Psst, quiet it's a secret

Most of you know I'm e-publishing novels and stories on Amazon and Smashwords under my name Patrick Prescott.
Well I ran into a problem. Some of my stories are distressing to my wife, mother and some of the more uptight religious friends, but what can I say, the characters keep taking me into directions they want to go and if that means describing a woman in all the beauty God created her with so be it. Anyway those stories are now published under my Pen Name.
So if you feel up to a little erotica check out stories by Javan Tenebrae at Amazon. com and Smashwords.com. They can also be found at I-books, Barnes and Nobles.
Some of my titles include three anthologies of flash stories;
Flash Stories: Married Love
Erotic Flash Stories
More Erotic Flash Stories

Short Stories:
First Friday: Aug-Oct (Okay this is the one where I went off the deep end and is a littel more PC-17 than the others)
Car Hop
Companion
Companion: Sasha's Story
Super Erotic Bowl I

Sandia Mountain

Sandia Mountain's East side from Paako Ridge Golf Course. The lines you see running up to the top are the ski runs.

 Sandia Mountain's North West face as seen from Santa Ana Golf Course in Bernalillo

Sandia Mountain's most famous West face from Albuquerque. Taken from Aroyo Del Oso Golf Course

Math and Science

On last nights policital debate and the hype that this would be a game changer for Romeny. Come on, the only televised political debate that decided an election was in 1960 and that was because Nixon's face melted on TV, everyone who heard it on radio felt Nixon won. This election hinges not on debates but blind faith over reason and reality -- lies vs facts. Two thoughts to make my point:

1. On the morning news they showed Obama repeating Clinton's point that the Republican plan of further reductions in Billionaire taxes plus closing loopholes will ballance the budget, and the arithmatic doesn't add up. (Paul Krugman's been saying this ever since it came out)
2. Bruce has a post about Oklahoma Baptist University hiring as head of its religion department a guy who is a "Young Earth" theologian and the ongoing fight with religious right dunderheads who keep advocating Creation Science or Intellegent Design over Astronomy, Geology, Biology, Zoology, Antrhopology, Achaeology and a host of other ologies.

Christian fundamentalists have been fighting against science from the beginning. Charles Darwin's Origen of Species and Descent of Man and the theory of evolution started the war against science which is ongoing and will never cease as long as Christian fundamentalists continue in their idiotic insistence on a literal interpretation of books in the Bible like Genesis and Revelation that were purposely written metaphorically and symbolically.
Science is at its bedrock mathematics. All science is a numbers game, they simply add empiricism (scientific method) to their particular discipline. So why do so many Christian fundamentalists have a problem understanding that the Republican plan doesn't add up? They've been brainwashed by their preachers and professors and home schooled or private religious schools to be skeptical of math. They've been taught that Carbon 14 dating, which relies on the same math that produced the atomic bomb is wrong, so trust their preachers and what they say about the origens of the universe based on the Bible. When Romney and the Republicans say "Trust me" they've been brainwashed to place their faith in God's political party instead of arithmatic. Their preachers said so.

The religious right does use math, and Blind Faith in their childish literal interpretation of the Bible to do great harm to education and our country. Why do these morons still insist that the universe is only 6,000 years old. The basis for this is the computations of Bishop Ussher a17th century theologian who added up all the ages of the patriarchs listed in Genesis until Abraham. He then calculated back from the birth of Jesus and settled on creation happening in 4004 BC.
This theory of creation was refuted by many theologians but I like this one written in 1890 by Professor William Henry Green in his Biblioteca Sacra:
We conclude that the Scriptures furnish no data for a chronological computation prior to the life of Abraham; and that the Mosaic records do not fix and were not intended to fix the precise date either of the Flood or of the creation of the world.
For those who insist "God said, I believe it, that settles it" guess what, God never said he created the universe in 4004BC or that those ages added together meant anything; Bishop Ussher did. Do you believe God or Bishop Ussher?
There is no scriptural or common sense reasoning to support the mathematical calculations of Ussher that God created the universe only 6,000 years ago even if you believe as I do that He did. Many Christians believe both the Bible and science. To us evolution is how God did it and is continuing to work His creation. There is no conflict between faith and reality or between the Bible and science because we interpret the scriptures metaphorically and symbolically like the reasoning beings we are:
When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. I Corinthian 13:1 NASV.
Only children and the feeble minded interpret everything litterally. Think of Abbot and Costello's classic comedy routine "Who's on first" why is it so funny? Because Costello can't get past his literal interpretation of the word 'who' to figure out that it's the players name.

