September 2, 2006

As I was thinking about how to open my show with the subject matter in the Virgo category being animals and pets in particular, my dog Merlin opened the door of my office with his nose and came in to keep me company. It could be that dogs have a psychic link to the people who raised them and love them but it’s also the power of canines to have a sense of connection to their masters, for lack of a better term. Actually, it does work because dogs do have to be dominated by the people who train them to let them know who is boss. Some people who don’t understand animals all that well believe they are being mistreated during the training process when the reverse is actually true, as they are preparing for worst case scenarios and will be better equipped to protect a family. There are all different kinds of dogs in the world for all different reasons and some places or people have dogs for no reason, while other places have dogs around but don’t own them or care for them personally. There are purebreds and mutts as well as designer dogs like the Cockapoo and the Labradoodle that are specifically bred for intelligence and companionship. If people designed their children like they design some of these dogs, we would have smarter, healthier, more sensitive humans who actually had a useful function in this world. As it is, dogs, as well as people, can breed indiscriminantly and cause significant damage to the breed or the species. With Irish Setters a while back, it was as though their brains had been bred right out of them. Add in a little Lab DNA in the part of the DNA that triggers intelligence and you have positively altered the genetic inclinations.

Dogs are our friends and some breeds also are working dogs, some others are herding or retrieving dogs, while others go after rats and other rodents. Not all dogs are created equal because not all grow up with a home and affection. Dogs are naturally affectionate and curious and always seem to be hungry, whether or not they just ate. Our beasts in the house are always hanging around the table for scraps anytime we eat, as it is what helped domesticate them in the first place, many thousands of years ago, back in the caveman days. Kings would have dogs around for hunting and would feed them from the table so they wouldn’t have to throw food away. Later on, people began breeding the dogs for specific traits and that has evolved into dog shows wherein the best representatives of the various breeds are paraded around and voted upon for the best of all dogs. Well, anyone who knows dogs knows you can’t single out any one breed as being the best of all the dog world. Everyone has a purpose and personality type that should fit the person who wants a dog. It is complimenting each other’s nature that shows the real harmony of pets and their people.

Nature has a way of fighting back when she is as disturbed as we humans have made her and the fury of fire is often relentless. When it strikes people we know and places we go, we can’t help but feel affected and such an event has happened. The dog rescue operation my wife and son are volunteers for had their ranch and kennel hit in the Santa Clarita brushfire. It may cost more than 15 grand to rebuild what was destroyed and that will only get them back to where they were. Virgo is the sign of service and dogs and their rescuers provide all kinds of service to people by putting people and dogs together. You can go to the NLOL.org web site and see the devastation and find out how to help. Animals and humans share the planet and we all have our part to play in the unfolding drama that is life as we know it. We have three dogs and I know how it is to spend time away from my dog. Two of our dogs are Welsh Corgis, Merlin and Morgan, and the other is half Lab and half some kind of bull terrier or Am-Staff, named Oprah, who is a rescue. They all have their good and bad points but my dog, the male, Merlin, is the most genetically challenged of them all. He has a few mutations that would have him laughed out of any purebred competition. He’s known as a fluffy, which is a beautiful longhaired coat but his Scorpio issues were undeveloped and undescended and one of his eyes doesn’t produce tears, so has this goopy stuff that accumulates and has to be washed out three times a day. The girls are fine but boy, that boy is a chore and has the most vicious sounding bark, but he’s actually the sweetest dog…to me and others he gets to know. With his Moon in Virgo, he’s rather particular, as it took him a long time to really want to hang out with me all the time, even when I don’t have food or treats.

Virgo is the sign of discrimination in many of its forms except the racially separatist kind. It is the critic and the connoisseur, the perfectionist and astute observer of what constitutes perfection. It is a necessary function of human nature to separate what works and what doesn’t, as that organizing process is vital in determining what will help you get the job done right. We always seem to discriminate against the opposite political party but here in California, I’m seeing changes happening that are counter to conservative convention. We’re going to drop the way Electoral College has been run in the state, if I’m reading this correctly. All the state’s votes would go to the winner of the popular election, so it’ll take time to see if this works or not. Arnold has signed an increase in the minimum wage that will take it up to $8/hr, the highest in the nation, but still not enough to survive on in this Bushworld. He’s also taking on greenhouse gases, reducing them in the state by 25% over the next 4 years. It might be that Maria is moving him to the left a little more each year, so get on with your bad self, you sexy Scorpio lady. What else would you expect from a Kennedy?

In a situation that has major ramifications in the employment/management sector of American business, the FAA, under orders from the Bush administration, has been cutting back on Air Traffic Controllers in an attempt to downsize and outsource the operation to a private firm overseas, perhaps. This is more of the same Rightwing effort to privatize our government services to industries who are out to make a profit at the expense of the lives that are threatened by the employment of incompetent corporatists. The union is going nuts and has responded to imposed employment rules by threatening a strike. Under the threat of privatization, the ATCU is hoping congress will save them from extinction. The Bushies are trying to finish a job started by Ronald Reagan and the Free Market freaks back in the 80’s. It’s sad because so many of the guys in the towers are former Air Force and served our country proudly during the post-Vietnam War era but they are required to retire at 56, no matter what their physical or mental condition. It’s only two years older than me and I have yet to begin my true career, as I am a late bloomer in that department. Or maybe I already had my fame in my 20’s and now I’m taking it easy. I have never retired and as long as I have a brain that works, I can write and think my way to success.

Work, employment, jobs, dirty tasks, including animals and cleaning up are all under the Virgo banner, especially jobs in which precision and details are important. So when Radio Shack sent e-mails to around 400 employees, it was a rude awakening for the workers. This is the height of impersonal personnel relations in corporate America, as the hiring and firing of employees comes down to an e-mail! Your services are no longer required, as we have shipped your job to Bangladesh. The way the economy has tanked, voters should elect representatives who have their constituents’ welfare at the forefront of their platform. If you can’t give people an opportunity to work in this great country, what are you doing to improve the economy? If only the wealthiest 2% are doing well and the rest are left behind, that won’t get us where we need to go. We are the only superpower left and with the erosion of our military over the past 4 years, we have become weakened and vulnerable. Everything the administration has implemented has had disastrous consequences and yet, they laugh and make jokes at the press corps’ expense. The joke is sitting in the Oval Office and we have to get him out this time because we are running out of time. We can’t let him finish out his term because it would be too late for us, so we have to impeach in January, after we get a Democratic majority in the house.
<Let’s Impeach the President- Neil Young>

