Friday, December 31, 2010

Cutting Off The Nose


“…he was becoming exasperated with his failure to give him a jobs plan he could sell.”

Is that how these people see themselves - used car salesmen? I thought a president was elected ‘to preserve and protect’; to run things (and not into the ground). I guess I’ve been wrong all along when it comes to this bunch. At least they’re still selling - not yet at gun point. Aside from the fact that governments create only incestuous jobs, they don’t seem to understand that selling always involves no less than two parties. Both have to agree for the deal to go through. So far, there is no deal. The public is not buying.

I heard recently in passing that one of the Federal departments got rid of all their Fords and replaced the original fleet with Chevies. The Chevies were termed ‘junk’ (by the insider) and declared unsuitable to their purpose. Clearly, a conflict. Understandable that the government was wanting to push its own brand - suitability be damned.

When the public favored Ford over Chevy, it did so to make its position clear. All things were not equal. The public preferred one over the other . One accepted a government bailout; the other did not. Buying a Ford proclaimed one’s feeling toward the issue.

No matter how intense the advertising (selling), the public will not buy a ‘socialist mop’ - not the American public at any rate. It’s got to be forced down their throats - gavage. Obama and crew may see us as geese, but that’s not how we see ourselves. We will fight back in our own way.

We know their game: They want jobs so they can trumpet success and collect taxes to fuel their agenda. They make it seem like we are the ones wanting the jobs. We don’t.

If we wanted jobs, we’d get it done. Long before it dawned on Republicans to ‘starve’ offensive government outreach (to Muslims, unions, communists and the like), we the people were already deeply engaged: dragging our heels, holding back, starving (if you will) the government’s ability to proclaim a meaty victory.

We recognized long before the government did - before the media did - that only we could create jobs; that we were the only ones with that power. We could turn off the spigot - and we did. They say socialism fails wherever it‘s tried. Socialism doesn‘t fail; the public rejects it. Cutting off the nose is a worthy sacrifice if the face is no longer the face of America.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Thursday, December 30, 2010

The Kinks



I played this one over and over again when the album first came out. I recall very well what the album cover looked like (front and back). But I don't remember ever playing any of the other cuts.

Same As The Old Boss


With the illusion of American influence in world affairs rapidly fading, there are several players already making moves to fill in the gap. Of these, perhaps the most visible, is the UN. The UN, however, represents only a small shift away from U.S. (non)-policy. It is also strapped for cash, riddled with corruption, and highly politicized. It is either unable or unwilling to use force, depending instead on containment, negotiation and the paying of bribes. The UN takes no firm positions, tending instead to go along with the strong horse.

These are also the tendencies that have led to America’s downfall. There is no reason to expect the UN to succeed with the very same methods that have rendered America clownishly irrelelevant. Therefore, a UN high-profile presence in any of the world’s trouble spots will ultimately not make a significant difference.

Thus far the UN has been used primarily to reap money and concessions from America. It is fully in support of ‘global warming’ initiatives which are then used to put pressure on the United States to give more money and retract its claws. UN soldiers have been accused of plunder and rape. They have been accused of extortion. They have been uses as human shields. Though blind themselves, they have been used as seeing eye dogs. They are well recognized scofflaws to which any cop in New York can readily testify.

Where Israel is concerned, the UN’s bias against it has been legendary. The UN is heralded by New York’s liberal elites (including Jews) and Washington progressives as the 'be all and end all'. This is in part because of the UN’s appearance of civility. Members of the UN are well paid. They are given a lofty platform from which to opine; they tend to smile a lot; except when it is in their best interest to frown for a laugh line, usually at the expense of Israel.

If the people of the Cote D’Ivoire are depending on the UN to settle things, they’ve got a long wait. They’d do much better to look to themselves if their aim is to avoid another African genocide. I understand it’s in the blood over there. A volatile mix of religion - especially Islam - and politics practically guarantees chaos. This time the U.S. won’t ride to the rescue. Look at what’s just happened in Haiti, less than a thousand miles from our shores. We’ve engaged the services of not less than three living U.S. presidents (along with much fanfare) to help. The reason there has been no reporting on this is because all three have failed.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Butter On A Bagel


I swear, these jihadis are like women. I was newly married when my mother invited my wife and I out to dinner. My wife was pregnant and sullen. After we got home, she remarked that I never once turned to her to engage her in conversation. Ten years and two kids later, this little incident turned up in the divorce papers I was served. It was number two on a list of ten things she held against me. Which just goes to show that women and jihadis don’t need valid excuses. Any one will do to justify the mayhem they are intent on causing.

The cartoons must have polled well among these illiterates. They’ll use it till the cows come home. Meanwhile, we’ve all but forgotten 9/ll, the USS Cole, the Beirut barracks, Daniel Pearl and thousands of similar atrocities that they’ve committed and are continuing to commit. Our proverbial rug has ballooned into a virtual mountain.

We beat our own people into submission, lest they utter something that might offend the terrorists in the hope (we say) that they’ll stop being offended. I have news for you: They’ll never stop. The only thing that will satisfy them is if we were to bow down and lick their boots. And even then, they would think nothing of creasing our necks with their swords or sticking a knife in our backs.

I think our leaders know this. They’re using terrorists for their own purposes. They say they’re protecting us. We’ve been conditioned to depend on government for our safety. A collapse of government is deemed unthinkable. Immediately, we would find ourselves at the mercy of unspeakable terror.
I, for one, am beginning to doubt this premise. I think we’d probably be much better off without the heavy boot of government on our necks. Bloomberg, the mayor of New York, is the quintessential government (the sky is falling) nanny. He’s intent on taxing everything that reflects light. He’s taking his hits this week because New York’s streets weren’t plowed in a timely manner after this weekend‘s storm. He, who promises that government can do all things and more. Accordingly the people waited. They kept their shovels locked away. “We’re paying enough taxes,” they said. “Let the city take care of it.”

The city that taxes putting butter on a bagel couldn’t cut it. The streets remained unplowed; the airports remained closed; travelers were stranded. I dare say, if the people had been left alone to take care of their own business, they would have fared much better.

In Chennai, India, there is frequent flooding. The wells in many neighborhoods have run dry. Still the people manage and nothing ever comes to a standstill. There are thousands of businesses that open and close every day. If they provide a good service, word spreads and they survive. In New York it takes an act of Congress to hire a single person to do so much as carry a sandwich board. It’s no wonder people are moving out.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Yesudas



Regarded by many as the golden voice of India.

Horse Trading


Anwar al-Maliki is the modest leader of a fledgling nation that is determined to survive. He does not aim to change the world. As such, he is out shopping for alliances.

Shopping for alliances is somewhat akin to horse trading. You hope to secure the strong horse. Tehran is the strong horse at the moment - not necessarily the good horse, or the kind horse, or the enlightened horse; but the one that can be reasonably expected to get the job done.

Tehran has an impressive resume. Of all the horses in the field, it is currently ahead of the pack. It will soon be able to claim a nuclear arsenal; already appears to have firm control of its political process; and enjoys an ever widening circle of influential friends that reaches to the very doorstep of universally despised America.

Iraq now finds itself in the position of Israel in the early years of its founding. Israel too bought the backing of the strong horse. It has served her well. Surrounded by openly hostile nations, Israel with the support of strong-horse America has been able to keep them all at bay and preserve its territorial integrity.

Things change. America is in decline. America hasn’t successfully prosecuted a serious challenge in some time. In fact, America seems to be locked in a life-and-death struggle with itself.

Neither Iraq or Israel can stand alone. At the moment, there is grave doubt if America will even come to Israel’s aid should the fur begin to fly. There is no question that Tehran is already licking its chops in anticipation of U.S. departure from Iraq. Iraq has to make peace with the strong horse. Iraq will do its bidding and in return it will be allowed to keep its name.

Should Israel fall - as seems more likely each day - regional accolades will accrue to Tehran. Iraq will be allowed to join in the celebration along with Turkey, Brazil among others. Like I said, Malaki has no intentions of changing the world.

When parents are (some would say) burdened with a handicapped child, they continue to love him and try to integrate him into the workings of normal society. Although they might not give him the keys to the car, they may give him a shovel and tell him to dig. Next, they might tell him to fill the hole up again. The child will be busy working and feeling good about himself. And mother might be granted a moment to rest. It’s called ‘make work’ and is commonly used in the army to forge character, strong bodies and discipline. The work itself is quite useless and adds little to the overall scheme of things.

