Blame-Shifting

It's one of the most popular forms of amusement in Washington these days. It's called 'blame-shifting'. But, strictly speaking, this is a misnomer, as Batchelor himself suggests. The point of the exercise is to give the illusion that those at fault are not at fault. (If one were to tie 'blame-shifting' to its obvious nomenclature, somebody would actually have to be at fault, and suffer the consequences of being at fault: go to prison; go to the gallows, etc. But since nobody is actually in prison and nobody is likely to be executed, I guess, nobody is at fault ...and the crimes continue.)

Friedman, like Krugman among others, has consistently soiled himself in defending the indefensible. Designated by academe and liberal media as a high intellect, he has had to hold his nose and swallow hard in trying to defend the Left’s faulty logic, its broad disregard of historical precedent and its blatant double standard. It is not clear to me whether or not he knows that he has prostituted himself or if he actually believes the stuff he writes. No doubt, he’s made a good living among the like-minded. But even their never robust ranks are thinning, leaving behind only the most seriously hobbled. How long Friedman can continue (assuming he’s reasonably sane) doing his stick before packing away his writing tools and sending them off to permanent storage is anybody’s guess.

Is Friedman deliberately lying or is he just plain stupid. It’s the same question in essence we could pose regarding President Obama. Both men are likely to keep the answer close to the vest. In the final analysis it’s not about them; it’s about us. How we ourselves answer these questions will determine whether we are on the road to better health or locked into a death spiral.

Breaking the Cycle

We've got to break the cycle, John! This is not breaking the cycle. It all started with Bill Clinton who disgraced himself, and the Democrat Party that decided to defend the indefensible. After Bill, George W. absolutely had to be destroyed in order to save Bill's legacy and his party's viability. They succeeded with smoke, mirrors, and lies oft repeated in classic propaganda style. The Dems could have put Daffy Duck on the ballot - and they practically did.

The American people had no clue as to how bad it could actually get until Obama came along. Now they know. They also know it can still get much worse. At this point too, the Republicans could put Daffy Duck on the ballot and he would win overwhelmingly. The Dems are done. They will not be effective in the next go-round. Never has a political party been so obtuse to the wishes of the voters. It seems, quite like Kamikaze pilots, they are absolutely determined to go down in flames.

Don't get me wrong, I think Sarah Palin is a fine person. Under normal circumstances, she'd make a fine chief executive. But these are not normal times. We are all collectively in intensive care. We need our wounds to heal from the accumulated damage of three successive administrations. We cannot afford a fourth fatally wounded administration to continue our drift.

At this time, I see no one out there who can withstand the slings and arrows of a vicious Left. I see no one who can resist being seduced by the gossamer illusions of Hollywood. We've got ourselves a situation here, much like exists on the Palestinian side of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. How long would you think an honest Palestinian bloke would last getting up on a soap box in the market square, saying what the majority of Palestinians must be feeling in their hearts?

Defeat in Afghanistan

A loss in Afghanistan is another example of events overtaking (best) intentions. We can't really blame POTUS. He just happens to be there at this moment. Clearly, he doesn't know what to do. Would anyone? It might be nice if someone told us the truth.

It's difficult to mesh reality with campaigning. It's much easier to promise something (anything) that will make the people vote for you. Winning in Afghanistan was one such (to my ears, unambiguous) promise. Come to think of it, there were many others involving both foreign and domestic goals. We're still waiting, Mr. President.

So far, I would say, we’ve gotten nothing for our unbridled optimism and support. Many of us have even lost jobs, homes, retirement savings or savings in general. We’ve lost our faith, M. President. We no longer think you can handle the job. Your now famously ‘fuzzy math’ has been exposed as fraud. I guess you never thought that we would see through all that; that we were smarter than what any of your ivory tower cronies gave us credit for.

What now, Mr. President? At some point you’ve got to start leveling with us; at the very least, treating us as equals; let us know in no uncertain terms what’s up and what your plans are. Can you really blame some of us for calling you a ‘Marxist’? You yourself have often enough stated that you want to redistribute our nation’s wealth. Your associations and appointees seem to be totally okay with that – some more so than others. Tell us how that’s not Marxism.

We understand how you like to play with the language. You might point out that Karl Marx has been dead for some time. Therefore, Marxism cannot be said to exist except as a vacuous but deliberate slur – like the word ‘terrorism’ (which must never be uttered again particularly as it relates to the Islamic sort). Fair enough.

All this can be argued (as long as we’re still permitted to argue); shades of meaning; what the definition of ‘is’ is. But Mr. President, we beg you, do not refer to ‘recession’ as ‘recovery’; job losses as gains (or ‘saves’); losing as winning; etc. All these are direct opposites. Not even the slowest learner in the class would fall for that.

The Dollar: That Great, Big Sucking Sound

When the housing bubble was in the process of waxing, I kept watching the value of our house going up and up. All the while, its size and the quarter acre on which it stands remained the same. Nevertheless, we felt good about it and felt ourselves to be inordinately fortunate and well off.