California has a whole bunch of bills on the desk of the Gover-nator and he may sign most of them but not the Calif. Universal Health Care bill, even though it would be a progressive step to ensuring that all of the state’s citizens are covered. The legislature also passed a bill to create two branches of the Public Health Dept. One calls for health care services and the other for public health protection, as in from epidemics and various flu strains. Health is a major Virgo consideration and the care and feeding of the human organism must be properly maintained in order to produce optimum results. The analytical side of the sign studies the effects and draws conclusions that this or the other thing has to be eliminated in order to be healthy. Now, there are always corporations that violate the public trust or our laws by exceeding reasonable limits on chemical drugs that have a negative effect on the body, killing it over the years. Well, over the last 6 years, thanks largely to lax government controls, the amount of nicotine in cigarettes has increased from 10 to 20%, making it harder to quit and making them more deadly. Light brands aren’t really any better or different, as they only make the flavor a little more appealing with menthol to disguise the intensity of the nicotine. R.J. Reynolds is the main culprit, as their Kool brand increased by 20% the nicotine content. If they were already difficult to quit before, then they’re next to impossible now. I have compassion for those who never wanted to become hooked on a drug they didn’t even know was keeping them addicted and killing them at the same time.

Meanwhile, the other kind of smoking has increased, as the drug war has failed miserably, and the DEA can’t seem to get its priorities straight. You are supposed to go after the worst drugs and the most heinous criminals instead of picking on Grandma Tiffany who buys pot at the Medical Marijuana dispensary. So this DEA agent walks into a Cannabis Club and doesn’t have the doctor’s prescription or something else gave away his identity. The workers then detained him until the surveillance team came into the store to rescue their comrade. No one was hurt or arrested but it is another embarrassing moment for the DEA, as they stumble and fumble their way through the Bush anti-drug campaign. The administration is so rife with hypocrisy, corruption, fraud, theft, deconstruction of our constitution and elimination of many essential government services, that any by accounting there would be sufficient evidence to impeach all the elected officials and then you could purge the federal bureaucracy of the people who have destroyed our government. If I were to put up enemy of the people posters, it wouldn’t just be Bush and Cheney, as we have seen in the recent past. We would have Rumsfeld, Big Bad Wolfowitz, Feith, Norquist, Rice and the rest of the beans they use for stirring up the pot, like the ditto-heads; Rush Gasbag, Bull Liar, Sean Insanity, Man Coulter and Bullshit Crystal.

It’s rather ironic that Bush senior and Rummy Dummy were both high level executives in big pharmaceutical companies and have been gung ho in the war on drugs and wars in countries where drugs are grown. If you believe in conspiracies, there’s one that awaits further exploration of the connection between them, the ongoing problems with prescription drugs and the competition with Canada for senior citizens, who have been robbed blind by the Medicare prescription drug benefit that only helped the drug companies. Then they go to Canada, only to have their meds confiscated, illegally, at the border by agents of the U.S. government. This is one reason to can K Street and kick it out of the influence peddling business. The only way to do that is to have free and open elections with no private money allowed. Keep religions from selling politics in church or they lose tax exempt status. Leave the gap between the sacred and the profane or the darkness and the alleged light, as so many who preach light are lost in the darkness with evil rhetoric and call for war and assassination. WWJD?

In the senate, it has been discovered that Ted Stevens has blocked a vote on a bill that would create an online catalog of where our federal dollars go, as in earmarks, for the pork-barrel spending that has been siphoning funds away from needed services and goods as well as armor and equipment for our troops. This is the guy who thinks the Internet is a series of tubes and not some dump truck. Well, in his infinite ignorance, he has once again stepped into a pile of shit. By keeping the money allocations secret, they prevent the public from knowing where their tax dollars are going. So many government programs are under-funded because of this kind of corruption. While it is necessary for states to appeal to the federal system for money to assist in building infrastructure; bridges, tunnels, highways and such, when sneaky corrupt guys like Stevens block good government accountability, it’s because he wants to hide things he’s stealing. He’s already been examined in my PDB but let’s take a little look at some of his transits and progressions.

I should mention first, that he must not like people because he won’t get too close due to intimacy issues, so he’s harsh, judgmental, opinionated and abrupt with people, none of which make him very endearing. Uranus has returned to its natal place, showing his age to be near 84, actually 83 this November. Scorpio with Moon in Aries is already rough, as I have a friend with that combo. But now he has Mars right on his Venus and square Uranus, so he’s making enemies and taking names. Saturn is approaching his Neptune, which squares his Scorpio stellium of Sun/Mercury/Jupiter, and that will be his downfall. His progressed Moon in Aries has made him even more of an arrogant, inconsiderate asshole in the last year and that it squares Pluto also explains the extreme secrecy to the detriment of the American political system of government. With transiting Uranus square natal Venus and Pluto square his progressed Venus in Pisces, more of his financial corruption is being revealed and his progressed Sun opposing Neptune shows the deception is at the request of several oil and gas concerns who want to clean out the treasury. Alaska has the fewest number of people per square mile than any other state in the country except Montana and those folks have prided themselves on their rugged individualism and independence, so they’ll elect someone else next election. In a time of pre-emptive war that has turned into a major fiscal drain, how can one senator be so out of touch with the will of the American people? This is the bridge to nowhere guy and, as head of the energy committee, refused to swear in oil executives under oath. What an ass-wipe.

Dumsfeld and Bush equate Islamic terrorists to Nazis under Hitler and all the saber rattling they are doing at Iran will backfire. They have pulled out the old playbook and are saying the same things about Iran as they did about Iraq. It’s so obvious when you read 1984 that the smarter architects in the administration who could read, studied that book. The problem is that it was written almost 60 years ago and it almost reads like it’s about the crew in office here. Also, apparently fascism is something too close to what they are doing that they couldn’t possibly observe it in anyone else. In 1984, they had all war, all the time but the enemy kept changing and Big Brother was watching you all the time. They would also broadcast the Two Minute Hate where they would show the face of the enemy leader who was saying all the things everyone hates most about the enemy of Oceania. It’s what Fox does all the time to the Democrats and the other enemies of the Right. But I only have just begun and haven’t got very far as people come up to me when I am about to start reading at the gym and I don’t tend to read at home as there are too many other things to do. I got some reading done on vacation, not like the president does, however. I couldn’t believe his reading list. It’s like he asked every one of his senior staff what their favorite or current book was to read and put that on his list, including three Shakespeares.

