'It's Great To Have A President Who Knows What A Library Is'... Paul McCartney

This coming from the super-well-educated Paul McCartney who was born in 1942 and left school in 1960.  That's right, Paul McCartney, who has the United Kingdom equivalent of a United States High School education, critcizing President George W. Bush who graduated with an undergraduate degree from Yale and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

I like the Beatles, but Paul needs to get a clue.

(see for example, Wikipedia)

Near the end between Jack and Christian:

"I don't understand.  You died." -- Jack
"Yeah, yes I did." -- Christian
"Then how are you here right now?" -- Jack
"How are you here?" -- Christian
"I died too." -- Jack
Christian nods.
"Its okay, its okay son." -- Christian
...
"Are you real?" -- Jack
"I sure hope so. Yeah, I'm real. Your real, everything that has ever happened to you is real. All those people in the church. They're all real too."-- Christian
"And they're all dead?" -- Jack
"Everyone dies sometime kiddo. Some of them before you, some long after you." -- Christian
"Why are they all here now?" -- Jack
"Well, there is no now, here." -- Christian
"Where are we dad?" -- Jack
"This is the place you, that you all made together so you that can find one another. The most important part of your life, was the time that you spent with these people. That's why all of you are here. Nobody does it alone, Jack. You needed all of them and they needed you." -- Christian
"For what?" -- Jack
"To remember and to let go." -- Christian
"Kate. She said we were leaving." -- Jack
"Not leaving, no. Moving on." -- Christian
"Where are we going?" -- Jack
"Let's go find out." -- Christian

The Finale of Lost seems to say that when the characters on the island died on the island, they moved to the flash-sideways.  Once they lived their lives and made peace with themselves in the flash-sideways they could move on to heaven (or a heaven type place) to meet all together.

What Christian says above "This is the place you all made together so you can find one another" he is speaking about the church, not the flash-sideways world.  Where everyone will meet after they have lived their lives.

Locke and Ben outside the church:

"Is everyone already inside?" -- Locke
"I believe most of them are, yes." -- Ben
...
"I'm very sorry for what I did to you John. I was selfish. Jealous. I wanted everything you had. " -- Ben
"What did I have?" -- Locke
"You were special John, but I wasn't." -- Ben
"Well if it helps Ben, I forgive you. "-- Locke
"Thank you John, that does help, but now there's more than I can say." -- Ben
"What are you going to do now?" -- Locke
"I have some things I still need to work out. I think I'll stay here awhile. You know I don't think you need to be in that chair any more." -- Ben
"Goodbye Ben." -- Locke

Alternative explanations that I don't think are correct:

1. Only purgatory and Heaven?  E.g. the island as purgatory.  If so, where was Michael?  Did we just not see his flash-sideways?  Ana Lucia?  If we believe Christian, all of it was real meaning it was not purgatory.  Regarding the church, where were Richard?  Miles?  Charlotte?  Lapidus?  Alex?  Rousseau?  Jacob?  (Perhaps Jacob didn't need a redemption).  Widmore?  Walt?  Were none of them important enough to Jack?  Jacob was at least.  Richard perhaps.

2. Or were the flash-sideways real or merely Jack's imagination?  It would seem that they were not imagination given Christian's statement about "made together" and that the island was a real place.  (Unless the conversation with Christian was imagination too.)

3. What about the ones who left on the plane, Richard, Miles, Lapidus, Sawyer, Kate and Claire.  Some were in the church at the end, some were not.  Did Ben become the "Jacob" after Hurley died and continue on the island for good? Was this why he wasn't ready to go on into the church?  Were the others just not important enough to Jack?

4.  Did the entire island experience occur in the time it took Jack to die from the initial Oceanic 815 crash?  Was everyone else just along for "Jack's redemption"?  Not if we believe Christian.

5. Was it really only Jack who died and all the people from the island were still alive after their redemptions, but at his funeral with island memories?  Not if we believe Christian.

And some of the open questions regarding the Lost Finale that the "man of science" would ask:

1. Who created the island?  Who created the "cork in the bottle"?

2. Who was Jacob and Not Locke's mother?  How did she get there?

3. What about Not Locke/Smokey/The Smoke Monster?  (Great Target commercial in there with the smoke detector, by the way!)  Why no redemption for him?

4. What was the transformation Jacob's brother went through?

5. Richard was not in the church and no flash-sideways for him.  Did Jacob's gift to Richard still protect him?  It appears that when Jacob died, so did his "gift" to Richard (the grey hair), but where was he?

6. "You're too late" - Not Locke. Was he just wrong again when he said that? I think so.

7. Why could babies not be conceived and born on the island?  It was either/or.  Was it because it was only for "lost souls" and babies would not be lost souls?

8. Why were Walt and Aaron so important to the others?  Were the other's taking the "innocents" who were not in need of redemption?

9. Where did the healing properties on the island come from?  Was everyone healed so they could have time for their redemption?

10. What was the importance of the electro-magnetism?

11. Did the bomb work?  What were the real effects?  Were the effects the make the flash-sideways and island run in parallel until the person died in the sideways world when they would merge?

12. Why was Desmond so important with regard to the electro-magnetic effects?

13. Eloise Hawking? She preferred the flash-sideways world where her son was alive and a musician.

14. If there was no "now" in the church, that would lead one to believe that Ben was still on the island (his non-flash sideways portion) whereas Hurley was not and had died.

