Content, content, content...

The way I see it, this whole argument Amazon and Apple are having is moot. The iPad will flop (as Spindle has done). I heard a popular radio host here recently advise to hold up on buying the iPad because of its various deficiencies. For one thing, it was said, you cannot perform two or more tasks at the same time on iPad; another, it doesn’t have a camera.

All the jokes about the name itself, point to a bigger problem with the device. The trend is toward combining all things in one reasonably portable device. People do not want to have to go to different devices for different functions. Neither do I believe (and many, including JB, will disagree with me on this) that an electronic alternative to a book constitutes a lasting alternative. The recent shift to the internet for information at the expense of books, newspapers and magazines is not a function of the written word (on paper) having become obsolete. The reason for the shift is content and content alone.

The public is not stupid. Yes, price is a factor. Yet, it is well known that content trumps delivery; that simply putting ideology and spin out there in any form no longer cuts it, especially when it goes against the grain of common sense. That is why Newsweek got only 35 paid subscribers when they made their internet offering. That is why The New York Times and others are drowning in a sea of red ink. That is why neither the iPad nor the internet will save them.

In the Valley of Elah

There have been a whole crop of Hollywood movies released recently that were declared to be ‘anti-war’ - hence, anti-Bush - ("Rendition", "In the Valley of Elah", "Body of Lies", etc.). Such films had been successfully dubbed "anti-American" by the 'vast right-wing conspiracy’ and, as a consequence, have done rather poorly at the box office; some went directly to DVD. It is only recently that a few of these have arrived at our local library and I've had a chance to see them (without having to go too far out of my way).

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised. These films are on the whole articulate, exciting, and very well made. Penn, Clooney, DiCaprio, Sarandon, etc., commonly associated with the Hollywood Left, are all first-rate actors. The scripts and direction are tight. There is an anti-war message, of course. But there is no doubt that these films are inspired which, for me, lifts them above the purely mechanical constructs of propaganda.

Even more significant is the fact that these films reflect the Zeitgeist. They ask the question, “What are we doing – and why?” No doubt, top to bottom, we have lost our way. We no longer understand war (which essentially amounts to “killing and breaking things”). We go to war trying not to kill; trying not to destroy. We go to war with the aim of ‘changing hearts and minds’; with an eye towards “nation building”. Then, we act surprised when we get our asses kicked.

Even more disturbing is what we’re doing to our military. By getting away from the essence of war, redefining it as a kind of charitable ‘meals on wheels’ operation, we effectively change the mission for which our military men and women have been trained. They then face a task (which even we have trouble articulating), without the slightest idea of how to approach it. Soldiers in today’s army don’t only have to worry about the enemy, but also about legal bureaucrats back home who want to score political points by hauling them into court.

Meanwhile, our sixth century enemy throw-backs have not yet been ‘enlightened’. They’re still quite comfortable fighting their wars under the old rules.

This is unacceptable. Either we fight to win; or we don’t fight at all. Either we are willing sacrifice the blood of our kids for some kind of tangible return, or we bring them back home. Containment is a job for the police. ‘Nation building’ is a job for churches and charities. The military ‘kills and breaks things’. That's all it does.

Our inability to grasp the nature and purpose of war is because we’ve abandoned the principle reason for it: PROFIT. We’ve cast ‘profit’ as a dirty word. Even if we are doing something for profit, we prefer not to articulate it as such. Typically we say we don’t go to war for oil – though that’s exactly what we’re doing. Then we catch ourselves and allow someone else to run off with the spoils. We’ve shed our blood and have nothing to show. But, at least our secular souls were saved. As we then root around to come up with an excuse for all the carnage of which we were clearly a part, we take comfort in the fact that once again the evil of all evils – our military – has been tarnished.

While Washington Sleeps

You make it sound like a bad thing that Washington sleeps, when actually it's the best we can hope for under the circumstances. Had Washington been asleep this past year, our economy would be humming right now; our businesses booming; our people working. We all knew that countries would be scrambling to re-define their alliances once Obama came to power. Well, you’re beginning to see it happen. The unknown in all this is whether or not America will continue on its present trajectory after Obama is gone. The smart money says no.

People around the world find the Obama administration an aberration. They do not see Obama and the American people as a match. The extent to which Obama can do damage to the country while in office is as of yet equally unknown – especially overseas. We ourselves are still at odds in this regard. We applaud small victories - like the delay of health care reform legislation - while we all but ignore the lit fuse: the trillions already spent in the form of future obligation to various sundry entitlements. We ignore the fact that our economy is not producing enough (tax-paying) jobs. We ignore the warning signals from China which continues to be an integral part of the three-legged stool that sustains our fiscal illusion. It could all come crashing down in the blink of an eye. ...and it will.

If there is an 'after Obama' (and, in my book, that's still a big IF), you can expect things to return back to normal. The Russia-German alliance is purely one of convenience; it will never be stable. Neither will Putin’s strong-arming of Eastern European countries lead to anything productive or lasting.

If America can return from its dalliance with socialism, things can be expected to go back to how it was. My own suspicion is that our recovery is booby-trapped; that precisely that which we all wish for and expect once Obama is gone will detonate and take us irrevocably down for the count. It reminds me of what both sides did during the Kosovo Conflict and in other modern wars as well. They’d find the body of an enemy combatant and place a landmine underneath it. When the body is then found by his mates, their natural instinct is to retrieve it in order to give it a decent burial. When they do, the mine explodes and kills them all. (See “No Man’s Land” (’01); Foreign. Dir.: Danis Tanović.)

