Have a Good Summer

The summer of our discontent continues. No matter what happens in any and all the foreign places you mention (Georgia, Ukraine, Syria, Lebanon, N.Korea, etc.), it will have little or no effect on us (USA) as we have pretty much given up standing for anything. There will be blood abroad as rascals will begin to take full advantage of America's new laissez faire attitude. None of it will directly affect us as the media will continue to toe the line and protect the president from accusations of timidness; incompetence and all the rest that could be said of a global non-leader.

The major action will play out here at home as Obama battles with poll numbers and teleprompters. The economy will continue its decline, in the face of which, spin will be king. Expect to see the word 'unexpected' a lot. The 'birther' movement (as it's called) will continue to gather momentum in the face of increasingly hysterical talking-heads ridicule.

And with that, I think I will follow Lou's example and take a hiatus, check out some flicks and catch up on my travel articles for didyouweekend.com. By September, there should be fresh grist for the mill with the rubber stamp congress returning once again for the sole purpose of disrupting the lives of ordinary citizens.

Have a good summer. Be seeing you...

What Choice Will We Have?

Remember when it was 'in' to call straight people 'breeders' - a derogatory term, designed to cast gays as a superior group. Now we're called 'birthers' - loonies; marginal; paranoid; deranged - just for wanting to make sure that POTUS is not president under false pretenses. Try to get on an airplane these days without a ticket. "Oh, I had it somewhere, for sure. I must have left it at home along with my passport. My bad…" Try to get into the FOX News Building without ID. If a cop stops you for something while you're driving, try saying, “Sorry officer, I left my license and registration at home. I do have an old insurance card here but I'm afraid it’s expired."

The paradigm has shifted over into the absurd when people are no longer willing to adhere to essential protocol. Obama is playing us like a Stradivarius. He’ll come up with a birth certificate alright – when he decides that the ‘birthers’ have built up enough steam. He’ll wave it triumphantly, grinning broadly from ear to ear while watching the hiss of the air escaping the argument – making us all look utterly ridiculous. John Galt (above) is right. It’ll be a fake.

It wouldn’t even be an issue if this guy didn’t have half the country seriously unnerved. People are beginning to realize they’ve made a mistake in electing him; they’re looking for a way out. With all that’s happened already, can you really blame them? The unease felt at the very grass roots of our nation is not the same we felt when Bush was in the White House. We knew the hatred was manufactured. We could laugh at all that was being said about him. No one’s laughing now.

Even RINOs are now reduced to betting the farm on the next election after which, they believe, all this stuff can be overturned. But so much of it will haunt us yet for generations. There will be no quick turn-around. Obama is now in the process of constructing an exoskeleton that is meant to circumscribe American values, procedures and institutions; one that is in direct conflict with all of these. It will smother the America we have known and (in Obama’s own words) ‘fundamentally change’ it.

Fast forward to the next election. Suppose the day finally arrives and there is only one name on the ballot. Or, suppose some kind of emergency is declared and elections are postponed altogether.

JB has pronounced the Republican Party dead. Pardon my asking, “What choice will we have?” I don't see anyone of Reagan's stature waiting in the wings of either party. We might just have to make do with Thaddeus.

Accuse me of viewing events with a jaundiced eye. But, as it stands, I cannot help viewing what is presently happening on the streets of Tehran as a harbinger of what may yet be in store for us. We can still avoid the worst of it. But in order to do so we must all start reading from the same page. As long as false hope prevails; as long as people are willing to hold their noses and wait; the longer we remain distracted and (especially) overwhelmed by the likes of Michelle, Michael Jackson and Henry Louis Gates, the tougher it’ll be to get our nation back.

Begging

We all are beggars. Some beg for food; some for forgiveness. Some beg for recognition; some beg to differ. In the strictest sense only the first of these is legitimate because, to those begging for food, all else is moot.

If a gun were held to our heads, most of us would beg for our lives – like a dog. Time is a gun, while the bullet inside it is death. Death is released at the moment of our birth. It follows us wherever we might go. When the time is right, it finds us wherever we might hide.

Buddhist monks are said to have just one possession: a cup. With it they beg for their daily bread. Unlike Hindus, the monks adhere to no strict set of dietary rules; they eat whatever they are given. (Remember, the Buddha is said to have died of food poisoning.) Of late though, some, dressed conspicuously in their saffron robes, can be seen among the tourists (at Washington’s Cherry Blossom Festival, for example), sporting sun glasses, cameras and cell phones; donated, no doubt, by the insistent disciples of a faith whose essence they do not yet understand. Being humble by nature, the monks accept these gifts, knowing that they can be readily exchanged for something that will not burden the soul.

No one wants to be seen begging, though it is the hallmark of our (human) condition. Therefore, diversions abound. Outright aggression is always effective; to get a people to yield and say, “We are blinded; we see nothing. God is great!”

In Hinduism, from which Buddhism derives, no clear distinction can be drawn between the gods, men and animals. All these exist as one, in one smooth, natural curve from the highest down to the lowest; hence, all life being sacred. Western visitors to India often tend to feel snugly superior, boasting of ever higher living standards. These, however, represent a meaningless measure in that it is based solely on the number of things owned; and each possession limits one’s freedom and, more importantly, one’s awareness by just that much.

There is indeed tremendous suffering among the poor of India; hunger and disease have left their indelible mark on the wasted bodies of millions. But similar blights exist in the West; only there they are emotional, psychological and spiritual in nature – well removed from the primary senses, but real and painful nonetheless. And almost no one is seen begging outright.

I vow that from here on in I will forgo reading any news reports about Sarah Palin. I, like most Americans, have no stomach for torture. Palin can expect to be tortured by the media; she will be savaged without mercy. The attacks on her will not be unlike what the Taliban has in store for the American soldiers they manage to capture; or what Israeli soldiers can expect at the hands of Hezbollah. The media will attempt to defile her. As the incorrigible libs they are, they will have forsworn the use of graphic violence.

The Taliban and Hezbollah are not yet that sophisticated. Yet, the media’s hatred for Palin (and all that she stands for) is the same as the Taliban’s hatred for Americans or Hezbollah’s hatred for Jews. The American media and Islamic extremists are the same in the intensity of their hatred. Both aim to torture, defile and ultimately dance in the bone yard where their victims are buried in just the shallowest of graves.

