The world (good part of it) and CHRIST-MASS

So once more the world, at least a very good part of it, in one form or another celebrates Christ-MASS.

The Pope wants people to cast their mind off the commercialization of the winter Festival known as "Christmas."

The British Queen and the Church of England, that really is very Roman Catholic but from bot accepting the Pope as head of the church. They are all in the same bed as the Catholics on Christmas.

The Protestant world is also in the same bed with the Roman Catholics and Church of England, when it comes to the celebration of Christmas.

On the news tonight they showed the Pope and the massive expensive wealth as he did his MASS in Rome.

The "Christian" world, those who call themselves Christian, are about 1.5 BILLION - or one in every 6 people on earth. And of that number 99 percent observe Christ-mass.

A quick historic look into this winter feast, will tell you that "Christmass" was not observed even in the large Roman Catholic church until about 400 years after the dead and resurrection of Christ.
Yes no Christians observed this winter feast for about 400 years after Jesus' resurrection from the dead. But it was certainly being observed, and had been for thousands of years. It was the pagan winter festival of the sun going down in length of time and then starting to rise again in length of time.

The Bible makes it very clear and all "scholars" of Christendom agree, Jesus could not have been born in December. But that is all now put to one side. The pagans coming into the Roman Catholic church wanted to still observe the winter festival of December; so the Roman Catholic church ADOPTED the feast and baptized it so to speak, and made it .... well they will say "Christian."

The Roman Christian church adopted many other things that are NOT in the Bible, a lot of those things directly from the pagan world.

You need to go to my website and study my studies on "Christmas" and the "modern" Santa Claus. Then go to my expounding of the book of Revelation on "The New Testament Bible Story" or the book my book "The Biblical Prophets for Today."

The modern Babylon Mystery Religion that has made all nations drunk with the wine of her fornication (spiritual fornication) is revealed in the Bible and in history.

Truly this prophecy HAS and IS continuing to be fulfilled - more of the world is accepting in some form, the false customs and traditions and festivals of the Roman Catholic church.

God cries out in Revelation 18 to His true people: "Come out of her my people, that you be not partakers of her sins, that you be not partakers of her plagues" (v.4).

One day the Eternal God will bring this whole false so-called "Christian" system to a smashing fall. Jesus will return and the true knowledge of the Lord will cover this earth as the waters cover the sea beds. So it will be and so it will come to pass.
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Syria and Europe and "I Bought a Zoo" movie

So the mad-dog dictator of Syria continues his beastly killings of his people. Now Canada had come out in no uncertain way to say he must "go" - and has brought sanctions of freezing trade and money to Syria. The Arab league is against him. Europe and the UN are against him. I'm sure the USA is also.

The world by and large says he must GO!!!!

And the nations of the West at least believe it is only a matter of time before this mad-dog dictator is gone, but some think it will be a fight to the end, where he will needs have to be taken down in a hail of bullets.
......

Europe is still in BIG TROUBLES, some say this is right others say that is right, some want them to do this, others want them to do that, and the arguments of what to do to pull out of recession as it could go in 2012, is still a debate.
......

On a good note. The new movie "I Bought a Zoo" based on a true story is: SUPERB, GREAT, WONDERFUL, INSPIRING, and just a beautiful movie for the whole family. If you have children, pack them up and all go and see this movie. Put it on your list to purchase when it comes out to buy.
......

My Dad is mentally doing much better, after having the minor stroke. Still cannot walk, but mentally doing well. I go out tomorrow the 25th to be with him for 10 days, to move out his apartment (must now go to a 24/7 facility) sell or give away his furniture - go through all the personal family things, send them back to Calgary for me now to have. I must get power of attorney to look after his finances for him, as he now will never have the mind to do that anymore.
I will have access to a computer so will post here on my blog. But no new Youtube studies or new studies on my website until I'm back in Calgary on January 3rd.
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USA on a slight economic rise???

The BBC news tonight gave the possible GDP for the USA as 2 percent.

As they correctly tells us despite all whatevers the USA is STILL the number ONE economy in the world.

As they also pointed out it is the mass of small businesses that carry the USA on its back right now.

And there still may yet be many hurdles to jump over in 2012 to see the USA keep moving forward in an upward direction. The USA has still many huge problems.

One concern of course is Europe and the Euro, and if the united Europe can prevent a slam back into deep recession and many massive problems it has yet to fix.

We shall see what 2012 hold for the Western world.
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Britain has promised it will bring in laws to govern its banks and finance institutions in the near future. Of course there was the usual talk from the British Government over such a move, as "There will be painful times ahead." Now finally they are going to do something about their financial situation, things probably that Canada did decades ago, and which the USA if it has any sense (but sense often goes missing in the "political battle between Democrats and Republicans" so nothing much gets done) would do also.
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Iraq - Bagdad - 13 bombs blow up today in different parts of that city, killing at least 6. Yep it will be "hit and blow up" once more in full force by the whoevers, as now the USA troops have gone home. Look for much more horrific violence in Iraq in 2012.
.,.........

North Korea has the "son" of the dictator as head guy now that his father just died. We shall see in 2012 how the "son" handles things. Will it be the "same old same" or "time for getting rid of old habits."
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The people in the "horn of Africa" are still in a serious starvation situation. It is heart-breaking to see the poor, sick, and thin children. Here they are on this same planet and we in the Western world have SO MUCH, some of us (like movie stars and sports stars) FAR TOO MUCH. It is profane what some people get paid for the work they do, and with most even more profane as to what they spend all their money on. There should be a law against making that kind of money for that kind of work, but then it would be classified as "communistic."
..........

Russia is still proving that the same old 60 year space technology is doing just fine and can still take men into space and to the "space station" - and at only about 1/10 the cost of how the USA was doing it, till the Nasa program shut down. Now the USA people have to catch a ride to the "space station" on the Russian rocket. So who really won the space race anyway? Blows me away when I think of all the money the USA has spent in the last 60 years on "space" stuff. I guess the Russians have proved "steady and easy does it" wins out in the long term of things.
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Oh yes did you see the picture the space guys were all excited about? Found some kind of planet 600 light years away, going around a sun, which they think is the right distance away, that maybe, just maybe, just maybe, could possibly support life forms. They think it is the closest thing to our earth they have found so far. And when you see it next to our earth.....it is a laugh, looks nothing close to looking like out earth. But what the mind of some scientists sees with their eyes; all I can say it they must have had too much to drink, and not the orange juice type drink.
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USA UNITY - What hold What?

USA UNITY - WHAT HOLD WHAT?

by Mark Steyn


In 2010, just as a federal court was striking down the Arizona
legislature's attempt to control the state's annexation by
illegal aliens, far away in the Hague the International Court of
justice declared that the province of Kosovo's unilateral
declaration of independence from Serbia two years earlier "did
not violate any applicable rule of international law."" Certain
European secessionist movements-in Spain, Belgium, and
elsewheretook great comfort in the ruling. Russia and China
opposed it, because they have restive minorities-Muslims in the
Caucacus, and the Uighurs in Xinjiang-and they intend to keep
them within their borders. The United States barely paid any
attention: if the ICJ's opinion was of any broader relevance, it
was relevant to foreigners, and that was that. But, taken
together, the Hague and Arizona decisions raise an interesting
question: What holds the United States together? And will it
continue to hold?

In 2006, the last remaining non-Serb republic in Yugoslavia flew
the coop and joined Croatia, Macedonia, Bosnia ... hold on, isn't
it BosniaHerzegovina? Or has Herzegovina split, too? Who cares?
Slovenia's inde pendent and so is Slovakia. Slavonia wasn't, or
not the last time I checked. But Montenegro is, and East Timor,
and Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, and every other Nickelandimistan
between here and Mongolia. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, big
countries (the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, Indonesia) and
not-so-big countries (Czechoslovakia) have been getting smaller.
Why should the United States remain an exception to this
phenomenon? Especially as it gets poorer-and more statist.
For the best part of a century, America's towns, counties, and
states have been ceding power to the central metropolis-even
though, insofar as it works at all, Big Government works best in
small countries, with a sufficiently homogeneous population to
have sufficiently common interests. In The Size of Nations,
Alberto Alesina and Enrico Spolaore note that, of the ten richest
countries in the world, only four have populations above one
million: the United States (310 million people), Switzerland (a
little under 8 million), Norway, and Singapore (both about 5
million)." Small nations, they argue, are more cohesive and have
less need for buying off ethnic and regional factions. America
has been the exception that proves the rule because it's a highly
decentralized federation. But, as Messrs. Alesina and Spolaore
argue, if America were as centrally governed as France, it would
break up.

That theory is now being tested on a daily basis. To ram
government health care down the throats of America, Congress
bought off regional factions with deals like the Cornhusker
Kickback and the Louisiana Pur chase. It is certainly no stranger
to buying off ethnic factions in pursuit of the black and
Hispanic vote-with immigration un-enforcement and affirmative
action. Yet to attempt to impose centralized government on a
third of a billion people from Maine to Hawaii is to invite
failure on a scale unknown to history.

In the years ahead America will have its Slovakias and Slovenias,
formally and informally. But it cannot remain on its present path
and hold its territorial integrity.

Let us grant that the United States is not such a patchwork quilt
of different ethnicities as Yugoslavia; it's a "melting pot"-or
it was. Let us further accept for the sake of argument that the
United States' success was unconnected to the people who
established it and created its institutions and culture. It is
famously a "proposition nation," defined not by blood but by an
idea:

"Here, both the humblest and most illustrious citizens alike know
that nothing is owed to them and that everything has to be
earned. That's what constitutes the moral value of America.
America did not teach men the idea of freedom; she taught them
how to practice it."

Who said that? A Frenchman: Nicolas Sarkozy, addressing Congress
in 2007. But what happens when America no longer teaches men how
to practice freedom? What then is its raison d'etre? Does it have
any more reason to stick together than any other "proposition
nation" that dumps the proposition? Such as, to take only the
most obvious example, the Soviet Union. What is there to hold a
post-prosperity, constrained-liberty, un-Dreamt America together?
The nation's ruling class has, in practical terms, already
seceded from the idea of America. In the ever more fractious,
incoherent polity they're building as a substitute, why would
they expect their discontented subjects not to seek the same
solution as Slovenes and Uzbeks?