Ultimately this war on science is doing irreparable harm.

• It weakens the message of Christ by limiting His power. Who are we to say He had to create the universe in only this way and at only this time?
• It limits the Bible to only one possible way to read it limiting the power of the Bible for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness. II Timothy 3:16b NASV
• It separates all Christians in the eyes of our culture and country and weakens our witness about the saving power of Jesus to change people lives, because the lost see us as out of touch with reality.
• Insisting on adding creationism or intellegent design to public school curriculums paints all Christians as childish or stupid and anti-science, anti-education, and no sane person would believe a word any Christian says about salvation destroying our witness.
• It is making generations of our children intellectually retarded and unable to think for themselves.
• Fundamentalist Christians are being used by greedy preachers and politicians in an unholy alliance in the Republican party to squeeze more and more money out of our economy and because they have been brainwashed that evolution is evil and science is of the devil they have their minds made up so don't confuse them with facts.

Romney and Ryan can lie over and over again on the campaign trail, in their advertisements and in the debates and the Fundies will eat their words like cotton candy. Unfortunately if Romney gets elected all of us will get stuck with tooth decay.

Childhood memories

One Fly, has an article about the closing of a little tourist trap around Canyon City, CO. In the 1930's as part of the New Deal the CCC built a bridge to nowhere over what is known as the Royal Gorge. It was at the time the world's highest suspension bridge. You could drive up to it and walk across it, but there wasn't a road on the other side. It became a tourist attraction. When we were little there was a tram that went from the river below about half way up, for some time now there's been a train. There was a train back then too, but it was a freight train route not a tourist train. Off to the side was a place called Buckskin Joe's. A mock western town with all kinds of not so cheap junk. Every hour there was a shootout, the sherrif would arrest the gunslinger who won, there'd be a quick trial and hanging, he'd be placed in a coffin and carried away to await the next hour. Between that entertainment the kids would be running around in their straw cowboy hats and plastic vests with toy guns and if the sherrif saw you with your gun out of your holster he'd arrest you and put you in jail until your parents came to get you out. I have a lot of fond memories of Buckskin Joes. It's been sold and moved to Gunnison County to be a private museum for one of the Koch brothers. Some 835 acres of land have been sold to him and nothing is mentioned in the article, but some kind of mining operation will most likely destroy pristine land west of Pikes Peak. All the water aquifer in the headwaters of the Platte and Arkansas rivers need is fracking.
In the news article the guy who sold the place lamented the drop off in tourism most notably in August and like most morons blames the unions for all educational problems. It seems the teacher's unions wanted to shorten summer vacations for teachers. DOES THIS MAKE SENSE?
It was the numbskull politicians wanting to IMPROVE education and accountability decided all students at the high school level needed to take finals both semesters. For a number of years the first semester's finals fell in the second week of January after the students came back from Winter break. The colleges of education at universities then threw a temper tantrum that this was setting students up for failure which put pressure on the school districts to move the start of school into August so finals could be taken in December. This also allowed for a week of Spring Break in late March or early April and the school year to end a week earlier in May. Not all school districts changed their school calendars and still adhere to the old one that starts in September and ends in June some of them in Colorado.
I can understand how cutting two weeks of tourism short would hurt his business, but the unions had nothing to do with it. The teacher's unions are about collective bargaining on wages, benefits, and better working conditions for the teachers not when school starts.