Dummy wants to equate Democrats and war critics with Nazi appeasers in the years before WWII, like Neville Chamberlain, the Prime Minister of the UK, who signed treaties with Hitler in the hopes of keeping the wolf from the door. Well, most on the Left would love nothing more than to kill or capture Osama bin Laden and flush the rest of the extremists out and send them to the world court in The Hague. Our war effort as managed by this most incompetent team has been like trying to kill a flea with a sledge hammer; overkill with the wrong instrument. This is, as has been said, not going to be won militarily because there are no more objects. We are ducking for cover in the middle of a civil war because they are killing more of each other than Americans, although it hasn’t been for lack of trying. Everyone not affiliated with the GOP leadership, including all the sheep throughout their ranks, who has seen the damage we have caused and the lack of any salvation for the innocent Iraqi citizens, knows how pointless our continued armed presence is there. We have to redeploy and pull out of harm’s way, so we can be of service wherever it is required and save our soldiers for something more tangible. Many of the service personnel are returning with the desire to make a difference in their own community and country, so run for office to expose the lies and reveal the truth of what they were really fighting for over there.

Dissent is one of democracy’s most cherished rights and it is necessary to use it to criticize what you see as detrimental to our nation. We have to stand up and let the leadership know that we, who vote for and against them, do so because we are trying to preserve our nation and its laws and quality of life. When a leader has lost touch with the people and listens only to those who agree with him, he will never hear the truth. If you do not correct your course when it is going horribly wrong, you will end up so lost and confused that you won’t know which way to go. Well, that’s sounds like the crowd running our country into the ground. They believe dissent is worse than treason and that we are siding with the enemy, but that’s just what they have done in the past 30 years. All you have to do is remember the picture of Rummy shaking hands with the devil, Saddam, and you can take that old appeaser statement and swallow it whole, Donald Duck. Quack! He’s like many a double amputee who has come back from this war, only he really doesn’t have a leg to stand on. I think it might just be fear, anger and defensive insecurity that makes him act as he does these days. He has Venus retro inconjunct Saturn in Aquarius so has a hard time sharing affection with women and thus, finds the company of men comforting, even to the point of gay encounters with gung ho gay ho, Jeff Gannon, who loves his cannon…just watch how the howitzer shoots its load, boys. I don’t have anything against people who are gay and know and show it but those who deny who they are and take out their anger and frustration on whole civilizations, destroying what was once a glorious city; then I have a problem and must speak out with my critique.

Back to health issues, scientists have used gene therapy to cure melanoma in 2 patients who were near death. The same treatment did not save 15 other patients, so it isn’t perfect yet…but soon. That doesn’t mean you can spend many more countless hours baking in the noonday sun, but that when you have a skin reaction and develop lesions, it will be easier to cure it. They do it by altering the white blood cells to target the cancer cells and become tumor fighters, as they describe the process. Essentially, they supercharge your own defense mechanism for fighting infection and make you an internal warrior for your own cause. There are many diseases and other research that science is advancing on somewhere in the world, even if the Bush administration doesn’t support the research. They are the party of death, except for the pre-born, since they don’t care about the health of the child or its education after it comes out of the womb. Yet everything about conception, pregnancy and abortion should be controlled by the state…I don’t think so! It’s hypocritical for them to think more about people who never existed than those who are already here. Besides, birth rate manipulation doesn’t work, as you can tell by what has happened in China.

Due to the one child law passed years ago, many families who wanted more, left the mainland for other places in the world, to live free and multiply. As such, China has a worker shortage and has to recruit farmers and villagers who never had been to the city before. What it is more likely to be is the effect of a robust period of economic growth without the population to support the potential. So now, China will have to start outsourcing. Maybe they could send some of those manufacturing jobs back to the US where there are many people who would work for six bucks an hour. Not me; not anyone I know, really, would stoop that low. Even with California going up to 8/hr, let’s see what that means…maybe 16 grand a year, if you can manage to take home all of it free and clear, like under the table. You can’t do much with that kind of loot spread out over an entire year. If you got that every month, that’s another story. That takes you to 192 G’s and that’s not chump change. That reminds me of a few local gals who pooled their money and bought lotto tickets at the same gas station in Calabasas every week. Things change when you win and the three quit their jobs at an insurance place and took 9 Million each! You go girls and have fun. You work long hours and many years and these days you can’t afford to retire, unless you win the loot-o.

Back to ASTROLOGY!
This week, on Thursday the 7th, it’s an eclipse of the Moon in Pisces at 15 degrees, so those with middle of the sign degrees will be most affected, most particularly the mutable signs; Virgo, Pisces, Gemini and Sag. The Moon is conjunct Uranus so watch for accidents, especially with water and electricity, which would shock one to death! The Moon/Uranus trine Jupiter, so things will turn out okay after all, so maybe it’s a good surprise. Mercury and Mars are on the Virgo South Node so clean out your garage or attic or basement, whatever that space is that’s accumulating clutter. Bad Fung Shui. Clean things up by throwing things out or having a garage sale. Pisces is releasing back to the universe the energy you have finished with and a ready to pass on to others. By the way, occurring as it does near noon, it isn’t visible on this side of the planet. The Solar eclipse coming in three weeks will be visible over the South Atlantic.
<Eclipse – PF>

Warren Jeffs is the FLDS leader who has a history of abuse of women and minors. When you see the chart, you can understand where his lunacy comes from and the religious proselytizer is rather obvious. Fear, anger and psychological trauma are all clustered together in this lunatic’s chart. The Moon is where we get the term lunacy, so with the Moon conjunct crazy Uranus and square angry Mars and delusional but religious Neptune, you begin to see why he’s so fucked up. Add in Saturn, the father, square Jupiter/Pluto, and you have a violent or sexual overcompensation for the fear and intimidation his dad must have inflicted upon him. When you are beaten down by the back of a hand, you tend to let your own fly too readily. His sexual desires are strange, with Mars/Neptune having no limits or boundaries and no respect for other people because the differences dissolve in Neptunian delusion. The square to Uranus makes for kinky experimentation and large groups of people, including group sex. This cult leader has his charisma but Uranus is square his Sun now and he’s coming up to Saturn square Saturn this fall, when he will take one, as well.