Once upon a time, the mill owner and his workers lived in the
same town. Now American municipalities are ever more segregated:
the rich live among the rich, the poor come from two or three
towns away to clean their pools. Nor is the segregation purely
economic. The aforementioned Bell, California, was the town whose
citizens had a per capita income of $24,800 but a city management
that awarded themselves million-dollar salary-andbenefits
packages. It comes as no surprise to discover 90 percent of its
inhabitants speak a language other than English at home. Bell is
an impoverished Latin American city, and so, like thousands of
others south of the border, it has corrupt, rapacious Latin
American government. Celebrate diversity!

Ask not for whom Bell tolls. Joe Klein, the novelist and
columnist, was one of the most adamant of media grandees that the
Tea Party's millions of "teabaggers" were "racists and
nativists." "Sarah Palin's fantasy Amer ica," he explained to his
readers at Time magazine, "is a different place now, changing for
the worse, overrun by furriners of all sorts: Latinos, South
Asians, East Asians, homosexuals ... to say nothing of liberated,
uppity blacks." Joe, naturally, is entirely cool with all that.
"The things that scare the teabaggers-the renewed sense of public
purpose and government activism, the burgeoning racial diversity,
urbanity and cosmopolitanism-are among the things I find most
precious and exhilarating about this country."

Joe Klein finds "the burgeoning racial diversity, urbanity and
cosmopolitanism" of America so "exhilarating" that he lives in
Pelham, New York, which is 87.33 percent white. By contrast,
Sarah Palin's racist xenophobic hick town of Wasilla, Alaska, is
85.46 percent white. (Percentages courtesy of the 2000 census.)
As for those "furriners of all sorts" that Klein claims to dig,
Pelham's "uppity blacks" make up only 4.57 percent of the
population, and Asians, whether of the southern or eastern
variety, just 3.96 percent. Unlike Wasilla, which is a long way
to go, Pelham is within reach of splendidly diverse, urbane, and
cosmopolitan quartiers-the Bronx, for example--yet Joe Klein,
Mister Diversity, chooses not to reside in any of them, and
prefers to live uppitystate of the uppity blacks. Statistically
speaking, he lives in a less diverse neighborhood overrun by
fewer "furriners" than that chillbilly bonehead's inbred redoubt
on the edge of the Arctic Circle. Yet she and her supporters are
the "racists and nativists," while Joe preens himself on his
entirely theoretical commitment to "diversity."" He would seem to
be volunteering himself as a near parodic illustration of the
late Joseph Sobran's observation that "the purpose of a college
education is to give you the correct view of minorities, and the
means to live as far away from them as possible."

I don't mean to single out Joe Klein, who I'm sure is the soul of
kindness to lame dogs, l'il of ladies, uppity blacks, and South
Asian furriners, where'er he encounters them. No doubt Pelham has
the occasional African-Ameri can college professor, East Asian
hedge-fund manager, and perhaps even a Muslim software developer
or two sprinkled among its 87.33 percent upscale honky populace.
But Joe Klein is like a lot of Americans of his class:
"diversity" is an attitude rather than a lived experience.

And it will be ever more so: the more starkly we Balkanize into
Bells and Pelhams, the more frenziedly the Kleins of the world
will bang the "diversity" drum. The more rarefied the all but
all-white communities get, the more "COEXIST!" stickers they'll
plaster on their Priuses: hybridity is for your cars, not your
municipal demographic profile.

In an age of political correctness, older people sometimes
express bewilderment at the lack of "common sense." But you can't
have common sense in a society with less and less in common: What
does a gay hedonist in San Francisco have in common with a
Michiganistan mullah? What does a Mississippi Second Amendment
gun nut have in common with a Berkeley diversity enforcement
officer? What social conventions can bind them all? Even as we
degenerate into ever more micro-regulations ever more targeted
for ever more bewildering permutations, assertive identities will
figure out ways to wiggle free.

But forget gays and Muslims and consider two sixtysomething
whitebread Wasps living side-by-side in Yonkers, New York: At
Number 27 is a lady who retired from teaching in the local school
at the age of fifty-nine and lives on an annual pension of
$78,255, exempt from state and local tax, with gold-plated health
benefits, and everything inflation-proofed. At Number 29 is a guy
exactly the same age who owns a hardware store, can't afford to
retire, has health issues and crummy provision for amelioration
thereof, yet will be working till he dies, while his neighbor
enjoys a lavish two-decade retirement that he paid for in his
taxes. This is a recipe for civil war, and no gay hedonists or
firebreathing mullahs need be involved.

The "happy" ending for a statist America is an ever more
self-segregating patchwork of cultural ghettoes from the barrios
of California to the mosques of Dearborn to the beaches of Fire
Island, each with its own TV networks, fashions, churches, mores,
history, even children's names (Connor, Mohammed, Tyrone), but
presided over by a bloated centralized government that presents
itself as the sole legitimate arbiter between these factions, as
they compete for its favors while ever more onerously taxed. What
kind of America would that be? E pluribus who-num?
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Michael Flatley - Lord of the Dance - is back with BANG!!!

I'd heard of the man - Michael Flatley some years back - heard he was world champion at one time for Irish Dancing. Heard he had the world record for taps per second. Heard he had been with River Dance years ago, but left over a dispute of some sort.

But did not know much more than the above ..... UNTIL I bought the NEW DVD "Lord of the Dance" (2011) just a few weeks ago.

Sat down today to watch it!!!!

Oh my oh my WHAT A SHOW!!! It takes Irish dance, music, and song, to a NEW LEVEL!!!

UNBELIEVABLE, TERRIFIC, STUPENDOUS, AND GREAT IN EVERY WAY, AND IN WAYS THAT ARE NOT EVER WAY, BUT THE TALENTED MIND OF MICHAEL.

He was told, it could not be done, not be done, not be done, and not be done. Well with gutsy determination he set out to prove IT COULD BE DONE!!

I've just looked up about Michael on Wikipedia and you have his basic life in a relatively short number of paragraphs.

On the front of this new DVD show is: "The Spectacular Brand New Show!" - "A show piece extravaganza" (The Los Angeles Times) - "Thunderously impressive" (BBC Online) - "Truly jaw-dropping" (The Daily Star) - "The Flatley magic is back wholly intact" (The Daily Telegraph)

On the bottom of the front cover: "The Mystery. The Music. The Magic. Like You've Never Seen It Before"
......

Well forget about the other Michael - this Michael is still alive and dancing up a storm like you've never seen an Irish Dance show before.

On the back in part: "The international smash-hit, Lord of the Dance, is back with an all new electrifying show. Filmed live in Dublin and London during the sold out 2011 European Tour....

the breathtaking performance comprises a spectacular new set design, sate-of-the-art lighting, special effects and costumes that will captivate audiences both young and old..... and exclusive behind the scenes footage.....
......

Well it certainly is breath-taking in scope, and Michael appears to be a real nice down-to-earth guy with his crew of expert dancers and musicians and with the audience.

So TWO THUMB UP for Michael and this new 2011 DVD - Lord of the Dance.
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Steve JOBS #8

This is all I will give you from the recent book "Steve Jobs." You can read the rest of the story of 500 pages or so, about Jobs and the famous Apple producs, for yourself.

THE LIFE OF STEVE JOBS

by Walter Isaacson

THE REALITY DISTORTION FIELD

Playing by His Own Set of Rules


The original Mac team in 1984: George Crow, Joanna Hoffman,
Burrell Smith, Andy Hertzfeld, Bill Atkinson, and Jerry Manock
When Andy Hertzfeld joined the Macintosh team, he got a briefing
from Bud Tribble, the other software designer, about the huge
amount of work that still needed to be done. Jobs wanted it
finished by January 1982, less than a year away. "That's crazy,"
Hertzfeld said. "There's no way." Tribble said that Jobs would
not accept any contrary facts. "The best way to describe the
situation is a term from Star Trek," Tribble explained. "Steve
has a reality distortion field." When Hertzfeld looked puzzled,
Tribble elaborated. "In his presence, reality is malleable. He
can convince anyone of practically anything. It wears off when
he's not around, but it makes it hard to have realistic
schedules."

Tribble recalled that he adopted the phrase from the "Menagerie"
episodes oú Star Trek, "in which the aliens create their own new
world through sheer mental force." He meant the phrase to be a
compliment as well as a caution: "It was dangerous to get caught
in Steve's distortion field, but it was what led him to actually
be able to change reality."

At first Hertzfeld thought that Tribble was exaggerating, but
after two weeks of working with Jobs, he became a keen observer
of the phenomenon. "The reality distortion field was a
confounding melange of a charismatic rhetorical style,
indomitable will, and eagerness to bend any fact to fit the
purpose at hand," he said.

There was little that could shield you from the force, Hertzfeld
discovered. "Amazingly, the reality distortion field seemed to be
effective even if you were acutely aware of it. We would often
discuss potential techniques for grounding it, but after a while
most of us gave up, accepting it as a force of nature." After
Jobs decreed that the sodas in the office refrigerator be
replaced by Odwalla organic orange and carrot juices, someone on
the team had T-shirts made. "Reality Distortion Field," they said
on the front, and on the back, "It's in the juice!"
To some people, calling it a reality distortion field was just a
clever way to say that Jobs tended to lie. But it was in fact a
more complex form of dissembling. He would assert something-be it
a fact about world history or a recounting of who suggested an
idea at a meetingwithout even considering the truth. It came from
willfully defying reality, not only to others but to himself. "He
can deceive himself," said Bill Atkinson, "It allowed him to con
people into believing his vision, because he has personally
embraced and internalized it."