This the is the level to which the office of the president has fallen in our nation. We obviously do not consider the job important enough to seriously consider background and qualifications. Maliki, on the other hand, is skilled. He has (as JB points out) the trappings of a statesman and an instinct for survival. He is doing what he thinks is best for his country at the moment. No doubt, as conditions change, he will change his stripes - again.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

CRASH


We’re making progress. We’ve now gone from basic incompetence to unseeing.

One of the scariest things that can happen is when you’re driving down the highway at 60-70 mph and a newspaper blows across the road ahead of you. It rears up and wraps around your windscreen, momentarily rendering you blind. You don’t know whether to jam on the brakes or keep moving. You do both as your bowels empty.

This, of course, as opposed to aiming your vehicle straight at a bridge abutment and giving gas. In the first instance you are a card carrying member of the human race having come face to face with mortality; in the second, you are a suicide.

Someone once said that a man without history has no future. As a narcissist, Obama’s history began on the day he was born. As a racialist, Obama’s history is full of deep-seated resentment. He is not aimless. He has his sights trained like a laser on the bridge abutment. The sooner we learn this, the sooner we may be able to do something about it.

As for the up tick in this year’s Christmas shopping, remember that last year wasn’t so hot either. It may just be that we’ve decided to spend that dollar while it’s still worth 70 cents.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Would You Marry Him?


A little girl I once knew would always ask when someone said they liked so-and-so, “Would you marry him?” The truth be told, I don’t much care for Putin. I know he’s corrupt and vindictive. There’s not very much that speaks in his favor.

What I do care about is my own government spouse, the one with her hands perpetually in our pockets: Barack Hussein Obama. I used to think that Obama and Putin were very much alike. My only published article (on another website) made the point that Obama was not so much a Marxist as he is corrupt. I have since tempered my assessment somewhat; recognizing that, in the end, it probably comes out to the same.

Obama, unlike Putin, appears to be ideologically driven. Does that make him less or more dangerous than someone like Putin? Hard to say. In Obama’s case it only complicates things. No one rightly knows where Obama’s corruption ends and his ideology begins. The two appear to run parallel. Whereas ideology can be excused by the faithful (and even by those in the loyal opposition), corruption remains a crime in any language.

What is surprising is that Putin appears to be getting away with it. The mechanisms he has put in place are virtually foolproof. Only the truth seems to be leaking out albeit at the edges.

Whereas we can ague openly amongst ourselves as to Obama’s true motives (obviously, ‘socialism’ does not scare anybody anymore), we waste precious time while the dissolution of our nation continues. In Russia, the argument is over. The only thing left is government spin with an occasional endorsement from outside.

Russia is in deep doo-doo. That is, its people are not free. That is to say, it’s people are poor and destined to remain so. There is no ideology to cushion their pain.

It’s winter and it’s cold in both Russia and America. It is of no benefit to share a bed with either one of their leaders.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

The Trash Police




Your reference to ‘Dickens’ threw me. I thought for a moment you had double posted. In fact, I had just put down a book that makes a similar point by name: James Baldwin’s “The Fire Next Time”.

Baldwin writes well, but is far from profound. He wallows in his hatred and uses the wide brush whenever he can. This book - the first I have ever read by this author - could have been written by anyone with a grudge. It is the corners of self-loathing turned outward. By changing just a few of the words around, one might imagine a rabid feminist writing thus - or a misogynist, a Democrat, jihadist - or a committed Marxist.

Jihad among young Muslims around the world seems to have become a trendy lifestyle issue, like being ‘green’. I remember going to Germany last in order to sell my grandmother’s home. We only had a week or two to do it. Everything had to go. Most things were given away, but there was also a lot left that had to be taken to the dump. So off we went with load after load.

In Germany, you practically have to have a degree in what can be thrown away and what can’t. There’s a wall with razor wire surrounding the dump. Inside, there are no less than 20 receptacles that precisely specify what can be put inside. People are closely watching all the time, and they don’t hesitate to dress you down if you happen to make a mistake. After all was said and done, there was still stuff left over which couldn’t be dumped. We drove away red-faced and stopped to get gas. It was there we stuffed the garbage cans to overflowing.

In Germany, recycling has become a religion. People who do not tow the line are excommunicated or worse. The catechism of eco-terror as practiced by the state is unforgiving - and it’s catching on here in America.

The jihadis of Great Britain are getting sloppy. They understand the part about sacrificing themselves for a cause, but they no longer take the time to plan carefully. Their numerous failed attempts prove as much. They just want to get it over with as soon as possible while imagining their names in celestial lights. The Germans, on the other hand are mechanical, dogged and precise. It’s all the same game, fueled by generous doses of righteous indignation and ending in control.

“Two little Hitlers will fight it out until, one little Hitler does the other one’s will.” - EC

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Monday, December 27, 2010

Tom Rush



Always brings a tear. (He's aged well.)

Snow Job


POTUS is not independent. FLOTUS thinks she is.

I worked for a service-based company for many years. Time and time again I refused promotion. Promotion meant a desk, uncompensated overtime, scheduling and personnel issues. It meant taking irate telephone calls from customers. It meant being the man in the middle, squeezed from both ends - like toothpaste.

POTUS thought he’d be in charge. Instead, he finds himself squeezed. FLOTUS cannot understand why her articulate husband is s such a wimp. “Do it,” she says. “Bleed them dry. Make them give it back.” POTUS knows it’s not that easy. He hesitates, postpones. Among all the twists and turns, he’s lost sight of the revolution.

FLOTUS has no qualms, only resentment. She resents America, its institutions, its predominance. She resents her husband for not getting it done.

POTUS doesn’t like his job. He doesn’t like to face his wife empty-handed. Cigarettes are easier. They burn down and you light another one. One way or another, eventually the job gets done. But it’s not pretty or spectacular. Difficult to script a martyr’s video on the basis of lung cancer.
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I usually look on the prospect of snow in horror. But I always manage to get it done - one shovel full at a time. This time there were three of us: my son, my brother and me. It was a glorious morning's exercise. We actually had fun.

http://peterkoelliker.blogspot.com/
http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Weapons


Climate is not about weather. Health care is not about wellness. Law is not about justice. Governance is not about order. Drilling is not about energy. Science is not about knowledge. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not about peace. What’s it all about?

It’s all about control. Food as a weapon; oil/gas as a weapon; rare earth as a weapon; law as a weapon; the environment as a weapon; terrorism as a weapon; health as a weapon; history as a weapon.

Actually, weapons were kinder. We could sometimes see the eyes of the person pulling the trigger; or we could see a vapor trail - something warm. Words just leave cold echoes in empty rooms. Arguments and accusations; until we can no longer be sure who said what; or even if it’s been said at all; or if we ourselves might have said it. (Talking to oneself is still considered a sign of madness.)

Madness, though, appears to be the goal. We’re made to question where we stand; find common ground. Is there even anything the mere size of a bullet to stand on?

Who thinks they’ll be able to unravel this maze we’ve created? Whose fingers would untangle this knot before it strangles us in hopeless ecstasy? Whose shoulders are strong enough to shift us back to basic - to where a spade is a spade once again?

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Cream



In honor of this season's first snow in our area.

Toy Room


The U.S.-led NATO forces are not going to prevail. Not because they can’t. but because we don’t want them to. There’s s something else afoot. Pakistan is a failed state. Obviously it’s not a failed state to China. Ditto, North Korea.

There are any number of failed states being gathered up in South America, Africa, and in the Middle East. Assange can work both sides of the fence depending on which side you talk to. There’s even someone out there who finds terrorism useful, otherwise it would stop.

We’re being played. India, Israel and a whole slew of other nations don’t know it yet. They still believes the deck isn’t stacked. And this might surprise you: The culprits are not necessarily the culprits we are made to hate. This is simply a diversion. The culprits are inside our own American house.

America is the strongest, most opulent house on the block. Could there be any doubt that America is not in charge of its own affairs?

We’re told that America is in decline. The biggest house on the block never falls on hard times. But, at the same time, it remains free to make additions or alterations if the owners should so decide. The biggest house on the block determines its own changes. The change is toward totalitarianism. Things can be done either by doing or not doing. You don’t roll your mother-in-law off the cliff and into a lake, and then jump into the water and rescue her (though, on second thought, this ploy too has been tried before).