Glenn Ford died this week at age 90, a nice, ripe old age for an actor who hasn’t done anything in over a decade. He played the movie version of The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, a role Bill Bixby took up in the TV version. Ford was a Taurus, which made sense for the military and cowboy films he did and the slow, stoic characters he portrayed. Glenn Ford lived to be 90 not because he was a Taurus who was too stubborn to die but because he had Moon on his Sun and needed to take care of himself. So much for the fact that married men live longer, as he had been married three times but divorced each one, the last in 1984. There’s that year again.

I looked at the famous birthdays for this week and there were no significant political people popping up, which leaves us with sports and the arts as subjects for analysis. Actually, one man this week is the father of a president and would-be dynasty that a nastier family has helped destroy, while another is an actor whose dad played the role of the president on TV and yet another portrayed a simple man who advised the president and still another one was affiliated with the family of the president. I will let the reader and the listener guess which ones I was referring to.

9-2 Mark Harmon (05), Terry Bradshaw, Jimmy Conners, Eric Dickerson, Keanu Reeves (05), Lennox Lewis
Salma Hayek has Moon in Aries and Venus and Mars in Leo, so she’s hot stuff and she knows it! Venus square Neptune will cause romantic disappointment, however.
9-3 Charlie Sheen (05), Louis Sullivan (05), Alan Ladd
Mort Walker is having the eclipse right on his Uranus and could go at anytime. He has Sun/Venus/Mars all in Virgo, sign of military service with Moon in Gemini, so it started as an alter ego thing, I’ll bet. Saturn square Pluto made him painfully aware of corruption in the leadership ranks.
9-4 Mike Piazza is one of the greatest hitting catchers, if not quite the best fielding of even his generation. I remember when he first came up with the Dodgers in the early 90’s and we were looking at a potential hall-of-famer that even then, we kind of knew. Moon in Aquarius gives the instincts of an athlete and the opposition to Mars makes him highly competitive and with Mars trine Saturn, very disciplined. His work ethic paid off for a 62nd round draft pick to become a perennial All Star and sure thing for the Hall. How about Sun/Jupiter conjunction for his good fortune and enthusiasm for a game he could have already retired from, as his buddy Eric Karros did. He’s now 38, which for a catcher is ancient. They take a beating back there.
Darius Milhaud (05), Liz Greene (05), Anton Bruckner (05), Paul Harvey, Damon Wayans, Beyonce Knowles

9-5 , Cathy Guisewite is the cartoonist of Cathy and if it sounds a little autobiographical, I think she admits to some of it. She’s had her dog in the strip forever and that’s such a Virgo thing anyway that it hardly counts. Her constant questioning and indecision as well as going back to Irwin after years apart is all her Mercury on the South Node in Libra and her Moon in Gemini square her Saturn. Her temper and rage are the Mars in Scorpio square Pluto, an aspect we had in our sky this past week.
Freddie Mercury (05), Werner Erhardt, Louis XIV, Jesse James, Bob Newhart, Raquel Welch

9-6 Joseph P Kennedy deserves more time and ink than I can devote right now, so I’ll get back to him in the near future.
Roger Waters 9050, Jane Curtin, Swoozie Kurtz, Jeff Foxworthy, Jennifer Tilly, Rosie Perez

9-7 Peter Lawford, Julie Cavner, Corbin Bernsen, Taylor Caldwell the writer, Grandma Moses the artist, Elizabeth I the queen, Buddy Holly the singer-songwriter, and then there’s Chrissie Hynde who has Mercury/Venus both retrograde on the South Node in a square to the Moon, so she has trouble with settling down in a family life and that explains the 3 marriages. Maybe she’s really bisexual…not that there is anything wrong with that…I think it’s hot with beautiful women…but then I consider what the real lesbians might look like and then I don’t see it as so hot anymore. Chrissie has Libra rising and is still hot and maybe still available for the one who can get past her critical analysis.
<My City Was Gone>

9-8 Patsy Cline (05), Sid Caesar (05), Pink (05), Antonin Dvorak (05), Peter Sellers (05) I actually did a while back along with Geoffrey Rush who portrayed him so well.

Ohio along with Georgia, MO, FL and Indiana are making it harder for the poor and the people of color to vote, as Republican legislators are disenfranchising voters by requiring photo IDs for registration and some places require a birth certificate, which is difficult if you were born in a poor farm house with no doctors or state officials to recognize that you exist. Ohio is a place that has lost so many jobs in farming and then manufacturing, you wonder why they don’t vote Democrat all the time. There are places that are almost as devastated as Chrissie Hynde sings about and the tune is used by Rush Limbaugh, from what I understand, not that I would ever tune in to that blubbering fool. My ex-sister-in-law was a psychotic who destroyed my brother’s life and she’s born a few days before Rush, same year. Oy vey, that JAP was a freak! Ohio and Florida are the two places that have manipulated election results. So, it seems that Jim Crow has returned to the South, wherein the old attitudes have indeed risen again. We have seen what has happened in the poor areas of New Orleans…absolutely nothing! Over in Republican Mississippi, people are getting their lives together and life is returning to normal for most. But if you are the wrong demographic, as in Democratic, poor, black or Latino, don’t expect a rush of help from the feds. They won’t help as they don’t care. It’s sad when a government of the people has become a government for the rich, by the rich and all to the downfall of the middle class. They decry the Left for class warfare, when they have been hard at it for 25 years. Listen to the rhetoric carefully because everything they say is exactly opposite. If they say they will do all this to help the people of New Orleans, what they will do is make the contractors rich, who in turn do little or no work and of low quality. We are better than this. We are a nation of hard working and smart people who get ahead by using their head and have a strong belief in freedom. We cannot take away America’s greatest qualities and farm them out to other countries because they don’t understand or have a deep-rooted connection to the true meaning of freedom.