Bush left office a despised and broken man. The media here decides who lives or dies; as does the Taliban there. Begging won’t help because neither the Taliban/Hezbollah/Hamas nor the American media has a soul.

Give us Barabbas!

There's one thing that's been troubling me. Spencer actually stuck his sweaty finger into the wound. During the campaign I stated publicly that should Obama be elected, I would accept him as my president - quite unlike the Dems who insisted to the first and last man standing that Bush was 'selected, not elected', effectively painting him as illegitimate. It paved the way for them to summarily oppose his every effort. Seeing the need for Americans to come together, I thought that I would give Obama (or whoever was elected) a chance and judge him only by what can be reasonably projected as being the result of his various policy decisions, and not by my own petty prejudices.

Having re-read some of my blogs, I see I have been consistent and uncompromisingly negative about Obama's presidency. This, for some, translates into a dull-witted, knee-jerk response similar to that which was practiced by the Dems (and the press) during the Bush years. I have examined my conscience and can honestly say that nothing I have seen since Obama’s inauguration is cause for optimism. Logic itself defies any reason for optimism.

Still, Obama, for better or worse, is our president, the leader of our country. Has it now become our duty to follow him into the abyss? Or may we speak out in the hope that someone will yet hear as we crash and burn? Perhaps we are fated to fade away. But let it be said that at least some of us did not go along quietly with the euphorically inflamed mob shouting “Give us Barabbas!”

Breaking Things

The Obama strategy of breaking things (or saying they're broken) and then responding with some oversize emergency measure has become painfully obvious. Whereas it is acceptable for a president to respond to problems with what may be regarded as unique or even unorthodox solutions, the problem appears to have become one of trust. Quite frankly, growing numbers of individuals no longer trust this president.

We all are flesh and blood. We all can forgive someone making an honest mistake. However, should the mistakes continue unabated, while the dismal results are routinely whitewashed with incomprehensible language (or language that belies the facts), then we are forced to consider that something is afoot.

This is where Obama's past associations again come back to haunt. Wright, Ayers, Pfleger and all the others who were kept in the shadows during the election campaign are suddenly re-emerging in the public mind as signposts to what may yet lie ahead. Many of Obama's current czar appointments themselves, we find, have played significant roles in radical, far left political organizations.

The Soviet Union never died a natural death. It merely set up shop inside a more spirited host, eating away at its entrails to quench its insatiable appetite for destruction.

It may well be that all we've glossed over in order to give a handsome, young, black man an honest chance to shine will come back to bite us. On the other hand, let us take comfort in the knowledge that when a leader - like Bush - makes mistakes, everybody loses. Bush can no longer torment us. When, however, a specific strategy is in play by which some win and others lose, at least the winners will have something to celebrate.

Obama Flunks Race Relations

So much for our post-racial president. It was the one solid excuse we had for putting this man into office: to repair race relations. Obama flunked big time.

And, at the same time, another of Obama's radical friends comes to light. In the coming weeks, there will be reporters digging into Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s life. What is likely to emerge will not be pretty. The public will wonder how a man like that could be paid by a once esteemed institution like Harvard to teach our kids.

Most of us have not yet reached the point where we link academe with our current problems. The Gates affair will go a long way toward illuminating that particular link and expose academe's role in what some see as unsustainable public policy in any number of areas.

Even here in India, I cannot escape the corrosive reach of modern American academe. My wife works as an editor for a huge firm here in Chennai that receives mostly outsourced materials from American universities. Many of the topics are banal and often shocking to the highly disciplined and educated; well brought up; reasonable; responsible young people (cybercoolies, as they jokingly refer to themselves) who must endure this line of work. One of the papers recently described in numbing detail a man breaking wind and defecating on his nuptial bed before engaging in sex with his wife on their wedding night. This came from the Department of Gender Studies at the University of Virginia.

I also ask myself how, with unemployment in America unacceptably high and rising, is it not possible to find Americans to do this kind of work? The company my wife works for has recently built no less than three modern campuses in the city and is hiring like crazy – all, in an effort to accommodate the ever increasing volume of untreated sewage that continues to flow from America’s ivory towers. I no longer believe it’s a matter of money alone.

Not To Be Trusted

I have a bad feeling about this. Given what we have seen of Obama's policies to date, his use of the military anywhere on the planet seems ominous. The aim does not appear to be winning. The aim is to disengage. Obama's challenge is to find someone - anyone – who will fill the vacuum. Obama has already demonstrated that he has no sense of the Islamic threat. He will attempt to dialogue with anyone who claims power. He will try to convince them that the full faith and credit of the (new) U.S. will back whoever dares to declare himself top dog. The manner of government does not concern him.

Why even bother with the fig leaf of forcing a resolution in Iraq, Afghanistan, or wherever? Why not just pull out and declare an end to Bush’s ‘failed policies’ and publicly put the previous administration on trail for war crimes? No doubt, this has crossed Obama’s mind. However, this might be regarded as over-reaching, especially by the military establishment. Besides, by engaging the military one more time, without clear mandate and coupled with severe operational restrictions, would plunge the forces into certain confusion and ultimate humiliating defeat.

By sending the military anywhere, Obama’s aim, first and foremost, will be to discredit it; to cast the men and women who serve as inept or even criminal. In the meantime, he will have built his own ‘civilian (political) national security force’ of brown shirts (which, according to his own words, will be as well, or even better funded than the military) - presumably to take care of trouble at home.

It is clear that Obama expects trouble on the home front at some point. …and he aims to be ready for when it happens. In his view, the military services, as presently configured, are not to be trusted.

all the news that's fit to print

Don't be so sure about the media turning on Obama. It knows that if it turns, it will be turning on itself. All the effort, time and emotion to get Obama into the White House would have been for naught. Not to mention its own lost credibility.

Besides, who is there other than Obama that would be acceptable to the press? Republicans are still spineless poison. What's left? Hillary? Kerry? Gore? Losers, every one.

No, the press is wedded to Obama ('till death do them part). If Obama stumbles, the press stumbles too. They will continue to gin him up. The vast majority of the public won't be fooled again. But what the public thinks won't matter. In an age of rampant ignorance, partisanship, illiteracy, spin, bailouts and American Idol, it won't matter if you sell newspapers or not; if you have listeners, or viewers or not. All you have to do is continue to spin the narrative: Obama is great! He has come to save us from ourselves. Bush did more damage than anyone imagined. The world is about to melt anyway. And so on and so on...