Suffice it to say that change is at hand. Our people already have an inkling of it. They are finding themselves increasingly marginalized. They feel they are being herded through a maze. They are made to argue amongst themselves as to what it all means. They’re not getting the straight story. The (stealth) narrative belongs to Obama, Pelosi, Soros, and Reid. WikiLeaks is only a part of the deception - so is Pakistan, North Korea, China, et al. The toy room is America.

Happy new year!!!

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Saturday, December 25, 2010

The Invisible Man


I just finished reading “The Invisible Man” by H.G. Wells. It is said to be one of the forerunners of today’s very popular science fiction genre. Though told in a straight-forward manner, focusing primarily on keeping the plot moving, there is more here than meets the eye: the mechanics of 'invisibility', for instance. Take a piece of glass and insert it into water, and it becomes invisible. Take a red piece of glass and insert it into that same water and it will still show red. To make it invisible, the water would have to be red as well. This could easily translate into a metaphor for cultural shifts as well. As long as a foreign or alien concept is introduced stealthily (or invisibly) into the culture, it will not be rejected outright. This is the way Marxism has been introduced in America, cloaked in the thoroughly traditional American corpse: the Democrat Party.

As the host begins to die, Marxism becomes visible in stages just as Wells’ lead character, Griffin, becomes once again visible after he has been killed. First socialism reveals itself; then communism; proceeding through all the subsequent stages all the way up to and including authoritarianism. Tyranny is always the final stage. In it, there is only one authority to determine the path forward.

In Wells’ novel, the people band together to capture and kill Griffin before his invisibility can prevail and metastasize into crippling terrorism. They still cannot see him, but they understand what he has done and aims yet to do. Instead of shrinking from the unseen, they attack it.

This is in contrast to Ralph Ellison’s work of the same title. The situation here is reversed. Blindness is deliberately nurtured by the seeing. They willfully ignore a whole class of people and pretend it doesn’t exist. This also is relevant today. The likes of Limbaugh and conservatives in general are routinely ignored by the media, on college campuses, in Hollywood, etc. For all intents and purposes, their views, their solutions, their very army of eager supporters do not exist despite their steadily intensifying impact (which, of course, does not exist as well).

In these two titles you have the dual aspects of invisibility. On one hand you have invisibility as a deliberate disguise for nefarious purposes; while, on the other, you have, the deliberate ’ignoring the elephant in the room’ syndrome. Both are at best dishonest. While the first can be excused as betrayal, the second amounts to willful act of cowardice. Both represent an exercise in delusion.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Blue Oyster Cult



Heard this golden nugget on the car radio today while I was going out to get our Christmas tree. Hey, it could have been worse. They might have played "Don't Fear the Reaper".

Hostage Bankers


I like the Comedy Central clip best. It’s more honest - and funny (if it weren’t so…) Look, the U.S. economy has been largely illusory ever since we came off the gold standard. There’s enough ‘money’ (credit) out there (on the sidelines) right now to make it work.

The problem is political rather than economic. People don’t trust this president. Any negotiation that Obama is involved with will be summarily rejected by the people. Therefore, it is distressing to see all these bankers come groveling up to the White House.

It’s clear that all these castrated men are trying hard to be diplomatic. They’re watching their words carefully. They understand that their businesses are essentially at the mercy of a three-year old. Banking in America should have its Tea Party contingent. The tea parties are the only ones who have managed to break the chains of the Obama mystique. They are free to tell the truth They are no longer hostages as bankers are. Their punishment is to remain on the fringes of temporary and fragile power structure. For this, they must suffer accusations of being ‘extreme’.

I can well remember a time, not too long ago, when the whole Obama cult would have been labeled extreme.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

No Alternative


Congress has once again disgraced itself. It’s getting to be a common theme. The way START was passed is an outrage. Such congressional outrages can be expected to continue into the next session.

This Congress has reduced itself to the level of ‘dog and pony’ show. Only 13% of the people support what this Congress has done. Even with the infusion of Republicans, it will be difficult for the institution to climb back from such depths.

The clear winner is the president. He has been able to amass powers that go far beyond mandated constitutional limits. Anyone crowing that the next Congress will succeed in putting the brakes on what has essentially become a runaway executive branch has another thing coming.

2011 will see more of the same with the added drama of even more partisanship and blame shifting. Meanwhile, Obama’s overall agenda advances.

By 2012, there may well be no alternatives. Obama will own it all. Depending on the public’s mood for continued left-wing gavage, we may yet escape the indignity of civil unrest of the kind we see in Europe. Though it’s unlikely, with fires burning everywhere, that the people will remain in their houses hunkering down with the doors bolted shut.

There will be push-back.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

The Missing Piece


I was 10 years old. I had just arrived in America when my father took me to New York to see “The Alamo”. In those days, the price of a ticket also bought a full color magazine that showed scenes from the movie. I was excited because one of the actors was Richard Boone, my absolute favorite, star of the TV series “Have Gun, Will Travel” (about a gun slinger who never lost fight). I remember being somewhat disappointed because Boone only played a minor part. Nevertheless, after that occasion, I added John Wayne to my list of favorites.

Eventually I would come to realize that all men - especially actors - are in the business of spinning illusions. I do not fault them. Both Boone and Wayne suffered quite human deaths. I still value the illusions they created.

Today, I‘m more inclined to place my bets on honesty. I don’t agree with JB that Obama has no “grit. No bottom. No sand. No…substance.” He has substance alright. He’s been able to accomplish more in two short years to change our country than any other (peacetime) president, certainly within my lifetime. Obama’s missing piece is honesty. And it is that which (to me) renders everything he does utterly suspect.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Lagudi Jayaraman



Said by some to be the best musician to play Indian classical music on the violin.

We Are All Socialists Now


We can now put another ornament on Obama’s socialist (mop) Christmas tree: net neutrality. Nobody can yet exactly say what it means. The full text of the new rules haven’t been released yet. But, putting yet another chunk of the free market under government control should tell you all you need to know.

As with other legislation that has passed this year, the new rules basically amount to a framework that allows government to regulate as issues emerge. “At the digression of…” appears to be a ubiquitous phrase in any such legislation. It is also important to note that no such legislation - from ‘health care’ to FINREG to START - has been assembled willy-nilly and without purpose. All of it has been carefully crafted and been filed away from public view for a long time to be taken out at a time most favorable to passage. Law makers have had virtually no way to assess the merits of any such legislation and were required to vote in hurried fashion, strictly along party lines.

Net neutrality, of course, bypassed Congress altogether. There was no opportunity to probe the past associations and affiliations of those who crafted and promoted it. Suffice it to say, that those of us who suspected Obama’s socialist bias all along were right. Vote socialist, and you get socialist - and worse.

At this pace, we can expect a seemingly legitimate bill to slip through a rubberstamp Congress within the next two years that gives Obama the presidency with unlimited power for life. It’ll all be done under the rubric of crisis - Chavez style.

Crisis is the mother’s milk of authoritarian regimes and as such we cannot expect much to improve our situation. Crisis is one of the easiest circumstances to manufacture. Socialism thrives on it. It has never played to finding solutions anywhere its been tried. It just dissolves the parameters by which to judge success or failure.

Republicans and tea party members will have their work cut out for them. Rolling back or de-funding existing open-ended legislation is, they will find, is much like trying to nail Jello to a wall. Their best bet will be to proceed with hearings, focusing on constitutional grounds. This will, however, leave them open to the charge of practicing McCarthyism. The public at large will not be encouraged to support such dramatic high-profile displays. It will judge any effort on the part of Republicans as grandstanding, racism, and rank partisanship. They can be expected to fold like cheap cameras and just go along.

It’s been coming for a long time. It’s all been planned so meticulously, down to the last detail. The shame of it is that we too had a chance to stem this socialist tide. Bush too had control of Congress for a time, but squandered the opportunity to gird us against the threat. The Right has done nothing but capitulate. We now face a situation not dissimilar to our fight against Islamic terrorism in which a whole roster of clarifying terminology has been swept off the table. Mention ‘socialism’ and the full weight of political correctness comes crashing down from the sky to stifle any further hope for honest debate.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Stop War


We all know where Obama stands on all this START business. He doesn’t like our military and wishes it would go away. He campaigned against nukes - against war. There were enough who voted in support of this premise even being possible.