State of Confusion

It's the first time I watched a SOTU speech in a long time. I'd gotten out of the habit during Bush. His having his way with the language was difficult to watch - all the more so for the all too predictable, gleeful stoning of the man the next morning in the press. But, I did see most of this one. And, I'm sorry I did.

Most of what can be said about the speech has been said already. We all saw the same speech. I feel embarrassed for Obama. It was like watching a one-legged man exploiting the opportunity to dance a jig (in public). I felt sorry for those whose job it will be to put the best possible face on this pathetic performance. I feel revulsion for those who are out there this morning for the sole purpose of kicking a dead (less-than four-legged) horse.

I share in the confusion of both our allies and our enemies around the world. And I am still at a loss of what Americans were thinking. Nobody in their right mind would allow their three-year old to drive the school bus, even if the regular driver had been fingered in the worst act of child molestation possible by a most impeccable source.

The Tail Wagging the Dog

I think it is time for the American voter to finally be afforded a seat at the table. Throughout the Bush years, I kept hearing that the president was losing his base because he was not conservative enough; because he was said to have moved too far to the left and embraced the likes of Ted Kennedy. Now, the complaints are the exact mirror image: Obama is in the process of losing his base because he is not radical (left) enough and much too willing to make concessions. Whether any one of these two men - who’ve had the misfortune of being president during these dysfunctional times - adjusted their actions and rhetoric due to expediency or epiphany remains an open question.

In any case, this is a discussion for the political class and taking head pundits. It leaves out the rest of us - we, (in Washington terms) the ‘great unwashed’, the sheeple; the voter/taxpayer – who, most likely by deliberate design, are becoming increasingly confused (and suspicious) about what Washington may actually be up to.

The sheeple have not yet have been totally rendered blind. (Alan Strang, a.k.a. Barack Hussein Obama, has not yet been moved to consummate his dirty thought.) People see that while they’re hurting financially, Washington’s elite are doing quite nicely by comparison. There’s also nothing unusual about periodic outbursts of harsh rhetoric in public debate; or in elected representatives jumping off the government Ferris wheel with their multi-colored parachutes ablaze in the dying winter sun. There’s nothing exceptional about tabloid intrigue, or in mock media crucifixions. What is confounding is the constant political shifting to the left or to the right that deprives this hapless constituency of a reliable measure by which to hold their representatives to account.

In November ’08, the American people voted to end war, close Gitmo, and adopt socialist governance. A year later, most of what Bush had put in place and maintained continues unabated. It’s no wonder that the Left is peeved. They might very well decide to just stay home during the next several election cycles, just the way the conservatives did for McCain.

Pundits call it efficacy or ‘governing from the center’. I call it muddying the stream. All this sniveling around simple yes/no positions gives voters of any persuasion the false hope that their particular expectations are about to be met. When these then are allowed to gather dust, voters become disenchanted with the very concept of democracy itself. They stay home on Election Day and watch reruns of ‘Friends’ instead. That’s when the ‘special interests’ come out to do their worst and, as we have seen for all too many years, the tail has been happily wagging the dog.

Let the voters decide once and for all whether they want capitalism or socialism; fight terrorists to the death or pay them off; support or abandon Israel; keep or shred our Constitution; support or implode the dollar; designate education to be instructive or merely day care; etc.

Any of the above deserves a firm commitment. The people should be aware of where their candidate stands. Once the election has been decided, the representative should not be allowed to stick his moistened finger into the air to decide which way to vote. He is already committed to vote as he has promised. ‘Say anything just to get elected’ should no longer be tolerated.

Tantrums

Even one full year after taking office, the Obama administration is still in campaign mode. They still think they’re up against Republicans and, particularly, George W. Bush. It’s a disconnect that everyone is beginning to notice, especially in light of the fact that Republicans have not been doing much talking, and neither has GW. All they’ve been doing is quietly reeling out rope.

Meanwhile, the Obama administration, primarily because of its preoccupation with Bush, is also missing the signals the American people are sending. They’re spinning it so as to attribute their plummeting poll numbers to a failure to adequately explain the agenda (besides, of course, not getting it done within the timeframe predicted). They promise to re-double their effort: making more speeches; making more deals; twisting more arms; etc. They truly believe that the problems they’ve encountered are systemic: inherent in legislative protocol itself; inherent in the (unfriendly to big government) Constitution; inherent in the disinformation disseminated by FOX News and talk radio.

We can expect them to address all of this and more in the second and third year to smooth the way for Obama’s second term coronation. Senate rules will be changed; ditto, House rules. The Constitution will continue to be ignored (until someone gets it together enough to issue a formal complaint). And FOX News and talk radio will continue to be attacked, if not shut down altogether.

All this will be done in the belief that there is only one way to do things; that, because they won, it is now their turn to do shape the world to their image. Obama keeps saying that if there are any other ideas out there, he will put them on the table and consider these as well. He is lying. He is just as guilty as the next guy of ‘profiling’ – except, Obama profiles ideas. If they serve to advance the cause of socialism, he is down with it. If not, he rejects them outright. No thought is given to actually solving a problem. Problems are simply vehicles – like poverty, race, illegal immigration, and illiteracy have always been vehicles for the Democrat Party. Rather than issues to be addressed forthrightly and solved, they are to be used year after year to augment their power, grow government, and to act as a mace to bludgeon Republicans with.

BHO continues to make the mistake in thinking that he can continue to get away with performing the tricks outlined in the old Democrat playbook. He doesn’t realize that since his ascendancy to power, nearly everyone in this country has become aware of Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals” and the ‘Cloward-Piven Strategy’. To the extent that Obama himself actually believes it, is unknown. But suspicions are running high. The parallels are just too numerous. In addition, he overestimates his own (firm) support, not realizing it’s down to around 20%, which is what even a slug could expect were it elected POTUS.