A lot of people distort reality, of course. When Jobs did so, it
was often a tactic for accomplishing something. Wozniak, who was
as congenitally honest as Jobs was tactical, marveled at how
effective it could be. "His reality distortion is when he has an
illogical vision of the future, such as telling me that I could
design the Breakout game in just a few days. You realize that it
can't be true, but he somehow makes it true."

When members of the Mac team got ensnared in his reality distor-
tion field, they were almost hypnotized. "He reminded me of
Rasputin," said Debi Coleman. "He laser-beamed in on you and
didn't blink. It didn't matter if he was serving purple Kool-Aid.
You drank it." But like Wozniak, she believed that the reality
distortion field was empowering: It enabled Jobs to inspire his
team to change the course of computer history with a fraction of
the resources of Xerox or IBM. "It was a self-fulfilling
distortion," she claimed. "You did the impossible, because you
didn't realize it was impossible."

At the root of the reality distortion was Jobs's belief that the
rules didn't apply to him. He had some evidence for this; in his
childhood, he had often been able to bend reality to his desires.
Rebelliousness and willfulness were ingrained in his character.
He had the sense that he was special, a chosen one, an
enlightened one. "He thinks there are a few people who are
special-people like Einstein and Gandhi and the gurus he met in
India-and he's one of them," said Hertzfeld. "He told Chrisann
this. Once he even hinted to me that he was enlightened. It's
almost like Nietzsche." Jobs never studied Nietzsche, but the
philosopher's concept of the will to power and the special nature
of the Uberman came naturally to him. As Nietzsche wrote in Thus
Spoke Zarathustra, "The spirit now wills his own will, and he who
had been lost to the world now conquers the world." If reality
did not comport with his will, he would ignore it, as he had done
with the birth of his daughter and would do years later, when
first diagnosed with cancer. Even in small everyday rebellions,
such as not putting a license plate on his car and parking it in
handicapped spaces, he acted as if he were not subject to the
strictures around him.

Another key aspect of Jobs's worldview was his binary way of
categorizing things. People were either "enlightened" or "an
asshole." Their work was either "the best" or "totally shitty."
Bill Atkinson, the Mac designer who fell on the good side of
these dichotomies, described what it was like:

"It was difficult working under Steve, because there was a great
polarity between gods and shitheads. If you were a god, you were
up on a pedestal and could do no wrong. Those of us who were
considered to be gods, as I was, knew that we were actually
mortal and made bad engineering decisions and farted like any
person, so we were always afraid that we would get knocked off
our pedestal. The ones who were shitheads, who were brilliant
engineers working very hard, felt there was no way they could get
appreciated and rise above their status."

But these categories were not immutable, for Jobs could rapidly
reverse himself. When briefing Hertzfeld about the reality
distortion field, Tribble specifically warned him about Jobs's
tendency to resemble high-voltage alternating current. "Just
because he tells you that something is awful or great, it doesn't
necessarily mean he'll feel that way tomorrow," Tribble
explained. "If you tell him a new idea, he'll usually tell you
that he thinks it's stupid. But then, if he actually likes it,
exactly one week later, he'll come back to you and propose your
idea to you, as if he thought of it."

The audacity of this pirouette technique would have dazzled
Diaghilev. "If one line of argument failed to persuade, he would
deftly switch to another," Hertzfeld said. "Sometimes, he would
throw you off balance by suddenly adopting your position as his
own, without acknowledging that he ever thought differently."
That happened repeatedly to Bruce Horn, the programmer who, with
Tesler, had been lured from Xerox PARC. "One week I'd tell him
about an idea that I had, and he would say it was crazy,"
recalled Horn. "The next week, he'd come and say, `Hey I have
this great idea'-and it would be my idea! You'd call him on it
and say, `Steve, I told you that a week ago,' and he'd say,
`Yeah, yeah, yeah' and just move right along."

It was as if Jobs's brain circuits were missing a device that
would modulate the extreme spikes of impulsive opinions that
popped into his mind. So in dealing with him, the Mac team
adopted an audio concept called a "low pass filter." In
processing his input, they learned to reduce the amplitude of his
high-frequency signals. That served to smooth out the data set
and provide a less jittery moving average of his evolving
attitudes. "After a few cycles of him taking alternating extreme
positions," said Hertzfeld, "we would learn to low pass filter
his signals and not react to the extremes."

Was Jobs's unfiltered behavior caused by a lack of emotional
sensitivity? No. Almost the opposite. He was very emotionally
attuned, able to read people and know their psychological
strengths and vulnerabilities. He could stun an unsuspecting
victim with an emotional towel-snap, perfectly aimed. He
intuitively knew when someone was faking it or truly knew
something. This made him masterful at cajoling, stroking,
persuading, flattering, and intimidating people. "He had the
uncanny capacity to know exactly what your weak point is, know
what will make you feel small, to make you cringe," Joanna
Hoffman said. "It's a common trait in people who are charismatic
and know how to manipulate people. Knowing that he can crush you
makes you feel weakened and eager for his approval, so then he
can elevate you and put you on a pedestal and own you."


Ann Bowers became an expert at dealing with Jobs's perfectionism,
petulance, and prickliness. She had been the human resources
director at Intel, but had stepped aside after she married its
cofounder Bob Noyce. She joined Apple in 1980 and served as a
calming mother figure who would step in after one of Jobs's
tantrums. She would go to his office, shut the door, and gently
lecture him. "I know, I know," he would say. "Well, then, please
stop doing it," she would insist. Bowers recalled, "He would be
good for a while, and then a week or so later I would get a call
again." She realized that he could barely contain himself. "He
had these huge expectations, and if people didn't deliver, he
couldn't stand it. He couldn't control himself. I could
understand why Steve would get upset, and he was usually right,
but it had a hurtful effect. It created a fear factor. He was
self-aware, but that didn't always modify his behavior."

Jobs became close to Bowers and her husband, and he would drop in
at their Los Gatos Hills home unannounced. She would hear his
motorcycle in the distance and say, "I guess we have Steve for
dinner again." For a while she and Noyce were like a surrogate
family. "He was so bright and also so needy. He needed a
grown-up, a father figure, which Bob became, and I became like a
mother figure."

There were some upsides to Jobs's demanding and wounding
behavior. People who were not crushed ended up being stronger.
They did better work, out of both fear and an eagerness to
please. "His behavior can be emotionally draining, but if you
survive, it works," Hoffman said. You could also push back -
sometimes - and not only survive but thrive. That didn't always
work; Raskin tried it, succeeded for a while, and then was
destroyed. But if you were calmly confident, if Jobs sized you up
and decided that you knew what you were doing, he would respect
you. In both his personal and his professional life over the
years, his inner circle tended to include many more strong people
than toadies.

The Mac team knew that. Every year, beginning in 1981, it gave
out an award to the person who did the best job of standing up to
him. The award was partly a joke, but also partly real, and Jobs
knew about it and liked it. Joanna Hoffman won the first year.
From an Eastern European refugee family, she had a strong temper
and will. One day, for example, she discovered that Jobs had
changed her marketing projections in a way she found totally
reality-distorting. Furious, she marched to his office. "As I'm
climbing the stairs, I told his assistant I am going to take a
knife and stab it into his heart," she recounted. Al Eisenstat,
the corporate counsel, came running out to restrain her. "But
Steve heard me out and backed down."

Hoffman won the award again in 1982. "I remember being envious of
Joanna, because she would stand up to Steve and I didn't have the
nerve yet," said Debi Coleman, who joined the Mac team that year.
"Then, in 1983, I got the award. I had learned you had to stand
up for what you believe, which Steve respected. I started getting
promoted by him after that." Eventually she rose to become head
of manufacturing.

One day jobs barged into the cubicle of one of Atkinson's
engineers and uttered his usual "This is shit." As Atkinson
recalled, "The guy said, 'No it's not, it's actually the best
way,' and he explained to Steve the engineering trade-offs he'd
made." Jobs backed down. Atkinson taught his team to put Jobs's
words through a translator. "We learned to interpret `This is
shit' to actually be a question that means, 'Tell me why this is
the best way to do it.'" But the story had a coda, which Atkinson
also found instructive. Eventually the engineer found an even
better way to perform the function that Jobs had criticized. "He
did it better because Steve had challenged him," said Atkinson,
"which shows you can push back on him but should also listen, for
he's usually right."

Jobs's prickly behavior was partly driven by his perfectionism
and his impatience with those who made compromises in order to
get a product out on time and on budget. "He could not make
trade-offs well," said Atkinson. "If someone didn't care to make
their product perfect, they were a bozo." At the West Coast
Computer Faire in April 1981, for example, Adam Osborne released
the first truly portable personal computer. It was not great-it
had a five-inch screen and not much memory-but it worked well
enough. As Osborne famously declared, "Adequacy is sufficient.
All else is superfluous." Jobs found that approach to be morally
appalling, and he spent days making fun of Osborne. "This guy
just doesn't get it," Jobs repeatedly railed as he wandered the
Apple corridors. "He's not making art, he's making shit."

One day jobs came into the cubicle of Larry Kenyon, an engineer
who was working on the Macintosh operating system, and complained
that it was taking too long to boot up. Kenyon started to
explain, but Jobs cut him off. "If it could save a person's life,
would you find a way to shave ten seconds off the boot time?" he
asked. Kenyon allowed that he probably could. Jobs went to a
whiteboard and showed that if there were five million people
using the Mac, and it took ten seconds extra to turn it on every
day, that added up to three hundred million or so hours per year
that people would save, which was the equivalent of at least one
hundred lifetimes saved per year. "Larry was suitably impressed,
and a few weeks later he came back and it booted up twenty-eight
seconds faster," Atkinson recalled. "Steve had a way of
motivating by looking at the bigger picture."