The nuclear deterrent worked for a good many years, so they say. It is only now beginning to break down because it has become clear that America won’t fight seriously under any pretext. China has already run this experiment several times and the results are in. It is building its military - not to fight America, but - to cement its position within it’s own East Asian theater.

While it is true that a modern military fosters the illusion of invincibility and therefore acts as a deterrent, it does not guarantee victory. Ronald Reagan’s Star Wars threat may itself have been an illusion. It worked - not in the way anyone expected it might, but - rather in the way a head-fake does, causing the Russians to over-reach and over-spend and, in the process, become disheartened. They’re still not over it and Putin is trying hard to make amends.

Someone once famously remarked, “…you go to war with the army you have.” If it’s not enough, you resort to asymmetric warfare. Look what the stone-throwing Palestinians have been able to accomplish! Look at Iran and North Korea!

No, boomers are not the only answer. We could kill our enemies with stones if we had to. Our problem is, we no longer know how to define ‘winning’ or ‘victory’. As long as we view ourselves as the source of all that‘s wrong with the world; as long as we run around apologizing to everyone in sight; as long as we’re so divided within ourselves as not to not recognize an outside threat as it develops, we may as well start painting targets on ourselves and get used to the likelihood that we will soon be led by something quite alien to us; something which will take some getting used to.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Watching It Burn


When a car quits running it’s most likely either out of gas or low on oil. If it’s low on oil, adding gas won’t help; similarly, if it’s out of gas, adding oil will do little to get it going again.

A WSJ editorial today reads in part: “Oregon raised its income tax on the richest 2% of its residents last year to fix its budget hole, but now the state treasury admits it collected nearly one-third less than the bean counters projected. The sun also rose in the east, and the Cubs didn’t win the World Series.” and, I might add, Oregon’s economy didn’t improve. It takes both oil and gas for a car to run properly.

Taxes have hit the wall in many states. Raising them, has (at best) had no effect on either topping-off state coffers or on improving the economy. We’ve already drained the oil down to dangerous levels; adding gas (stimulus) won’t help.

Gas represents the government’s power to tax. Oil represents the people’s willingness to keep on working and paying taxes. When either one exceeds or falls short of its optimum level, the economy falters.

Anyone who simply advocates - as Democrats do - that increased taxes will kick-start our economy is ignoring the oil-side of the equation. Similarly, anyone who advocates cuts in spending to the exclusion of other factors is on the wrong track. The economy will not improve unless and until the equation balances.

Tea Parties tend to harp on government spending while our government is harping on ‘tax breaks for the rich‘. Neither one will ultimately succeed in bringing the economy back. It doesn’t take a mechanic to diagnose the problem in Oregon. Those who simply say “it’s the economy, stupid” are missing the point. They’re blaming both gas and oil under the umbrella of the economy not working. It takes a more nuanced approach. Clearly there’s more than enough gas. What’s missing is the oil.

Solution: Ease off on the gas and add oil. [Note to Obama: If the plan, however, is to kill the economy outright, simply to watch it burn, there are other (quicker) options. We could always run it into a bridge abutment. All options remain on the table.]

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Monday, December 20, 2010

The Blues Project



This sound was ubiquitous in every college dorm room in the late 60’s, early 70’s. Andy Kulberg played the lead on “Flute Thing” Some twenty odd years later I happened to be visiting a high school friend just outside of SF. That same night Andy and his family too were guests. I saw Andy again a year later performing at New York’s Bottom Line.

China Laughing While U.S. Downgrades Military To Paintball


Why even bother to report it? (North Korea's continued provocations.) We no longer have a dog in the fight. We’ve shown quite unambiguously that we are no longer interested in fighting/winning. We seem to be intent on castrating our armed forces. We no longer see them as a blunt tool to support our now thoroughly compromised diplomacy; rather, we are in the process of re-shaping this once awesome tool to reflect some ‘less is more’ ideology with the vague expectation that the world will think this is great and follow our lead.

The damage this president has done to our military in his two years in office is astounding. First, he has ordered it to engage in a war without aiming to win. He has placed restrictions on our fighting men and women that make it difficult even to stay alive. Wikileaks enters into it at some level, as does the heroic repeal of ’don’t ask, don’t tell’.

I predict within less than a year, the military will be hard up for recruits and we may have to revert to something akin to the draft. The outlines of this are already apparent: amnesty for service. Until now, we have seen very few minorities among our fighting forces in Afghanistan and Iraq. This has to be pointed out because the Left has up until recently always falsely claimed that America only sends it minorities oversees and into harm’s way to fight it’s dirty wars. (They’ve since had to be content with complaining about the relatively high incarceration rate among certain minority communities.) All this will change.

Prisoners will now fight ‘clean’ wars. They will not be expected to win - only to stay alive while ordered to hand out food and bandages to the starving and wounded. Military missions oversees will likely evolve into setting up abortion and sex clinics, and (don’t forget) welfare offices, thus providing an ever escalating stream of entitlement clientele for liberals here at home to administer.

It is unlikely that China will go along with the program though, admittedly, they may laugh themselves silly and thus suffer some minor set-backs in their quest to take over the world.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Who's the Drone?


The little grocery around the corner in Chennai where we shop is a busy place. Often there’s not even enough room to enter. You have to make known what you want with hand signals above the heads of other customers like they do on the floor of the NYSE.

We generally get deliveries once a month. At that time we give the boy a list of the provisions we will need for the following month. In between we go there to pick up various sundry or forgotten items.

Chandamama handles thousands of items from eggs to fountain pens. They do not have a cash register and nothing is computerized. The man behind the counter knows where everything is. His partner makes his calculations in pencil amidst plenty of interruptions. At the end of the month, the boy brings over a hand-written bill. We check the arithmetic. It is always correct. Naturally, we think the two Tamil brothers at the grocery are very smart.

Me thinks that the robots are made to accommodate a workforce that is no longer educated to think. Picking up items that may have fallen off the shelf is not thinking. The thinking part is confined to the building, programming and maintenance of the bots. And who knows where on earth all this is done.

Your clip indicates that workers no longer have to remember where things are; neither do they have to go and get them. They simply reach and pack. Who exactly in this scheme of things is the drone?

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

The Ice Queen


Michelle Obama - arguably the person closest to the president - once famously said: “For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country“. This was back during the 2008 presidential campaign when it became apparent that her husband actually had a fair chance of becoming POTUS.

America has had several periods of relative prosperity within Michelle‘s lifetime. Her statement seems to suggest that even during the good times she did not like her country very much. I wonder what she thinks today?

Things are pretty bad right now, all of it pretty much the direct result of her husband’s two-year reign. Is she still proud? She hasn’t really said much about it recently - not that we know of, anyway. Is this because she’s no longer proud? Or is it because it would reveal too much for her to say it now?

As I said to a friend recently, success depends upon where you stand. A demolition crew, for instance, would have a different idea of success than a builder would. It is quite possible that both take pride in their work.

It has become clear that Democrats’ view success as the total annihilation of Republicans. They have proven over and over again that it doesn’t concern them a bit if success should come at the expense of the country. When Harry Reid proclaimed that “the war in Iraq is lost”, he did so with a certain bravado. He saw it in terms scoring points for his party, members of which were openly betting that things there would go badly. When he called President Bush "a loser" during a civics discussion with a group of teenagers, he paid no heed to the fact that he was speaking about the man who was duly elected to represent the stars and stripes around the world.

Reid may be excused for his failure to understand that the good of the nation should always take precedence over party. The Obamas’ vision, however, appears to be broader. The president appears to have used the likes of Reid, Biden, etc. for a much larger purpose. He seems bent on diminishing America’s influence on the world stage. He has been doing so consistently, always to America’s detriment, by attacking its economy (and now the military) and fostering divisions in a myriad of ways.

To date, he has applied the term ’enemy’ only to American voters and tax payers. At the same time, he all but refuses to name the Islamic threat. His administration has ordered the censure of various heretofore commonly used terms relating to global terror while introducing new terms that appear to put the Tea Parties, war veterans, and weekend militia groups on an equal footing with terrorists.

This reflects either a failure to properly prioritize, or a deliberate effort to balkanize Americans. If the latter, there can only be one reason.

In the next Congress there will be plenty of heads he can throw snowballs at. It promises to be a bloody mess. I wonder if Michelle gets off on this kind of thing.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Don't Tell Anybody


Just the other day, I heard one of our local morning radio hosts expressing surprise at the speed with which the new “Freedom Tower” is going up. “It’s almost half-way there,” he said.