No doubt, the Oval Office itself continues wield tremendous power. The man in it can still do an awful lot to affect us. Obama still has three years left to do his worst. We’ve seen that he cannot be educated and that he will not moderate. In his remaining time at the helm, we can expect to witness increasingly destructive tantrums authored by a determined and frustrated man.

Osama To Obama

Osama (to Obama) seems not to know that America is a polyglot society. He does not know which part he is addressing. He is either ignorant (or impatient) of the facts on the ground. He does not know (as Obama asserts) that a nation is not a speedboat; that it cannot be turned on a dime. Has he been unaware of America's incremental distancing (itself) from Israel; from its incrementally building hostility towards it? He may think that Turkey has successfully made the turn – and it has at that. Osama forgets that the U. S. is not Turkey; that it has a long history of obligation, innovation and freedom (that acts as ballast). Neither does Osama understand elections, and the damage they can do to a chief executive.

Osama addresses Obama to taunt him; in the same way I sometimes address the American people, to open their eyes - that Zen slap in the face - to warn, not necessarily of what will happen (I am essentially an optimist, though some will no doubt dispute it), but to warn of what could. This is not pessimism; it is to motivate; to get them off their asses and take a look around.

Osama is prodding the POTUS to double down on Israel; to deliver that scalp. In turn, he promises that we will be allowed to live free from fear. Now isn't that the odd 'stick and carrot' routine?

Because We Don't Want To

Simon Constable is right to say that we must go on with our lives as best we can; that otherwise the terrorists win. Besides, the whole terrorist thing is beginning to get a bit fishy – like ‘global warming’, perhaps. It’s starting to resemble George Orwell’s dystopian vision of a world perpetually at war with shadowy entities (that could very well be we ourselves), pervasive government surveillance, public mind control, rewritten histories, manufactured fear, and the voiding of citizens' rights.

Even with his domestic policies in shambles, Barack Hussein Obama clearly is not about to give up on his vision for America. He will now concentrate on an area where he, as chief executive, has maximum power and discretion: foreign policy. Not unlike such Obama initiatives as wealth redistribution through punitive taxation; health care, cap and trade, banking and immigration reform, his foreign policy remains equally unpopular with the general public.

His approach to terrorism, for instance, is like Swiss cheese. Though, he never explicitly said so, (since the Van Jones revelations) it is now no longer unthinkable that Obama sides essentially with the 9/11 Truthers’ assessment of the incident. So, let’s stipulate (just for the fun of it), that the 9/11 was an inside job; that Bush did it to start a war in Iraq for oil and all the rest… I remember even Clinton supporters lamenting that 9/11 didn’t happen during his term; that he could have been a great president. So, let’s just say, for arguments sake that Bubba actually lit the fuse.

It seems to me that ever since Abdulmutallab’s father reported his suspicions about his son to the U. S. embassy in Nigeria, we did practically everything we could to bring the kid over here. Then we promptly made it so that he wouldn’t talk. We continue to subject our own people to criminal trails while offering constitutional protections and pro bono lawyers to self-proclaimed jihadis, affording them high-profile platforms from which to spew their condemnation of us. We purge our dictionaries of language. We muzzle our press. You know all the rest… And nothing makes sense anymore.

I ask you, which of the last three presidents had more cause to perpetuate terror as a tool for any reason? All three, perhaps; but certainly Obama, who has already shown his rogue colors in trying to foist an alien agenda on the American public.

I’m just asking, why would we implicate Bush in the 9/11 plot and leave out the possibility of Obama’s involvement in the 2009 Christmas Day outrage – or even in the 11/5/09 Fort Hood massacre?

As I see it, terrorism has become a convenient tool for our leaders to blame and destroy political opponents and bridle the public. Why else would we put up with it for close to a decade?

All these things have become suspect within my own mind. I recognize that in politics nothing is as it appears. I think there’s a good chance we’re being taken for a ride. There is no reason on earth why we, the most powerful nation on earth, couldn’t solve the issue of terrorism for once and for all. If we can set our minds to putting a man on the moon, and succeed; if we can bring down the Berlin Wall; if we can achieve the highest overall standard of living among nations, how is it we cannot deal with a handful of 6th century religious reprobates? How is it we let them walk all over us. How is it, we must bend over and take off our shoes at airports? How is it we must cower in fear in our own cities? How is it, we simply throw up our hands and tolerate color coded alerts, telling ourselves to march on obediently as if nothing were amiss? Why don’t we just marshal our forces and put an end to it as we did in World Wars I and II? The answer may well be, because we don’t want to.

Guilt: A Texas (sized) Gusher

Rahm Emanuel’s now famous phrase, "You don't ever want a crisis to go to waste." comes to mind. A crisis always generates guilt. Guilt is as good as money. Guilt needs time to incubate. If I remember right, in the schoolyard nobody was spared if they happened to be a little different, or obviously weak. The bullies were merciless. Guilt (or shame) was something that was taught by rote. “Go and apologize!” took the place of ten Hail Mary’s. Once the pump is primed, guilt spews like a Texas gusher. I’ve heard reporters returning from Haiti say, they felt guilty coming home to a fully stocked refrigerator. Many have been moved to contribute significantly to charities that concern themselves primarily with Haiti relief.

No doubt, slavery was one of the great stains on our own history. To this day we are made to feel guilty about it. It has spawned a great industry – rivaled only by holocaust and ‘global warming’ advocates - that promotes guilt for purposes of extortion. (I support the existence of the State of Israel not because of the holocaust but because it is the right thing to do now.) Guilt is the cash currency that derives from disaster.

