I was waxing fondly over memories of the 2004 Presidential campaign, where the GOP made large of the fact even a combat veteran who was ONLY a Senator hardly had the moxy of someone who'd been a Governor prior to ascending the Presidency; this year, both parties agree that whether you're a Senator who's experience is that as an officer of the USA when you stare at your shoes against a USA enemy you're a rare one to get out, or a Senator who has next to no voting record and thinks military service is for those without means to college and who wouldn't even pre-condition Hitler, Hirohito, Laden, Iran, or anyone else no matter what they threatened or did how often, then you have the ONLY requisites needed for becoming the first post-Bush President. 

 

Then, a TV commercial came on for some guy running against incumbent GOP Congressman Mark Kirk; the ad says the "Bush-Kirk" economy has put Illinois a gazillion in debt, vote for the Dem, Dems will fix; um, Dems like Melissa Bean, Kirk's Illinois Congressional colleague, vote for Bush-Kirk stuff including bailouts and her re-election ads say that's REASON to retain her; um, Illinois Senators Durbin and Obama, like Arizona Senator McCain, believe States rights should preclude even Congressional hearings into use of Federal funds let alone strings in funding bills; um, Illinois Democrat Governor Rod Blagojevich was newsworthy until this Summer for constantly spending Federal money on anything BUT what it was for, most usually on things like officials, their personal contacts Churches (like the Eastern Orthodox getting about $1million from Rod to build its new Gurnee Church), and housing/medical/retail favoring only the politically orthodox...but even the Illinois GOP recently claimed whereas it has power to impeach him, really, it should've been put to advisory referendum first, couldn't get on the 2008 or 2009 ballot, so what the hey...with the Dow rebounding after the final debate which showed no chance of change, let's give the Guv until his own 2010 re-election campaign to see if he'll do more than spend on what he did before...which of course happens also to be the very companies making up today's DOW ( yep, today's DOW index http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dow_Jones_Industrial_Average#Companies_included_in_the_DJIA : pharmaceutical companies, mortgagers, cell phone makers, and other non-job or shrinking-job/wage producers, including Google, which itself NOW wants $4 trillion for a secret energy plan...all who already couldn't make it without bailout themselves).

 

Just before being vacuumed in to that vortex of infinite rhetorical circular logic, I grabbed hold of its edge, and as I broke free it pulled forward an old memory of that non-Swedenborg writer Ernz Bentz, particularly his book "The Eastern Orthodox Church: In Thought And Life", I recalling the 1963 English edition I read as a youth. Now, this book was even cited in USA regular and State colleges as late as the year 2000 re studying religious traditions, theories, and practices.

 

In his book, Benz represented that before the Communists, before the Tsars, before anyone or any kind of government at all (and regardless of any type of same), before any "Great Schism" would occur in 1050 AD, the Eastern Orthodox Church wrapped itself in sacraments, and basically has forever held that no matter who runs the government, you worry not about your neighbors just yourself, and must accept that even when a government or official or friend or relative of one does you evil, that's just God's penance or judgment upon you as earth is for preparing for damnation only a few will escape anyway.

 

Benz also so represents that the Soviets merely added the requirement for the Eastern Church that it share police power...meaning that although atheism was official, the Church was to say even Soviets like Stalin or the KGB or NKVD were God's Will visiting the naughty, and to exhort its own believers to accept that; of course, at all times cooperating with Soviets to eradicate atheists and questioners; that included even nonsensical government opinions as long as the phrase "national security" was stapled to any self-serving suppressions. But again, that was something the Eastern Orthodox Church did for Turks, Syrians, Vikings, Tsars, anybody, throughout Russia's long history. 

 

In sum, where today officials in the USA insist the bailouts are both good and concurrently bad, "who's asking?", and many neo-evangelicals as well as traditional USA clergy seem to say light is best filtered through officials secretly guided by God's penances or tests of us....let's hope they of other faith or atheism will not find such religion a law against them for non-belief, especially where "national security" cannot be tethered to coming religion-regulating laws; and on the economy, let's hope the bailouts DO stop evictions, foreclosures, job/wage cuts, price spikes; after all, with short wave transmitters AND receivers to be outlawed in the USA February 2009, we should just guess the next President will say "I sang a song, and the Janjaweed/Laden/Irans all ran away", USA media won't report otherwise happened like when all the for sale signs and garage sales across America don't make any news, and with us pre-conditioning/opposing no one all the bailout money WILL flow through our hands too...we should assume all this, shouldn't we, even it wasn't mentioned during campaigns as if some "them!" might be listening and wouldn't like officials doing otherwise and wouldn't notice otherwise, since we will spend nothing on defense anymore?

 

Very tricky, this eating cake and having it too, while trying to blame strawmen, bogeymen and fairytale ogres and dragons for what you've been doing all along anyway. Especially where those telling the public to "hate this or that!" have themselves NO ideas of what they would have take the place of an official, religion, what have you.

 

I look forward to supporting the next President and Congress in any ways they seek toward getting America back on track to being the beacon of goodwill and boundless opportunity in global diversity its campaigns promise. I mean no rancor to anyone while I stay with my own Universal Life Church interests, I just in the interim do not want to convey positive or negative against any one on earth...just a wish to keep doing right in every situation with respect to all I meet.