I haven’t been there myself recently. I can only guess that he’s right. The fact that it’s taken us almost 10 years to get crackin’, however, is a disgrace. On the battlefield, the role of flag bearer is always most important and, hence, dangerous. The man remains a target to the end. If he should fall, another will pick up the flag and continue the advance. The soldiers take their cues from the position of the flag.

We’ve allowed our flag to lay fallow for far too long. We’ve been wrangling about it either to advance personal egos or to keep personal egos from advancing. In a way, the threat of seeing a mosque completed in the proximity of the Trade Center site on the 10th anniversary of its collapse, seems to have spurred us to action.

Make no mistake, the World Trade towers were our flag. They were our monument to the success of capitalism. It was our Mecca. Its destruction should have roiled us to immediate anger and to taking revenge. One just doesn’t leave one’s flag lying on the ground this long to be trampled.

I’m glad that it’s finally underway. Cynics say that we’re just building another target. They advise that we bulldoze the whole thing, plant a few trees in memory and be done with it. Our enemies say, “Let us plant our own flag while you declare defeat.” It’s almost gotten to the point where many of us no longer care either way.

We botched our revenge in large part because we left our flag to be trampled. Our anger flagged because our own government convinced us to take our enemies’ advice: “We’re trying to kill you. It’s true. But don’t tell anybody.”

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Captain Beefheart (1941 - 2010)



RIP

Dead-Center Left


Candy has it wrong. The biggest story now, and for the past several years, has been the press itself. It has been it’s creation of the Franconian figure that is Barack Hussein Obama. The tea parties have been treated pretty much as one would an afterbirth . No one celebrates it. It figures much more prominently in the process of cleaning up.

Crowley may have misspoken because, when all was said and done, the afterbirth showed more promise, more life than the fetus ever did. Here we are two years later, and the tea parties exhibit a far greater vitality than the awkward mongoloid child. All those having celebrated the birth with such unconstrained enthusiasm, are now faced with having to climb down from their original high expectations. Naturally, they have been reluctant to do so.

In the process they have poisoned their own well of credibility. It seems the child was unable to open the heavens and has had to follow in the footsteps of his elders. The accommodation to ‘tax cuts for the rich’ was just the latest in a series of broken campaign promises. This one in particular represents the crowning achievement of the outspoken tea parties in that the name ‘Bush’ was actually attached to it. There can be no way of flushing it or sweeping it under the rug.

All during the rise of the tea parties, the press has done its best to ignore them. When the final salvo against them failed - pegging them to the threat of violence and making them a target of Homeland Security - it became clear to many that they would have to begin taking the tea parties seriously. There is now an increasing number who are in the process of doing so. Only the likes of the NYT still push the predictable narrative of Obama’s omnipotence, hardly ever mentioning the tea parties by name. They continue to pursue this course at considerable personal risk. From what I hear, the finances of the old ‘gray lady’ are in dire shape. This as opposed to the WSJ who has manage to pick up subscribers just as fast as the NYT is dropping theirs.

Still, the NYT is said to be the paper of record. Any number of U.S. publications - and the international press in particular - take their cues from The New York Times. These are beginnig to suffer equally and we can soon expect a bill introduced in Congress geared to bailing out failing news organizations. In addition, there’s been some serious talk afoot of ‘regulating’ the industry. Long entrenched politicians are becoming concerned. They would like nothing better than to be able to limit the scope of what has come to be known as ‘alternative media‘. The John Batchelor Show radio and blog also fall into this category.

There are of course others far more critical of the ruling classes on both sides of the political aisle. In a head-fake to fairness, both FOX and MSNBC are now in the crosshairs. It’ll be interesting to see how this issue will fare in the next Congress. Lawmakers will feel compelled to deal with it and the tea parties will be watching closely how this heretofore dead-center left narrative develops. America has spoken after all. It will no longer tolerate rank distortions.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Humble Pie


This was the week of my personal comeuppance. I had predicted that the Bush tax cuts (sic) would not be extended. I was happily wrong. My reasoning, I thought, was solid: Democrats still held a majority and they would never capitulate to yet another signature issue from the hated Bush administration. There was a lot of grousing, to be sure. But, in the end, it marked a defeat for the Left that I had not foreseen. Also, I had consistently written that the Left actually wants the economy to fail. This may still be true, but I now concede that Obama may not be playing on that particular team.

It may turn out to be a pyrrhic victory. If the economy does not improve - and, God knows, we’ve saddled the poor thing with so many sinkers - the Left will blame these tax cuts (sic) once again. The template of blame is already pretty much set in stone: if a policy doesn’t work, it’s never wrong; there just wasn’t enough of it. In this way, no side is ever wrong. Whereas it was clear sailing for Republicans for the first two years of Obama’s term (because they had effectively been shut out), now they will have a stake in what happens. They share accountibility no matter what.

I still say that it appears that Democrats have the political side of it much more in hand than Republicans do. Republicans always seem to be in the position of fighting back. Rightly or wrongly, they have been feminized by the media and portrayed as weak, irrational and whining.

Still, Republican wins last week point to the fact that even in countries where women appear most oppressed, it is said it is they who essentially for run the house.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Thursday, December 16, 2010

How Bad Can It Get?


Okay, I get it! Back in 2008, when Bush and Republicans were sent packing, we thought it couldn’t get any worse. We had hit bottom, we were told. We ignored all the signs - the storm clouds gathering in the distance: questions about the birth certificate, grades, allegiances, past associations, past affiliations - all the warnings. We accused those who counseled caution of alarmism or worse. A new day was dawning after all. The new administration would bring the economy back, heal racist divides, solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, fix health care, lower the tides, etc. In fact, the new president was said to be able to walk on water. People would literally swoon in his presence. We referred to him as ‘the messiah'.

It didn’t take long for the veil to slip. We became concerned. We phoned and e-mailed our elected representatives in Washington. No response. We attended town hall events. No response. We marched en masse on Washington, hoping somebody would notice. No response. We voted…

At each juncture we were brimming with hope. Obama would hear us. He would change direction and pull us away from the brink. Instead America’s decline accelerated: jobs lost, inflation (though nobody is willing to admit it), mortgages underwater, ‘for sale’ signs sprouting like mushrooms, 401k’s drying up, dollar down.

Now we’re asking ourselves, “How bad can it get?” Plenty. Just look what’s happening over in Europe, in the Middle East, in S. America, in the Far East. Could all this be in anyway connected? I would have to say yes. All of it started right here at home. Anyone who fails to note the trench warfare aspect of what’s going on in Congress right now has their head buried in the sand. America is slipping.

And we’ve done it to ourselves. We haven’t done our homework. While we’re mindlessly humiliating grandmothers and cripples at our airports, we would never insist that our highest elected official produce all relevant papers.

Folks, we still don’t know who he is. And we’re growing increasingly suspicious. We leave things hanging to fester. Fact: North Korea and South Korea are literally - not technically - at war! China is at war with us. Iran is at war with us. Half the nations in South America are at war with us. The Left is at war with us. All have said so.

Which side is our president on? The answer gets murkier with each passing day. The implications are enormous. It’s the elephant in the room that everybody tries to ignore. It’s like trying to impose peace in the Middle East while one side refuses to recognize the other.

In a way I’m sorry that I shamed the Azulia Restaurant in Chennai into changing their menu that had a map of the Mediterranean region on its cover. It had left out the State of Israel. On my last visit there I noted that they had corrected the oversight. Now I realize it might well have been right in the first place. How much longer will they be printing maps with America on them?

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

The Panic Room




Everything Obama has touched during his first two years in office has gotten demonstrably worse. Sure, he’s been successful in passing significant legislation - perhaps more so than any other president in U.S. history. But where has it led? I challenge anybody to tell me how any policy thrust of Obama’s has led the nation (as a whole) to a better place?

Then there’s the way it was done. Some would even call it illegal. Certainly, it was done against the will of the people. Certainly, every underhanded trick was used to pass Obama’s legislative agenda. In every case, bills were rushed through Congress without members knowing what they were voting on. There is even evidence to suggest that the president himself didn’t know (or care).

Bolton makes a good point. If Obama’s goal in all this is to marginalize Congress (and, by extension, the people’s input to governance overall) he is succeeding. It is a point not to be overlooked. It usually ends in tyranny.