No, they won't let it go. They'll spin success as failure; failure as success. Already the NYT is publishing almost daily articles about 'Doing More With Less', 'Going Back to Basics', and the like. They think they're preparing us for the senseless devastation that still lies ahead. They think they can make us feel good about it. And perhaps they could, if anyone were still reading their papers or watching the evening news.

We’ve arrived at a crossroads in this country. It’s either them or us. Expecting the press to defect is like expecting Hillary or Michelle to leave their husbands. If we, by simply sitting on our hands, can break this government choke-hold on us (I hear that Government Motors global sales fell another 22% in the first half of 2009 – strong work, people!), we will have shown the world that the concept of ‘revolution’ is not owned by the Left alone. It can be equally effective the other way around. It need not be violent. We do not seek their blood. We just want them put them back in their place by showing that there are more of us than there are of them.

Since the era of late, great Walter Krankheit (sic), the unelected leadership of the MSM has been effectively running the nation. It is the one thing the founding fathers never foresaw could happen. The press selected Obama to be its standard bearer. If Obama fails, they fail. If the people prevail, the new media will dominate, and the NYT will no longer be in a position to dictate public policy. I’m betting on an America in which The John Batchelor Show will be a primary source for "all the news that’s fit to print".

Fooled in Korea (and again)

POTUS will not comment on Tehran. I remember Madeleine Albright's visit to North Korea where she raised a toast to 'Dear Leader', while ‘Dear Leader's’ masses were out eating tree bark. She came away with a signed agreement which she waved for the press - all smiles. They reported it as a diplomatic triumph for Clinton. Meanwhile, everybody knew that the ‘Dear Leader's’ masses were either starving or in prison, or both.

Albright also made a statement to the effect that she believed that she didn't think it was right for the U.S. to be the only super power. It didn't get much press at the time because reporters simply loved Clinton no matter what he did. Besides, it reflected their own moral equivalent thinking. They’d been taught that the U.S. is basically a rogue nation with way too much influence in the world.

Was it a weariness that overcame them (the media) along with 52.7% of us? Was it self-loathing? Revenge? Guilt? We will never know. But now we've come full circle. Obama is on course to literally destroy America. I've been wondering why every single one of his pronouncements and policies – without exception - serves to drive America deeper and deeper into the ground. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day. There must be a plan.

Madeleine Albright's visit to N. Korea gave me my first inkling that something was very wrong in the Democrat camp. The only way she could have toasted the murderers was by thinking of herself as one of them - an elitist for whom plain folks don't count. The only thing that matters is that you're in the (leadership) club. Protect the club's members at any cost. Maintain the status quo.

No, Mr. Obama is not a Marxist. That would be an insult to Marxists. He's an elitist mole who's been sent to castrate America – to destroy its spirit, sap its strength, close its openness, vilify its goodness and curb its willingness to speak out for the oppressed - so that the elitist bullies can continue bullying. He is banking (on) that, by delivering the lifeless corpse of our once great nation to them on a silver platter, he'll be awarded the elitist Nobel (enslavement for peace) Prize and, at the same time, getting his revenge on a country he and those around him have always hated with more passion than we have ever loved her.

Good for him! We deserve it and more. We've become lazy, disinterested slugs. No wonder he - who likely is not even a citizen - was able to waltz all over us with mere platitudes. None of us was even remotely interested enough to demand proof of his citizenship. We just swore him in like we couldn't be bothered. ‘They’re all the same,’ we proclaimed cynically in an effort to appear wise. “We’re so tired of the red sofa; let’s get a black one instead.” We wanted change. We wanted to replace a ‘one’ with a ‘two’ just for the bloody hell of it. What we got was a ‘hundred’ (in the guise of some single digit number). Pulling the lever for Obama was like pulling the trigger on a loaded gun. I guess it’s the silencer that had us fooled.

Eclipse

Went down to the beach first thing this morning. There was a solar eclipse in progress. The local TV station had their cameras whirring. People were taking pictures on their cell phones. Others were meditating; some went for an auspicious swim. At home, my wife and her mother were watching it on TV.

Down here in Chennai, of course, it was only a partial eclipse. It didn't even get dark. The real thing happened up north in Varanasi where the Buddha once sat under the Peepal Tree.

They say the alignment of stars and planets is particularly bad this time around. The last time it happened like this was just before the Second World War started. In addition, some of the newspapers are predicting the end of the world this coming Thursday.

If we survive, the next eclipse - similar to this one - is scheduled to occur in approximately a hundred years. Who knows what our politicians will have cooked up by then?

Maybe Obama too is starting to get bad vibes. A Republican senator proclaims publicly that if we should succeed in stopping Healthcare Reform (Health Insurance Reform, in Obamaspeak) now, it’ll serve as Obama’s Waterloo. Obama, not used to criticism, reacts angrily, singling out the agitator and playing the part of the victim (without tears). He is also well aware that his poll numbers are sinking (which makes it ever so hard to walk on water).

How he will ultimately react if things should not go his way is anybody’s guess. One thing is for sure, unlike Bush, he’ll take it personal. An out-and-out defeat could eclipse the image Obama has of himself. Already, several self-imposed deadlines have come and gone without too much fuss. Healthcare, however, is the big one. It’ll be interesting to see what he’ll do when he feels himself cornered. Will he resort to unorthodox measures to force a resolution in his favor? Or will he remain magnanimous? We should know very soon.

Thiruvizha

The other day, just walking around the neighborhood, I stumbled upon a chariot from a local Durga temple that was being pulled through our local streets by an ox, accompanied by half a dozen musicians. The chariot itself contained the garlanded idol and a couple of Hindu priests tending a sacred flame. People came out of their houses to make offerings and receive blessings.

Like Shiva, the destroyer (of the Hindu trinity), Durga qualifies as quite a fearsome god(dess) in her own right. She is said to represent the fearsome voice of God. She rides on a (Steiff) lion and carries a trident sword.

The procession also featured a female oracle who danced and chanted in tongues. This colorful spectacle is called Thiruvizha here in Tamil Nadu. It is not an uncommon sight. Often, the narrow streets here become blocked by the chariot and the crowds that gather. The locals take it all in stride. It is an important part of their tradition and heritage. The Muslims too have ways of blocking the streets to traffic. Some see it as a tit for tat.