The result was that the Macintosh team came to share Jobs's
passion for making a great product, not just a profitable one.
"Jobs thought of himself as an artist, and he encouraged the
design team to think of ourselves that way too," said Hertzfeld.
"The goal was never to beat the competition, or to make a lot of
money. It was to do the greatest thing possible, or even a little
greater." He once took the team to see an exhibit of Tiffany
glass at the Metropolitan Museum in Manhattan because he believed
they could learn from Louis Tiffany's example of creating great
art that could be mass-produced. Recalled Bud Tribble, "We said
to ourselves, 'Hey, if we're going to make things in our lives,
we might as well make them beautiful.'"
Was all of his stormy and abusive behavior necessary? Probably
not, nor was it justified. There were other ways to have
motivated his team. Even though the Macintosh would turn out to
be great, it was way behind schedule and way over budget because
of Jobs's impetuous interventions. There was also a cost in
brutalized human feelings, which caused much of the team to burn
out. "Steve's contributions could have been made without so many
stories about him terrorizing folks," Wozniak said. "I like being
more patient and not having so many conflicts. I think a company
can be a good family. If the Macintosh project had been run my
way, things probably would have been a mess. But I think if it
had been a mix of both our styles, it would have been better than
just the way Steve did it."

But even though Jobs's style could be demoralizing, it could also
be oddly inspiring. It infused Apple employees with an abiding
passion to create groundbreaking products and a belief that they
could accomplish what seemed impossible. They had T-shirts made
that read "90 hours a week and loving it!" Out of a fear of Jobs
mixed with an incredibly strong urge to impress him, they
exceeded their own expectations. "I've learned over the years
that when you have really good people you don't have to baby
them," Jobs later explained. "By expecting them to do great
things, you can get them to do great things. The original Mac
team taught me that A-plus players like to work together, and
they don't like it if you tolerate B work. Ask any member of that
Mac team. They will tell you it was worth the pain."
Most of them agree. "He would shout at a meeting, 'You asshole,
you never do anything right,'" Debi Coleman recalled. "It was
like an hourly occurrence. Yet I consider myself the absolute
luckiest person in the world to have worked with him."
..........

NOTE:

YOU HAVE SEEN THE EARLY LIFE OF STEVE JOBS AND HOW THE
APPLE COMPUTER GOT GOING. YOU HAVE SEEN THE MEN AND
WOMEN THAT HE WAS FORTUNATE TO FIND AND TEAM UP WITH
HIM - PEOPLE THAT WERE BRILLIANT IN THEIR SKILL.

YOU HAVE SEEN THE RATHER "STRANGE" AND "ODD" AND
"DIFFICULT" STEVE JOBS IN HIS YOUTH (AS TIME WENT ON I
THINK HE MELLOWED OUT). I MUST SAY I PERSONALLY WOULD
NEVER HAVE GOTTEN ALONG WITH THE YOUNG STEVE JOBS, IN
FACT I WOULD HAVE HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH HIM. AND TO
PUT IT MORE BLUNTLY WOULD HAVE SAID HE NEEDED TO BE
KICKED BETWEEN THE LEGS WHERE IT HURTS.

BUT SO IT WAS WITH STEVE JOBS. HE WAS I SAY AGAIN
VERY FORTUNATE TO HAVE MET AND TEAMED UP WITH BRILLIANT
COMPUTER MINDED PEOPLE, AND WITH THEM PRODUCE THE
MASTERFUL APPLE COMPUTER AND ALL THAT APPLE IS NOW
FAMOUS FOR.

Keith Hunt

The WAR HORSE book!

For ten Canadian dollars I picked up the paperback edition of the new book "The War Horse" about a week ago. Read the first few chapter some days past, but this Sunday (December 18th 2011) I spent the afternoon finishing reading the book.

It is nice to have book story that is only 182 pages with a kind of double space lines.

The writer Michael Morpurgo is an award-winning master storyteller. What a fantastic story he tells, about a farm boy, a horse, World War 1 and all that takes place before and during and shortly after that war. It is written as if the horse is telling you the story.

The story had me at times with tears running down my cheeks.

It is a book you should all read.

Yes, it is now a major motion picture, coming out this December 25th, well in Canada it is that date.

I will surely go see it. I hope the movie does justice to a wonderful story that the book gives you.

How pleasant to have a story that is not 3 and 4 and more hundred pages long.
..........

USA "Housing" problem! Coral-reef off Cuba! Streep the actress!

Tonight on "60 Minutes" it was a most interesting hour.

First was the housing problem in the USA. We know about 11 MILLION homes are under the "banks" foreclosing.

With that comes the fact that the house becomes empty and as often happens the not so nice guys/gals "loot" the house, often causing also destruction. Then YOUR home next to it or on the same block goes DOWN in price! Now many own a mortgage that is MORE than the house is worth, i.e. you have a $1000,000 mortgage and your house is worth only $50,000!!

Add to all this the fact that banks after they foreclose are not taking up the house, to keep it up and try to re-sell - ain't any buyers out there in any number. So the bank walks away from the house also - and so the looters walk in and soon the house is trashed! And so your neighborhood is trashed.

That is the sad fact as to what is going on in the USA housing world.
......

I did not know that Cuba has a Coral-reef - yes it does - around some islands south of the main-land Cuba. We were taken there. My oh my what a wonderful place. Healthy coral and all the fish that go with such a coral in a healthy state. Many sharks but the 60 Minute guy was told not to fear they would not attack. Down they went - what beauty!!

25 percent of coral-reefs are gone today, and another 25 percent will be gone by 2050 or sooner if we do not mend our ways.

This coral-reef was declared by the Cuban Government many years ago, to be a sanctuary - off limits to commercial fishing. It was to be preserved in all its glory - Castro was a scuba diver, and he said the coral-reef was to be preserved. The law is ONLY 1,000 people can go there each year. And of course not to destroy, any fish caught are to be put back, hence no fishing to kill fish!

The coral-reefs of the world are important for the health of the physical seas and the population of fish.
..........

Meryl Streep was interviewed. Her latest movie out soon - the iron lady - the life of Margaret Thatcher - the 10 year Prime Minister of Britain.

OH what a fantastic job of being Mrs. Thatcher she does.

The interview went through how Streep got started - in acting school - early roles - and on into many of her movies. She is 62 years old - has four children. Been married to the same man for 35 years.

She has always been one of my favorite gal actors. She is indeed very talented, and has done many different types of roles in her career.

She was asked if doing Mrs. Thatcher brought things in that ladies life that were also in Streep's life.
She said that Thatcher was brought up to be a "good" person with old traditional values, and said that she was brought up likewise and wanted to be known as a "good" person in the old traditional ways as it was 60 years ago or more.
..........

A very fine and interesting 60 Minutes it was this evening of December 18th 2011.

the Secret of Roan Inish - DVD movie

A most delightful fairy tale movie is "The Secret of Roan Inish" set in the coastland of Ireland.
Roan Inish (the island of the seals).

"Roan Inish is pure magic" - Peter Travers, Rolling Stone.

On the back:

John Sayles' most popular movie ever is the magical tale of a girl whose search for her brother brings an Irish legend to life. A treat for all ages.

It's a First Look Pictures Releasing - but also has www.SonyPictures.com

Some lovely Irish music and with that charming Irish accent for all actors.

Came out in 2006.

Yes a very sweet fair-tail Irish movie - lovely color - indeed good for the whole family.
..........

The SHOCKING facts about MSG!!

THE MSG TRUTH

Author's name withheld by his desire.


I always thought I stayed away from MSG!! for allergies. Sure
didn't know it is in all this stuff. This is rather disturbing.
No wonder we gain weight and just "love " the coffee, low fat
salad dressings, chips , even certain soups. TIMs say they don't
add MSG but they don't mention "HYDROLIZED PROTEIN " do they ?
YOU WILL BE SHOCKED when YOU read this article.

Here's an interesting article that warrants a read. We will be
extra vigilant in checking labels from now on. The content of
this article has links to substantiate its claims - Scary stuff!
MSG (a slow poison)

Very interesting

The food additive MSG (Mono-Sodium Glutamate) is a slow poison.
MSG hides behind 25 or more names, such as "Natural Flavoring."
MSG is even in your favorite coffee from Tim Horton's and
Starbucks coffee shops!
I wondered if there could be an actual chemical causing the
massive obesity epidemic, and so did a friend of mine, John Erb.
He was a research assistant at the University of Waterloo in
Ontario, Canada and spent years working for the government. He
made an amazing discovery while going through scientific journals
for a book he was writing called "The Slow Poisoning of America."
In hundreds of studies around the world, scientists were creating
obese mice and rats to use in diet or diabetes test studies. No
strain of rat or mice is naturally obese, so scientists have to
create them. They make these creatures morbidly obese by
injecting them with MSG when they are first born.

The MSG triples the amount of insulin the pancreas creates,
causing rats (and perhaps humans) to become obese. They even have
a name for the fat rodents they create: "MSG-Treated Rats."
When I heard this, I was shocked. I went into my kitchen and
checked the cup-boards and the refrigerator. MSG was in
everything - the Campbell's soups, the Hostess Doritos, the Lays
flavored potato chips, Top Ramen, Betty Crocker Hamburger Helper,
Heinz canned gravy, Swanson frozen prepared meals and Kraft salad
dressings, especially the "healthy low-fat" ones.

The items that didn't have MSG marked on the product label had
something called "Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein", which is just
another name for Monosodium Glutamate.

It was shocking to see just how many of the foods we feed our
children everyday are filled with this stuff. MSG is hidden under
many different names in order to fool those who read the
ingredient list, so that they don't catch on. (Other names for
MSG are "Accent, Ajinomoto," "Natural Meat Tenderizer," etc.)
But it didn't stop there.

When our family went out to eat, we started asking at the
restaurants what menu items contained MSG. Many employees, even
the managers, swore they didn't use MSG. But when we ask for the
ingredient list, which they grudgingly provided, sure enough, MSG
and Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein were everywhere.

Burger King, McDonald's, Wendy's, Taco Bell, every restaurant -
even the sit-down eateries like TGIF, Chili's, Applebee's, and
Denny's - use MSG in abundance. Kentucky Fried Chicken seemed to
be the WORST offender: MSG was in every chicken dish, salad
dressing. and gravy. No wonder I loved to eat that coating on the
skin - their secret spice was MSG!
So why is MSG in so many of the foods we eat? As a preservative,
or a vitamin?