When Argentina experienced serious inflation back in the '70's - when a carton of American cigarettes cost the equivalent of 30 cents - they pegged all their financial transactions on the value of a gallon of gas as defined by the American dollar (which was seen to be the bedrock of fiscal integrity).

Inflation in a currency is a sign of 'value' being sucked out of it. Only the productive sector of an economy produces ‘value’. Government and government-sponsored entitlements (directed to the undeserving) dilute the value of the currency - as does money printed on government printing presses. As you're watching things costing more and more, don't think of it that way. Think of it as the dollar buying less and less. Though it comes out to the same thing, there's a significant distinction in how we look at it. The former engenders visions of greed and corruption - a failure of the private sector; capitalism - whereas the latter points to a failure of government policy.

Excesses in the private sector will always diminish in the course of normally occurring cycles. Government excess can seldom be slowed; never reversed. Once voters decide to abandon their civic duty with regard to voting in elections (or casting their vote lightly), government excess spreads like a cancer unchecked throughout the system - and the system dies.

Riot Act

It's possible that Obama was read the riot act while in China. He might well have been told that he can't just take his ball and go home; that there are others still out there who are entitled to play. “America can't just be permitted to retreat behind some smoldering economic ruin just because it happens to please the Utopian academics of that country; just because someone claims to have discovered the Holy Grail that would create some socio-economic arrangement that has never been seen before.

“No thank you, Mr. (American) President. By the way, how did you ever manage to get elected? Surely the whole country couldn't be as loony and bitter as you are? Go back there and fix what your administration has already wrecked. While we recognize that the some of the problems stem from what you inherited, there's no denying that, since you’ve been in office, you've made everything many times worse. Now, you've put us all at risk.

“Remember, we own you as we own your debt. We could demand our money back at any time. We know what you're doing: driving the dollar down, so we will be left holding the bag. Well, it won't work. We'll come over (if we have to) and claim your land; your women; your resources; the labor of your people - until we feel we have fair value in return for all that we've already invested there.

“And, by the way, don't even think of making any noise about Taiwan, Tibet, Pakistan, Africa or any other place in which we decide to exert our (admittedly) pernicious influence. China is a big country; we've got way too many people; we desperately need to expand. …and right now, we find, you’re in our way."

Heart of Darkness

Today, B. Raman writes that Obama clearly seems to be favoring China over India and lists his reasons. He notes this as being a change from Bush administration’s policies.

In the past, a country's democratic credentials held some sway when it came to being seen by America in a favorable light. All that ended when Obama came into office. It not only ended, but actually reversed the equation. American President Barrack Hussein Obama seems much more at ease with despots, dictators and oligarchs than with the democratically elected representatives of a people. He clearly favors Iran over Israel; Venezuela over (constitutionally grounded) Honduras and (as B. Raman says) China over India. Neither can we say that any of this is pragmatic or strategic. Instead, it is becoming increasingly clear that Obama's agenda is solely ideologically driven. He is at heart a Marxist (which he hid from the American electorate) and aims to turn the U.S. in a hard Left direction and/or destroy it altogether.

In this way he seeks to curry favor with the kindred of Cain who continue to despise him; not, as he believes, for not moving fast and/or decisively enough to eliminate what is commonly regarded as a cancer in those ideological quarters but, quite simply, for being a traitor. In almost every case ‘traitor’ trumps ‘dogma’ as applies to the hierarchy of reasons usually put forth as an excuse to shun a person, as it speaks of a cold but erratically beating heart that is adversely affected by some kind of virulent affliction.

Sarah Palin: Is She Out of Her Mind?

There's now a powerful feeling sweeping our nation. It stems from a hunger for a patriotic, pro-American agenda. All that is missing is leadership. Should someone emerge who is willing to embrace this agenda, he or she would be swept into elective office by overwhelming majorities.

The American Left is well aware of the situation. They know that the American people are against them. They know they cannot expose their candidates to fair and impartial elections; they know they would lose it all in a flash should Americans be given the opportunity to take back the votes they cast a year ago.

This is something the Left cannot change for they are ideologues who do not know compromise. If they mean to hang on to power, they need to do it by unorthodox means. One way is to immediately and ruthlessly destroy any person around whom a pro-American agenda can potentially coalesce. As such, Sarah Palin will be mercilessly attacked, demonized, smeared, lied about, neutralized, etc. until she can no longer be regarded as a threat. It will be the same for any other potentially credible standard-bearer for conservative values who would dare show his or her face in the public arena.

What we have in this country already is a form of fascism - rampant intimidation that borders on outright censorship. Only liberal views go unchallenged. Only progressive views are praised. Conservative ideas, on the other hand, are strictly backwater, uneducated, hick, racist, sexist, and just plain wrong. Who in their right mind would risk wading into such dangerous waters?

Is Sarah Palin in her right mind? Possibly not. But if she is, she’s a hero in my book.