The story was a lot of fun, but was there meaning there?  I sum, I think so, in analyzing the priorities of life.

The message seems to be that life and the world have different meanings and answers to different people with different perspectives.  The mysteries are unsolvable and the important things are the resolution of the issues within ourselves to give forgiveness, love, joy, through faith which leads to redemption.  Resolving those leads to no longer being Lost, but being found.

"I'll see you in another life, brother."

So, the United States can now throw out the old flag while Congress throws out the last vestiges of the Constitution.  As such, a more modern flag is needed.  Several contenders to replace the old "Stars and Stripes" with a more timely flag are shown below.

Which do you prefer?  Let us know in the comments!

Sickle and Stripes - Option 1

Stars, Sickle and Stripes - Option 2

Star-sickle and Stripes - Option 3

Check out Racist Democrat, former CBS anchor Dan Rather saying that Obama couldn't "sell watermelons on highway if a state trooper was flagging down traffic."

Notice that he echoes Joe Biden's comment about President Obama being "articulate." Was Chris Matthews' leg tingling then? Talk about out of touch!  Notice how quickly Chris Matthews tries to change the topic and get Rather off the "watermelons" comment?

...independents will buy this argument, he just hasn't been leading.  Look at the health care bill, his number one priority  and it took him for everything through and he had to compromise it to death.  And a version of listen, he's a nice person and very articulate, this is what's going to be used against him, but he couldn't sell watermelons on highway if a state trooper was flagging down traffic."

"The US government’s policy of leaving the Internet alone is over, according to Obama’s top official at the Department of Commerce." Assistant Secretary Larry Strickling, The Register and see the NTIA presentation.

The internet is too powerful for governments that want to control the thoughts of their population to leave alone.  Along with the extension of the Patriot Act (WashingtonPost.com), the Obama Administration arguing in Federal Court that there is no "reasonable expectation of privacy" on cell phones - funny, we missed the ACLU, EFF, and the press having conniptions about the Democrat controlled Congress and Democrat President signing the extension - Washington has a nice tight grip on the communications of the country.

But, it is nice to have "government oversight" over everything - you wouldn't want to do something without permission would you?

How appropriate that the President would refer to them as the "Press Corpse" - they are dead to their jobs and let personal biases guide their reporting.

SJB Foundation has demanded a response or is threatening a demonstration outside 15 Apple Stores. Seems like the typical tactic when an opportunity comes up: threaten protests, send out emails to get publicity, get a donation or ten from big companies. For a group that is supposed to be doing good work it is extremely disappointing to see  the Sarah Jane Brain Foundation resort to something like this, while I do not doubt their sincerity, shakedowns are not a way to get positive press.

In this case, the "soul of [the Sarah Jane Brain Foundation] organization" seems to be the part lacking.  Positive, useful, productive yes, shakedowns of corporations, no.  Who is in favor of child abuse?  No one in their right minds, but something like this from them?  In short, a very disappointing message from the Sarah Jane Brain Foundation.  Blaming Apple and AT&T for the actions of individuals who have harmed children and babies is insane.

Excerpts below:

The Sarah Jane Brain Foundation held a news conference today outside the Apple Store in downtown Manhattan releasing the letter below to the Boards of Directors of Apple and AT&T. Just about every television network was represented at the news conference so watch your local evening news tonight for complete coverage. While Apple has removed the "BABY SHAKER" app from its online store, Steve Jobs and Randall Stephenson have not issued a personal public apology, Apple has not issued a full accounting of how this was vetted and launched and Apple and AT&T have not offered a significant plan to mitigate the damages they have done to prevent child abuse.

...

If we do not receive an adequate response from Apple and AT&T by the time we begin our 15-city American PABI Tour on May 3rd (pabitour.com - to promote awareness and support families who are dealing with PABI) we will hold a demonstration in front of the Apple Store in all 15 cities.

"Well, you either ought to have the Fairness Doctrine or we ought to have more balance on the other side, because essentially there's always been a lot of big money to support the right wing talk shows and let face it, you know, Rush Limbaugh is fairly entertaining even when he is saying things that I think are ridiculous...."

For someone who attended law school and was President of the United States to blatantly ignore the First Amendment to the Constitution (not to mention the fact that the Constitution gives the Federal Government no power to regulate the press) is appalling.  

When all power is concentrated in Washington and there is no one permitted to speak up for Freedom and Liberty, we can look back on comments such as these and see the steps we took to get there.

Now on Friday  she asked where she was "going to get $400 a month."  Henrietta,  it is called a J-O-B.  You don't "get" $400 per month.  You EARN it for doing WORK that is of VALUE to someone else.

I want to know where I'm "going to get $4 million a month."  The only answer is that I am going to EARN it or I am going to TAKE it from someone else by force.  If I come up with an excuse that I *really* *really* NEED $4 million per month, will Washington send it to me?  

When you are asking for a hand-out from the rest of us (or worse, taking it at the point of a gun),  you better be ready for the strings that come with it.

(See http://www.winknews.com/news/local/39518252.html)

In part he said: "She is extremely proud, and the point I was making was not that my grandmother harbors any racial animosity. She doesn't. But she is a typical white person who, you know, if she sees somebody on the street that she doesn't know, there is a reaction that has been bred into our experiences that don't go away..."