All this comes on the heels of when one of the readers (probably the only one) of my blog responded to my latest (somewhat hysterical) posting by saying that “Siva has to dance some time.” I quite agree. After all is said and done, the dance goes on. Even after we’ve been hobbled, we’ll still find a way to dance, even if only with our fingers. Life is infinitely more durable than death.

America Catches Cold

If Obama and his ilk were true visionaries, the lessons he would take away from what has been happening in China and Iran is that massive, monolithic government does not work. What is needed instead is a light touch that allows a people’s natural instincts to deal with diversity on its own terms. Lhasa, Urumqi and Tehran have demonstrated that public unrest is not spawned by democratic governance but by paranoid, autocratic rule that does not respect its constituents and always takes a defensive stance.

Jesus was to have said that the poor will always be with you. If we stipulate this to be true – discounting for the moment ‘poor’ as it might pertain to the spirit or intelligence – then Obama’s redistributionist policies cannot end well. By taking from the rich and giving to the poor, all he’d be doing is changing hats. It’s a simple-minded approach in that it fails to take into account that which has made the rich rich and left the poor poor. Switching hats, not only requires the suppression of a group that does not deserve it, but will ultimately deprive the nation as a whole of its ability to create wealth.

The perception that wealth equals power is not entirely wrong. Wealth per se, however, is so much more than dollars and cents. It is the result of talent, creativity, hard work, discipline and ingenuity. A people lacking in these qualities will never succeed. Being the sudden recipients of a windfall by virtue of government edict, they will squander the best efforts of those who have actually earned it. Look at what happened in Zimbabwe.

Similarly, governments simply printing money are on the road to economic Armageddon. The U.S. banks know this; the public knows this - if not expressly, they know it instinctively. God help us should the banks start lending, causing the economy suddenly to pick up now. All our accumulated IOU’s; our manic matchstick money - based only on debt – would simply burst into flames. Inflation would devour it like we haven’t seen before. Again, the value of a nation’s currency is backed by the value of the work it produces. If a government’s policy is to actively cheapen the nature of work, to discourage or even hinder it; to confer that work on people not qualified to do it, that nation will reap the bitter fruits of collapse.

If it happens, only monolithic governance is capable of causing such an outcome. It will be impossible to contain the chaos just on the fiscal side. Social and institutional structures can be expected to vaporize. Government itself will fall, leaving a sucking sound.

We are on the precipice. Not government, only the people themselves can save us now. It has been said that when America sneezes, the whole world catches cold. The truth is that when America implodes, it’ll drag the whole world into the maelstrom along with it. I wonder if our new president gets off on that.

Is the Penalty the Same?

As a proud, long-time resident of the Garden State (notwithstanding its politicians), I find it laughable that Corzine and Obama even have the gall to blame ‘old ways’. No state (except perhaps California, New York and a handful of others) has marched more in lockstep with Democrat policies and has, in the process, brought herself to her fiscal knees. As taxes soar ever higher, working people are literally fleeing the state. Meanwhile, New Jersey serves as a magnet for the financially indigent who are lured here by generous welfare programs. It is clearly a recipe for economic disaster.

Corzine used to live right here - on the good side of the tracks - in my own hometown. I used to see him quite often along Springfield Avenue before he decided to divorce his wife of 33 years and move to Hoboken. Somehow, these things are never publicly mentioned much. The previous governor one day suddenly announced that he was resigning because he is gay (come again?) and had cheated on his wife. It made headlines (in NJ) for about a week. Meanwhile, the saga of Mark Sanford, Republican, continues. None of this sex stuff should matter a hill of beans. What matters is that the State is going broke. I suppose, like everything else, it’s Bush/Cheney’s fault that people and businesses are leaving our State in droves. Maybe we could spend some of Obama's stimulus money to build a wall along the Pennsy border to stem the hemorrhaging. Meanwhile, my mother, at the other end of town, is struggling to pay her annual $10,000+ property tax bill just for the privilege of being able to live and die in her modest home.

Elections come and go in NJ. Even the Republicans we elect are Democrats in essence. Unlike on the Federal level, the problem here is not so much ideological as it is just bad management. In other words, no governor in NJ has deliberately and knowingly pursued a policy that would bankrupt the state. It comes to the same thing - whether by incompetence or design - doesn’t it? How do we judge which is which? Is one worse than the other? Is the penalty for failure and treason the same?

There's No Ambulance

Spence – Let me say from the outset that I would be much happier writing about sunrises over the Bay of Bengal or a thousand other astounding minutiae of Asian exotica. Unfortunately, the political landscape in America has changed so dramatically since Obama’s election; it’s sucked all the air out of normal concerns. I'm not showing anybody anything. I'm like you: I observe and try to articulate what I see.

You do the same, but the Zeitgeist has overtaken you. You’re seeing it all alright, but you refuse to connect the dots. That’s because the picture that emerges is so egregious, so alien to anything we’ve come to expect, we instinctively recoil from it and say, “This is America; and it can’t happen here.” But it’s already happened. Check out the backgrounds of the new science and climate czars.

When a man is fatally shot, it usually still takes a little time for him to die. During this time, we still hold out hope that he will live. We tell him, “Hang in there, old buddy. The ambulance is on its way.”

This is where we find ourselves today: waiting for the ambulance. Only, the ambulance is not coming. The shooter is driving the ambulance and he has no intention of returning to the scene of the crime.

We all know instinctively that there’s no ambulance on the way. Some of us (you, for instance) still have the audacity to hope.

I believe that America has seen nothing yet. Things will get worse. And the reason it’ll get worse is because what is being done is deliberate.

We’ve fixed it so that there are no longer any checks and balances in the system. The government is going full tilt in a singular direction. The only thing left to stop them is the people themselves. That can’t be good.

No Time to Hang out the Wash

The shuttle program should have been left for the private sector to develop in the first place. The alternative option was to have a proud, patriotic government handle it; one that was determined to prove to the world that America is, and will always be the best. Either option is no longer viable. Encumbered with government regulation and high taxation, the private sector has been left to whither on the vine. At the same time, government is proving itself to be inefficient, corrupt, apologetic and not the in least bit patriotic.

As such, what is happening to our shuttle program serves as a metaphor for what we can generally expect in the years to come: mediocrity, despair and an overall lack of vision; this, as we lurch from man-made disaster to man-made disaster. It occurs to me that, as long as God was in charge, our lives were much simpler and infinitely more predictable.