Not according to my friend John Erb. In his book "The Slow
Poisoning of America," he said that MSG is added to food for the
addictive effect it has on the human body.
Even the propaganda website sponsored by the food manufacturers
lobby group supporting MSG explains that the reason they add it
to food is to make people eat more.

A study of the elderly showed that older people eat more of the
foods that it is added to. The Glutamate Association lobbying
group says eating more is a benefit to the elderly, but what does
it do to the rest of us?

"Betcha can't eat just one," takes on a whole new meaning where
MSG is concerned! And we wonder why the nation is overweight!
MSG manufacturers themselves admit that it addicts people to
their products. It makes people choose their product over others,
and makes people eat more of it than they would if MSG wasn't
added.
Not only is MSG scientifically proven to cause obesity, it is an
addictive substance. Since its introduction into the American
food supply fifty years ago, MSG has been added in larger and
larger doses to the pre-packaged meals,soups, snacks, and fast
foods we are tempted to eat everyday.

The FDA has set no limits on how much of it can be added to food.
They claim it's safe to eat in any amount. But how can they claim
it's safe when there are hundreds of scientific studies with
titles like these:

"The monosodium glutamate (MSG) obese rat as a model for the
study of exercise in obesity." Gobatto CA, Mello MA, Souza CT ,
Ribeiro IA. Res Commun Mol Pathol Pharmacol. 2002.
"Adrenalectomy abolishes the food-induced hypothalamic serotonin
release in both normal and monosodium glutamate-obese rats."
Guimaraes RB, Telles MM, Coelho VB, Mori C, Nascimento CM,
Ribeiro. Brain Res Bull. 2002 Aug.
"Obesity induced by neonatal monosodium glutamate treatment in
spontaneously hypertensive rats: An animal model of multiple risk
factors." Iwase M, Yamamoto M, Iino K, Ichikawa K, Shinohara N,
Yoshinari Fujishima. AHypertens Res. 1998 Mar."usunoki. Exp
Neurol. 1978 Hypothalamic lesion induced by injection of
monosodium glutamate in suckling period and subsequent
development of obesity." Tanaka K, Shimada M, Nakao. Oct 1978.

No, the date of that last study was not a typo; it was published
in 1978. Both the "medical research community" and "food
manufacturers" have known about the side effects of MSG for
decades.

Many more of the studies mentioned in John Erb's book link MSG to
diabetes, migraines and headaches, autism, ADHD, and even
Alzheimer's.

So what can we do to stop the food manufactures from dumping this
fattening and addictive MSG into our food supply and causing the
obesity epidemic we now see?
Several months ago, John Erb took his book and his concerns to
one of the highest government health officials in Canada . While
he was sitting in the government office, the official told him,
"Sure, I know how bad MSG is. I wouldn't touch the stuff.." But
this top-level government official refuses to tell the public
what he knows.

The big media doesn't want to tell the public either, fearing
issues with their advertisers. It seems that the fallout on the
fast food industry may hurt their profit margin. The food
producers and restaurants have been addicting us to their
products for years, and now we are paying the price for it. Our
children should not be cursed with obesity caused by an addictive
food additive.

But what can I do about it? I'm just one voice! What can I do to
stop the poisoning of our children, while our governments are
insuring financial protection for the industry that is poisoning
us?

This message is going out to everyone I know in an attempt to
tell you the truth that the corporate-owned politicians and media
won't tell you.

The best way you can help to save yourself and your children from
this drug-induced epidemic is to forward this article to
everyone. With any luck, it will circle the globe before
politicians can pass the legislation protecting those who are
poisoning us.

The food industry learned a lot from the tobacco industry.
Imagine if big tobacco had a bill like this in place before
someone blew the whistle on nicotine? If you are one of the few
who can still believe that MSG is good for us and you don't
believe what John Erb has to say, see for yourself. Go to the
National Library of Medicine at *www.pubmed.com*

Type in the words "MSG Obese" and read a few of the 115 medical
studies that appear.

We the public do not want to be rats in one giant experiment, and
we do not approve of food that makes us into a nation of obese,
lethargic, addicted sheep, feeding the food industry's bottom
line while waiting for the heart transplant, the diabetic-induced
amputation, blindness, or other obesity-induced, lifethreatening
disorders.

With your help we can put an end to this poison. Do your part in
sending this message out by word of mouth, e-mail, or by
distribution of this printout to your friends all over the world
and stop this "Slow Poisoning of Mankind" by the packaged food
industry. Blowing the whistle on MSG is our responsibility, so
get the word out.
..........

In the last two months I was wondering why I had regained about 8 pounds, as I had not changed my regular eating habits, BUT I was making it a habit to go to Tim Hortons for an extra large "half French-vanillar-half-Coffee" each day, day after day, this had become routine for me for two months and I was 8 pounds heavier than my self-determined weight. When the above article was given to me.....wow....I understood why. I had no idea that MSG was put in Tim Hortons coffee. Together with the "doughnuts" they sell (which I never eat) and the MSG in the coffee no wonder most of the people in Tim Hortons are over-weight!

Keith Hunt

Your BODY is the Temple of God

OUR BODY - A TEMPLE OF GOD

BY RICK COUPLAND

What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost
which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
For ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your
body, and in your spirit, which are God's (1 Corinthians 6: 19,
20).

A while back Editor Brooks Alden wrote an article on the food
laws, found in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14. As Israel
Identity believers, we know that these laws are still in effect
today. The original laws consisted of the commandments, statutes
and judgements. Due to Israel's disobedience to God, the blood
ordinances were later added to these laws. According to
Colossians 2:14, only these ordinances were "nailed to the
cross". Jeremiah prophesied, and it was later confirmed in the
Book of Hebrews, "I will put my law in their inward parts, and
write it in their hearts". As Howard Rand questions in "The
Digest of the Divine Law", "If the Christian is not bound to keep
the law, how can it be written into his heart?"

I remember watching a video on the Internet a couple of years
ago. I believe it was called "The Bible and Health", or something
to that effect. In one segment of the video, a pastor was being
questioned on whether he followed the food laws of the Old
Testament. He was currently dealing with some health issues of
his own, and did in fact cut pork and shellfish out of his diet.
He added, however, that the reason for the change in his diet was
due to the recommendation of his doctor, not the Bible, for the
food laws had been done away with. Was he forgetting who the
great Physician really is?

In this day and age, more than ever, we must make the effort to
look after our health. All illnesses and diseases, including
cancer, AIDS, Alzheimer's and heart and stroke are on the
increase. Unfortunately, just eating the right foods nowadays
doesn't guarantee good health, due to the poor nutritional value
of products in our grocery stores. Foods are grown in soils
depleted of the many required nutrients. Today's fertilizers do
contain some degree of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium, but
are lacking in nearly 50 other nutrients. Chemical pesticides are
not only dangerous to the consumer, but also to the farmer and
those living near the farms. Produce is picked too early, not
allowing the products to reach their maturity. And it takes
literally weeks for most food to reach the shelves of our stores.
In fact, it is almost impossible to eat healthy from your local
grocery store.

It's amazing the amount of money we spend on our automobiles for
preventative mainte nance. We wouldn't think of going on a trip
without first checking on of Bessie, making sure she is ready for
the long haul. Well, we can think of each day in our lives as
being a journey, and we should be willing to make sure we are
prepared as well. Because of the fast paced world that many of us
live in today, we tend too often to neglect our health. Sometimes
we just need to pull on the reins of life a little and slow
things down.

So what steps can we take to support our overall health? Well to
begin, let me use
a quote from one of Jack Flaw's sermons, and see if we can't take
this quote and apply it to everyday living. On more than one
occasion, I have heard him state," Don't read the Bible". Then,
after a lengthy pause, he repeats, "You shouldn't read the Bible
.... you should study the Bible". And yes, there is a big
difference. Now applying this philosophy to our health, we can
say, "Don't take what you read and hear today regarding your
health at its face value". Do a little research, dig a little
deeper, and you'll find that what our news media along with our
medical doctors are telling us might not be accurate.

If you have access to email and the Internet, you might want to
get on the mailing list of one or two "natural health"
newsletters. Learn how to prevent and cure many illnesses. Stay
informed of current health situations, and find related facts
that you won't read in your daily newspaper. Two of the better
newsletters I subscribe to can be found at www.mercola.com and
www.naturalnews.com

In the December 2008 edition of the TKC, Holly Mills stated that
we should eat organi cally whenever possible. (One of the key
definitions of organic is "pesticide free"). We've all heard the
expression, "support your local farmer". Unless you are fortunate
enough to be able to grow your own foods, find a local farmer, or
farmer's market, where the food is produced organically.
Unfortunately the word organic has been compromised nowadays with
major food retailers; it can no longer be trusted to mean truly
organic.

Are vitamins and supplements a necessary part of our every-day
diet? Absolutely! As stated earlier, even when trying to eat
healthy, we often fall short. Be careful what you hear about
vitamins being a waste of time and money. Keeping our nations
misinformed about healthy lifestyles is much more profitable for
"the powers to be".

Begin today, if you haven't already, to make a difference with
your health. Don't just say "I'm going to cut back on fast
foods", eliminate them completely from your diet.
I do believe there are many aspects to being a Christian. Let's
be sure to glorify God in both body and spirit.
..........

From "Thy Kingdom Come" - December 2011 - a publication of The
Association of the Covenant People, Burnaby, B.C. Canada.
..........


I have taken vitamin/mineral suppliments from a teenager, not as
many back then as I do now. I take today about 12 various
vitamin/mineral suppliments. As I do not eat but one main meal
per day (with oats for breakfast and fruit as snacks) to keep my
weight in check, and have cut out all "starch" foods (only now
and again eating whole wheat breads etc.) and the potato, again
to keep my weight under control, I then suppliment my
vitamin/mineral intake with supplimental vitamin/mineral tablets,
hence the 12 or so I take.