Extortion is not the only game in town. Preferential treatment and quotas are also in play. If carried to extreme, it can kill meritocracy itself and result in tyranny by an ‘aggrieved’ minority. This is what happened when we elected Barack Hussein Obama.

Those who play this game never tell the whole story; that those profiting from disaster – especially after so many years - should actually be the ones profoundly ashamed for allowing themselves to be treated better than others who might have contributed more than mere ancestral suffering. To my mind it would be highly insulting to receive special consideration on the basis of skin color alone, or having lived x number of years; or having red hair; etc. Such an empty gesture, anyone with eyes can see, would be bestowed without merit and, thus, would be essentially worthless and condescending. I would politely refuse to participate in a scheme by which I am used as a mere tool to quiet somebody else’s throbbing conscience. I would not dare to come between any sinner and his God in this way – especially if the sin was specifically contrived for some devious purpose.

Unfortunately there are those who play that game to the hilt. They persist because they can catch many fish. Satire directed at Obama is not acceptable because he’s black; satire directed at Bush is acceptable because he’s white. We have entire populations falling for the gig. Two years ago, America fell for it. Even now, that Obama has proven himself to be supremely inept, it is still unacceptable to ridicule him. Any criticism of his actions must always be couched in, “…but we like him personally.” I’d like to know just how many of those who say that, actually know him personally.

Socialism Works - Not

Been hearing a lot of talk on local radio by the governors of what is referred to here as the tri-state region: New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. All the governors are facing tremendous shortfalls in revenue. Christie in NJ promised that he would not raise taxes because he knows that raising taxes gets people nervous and drives business out of state. He concedes that taxes are too high already and businesses are either leaving or not expanding. Even if he were to lower taxes now, it would take considerable time for a turn-around to kick in. In the meantime, the state is tapped out. It has to cut expenses. This means lay-offs, service cuts and efficiencies. Yet, there are so many basic and federally mandated costs that even the most stripped-down, bare-bones budget would run in excess of the ever shrinking revenue pool. Governor Christie will need Washington’s help in the form of bail-outs (at least until the overall economy improves).

New York’s Patterson is facing a similar dilemma. Plummeting revenues have put the State in a real bind. Patterson has the additional problem of Albany’s legislature having been utterly dysfunctional for many years now. Wrangling over budgets has not only produced red ink, but also bad blood. New Yorkers who can afford it are more than likely to leave the State for lower tax states if they haven’t done so already.

Ditto Connecticut…

One of the biggest problems the states have is unions. As most state workers are unionized, their wages and benefits are not subject to market conditions. Most can expect automatic raises which creates a situation where in these difficult times state workers on average make more than workers in the private sector. As money from the private sector is diverted to the public sector, both public and private sectors can expect at some point to go belly-up.

What you have here in the North-East is the mechanics of a classic tail spin. People are desperately hoping for a deus ex machina intervention. They are hoping for the economy to turn around. Only a growing and vibrant economy can avert the disaster that everyone envisions. Obama promises to turn the economy around; he promises jobs; he promises health care… New York, New Jersey and Connecticut lawmakers’ hopes, all are dangling by a single thread: federal bailouts. They know they are too big to fail and only Washington can print money.

New York’s Bloomberg is upset. He knows that printing money only hastens the fall. His sole hope is a revival on Wall Street. He’s heard the latest Obama proposal of cutting the banks down to size. He knows this would kill any hope of stemming the red ink tsunami that is clearly on its way.

The architecture now in place that predicts what most likely lies ahead is not likely to change for at least the next three years. Insolvency and the electoral process has become a horserace. Insolvency currently has the edge. Ironically, this architecture contains a wild card as well. It’s the people’s resolve to deliberately slow down their horses – not to consume, not to trade, not to expand, not to do anything to advance this crazy system that seems to operate entirely for the benefit of our present political leadership; that seems intent on bleeding us dry for the purpose of advancing some global Utopian hell. The harder they squeeze, the less they can expect to get from us. The end result may turn out to the same, but at least we’ve denied them the right to say, “Socialism works.”

ICONS

Americans just love their icons and institutions. Who can blame them? The great rockers, Springsteen, Young; The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, that Americans have adopted as their own; its glamorous Hollywood stars and starlets; its newspapers - the Old Gray Lady, so punctual and dependable on the doorstep every morning, complete with trendy book, theater and film reviews; its ivory tower curmudgeons; its sexy talking heads on cable; it’s pompous senators and congressmen – all remain dear to the hearts of Americans.

The election of Obama was an effort on the part of the American people to reconcile their differences with these, their beloved icons; to provide a space for the relationship to heal. Bush seemed to be the only thing that stood in the way. Get rid of Bush, it was thought, and America would be proud and whole once again. All the icons stood vocally united in their hatred of the president, and though we couldn’t quite figure out why, we were willing to take that Kierkegaard-inspired leap of faith just so that our TV’s would stay tuned to our virtual late night friends, and our universities would stay open for our kids (who, by the way, we had no interest in seeing return with nothing to show).

It was not to be. We had no idea that they despised us so much. How they were so eager to spurn our attempts to make nice. How they didn’t think twice before robbing us of our savings; of our jobs. How they still talked behind our backs about how stupid and uninformed we are; hayseed hicks with gun racks in our pickups; lecturing us as if we were children that east is west, up is down, black is white…

I found it interesting that Air America goes out of business this week, right after the political earthquake in Massachusetts. A network a spokeswoman is quoted as saying, “We had tried to incorporate more humor and move away from being an ‘angry’ liberal version of conservative talk radio, which can be argumentative and aggressive. I think the progressive or liberal audience likes a different type of discussion."