Government was never meant to be more than a tool for the people to use to their best advantage. A tool can never exceed its prescribed function. By allowing government to grow unchecked at the expense of the people's rights and liberties is like letting a driver-less bulldozer (tool) run through the neighborhood. Not every house will be taken; just enough to let everyone know that things are out of control.

So, the people either huddle in cellars or make plans to escape the neighborhood. All know that this is not the time to hang the wash out to dry, much less build space shuttles. (Though, leaving the planet is fast becoming an attractive reverie.)

There was a time when America was the ultimate destination for the downtrodden. I still hear it said almost every day here in India by the families of young Indians struggling to pay exorbitant sums to give the kids a chance to study or work in America. I hear the old folks proudly listing the members of their families who, in their estimation, have reached the ultimate rung on the ladder (somewhere in America). News of the runaway bulldozer has not reached here yet. And if it has, it’s promptly dismissed. “America is the richest country,” they keep reciting. “Nothing bad can ever happen there. It’s impossible.”

Bandh

Almost as fast as the U.S. is slipping into ever steeper decline, the veneer is peeling off the global warming hoax as well. It certainly did manage to suck in a lot of well-meaning people. But most of them are now beginning to realize that it's nothing more than a ruse. More importantly, increasing numbers are beginning to recognize the political forces driving it.

This is why Obama and the Democrats in Congress are so hell-bent on passing 'cap and trade’ RIGHT NOW, before the entire rationale behind it blows up in their faces. The truth is, they need the money to further the farce of being able to afford universal health care - at least, that's the narrative most Dems are centered on (and refuse to think beyond). So even if they know the climate change issue to be a joke, they believe they can still support it if it means being able to lure their constituents in with promises of immortality.

What is becoming increasingly clear is that universal health care is no panacea. Besides being impossible to achieve as the remedy is currently structured, any attempt alone in that direction will result in worse health care than currently exists, and would bankrupt the country to boot.

And that is the ultimate goal of this administration, isn’t it? On analysis, every policy put forward by this administration thus far, damages America’s economy further. The looming immigration debate will no doubt introduce yet another corrosive element into the mix. Even in our foreign policy, despite public pronouncements to the contrary, the ultimate destruction of Israel remains implicit.

As Americans, who have been largely comatose during the Bush years, begin to realize where we are heading, they are increasingly asking, “What can we do to save ourselves?”

“Not much,” even the most right-wing ideologues tell us. “Wait for the next election.”

I’ve been accused of being excessively pessimistic. On the other hand, I’ve also been told that I speak for a lot of people. And I actually do remain confident that Americans will at some point rise up and speak clearly in opposition to where this administration is taking us. Only, I do believe that if we wait until the next election (still a year and a half away), it’ll be too late. The cancerous growth of our government must be stopped NOW!

Here in India, a commonly used form of protest used by political activists is to declare a ‘Bandh’. The word in Hindi literally means ‘closed’. During a Bandh, a major political party or a large chunk of a community declares a general strike, usually lasting one day. Bandhs are a powerful means of civil disobedience. Because of the economic pain that a Bandh exacts on local communities, it is much feared as a tool of protest.

It’s difficult to say at what point precisely Obama and the Dems will have over-reached. Will it be when they drag Bush/Cheney in front of an international tribunal? Will it be when they decide to quash talk-radio? Any number of other scenarios remains equally intriguing. Suffice it to say, the day will come when the majority of Americans will say, “Enough is enough!” The message will be unmistakable and infinitely more potent than genteel tea parties with accompanying finger sandwiches.

Declaring a Bandh would certainly seem to fit the bill. It would demonstrate that those participating had ‘skin in the game’ and were profoundly committed. The only reasons not to do it would be (1) if nobody cared; (2) if you happen to agree that Obama’s vision is right for America; or (3) if you were afraid to find out that there aren’t enough people out there to make it happen.

I’m not saying that the people’s protest will necessarily take on the form of an Asian Bandh. America's response will be uniquely American. It will not be violent; Americans are not a violent people. What I am saying is that some kind of protest will congeal around righteous grievance and that it will happen before the next election cycle begins.

Beer and Cemeteries

When I was a kid, we used to sneak out at night and break into neighbors’ garages and steal the six-packs they often kept there. Then, we’d head over to the cemetery and got drunk. Pretty straight forward logic, wouldn’t you say? If one or another of the neighbors got wise to what was happening, they’d start locking their garage doors, or they’d simply go out and buy more beer.

Suppose you had a big, shiny Cadillac in your garage. It was your pride and joy and you’d put the top down and take her out only on weekends. You used to keep it parked out front, but some of the kids in the neighborhood would key it; and you kept having to get it repainted.

You eventually found out who did it and pressed charges. Apparently, the kids thought you shouldn’t have the big car. They’d been taught in school that big cars leave an excessive carbon footprint, threatening Samoans and Polar Bears. They promised the judge they’d never do it again. Still, you decided from then on to keep the car locked-up in the garage.

Then, you began to notice little things starting to go wrong with it: the wipers, the radio, the back-up lights. One morning you couldn’t start it at all. (It turns out somebody had poured sugar in the tank.) You kept bringing it back to the dealer to get things fixed. It was costing you a bundle. The dealer just kept fixing stuff and collecting the money. He never let on what he knew to be true: that the car was being deliberately being vandalized.

Finally, you were all set to take her out one fine Sunday afternoon and you got as far as the 7/11 when the engine seized. (Somebody had drained the oil and dumped it in your tomato patch.) This was going to be a big job and cost a lot of money. You started having doubts about the car. You realized that you were actually starting to hate it.

So you decided to get rid of the Cadillac. You didn’t even bother to get her fixed. You just called the junk yard and told them to send a hook. All you got out of it was a couple hundred bucks for scrap. The kids who were sabotaging your car had primed the pump; you yourself would do the rest.

It’s the same thing that’s happened to our economy. It was undermined and deliberately sabotaged so we would end up saying, “Capitalism failed. Bring on the next best thing!” “Besides,” you rationalize further, “the only reason Communism did not work for the Russians is that Russia never had Capitalism to begin with. The only way Communism can work properly is if the people themselves get so disgusted with Capitalism that they curse it and turn against it.”

It’s the way they did Bush/Cheney; and they’re now doing Palin. These good people have been smeared, trashed and demonized to the point where we all said in unison, “Bring on Obama!”

