Prison Break-The Long Awaited Return

The best show currently on TV is back with a vengeance, and, for the next six weeks, you should be aware that one time you need not expect to see any new posts from me is from 8:00 p.m. to after 10:00 p.m. on Monday night. This is because Prison Break is now followed by a new serial adventure/mystery/drama called "Vanished". More on that at some later date.

When last we left Prison Break, at the end of season one, the motley crew of assorted felons had finally successfully broken out of Fox River Pentientiary, though one was captured and another was killed in the course of the escape. Still, eight are on the run.

1. Michael Scoffield- A structural engineer who, unknown to the authorities, had as an employee of an architectural firm designed the prison, and had on his body a tatoo that was a symbolic rendition of the prisons designs. He had arranged his own incarceration by "attempting" to rob a bank, in order to free his wrongfully convicted brother, on death row and due to be executed for the murder of Terrance Steadman, brother of the sittting Vice-President (now President due to her predecessors unfortunate "heart attack").

2. Lincoln Burrows - Michaels half-brother (the relationship was also initially unknown to the prison authorities) who was set up in an as yet to be unraveled conspiricy to take the blame for Steadmans murder. Come to find out, Steadman is actually still alive, and imprisoned in a mansion in Wyoming, where he was found by Veronica Donovan, Lincolns lawyer and ex-girlfriend, who has been working feverishly on the outside to prove his innocence.

3. Fernando Sucre'-Scoffields celmate through all of last season, a Puerto Rican madly in love with a woman who was, unknown to him, also the object of the affections of his own backstabbing cousin, who set him up to be caught in the middle of an armed robbery. Sucre' during last season had a falling out with Scoffield and temporarily had himself resassigned to another cell, but the rupture was healed over Michaels attempts to gauge his trustworthiness.

4. "Haywire" Potashik-Was for a brief period Scoffields cellmate, which made things very difficult. He was, as his nickname implies, crazy, and to make matters worse, due to a lesion on his brain, never sleeps. Also somewhat of a genius, he quicly figured out in limited detail the symbolic significance of Michaels tatoos. Michaed feined an assault by Haywire, whereupon the crazed con, imprisoned for sixty years for the second degree murder of his own parents, was sent to the psych area of the prison. Later, Michael prevailed upon Haywire to help him recall the part of the tatoo that had been inadverdently burned off. By this time, Haywire figured out the entirety of the tatoos meaning, and as the escape route went part of the way through the psych ward, managed to muscle in on the escape at the last minute. After the escape, the others managed to ditch him, whereupon he stole a bicycle and helmet from a young girl, and was last seen in the woods, riding down the road doing the classic "look ma no hands" maneuver.

5. John Abruzzi-The don of a Chicago area Mafia family and uneasy ally of Scoffields, whom the latter approached for aid by dangling the bait of Fibbonacci, the informer who had caused Abruzzi's life without parole sentence for murder and conspiracy and other related charges. Veronica Donovan, it turned out, had been Fibbonacis attorney, and Michael knew where he had been relocated in the federal witness protection program. In an unexpected plot development, Abruzzi had corrupted Veronica's partner on the outside, intending to kidnap Donovan and so force Scoffield to reveal the whereabouts of the informant. But Nick Savrin betrayed Abruzzis thugs at the end, which cost him his life, unknown to Veronica, as she made her way to Montana in search of Steadman.

6. Theodore "T-Bag" Bagwell-In prison for life without parole for the kidnapping, rape, and murder of six teenage victims, the white supremacist gang leader and homosexually inclined predator had nothing to lose when, upon learning in the course of a riot which he had instigated of the tunnel in Scoffields cell, he blackmailed his way into the plot to escape. And, when he was warned by Abruzzi to back out or lose his life, he responded by slicing Abruzis throat. Abruzzi, temproarily overcome with a religous conviction due to the accidental murder of T-Bags cousin and his young son by an associate on the outside, temporarily let his guard down, but survived the incident. He returned to the prison some weeks later, itching for revenge. He got it at the end when, T-Bag having handcuffed himself to Scoffield during the course of their escape in order to protect himself from Abruzzis wrath, Abruzzi responded by cutting off Bagwells hand with an axe he found in a barn that had become a temporary hideout. Bagwell was then left on his own in the barn, and was last seen trudging through the woods on his own.

7. "Tweener"- "That Vanilla Ice Kid" as he was referred to by the one con caught in the escape when it was demanded that he reveal the name of his confederates, he as a thief had the extraordinary bad luck of stealing a series of baseball cards, one of which was very old and very valuable. Thus, the thief and pickpocket received a prison sentence for grand larceny, and was immediately the object of sexual harrassment by T-Bag. Michael warned T-Bag to leave him alone, wherupon the violent con relented. Tweener, however, was impressed upon by Brad Bellick, the corrupt Chief Prison Gurard,ever suspicous of Scoffield, to inform on the PI work crew. This lead to Bellicks temporary incapacitation and the death of one of the cons, Charles Westmorland (in reality, it turns out, famed skyjacker D. B. Cooper). Scoffield came to realize Tweeners betrayal, and after they escaped, told him he was on his own. When last seen, Tweener had hidden in a horse trailer stopped at a roadside construction crew, and soon was headed to St. Louis.

8. Benjamin "C-Note" Franklin-Having been discharged from the army while in Iraq, ostensibly for smuggling, in reality it was due to his reporting of an incident of torture of an Iraqi prisoner. On the outside, finding life difficult, he found work as a transporter of stolen merchandise, for which he received a prison sentence, though telling his wife and daughter he had been recalled to duty in Iraq. He was the go to man among the black cons at the prison, and Scoffield sought and received his aid in securing the drugs he needed to make him seem diabetic, thus gaining him regular lengthy acess to the prison infirmary, a key to the escape. C-Note, however, was suspicous, and when he determined that the PI crew was tunelling under the guard shack Westmoreland had sabotaged for that purpose, he demanded to be let in on the escape.

Tonights season premier took up where the last seasons finale ended, with the five cons running through the woods with Bellick and his guards in hot pursuit. However, a train afforded some cover, as they managed to barely make it to the other side of the tracks, thus holding up the pursuit.

It later becamse obvious that Michael and Lincoln would have a problem with the other cons. More than one of them had heard of Westmorelands dying words to Michael when he extracted a promise from Michael to visit his dauhter, hospitalized and dying of cancer. Westmoreland revealed that he had five million dollars stashed under a silo in Utah. C-Note, one of the cons who had heard this (Tweener and T-Bag were the others) reminded him in front of both Abruzzi and Sucre'. It was obvious they would be stuck with them for awhile.

Michael then revealed to Lincoln that the tatoos contained more than just the prison designs. They contained a map to various outside areas pivotal to their eventual escape to South America. One such plan involved a grave which contained money, and clothing, the last of which would be now availed of by all five of the cons.

They barely escaped from their newest nemesis, an FBI agent called in to head up the search for the escaped convicts, whom he called in a press conference the "eight most wanted men in America". He was on to the tatoos, and knew that the tatoos, which he would soon reproduce from the tatoo artist who had in painstaking detail applied Micaels design, were the key to not only the prison escape, but to their future plans.

Bellick as well is hot on their trail, and is doggedly detrmined to track them down.

As for T-Bag, he soon stumbled upon a camp site, which contained the one thing he was looking for-a cooler with ice, into which he put his severed hand, which he carried with him from the minute he left the barn on his own. He then secured the services of a veterinarian, whom he threatened in the harshest trms with the murder of his wife if he would not-without anesthesia-reattach the hand.

The other cons meanwhile had availed themselves of a stolen vehicle. While still in the woods, they were approached and questioned by a young girl, whom Abruzzi promptly grabbed up and held at gunpoint when her father appearred and threatened them with a shotgun. Though the others decried this tactic-after the fact, of course-they all still went uneasily down the road in the stolen vehicle.

But the real shocker came at the end, when Veronica Donovan, having confronted the still very much alive Terrance Steadman, found out that he was as much a victim of the conspiracy as Lincoln, and was adverse to crossing his sisters murderous conspiratorial designs on government power. He pulled a gun on her when she used her cell phone to call the police, but she refused to be moved from her course of action. After she called the police, and reported that Terrance Steadman was still alive and was a part of the plot to frame Lincoln Burrows for his own murder, along with the now President of The United States, she then called Lincoln Burrows, who now had a cellphone, which I assume was likewise extractd from the false grave.

When she found out the escape plot had been sucessful, she urged Lincoln to tun himself in. She now had proof that Steadman was still alive, that the President was in on the conspriacy to frame him, and the police were on their way, in fact, they had just puled up to the house, then entered the house. The last thing Lincoln heard was the cops orders to Steadman to back away from her, which he did. He then pointed the gun at Veronica, whose last words were "oh no" before a hail of bullets went crashing into her forehead and chest.

The entire town in which Steadman now lived, imprisoned in a house the doors of which can only be opened from the outside, and which has windows which are bullet proof and two inches thick, is on federal land, and policed by federal agents. As scenes of the dead and strangely smiling Veronica Donovan transformed into the federal agents carrying out what was evidently her hacked up body in garbage bags and placed in the trunk of a car, the scene changed to a horribly distraught Lincoln Burrows, being comforted by his borther Michael.