Optimus Is Back

I've finished revising Optimus and it is now available for only .99 when Publish America priced it at 27.95. pmprescottenterprises.com will also take you to all my other novels, anthologies and stories.
You can get it at smashwords.com and amazon.com.
There are still some used print copies at Amazon.

Newsweek admits they don't factcheck

Newsweek's latest issue has an artilce giving reasons why Obama should not be re-elected. Niall Ferguson's article is full of inaccuracy's according to Paul Krugman and Brad De Long. De Long is calling for Newsweek to fire Ferguson and Harvard to think about a history professor who can't seem to get his facts rights.
So what a bunch of politico's fussing, what's new.
Check out the whole article here.
What caught my eye was this statement issued by Newsweek on the issue:

UPDATE: 12:56 p.m. -- Newsweek did not fact-check Ferguson's cover story, according to Dylan Byers, a media reporter at Politico. Byers wrote on Twitter that a Newsweek spokesman said the magazine does not have a fact-checking department, and that "we, like other news organisations today, rely on our writers to submit factually accurate material."

What a crock of shit!

Tell that to all the writer's who invented stories and it hit the fan and they were fired. Tell that to Dan Rather who's career was derailed even when it was the truth, but his sources were questionable.
If you're a Republican facts don't matter and the news organizations don't need to fact check. Again what a crock of shit.

Press Conference

Here's the video of Russ Sype's press conference last Saturday. It's well done.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkvGgX30i18

Sype for the General Welfare

The press conference at the Elegante motel was a resounding success. There were around 25 in attendence with a reporter from the Alibi. It was video taped and in a week or two I'll post the U-tube link.
Russell's main point is that government is charged with providing for the general welfare and if a high quality public eduaction isn't covered, What is? If quality health care for all citizens isn't, What is?
More to come.

Sype for President

William Russell Sype will announce his candidacy for President of the United States in the year of our Lord 2016 at the Elegante Hotel in Albuquerque, NM tomorrow August 9, 2012 at 10:30am. I've agreed to the honor of serving as his campaign manager. All who are in the neighborhood and wish to attend are more than welcome. We've been informed that the local media will attend.

What's a "geek"

Theres a computer repair company that runs around town with "Geek Squad" in big letters all over over it. Its become acceptable to refer to anyone who knows computers well as "geeks."
The term makes me cringe because I know the original meaning for a "geek" and it wasn't about computers.

Anyone unfamiliar with the term “geek” should seek out and read William Lindsay Gresham’s now-classic 1946 novel, NIGHTMARE ALLEY, for the most chillingly accurate description ever set in type. A geek is usually a wetbrain; that is, a young or old man so far gone into alcoholism that his brain has turned to prune-whip yogurt. When he sweats, he sweats sour mash. A gilly locates a skid in whatever town it’s in, and carries him to the next stop, and as many stops as it can get out of him before he dies or wanders off. For the splendid honorarium of a bottle of gin or two a day, the skid will dress in an animal skin, go without shaving, sleep in a cage, and on cue wallow in his own filth, eat dead snakes, bit the head off live chickens. No reputable carny will carry a geek. It is a terrible thing. It plays to the basest hungers and most primal fears in the human repertory. Anyone who could derive enjoyment from watching a debased creature, seemingly only half human, scuttling across the floor of a foul, stinking pit or pen, smearing itself with feces, rubbing its privates on the gnawed skin of a dead rattlesnake, moaning and rolling its eyes as it devolved before one’s eyes, reverting to a stage of subhuman existence not even Cro-Magnons knew… such a person is beneath contempt, lower even that the poor bastard in that cage.


Harlan Ellison, STALKING THE NIGHTMARE; Berkeley Books, New York; 1982 page 300.

I'm not so sure if that company really knew what the word  "geek" meanst they'd advertise it on their trucks.