Now we stand on a precipice once again; and this time it actually does involve our national security. Bolton makes any number of cogent arguments against passing START. He is in a position to know, having served as UN ambassador under Bush. His caution should at the very least be considered in open debate.

Bolton’s larger point is equally compelling. Who in their right mind would keep going to the same plumber over and over again once he has proven himself to be dangerously inept?

In India, self-styled sidewalk dentists sit on straw mats with their box of unwashed implements. They provide basic service to the poorest of the poor for scant compensation. But would anyone of the middle class avail themselves of their services? America is at the very least ‘middle class’ I should hope.

Then, one might also consider why Obama would risk once again being accused of operating with a total lack of transparency? Perhaps the deal does not bear scrutiny. Perhaps, after all is said and done, it is bad for America. Perhaps that’s the point. (Oops! I have just inadvertently entered a room into which few would venture.)

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

VII. LEFT HOOK: The Palestinians

Hatred constricts; hatred corrodes. Hatred feeds on itself. Hatred is first; hatred is blind. Hatred shuns reason. Hatred metastasizes (like cancer). The same is said of love. When a concept segment is bent into a circle, love and hatred share the same point. Love and hatred are the same.
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Yet, as hatred leaves hopeless chasms in its wake, love is optimistic. Love confidently bridges all obstacles. The difference between love and hatred, if not material, must then be one of perception alone. Whether one loves or hates is determined by where one is willing to mark the start of time. Love looks toward the future. Hatred marks the beginning with death. Both views are equally passionate in that both inspire action. Both views validate the life force by acknowledging its role in achieving some end. As such, the difference between love and hatred appears to be dependent on one’s disposition towards the future. Love celebrates the eternal; hatred demands just enough time to force an end to something. The antithesis to love and hatred is indifference.

In Albert Camus’ novel, The Stranger, the last sentence reads, “For everything to be consummated, for me to feel less alone, I had only to wish that there be a large crowd of spectators the day of my execution and that they greet me with cries of hate.” The story is that of a man who unwittingly commits a murder. He is then tried, convicted and sentenced to death. Camus cleverly casts his protagonist as a person without the ability to discern right from wrong; safety from danger, love from lust. He approaches every situation in the manner of a child and reacts to it in the most expeditious way. This novel, though first published in 1942, is almost a precise allegory for the relationship between the West (especially Western Europe) and the Palestinians today. In fact, the author has even seen fit to cast the murder victim as an Arab. In a larger sense, Camus demands accountability for the crime of indifference. Though not explicitly stated, Meursault, the protagonist of The Stranger, cannot expect there to be a sizable crowd at his execution, for he is nobody, and quite undeserving of hatred or of any emotion.

Clearly, the West is invested in neither, the Palestinian nor the Israeli, side of the conflict and quite willing to sacrifice either party just to get the entire annoyance off the table. The intractability of both positions has frustrated any reasonable attempt to identify a compromise, even to the point of forcing consideration of tortured solutions. The media’s reporting of the conflict reflects a vicariously inspired obsession with the depth of Palestinian hatred, which, in contrast to its own cynical indifference, nevertheless tends to give the appearance of being alive.

If a crime is being committed by all this, it cannot be laid at the feet of the Palestinians or the Israelis alone. To do so would be to criminalize policy differences and any number of governments (if not all) would be compelled to face a reckoning. No, the colossal crime as relates to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must be put squarely at the doorstep of western politicians and decision makers - not for appearing to favor one side over another, but - for their profound indifference, allowing them to change their positions with every shift in the political wind while the lives of innocents hang in the balance.

If there are people in the world today, of whom it can be said that they are motivated by hatred alone, it is surely the Palestinians. Free elections have left little doubt that their hatred for Jews trumps every other consideration any reasonable population might be expected to have. To this end, they have affirmed their preparedness even to sacrifice their earthly future.

As soon as Palestinian children learn to listen, they are taught to hate Jews. Golda Meir was once to have said, “When Palestinian parents begin to love their children more than they hate us, there will be peace between us.” In the meantime, Palestinian kids are routinely told to clean their plates thoroughly that they might grow up strong to serve as martyrs (which is another way of saying, fodder) to fuel a group obsession. Jews, in Palestinian schools, are routinely painted in the most grotesque light possible. They are said to drink the blood of babies; sleep with pigs, and the like. No contact with Jews or with those pledged to protect them is ever allowed. Only in a closed society could a myth, like the one about the Jew dog, be perpetuated without fear of being exposed as a ploy to mask the real root of the Palestinian’s wretched condition.

Suffering from the a similar disease, other Islamists in the region have consistently encouraged the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to continue unabated, funding the families of suicide/homicide bombers and other groups dedicated to the destruction of Israel. They have been successful in regionalizing the conflict with the expectation that their sheer numbers will effectively isolate Israel from the community of nations. Their intent is plain as day. It is a medieval, savage vision that clearly does not deserve inclusion in any catalogue of commonly accepted (civilized) behavior. Yet, the world press consistently condemns Israel’s attempt to limit attacks on its territory by broadcasting images of bloodied Palestinians, while deliberately downplaying the fact of repeated Arab provocation. Is it not obvious by now that if Israel were to unilaterally disarm, withdraw from occupied territories, and tear down its walls, it would be overrun within hours and most of its citizens murdered? Is it not clear, if the opposite were to happen and the Palestinians would stop their provocations, there would be peace and cooperation? Why this bias in the media against calling a spade a spade, that serves only to encourage the Arab’s lethal intent and prolong the agony of this conflict?

I recently read an account in The Hindu (our local paper here in India) of an international conference of newspaper editors and media moguls. Their discussions centered on assigning blame to themselves for not having been more vocal in opposing America’s Iraq adventure in its planning stages. Whereas introspection is always a commendable exercise, I did see a sampling of the roster of those present at the conference. Without exception, these were all people in sympathy with left-wing causes. Not one conservative voice was included in the gathering, prompting the conclusion by some observers that a laudable opportunity was essentially wasted in favor of creating just another platform from which to disseminate political talking points. This shows once again that the media in general harbors a clear political anti-American bias and fights tooth and nail to keep alternative views from being brought up for discussion on the public stage. Hamas - among other such organizations that operate freely and unopposed in any number of trouble spots around the globe - too makes sure that all those under its direct control adhere to the dogma of a singular template. In large parts of the Islamic world today, the inspiration that gives rise to voicing even the suspicion of doubt, (concerning any and all matters) is punishable under sedition statutes. Children are taught early in life never to risk asking questions.

When some shells exploded on a Gaza beach, wounding and killing members of a Palestinian family who were enjoying a picnic by the sea, the press immediately blamed Israel. Israel apologized. It was later found that the wounded, brought to Israeli hospitals for treatment, arrived with shrapnel already having been crudely gouged from their flesh. It seems what really happened was that a Palestinian shell had gone astray, landed on the beach and exploded. The metal in the bodies of the victims, if identified, would have shown the true source of the shelling and a propaganda opportunity would have been lost. The Palestinians are well aware of how to play the sympathies of the western media. In the above example, they were quite certain that not much would be made of their deception, even if discovered. They would be proven right in that assumption.

Clearly, as things now stand, the Arabs can only hope to achieve their objective of driving Israel into the sea is by continuing with their war of attrition. They are counting on sheer exhaustion setting in, particularly in the West, so that Israel would be left to fend for itself. Arab presence abroad has now given them significant leverage to affect the political climate in Western Europe as well as in the United States. Working in consort, primarily with the Communists (who for the time being share similar aims and tactics), their influence has grown to the point of where it can no longer be ignored. This is why we now are reading almost daily of great debates concerning the legal and human rights of the enemy, tying the hands of our soldiers and law enforcement agents into Gordian knots in the process. In the meantime, they continue to operate closed societies within their own borders, keeping their own populations animated by false fear and hatred with their unrelenting cradle-to-grave propaganda campaigns to demonize the Jews as well as other non-Muslims.

What is happening in the Arab world is not unprecedented. Any number of groups have historically resorted to fascist methods to establish and maintain control. The Moguls invading India, destroyed Hindu temples, wantonly killing Hindus in the process. Hindu women needed to be prepared at all times to cover their heads with the ends of their saris and pretend to be Muslim, as Islamic law allows its men to brutalize infidel women any time, any place, without consequence. The Nazis held public book burnings. Pol Pot of Cambodia ordered the killing of anyone who wore glasses, assuming that such people had committed the crime of reading (foreign) books. The Taliban blew up centuries-old Buddhist statues and banned women from school and from working outside the home. Chinese attempts to censor the internet are widely documented. The American Left, having made its home in academia, continues to fights every effort to include conservative views in any serious scholarly evaluation. Their efforts in this regard have already born fruit, launching virtual armies of lockstep lackeys to disseminate anti-American sentiment worldwide.