Televisions best adrenaline rush is on for another season, reportedly it's last. It was originally conceived as an eight part miniseries, then ran for the entirety of the season, and then was renewed for a second season. If tonights episode is a portent of things tocome, might we prevail on the executives of Fox to renew it yet again? Probably not. Some things just cry out for an eventual ending, and it's hard to see how many extensions of this theme can be rasonably justified. But, while it lasts, damn is it good.

As good as it is,though, last season required quite a bit of suspension of belief, and this season can be assurred of the same. The bit with T-Bag and his hand has already been decried by critics who had reviewed the season premier before hand (no pun intended) one pointing out that such an operation would not only require anesthesia, but micro-surgery aimed at enabling the healing of damaged nerves. But as T-Bag told the vet when informed that nobody could withstand such an operation, "I ain't nobody".

Still, for the coming season, our eight cons (no sign tonight of Tweener or Haywire) will find out the hard way, escape from prison is not exactly freedom. It's just not quite as claustrophobic.

Sodom And Gomorrah Revisited

I’ve searched high and low for all the different links I could find pertaining to the discovery of the ancient cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, and ferretting out the truth is about as easy as, ironically, finding the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Not that my previous post called The Last Days Of Sodom And Gomorrah is innaccurate, far from it. A perusal of various different links reveals the facts of the discoveries. Where it seems to get tricky is in the matter of the interpretation. But this is easily explained.

By far the best site I have found so far is to be found at the web-site listed for the Bblical Archaeology Society. The only problem with it is that the article about it was written in-get this now-1980.

In a sense, that is almost ancient history itself. Still, because it is the best site, and because it is an excruciatingly long link, and because the little link box in Bloggers post editor can’t be pasted into from copied links, or mine can’t anyway, I have supplied this link as a title to this post title. Just click onto the title of this post and it will take you there.

Another good site, which contains a link to the Smitsonian, is to be found here at Bibleandscience.com.

Other links, such as here, verify the discovery, while pointing out that this is proof that the ancient cities were real, and, unbelievably, that the discoveries verify the Biblical account. Well, this is an easy enough claim to make, all you have to do is ignore, i.e. not mention, any of the evidence to the contrary.

Still others likwise verify the authenticity of the discovery, but also from a Christian perspective, in a negative way. These sites could not be the sites of the ancient cities because-get this, now-the timeline is improper. The cities were destroyed two hundred years before the Biblical cities, so Bab edh Dhra and Numeira can’t be Sodom and Gomorrah. As though the Biblical writers would never dream of playing around with the facts, or heaven forbid actually make shit up to suit their own purposes.

This one here describes the sites, but gives as the site of Sodom an entire different place in an entirely different area adjacent to the Dead Sea. Again, the writer of this article as well seems overly dependent, even addicted, to the Biblical account.

I guess by now you get the message. The only thing for which there seems to be any kind of agreement is that five different places were discovered that were at one time ancient cities, that they were destroyed around roughly 2300 BC, and that is pretty much it.

I will stick to my thesis, as shown in the original post on the subject, for the following reasons.

1. There were five of them, the exact same number given in the Biblical account.

2. Bab edh Dhra (Sodom) and Numeira (Gomorrah) at least were totally destroyed by an intense fire which was obviously profound in it’s intensity. (the others so far as I have been able to determine had not been excavated).

3. It fits the story as well as could be hoped for, in fact, better than any scholar would have dared to hope for.

So why is this story so little known? Well, let’s see now. Because it doesn’t fit the Biblical story, perhaps? Sure, I know I said it did, just now. But there are parts that don’t fit.

The largest of the cities, Bab edh Dhra (Sodom) had at most a population of a thousand, and maybe as little as four hundred people. Yet, this was the largest and most important, according to the Bible. It is also seemingly the largest of the discovered ruins.

Yet, this was a city that, along with the other four, according to the Bible, engaged in an armed rebellion against their overlord Cherdolaomer, the King of Babylon, and his allies, so it must have been huge, right?

Well, if you believe the Bible is the infallible word of God, you’d damned well better, by golly.

What seems to have actually happenned is as I said, at the time the stories were circulated a mythology was created to explain the barely visible ruins. To put it in laymans language, they made the shit up. There was a purpose to it, of course, but you have to wonder just how authentic it can be or how well it was believed by the perpetrators of the myth when they didn’t even bother to make up names for the places that would make sense as being descriptive of their founding, nature, character, or environment.

No one would found a city and call it Sodom, which means “Burndt”, or Gomorrah, which means “A Ruined Heap”.

And in the midst of researching these links I made another discovery, one that is just as unlikely. And that is, if I were the King of Sodom, and discovered that my name, Bera, meant “Son Of Evil”, I think I’d be a little like the “Boy Named Sue” of Johnny Cash hit song fame, I’d be wanting to kick my old mans ass. Unlike old Sue, I’d change my name.

So what happenned obviously is that the ancient Israelites took the old story of the destroyed cities and made a myth out of it in which, of course, their founding ancestors and their God played a vital, pivotal role. Nothing at all mysterious about it. It was slander on a grand scale, no doubt, of the true cities inhabitants. On the other hand, you have to look at all this in perspective. By the time these stories were circulated amongst the Israelites, the destruction of the cities, would have occurred-take a deep breath now-

No less than seven hundred years, at least, before the stories were told. Think about that. That would be like me finding the ruins of an old Indian settlement in Kentucky that had been destroyed in the year 1300 AD and, not having the slightest knowledge of the history of the settlement, the true nature of it’s destruction, or the character and culture of the people, to say nothing of having limited at best knowledge of archaeology or anthropology, etc, I devised a story to explain the catastrophe.

How acurrate could I possibly be? Therefore, how accurrate could the original purveyors of the myth of Sodom and Gomorrah have been?

So there you have what is in my opinion the answer to the question as to why this discovery isn’t so well known. These ruins affirm the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. Then, they turn right around and demolish it.

Therefore, you have people that get excited over the discovery of a rock formation on a mountain in Iran that looks vaquely like a ship and are all too ready to gleefully jump the gun and declare the discovery of “Noah’s Arc” as proof of the literal truth of the Bible. But, as embarrassing as this is when the truth comes out, hey, it still doesn’t disprove the Bible, it just proves this particular find was a false alarm.

This, however, is not a false alarm. This, my friends, is a five alarm fire, and it burns to ashes any legtimacy as to claims for the literalist interpretation of the Bible. And that is all too appropriate in this case especially.

It is valid, historical proof, not of the Biblical accounts or their accurracy, but rather is proof of something more substantial-the cities of Bab edh Dhra and Numeira are one irrefutable snapshot in time, and are proof of the historical evolution of mythology and religion.

True scientists and archaeologists-people that actually love and revere the truth, in other words-can be forgiven for taking the opportunity to conduct their work in private, in peace, and away from the controversy of the glaring lights and accussations born of religious fanaticism. The religous fanatics, for their part, will be all too happy in this case to allow them to do so.

The Republicans Crazy John McCain

I’ve probably got a few new assholes symbolically torn in my hide by now over at Vodka Pundit, where I’ve been engaged in the futile and thankless task of talking common sense and reason to a bunch of people that like to think of themselves as conservatives. To join in the fun, or just to stare at the blood, look fo ra post entitled (Way) Too Early Handicapping.

Most people of course know what the standard definition of a conservative is. They pride themselves on being fiscally responsible (remember now, I said the “standard” definition), and they believe in small, limited government, law and order, a strong national defense, low taxes, lessening of bureacracy, limited regulation of businesses, non interference in state matters where the powers of the federal government are not expressly defined, and a strict constructionist interpretation of the constitution.

In regards to social issues they also tend to be conservative (though not necessarily always). As such they tend to be “Pro-Life” (read Anti-Abortion).

Most of these standard definitions, by and large, if not all of them, perfectly fit Arizona Senior Senator John McCain. Had he lived in the forties and fifties, he might well have given Ohio Senator Robert Taft a run for his money for the title of “Mr. Republican”.

Listen to a conservative Republican of today refer to Senator McCain, and you would think he was referring to the spawn of Satan. When you think of the relatively new phrase RINO (Republican In Name Only), you think of John McCain. It is almost as though the term was invented for and inspired by him. I fact, I’m almost certain that to be the case.

These conservative Republicans are up in arms at the prospect of a McCain run for the Presidency of The United States under the Republican label. Just as John Kerry was swiftboated in the 2004 eection, some of the same players have now attempted to float a trial balloon to do the same to McCain. Suppossedly, there are rumours circulating to the effect that McCain, while a Prisoner Of War in Viet Nam, colluded with his captors. He may have broke under torture, or indeed may never have been truly tortured at all, despite what to them is the exxaggerated at best and totally made up at worse fiction of his incarceration during some five years or more of that conflict. In return for special treatment, including his own private, comfortable quarters, and a live in maid and sex kitten, he relinquished all kinds of vital information, pertaining to American tactics and strategy, and who knows what all else.