This I find works for me, to keep my weight in control and with
regular exercise I'm fit and healthy at nearly 70 years of age.

My Dad did the same in his life and though just getting over a
stroke, he's done well to be still alive at nearly 92.

Keith Hunt

Winston Churchill and a United Europe!

WINSTON CHURCHILL AND A UNITED EUROPE

by Brooks Alden

The great war leader, Winston Churchill, is seen as an icon of
statesmanship and cer tainly the courage he displayed during WW2
was remarkable. Many Christians are also deeply inspired by his
admission that he felt some guiding hand was behind the allied
victory. Yet, it is likely disheartening to many of us who have
been ardent Churchill followers to learn that he too favoured the
move toward a united Europe. Around 1938 he wrote his thesis
about "The United States of Europe" and after the war, delivered
many supportive lectures. Grant points to a December 30, 1946
Daily Telegraph article by Churchill, "One Way to Stop a New War"
in which he seemed ready to abandon the hard fought independence
of Britain and its remarkable impact on history. I suppose what
is most sad, for me anyway, was to see the tact of prevalent fear
of war and terror of living in a police state advanced by
Churchill as rationale for giving up independence. In his
article, Churchill also said, "Yet all this could be ended
at a single stroke. Two or three hundred millions of people in
Europe have only got to wake up one morning and resolve to be
happy and free by becoming one family of nations, banded together
from the Atlantic to the Black Sea for mutual aid and protection.
One spasm of resolve! One single gesture! The prison doors clang
open. Out walk, or totter, the captives into the sunshine of a
joyous world. I do not at all conceal from the reader that an act
of the Sublime is required. It is a very simple act, not even a
forward bound. just stand erect, but all together."

Among other things, Grant mused, "Does Mr. Churchill really
believe it is as simple as that." Obviously he didn't and
obviously it hasn't. Yet, Churchill probably knew that the plan
would take decades to complete, as it would certainly be
necessary that the proud British heritage had to be remoulded to
the point where complete integration would be welcome. Sadly,
Churchill's call for an "all party" organization for the
promotion of unity gives us a glimpse of what many of us will
speculate to be a less desirable side to this otherwise great
prime minister.
...........

From an article by Alden in the December 2011 "Thy Kingdom Come"
- a publication of The Association of the Covenant People,
Burnaby, B.C. Canada.
..........

And even with the troubles in Europe right now, there will emerge
an end time Holy Roman Empire, the last and 7th resurrection of
this Empire, and it is to be a might trading power. It will be
rules by a "beast" man and a miracle working "false prophet."
This Roman/Babylon power will come against a united Arab union of
nations, which it will destroy, and then match on into the Holy
Land and Jerusalem. This Europe power will rule the Western
world, destroying both the USA and the British Commonwealth in so
doing. IT will try to conquer the Eastern world, and a war will
ensue that if not stopped by the coming of Jesus Christ, would
lead to the destruction of every living person on earth.

But Jesus will come, and establish the Kingdom of God on earth,
and this planet will eventually be filled with the knowledge of
God as the waters cover the sea beds.

Keith Hunt

Steve Jobs #7

EARLY LIFE OF STEVE JOBS AND THE MAC

by Walter Isaacson


The Mac Is Born

When jobs was looking for someone to write a manual for the Apple
II in 1976, he called Raskin, who had his own little consulting
firm. Raskin went to the garage, saw Wozniak beavering away at a
workbench, and was convinced by Jobs to write the manual for $50.
Eventually he became the manager of Apple's publications
department. One of Raskin's dreams was to build an inexpensive
computer for the masses, and in 1979 he convinced Mike Markkula
to put him in charge of a small development project code-named
"Annie" to do just that. Since Raskin thought it was sexist to
name computers after women, he redubbed the project in honor of
his favorite type of apple, the McIntosh. But he changed the
spelling in order not to conflict with the name of the audio
equipment maker McIntosh Laboratory. The proposed computer became
known as the Macintosh.

Raskin envisioned a machine that would sell for $1,000 and be a
simple appliance, with screen and keyboard and computer all in
one unit. To keep the cost down, he proposed a tiny five-inch
screen and a very cheap (and underpowered) microprocessor, the
Motorola 6809. Raskin fancied himself a philosopher, and he wrote
his thoughts in an ever-expanding notebook that he called "The
Book of Macintosh." He also issued occasional manifestos. One of
these was called "Computers by the Millions," and it began with
an aspiration: "If personal computers are to be truly personal,
it will have to be as likely as not that a family, picked at
random, will own one."

Throughout 1979 and early 1980 the Macintosh project led a
tenuous existence. Every few months it would almost get killed
off, but each time Raskin managed to cajole Markkula into
granting clemency. It had a research team of only four engineers
located in the original Apple office space next to the Good Earth
restaurant, a few blocks from the company's new main building.
The work space was filled with enough toys and radio-controlled
model airplanes (Raskin's passion) to make it look like a day
care center for geeks. Every now and then work would cease for a
loosely organized game of Nerf ball tag. Andy Hertzfeld recalled,
"This inspired everyone to surround their work area with
barricades made out of cardboard, to provide cover during the
game, making part of the office look like a cardboard maze."
The star of the team was a blond, cherubic, and psychologically
intense self-taught young engineer named Burrell Smith, who
worshipped the code work of Wozniak and tried to pull off similar
dazzling feats. Atkinson discovered Smith working in Apple's
service department and, amazed at his ability to improvise fixes,
recommended him to Raskin. Smith would later succumb to
schizophrenia, but in the early 1980s he was able to channel his
manic intensity into weeklong binges of engineering brilliance.
Jobs was enthralled by Raskin's vision, but not by his
willingness to make compromises to keep down the cost. At one
point in the fall of 1979 Jobs told him instead to focus on
building what he repeatedly called an "insanely great" product.
"Don't worry about price, just specify the computer's abilities,"
Jobs told him. Raskin responded with a sarcastic memo. It spelled
out everything you would want in the proposed computer: a
high-resolution color display, a printer that worked without a
ribbon and could produce graphics in color at a page per second,
unlimited access to the ARPA net, and the capability to recognize
speech and synthesize music, "even simulate Caruso singing with
the Mormon tabernacle choir, with variable reverberation." The
memo concluded, "Starting with the abilities desired is nonsense.
We must start both with a price goal, and a set of abilities, and
keep an eye on today's and the immediate future's technology." In
other words, Raskin had little patience for Jobs's belief that
you could distort reality if you had enough passion for your
product.

Thus they were destined to clash, especially after Jobs was
ejected from the Lisa project in September 1980 and began casting
around for someplace else to make his mark. It was inevitable
that his gaze would fall on the Macintosh project. Raskin's
manifestos about an inexpensive machine for the masses, with a
simple graphic interface and clean design, stirred his soul. And
it was also inevitable that once Jobs set his sights on the
Macintosh project, Raskin's days were numbered. "Steve started
acting on what he thought we should do, Jef started brooding, and
it instantly was clear what the outcome would be," recalled
Joanna Hoffman, a member of the Mac team.

The first conflict was over Raskin's devotion to the underpowered
Motorola 6809 microprocessor. Once again it was a clash between
Raskin's desire to keep the Mac's price under $1,000 and Jobs's
determination to build an insanely great machine. So Jobs began
pushing for the Mac to switch to the more powerful Motorola
68000, which is what the Lisa was using. Just before Christmas
1980, he challenged Burrell Smith, without telling Raskin, to
make a redesigned prototype that used the more powerful chip. As
his hero Wozniak would have done, Smith threw himself into the
task around the clock, working nonstop for three weeks and
employing all sorts of breathtaking programming leaps. When he
succeeded, jobs was able to force the switch to the Motorola
68000, and Raskin had to brood and recalculate the cost of the
Mac.

There was something larger at stake. The cheaper microprocessor
that Raskin wanted would not have been able to accommodate all of
the gee-whiz graphics-windows, menus, mouse, and so on - that the
team had seen on the Xerox PARC visits. Raskin had convinced
everyone to go to Xerox PARC, and he liked the idea of a
bitmapped display and windows, but he was not as charmed by all
the cute graphics and icons, and he absolutely detested the idea
of using a point-and-click mouse rather than the keyboard. "Some
of the people on the project became enamored of the quest to do
everything with the mouse," he later groused. "Another example is
the absurd application of icons. An icon is a symbol equally
incomprehensible in all human languages. There's a reason why
humans invented phonetic languages."

Raskin's former student Bill Atkinson sided with jobs. They both
wanted a powerful processor that could support whizzier graphics
and the use of a mouse. "Steve had to take the project away from
Jef," Atkinson said. "Jef was pretty firm and stubborn, and Steve
was right to take it over. The world got a better result."

The disagreements were more than just philosophical; they became
clashes of personality. "I think that he likes people to jump
when he says jump," Raskin once said. "I felt that he was
untrustworthy, and that he does not take kindly to being found
wanting. He doesn't seem to like people who see him without a
halo." Jobs was equally dismissive of Raskin. "Jef was really
pompous," he said. "He didn't know much about interfaces. So I
decided to nab some of his people who were really good, like
Atkinson, bring in some of my own, take the thing over and build
a less expensive Lisa, not some piece of junk."

Some on the team found jobs impossible to work with. "Jobs seems
to introduce tension, politics, and hassles rather than enjoying
a buffer from those distractions," one engineer wrote in a memo
to Raskin in December 1980. "I thoroughly enjoy talking with him,
and I admire his ideas, practical perspective, and energy. But I
just don't feel that he provides the trusting, supportive,
relaxed environment that I need."