So, whenever you hear someone say (as has been heard often of late) that Capitalism failed; America failed; religion failed; healthcare failed; school system failed; the planet failed; GM failed; banks failed; Bush failed; etc., know it’s not true.

All these are the Cadillacs you’ve been keeping in your garage. They’ve been deliberately sabotaged by the same people, with the same agenda (from your own neighborhood), who erstwhile broke into your garage and stole your beer. While you weren’t looking, they’ve graduated to stealing bigger and better things – your liberties, your comfort; your traditions; your confidence; your future; your success – all, for the eternal glory of Communism – which, incidentally, actually does have an extensive history of failure.

Just look at North Korea, and China bursting at the seams. Though what’s true is true: None of these places ever enjoyed the fruits of Capitalism. Category Error?

Get Used to It!

David Petraeus certainly is an attractive choice. Whether or not he could achieve anything significant from outside the political power structure remains to be seen. I can't see him running as a Democrat. As a Republican, he is certain to be crucified; remember, (betray us)?

Like it or not, the press continues to hold the key (as it did in the last election). The American people have not distinguished themselves in the art of critical thinking. Yes, Obama will make them hurt, but they will eat whatever is put in front of them. The question remains: Will the press turn on Obama?

Don't count Obama out either. He is taking steps on his own right now, as we speak, to secure a second term (and possibly even a third and beyond), tightening his grip on power. I have no doubt that any, and all things possible - even the race card - will be used aggressively in pursuit of Obama's ambition. The party will remain solidly behind him no matter how badly his policies fare, or how outrageous his methods.

The public is no longer in the running. I've said it before: When a government takes charge of everything, there’s no longer any standard by which to judge success or failure. No matter what happens, it will be chalked up as the dear leader's blessing.

Our comic book hero/demagogue will be difficult to unseat. This will become apparent in the next election cycle. I am certain that Obama has no intentions of moving even an ounce of furniture during his lifetime. In his view, the Constitution is a living, breathing putty animation that can be re-drawn to suit. With Congress and, most importantly, the courts and the media in his back pocket, he cannot fail.

The Obama nation is here to stay. Get used to it!

The Big Bang in Reverse

Frank J. Tippler, in a book entitled, The Physics of Immortality, tries to blunt the pessimism of our age somewhat by likening the earth to a womb within a relatively young universe from which we would proceed to colonize space and thereby gain time for us to continue doing whatever it is we do beyond the moment when the earth becomes uninhabitable. In support of his theory, Tippler points to the remarkably rapid progress we are making in technology. And even if conditions elsewhere (in space) were not necessarily suited to sustain life as we know it, he argues, that we, by virtue of projected advances in robotics, rocket and computer science, would be certain to find a way to survive just about anywhere as some variation of today's computer chip.

It is concerning this last point that Tippler's theory is most likely to run into trouble. If, as he states, it were indeed possible to download all human knowledge to be contained within a more durable form, the resulting "chip" could still only be regarded as a tool. And any tool can in fact never exceed the parameters imposed by its function. Unless we agree to re-embrace the now largely discredited, strictly mechanical view of the universe in which man is no more than a cog, the moment the last living organism consigns its existence to something it might have created would invariably trigger the Big Bang in reverse.

The Crashing Balloon

Welcome to the incredible shrinking, sinking America! (When is the last time Atlantis has had any say in world affairs?) A country that has deliberately jettisoned its life rafts, its booster rockets and taken on ballast - stone ignorant of the consequences. No need to study math, the sciences - even language. These all are fluff, hot air - the white man's irrelevancy; his dreaded carbon footprint; his arrogantly destructive stance.

No, John, we've entered a new era, erstwhile known as The Dark Ages; people huddling together in caves and monasteries (complete with ivory towers from which to watch sunsets) built for the sole purpose of renouncing worldly ambition and appeasing Kali (Gaia), the earth goddess and nurture the spark of vintage automobiles.

World leaders must have had some sense of this as they confer with POTUS, leader of the (once) free world. (Not the princes of the Middle East, of course, who live in their own separate time zones.) They are now left with having to formulate their own strategies to steer clear of the looming disaster; the crashing red, white and blue balloon that now threatens to suck all the air out of everything, under the umbrella of 'climate change' (which is really just another phrase for self-loathing).

The Russians know they’ve been given the opportunity to lead the (new) exodus. They’re frightened by it. They still have the acrid taste of failure in their throats. The Chinese too know that these are pivotal times. They too are frightened. Will they be able to avoid the missteps of Mao? - All children, both grieving for -and hating a parent who is in the process of committing suicide.

A Hand Reaches Out

The following is in response to a question posed by John Batchelor on his website after the U. S. president's visit to Russia. Batchelor asks, "Am I ringing an alarm bell?"

Yes, you are, JB - ringing it loud and clear! I'm sure the Russians were quite flabbergasted by what they saw - something like seeing a three-year old driving a bus on the expressway. The Russians haven't had time to digest it yet. They haven't even had time to formulate a response. Obama is a simpleton; unlike Gandhi, who spoke and lived simply but was solidly grounded in reality - and hard as steel.

Nothing real about Obama; nothing there to hang your hat on, even. Just the (as of yet) unformed mind mass of an ideologue permanently disabled by narcissism. God help us when they finally do figure it out; that what once was a great nation is essentially leaderless and looking for a home anywhere but in America. The unmitigated shame of it; the insult to accepted protocol. Is a touch of patriotism really too much to expect?

A hand reaches out and grasps... nothing.

The Manchurian Candidate

The chaos of war is so untenable, so unimaginable, so repulsive, so frightening to the human mind, most simply refuse to see it coming. Those who do understand something about the volatile cocktail that can trigger all-out conflagration, go about shoring up defenses. This has been the prudent way of guarding populations throughout the ages.

A new (so far, untested) template has captured the imagination of Americans with the election of Barack Obama, the underlying principle of which can be summarized by three words: appeasement, submission and (public) atonement (groveling) for past (real or imagined) sins. This, it is thought, will remove us as a threat to anyone who might be contemplating aggression.

Wars, for most, always begin unexpectedly. Perhaps this is why we don't pay much attention to the saber rattling of the likes of Ahmadinejad and Kim Jong-Il. What does rattle us is an attack like the one on Pearl Harbor and the one on the WTC. Such attacks are not easy to ignore and protocol demands a response. From then on, the narrative becomes entirely predictable. Strike back, but keep the chaos away from mother.