What would compel a people to deliberately pursue a path that history has shown to end in disaster time and time again? One answer might be ignorance. This may well apply to the Palestinians, as few would deny that they have indeed been kept in squalid ignorance for generations. It would not apply, however, to the Communists who, by all accounts, appear to be among the best-educated people on the planet. Education then too must have its pitfalls. Picture a man who has formally studied history all his life and arrived back at the beginning. He concludes that history was written by the winners of wars and, on this basis, would stipulate that the study of history (as it has been traditionally configured) can be no better than incomplete by half. If he happens to be a professor of history, he would then likely be tempted to deny his students the very same opportunity he himself enjoyed in arriving at his conclusions, thinking he would save them the trouble. This, would also have to be taken as a sign of some degree of elitism having taken possession of the good professor’s mind in that he now actually believes he can predict what other people will be thinking in the future; that there is only one conclusion of substance any of his students could possibly arrive at. Such a leap, besides taunting the boundaries of good sense, also smacks of a dangerous arrogance, a lethal combination that sometimes leads to madness. Having just reasoned himself out of a job, he continues teaching his own version of history that now imposes no structural limits and is apt to include anything from holocaust denial to proclaiming the glories of Stalinist Russia.

It is apparent, that the more tenuously one’s belief system is linked to reality, the more extreme one is apt to act (out) in support of it. As long as there continues to be no consensus among the people of the world that the killing of others is a bad idea (this would include war, suicide, abortion, beheadings, capital punishment, genocide, euthanasia and the like), there are those who will mark the start of their calendars with death. Whereas, the great unwashed recognize the obscenity in the emperor’s nakedness, the so-called 'smart' people – the degreed people, the thinkers, the educators, the writers, the opinion makers, even Meursault (Camus’ hapless protagonist in The Stranger) – all bat it around, giving it a status it doesn’t deserve. (“I’m just not ready yet to have a baby; it would disrupt my lifestyle.”) They succeed only in affording it time to incubate, and to metastasize into a full-blown cancerous condition. (“God, I’ve wasted my life; nobody wants me! I guess it’s too late even to have a baby.”) I use this metaphor in an effort to reach my friends on the left. They have been obsessed with the idea of cancer from the beginning. Well aware of the ferocious intensity with which it consumes a living body (particularly the young), they have been blaming virtually every advance in the past fifty years for causing it. I might just as well have said “evil” but this word, like “God”, is not one the Left is comfortable with. In fact, it too has been stricken from the academe-accredited lexicons because it pre-supposes a value system that dares to be a bit too cozy with what has been traditionally referred to as morality.

As it is tempting to attribute human qualities to God or to animals, it is equally tempting to attribute human attributes to evil. Evil (like God and animals) does not require a reason for doing what it does. As such, it cannot be reasoned with. If it is deemed to pose a danger, it must be cut out, defeated. Unlike communism, which still claims (albeit deceptive) positions that can be exposed in debate, radical Islam has been allowed to fester within hermetically sealed societies for far too long. It has grown too ponderous; too intractable. It is now at a point where, not unlike cancer, it poses a threat for all, including itself. Now, cloaking itself in an eschatological vision, it proclaims a thousand years of peace with the coming of the 12th imam who, it is said, will only appear after every last Jew has been killed. It can no longer be assumed that the imams embracing such prophecies are reasonable men who engage in radical rhetoric simply to gain concessions. While, the whole thing may have started as such - or even served fitfully to define a scapegoat to deflect charges of corruption in the home court - it has long since ceased to serve any justifiable function. As we have seen, they have been encouraged in their lunacy by the West’s relatively weak response. Support on the “Arab street”, however, is total as anyone even skeptical of the foil hat mentality is threatened with death. This is why moderate voices are barely inaudible within the Islamic community.

Outside academia, the arts and the media, free speech is still alive and well in America today. It is perhaps the most obvious and potent of all our freedoms that we can exhibit to the world. Why do we take such passionate joy in criticizing our leaders, our country, even ourselves? Because we can do so without consequence to ourselves! Try doing the same thing in China, Russia, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, or in any other two-bit dictatorship around the world; you’ll end up in jail or worse. Ridiculing authority has always been great sport. It inflates anemic egos. The cure, however, is never permanent, requiring ever-higher doses of divisive, hate-filled diatribes to fill the endless void. At some point, however, the audience no longer laughs, as was the case with the shock jock-inspired spectacle of two people having live sex on the radio inside St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York.

In the West, we protest and criticize authority out of sheer boredom, or simply in an effort to bury the bone of our own pathetic insignificance. Protesters marching on the streets of New York or Berlin, who are interviewed and asked why they are protesting, seldom give coherent answers. Most do not even remember to articulate their slogans correctly. For them it is a lark, a happening, an opportunity to get face time on TV.

It is quite different in the Arab world. Here the people protest to give voice to their wounds. Instead of blaming their governments (or themselves), they have been taught to divert their fury at Israel and America. Their anger is potent and real. It is not for sport or amusement as it is in the West. It stems from a deep-seated pain; the pain of a people who see the world passing them by; the pain of a people who have come to view mere existence as the ultimate insult to their dignity. When a leader emerges who promises salvation in reckless flailing - even culminating in death - it is perceived as deadly serious. He is bound to be received as a Messiah.

Some say the only constant is change. Clearly, we are now different from the first signs of terrestrial life that crawled up out of the slime. Clearly, lifestyles have changed over the centuries. Just in the past 40 years, the way we fight, communicate and travel has changed as advances in technology have largely outpaced our ability to fully appreciate their consequences. At the same time, it is unreasonable to expect that it is within our power to curb this momentum towards modernity and beyond, no matter what happens politically. We talked about the swinging pendulum of history; how no nation has ever been able to remain a dominant force. We must assume this too to be a truism. As such, we cannot expect the present world order to continue indefinitely. Indeed, we are already witnessing signs of our own devaluation as significant numbers of people eagerly anticipate a new day and applaud each fresh defeat and embarrassment heaped on America. Only today, the challenge is coming from those who seek to curb human expression either by force or by death. These are the hallmarks of weakness and will never claim ultimate victory. Yet, make no mistake, in the short run, every freedom-loving nation remains vulnerable and must be prepared to defend itself. The Chinese as well as the Russians continue to be firmly entrenched in the communist camp. Their relatively recent headlong plunge into embracing the principles of capitalism should not be construed as capitulation to Western values. They see themselves simply as weaving the rope by which they one day hope to strangle the principles of faith and freedom in the name of egalitarianism. Their aggressive stance with regard to funding their militaries, coupled with their continued support of rouge regimes should give the West pause. By giving tacit approval to the demonization of both Israel and America by ideological kin, Western media have been able to convince significant numbers of folks that if these two nations were not to exist, all would be right with the world. Again, this ignores the historical record by refusing to recognize a second truism: that, as long as there are politicians to exploit them, political divides - like waves in the ocean - will never cease. As such, there will always be discord. Even if we (or they) were to capitulate to every current challenge, or even if we (or they) would win every current battle, we (or they) would still not find ourselves excused from tomorrow’s conflict. Victory is always fleeting, after all. It belongs to those left standing after the dust has settled; to those who remain undaunted (like Sisyphus) by the often thankless task of maintaining their advantage; to those who manage to stay confident with a clear vision of what is sacred to guide them; to those who remain willing to fight for what they believe.

The same can be said of the Islamists, of course. And their standing in the game would be laudable were it not for the embarrassing fact that their energy and passion have been hijacked by the Communists to further a cause that runs contrary to everything they stand for. They think they’re being clever in scouring mental institutions for people who may not be bright enough to know what happens when you strap on a suicide belt and pull the chord. They have yet to realize that their entire movement is the victim of a similar deception; that they will be ruthlessly crushed once the Communists have free reign.