But many others realized that despite his temperamental failings,
Jobs had the charisma and corporate clout that would lead them to
"make a dent in the universe." Jobs told the staff that Raskin
was just a dreamer, whereas he was a doer and would get the Mac
done in a year. It was clear he wanted vindication for having
been ousted from the Lisa group, and he was energized by
competition. He publicly bet John Couch $5,000 that the Mac would
ship before the Lisa. "We can make a computer that's cheaper and
better than the Lisa, and get it out first," he told the team.
Jobs asserted his control of the group by canceling a brown-bag
lunch seminar that Raskin was scheduled to give to the whole
company in February 1981. Raskin happened to go by the room
anyway and discovered that there were a hundred people there
waiting to hear him; Jobs had not bothered to notify anyone else
about his cancellation order. So Raskin went ahead and gave a
talk.
That incident led Raskin to write a blistering memo to Mike
Scott, who once again found himself in the difficult position of
being a president trying to manage a company's temperamental
cofounder and major stockholder. It was titled "Working for/with
Steve Jobs," and in it Raskin asserted:

He is a dreadful manager ... I have always liked Steve, but I
have found it impossible to work for him ... Jobs regularly
misses appointments. This is so well-known as to be almost a
running joke ... He acts without thinking and with bad judgment
... He does not give credit where due ... Very often, when told
of a new idea, he will immediately attack it and say that it is
worthless or even stupid, and tell you that it was a waste of
time to work on it. This alone is bad management, but if the idea
is a good one he will soon be telling people about it as though
it was his own.

That afternoon Scott called in Jobs and Raskin for a showdown in
front of Markkula. Jobs started crying. He and Raskin agreed on
only one thing: Neither could work for the other one. On the Lisa
project, Scott had sided with Couch. This time he decided it was
best to let Jobs win. After all, the Mac was a minor development
project housed in a distant building that could keep Jobs
occupied away from the main campus. Raskin was told to take a
leave of absence. "They wanted to humor me and give me something
to do, which was fine,"Jobs recalled. "It was like going back to
the garage for me. I had my own ragtag team and I was in
control."

Raskin's ouster may not have seemed fair, but it ended up being
good for the Macintosh. Raskin wanted an appliance with little
memory, an anemic processor, a cassette tape, no mouse, and
minimal graphics. Unlike Jobs, he might have been able to keep
the price down to close to $1,000, and that may have helped Apple
win market share. But he could not have pulled off what Jobs did,
which was to create and market a machine that would transform
personal computing. In fact we can see where the road not taken
led. Raskin was hired by Canon to build the machine he wanted.
"It was the Canon Cat, and it was a total flop," Atkinson said.
"Nobody wanted it. When Steve turned the Mac into a compact
version of the Lisa, it made it into a computing platform instead
of a consumer electronic device."

Texaco Towers

A few days after Raskin left, Jobs appeared at the cubicle of
Andy Hertzfeld, a young engineer on the Apple II team, who had a
cherubic face and impish demeanor similar to his pal Burrell
Smith's. Hertzfeld recalled that most of his colleagues were
afraid of Jobs "because of his spontaneous temper tantrums and
his proclivity to tell everyone exactly what he thought, which
often wasn't very favorable." But Hertzfeld was excited by him.
"Are you any good?" Jobs asked the moment he walked in. "We only
want really good people working on
......

* Raskin died of pancreatic cancer in 2005, not long after jobs
was diagnosed with the disease.
......

the Mac, and I'm not sure you're good enough." Hertzfeld knew how
to answer. "I told him that yes, I thought that I was pretty
good." Jobs left, and Hertzfeld went back to his work. Later that
afternoon he looked up to see Jobs peering over the wall of his
cubicle. "I've got good news for you," he said. "You're working
on the Mac team now. Come with me."

Hertzfeld replied that he needed a couple more days to finish the
Apple II product he was in the middle of. "What's more important
than working on the Macintosh?" Jobs demanded. Hertzfeld
explained that he needed to get his Apple II DOS program in good
enough shape to hand it over to someone. "You're just wasting
your time with that!" Jobs replied. "Who cares about the Apple
11? The Apple 11 will be dead in a few years. The Macintosh is
the future of Apple, and you're going to start on it now!" With
that, Jobs yanked out the power cord to Hertzfeld's Apple II,
causing the code he was working on to vanish. "Come with me,"
Jobs said. "I'm going to take you to your new desk."Jobs drove
Hertzfeld, computer and all, in his silver Mercedes to the
Macintosh offices. "Here's your new desk," he said, plopping him
in a space next to Burrell Smith. "Welcome to the Mac team!" The
desk had been Raskin's. In fact Raskin had left so hastily that
some of the drawers were still filled with his flotsam and
jetsam, including model airplanes.

Jobs's primary test for recruiting people in the spring of 1981
to be part of his merry band of pirates was making sure they had
a passion for the product. He would sometimes bring candidates
into a room where a prototype of the Mac was covered by a cloth,
dramatically unveil it, and watch. "If their eyes lit up, if they
went right for the mouse and started pointing and clicking, Steve
would smile and hire them," recalled Andrea Cunningham. "He
wanted them to say 'Wow!'"

Bruce Horn was one of the programmers at Xerox PARC. When some of
his friends, such as Larry Tesler, decided to join the Macintosh
group, Horn considered going there as well. But he got a good
offer, and a $15,000 signing bonus, to join another company. Jobs
called him on a Friday night. "You have to come into Apple
tomorrow morning," he said. "I have a lot of stuff to show you."
Horn did, and Jobs hooked him. "Steve was so passionate about
building this amazing device that would change the world," Horn
recalled. "By sheer force of his personality, he changed my
mind." Jobs showed Horn exactly how the plastic would be molded
and would fit together at perfect angles, and how good the board
was going to look inside. "He wanted me to see that this whole
thing was going to happen and it was thought out from end to end.
Wow, I said, I don't see that kind of passion every day. So I
signed up."

Jobs even tried to reengage Wozniak. "I resented the fact that he
had not been doing much, but then I thought, hell, I wouldn't be
here without his brilliance," Jobs later told me. But as soon as
jobs was starting to get him interested in the Mac, Wozniak
crashed his new single-engine Beechcraft while attempting a
takeoff near Santa Cruz. He barely survived and ended up with
partial amnesia. Jobs spent time at the hospital, but when
Wozniak recovered he decided it was time to take a break from
Apple. Ten years after dropping out of Berkeley, he decided to
return there to finally get his degree, enrolling under the name
of Rocky Raccoon Clark.

In order to make the project his own, Jobs decided it should no
longer be code-named after Raskin's favorite apple. In various
interviews, jobs had been referring to computers as a bicycle for
the mind; the ability of humans to create a bicycle allowed them
to move more efficiently than even a condor, and likewise the
ability to create computers would multiply the efficiency of
their minds. So one day Jobs decreed that henceforth the
Macintosh should be known instead as the Bicycle. This did not go
over well. "Burrell and I thought this was the silliest thing we
ever heard, and we simply refused to use the new name," recalled
Hertzfeld. Within a month the idea was dropped.

By early 1981 the Mac team had grown to about twenty, and Jobs
decided that they should have bigger quarters. So he moved
everyone to the second floor of a brown-shingled, two-story
building about three blocks from Apple's main offices. It was
next to a Texaco station and thus became known as Texaco Towers.
In order to make the office more lively, he told the team to buy
a stereo system. "Burrell and I ran out and bought a silver,
cassette-based boom box right away, before he could change his
mind," recalled Hertzfeld.

Jobs's triumph was soon complete. A few weeks after winning his
power struggle with Raskin to run the Mac division, he helped
push out Mike Scott as Apple's president. Scotty had become more
and more erratic, alternately bullying and nurturing. He finally
lost most of his support among the employees when he surprised
them by imposing a round of layoffs that he handled with atypical
ruthlessness. In addition, he had begun to suffer a variety of
afflictions, ranging from eye infections to narcolepsy. When
Scott was on vacation in Hawaii, Markkula called together the top
managers to ask if he should be replaced. Most of them, including
Jobs and John Couch, said yes. So Markkula took over as an
interim and rather passive president, and Jobs found that he now
had full rein to do what he wanted with the Mac division.
......

NOTE:

One more chapter and that's it; you can read the rest of the
500 pages or so of the life of Steve Jobs and the iMac and etc.

Keith Hunt

Tebowing......Jesus would say...

So you have this Tim Tebow in American "football" (which ain't football but "pass-ball and run" - a much more accurate name, the "football" name is the silliest name you could give it) openly doing his "Christian religious stuff" in public. Now he may think Jesus wants him to do all this. Jesus taught not to be ashamed of Himself, but that meant, live a Christian life, don't go along with the crowd, if someone asks you tell them about your faith.

But Jesus also taught don't announce to people when you fast. Don't be as the "religious" leaders of His day and pray on the street corners to be seen of men. If you are specifically holding a religious service outside as Jesus did many times, or feeding 5,000 with a few loaves of bread in the name of God, a short thank-you prayer is in order.

But Tebow just ain't reading his Bible or the words of Christ whom he claims to follow.

And that is the problem with MILLIONS of "Christians" - they do not read the Bible, or what they read goes in one ear and out the out. Millions of "Christians" are Bible ILLITERATES - they claim to be disciples of Jesus, but have NO CLUE as to what He taught and preached.

Tebow is like the Pharisees of Jesus' day, he has his reward now, people look to him as some fine example of Christianity. Jesus taught when you pray enter your closet and pray. Tebow could get on his knees at home and pray before going to the ball park. He could pray silently as he walks out on the ball-field. But making a "big show" of his "religion" in public is exactly opposite to what Jesus taught.

Time for Tebow to start reading the words of Christ in a "red-letter" New Testament - time for a BILLION or more "Christians" to do the same.

You have these "Christian religious Book Clubs" and far far too many Christians are reading far too many "books" by others, and are so busy doing so, they never read the greatest book of all - the Bible.

In my series of studies "Shocking Statements of Jesus Christ" on my Youtube ... 1horsesrcool ... I have to keep repeating, "Get reading the words of Christ in the Gospels" for I know MILLIONS of "Christians" don't have a clue what Jesus taught and preached, hence they have no clue as to how to live as a Christian!

Do not let that be YOU!!

..........