The Devil is in the Details

There are two glaring misfires in the clip above: First, the notion of the Obama administration needing a straw man to take to the woodshed and say what is what. This administration is the straw man and the lesson of Massachusetts that professional Democrats must take home is that voters have spoken and will continue to speak. “No confidence!” they shouted loud and clear, even from the most blue of blue bastions. The game plan can no longer be amended or tweaked. Even retreat is no longer an option. The troops have mutinied. There’s nothing left for the generals to do but resign in disgrace, for they no longer have an army.

The second is the notion that the banks are primarily at fault for what happened (and will continue to be at fault). Everybody knows by now that banking is one of the most heavily regulated industries in the country; that the banks essentially did what they were told by their government handlers (which was to by-pass normal banking procedures and give out loans to people who could not afford them; all, in the name of ‘social justice’). Banking is (as is every business in a free market) largely self-regulating; i.e. good business practices lead to just rewards, while bad business practices lead to failure. When an entity (such as the federal government or ACORN) steps in and subverts this organic process, the system fails. It then tries to compensate; but is hamstrung, unable to address the original problem - undue government intervention - and thereby sets itself up as the straw man for political party apologists (let’s face it, the entire ‘mortgage for free’ scheme was born and bred Democrat).

Stop any one on the street and ask them if they think there needs to be health care reform, they would tell you, ‘by all means’. Health care reform or no health care reform is not the issue. The devil is in the details. Do we use our mandate to do something about the too high cost of heath care to force a Marxist agenda, or do we just reform health care?

The same question could be asked with regard to banking. The people have spoken and they will continue to speak. They are saying that they would prefer this administration do nothing until adults can take over.

Walking Back the Monkey

We seem to elect people for what they are not. Obama was not Bush. Already I hear speculation about Scott Brown running for President. But what do we really know about him? Well, he's electable; and he's not Obama.

This is how it works: Because we hated Bush so much, we got Obama. Now, by all accounts, we're in a fix. Does anyone honestly believe that all our problems would just go away if we were to elect someone who is not Obama? No.

We need to walk this monkey back. We needed to do something way before anyone ever heard the names Bush and Obama. We needed to pay more attention to what our kids were learning at school. We needed to hold our politicians to account. We needed to cancel our newspaper and cable subscriptions much sooner. We needed to take more of an interest in our local civic affairs. We needed to protest against clear double standards. We needed to uphold the law. We needed to be moral. We needed to be more selective in what we were reading. We needed to defend people we agree with when they came under attack. We needed to read and understand our history and our Constitution.

There are so many things we might have done, but failed to do. In the meantime, incrementally, things have suddenly reached a tipping point. We all can feel it. Now we can no longer avail ourselves of the usual quick fix. (Throw money at it.) Multiple fires are raging throughout the house. It already threatens the children’s rooms. We'll need to incrementally walk the monkey back from the brink. And that may yet take a hell of a long time.

A New Leaf?

The Democrat Party today is controlled by its radical left-wing fringe. If the election of Scott Brown, Republican, to the late, great Liberal Lion's Senate seat yesterday tells us anything, it's that Americans, both Democrats and Republicans, are painfully aware of it. Americans seem to have found a new appreciation for the fact that continuing on its present course, America, as we have known her, will cease to exist; so much so, that they are no longer willing to indulge the simplistic sports logic of winning and losing when it comes to an existential threat to our nation. In predominantly, proudly blue Massachusetts, liberals have put their natural, superficial bias aside and voted for the Republican. The only thing that could have brought this about is a feeling of immanent danger. Even in the darkest days of the Bush administration I have never heard so many radio ads for gold and food insurance. Gun and seed sales are through the roof. Employers are not hiring. Consumers are not spending. Businesses are not expanding. All these are signs of a population that is no longer confident of its future.

The radical left-wing of the Democrat Party is actively destroying our country bit by bit. The jury is still out on whether it's being done deliberately or is simply a by-product of sheer and utter incompetence. Either way, it's happening. The media is still spinning ‘happy thoughts’. So, it’s not a function of media propaganda that’s causing this general sense of alarm. If one puts any credence in Rupert Sheldrake’s theory of ‘morphic resonance’, one would see that that the unease our people are feeling is well-founded and palpable. It can no longer be dismissed. My own sense is that that the danger is real, all the more so because people feel that what’s happening is deliberate; that our nation has been hijacked by radicals bent on its destruction; that the promise of ‘change’ was merely subterfuge for the real intent of bringing the nation to its knees; to present it to it’s enemies as a bloodied scalp; a sacrifice to the forces that would celebrate the destruction of all that we have managed to build.

Hugo Chavez is a flamboyant example of the enemy, as is Ahmadinejad of Iran. There are others, many within our own borders. They will stop at nothing to achieve their aims. No compromise will satisfy them. They are out for no less than the sacrificial blood of our nation.

From what I’ve heard, yesterday’s election result means nothing to them. They are quite prepared to forge ahead. ‘Double down’ is the tem I’ve been hearing over and over again. ‘Double down’ and ram through health care. ‘Double down’ to pass cap and trade. ‘Double down’ to pass immigration reform; stimulus II; etc. ‘Double down’ on Israel; on collapsing the dollar. ‘Double down’ on imploding democracy as a viable option in governance. ‘Double down’ on the people who dare to stand in the way (which now includes practically the entire nation).