Stunned, but not surprised

I fully expected the Affordable Care Act to be gutted by the Supremes. The surprise on it being upheld was that Roberts cast the deciding vote instead of Kennedy. Then I thought, "No", the other four are political animals that vote mostly for the Republican agenda, and much could be said for Roberts, but maybe he's not just a Republican hack, but a corporate hack. After all Citizen's United is his trademark decision. The sticking point for Affordable Care was the individual mandate and this is a gold mine for the health insurance industry. All those 20 and 30 somethings that gamble on good health and forgo insurance will now have to buy in and that spells Billions if not Trillions in the next decade or two.
Obama has his victory, but it might prove pyrrhic. The Republicans will use the individual mandate as a stick to beat him over the head and Roberts gave them the ammunition by calling it a tax. After all they are the no-tax party. The progressives were secretly hoping it would be overturned so they could push for a single payer system, but without sixty-one votes in the Senate that would be nothing but wishful thinking.
This will make for an interesting election season.

Wonderful performance

Went to see Les Miserables. Great performance. Wish we  had the money to see all the shows that come this way, but maybe only being able to take in one every so often makes them special.

Civics Lesson on Natual Born Citizen

Hat tip to blogger buddy Ruined Chapel  If Mitt Romney's father who was born in Mexico could run for President without an eyebrow being raised. Why all the fuss about Obama?

Trouble with Tickets

I bought 4 tickets to see Les Miserables in June at Popejoy thinking we could invite another couple to see it with us. I keep striking out getting someone who wants to see it. Am I the only one who really appreciates this musical?

Give Me That Oil Company Religion

Where did Christian Fundamentalism come from? What's all the nonsense about being "Left Behind?"

Christian Fundamentalism is noted for two major characteristics: A) Bibliolatry or worship of the Bible. The term they use is “inerrant” or that the Bible is without error. What is inerrant is their literal interpretation of the scriptures. B) Dispensationalism. Okay a big word, but it refers to the belief that Jesus is coming again to “rapture” all Christians and then God will cause all kinds of nasty things to happen called “tribulation” and then there will be the battle of Armageddon leading to a thousand year reign of Christ on Earth. Sometimes this is referred to as Pre-millennialism, because we are living before this thousand year reign.

To a certain extent there have always been literal interpretations of the Bible, but when it became available to the masses with the release of the King James Version in English (1611) and Luther’s translation in German sparking the Reformation there was on vital element missing in a clear understanding of the scriptures. For over a thousand years the Bible was locked up by the Roman Catholic Church. Very little was done in the way of preserving the historical context in which they were written. Those that insist on a literal translation don’t have a clue to understanding the metaphors and nuances the writers were referring to and thus miss the point and come up with all kinds of silly beliefs. In the 19th century and continuing to this day much has been done to understand the historical context. This is known as Hermeneutics. A number of scholars putting the Bible to historical and linguistic analysis reached conclusions that upset the apple cart of basic beliefs among them that the Pentateuch was not written by Moses or that the NT books were not written by the apostles or those close to them. Ultimately, they rejected core doctrines of the Bible, including the virgin birth and the deity of Jesus Christ. This became known as liberalism.

And thus I’m now answering my rhetorical question of where Evangelical Christian Fundamentalism started. The term fundamentalist actually comes from a series of books called The Fundamentals: A Testimony To The Truth. This was a set of 90 essays in 12 volumes published from 1910 to 1915 by the Bible Institute of Los Angeles (BIOLA).

They affirmed orthodox Protestant beliefs, especially those of the Reformed tradition. The books were sent for free to every minister, missionary, Sunday School superintendent, and other Christian leaders. This was financed by two brothers, Lyman and Milton Stewart. Lyman was a businessman and founder of Union Oil Co, which became Unocal. They also established BIOLA University.

These books took hold among some very influential dispensationalists, C.I. Scofield, among them. Scofield is the editor of the Scofield reference Bible, a King James Version of the Bible that has numerous footnotes and references illustrating dispensationalist principles from the Bible.

As fundamentalism took hold in Bible-believing communities, a belief in the rapture of the church also became an essential part of modern American Christianity.

