but to light a candle rather than curse the darkness remains good advice and why subject yourself to feeling like throwing something at your TV when some politician appears? At my age I try to watch my blood pressure and avoid those things over which I have no control that only serve to arouse anger and frustration, and talking to the resident cat and giving her pets being rewarded by her purr of contentment in return sure beats shouting at a TV screen.

But don’t you sometimes wonder why some people seem to thrive on being just downright ugly and spiteful toward others, inviting these others to be just as ugly and spiteful to them in return? Like Lee Marvin put it in Death Hunt: “I never did have much luck praying,” but if I could prevail on God it would be for people to be kinder to one another knowing among many other things that life is short at best.

When I was a boy my mother took me to see the film A Girl of the Limberlost (1945 version). She knew I had read the book and wanted me to see the film, and there was one scene that really stuck in my mind. Elnora was hated by one of her schoolmates and knew of the girl’s love for the Limberlost and its creatures. During a school function a beautiful butterfly had flown in the window and alighted on a curtain. As an enchanted Elnora stood looking with tender wonder at the beautiful butterfly this other girl ran over and just to hurt Elnora out of spite, envy, and jealousy used her scarf to swat and destroy the beautiful butterfly right before her eyes!

The homily is self-evident; it is my belief the Devil hates the children of God and goes out of his way at every opportunity to swat and destroy butterflies, to either hurt or destroy anything of beauty in any way reflecting the goodness of God’s Creation in which his children find the evidence and comfort of God together with the kind of inspiration for the best we can do in gratitude to both God and beauty.

It is well said there are few things more boring than listening to someone in love. Much like hauling out the pictures of children and grandchildren such things are only of primary interest to those actually involved. We may share some of the joy of friends in such things, but we should remember there are some pragmatic facts about them that come with the territory, and friends while observing the proprieties should not be held accountable for a lack of enthusiasm at times over the things we feel are of great import.

As I write I know there are many who can relate to my enjoyment of this small corner of the Sequoia National Forest in which I dwell. As I sometimes write of the various birds, butterflies, and baby lizards I find so enchanting there is much for others to envy, but most would not begrudge the enchantment I find in these things. However, I would not be so presumptuous as to think some others would not find writing of these things at length to eventually be boring. The fact is that most people have to live in a dangerous world, even dangerous surroundings where neither they nor their children may ever see the stars at night or a baby lizard in the wild.

In the film Tombstone Josephine tells Wyatt she is always happy; unless she is bored. I’m seldom ever bored here where I live surrounded by natural beauty and forest critters, but even Henry Thoreau admitted to the need of society in his life, and even the local gossip. It is in the manner we treat of boredom and attempt to allay it there is often found a difference between kindness and meanness.

At this time some are attempting to demonize Governor Sarah Palin for the unwed pregnancy of her daughter. Alas, it happens in the best of families; but when it comes to politics as with love and war anything goes and all any well-wishers like me can do is wish the family well.

But I have the advantage in not being involved, as the Psalmist had it, in things too far above me. There is important business at hand for which I do feel responsible, things in which I can be involved which to me are of primary importance, things like butterflies, baby lizards, and watching the stars at night while giving the resident cat her pets. These things while not of any great import in the scheme of things serve to remind me that all things pass away with the using, even this mortal body, but time spent in any act of kindness or a kind word of encouragement, of contemplation of beauty as with fishing a pristine, wilderness trout stream is not deducted from my measure of years.