By studying history, we may be able to gather a listing of factors common to dominant powers at various stages of their existence. We might be able to determine in which phase of development or devolution we ourselves may be. Time would likely not be a determining factor as the speed with which change occurs has demonstrably increased. One hundred years today might well translate into one thousand years, a thousand years ago. However, there are other signs: civil wars; foreign invasions; economic distress; all serve as bullet points that mark the milestones of history. It is the degree to which a nation is willing to identify and confront threats that either adds to or subtracts years from its potency. Its policies ultimately depend on the mood of the electorate, which will choose or tolerate leaders according to its will (or the lack thereof).

It is essential that symptoms such as cynicism, corruption or general malaise not be interpreted as causes for the demise of a culture. Neither can optimism, morality or efficiency in any way be regarded as reasons for its perceived ascendancy. These are merely the signs of a particular stage of the cycle in which a culture may find itself. It is ever tempting to treat only the symptoms without regard to the underlying condition, which may simply be exhaustion (due to old age). One cannot whip an exhausted dog into the frenzy of a fight. Neither can one expect a virile dog not to accept the challenge.

We hear daily about how Americans no longer want to do certain types of work, how we must import masses of immigrants to tend our lawns and build our highways. The same trend extends to the higher end jobs that require math, science and computer skills. My work used to take me to numerous office complexes, run by high tech companies and financial institutions. It is getting so one hardly encounters Caucasian faces anymore. Instead, one increasingly sees Asians working the levers of our economic infrastructure. Last year, I attended the commencement exercises of my (Indian) wife’s son at a college in New Jersey. As the names of the graduates were read, I came to realize I could count the traditionally American names (like Anderson and Johnson) on the fingers of one hand. This does not alarm me as it does some. There are so many jobs needed to run the largest economy in the world. Our own educational system stands so degraded; it can only prepare individuals for a fraction of these. I know that a significant percentage of today’s foreign graduates will elect to stay on in America and become good citizens like the Germans, the Irish and the Poles did before them.

Relatively open immigration policy has become the lifeblood for our nation. Many agree that without the foreigners here, our economy would collapse. Because of our sensitivity, sharpened by decades of “political correctness” indoctrination and constant litigation by the ACLU, we only give lip service to screening immigrants effectively. Therefore, those who would do us harm are bound to slip in. These, unfortunately, are the ones who will grab the headlines. Our own failing in this regard should not be used as an excuse to suspend our tradition of welcoming immigrants with open arms and hearts, a policy that has always served us admirably in the past.

When grass root sentiment flared within the nation demanding for the government to seal our southern border, people could not believe that the President would fail to respond. Even those within Bush’s own party were baffled by his silence. Though normally in support of open borders, the media, sensing a weakness in the President’s (non) position, lost little time in portraying him as insensitive, corrupt, and/or stupid. Never once was any consideration given to the likely consequences were the President to speak out publicly. Mexican elections in which the Communist candidate posed a serious challenge were just months away. Clearly, by openly proposing measures to keep illegals (primarily Mexicans) from entering the country, he might have handed the Mexican Left the advantage it needed to win power. Clearly, Bush and Fox had discussed this privately. Quite aside from the fact that the American Left would have applauded a Communist victory in Mexico (just as it applauds Castro, Chavez, Mugabe and the rest), considerably more in terms of positive cooperation in any number of areas between our two neighboring countries lay at stake. His critics were well aware that the President had only silence to counter their accusations. It was an entirely predictable tactic by the opposition. Time and time again, they would bank on his inability to speak out on sensitive matters to sling their dirt unimpeded, knowing that the press would eagerly follow their lead.

Once the confidence in a leader has eroded, the nation opens itself up to blindly pursuing any crackpot policies that may be severely at odds with its over-all goals and interests. Clearly, not everyone can be expected to understand all the repercussions of any given public pronouncement by the head of state. But everyone can be expected to put their trust in a leader who has been duly scrutinized and elected. My foreign-born wife, working competently at our local library was confronted by a woman who refused her help because she did not agree with the idea of outsourcing. She made a scene, embarrassing herself and the others who witnessed it. The director of the library, who had made it his policy that the customer is always right, apparently never realized that he himself was in effect stoking the fires of discord (albeit in a small way) by sporting an anti-Bush bumper sticker on his car.

The Bible advises its readers to obey their leaders so that leadership would not become a burden to them. (Hebrews 13:17) It understands that governance on a global scale entails a far wider grasp of issues than what can be reasonably expected of the electorate whose relatively narrow social and economic concerns tend to dominate their attention. So too, the failure of the Dubai port deal would prove to be a foreign policy disaster for the U. S. in that it prevented a demonstration of trust between two nations with similar interests. The fact that the AE sits smack in the middle of the Arab world would have made it even sweeter. But no, the word had gone out that every Bush initiative must be defeated for the Democrats to win the next election. The press was called upon to exploit a latent prejudice against Arabs. The population would be riled up to oppose the deal. Polls were taken and broadcast widely. Politicians on both sides of the aisle would quickly jump aboard a wave of manufactured public sentiment. Reading the tea leaves, the Dubai businessmen took themselves out of the running rather than face a humiliating showdown in the American congress - and an opportunity to build a bridge was lost forever.

One of the reasons given for scuttling the Dubai ports deal was that the United Emirates do not recognize the existence of Israel. What Arab nation does so without peril? Is it not the essence of effective diplomacy for a nation to protect itself by voicing its public stance while pursuing its vital interests quietly and in private? Why put oneself in danger by uttering words that are certain to inflame the sentiments of unhinged neighbors? It is utter lunacy for a small Arab country to publicly support Israel in this day and age. By doing so, it would immediately set itself up as a target for extremists. Similarly, Bush obviously thought it wise not to inflame Mexican sentiments by attacking their government’s policy of encouraging its citizens to pursue job opportunities north of the border - a policy, all agree, acts as a safety valve in the effort to maintain social and economic stability (primarily in Mexico) - at a critical time in that nation’s history.

Even so, much damage was done by American media attention focused on this particular issue. Bush’s standing was diminished (and that was the point, after all), and the margin of victory in Mexico was slim, lending strength to Obrador’s claim that the election was stolen. It would subject our neighbor to the south to endless strikes, demonstrations, protests and the like, tactics the left unfailingly engages in when things do not go exactly their way.
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The condemned man was brought into the courtyard a few minutes before noon. It was stifling hot as the ancient walls blocked any breeze there might have been. Many of us, wearing our dress uniforms, were beginning to feel faint as we leaned heavily on our rifles. The prisoner too was clearly unhappy. One could hear his muffled protests through the black cloth he wore wrapped around head. After he had been chained to the post, one of the guards removed it. Despite myself, I looked at him. He was silent now but blinking hard in an effort to adjust his eyes to the midday glare. It was evident he was trying to recognize our faces. I looked away, ashamed.

He might have been anyone of us. We all harbored the same sentiments. We all went to the same schools; worshipped at the same mosques. We all hated the Jews.

Ahmed had volunteered to carry out a suicide mission in Jerusalem. When he reached the restaurant, he saw it had decent crowd. He smiled and thanked Allah for offering him the opportunity to make his sacrifice a worthy one.

Moments later, he was inside, ready to detonate his vest. He positioned himself near a table of eight, three of whom were children. He felt certain that all the eight would die and was hoping for some additional corpses on the other side; though, conceding that his own body would shield these from the full force of the blast.

When the vest failed to detonate, Ahmed grew enraged. He drew out his knife and fell upon the nearest person. It turned out to be the mother of the children. He managed to slit her throat before being subdued by the guard who had temporarily left his post by the door to light a cigarette in the adjoining alley.

Ahmed’s trail took seven years, his sentencing another five. Today was the day of his execution.

We were ordered to line up and face the condemned. I tried to look everywhere but at the target. I wondered vaguely why the entire wall was pockmarked with shot. As far as I knew, the condemned were always chained to the same post and executed one at a time.

There were twelve shooters in our line. The sergeant only carried a sidearm. One of our rifles held a blank. In this way, no one would ever know for certain which one of us delivered the fatal bullet.

The order was given to aim and fire. My eyes grew moist just as I was about to line up the barrel. Already, I heard shots. I pulled the trigger despite my inability to see clearly. The blast made me stagger. Instinctively I knew my gun was not the one that held the blank.

We were ordered to turn to the left and march single-file out of the courtyard. A small wooden door stood open to receive us. Inside it was cool. We stood around like dumb herd animals, clutching the hot barrels of our guns. Then, through the closed wooden door, the one through which we had entered, we heard another: the report of a single discharge.