Over time, many of these Bible-believing churches became very rigid about cultural customs and sought to associate certain features of culture with Biblical faith. This is where concepts such as that of women wearing only dresses or skirts became part of American Christianity. Along with this came notions that playing pool, dancing, and attendance at movies were sinful. Sometimes this is called the Social Gospel. Prohibition was a part of this and our current drug war is a continuation of it. This part of fundamentalism is what is causing our Culture War and what is now termed the War on Women after the rantings of Michelle Bachman and Santorum in the nearly forgotten debates of the past six months. For the record Santorum is an Opus Dei Catholic you might say their version of fundamentalist.

Later in the 20th century, as Billy Graham became the most influential Christian in America, the thinking Christian theologians and pastors that he gathered around him sought to separate cultural issues from authentic Christianity. They were convinced that requiring certain cultural standards as part of becoming a Christian hindered the work of evangelism. They sought to come up with a term to describe them and others like them that would separate them from fundamentalists. The terms they coined was “evangelicals.”

By the end of the 20th century, the term “evangelicals” came to denote a certain extremely conservative political agenda. No term has yet taken hold to distinguish Bible-believing Christians committed to missions and evangelism from similar minded Christians who hold to a certain political agenda.

Here is where fundamentalism joins forces with Dispensationalism. So where did this “rapture theology come from?”

The doctrine of the Rapture is not mentioned in any Christian writings, of which we have knowledge, until after the year 1830. Whether the early writers were Greek or Latin, Armenian or Coptic, Syrian or Ethiopian, English or German, orthodox or heretic, no one mentioned it before 1830.

For thousands of eminent scholars over seventeen centuries (including the most astute “Christian Fathers” and those of the Reformation and post-reformation periods) must be considered prophetic dunces for not having understood so fundamental a teaching. This lapse of seventeen centuries when no one elaborated on the doctrine must be viewed as an obstacle to accepting its reliability.

In the middle 1820’s a religious environment began to be established among a few Christians in London, England, that proved to be the catalyst from which the doctrine of the Rapture emerged. There were many people claiming that they expected the soon coming of the Lord. This was not really a new thing, but what was unusual was the teaching by a Presbyterian minister named Edward Irving that there had to be a restoration of the spiritual gifts mentioned in 1 Corinthians chapters 12–14 just before Christ’s Second Advent. For Irving, the time had come for those spiritual manifestations to occur. Among the expected gifts was the renewal of speaking in tongues and of prophetic utterances motivated by the spirit. The Presbyterian Church dismissed Irving because of this teaching in 1832. In 1830, two years before Irving’s dismissal from the Presbyterian Church, there began what seemed to be a revival of the “gifts” among some people living in the lowlands of Scotland.

They experienced what they called the outpouring of the Spirit. This was accompanied with speaking in “tongues” and other charismatic phenomena. Irving preached that these things must occur and now they were. On one particular evening, the power of the Holy Spirit was said to have rested on a Miss Margaret Macdonald while she was ill at home. She was dangerously sick and thought she was dying. In spite of this (or perhaps because she is supposed to have come under the “power” of the spirit) for several successive hours she experienced manifestations of “mingled prophecy and vision.” She found her mind in an altered state and began to experience considerable visionary activity. The message she received during this prophetic vision convinced her that Christ was going to appear in two stages at His Second Advent, and not a single occasion as most all people formerly believed.

Many people have thought that John Darby, the founder of the Plymouth Brethren, was the originator of the Rapture doctrine. This is not the case. Darby was a brilliant theologian with outstanding scholarly abilities. Even those who disagreed with his teachings admit that he, and many associated with him, helped cause a revival in biblical learning throughout the evangelical world which has perpetuated down to the present day. This renewal of language studies was not the only thing they produced. The doctrine of “Dispensationalism” was also a teaching they brought to the attention of the Protestant world. And then, there was this new doctrine termed the “Rapture.” While many Christians long thought the Rapture doctrine originated with John Darby, it is now known that this was not true.

Darby popularized it. Scofield and others took it over. But Darby provided the intellectual mantle that helped make it respectable. Many of those in the evangelical sphere of Christianity today are so certain of its truth that it is accepted as the absolute truth of God. The fact is, however, John Darby received the knowledge of the doctrine from someone else. His source was Margaret Macdonald.