And of course we all know about the half breed mulatto baby he had by a black mistress which we all learned about during the course of the 2000 Republican primary contest in South Carolina.

Before I go on, I want to make it clear, I am not a supporter of Senator John McCain. As I said on Vodka Pundit, in exactly these words-he is too damned conservative for me. There are other things. I still have reservations about his integrity of the past, but this based solely and exclusively on his involvement in the nineteen eighties as a Freshamn Senator with the so-called Keating Five. He was one of the ones mired in this banking scandal, yet there was never enough evidence for him to be indicted, along with the older son of then Vice-President George Herbert Walker Bush.

Of course, you never hear this bandied about, though this scandal caused the crash of the Savings And Loan Industry, necessitating a massive federal bailout. You never hear it mentioned, of course, because it involved a member of the Bush family.

I also have reservations due to his concerns about the treatment of prisoners of war, which has been greatly exxaggerated, for the most part. He wants them treated according to the Geneva Convention. I feel this is giving them a status they do not deserve. It’s not that I think they should be painfully or brutally tortured, it’s just that I don’t think they should be recognized as legitimate armed combatants. I believe in coercive interrogation when it comes to them. McCain does not. That is an honest difference of opinion and is probably inspired by his own time in a Prisoner Of War camp.

Still, the man is a hero, and is deserving of respect, until such time as he does something, or something comes out about his past involvement with Keating, that proves otherwise.

So why do conservatives hate him so much? I think it has to do precisely with his integrity-not his lackof it. This is a man who has gone on record as excoriating the out of control spending exhibited by members of his own party, in addition to that of the Democrats. He has gone on record as being extremely critical of the culture of special interests and PACS that has pervaded Washington politics over the course of his career.

He has approached this issue on a non-partisan level in words, and on a bi-partisan level in deed, as witness his co-sponsorship with Wisconsin Senator Russ feingold of the Campaign Contributions Reform Bill. For all the bills faults-and they are legion-at least McCain did draw attntion to this problem, and in fact ran his campaign on it in 2000, touring the country by bus in what was billed as “The Straight Talk Express”. He won the New Hampshire Republican primary that year in an upset over George W. Bush, whose operatives took off the kid gloves afterwards. The rest is history. Relastions between Bush and McCain have been strained, barely cordial. McCain, like Lieberman, was a recipient of “The Kiss”.

Since then, McCain has towed the line, and as I said on Vodka Pundit, shame on him for that. Still, he knows, understands fully, that this is his one and only shot at receiving the Republican Party nomination, of not being swift boated or otherwise sabotaged by the powers that be, the movers and shakers of the party.

The Falwells, the Robertsons, the Dobsons.

The Limbaughs, the Hannitys, the Coulters.

The Bushes, the Cheneys, the Roves.

And all those shadowy operatives who lurk somewhere in the nether region through which they are all bound.

It makes you wonder if maybe McCain as a Prisoner Of War didn’t just possibly give out valuable war time information to the enemy.

Not during Viet Nam. During Keating.

The Last Days Of Sodom And Gomorrah

Modern forensics can perform miracles, even on old bones that have been buried for more than four thusand years. In the preceeding picture, we see the reconstructed image of your typical, garden variety Somomite. Further scientific investigations around the area of the environs to the Southeast of The Dead Sea have gone so far as to provide not just tantalizing clues, but a great deal of verifiable evidence as to what actually happenned to the old, long destroyed “Cities Of The Plain”.

There were five of them altogether, Sodom being, according to tradition, the most important of the five. Next in stature seems to have been Gomorrah. All of them were burnt to cinders, with the sole exception of one called Zoar, the smallest of the five, which later seems to have become abandoned. In fact, the names are actually incorrect. The actual original name of Sodom was “Bab edh Dhra”. Sodom was given as the name of the city way after the fact, and is a name that tranlates simply as “Burndt”. The name of Gomorrah was actually “Numeira”. The name by which it has become known to us simply translates as “A Ruined Heap”.

So what exactly happenned? How did Bab edh Dhra become “Burndt”, and Numeira “A Ruined Heap”? The answer seems to have been a coming together of a series of unfortunate catclysmic natural events. There is a vast fault along the coast of Africa that now seperates it from the Arabian peninsula by way of the Red Sea. Evidently, there was at one time a great earthquake that opened up veins of great reserves of natural gas, which, being lighter than air, floated up into the upper atmosphere. Simultaneously, the event that triggerred this massive earthquake simultaneously caused the ruption of a great volcana, possibly the volcano of Thera off the coast of Greece, or possibly another one.

As the hot burning ashes made their way across the atmosphere, they eventually made their way to the skies over the five cities,whereupon the exposed and escaping natural gas condensed around the sulpheric ashes and embers, which then erupted into flames, of thousands of degrees farenheit, which then rained down mercilessly on Bad edh Dhra and Numeira.

Numeira is an interesting case. For, by the time the catastrophe occurred, the city had been abandoned. Whether this was in response to the first earthquake, or whether Numeira, which may have been an astrological observatory and so might have seen the raining sulfur before it approached the city, is unknown. It’s quite possible that the city was abandoned before any of these events, as it had become economically unfeasible as a community, due to the natural arridness of the region. Whatever the case, they left. Not one person within the environs of “Gommorrah” died as a result of the “fire from heaven”.

Sodom is a different story. There was indeed a city there that was for the time vastly huge. In fact, it contained some 200,000 to 250,000 people. All of them in tombs. Yes, Sodom seems to have been a necropolis. The gentleman at the top of the page was not a victim of the flames from heaven, it seems, but a mere corpse who had been buried well before this event.

The city that was determined to have existed in these environs and which indeed contained a living population, seems to have amounted to an amazingly low figure of from 400 to 1000 persons. Possibly an ancient world funeral cult and community. Those buried here, including our featured Sodomite, may then have been from any number of areas of the Canaanite lands.

There is also a question as to the time of the destruction. Using the Bible as a guide, the timeline would have been somewhere between 2000 to 2100 BC. Yet, according to scientific carbon dating and other such analysis, these cities seem to have been destroyed actually some two hundred years before this.

So what is going on here? It seems to me that the ancient Hapuru, the ancestors of the Hebrews-the Israelites-had heard tales of the cities destruction, and this became the germ of a myth. In ancient times, almost all cultures contained symbolic stories of evil cities, ruled by wicked and avaricous people. This is the case of Homers The Illiad, and is also the reason for the Battle of Kuruksetra which forms the backdrop to The Bhagavad Gita. So these stories fit this need of the Hapiru quite nicely. But there must have been a point to it.

Most people assume the Sodomites were destroyed because they were homosexuals, and though the Biblical account does imply this as a partial reason, there were others as well. Given interpretations incude everything from ritual prostitution, to beastiality, to arrogance and pure avarice. Human sacrifice was as well said to be the norm.

But mainly, their chief sin seems to have involved the crime of inhospitality, as witnessed the account of the Sodomites demands to have sexual relations with Lots visitors, who were two angels. Once you look at this, and all the other reasons, for the Sodomites destruction, and you look at it plainly in the context of the times in which the story was being circulated, it becomes all too crystal clear.

The Hapiru were engaged in a policy of genocide. They were suppossedly told by God that all the then present inhabitants of the land-the Canaanites-should be destroyed. Every single one of them. Every man, woman, and child. Even their cattle and livestock were to be destroyed in some cases, and even in some cases their gold and other valubles were to be destroyed. The reason for this is a subject for another post, but suffice it to say, for whatever reason, it amounted to a cultural and racial extinction on the scale of mass murder, one that would have made the Nazis envious in it’s scale and scope, and, in the long run, in it’s degree of success.

Of course, something this profound has to have with it something in the way of an explanation. The long destroyed and yet, at the time, barely visible remants of Bad edh Dhra and Numeira , provided the entirety of the reason. The Canaanites were, in every way, as bad, if not in some cases worse, than the preceeding cities of Sodom and Gommorrah. These were the people that God himself had destroyed, due to their sin and avarice. Now, the Hapiru, God’s chosen people, were being called on to conduct this holy war, this merciless slaughter, of the people of Canaan. And they must not fail. They must not faulter. It wasn’t a mere murderous venture. It was divine retribution, as vistied by God himself through the hands of his chosen people.

The Caananites did indeed share all the qulaities of the Sodomites, including, it is vital to realize, what has been interpreted as their chief sin, that of inhospitality. They probably despised the Hapiru. They didn’ tfit in with the remainder of the population, and were to be carefully watched, if possible destroyed. Whatever the truth of the Canaanites feelings about them, it was probably the truth as the ancient Israelites saw it. And the long forgotten Cities of The Plain provided not just an excuse, but an inspiration, to destroy the people that were in the way of their destiny.

A Case Of Corporate Conspiracy

You just can't trust your employees these days. Being human, they might actually have a conscience. Some of them just can't be bribed, or threatened, and thankfully, a good many of them are familiar with the work of Chuck Hamel, an activist who has amassed a veritable treasure trove of documented treachery related to British Petroleums Prudhoe Bay oil pipeline operations.