Virgo is the sign of slaves and most people came to this country to avoid being slaves to anyone or anything, except those who were forcibly removed from their homelands and families and crammed into tiny holds aboard stifling slave ships to the New World. Service workers are made to feel like slaves and are told not to talk back to the patrons, customers, clientele or whatever you snobbish people have been calling yourselves lately. While Virgo is where the body begins the process of elimination, you don’t need to have people be made to feel like shit. It’s enough that Virgo people are more critical of themselves than others are, especially if you have a Virgo rising. I would suppose the way to proceed with this energy is to play it like police chief inspector detective work wherein you gather clues as to the identity of the culprit. It sounds like the crime of the century has been committed by the Pink Panther and only Inspector Clouseau can solve the mystery. Perhaps I’ll speak to you next week. Have a safe and work-free Labor Day.
<Pink Panther theme>

September 16, 2006

This is the last week of summer and we’ve already felt the shift toward cooler weather, despite the occasional hot spell, but we’ve been cooling off since the Pisces Lunar Eclipse, it would seem. That doesn’t mean global warming will go away anytime soon, so don’t bet on it, especially because with gas prices going down people will be driving more and polluting more, raising the global temperature faster than it’s been already. The heat is perfect for the cold-blooded reptilians in positions of power as it’s part of the PIG (People In Government) agenda that is motivated to rule over every aspect of your life, making you a slave to the machine of fascist globalism. Everything you buy, eat, wear, watch and listen to is recorded electronically so they know what you want and sell it to you over the internet and your mobile phone. Slavery is a negative manifestation of Virgo and those who have it prominently in their chart show past lives in forced servitude. In the mid-sixties, the Civil Rights movement coincided with the alignment of Uranus and Pluto in Virgo opposite Saturn in Pisces, the punishing, cruel master and beginning the re-liberation of the Black people.

More people are dying in Iraq but the military costs to human bodies are beginning to have some medical hope for an improved life with bionic arms that are thought-controlled. Just don’t make it do something your mind can’t get out of its head that it shouldn’t do. It would be horrible if Arnold had bionic hands because he would think to grab a woman’s ass or tit and the hand would do it before he could use his other hand to stop it. Oh that would be a funny scene. War is good for technological development and sometimes medical and scientific advances, as the atomic age was necessitated by war and penicillin was developed for wounded soldiers. It would be nice if they would develop technologically advanced bio-tech appendages for humans without having to get funded by wartime earmarks.

I recorded but didn’t watch the propaganda bullshit fright-mare fake-u-drama Path to 9-11 in which they try to blame Clinton for not getting Osama in the first place. But it was just the Neo Con artists and Clinton blamers who were behind it all. Shame on ABC for airing such crap, but they are playing to their base…and base it is. You can’t get much lower than blatantly falsifying recent history and showing things that never happened, attempting to pass it off as truth. Well, there was truthiness to this piece…if you are a dittohead who believes all the propaganda and will swallow the whole cloth it’s cut from and the hook, line and sinker they reeled you in on. There is a certain mindlessness that people slip into when they refuse to critically think for themselves. It is ultimately about discerning truth from fiction and facts from fantasy. Establishing the credibility of the source is a priority if you are to respect their views. You don’t necessarily have to agree with everything they say, but if they resonate with an air of really looking at the problem and offering solutions rather than talking points and insults, then you might heed and need, indeed, feed off of their views. Spread the seed of what you conceive of as truth and share it with others, as that is how the true gospel of Jesus got out in the early days. But truth has been colored by propagandistic lies to manipulate the human psyche and make it work for the people in power. Those few who break away from the corporate system and are able to make it become more able to think for themselves completely without having to rationalize or justify their lack of integrity.

We each have a job to do in life and those who put on a uniform serve their country, city, state or sometimes county with a duty-bound sense of wanting to help the citizens of their local area. For some it’s to protect the health and well-being of the people, while for others, it’s their chance to portray the authoritarian and make people follow the rules. The followers of an authoritarian personality are almost more dangerous than their superior because of their willingness to do anything to please their boss or to get ahead in the chain of command. This gives them motive to rationalize their behavior in the performance of their duty and to side-step any personal responsibility. I was just following orders, sir! My commander ordered me to kill everyone in sight, so I did it without discerning combatant from civilian. Sir, the suspect exited the vehicle and proceeded to advance in my direction, failing to heed my warning for him to stop. When he reached into his pocket, I fired, thinking he was going for his gun. Officer Stupid is a recent hire of the Coastal City Police, having left his job as a campus security officer at the local college. He wasn’t in uniform and had his gun out way too quickly, considering the suspect was a high-profile local pro football player with whom the cop should have been familiar. Shoot first, ask questions later is not the best public relations methodology to serve the people.

Public health is Virgo all the way, as clean and sterile environments are a Virgo’s dream place.
Stanford is placing a ban on gifts from pharmaceutical companies to their doctors and medical staff that includes pens, bags, writing pads and other items with a company logo on it. It is wrong of businesses trying to sway a medical teaching facility with temptations of drug money and goodies from the promotional department.
Meanwhile, at the NIH, private deals with drug companies have caused such corruption and ethical violations with conflicts-of-interest, like congressmen and cabinet members who were lobbyists for the industries their committees oversee. A slap on the wrist for gross crimes and misdemeanors is hardly proper considering the collective health of a nation is at stake. An example might be something like the Avian Flu and its alleged antidote, Tamma-flu. If the disease isn’t going to be a major problem but the demand for the antidote soars after some in the administration generate fear that an epidemic is likely and they’re going to protect the American people by developing a vaccine but not everyone will be able to get it. Hey, what makes one person more worthy to get a vaccine than another? Well, it turns out that Tamma-flu was developed by a company that Rumsfeld used to work for and still has close ties with them. He would get a healthy stipend or payment that would be like a commission for making the deal. Now that science has many skeptics that feel it won’t mutate all that easily and won’t be the epidemic they thought, you don’t hear much about Bird Flu anymore. Look into these things and let me know what you find.

Much of today’s show is very Virgo in that I will give some detailed analysis of how planets in aspect work. While it is already included in my book in the Virgo chapter, not that I’m always consistent but that there is a reason and pattern for my choices, I feel a need to expand on that knowledge and understanding of how these energies combine. Also, there seem to be astrology students out there that need help with some of the nuts and bolts of the science while they hone their skill at the art of interpretation. Virgo has to do with filing and organizing information, which is why details are so important. Can you imagine the librarian without her Dewey Decimal System? Listen my children and you shall hear
How planets will show you what is near
Each planet or dwarf, has a unique energy
That points your way to your own synergy

VIRGO c
They’re clean and neat, so wipe your feet when you come in the door.
They’re prim and proper, so wear your topper when you’re on the dancing floor.
The Virgo kind will bitch and whine until they get their way
Complain, complain, it’s all the same, no matter what you say.
You want to help, it’s just the way that you were trained to be
But down you go into a fade when you don’t even see
The bigger issues and the doors that stand there open wide
Not even seeing anyone there to be there on your side.
And so you slip into that funk that oozes out with all that junk
And makes the world a deadly place that you don’t really want to face.
But stop and consider it’s not that bad, it’s only cause you’ve been so sad
And that you’re mad ‘cause you can’t have the one true love you thought you had.
You know, it’s probably best that way because they may have turned out gay
Or had some dreaded damn disease, so tell me, just what can you say
<Mercury>

Virgo concerns health and there are natural ways of combating many of the conditions with which we are afflicted, some physical, others mental or psychological while still others are spiritual disturbances. I will suggest techniques, methods, systems, routines and regimens to help you balance your imbalanced astrological energy.