Equally devastating (if not more so) is civil strife. It means that the leadership has failed. The only exception is if the leadership is deliberately trying to instigate civil strife for its own nefarious reasons.

Civil strife also flares unexpectedly. Suddenly there's a Trojan horse inside the gates - wonderful to look at. Once the wall has been breached, the fine art of defense becomes meaningless. That's why it was so critical for Frank Sinatra to find and neutralize the assassin, Lawrence Harvey, before he could set into motion the plot to install the Manchurian candidate as POTUS. (There's a twist at the end, but you get the point.)

Shoe On the Other Foot

There are protests; and there are protests. The trick is to know which is which. There are genuine grievance protests; there are rent-a-mob protests; there are get-your-face-on-TV protests; there are let’s-kick-some-ass-because-we’re-bored protests. Then there are protests that are made up of any combination of these.

For Barack Obama, there is only one kind of protest. It’s the one defined in communist protocol as being the precursor to social revolution which in turn is the precursor to the imposition of totalitarian governance. As a community organizer on the streets of Chicago, he routinely helped organize protests as a means to weaken the system in order to wring out concessions. This, he believed, was wholly legitimate as a means to advance his ideology as well as his own political ambitions. He remains fully aware of the potency of the tactic.

Now that the shoe is on the other foot and Obama has reached the pinnacle of power, he is no longer so enamored by protest movements of any type. So far, the protests against him and his policies have consisted of relatively polite tea parties, easily marginalized by his adoring press flacks’ inattention. Still, the numbers of those participating are worrying. Somehow, information is getting out. Equally (if not more) troubling is the fact that the American people seem to have decided en masse to sit on their hands and refuse to participate in the hotly anticipated economic recovery. It’s almost as if they’ve adopted a passive-aggressive stance – not working; not spending – deliberately designed to bleed the system dry.

Still, as long as it stays that way, the revolution advances. What is its aim? Why, to stamp out every vestige of America’s past (presumed) power, of course. The theory goes that, without America (and its few remaining allies), it would be a peaceful world, safe from the corrosive effects of racism, greed and pollution - a virtual utopia in which everyone loves each other and happily contributes to the limit of their ability to everyone else’s need. (Did I get that right?)

So far, so good. But there’s trouble brewing. Obama’s inability to speak out decisively on recent protests in Iran and in various parts of China stems from the fact that his own position has changed. He knows that, though bearing the mantel of U. S. president, his is a tenuous hold on power. He knows that the majority of Americans do not support his policies. He knows he must be in a position to crush any resistance movement that may emerge in order to have a shot at ramming his radical agenda through.

Iran is the template when it comes to dealing with protesters. Use brute force, intimidate (got a head start on that with ACORN); deny free speech (working on it); and fill the prisons (with tax cheats). Make it so no one will dare to speak out. Keep them busy mourning over the lives and deaths of celebrity icons. Draft rubber-stamp celebrity icons to serve in Congress.

Uyghurs? (Probably should be spelled with a "W”. Can’t really blame them; why, with Bush giving the poor letter such a bad name.) Yeah, those guys are trouble alright. I wonder who’s stirring them up? I hope it’s not us.

Ghosts

The closest thing I’ve seen to ghosts is the stray dogs that live here on the beach and elsewhere. Unlike their domestic counterparts, they do not bark, tug on leashes, get hit by cars or dirty the sidewalks. They move unobtrusively among humans (and their domesticated companions) without breaking their unfathomable routines. They truly live in a world of their own, entirely oblivious to the tension-filled spaces of modern life while, at the same time, feeding off what humans carelessly discard along the wayside.

It works both ways. No attention is paid to the strays as well. It’s as if they don’t exist – like lizards, birds. I find it curious that there’s a building sporting an “Animal Welfare” sign barely a block from the beach where sick dogs abound, locked in their own private agonies. I see them day after day, scratching and biting themselves, their tumors growing; some have lost their fur entirely; some nurse broken legs; others are nearly blind.

In Russia, Obama will encounter the ghost of the Cold War still raging. Whereas it has all but passed on in the West, in Russia it’s still banging the pots inside the halls of the KGB. Our president will be hard pressed to persuade Putin to stop feeding that particular dog. That’s because it still rankles them that they lost (albeit fair and square).

Obama’s offer of peace will not connect. It lies outside their capacity to understand that America’s prostrations are not a trick. No one can be so deluded as to think that Marxism still has merit. They’ll see Obama as a trickster. Hasn’t he already managed to trick the American people into electing someone who appears to believe that economic success is the source of all evil? Hasn’t he been doing his utmost to unravel that which has taken centuries to build? “No way can we trust a man like that”, they will conclude. “We’ll humor him, but our policy of vigilance won’t change. Besides, America is more valuable to us as an enemy. In this way we’ll have someone to blame when our own corrupt policies begin to fail.

“Still, it’s a pretty good ploy; you must admit - black man without pedigree; a messiah who is said to hate his own. One who claims he would run the old failed experiment all over again – for what? Peace? Revenge? Bloody-mindedness?

“It’s too much to expect of us to believe. And all this from a nation that only six month ago still fought the good fight respectably. And if it turns out to be true, it’s even worse: the unraveling of a once-great nation, creating a vacuum we can’t possibly fill.”

A Two-Legged Dog

It's amazing to me how easily we are distracted - Michael Jackson; Palin; pandemic; Putin; ‘global warming’, etc. In the meantime, we've got more immediate problems right here in River City.

“Sometimes you don't see what's right in front of you”, my mother used to say when I couldn't find something. 'Look again!' she’d tell me. I thought it was silly, but went back anyway. And then I would find it. Similarly, today we are so concerned with this or that in an effort to feel relevant. We catch the bait and run with it. We talk and blog; blog and talk. In the process, we lose focus; we wear ourselves out – and then we wonder why nothing ever changes.

Nothing changes because we talk around the things that concern us most. We dread the possibility of being aware; because awareness breeds commitment. We don’t want to tie ourselves down; we dread the job that clearly must be done if we are to survive as a nation. So, we project ourselves back to pre-9/11; pre-Obama, when dolts like Bush and Clinton were in office - men just like us with whom we could agree or disagree, but who were essentially non-threatening - ‘good-old boys’ who were nevertheless American and could be counted on to defend our nation should it ever come to that.