It won’t be long before we know which way the worm turns. Some say, the Obama administration will now be forced to moderate. I, personally, have my doubts. I think it will ‘double down’ and there’s a good chance that we will yet realize our deepest fears.

We Are Leaderless

I recently read a short story by Heinrich von Kleist (1777-1811) entitled, "The Earthquake in Chile". German writers of that time wrote with the intention of making a grand, universal statement, rather than (what has become fashionable of late) presenting simply a 'slice of life'. Kleist's intent was to buttress the theme that the effects of any sudden and unexpected act of God, resulting in cataclysmic death and destruction, will be overcome in relatively short order and the affected population continues exactly as before.

This is quite opposed to the notion that the temporary leveling of cities and the social order will result in a fresh and optimistic start for the survivors. No, Kleist clearly maintains by example that what was bad before, remains bad; and what was good, remains good. We have seen in our own recent history as Germany has emerged as a world power even after having been bombed into the Stone Age. The same is true of Japan. Both countries had advanced and resourceful populations that refused to give up hope. It must be said that both nations accepted material aid (primarily from us) and knew to use it to their advantage rather than waste it on kleptocrats that know nothing but beggary.

Haiti was a failed state to begin with. It will resume as a failed state. Only now it will have an excuse to blame any number of (preferably) foreign actors, history and, of course, God. As such it will collapse even deeper into need. There is no viable government in Haiti. The people have existed in abject poverty despite the good graces of self-loathing charities and NGO's. A while back, I watched a program on the BBC showing a ‘slice of life’ in which a Haitian woman made her meager living on the streets of the capital making and selling mud pies for people to eat. What Haiti needs is a strong benevolent hand.

America could fit the bill but is reluctant to take the reigns. Already we have been accused of trying to take over the country. We are unsure of ourselves and thus are sensitive to the accusation. It is as though we are moved to help by the grace of God even with our hands cut off.

I've heard it said that the best solution for Haiti would be to evacuate the country and bring the people here. In the meantime we could rebuild the nation. Sounds plausible; even practical. But already there is a vocal political opposition in place that would balk at the mass influx of potential Democrat voters. "Spend the money now and keep them there," they say, "because in the long run it will cost us more to have them on our welfare rolls."

What is necessary now is decisive leadership that is capable of assigning priorities and cutting red tape. Additionally, this leadership must have the support and trust of the people both here and in Haiti. Currently we have neither. We don't have leadership as to what to do with the people of Haiti specifically, and we don't trust our own leadership to do the right thing in any case. The election of Barack Hussein Obama has rendered us leaderless. We, as they, are entirely on our own. If the result of the election tonight in Massachusetts does not confirm this fact, nothing will.

The Country Is Struggling to Right Itself

A victory in Massachusetts today should not be considered a victory by Republicans over Democrats. Rather, it should be considered as a victory for America. As such, any and all gaffes Coakley may have committed were immaterial, as were any fortuitous remarks or circumstances that boosted Brown. No matter how vociferously the White House and its flacks in the media deny it, this contest represents a referendum on Barack Hussein Obama's performance since he has come to office. Should Brown win outright, it will be a repudiation of his policies, as well as of his arrogance, hubris, and mindless ideology that has resulted in the pictorial rendition of incompetence.

It would continue the thread started with the spontaneous genesis of the tea party movement throughout the nation, running through to the town hall confrontations and culminating in that massive protest march on Washington by ordinary, non-aligned American citizens late last year. Next came the upset elections in New Jersey and Virginia. All this was deliberately ridiculed, downplayed or marginalized by the media and its sham White House creation. But, all the while, pressure was building. People were not dispirited. They simply resolved to fight harder.

To characterize it as a 'fight', perhaps, does it an injustice. It makes it seem hard; a slog up-hill; against the grain. It isn't that at all. It's only natural: that burst of adrenalin and determination that kicks in when an intruder enters the house in the dead of night and threatens one's family.

I just finished reading Heinrich von Kleist's (1777-1811) short story: "The Earthquake in Chile". His point was that after the earthquake - that levels everything - is over, men in short order will continue where they left off. All the good, all the bad resumes as if the (proverbial) earthquake never happened. So too it will be with America. The dust is now settling after the earthquake that brought Obama to power. The country is struggling to right itself. A Brown victory is just another step in that direction.

If John McCain Would Be President Now

The narrative of America as exploiter and oppressor is as much a myth as ‘global warming’ ever was. It has worked so effectively for America’s enemies that even with palpable proof to the contrary, they are loath to let it go lest America’s convenient standing as global pariah be diminished in any way.

We now see a concerted effort by the Ummah, Venezuela and others to attack America’s motives in its humanitarian effort in Haiti. It is and will be a difficult task for months to come and, as the days drag on, it will only get more difficult. Every set-back will be noted and broadcast widely and laden with blame; every triumph will be marginalized. The same strategy was in play during the Bush administration. In the end, we can expect either to be sued by Haiti’s earthquake survivors for gross malfeasance, or face trial for war crimes in The Hague. (By the way, is it true that the marines’ guns in Haiti aren’t loaded?)

As most anti-American rhetoric originates in America itself, where it is scripted and disseminated by highly organized Leftist groups (concentrated primarily in academia, unions, and the media), we will thankfully be able to avoid the worst of it thanks to our current president. Even the most rabid America haters find themselves painfully divided. On one hand they see Barack Hussein Obama as their best hope of bringing this once great country to its bloody and shattered knees; on the other, they are an impatient lot, wondering what is taking him so long.