Therefore, when BP announced it would have to suspend operaions on a substantial portion of the pipeline, it was quickly ascertained that this was the line that supplied eight percent of the country's domestic oil production.

400,000 barrels a day.

Hamel then responded quickly, letting it be known that the reason for the problems, the leaks, at this part of the pipeline, had everything to do with negligence on the part of the company. A kind of negligence that has been on-going for roughly eight years.

Simply put, they had been performing no maintenance whatsoever, and had even gone so far as to order maintenance operations suspended. This resulted in the build-up of bacterias which slowly yet consistently ate away at the line, corroding it, and eventually resulting in the leaks.

It gets worse. Acording to Hamel, one of the whistleblowers, a Robert Brian, had met with two Senators, who failed to follow up on his claims of company neglect. The Senators involved? Joe Lieberman and Bob Graham.

The Connecticutt Senate race just got a little nastier.

Nor does this tell the entire story. Gayle Norton was also informed, and nothing was done. According to Hamel, Britsh Petroleum has consistently lied to regulators and government officials, who routinely fail to follow up.

Now, we see the result. It is interesting to note that, since the story of what can only be described as evidence of BP's criminal neglect surfaced almost as quickly as the news of the failure of the pipeline itself, they have suddenly come out and said the problem, though substantial, is not as bad as initially feared. Very interesting indeed. I can't help but surmise that they initialy intended to shut down more of the pipeline than was necessary, but realized this would not be a good idea. Not good at all.

Such as another story told by Hamel, who was told by whistleblowers of a cover-up in 2003 that involved the disposal of more than 2000 gallons of toxic drilling mud and fluids through the ice. This of course was not the proper method of disposing of the material. But this act saved the company a lot of money.

And, according to the same whistleblowers as related through Hamel, this was pretty much the reasoning behind the lack of maintenance on the pipeline. It saved a lot of money.

Of copurse, companies never tell their employees everything, and they sure don't tell them anything more than they absolutely have to know. My feeling is, this wasn't about saving money.

This was about making money. It may have also been a form of domestic terrorism.

In 1998, when this policy was first begun, Clinton of course was President. and by the end of the year had been completey exonerated of the charges brought against him in his trial in the Senate following his impeachment. He was riding a crest of popularity and approval, and Al Gore, staunch and some would say rabid environmentalist, looked to be a sure bet to win the Democratic Party nomination for the year 2000, and seemed a safe bet to suceed Clinton to the office of the Presidency.

Al Gore of course was every energy executives worse nightmare. To the people who have advocated drilling in ANWAR, he was the reason for a lot of sleepless nights.

If the pipeine had to suddenly largely be shut down for extensive repairs, that would of course increase the pressure to drill in ANWAR and in other areas not favored by Democrats and liberals.
In the meantime, supply would not be up to meet demand, and so the prices, and thus the oil company profits, would rise. Therefore, oil company stocks would stay steady, and may even rise, to thus offset any negative influences of a potential Gore presidency.

Gore of coure was not elected, but the policy continued. Why not? Under Bush, and his Administration, including the Interior and Energy Departments, and the EPA, regulation became increasingly less stringent, even, by golly, downright friendly.

There were a couple of slaps on the wrist here and there, just for the sake of the technicality that these people are, of course, suppose to enforce the law. But for the most part, the energy industry has had a free hand for the last six years.

Strange how all those Republican tax breaks, with less and less in the way of regulatory enforcement, seems yet to not have trickled down to the rest of us. In fact, the oppossite is the case. There always seems to be a reason-an excuse, to increase the price of oil and gas. The ever increasing profits should, it is explained, be understood as the market forces at work. Those profits are best put into expansion and into research, blah, blah, blah.

This then was planned as yet another excuse to raise the price of gas and oil, thus increasing profits and so the price of industry stock.

Thank God, or the Goddess, or the Gods, or the Great Pumpkin, or whoever you want to thank, for activists like Chuck Hamel and the whistleblowers who depend on him. Or, perhaps more appropriately, just thank Chuck Hamel.

This is a criminal matter, and a national security matter. The industry, and all others that are vital to our national security, should be nationalized, or, failing that, offending companies such as BP should be confiscated and sold off to the highest qualified bidder.

Finally, all laws and regulations should be strictly enforced, in the most brutal way allowable by law.

The Republican and conservative ideals of a market economy are a string of fables based of deceptions and manipulations. It's time for the gravy train to come to an end.

Conspiracy And Strategery

A whole lot of planes blowing up in mid-flight, or maybe upon landing at their destination (which would conceivably have an even greater both immediate and long term impact, in addition to causing incalculably more damage and loss of life) sounds like one hell of a conspiracy to me.

Of course, there are some who cry foul. How convenient. Had the news been released a couple of days prior to the Connecticutt primary it would have been insisted it was done to help out Joe Lieberman-Bush’s Democratic butt-boy. But since this was not the case, I would imagine there are frenzied board meetings to try to ferret out exactly what happenned, in an attempt to spin, er, determine the truth.

Within a number of days, I expect word to circulate that it was intentionally timed to be released after Liebermans defeat, in order to help the ousted three term Democrat, a., siphon off enough votes to enable the Republican Schlessinger to win the newly vacant Connecticutt Senate seat, or b.) to insure a Lieberman victory as an independent, with no demands of loyalty to the Democratic Party.

And to really be clever, to make it look really good and authentic, the entire British government and Intelligence services were co-opted to play a pivotal role in the plot. The so-called “British Muslims of Pakistani descent” are probably innocent, ignorant dupes.

Why do I bother? I’ve tried ridicule. I’ve tried sarcasm. I’ve tried accussations of stupidity, and even duplicity. To no avail. People willingly believe this crap, and the people who promote it either believe it just as strongly or are purposely promoting what they know to be a wild-eyed falsehood for the purpose of crass political gain.

Why? Because to believe otherwise means you are loyal to George W. Bush. That is pretty much it in a nutshell. That is how simple-minded these people are. Any appeal to reason is going to be met with the response that you, in fact, are the deluded one. Okay. So maybe an appeal to reason might work a small miracle. I am going to work here on the assumption that, out of all the peoele that might one day read this, who are of an extremsit liberal mind-set, roughly ninety nine point ninety nine percent of them are not going to buy into it, and will for the most part think I am either a conservative shill who just is too ignorant to know any better, or a paid shill who only cares about profiting from the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Rice, etc. war machine.

Still, if I can only convince that meagre point zero one percent, I wil feel like I have accomplished something that will have made this post worth the time and effort. I can also find solace in the fact that my reasoning is such that it can not be disputed-although I am certain someone somewhere will forward me a link to a web-site that will contain the “proof” of the evidence of US government and Bush Administration collussion and involvement with the events of 9/11. After all, could it be in such a web-site if it weren’t true?

Well, on the grounds that you can’t necessarily believe everything you read on a web-site, no matter how well “documented” it is; and on the grounds that bullets will not bounce off Supermans hide, with or without exposure to Kryptonite; on the grounds that one out of every three government employees were not involved in the Kennedy assassination; and on the grounds that hundreds of thousands have people have not been at any time abducted by intergalactic aliens piloting UFOs;

I therefore present the following essay, an appeal to reason which I call:

GET REAL YOU STUPID MOTHERFUCKERS!

For the purpose of making my point, I am going to pretend that I am George W. Bush. I have been presented with a plan that will insure my re-election, and in the meantime, before and after, I will be presented with the prospect of going down in history as the greatet President in the history of the country. My name will be up there with the great ones, the ones on Mount Rushmore. Hell, I could be the next one there. I will be so popular, so universally beloved, on a non-partisan level in this country, and internationally, that I will be able to accomplish the entirelty of my agenda. People will refer to my reign as the “Bush Americana”. The constitution will likely be repealed to enable me to run for a third term, and beyond, if I am so inclined.

All I have to do, is murder thousands of Americans, on American soil, and make it look like the work of a shadowy Islamo- Fascist terrorist organization, known as Al-Queda, which, I have been told, is actually a US funded psy-ops operation headed by a denizen of a wealthy Saudi family with whom my family has had a long business conection going back decades.

It’s the perfect plan. A group of disgruntled, Muslim fanatics that adhere to an extremist branch of Islam known as “Wahabism” hijack a bunch of American jets as soon as they take off, and they will fly these flying bombs of death and destruction straight into the heart of a heavily populated urban area. The resultant exlosion of the jet fuel, combined with the impact of the planes coming down at top speed, filled with said jet fuel, will kill thousands, maybe even tens of thousands, of American citizens.

I am wary of this plan. Aftr all, will I not take some blame for this, will it not be laid at my doorstep? No, I am told. After all, I have only been President for about eight months as of the tentative date set for this event-September 11^th, 2001-so the blame can be placed squarely on the shoulders of the previous Democratic President, who held the office for the previous eight years, and did nothing substantial to reduce the terrorist threat that had been on-going and of increasing concern throughout the entirety of his presidency.