ABC 20/20 and Women's childbirth situations in areas of the world

What an eye opening program tonight on ABC's 20/20 about childbirth in different parts of the under-developed world.

Afghanistan - children made to marry at .....8,10,12,14,15
Ten years ago 1 in 11 women died giving birth.
Training organizations went in - now it's today 1 in 50 die.

Main cause for deaths in any childbirth anywhere is HEMORRHAGING!

One certain pill - less than the cost of a postage stamp stops hemorrhaging.

......

Sierra Leone

1 in 21 women die in birthing. Hemorrhaging main cause.

Hospitals not equipped. One USA nurse felt helpless.

One lady distributed enough of those very small cost hemorrhaging pills and has so far saved 50,000 lives.

A new private clinic by an organization, set up for birthing, is like day from night in success.
......

Christi - a well-known USA model nearly died in childbirth from hemorrhaging. She now does much work for women in poor countries, to save lives.

The State of Georgia has one of the highest rates of deaths in birthing in the USA.

The USA is number 50 on the world list for deaths from birthing.

2 die every day in the USA from birthing.
......

Bangladesh today - deaths from birthing is down 40 percent.

Moms in action group by an organization doing a fine work in that country.

Half the people in Bangladesh have cell-phones. Hence teaching and help and advice etc. is being done using those phones.
......

Mexico - a Roman Catholic country - used to double its population every 20 years. Government 40 years ago started education giving on sex teaching and contraception. In the 1970s average family was 7 children, now it is 2 children.

One young lady went through College, and is now educating the young girls on sex and contraception.
......

YOU CAN GO TO ABC 20/20 and find tonight's program (Friday December 16th) and YOU CAN GIVE to support the education, health, care, of women giving birth. Since ABC brought all this to light one year ago (I missed that program) YOU have given 1.5 MILLION dollars. YOU have saved thousands of women's lives. YOU have brought CLEAN Water to many villages and hence good health, for families.

IT IS TRULY REMARKABLE WHAT WE CAN DO WHEN WE ALL JUST GIVE EVEN A FEW DOLLARS. IT ONLY TAKES ABOUT $3 TO SAVE A LIFE SO ABC SAID TONIGHT.

..........

BIG Brother is watching YOU, but NOT them!

BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU!
BUT NOT THOSE OVER THERE!

by Mark Steyn


What to do? Where to go? In 1785, the British philosopher Jeremy
Bentham began working on his famous "Pan-opticon"-a radial prison
in which a central "inspector" could see all the prisoners, but
they could never see him. In the computer age, we now have not
merely panopticon buildings, but panopticon societies, like
modern London, with its wall-to-wall CCTV cameras. Soon perhaps,
excepting a few redoubts such as Waziristan and the livelier
precincts of the Horn of Africa, we will have a panopticon
planet....

You remember how President Bush used to talk about illegal
immigration - about how we needed to help all those undocumented
people "living in the shadows"? Doesn't that sound kinda nice -
and restful? Living in the shadows, no government agencies
harassing you for taxes and numbers and paperwork. By comparison,
those of us in the blazing klieg lights of the nanny state are
shadowed everywhere we go: government numbers for this,
government cards for that, a life of barcodes and retinal scans,
the TSA Obergropinfuhrers at the airport.... You'd almost think
that, compared to the 15 or 30 or however many million fine
upstanding members of the Undocumented-American community are out
there, the 300 or so million in the overdocumented segment of the
population get a lousy deal. Incidentally, over half the illegal
population supposedly came to America after September 11, 2001.
That's to say, they broke into a country on Code Orange alert.
Odd that. Even under the panoptic surveillance of the "security
state," certain identity groups seem to be indulged by Big
Government. In California one notices that the same regulatory
leviathan that thinks nothing of sending in the heavies if a
hardware store is offering complimentary coffee to its customers
seems somewhat shyer of enforcing its bazillions of building
code/food prep/environmental/health and safety rules against ad
hoc mobile kitchens serving piping hot Mexican dishes up and down
the highway. Park your van, get out the plastic chairs, pull out
a tarp for a bit of shade, and start selling. All those county
kitchen inspectors and food-prep permit issuers? Not a problem.
Victor Davis Hanson, a tireless bicycler round the Golden State's
Central Valley, notices the ever proliferating slicks of fat and
lard emptied out on the road by such mobile restaurants, as do
the crows and squirrels who love lapping them up. In the
Panopticon State, the Shadowlands are thriving: a state that
presumes to tax and license Joe Schmoe for using the table in the
corner of his basement as a home office apparently doesn't spot
the half-dozen additional dwellings that sprout in Jose Schmoe's
yard out on the edge of town. Do-it-yourself wiring stretches
from bungalow to lean-to trailer to RV to rusting pick-up on
bricks, as five, six, eight, twelve different housing units pitch
up on one lot. The more Undocumented America secedes from the
hyperregulatory state, the more frenziedly Big Nanny documents
you and yours.

This multicultural squeamishness is most instructive. Illegal
immigrants are providing a model for survival in an impoverished
statist America, and on the whole the state is happy to let them
do so. In Undocumented America, the buildings have no building
codes, the sales have no sales tax, your identity card gives no
clue as to your real identity. In the years ahead, for many poor
Overdocumented-Americans, living in the Shadowlands will offer if
not the prospect of escape then at least temporary relief. As
America loses its technological edge and the present Chinese
cyber-probing gets disseminated to the Wikileaks types, the blips
on the computer screen representing your checking and savings
accounts will become more vulnerable. After yet another brutal
attack, your local branch never reconnects to head office; it
brings up from the vault the old First National Bank of
Deadsville shingle and starts issuing fewer cards and more
checkbooks. And then fewer checkbooks and more cash. In small
bills.

The planet is dividing into two extremes: an advanced world -
Europe, North America, Australia - in which privacy is vanishing
and the state will soon be able to monitor you every second of
the day; and a reprimitivizing world - Somalia, the Pakistani
tribal lands - where no one has a clue what's going on.
Undocumented America is giving us a lesson in how Waziristan and
CCTV London can inhabit the same real estate, like overlapping
area codes. There will be many takers for that in the years
ahead. As Documented America fails, poor whites, poor blacks, and
many others will find it easier to assimilate with Undocumented
America, and retreat into the shadows. It will not merely be
states and sub-state jurisdictions that secede, but individuals,
too.
..........

USA spending and Big Government!!

A SHORT LOOK

THE USA SPENDING SPREE BY BIG GOVERNMENT

by Mark Steyn

SPLITSVILLE


What prevents the "state popular" from declining into a "state
despotic"? As Tocqueville saw it, what mattered was the strength
of the intermediary institutions between the sovereign and the
individual. In France, the revo lution abolished everything, and
subordinated all institutions to the rule of central authority.
The New World was more fortunate: "The principle and lifeblood of
American liberty" was, according to Tocqueville, municipal
independence.
Does that distinction still hold? In the twentieth century the
intermediary institutions were belatedly hacked away-not just
self-government at town, county, and state level, but other
independent pillars: church, civic associations, the family.
After the diminution of every intervening institution, very
little stands between the individual and the sovereign, which is
why the latter now assumes the right to insert himself into every
aspect of daily life and why Henrietta Hughes in Fort Myers,
Florida, thinks it entirely normal to beseech the Wizard in the
far-off Emerald City, where the streets are paved with borrowed
green, to do something about her bathroom.

In its debased contemporary sense, liberalism is a universalist
creed. It's why the left dislikes federalism. Federalism means
borders, and borders mean there's always somewhere else to go:
the next town, the next county, the next state. I'm pro-choice
and I vote-with my feet. Universal liberalism would rather deny
you that choice. America has dramatically expanded not just
government generally, but nowhere-else-to-go government in
particular. As Milton Friedman wrote in 1979:

"From the founding of the Republic to 1929, spending by
governments at all levels, federal, state, and local, never
exceeded 12 percent of the national income except in time of
major war, and two-thirds of that was state and local spending.
Federal spending typically amounted to 3 percent or less of the
national income. Since 1933 government spending has never been
less than 20 percent of national income and is now over 40
percent, and two-thirds of that is spending by the federal
government.... By this measure the role of the federal government
in the economy has multiplied roughly tenfold in the past
half-century."

The object is to reduce and eventually eliminate alternatives -
to subsume everything within the Big Government monopoly.
Statists prefer national one-size-fits-all-and ultimately
planet-wide one-size-fits-all. Borders create the nearest thing
to a free market in government-as the elite well understand when
they seek to avoid the burdens they impose on you. John Kerry, a
Big Tax senator from a Big Tax state, preferred to register his
yacht in Rhode Island to avoid half-a-million bucks in cockamamie
Massachusetts "boat sales and use" tax." This is federalism at
work: states compete, and, when they get as rapacious as the Bay
State, even their own pro-tax princelings start looking for the
workarounds.

Bazillionaire senators will always have workarounds - for their
land, for their yachts, for their health care. You won't.
Meanwhile, they're relaxed about cities and states going broke -
because it's a great pretext for propelling government ever
upward. When California goes bankrupt, the Golden State's woes
will be nationalized and shared with the nation at large: the
feckless must have their irresponsibility rewarded and the
prudent get stuck with the tab. Passing Sacramento's buck to
Washington accelerates the centralizing pull in American politics
and eventually eliminates any advantage to voting with your feet.
It will be as if California and New York have burst their bodices
like two corpulent gin-soaked trollops and rolled over the
fruited plain to rub bellies at the Mississippi. If you're
underneath, it's not going to be fun.

What then are the alternatives? And, if you're a relatively sane,
lightly populated state such as Wyoming or a fiscally viable
powerhouse like Texas, are you prepared to beggar yourself for
the privilege of keeping fifty stars on Old Glory?
..........

NOTE:

THIS IS JUST A SMALL SAMPLE OF A GOVERNMENT GONE MAD
WITH SPENDING AND CONTROL, TO THE TUNE OF DEBT THAT IS
NOW 15 ***TRILLION*** YES THAT IS WITH A "T" - HUGE "T" !!!