Just a thought: What do you think would happen if Rush Limbaugh went on air today and openly called for the people of Massachusetts to commit election fraud? I’d expect he would not be doing his show tomorrow. And it would be right. Yet, the Left in this country can get away with anything. We’ve become immune to its outrages. We no longer hold them to account. We dismiss even criminality when anyone of the card-carrying Left is involved. Go down the list and see how often it’s happened. You think mere lies about our soldiers in Haiti (and elsewhere) and their reason for being there would draw condemnation from anyone? Just imagine what would have been said if John McCain would be president now!

Is Darfur Solved Now?

Did you know that Obama was heckled at the event yesterday. He took it pretty well - as anyone would. Nobody threw shoes, of course. But I bet he was surprised. I don’t think his handlers tell him everything.

The Dems are starting to blame Coakley for her now more-than-likely loss on Tuesday. They say she has been a terrible candidate and has made some foolish gaffes. Hard-core liberals are openly advocating voter fraud. Blame-shifting in Washington continues and, if anything, has been kicked up a notch.

Speaking of political lawn signs in Massachusetts… In the run-up to the last presidential election, OBAMA-Biden lawn signs were ubiquitous in our New Jersey town of mostly Wall Street bankers and their lily-white, black SUV families. There was nary a McCain-PALIN sign to be seen anywhere. Naturally, all disappeared shortly after the election.

However, all during the Bush years, every one of our (many) churches prominently displayed huge green “Save Darfur” banners. Those came down as well as soon as Obama was safely ensconced in the Oval Office. I was just wondering: Is Darfur solved now? I haven’t heard…

Saturday Night at the Movies

There is only one contract that is immutable; inviolable. If the ground should ever shake and fissure, and that contract is broken; we will have reached levels of lawlessness beyond what even Dante could have imagined. We trust enough to build our hopes on solid ground, all the while knowing (perhaps) that what we deem as solid is but a thin crust floating perilously atop a sea of churning lava. …and yet we declare it the basis of our being.

‘Waterworld’ is and has always a fiction. As has 'Space Odyssey'. The men who inhabit such realms are more than simply human. Poseidon fathered not just men, but heroes.

I finally had a chance to see Wolfgang Petersen’s ‘Air Force One’ last night. It made me nostalgic for the days in which I could believe that the President of the United States was on our side and we on his; that he was strong and principled, a man worthy of our admiration and devotion. Now I wonder if such men ever really existed. At least we thought so. And that alone seemed to be enough to make us a great nation.

Health Care Albatross

A Brown win in Massachusetts on Tuesday would not stop Heath Care in and of itself. The Drudge headline this morning reads, "Dem Threat: Senate Can Pass Health Care with 51 Votes". I'm sure there are also other maneuvers they can use to get it done. Bottom line: There is nothing Republicans can do to derail the process. The only people who can derail it is Democrats themselves.

Now, it may well be that the Dems themselves are starting to feel a bit uneasy with the Health Care Albatross tied around their collective necks; that they're looking for an excuse to bail. I'm sure this is true for some if not most. But the vast majority of them are politburo lemmings. They'll do what the leadership tells them. And I don't see the leadership buckling. For them it's never been about health care. It's been about control and wealth re-distribution, revolution, revenge and punishment. It's a maniacal mindset that knows not compromise or compassion. It is determined to wreak havoc for havoc’s sake no matter who gets hurt.

I often hear what Democrats are doing described as 'suicidal'. - Exactly!

Does It Matter?

I think we're making too much of it, this Special Election coming up next week in Massachusetts. The trick for the White House will be to play whatever happens down. Business as normal. Elections can be either won or lost. It doesn't matter. Business as normal. Proceed with health care, cap and trade, immigration as announced. Proceed with imploding the dollar; undermining Israel... Elections don't matter; pubic opinion doesn't matter. All that matters is that Barack Hussein Obama is now in the Oval Office and he can get it done. The media can be counted on to paper over any unpleasantness.

The battle was won when Obama was elected by a plurality of the vote. He's already done more than any president before him in this short a time. He still has three-quarters of his term to go: more than enough time to take care of all the rest. Mark my words, Obama is not about to lose any election that counts. Brown-Coakley counts (as far as the Senate is concerned, maybe), but it really doesn't. That's because after Obama is done, the Senate won't count; neither will the House; nor will public opinion. Face it folks, it'll take a shoe horn to get him out. Once this dawns on us, and we mobilize in earnest - happily abandoning our Marquess of Queensberry playbook - that's when we'll see fireworks - of the atomic kind.

And the People Believe It...

Yesterday, there was a solar eclipse that could be seen from South India. Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu, only saw a partial, but the quality of the light was said to have changed perceptibly starting around 11 AM even there.

My wife tells me that all the eateries in the city had shuttered their establishments and kept their food away from the light. Where she works, the canteen was closed. She was told no food would be served that day. She was urged to eat the food she had brought from home well before 11 AM. Most of her co-workers fasted the entire day.

At home, the maid urged my wife’s mother to eat well before the eclipse was set to begin. Then she proceeded to gather up all the food in the house and keep it in dark places. Word had obviously gone out that the light during this particular eclipse would poison any food left out with radiation and make people sick. …and the people believed it.

This reminds me of the ‘global warming’ hoax that has advanced through to Gospel (truth), having been successfully forced across numerous farcical thresholds over the years. We are now at the point where big money and big egos hang in the balance. In India yesterday the effects of the ruse were confined to temporary hunger pangs. Whoever started it did it with the aim of demonstrating a facility to influence; to validate the potency of a presence. It’s the same idea that’s behind a blog or internet service that is distributed free of charge - to build up the numbers of a following to be used at a later date to potentially… (fill in the blank).