Okay, that sounds good to me. So, I set about with my Vice-President and some of the other Neo-Cons as we strategerize. What would be the best targets? For some reason, we are only limited to an ability to hijack four planes, so we had better make sure we make it count, with as much impact as possible. The more innocent Americans who are mercilessly slaughtered, the better. A number of potential targets are discussed-

1. Disneyworld-Hell yeah. Let’s make sure it’s in the middle of the day, hell just think of all the tourists out milling around, riding rides and seeing all the sights, having the time of their lives with their little sons and daughters. The nation would be horrified and thrown into the depths of despair, followed by an immediate call for revenge. If we strike Disneyworld thousands would be killed, and thousands more mained for life. The whole nation would rally behind me just for that one strike. But, the more the merrier. We should have more than just one.

2. The University Of Notre Dame- One of the most popular, respected univesities of America. The nation would be transfixed in horror, as the pride of our nation, the youthful students who are the promise of America’s brightest future prospects, are turned into victims of evil monsters who hate our freeddoms and are determined to destory our way of life. Damn, this is starting to get to be fun. What are some other potential targets?

3. The Golden Gate Bridge-If possible, this one should occur during rush hour, a jet flying smack dab right into the middle of it. Even the radicals in San Francisco and Berkeley will be on my side then. When I am up for re-election, I might even be the first Republican to win that district in who knows how long, shit I don’t, I was never worth a fuck in history, or math either. I’ll damned sure win California, though. Fuck Reagan International Airport, it’s time for a name change.

4. The United States Capitol Building-Yeah, I know the Republican Senators and Representatives will be killed as well. Tough shit! There will just be another round of elections, and in the meantime me and my Administration will have total control over the country, emergency powers that no one would dare defy me or begrudge me in the slightest way, not even the ACLU. After a few months, when we go ahead and have a new round of elections, a new batch of Republicans will once again make up the majority in both houses. I’ll see to that. I have Diebold.

Of course, the point should also be made that if Bush and the Neo-Cons were actually the ones behind 9/11, why stop at four planes? Why not nine or ten? Why were the terrorist stooges utilized for this operation not sufficiently armed to prevent their loosing control of one of the planes, resulting in it being crashed into a field in Pennsylvania?

Finally, why the Twin Towers? Why would Bush and Cheney purposely seek to destroy people who were, for the most part, probably their supporters? Why attack a part of America that would insure the possibly near total collpapse of vast sectors of the economy and thus make worthless stocks and bonds that they probably had vast sums of money invested in? And would do so in such a way that, insofar as they knew at the time, it might require decades for the economy to recover, if it ever completely did, while at the same time leaving the rest of America, for the most part, technically unscathed?

I understand of course that anybody,through supposition and theory, can offer plausible answers to these questions, or any others. Of course, then they need something in which they are sadly lacking-a little something called proof.

Unfortunately, these people are not the kind to let a little thing like lack of factual evidence stop them.

Joe Liebermans Concession Stand

Joe Lieberman lost his primary election by a landslide of somewhere it looks to be between three and four percentage points. I call that a landslide when you consider the incredible ground his victorious opponent, Ned Lamont, gained over the course of roughly three months. Thanks to the unwavering hostility towards Lieberman and enthusiastic support for Lamont by such leftist blogging establishments as The Huffington Post, Daily Kos, and AmericaBlog-all three of which are included on the Blogroll, by the way-in addition to support from liberal figures and organizations such as Jim Deans “Democracy For America”, and MoveOn.org, and Michael Moore, it was almost, in retrospect, an inevitability.

The anger, in some cases hatred, toward Lieberman, was intense, even visceral. Joe LIEberman. Joe Looserman. Joementum. Holy Joe. Nomentum.

Well, when you have to reassure your own party members that you are not the leader of the oppossition party, you know you might well be on the way out.

There were plenty of reasons for honest disatisfaction with Liebermans positions and record. For me, it was his support of the vile and evil bankruptcy bill that was mainly a Republican gift to the credit and banking industry. It was to my way of thinking a reward for predatory lending practices, and encouragement for more of the same. It was a hearty “fuck you” to all those who have amassed a mountain of debt, whether it be from carelessness, ignorance, intentional abuse, spendthrift immaturity, unforeseen circumstances beyond their control, and in not a few cases, through outright lies and deceptions by the industry. It made no difference to the supporters of this bill. It was a stop-gap measure, a band-aid solution to keep America’s plastic, credit based economy afloat for just a few more years, before it eventually, inevitably, crashes like a Joseph Lieberman campaign rally.

There were those who blamed him for supporting the war on terror, and who remembered he was one of the original sponsors of the Homeland Security Department, back when that newest cabinet department was previously oppossed by Bush, who then proceeded to hijack it and twist it to suit his own ends. Every abuse, real, potential, and imagined, that has been blamed on the agency, has been left at Liebermans doorstep, despite the fact that, in the final analysis, he had little-actually nothing-to do with how the new agency took shape and evolved.

Finally, of course, while there are other reasons, the main reason is his support for the Iraqi War, and his overall and bluntly stated support for the nation of Israel, which has been unwavering and unflinching. Of course his detractors point out his Jewish heritage and wonder just who he is loyal to, America or to Israel.

Finally, they call into question his loyalty to the Democratic Party, in the wake of his recent announcement to file a peition with the Connecticutt State Attorney General’s office to run for re-election as an Independent. There are people who spend hours on the Internet raging about this latest development. Before this, some seemed to spend all their waking moments on the subject. Now, they never sleep, it seems. The anger and hatred has turned into a manic frenzy, and has evolved to the point where this is considered as a warning to other Democrats who once supported the war in Iraq. Hilary Clinton, John Kerry, John Edwards-they’ve all been put on notice.

The defeat of Lieberman has been turned into a call to arms, a demand for complete Far Left Liberal Democratic orthodoxy-and woe be unto any that spout the heresy of compromise and bi-partisan cooperation.

Personally, I am sorry that Lieberman has decided to pursue this route, though I was one who had hoped he would rally back from behind and pull off a victory. But, he did not. Within five minutes of his announcement remarking of how he had phoned Ned Lamont to congratulate him on his victory, he went on to announce his plan to file the following day. He used a sports metaphor. Lamont is ahead, but the game itsn’t over, it’s only half time.

Lamont for his part called for an urge for a return to investment in America, for a fix to the current health care crisis, for a return to fiscal responsibility, and an end to the war. He sounded good, there was something even Kennedyesque about the speech. Provided he doesn’t later come out with the typical Far Leftist lunacy positions such as gun control, death penalty moratoriums, overly permissive immigration policies, and a few other things, I can support him, and will support him.

I’m afraid though that Liebermans third party candidacy might well be the factor that enables the Republican Schlesinger to emerge victorious. Though no one as of now gives him much of a chance, he is a relatively unknown quantity. You can bet the Republican Party will throw tons of money into his campaign, money Schlessinger would never have seen otherwise.

It would be ironic if the Republican party held on to control of the Seante by just this one Connecticutt Seante seat, due to the machinations of the Far Left, and their virulent hatred of any views contrary to theirs, and their dictatorial drive to dominate Democratic Party politics. Of course, they would blame it on Liebermans disloyalty and stubbornness in running as an independent and splitting the Democratic vote. But, though I don’t agree with his decision to run, I certainly understand his anger and frustration at the Far Left, and his desire to reign them in.

If Schlessinger wins, I am going to laugh my ass off at them. If Lamont wins, as a Democrat I will hope for and encourage the best. He might actually be the breath of fresh air the country needs. He might be of better character and higher quality than the nature of the origins of his candidacy might suggest.

If Liebermann wins, on the other hand, I won’t be the slightest bit upset. I certainly won't lose any sleep over it.

Paradise Lost

A lot of people are looking toward the island of Cuba in lustful, unbridled anticipation. They dream of sun drenched, sandy beeches, of margueritas and pina coladas, or brown skinned, lithe and muscular men. And women. And boys and girls.

Of extravagant dining and entertainment, music and laughter, and dancing. Of resort hotels and gambling casinos. Of billions and billions of dollars. They stare wistfully at their humidores, and dream of days gone by, and, for most of them, of days that never were. Merely legendary stories handed down now for going on four generations, and more, from aged lips and wizened old eyes that stare out from wrinkled, furrowed brows.

There are less and less of them. They, too, are dying out. But they still dream their dreams, and they smile outwardly at the thought of bygone glorys, of happy memories that seem ever more distant. Their memories might in some cases be faulty. But it was the dream that was important.

Inwardly, they rage.

Castro's days are numbered. For fifty years he has kept the island nation in the vise like grip of Stalinist Communism, and now death seems to be knocking at his door. No further word on his current state of health for some days now, and no appearrance by his brother Raoul, to whom he temporarily ceded the reins of power. Can he maintain Fidel's hold on power after Fidel is gone, or will the country fall apart? Will he be open to minor economic and social and political reforms, or will he ruthlessly crush any dissent, real or imagined, in order to establish the totality of his new reign?

Fidel has all but carried Cuba to hell in a centralized planned handbasket in which no entrepreneur or business interest is wiling to invest any degree of capital. Everything is a shade of it's once fromer glory. The hotels, the beaches, the hookers, the liquor, the casinos, all those things that made Havanna one of the vacation spots of the world. Even the cigars aren't as good as what they once were.