So there you have it. Two Oil Billionaires bought the minds and souls of most Protestant leaders by offering free books and C.I. Scofield adding footnotes to the KJV based on the rantings and ravings of a deranged woman thinking she was going to die has corrupted Christian beliefs and made it nearly impossible to recognize a true believer from a moron.

Interesting how two Oil Billionaires named Koch are reaping the rewards by controlling the minds of these morons so they can rape and pillage our planet, destroy unions, and kill the middle class in the industrialized world.
Most of the information and wording above comes from Stephen C. M. Long, pastor of Tender Mercy Baptist Church. The conclusion of what this information means if mine.

Flat Tire

My friend that was running for the new house seat has dropped out of the race. She started fast, but had a flat tire. After two weeks of knocking on doors she was flat tired. She also found out to be taken seriously it would cost her much more than she could afford or raise.

Futile day

Attorney sent me to Los Lunas to drop off a pleading. This is a weird case where the judge is in Los Lunas, but the case is in Sandoval County. I had to go to Sandoval County to file the pleading, so I drive all the way up to Bernalillo over the river and down to the courthouse only to find they close at 11:00am on Fridays. Five hours and drove over 100 miles and accomplished zip. Back to Sandoval courthouse Monday. Nice he's paying for all of this instead of me.

Real Politics

Russ and I have been planning his run for President in 2016. Meanwhile a friend of my mothers' Candelaria (Candy) Patterson is actually running for the State House of Representatives for the newly formed District 26. I've chipped in $50 bucks to start building her campaign treasury and helped her write a speech she gave at the meeting of the West Side Democrats last week. When she gave the speech she scrapped about 90% of what I advised her on. My Twin from Colorado came down this weekend looking for a job in Roswell. She spent a night coming and going back with Mom. Last night she took her to Candy's where she designed her campaign logo. It's too bad her district is across I-40 from where I live so I can't vote for her. It looks like this is going to be an interesting election year.

William Russell Sype for President 2016

Russ at Private Buffoon on Feb, 23 announced his candidacy for President of the United States for 2016. I've offered my services as campaign manager. We met yesterday for a planning session. More to come later, check either his blog or mine.

Santorum is a Dunce

Much is being made of the statements by Rick Santorum about him wanting to throw up when he hears separation of church and state. I've heard different commentators saying that his Catholic beliefs are medeival. There is truth in this statement. Santorum and the an element in the Catholic Church have drudged up the 13th century philosopher Duns Scotus 1265-1308 and are espousing his views.
Here is what Thomas B. Costain says in the second book of his Plantagenet series: The Magnificent Century.
Duns Scotus...is claimed by the Irish, but...born somewhere in the border country between England and Scotland earned a place in the front rank of teachers and established a school of thought directly opposed to that of Thomas Acquinas. The antagonism between the two orders fanned the controversy over the beliefs and philosophies of the two men into a blaze of hatred.  Thomas was a constructive thinker; Duns Scotus took the stand... that all men could accept is what revelation had supplied. The Thomists called their opponents Dunces, and the word made a place for intself in the language which would have distressed the eminent doctor if he had lived to realize it.
Okay take out the fancy language to put the difference between the two thinkers is that Saint Thomas Acquinas believed man capable thinking for himself and expanding on the Bible. Scotus was a "God said it, I believe it, that settles it" kind of man.
The followers of Acquinas advanced human thought which ultimately led to the reformation, enlightenment and modern thought. Scotus was Status Quo Ante. If his thought prevailed there would have been intellectual stagnation. Scotus was beatified by Pope John Paul II on March 20, 1993. That kind of tells the tale of an element in the Catholic Church like Rick Santorum wanting to return to medeival times. Remember in the 13th century the Pope could dictate to all political leaders and the feared and trembled. In Santorums latest rant he rebuked and repudiated JFK's speech in support of the 1st ammendment. This guy wants to establish the Catholic Church as the official religion of the United States and what boggles the mind is that Protestant evangelicals are voting for him.