With each planet, there is a particular expression, attitude and energy you’ll put out and it can be on either end of the polarity or balanced near the middle. It’s a little like alkalinity and acidity, which is on a Ph scale. Even in your aura, each ray has a different shade of the hue or color and the higher and more pure your vibration is; the more brilliant and clean is the color. The deeper you slip into negative energy expression of that chakra, the muddier the color and energy become. A creative, spiritual person will have bright colors, while a drug dealer or other criminal will have very dark and dirty colors. So it is with the planets, as their energies are colored by aspects and house placements.

Today, the Sun squares Pluto, so it’s the best place to begin, as the Sun is the life force of the Solar System and the Astronomers Union just killed off Pluto as a planet, as it rules death. This is far too simplistic an interpretation to offer and I will elaborate, of course, as I always do, which I didn’t even need to tell you. Pluto, while lord of the underworld, concerns things under the surface and that are beyond the scrutiny of the casual observer. The occult actually means ‘hidden’ and psychology is the study of the part of the human that can’t be seen, felt or operated on because it comes from spiritual energy. The psyche is part mind, part spirit and partly affected by chemicals in the foods or liquids you ingest or even the air you breathe but especially a result of the experiences you were determined to have by the choice you made to be born to the parents and into the situation to which you were drawn in this life. You are the creator of your reality and if you don’t like it, you will have chances to make different choices in other lifetimes.

When the ego (Sun) clashes with the powers of transformation (Pluto), it’s all a matter of whether the individual is able to make changes in their life or not. If so, then it’s not too bad and it only becomes a matter of not throwing out the proverbial baby with the bathwater. The Sun is the creative child in us that needs attention and has to express their natural creativity. Pluto tempts, like the alleged snake in the Garden of Eden, with sex, power and wealth but neglects to inform you of the fine print which leads to corruption, suspicion, investigation, espionage and even sabotage because power corrupts so horribly. In an individual’s chart, this can lead to obsession, self-destructive behavior and sexual hatred and violence. I wonder if there are many rapists with this aspect or are they just intensely explosive under certain circumstances?

Last month, Saturn opposed Neptune, and could be considered the deception used by powerful organizations to victimize the masses by hypnotizing them to be distracted from what is really important.
Saturn is the basis for all our fears, insecurities and doubts, as it limits your expression and restrains you from being yourself to the fullest. It rules the father, more often than not, the hard ass at the head of the table…if he’s there at all. Many kids grow up without a dad as I know all too well from personal experience. Even when he was there, he was never really there, as he had Sun square Uranus and maybe South Node in the 5th, so was never good with kids. Besides, he had Mars in the middle of a conjunction between Moon in Scorpio and Saturn in late Libra, so both of his parents taught him to hit his trouble-making child – me. My Sun was exactly on his South Node, I did have a knack for driving him crazy, as I was the representation of what he was trying to get past. Many people with whom I have to become close to who have their Sun on my South Node tend to drain me, as their ego dominates the very area I want to transcend, although there are exceptions.

Pluto issues are obsession, sexual compulsion, extremism, violence, rage, hatred, explosiveness, larceny, theft, fraud, identity theft, jealousy, suspicion, rape and other sex crimes. It concerns other people’s money and investments, mortgage brokerages, banks and insurance companies are all under its domain.

Pluto squares often have their source in psychological traumas and obsessive extremes to which you go. The Mars square likes anal sex but can get explosively angry, so that could be either gender. Generating passion and drive that runs to the extreme, they aren’t going to make friends easily until they curb their temper. Venus squares are afraid that their partner will die because it has happened in past lives. It also causes self-destructive and violent relationships, to the point of plotting someone’s death in order to reap the financial rewards, so be careful. Mercury squares cause mental obsession and can lead to OCD if combined with a harsh Jupiter aspect or planets in Sag. People of this nature are always suspicious of other people’s motives and may see trauma in almost every possible scenario.

Pluto in opposition to your Sun, Moon or Venus could attract corrupt people, such as a mobster or politician but it could also be investigators, researchers, pornographers or anyone involved with the sex industry. Suspicions abound concerning people of interest who could be suspects in a murder, possibly even yours. Pluto’s intensity has often led to regrettable acts of sex and violence that have been ruinous of one’s life. This kind of energy is utterly mindless, as it taps into the deepest psychological fears and projects them on to a collective that then become the target for your own hatred. We need to eliminate the energy of hate because I…hate it!

Neptune’s issues have more to do with the spiritual malaise of giving up and letting life wash over you like you were drowning in the river of life. As such, things that accelerate one’s own demise are subconsciously accepted into one’s indulgence and cause one’s own demise. Deception, confusion and misunderstanding are part of the problem, while drugs and alcohol are often the other part.
Neptune squares are about victimization and avoidance of reality, with escapist tendencies and deception usually part of the package. There is a love and fascination with glamour and make-believe, dressing up in fantasy costumes and role-playing, since this is the planet of the theater and film. Neptune has addiction issues, as the creative imagination often works overtime to understand and flow with the events happening all around.

Venus squares to Neptune are often gay or there is a lack of boundaries or understanding about what you or others want. Victim-hood can become a pattern of relating that doesn’t help you to grow past your pain. Mars squares can be quite addictive, although Steve Irwin had it but he really was addicted...to danger!