There is a technique to making fine Cuban cigars that amounted to a secret recipe jeaousy guarded by a few families-all long gone from the island. What remains, while yet of the highest quality, is said to pale in comparison.

When Fidel overthrew business friendly and yet brutally dictatorial strong man Fulgencio Batista in the late nineteen fifties, the life blood of the island, it's inviting party atmosphere economy, similarly went up in a puff of smoke. Batista was friendly to the Mafia that made billions of dollars on the island. While he was there, they operated freely. When he left, they had to follow, along with the wealthier families, what ones were able, their properties confiscated by the new state, which pledged to never again allow the poor people of Cuba to become downtrooden, oppressed, and abused for the pleasure of the wealthy elites.

The party was over.

So what happens next? If the brothers Castro days are numbered, then what awaits the island and it's inhabitants?

The great hotel chains are doubtless bursting at the seams to re-establish a foothold on the island, along with assorted criminal enterprises and their devotees. You can almost imagine them clearing a space on their travel itinerary. The gamblers, the beach addicts, the hookers, the pimps, the johns, the pedophiles, the drug cartels, the land speculators, and on down the line to the remaining bottom feeders.

Who knows how many hundreds of millions, no, make that tens of billions, has been privately earmarked for Cuban investment?

But, not so fast. The last laugh could indeed be Fidels. News of his demise may be greatly exxagerrated, if that day ever comes, and any indication by Raoul of a willingness to consider any economic reforms might well turn out to be the greatest April Fools joke of all So don't pour that money into the island just yet, wait for the autopsy.

Fidel will eventually die, of course (and at seventy five, can Raoul be far behind?), but it won't be that easy. Thanks to the American embargo of the island, America has no diplomatic presence there, as of roughly fifty years ago. In other words, we have not the teeniest, tiniest leverage with which to influence events.

And there are of course more communists on the island than merely the Castro brothers. And they will not go quietly. Eventually, of course, there stands to be a great deal of tension, hostility, and even all out Civil War. The few remaining original Cuban ex-patriots in mainly Florida, especially the Miami area, will see to it that communist opponnents are well endowed with arms and tons of moral support.

They will fan the flames of Civil War, and will expect the US government to put out the fire, which could well conceivably turn into an inferno. Of course, the Bush Administration denies any plans to invade Cuba.

But there is, of course, a lot of oil there, just off the coast-lots and lots of oil.

Naturally, there will be a new tidal wave of immigration from the island on the offset of hostilities. The way the law stands, all any Cuban has to do is reach American soil, set foot on the ground, and he is home free. Percentage wise, they will rival Mexico in the amount of immigrants, both legal and illegal. A great many of these, of course, will be common criminals in addition to organized crime cartel members, such as gun runners and dope smugglers.

When people like Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice insists that Cubans will be discouraged from coming here in mass numbers, and Cuban Americans will be discouraged from returning to Cuba to further inflame tensions and incite rebellion, of course she is talking out of her ass. She knows that there is precous little that can be done to prevent it, if they wanted to, which they do not.

All of this is speculation, of course, but in the event of a massive, bloody civil war on this island jewel just fifty miles off the coast of Florida, can we stay out of it? Of course we can't, and anybody that thinks otherwise is smoking something stronger than any cigar.

The best thing for the island would be for either Castro to survive, or for Raoul to take over, and for both of them or either of them to agree to some of those limited reforms and to dialoque with the US. But it takes two. There has to be somebody here willing to partake of a diplomatic stategy, even if it were for no other reason than to validly establish a presence, and thus an influence, on the island when that day does eventually come around.

A nice, thoughtful get well card, even if insincere, might work wonders. Elean Gonzales wished Fidel a speedy recovery, surely we can, if but with tonque firmly, and diplomatically, planted in cheek.

An Intelligible Design

Very littlle has been said lately about the past Kansas Primary, but I think myself it is profound in it's implications. Kansas is as a state amongst the reddest of the red. Look at any detailed election map and I would guess you would see very little there in the way of blue, or even purple. You might see a slight shade in kansas City, and I am betting that is questionable.

Yet, in this last primary, Conservative Republicans went down to a stunning defeat for school board elections, seemingly based on their approval of new classroom standards that question the legitimacy of the theory of evolution.

Five seats were on the line, and in the end, it looks like at best, the anti-evolution conservatives will maintain a hold on only five of the ten seats. One exception to the state wide trend was the victory of Conservtive Republican John Bacon, yet this was made possible in part due to the fact that he had two Pro-Evolution opponnents who split their votes.

Even Conservative Democrats are in trouble. Janet Waugh, a Kansas City Democrat and supporter of the teaching of evolution in science classes, defeated a conservative Democratic opponent.

So, what does all this mean? Is this dissatisfaction with Republican Conservative policy limited to this one issue, or is it indicative of a larger trend?

Are Kansans becomming dissatisfied with the Republican Party in general, or just their overall position on social issues, or is it limited to mere anger at this one issue? This insistence on the discarding of evolution and teaching the creationist version known as Intelligent Design-not as a philosophical prospect in a comparative religion or social studies context-but as science.

Kansans might not believe that man descended from the apes, but they evidently don't appreciate their elected officials making asses out of them either.

1946-The Battle Of Athens

It was sixty years ago when corrupt officials, determined to continue the tradition of stuffing ballot boxes with pre-marked ballots in their favor, were faced with an uprising by an armed militia of World War II veterans determined to put an end to the practice.

The veterans surrunded the courthouse of Athens and, using parked cars as a barrier, engaged in a pitched gun battle with the corrupt city officials barricaded inside the building, while supporters of the veterans served them refreshments.

It was a surreal event, and seemed to take on almost a carnival type atmosphere. The city officials, nevertheless, held out for a long time, but eventually gave in when the veterans made use of dynamite. Following this, the ballot boxes were surendered and the veterans ensured the ballots were proper;y counted. Their candidates were declared the victors.

Now in their eighties, the survivors of this historical event recently celebrated this little known nor remembered occassion, which occurred sixty years ago in Athens-not Athen,s Greece, however, but in Athens, Tennessee.

Now, they bemoan the fact that voting for the primary this coming Tuesday is projected to be about 35%.

Said one witness to the event, "the lesson is that people ought to take voting a whole lot more seriously than they do and not let things get out of hand."

The link to the entire story is in the post title.

A Teenage Sexual Fantasy

Johnny had been wanting to get in Mary's pants for as long as he could remember. He remembered the first time he had a real hard on, was in a dream. He saw Mary in that dream, and she seemed so real, her long, sexy, tanned, silky smooth legs, perfecly formed, her flat, brown stomach and abdomen, her luscously proportioned hips and waist, and her breasts. Just the right size. And that ass. God, that ass.

Mary's hair was a long, thick, wavy, sultry blonde, and her face was perfectly formed, with full, inviting lips, and bright, deep blue eyes. She was a goddess, the epitome of perfection, and the minute he saw her, he experienced a raging hard-on that was like nothing he had ever experienced, and as he stood there before her, both of them naked, he felt oddly aware and yet not the slightest bit ill at ease.

She reached out for him, with longing in her eyes. She reached out for his painfully hard and throbbing cock, and took it in her hands. And he cum then, all over himself, and woke up dripping in sweat.

He was fourteen and had had sex only once, a tryst arranged by his older brother Jim and his friends on the basketball squad, with a neighborhood slut who it was said could be had by all. They fucked her one night on the back of brother Jimmy's car. Johnny had been last. It was a scary, awkward experience. But he had done it, climbed on her nervously, and after a brief moment of embarrassing difficulty had entered her. Within twenty seconds he had cum.

He had lied about enjoying the experience, it was strangely dissapointing. But he was a man now. He was now one of the guys.

In time, however, he had wanted more. And in particular he wanted Mary.

Mary was different. She was experienced. She had had five different boyfriends, had been fucked by them all, but she was not easy. Still, she had been screwed, but only when she was ready. She was an immensely popular girl, and could have her pick of guys.

So when Johnny stammerred out an attempted conversation with her, he expected to get shot down. But she surprised him. Johnny was not a jock like his brother. He was a straight A student, and yet still found time for sports as well, and other activites. Small wonder, then, in retrospect, that Mary asked for his help with her homework.

"Hell yes" he responded. "I mean, I'm always eager to help people with their school work."

"Johnny, I know you like me," she said. "I like you too. You're good looking, you're smart, you're funny. You're just the kind of guy a girl really likes. I need more than just a jock, that gets old. Besides, I bet you got a lot to offer a girl-if you know what I'm getting at."

No one was watching when Mary reached down and put her hand on Johnny's dick and began slowly, sensously massaging it. But it was too much for Johnny. He didn't know for sure how to react, so he looked around, and though he later felt like a complete fucking moron, he backed away.

She just smiled and said, "we'll get together on that later." She walked away as Johnnys' heart felt as though it would beat out of his chest.

He had a talk with Jimmy that night, though he didn't mean to tell him anything. Still, Jimmy seemed to know everything.