So, even if we don’t agree with present policies; even if our neighbor down the road has lost his job and is about to loose the house. Even as our own nest eggs have shrunk to the size of a Robin’s, we’re quite content to sit this one out and wait for the next election when we’ll be able to vote the bums out. If there is a next election, that is.

“Now he’s talking crazy,” I can hear Spencer and others say. “This is America, after all. Of course there’ll be elections!” But look what’s happened in Honduras recently. Look whose side we’re on. Look at the once great nations of Venezuela, Iran, and Zimbabwe. Look what elections are like in those places – kinda like Minnesota and New Jersey, don’t you think? Who knows what ACORN is yet capable of?

So, we refuse to see the elephant in the room. It’s easier to get back at the wife or the kids because they pi**ed us off last night. The earth still looks flat, no matter what anyone says. This elephant is not too big to fail; it’s too big to see!

I saw a two-legged dog tooling up our street this morning as I went out for a cigarette. It was going at a pretty good clip and I admired the animal. I also realized that it was on its last legs. If another one goes, it’s over. It reminded me of America. The executive branch is already gone; as is the House. All that’s left is the judiciary and the people. Should the judiciary fold (as seems likely now), all that’s left is the people – people like you and me, who refused to see what’s coming; indeed, what’s already here.

Dead Bees Can Still Sting

I am fast reaching the conclusion that all governments are crude, hollow, oafish, unimaginative, simple-minded, heavy-handed… you get the idea. Right, Left, Far Right, Far Left, Right of Center, Left, Left of Center, it doesn’t matter which. The only thing that separates good government from bad government is its size. By that standard, we are all collectively marching in the wrong direction.

I once worked quite regularly with a man from Bangladesh at very close quarters (in an armored truck). We got to know each other quite well. Moh’d was a good man; smart; hard-working; dependable. Once a year he’d deliberately starve himself in deference to some religious festival and the blood would drain from his face. By the end of the day, he was so weak, he could no longer drive. Someone else would take over the wheel and we’d make it back to base in good order.

We talked about many things. A favorite topic of his was immigration and borders. One day he said something profound. I sloughed it off at first but it stayed with me and I was compelled to reconsider. “Perhaps the whole problem with everything is borders,” he said.

Unfortunately, we’ve consigned the protection of (often unnatural) borders to government with the understanding that government that does everything badly. As such, it tends to get us into wars which, every one agrees, invariably end badly for all. Now we find ourselves at a precipice with government making a serious bid to take over everything from what we eat to how we flush our toilets.

Some are only now starting to recognize the danger of incompetent or even nefarious government taking over every aspect of our lives. We find that government often has the earmarks of a cancer that, if left to metastasize, will kill the patient.

It’s no wonder that some of us have begun shouting hysterically for others to wake up. What to do? We are not a violent people; we are not a banana republic. As such, we must pin our hopes on passive aggression. We must starve the beast.

We recognize that government is a lot better organized than we are. We must organize as well. It needs to go beyond organizing tea parties on the fourth of July. We already have a sense of what we must do. We must prepare now to vote everyone – Republican and Democrat alike – out of office when the time comes. We must derail their shameless gravy train. It won’t be pretty. They’ll squeal like stuck pigs for they’ve come to feel entitled to their leadership (such as it is). We too will suffer; there’s still a lot they can do to hurt us. A dead bee can still sting. But we absolutely must take our nation back. There simply is no alternative.

Pizza Runs to Paris, France

JB - Interesting to speculate about 2050. But, as you yourself say, the first three reports are always wrong. In the realm of speculation, it may well be the first 10 reports or more. Who would have thought a year ago we’d be where we are?

As time goes by and the layers of the Obama onion peel away, we learn more and more about our president. His past, still shrouded in secrecy, is hardly the source of our gradual enlightenment. It is what he has done so far and continues to do that has many of us concerned. I found it telling, for instance, that he condemned what happened in Honduras last weekend as an affront to 'justice' – not 'liberty'.

Whereas it is possible to have justice without liberty, it is impossible to have liberty without justice. By concentrating on justice (or the lack of it) alone, Obama reveals himself as one who believes that he and those he professes to represent have been wronged. As such he also denies that liberty exists. This is the starting point from which he justifies his personal ambition aimed at turning America on its head, redistributing wealth and opportunity according to numerical quotas and basically throwing wide open the jails and mental institution, only to imprison those whom fate has seemingly dealt the better hand.

This is the man we elected last November. He will see to it that all knowledge, skill and hard work is marginalized while all property, assiduously earned, is redistributed to those who have not worked to earn it. Already most people’s investment savings have been virtually wiped out. Next on the chopping block is what has been dubbed most families’ biggest investment: their homes. If you can’t sell your home because it does not meet California’s energy standards, and you don’t have the money for the Federal government mandated upgrade, then your investment is down the tubes. If, after all that you’re still managing to hang in there on account of having been smart and hidden your cash in the mattress, inflation will come along and set your bed on fire.

It is beyond Obama’s pay grade to understand that any property must be properly managed for it to retain its value. Neither can he (or any Marxist) acknowledge that what is taken from the rich and given to the poor will soon be worthless.

A perfect example is Zimbabwe where land was taken from farmers who had made the country into the breadbasket of Africa and turned it over to the poor. Zimbabwe has been cascading from abyss to abyss ever since. Whereas, on the surface, it may not seem fair that those actively involved in (and contributing to) the productive sectors of a nation are economically better off than those who don't, any attempt to interfere with the organic inequities that result from the exercise of robust capitalism can only result in disaster for everybody across the board.

Zimbabwe is the canary in the gold mine that died to show us the way. It is the ‘ghost of Christmas future’ if we allow the Marxists free reign. I disagree with those who see a “soft tyranny” ahead for us if we should fail to act. There’s nothing “soft” about tyranny. It is a crucible that often spells death for those who would dare escape it. Even if we should rise to the challenge, there’s no guarantee that we will not emerge diminished. But every excuse to delay will make it that much harder to reverse what has already been done.

Russia and China among others may well make inroads while we’re involved in our own existential struggle. In fact, any ally that has any hope of engaging us to do their bidding, better think twice. We have enough on our plate right here at home to worry about geopolitics. For the time being we are effectively out of the running no matter how many pizza runs Michelle makes to Paris, France.