In Australia, some people have taken out their rage over his death on the species that caused it, the manta ray, and have killed almost a dozen of them. Killing innocent sea creatures as payback for what one lone and scared creature did…it isn’t what Steve, the ultimate conservationist, would have wanted. We are challenged to accept what happened and carry on, despite how we feel about what happened. We are challenged to forgive what and who we can and accept it as part of the master plan. It gives another young croc hunter an opportunity to become known for his or her skill with exotic animals. Irwin was in unfamiliar waters and didn’t have to die, I just learned, because when he pulled out the stinger, he ripped an irreparable hole in his heart, causing blood to gush out. Had he left it in, and they had gotten him airlifted to a hospital in time, he may have survived. But his impulsiveness was his undoing (Mars on the S. Node) and he pulled the plug on his chance of surviving. He was swimming in dangerous waters and we remember what it was like when they said “Don’t go in the water!”
<Jaws>

The planet of surprises, shocks and unexpected situations, Uranus concerns electrical-magnetic energy and can be supercharged with crackling static discharges, as when you touch metal after walking on a carpet. It is a separating influence just as much as it seems to bring people together.
Uranus squares are about intimacy issues as with Venus, or kinky sexual experimentation with Mars. It also can be the source of sudden break-ups, accidents, group sex, threesomes and more-somes. It is the freakier planet and with Venus in Aquarius, as I have, one can have many fascinating experiences with all manner of individuals and groups.

Last night, Venus opposed Uranus, which is the aspect of love-at-first-sight because of the electrical instantaneousness of the connection. It can also be the attraction that electronic devices have for some people who have to have the latest Sharper Image item. We find something or someone fascinating; all glitter and glitz and fail to consider if there is any lasting significance to it. We like to think anyone we meet like that, just out of the blue, has to be destined.

Saturn squares exploit the fear factor and cause bondage and control, creating a relationship to have dominant and submissive roles for the partners. Father issues and responsibility problems figure heavily in the relationships. Withholding and manipulation can manifest to use their power over another. Any time-related worry or fear, as well as timing, hesitation and delay come under this influence.

Mastering your fears
The way past your fear and self-doubt is to develop the power of self-control. Have a purpose, a sense of structure and a goal and then give yourself a timeframe in which to accomplish that goal to gain that feeling of self-respect for a job well done. Being afraid holds you back from living and is often programmed into your subconscious by a negating parent who never allowed you to do anything adventurous or fun. Those who rebel against authority, like me with Saturn square Uranus, don’t fit this category, as they have always marched to the beat of their own drummer.
<Ya Gotta Try – Buddy Rich>

In my new series of analyzing some of the countries of the world, we take a look south of the border, all the way down.
Chile is the long, skinny country along the west coast of South America with the Andes Mountains as its spine. These people have been fishermen out of necessity and it shows in their many deaths at sea as indicated by Pluto in Pisces opposite the Sun. The Moon/Jupiter in Gemini is the commerce of selling and buying while the opposition to Saturn/Neptune in Sag is the business of ships traveling far out to sea for fishing. Mars is in a wide square to Jupiter suggesting excessive risk-taking and adventurousness but when you have a choice of mountains or sea, they are just different kinds of danger. They are a friendly people if you give them no reason to be suspicious, as their Venus/Uranus conjunction in Scorpio might reveal. They are a bright and intelligent nation with Mercury in Libra sextile Mars for the mental quickness and the Moon/Jupiter in Gemini, so they are very curious about foreigners. Saturn square Pluto would represent the power struggles and political sabotage, espionage and assassination that have plagued their history.

This week, Venus sextile Jupiter opens up doors of opportunity and increases the financial benefits of working cooperatively with others for mutual advantages. When you have an open mind and want to expand your horizons to offer others some of the good things in life you’ve discovered, then you have to share these energies.

Jupiter squares explore the vast horizons of sexual adventure and tend to be open to all kinds of experience, unless there is some trauma to which there is an over-reaction. Venus square is great expectations and misplaced generosity and can also trust too readily and exhibit poor judgment with people, while Mars square is reckless and foolhardy in trying to do too much and excess can be a mess.

There are signs that the financial future of our country isn’t as rosy as the president’s lies tell us. Businesses may be doing well because of the tax cuts and cutbacks in EPA crackdowns and fines because every kind of regulation to protect the American people has been weakened or eliminated to produce higher profits, lower wages and more outsourcing. Home ownership has gone up because there are more people but now foreclosures are up 160% in California and it’s a sign of the times that so many houses are up for sale. That’s a stat the Bushies don’t want you to know.

One of the victims of the Bush war on liberals was Ann Richards, about whom he lied, cheated and defeated her for governor of Texas, which should have proved his incompetence to the country. She died this week of cancer and when I studied her chart I could see the aspects that ended her life. First of all, her chart is that of a true compassionate liberal with a strong humanitarian purpose. She was a Virgo with Sun on her Neptune, marking her as a person of faith and belief in a greater power. Moon/Saturn in Aquarius is her social responsibility and strong ideals and convictions. Her Mars in Scorpio squares them, making her one tough broad who never backed down from a fight. Mercury in Leo trine Uranus gave her some brilliant turns of phrase, as when she referred to Bush as having been. “…born with a silver foot in his mouth.” She could have been more severe, but she had Pallas on the North Node, so being diplomatic was her forte.
About her death; she had natal Venus in Libra, which in itself isn’t a bad thing, but as Saturn opposed her Moon/Saturn this year, her minor Venus was in an exact square to its natal place and minor Saturn was square to it and opposed to natal Venus, just as progressed Jupiter had been hanging out on her natal Venus, causing the tumor to expand (Jupiter) in her throat (Venus) causing a blockage (Saturn). Transit Pluto is on her progressed and minor Hygeia, asteroid of health right at the time of her death but it wasn’t the trigger that let her go…what’s interesting is that Venus was exactly on her Sun/Neptune at her departure and her minor Sun and Mercury were exactly on her North Node, showing a fulfillment of her karma that released her back to her universal home. Her progressed Mars came into a trine with her natal Mercury and Uranus, which are trine each other, forming a fiery grand trine, generating positive outflow of energy and to release with the Sun on the North Node is perfection. Another release that would make sense, if I have her time correct, is that her progressed Moon (end-of-life) was on her Vertex, a release point of energy in the chart.

Hollywood has always been fascinated by scandals and murders, so on the heels of Hollywoodland comes The Black Dahlia, another Hollywood murder mystery and this one with even more suspects, 22 of them, to be exact. I doubt if one of them actually did the crime but such was the ineptitude of the LAPD back in the 40’s when cigarette smoke and booze was on the breath of every detective and they wondered why they couldn’t solve the crime. The actress who was murdered and mutilated was a Leo with Moon in Cancer conjunct Pluto, an indication she was obsessed with the dark side and needed the evil influences in her life to feel alive. She feel in love and was engaged to an Air Force pilot who died in WWII, so it might have sent her over the edge and led to risky behavior with her Mars in Pisces square Jupiter in Sag, which could be sexual adventurism in a passive mode. I think she was intelligent but it wasn’t used properly or trained well because with Moon and Venus in Cancer, she was very needy of the comfort of men.