"Yeah, I know you like her, hell, who don't know it?", he had advised him. "Shit, goofball, go for it. She likes you too."

"She-she does"?, Johnny asked, hopeful and yet far from convinced.

"Johnny, she has asked me about you twice," he said. "What in the hell did you think that was all about with Martha the other night, me and you and the guys, on the car? She was wondering if you might be gay and-"

"Well, by God I'm not", Johnny responded indignantly.

"I know that", Jimmy said. "You're just shy and unsure of yourself. I went through the same thing. Just take it slow, get to know her, and everything will be fine."

"But why does she like me?", Johnny asked. "Shit, what am I? I'm not that good in sports like you are, I don't have any talent, I can't sing, I can't-"

"Johnny, none of that is important", Jimmy said. "You've got a lot of great qualities. And, by the way, in case it's never occurred to you, you've got probably the biggest fucking dick in the whole goddamned school you little fuckhead. It's bigger than mine, so fuck what the hell are you worried about?"

"Yeah, I know, I was starting to think there was something wrong with me."

Jimmy gave him this strange look, and said, "you know, for somebody that is so smart you sure are a fucking idiot. Come on, mom has probably got supper ready."

Supper consisted of hamburgers and homemade french fries with cole slaw and coke, and though usually Johny wolfed his food down like a wild animal, tonight he was strangely not hungry.

"You're not on drugs, are you boy?", his father asked, whereupon Johnny looked away, assumming he was talking to Jimmy. "Goddammit boy I'm talking ot you."

"Me?", Jimmy asked. "No, I don't have any use for that stuff, dad."

Dad was of course drunk as usual, as he typically was by supper time after getting off work for the city water company. But he was a quiet drunk, most of the time, like he was hiding a thousand different secrets and trying to keep them from getting mixed up in his head all in one big mess.

There were rumours that he was having an affair, and word was getting around. Johnny almost gotten into a fight with some kids in school who made some kind of insinuation about it, and came close to being suspended. But for the most part Martin, Johnny and Jimmy's father, kept that part of his life seperate, like just about everything else really, and had nothing much to say. But tonight, he was curious, inquisitive, and kept his eyes peeled on Johnny.

"He's in love", Jimmy volunteered.

"Oh, is that all?", Martin asked. "Well, shit boy, get you some pussy and stop worrying about it. You'll find out soon enough what that fucking love shit will get you."

"Yeah," Johnny's mom responded sarcastically. " Like maybe the clap. Or maybe a couple of other problems you could do without."

Without another word she walked out and Martin said, "in other words, wear a rubber."

That night, Johnny dreamed. It was his first fully erect, raging hard on. Usually,when he felt them coming on, he stopped them as it made him feel uncomfortable. Even the night on the car with Martha, though he had managed to make it inside of her, he was only partially erect. But this was agony. Yet, it was ecstasy.

Over the next few days, Johnny and Mary got to know each other, and before long they were making out, stealing feels, and wanting each other as much or more than he had ever thought it possible two people could ever want each other.

Then, one evening, as Johnny was walking Mary home, from the cinemas, they went past the wooded area they always walked by.

"Let's go up there", Johnny blurted out, almost desptie himself.

Mary nodded in what seemed like a desperately relieved agreement, and they quicly strode up the embankment. They walked, for what seemed like miles, desperate to find a place where they could feel they were secure, and totlally alone.

They made it to a clearing, and Mary collapsed. She was breathing heavily, as she began to slide out of her jeans. Johnny was on top of her and they were all over each other, breathing and panting heavily, kissing and tonqueing each other, as Mary undid his pants, then slid them down then impatiently pulled down his briefs. She gasped when she saw the size of his erect, gigantic, throbbing cock.


"Please fuck me, Johnny", she amost screamed.

But in the back of Johnny's mind, he could hear the voice of his mother.

"Yeah, like maybe the clap. Or maybe a couple of other problems you could do without".

His father.

"In other words, wear a rubber"

"Mary, are you on the pill?", he asked.

"Yes", Mary said. "Come on, baby, I need it now."

But Johnny was still anxous. He was still scared. He was, in fact, terrified. But he wanted her, so bad. Soon, the blood rushed to his head, and he practically jumped on top of her, but before he could enter her, a gunshot rang out. It was loud, and it was close.

They both stopped, and hurriedly put their clothes back on. Johnny peered around the corner, and saw old man Dooley and his sons, drunk as a skunk and laughing and still drinking what looked to be a fifth of some kind of liquor they passed amongst them

Everybody was aware of the Dooleys penchant for hunting and drinking, but everybody gave them a wide berth. Johnny was determined to do the same. He didn't want to think of what the consequenes might be if they caught them out here. Especially what they might do to Mary. The thought horrified him and filled him with revulsion.

"Mary, we've got to get out of here", he said.

Mary was still breathless, and afraid, but frustrated and angry at the same time. Still, they slowly, quietly, yet quickly began to make their way back to the main road. It seemed to take forever, but they eventually made it.

Now, Mary was crying.

"Johnny, I have a confession to make", she said. "I was lying. I'm not on the pill. Mom's doctor warned her that if I took it long enough it could cause problems, maybe even ovarian cancer. Plus, I'm allergic to latex. I found that out when I first started dating."

"Mary, what's wrong?", Johnny said. She was crying, and obviously there was something she wasn't telling. "

"That's why I never stay with anybody for long", she said. "Nobody wants to stay with a girl that can't take any steps to protect herself. Oh sure, they don't mind taking that first chance, but pretty soon after they get what they want they figure why the hell should they take the chance when there's plenty of other girls that will put out that don't mind taking the pill."

Suddenly, the answer hit Johnny immediately. It was as clear as a bell to him.

"I'll never break up with you", he said. "I love you. You know that, don't you?"

"Oh, Johnny", she said. "I love you too."

"I have an idea", he said. "There's this new pill. It's called 'Plan B'. You take it the morning after you have sex. Actually, it's effective for up to seventy two hours after sex, but it's best to take it right away. It's said to be even more effective than regular birth control pills, and you only have to take it only after every time you have sex. The best thing is, you don't need a doctors precription. You can get it over the counter at any drug store, just like aspirin."

"Johnny lets get it then, damn I want some of that dick baby, I need to be fucked so bad it's going to make me crazy if you don't do it to me."

And so they made their way past the cinemas and on to the drug store. Johnny still had a hard on and he walked with great difficulty, and Mary had the most intense, hungry look in her eyes and in her raspy voice he had yet seen or heard.

They hurried into the unusually crowded drug store past the crowds of well dressed people, barely noticing them in fact. They had only one thing on their mind, and Mary spoke up loudly and aggressively to the man who stood with their back to them at the drug store counter.

"We want to buy that morning after pill, please", she said in desperation, and yet with steely determination.

"Well, young lady, one of you are going to have to have the proper ID first. Are you eighteen?", the strange man asked, and as he turned around to face them, Mary and Johnny got the shock of her life. It was Johnny who stammerred in amazement-

"PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH!"

"That's right, son", the President said. "Evidently you weren't aware of my scheduled appearrance here in your lovely town, and I'm here now to explain my Administrations policy regarding the very morning after pill you are looking for. And I'm guessing by looking at the two of you that you're not eighteen, either one of you. Would I be correct?"

"Yeah, we're both fourteen,Mister President," Johnny admitted.

"You mean", Mary said, "you can't buy the pill unless you're eighteen?"

"That's right, little lady", the President affirmed. "And you know why that is? Because I feel it would be morally wrong to allow young people such as yourself to purchase this pill. It would only encourage you to engage in a seuxally active lifestyle way before you are emotionally mature enough to do so.

"Why, the minute two young kids were to go in and buy a morning after pill, do you know what the first thing is they would do? They would have sex, that's what? Therefore, by my establishing the sane and moral policy that I have established, instead of having sex, and risking pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, you will more than likely decide instead to engage in a course of sexual abstinence, until such time as you can be married, and are emotionally mature enough to take responsibility. Then, you'll raise a family, and live a happy fulfilling life, instead of falling into a lifetime of hopelessness and despair."

Bush smirked and chuckled and shook his shoulders as suddenly cameras flashed and the gathering crowd applauded and, suddenly, reporters started asking questions.

But Johnny didn't hear their questions to the President. Neither did Mary.

They both walked out of the drug store, slowly. It was like a veil had suddenly been lifted.

Mary was no longer near insane with desire. Her breathing, like Johnny's, was back to normal. They were happy, relaxed, composed. At peace with themselves.

Johnny's penis was now completely flaccid.

"What a great man", Mary said. "I'll be glad when I am old enough to vote so I can go to the polls and help re-elect him."

"I don't think he is allowed to run anymore, Mary", Johnny explained. "He's in his second term. A President is only allowed two terms."

"Well, that's not right", Mary said in dissapointment. "They should make an excpetion for someone so smart, and wise, and caring."

They walked on down the road. Mary found herself experiencing the odd urge to go home and jump rope. Johnny wanted to go fishing, for the first time in a long time.

"So, what do you want to do", Johnny asked her. "Have you got any plans for tomorrow?"

"Oh, I don't know", Mary said. "We could study. Maybe Sunday we can go to church if you like."

"Hey, that's an idea", Johnny said. "We could go to your house and read the Bible together."

"That sounds great", Mary said enthusiastically. "What book of the Bible would you like to read first?"

"Lets just start at the beginning and see how long it takes us to read it all the way through."

"Well, okay, but you'll have to go home at a decent hour tonight. Before dark."

"Of course".

The Anti-Semitic Conscousness And Consequences

Now that Mel Gibson has shown himself to be an Anti-Semitic drunk, he has taken the extra step to apologize for his recent actions, not the least of which is driving while inebriated. Although at last account there was no confirmation from authorities as to the veracity of published reports of his racist remarks, he did apologize for saying things while intoxicated that he says were wrong, further explaining that he has been fighting alcoholsim for some time.

He supposedly also said the Jews are responsible for every evil in the world. Then he asked the arressting officers and others present if they were Jews. Then he tempered his remarks by shouting "fuck you", and "I am going to fuck you."

Mel Gibson has been on the defensive lately, in fact ever since the release of his blockbuster hit "The Passion Of The Christ", which he financed with twenty five million dollars of his own money, and which currently ranks number ten in the world in box office receipts.

Still, whatever the truth or exaggeration as to his reported remarks, he has managed to come off here more as a maddened Dioysius than what you would consider a devout Christian . And, despite his apologies, you can be certain that he is destined to answer further charges of anti-Jewish racism.

The wonder is to me, not that Mel Gibson may turn out to be a virulent anti-Semitic person after all, but that, as a Bible believing conservative Catholic Christian, after all, how could he not be.

That has been the real elephant in the room the whole time, and is one that is seldom broached. When it is, it is by mainly Gibson detractors who insist that Christianity is not Anti-Semitic, that in fact at most Christianity has been used as an excuse for Anti-Semitism, though this is based on a perversion of the Gospels, that Christianity is a religion of love and tolerance and forgiveness.

Unfortunately, only one thing in the above statement is true, and that is the fact that Christianity has been used as an excuse for Anti-Semitism. Unfortunately, the rest of the argument falls apart when you carefully peruse the Gospels, which upon doing so you realize there is a reason Christianity provides this excuse.

And that reason is, sadly, that the New Testament of the Bible-most especialy the Gospels-are indeed virulently anti-Semitic.

Now some will most certainly point out what they consider the fallacy of this statement, by reminding me that the authors of Matthew, Mark, and John were Jews (Luke was evidently an early Greek convert and disciple of Paul), and that perhaps most importantly, Jesus was himself a Jew. How then can you arrive at the conclusion that the Gospels were anti-Semitic?

The issue of Jesus's parentage, or even if he ever truly existed, is up for debate, to begin with. As for the so-called apostles, there is a very definite answer to that statement, which, once it is realized, makes everything all too clear.

And that is, out of all of Jesus's original apostles (Paul, who was indeed a Jew, did not come along until after the crucifixion) eleven out of the twelve were not Jews. The one Jew, incidentally, was Judas Iscarriot.

Now, it is true the others were Jews by religion-but not by race. The people of Gallilee had previously been a pagan people who had been forcibly converted to Judeaism by the first of the Haesmonean Kings, Aristobulus I. This, by the way, was a mere one hundred years approximately before the given time frame of the crucifixion (around 27-28 AD).

The ancient Romans in time definitely came to undertand this very distinction that escapes us today, and in some cases we find references to the cult of Christianity as that of "the Gallileans".

What it all amounted to was a regional prejudice exhibited doubtless by both sides one against the other. In fact, there is every reason to believe that the cult of Christianity had been around for a good many years, even prior to the forced Jewish conversion, as one of the pagan cults adhered to by many of the formerly pagan Gallileans. In order to survive, it simply went underground for a time, then re-emerged with a suitably Jewish veneer. In this way, it might have been similar to the maner in which many transplanted African slaves to the Carribbean disguised their own partiular pagan gods as Catholic saints.

So if this much is true, why was this ancient cult transcribed and mythologized as a then fairly recent historical event? To answer that question, you have to understand Judaean history, of particular importance being the great rebellion of Judaea against Roman rule, which resulted in the destruction of Jerusalem and of the magnificent temple buildt not too many decades earlier by Herod The Great.

This event took place beginning about seventy AD, the final destruction being undertaken by Titus, the son of the Emperor Vespasian, who had suceeded Nero after a brief struggle in which in one year alone four different claimants, following Neros fall, claimed the Imperial throne.

It was the aftermath of this massive tragedy that resulted in the dispersal of the Jews from Jerusalem, and throughout various parts of the Empire. They were of course looked upon with suspicion and revulsion by the majority of the Empires citizens. And, to a point, they looked upon all of them as the same, whether or not they were Judaeans or Gallileans.

There is good reason to believe that there was a great deal of antagonism between the two groups. Most Gallileans of course considered themselves Jews, but they, like the Judaeans themselves, looked askance at the practices of the Gallilean Nazarite sect known as "The Way", and engaged in a good deal of what today would be considered racist propoganda.

They were in fact accussed of vile and abominable practices, such as sexual orgies, homosexuality, and even cannabalism. All of this in fact began prior to the destruction of Jerusalem and The Temple, before even the time of Nero. As far back as the reign of Tiberius, and later Claudius, who both conducted massive deportations of Jews from Rome on the grounds of their practices for "the god Christos".

Therefore, once the destruction of Jerusalem and The Temple had taken place, there was already a long history of rivalry, distrust, and even hatred between the two groups. After the disastrous rebellion, the Gallileans took it on themselves to put down in writing their own particular take on the reason for the disaster, and did so by placing the blame squarely on the Jews in a way they could begin to distance themselves from it.

"His blood be upon us and upon our children" the Jewish Hish Priest was suppossed to have said to Pontius Pilate, the Roman procurator (by now conveniently long dead), who had symbolically washed his hands of any blame for the death of "this innocent man".

Even the vile and corrupt Herod Antipas had failed to find fault with him after questioning him, though Jesus had refused to answer any of his impertinent questions and challenges as to his mystical powers and reported miracles.

Even a lowly Roman centurion-a pagan-was able to recognize the obvious signs of divine displeasure as Christ lay dead on the cross, and the sun stood still and darkness engulfed the land.

"Surely", he said, "this was the Son Of God".

But the Jews as a group were unrepentent. The savior, the messiah, they had so long awaited, had come amongst them, and they had hated him, revilled him, and ultimately, demanded his murder, a demand which a supposedly reluctant Pilate felt obliged to grant.

But that is not all. The prophecies of the end times that is so often discussed, as pertaining to the Gospels, has nothing to do with some far future date, but seems to be revolved around the destruction of Jerusalem which occurred around 70 AD. More to the point, this is portrayed in the Gospels as being directly related to the Jewish rejection, condemnation, and murder of the Son of God, that same personnage who the Roman Pilate, and the Roman appointed tetrarch Herod, would have wished to avoid.

This was a typical Jewish device that was also adapted by the Gallilean sect. The art of Biblical prophecy seems to have revolved, in some cases, around looking back toward a similar time, which resulted in a specific set of circumstances, and predicting the same result to the present. At other instances, the so-caled prophecies were actually written down after the fact. More often not, many fulfilled prophecies were no more than claims. For example, Jesus entering Jerusalem on the back of a donkey was an example of an action that was purposeldy performed in order to fit a required prophecy.

Therefore, it would not be a stretch of the imagination for an adept religous leader, made familiar with history to a point uncommon to most common people of the day, to recognize the impending catastrophe the Judaean leaders were bringing on themselves and their people. In other words, someone might have legitimately pointed this out. On the other hand, if the Galilleans only claimed to have made this prophecy prior to the event, but in reality did so after the fact, who was there to disprove the claim?

The whole bizarre story of the origins of Christianity are shrouded in mystery, and it takes incisive viewing to even begin to pierce through the vale of centuries of deception. But once you begin to do so, a pattern emerges. And that pattern to a great extent reveals a complex web of prejudice on both sides, while at the same time the prejudice exhibited by one side will be seen to be excused on the grounds of the provocations of the other.

Because of this, there are many instances in the New Testament of bigotry and intolerance displayed by the Jews toward other ethnic groups-for example the Samaritans. And while these prejudices may have existed, there can be no doubt they existed on both sides pretty much equally.

And, the fact that Jesus urged tolerance, forgiveness, and love might seem to mitigate somewhat the anti-Jewish hatred of the Gallileans. Unfortunately, it also serves a further purpose-that of inflaming old resentents that much greater a degree.

Unfortunately, as we have seen far too often, it has come nowhere close to extinquishing it. Evidence of Mel Gibsons reputed Anti-Semitism, if true, is a perfect example of how old hatred and prejudices are hard pressed to fade away-even after twenty centuries. Or maybe it would be best to say, especially after that long. The ingrained nature of such feelings may amount ot a kind of societally enhanced psychic, subconscous brainwashing. It will be with us for some time to come.