Whitney Huston and Bobby Brown are finally, mercifully getting a divorce. Perhaps their TV show brought them to the awareness that if the rest of America had no interest in either of their lives, why should they care about each other! I’ve looked at her chart before, as she is a prime example of an addictive personality. It’s a problem when her beautiful Sun/Venus is opposed by Saturn and squared by Neptune because she needs the reality structure of a mate who has his feet firmly planted on the ground to compensate for her inability to keep her life on track. Bobby was more of a problem than an answer as his Saturn is on her Moon/Jupiter, so he was always stopping her from going too far overboard but his Aquarius nature was ill-suited for her Leo needs. His Moon in Virgo tried to attend to all her requirements but she was too demanding of him with her Saturn on his Sun! In the end, he couldn’t be himself and neither could she. Her Juno on his South Node could be a past life marriage, as well, but with her North Node in Cancer, she was supposed to be a family person even while being a diva but she could never take care of a child if she can’t take care of herself. Her Mercury conjunct Uranus and Pluto will not allow her to think she’s done anything wrong and will tear into anyone if they dare accuse her, with that Moon/Jupiter in Aries over-reaction in their face.

9-16 Ed Begley is the actor-activist who has been promoting clean energy use for a long time. He rode his bicycle to the set when he worked on St Elsewhere and 7th Heaven, maybe still does when he works. He also had an electric car in the 90’s and can be seen and heard in the film, “Who Killed The Electric Car?”

9-17 David Souter is the Supreme Court Justice that was appointed by Herbert Bush and was thought to be more conservative than he’s turned out to be…more of a moderate, I think. I did him last year. Also Phil Jackson was done last year and good luck to his Lakers this year.

9-18 Lance Armstrong is the bike champion whom I did last year along with James Gandolfini and Robert Blake.
Greta Garbo is the actress who vanted to be alone. The Moon in the 12th square Saturn in Aquarius in the 11th and Venus in Leo in 4 show her difficulties with people. Saturn is on the South Node, indicating fear and power are at the core of the problems she faced, rebelling against authority because she abused hers in a past life. Mars opposite Pluto square her Sun show a traumatic assault that might well have been deadly in a previous incarnation leading to her reclusiveness.

9-19 Bill Medley, Jeremy Irons, David McCallum
Paul Williams and Jimmy Fallon were done last year.

9-20 Dr. Joyce Brothers has so many different birthdays on Google that I can’t even begin to explain.
Sofia Loren (05)

9-21 Stephen King, Bill Murray, Nicole Ritchie (05)

9-22 Andrea Bocelli is the blind opera singer who made a bit of a splash for a while as a novelty because few opera houses would let him appear in a staged production for obvious reasons. His Sun trine his Moon in Capricorn and Mars at 0 Gemini gives the family support and the desire for him to succeed. Mars in Gemini square Pluto in Virgo make this one of the things that caused his blindness as Pluto is trauma and Mars is blows to the head and face, eyes included. That’s not all, as Mercury and Venus in Virgo square Saturn, limiting visual perception and financial opportunities, along with relationships. It’s hard to notice a pretty woman from across the room when you can’t see her. Saturn also squares the Sun so he would suffer from depression, also.
Joan Jett, Bonnie Hunt (05), Tom Lasorda (05)

<9th Sym snippet>
Keith Olbermann is the most courageous newsman on air today and has fast become, just behind Jon Stewart, my favorite newscaster, be it fake or otherwise. Actually, you can’t begin to fake some of the sheer stupidity, arrogance and cluelessness of the administration. I know Keith is an Aquarius but his Moon/Pluto conjunction is in Virgo and he has done a great service by telling the truth as few have done. He generally takes 5 stories and gives each one a good examination before moving on to the next one. I have never been fond of news shows that take one story and pound it to death, especially things like the Natalie Holloway murder, the Jon Benet bullshit, the Peterson murder, The O.J. trial and the asinine impeachment of Bill Clinton. The public has a right to know and that’s fine but we want to know more than about one thing in the news cycle. We want good news as well as the truth about what’s going on in the world and locally. Keith tore the president a new one on Monday, the 5th anniversary of the WTC destruction and made it clear that 5 years later, it was still a big hole in the ground without dedication or consecration. He is speaking truth to power like none other. So what could his ASC be if we don’t know his time of birth? We know he has always been into sports but I doubt that he actually played because of his intelligence and humor, which aren’t generally appreciated by true jocks. As to his chart, given his 6’3” height and his humor and wisdom, I give him Sag rising, which works for all the traveling he’s done. Jupiter is the rising planet in the 12th house, making for a guardian angel and a magical kind of good luck. His vast knowledge about many useful bits of information and his ability to broadcast it to a grateful nation is his responsible and mature Mercury in Capricorn coupled with the sage perspective and open-mindedness of a sextile to Jupiter. His mental quickness and directness is the trine Mercury makes to Mars. As to why he’s still single, his Venus is in Aquarius in a T-Square to Mars in Taurus and Jupiter in Scorpio, so he has high passions and great expectations but may also realize that most women want way more than he can give someone at this point in his life. He has a president to help take down! This is important work and how can a relationship matter more than that? There is also that his Venus is conjunct Chiron so every woman he meets is wounded in a significant way. Also, with Uranus opposite his Sun, they all seem weird, eccentric, independent, aloof, detached or wacky. So that Moon in Virgo conjoining Pluto makes him sarcastic, caustic and critical out of necessity. That might cause his exact Sun square Neptune to manifest as avoidance of personal and intimate involvements, which may lead to impersonal, professional and discreet services being rendered for a fee. Saturn is trine his Moon/Pluto, so he needs to maintain a professional ethic and appear without blemish to the public. But he is already a man of integrity because he comes from the world of sports and that’s the only place where you always know the score. We, who seek the truth in journalism, will tune into you more than any other newscaster on TV as you have become the most trusted newsman since Walter Cronkite, a Scorpio. I speak for most of the liberals in America that when we want to know what’s really going on in the world, we’ll see what you have to say, Keith. Ironic that he was born on Mozart’s birthday but uses the traditional NBC Nightly News fanfare you know. Next week is my last before the surgery and I’m in need of taking a break from this weekly grind so I can recover. Once more…with feeling! Until then, TTFN!