Initially, money is often the least of it. Raw influence may well be the primary motive. Once that has been achieved, money can be made to flow automatically. I still maintain that the media hatchet job on George W. Bush was no fluke. We all played along because we found it amusing (and, above all, non-threatening). On reflection, it was all based on nothing: oft repeated, transparent lies, perhaps. It brought us Obama. Now the coffers are wide open – bleeding our treasure. Would it be a stretch to surmise that today’s beneficiaries of our largesse were the same ones who orchestrated the whole thing in the first place with their (apparently harmless) opening gambits during Bush’s term?

Now the drive is on to demonize Obama. Every one of his ‘failures’ is blown out of all proportion, broadcast, paraded and celebrated on the internet and on talk radio. The man has grown gray hair under the never ending sh*t barrage. Is it a ruse like all the rest? I don’t think so. We’ve been way too smart by only half all along. We still behave as though we know what ‘failure’ actually signifies (to all concerned). We haven’t figured out yet that ‘failure’ to some means ‘success’ to America’s enemies. By some of us rooting for Obama to ‘succeed’, we are in effect rooting for our own destruction.

Obama's Katrina

Rahm Emanuel's famous phrase comes to mind. "Never let a crisis go to waste." This administration has certainly benefited hugely from crises. To my mind, they may even have had a hand in some. Now comes a crisis not of its own making; a thankless crisis; a bone-crushing crisis; an unavoidable crisis; a damning crisis - one in which the one who saves will forever be responsible for the saved. All the more reason to cut America down to size - to the likes of the Dominican Republic, for example, which, being right next door, has responded sensibly by putting additional guards along its border.

Though the media is already comparing this to Katrina - praising the president for his timely television appearances and, at the same time, never failing to invoke Bush's Katrina failure - it will not be able to ignore this failure much longer. Even without taking time out of the evening news cast to broadcast the names of soldiers fallen in service of their country (as was done for Bush), the NewsHour will be unable to ignore the steady stream of bad news and rumor emanating from Dante’s deepest rings of hell. After the media has been forced out, imagination will become the news. …and one can only imagine.

No doubt some enterprising blog will risk limb and reason to chronicle this soon to be epic failure, not necessarily to advance a better way forward, but to expose a man who uses his pulpit to make claims that no mortal can reasonably defend; to show up such a man as a charlatan and fraud, so that he will never be taken seriously again. (Good riddance, Mr. Gore. And tell your friend, Danny Glover, to keep talking.)

Can America Resist?

I heard the other day that any dollar now spent on the relief effort in Haiti will lessen the demand to evacuate the bulk of its population to the U.S. As I understand it, the nation of Haiti will need to be rebuilt from the ground up. Nothing is functioning - and nothing will be functioning for a long time to come. Can America resist the impulse to open its arms to endless waves of 'dishomed'?

The cynical side of me would say - and don't think POTUS is not considering it - let them come here; we'll provide them with life's necessities while we ready our shovels to the task of re-building their tropical paradise. They'll be forever grateful and vote Democrat. Imagine, a whole new constituency, to ensure our own continuing drift to the left; ironically, just to make sure that we will never be able to help or, depending on your political orientation, hinder anybody again should flocks of black swans suddenly drop from the skies as so much horse flesh anywhere in the world.

Spitting Into the Wind

This is exactly what happens when you have one-party rule. Success and failure can no longer be determined independently. These are defined by a single source only: the party. In fact, such terms as 'success' and 'failure' are struck from the national conversation. This is another way of saying that there is no longer a choice; that we are condemned to follow along the path put forth by the party. If that path should lead us off the cliff and the weather is clear and bright, and everyone can plainly see the abyss yawning ahead, the opportunity to opt out or take a detour is denied. We become victims; sheep; Jews herded into ovens. Who remains to stop them from doing anything? Why on earth would we give anyone so much power over us to begin with? Well, we’ve practically already done so.

This is a chance for us to roll it back merely by spitting into the wind; to show our opposition to what we have good reason to believe is happening - or at, least, express our reservations. Why would anybody throw that away – even if they agree with Obama; even if they hate Bush and Republicans to confound all reason - this idea of checks and balances? The latest polls show Brown up by 4. This is not enough. Brown must be up by enough so that ACORN’s fraud and the media's spin can't possibly make up the difference.

There will be plenty of fraud this time around. It will originate on the Democrat side. Under Barack Hussein Obama's leadership there are no systems in place to stem (election) fraud; to investigate; make it public; punish. Under the leadership of Barack Hussein Obama, the ends justify the means. Under the leadership of Barack Hussein Obama, the means represent anything that will serve to enslave the people of this once great nation to the whims of eternal malcontents; to tear it down; to castrate it; to present it as a bloody offering to the Darwinists who openly practice the tyranny of brutality around the world; those who grow pale at the mention of America as it once was.

No Reluctance To Help

The American people will have to learn to figure out which news stories are legitimate and which aren’t. Haiti, big; Health Care, big; Brown vs. Coakley, big; Tiger Woods, not important; what Harry Reid said (about anything other than Health Care), not important; NBC’s nighttime scheduling problems, not important.

I listed both the Haiti earthquake and the Brown vs. Coakley contest next week as seminal. They are both equally important. No priority should be ascribed to either one at the expense of the other. There may be those who would seek to diminish the significance of the Massachusetts Special Election by talking about Haiti or Tiger. Haiti is by far a most immediately compelling issue. The tear in the fabric of humanity is palpable. The cries are real; the pain runs deep – as does the desire to do what we can to help.

The Massachusetts Special Election fight is real as well. It offers us a chance for at least a token roll-back of the Obama Administration’s Marxist agenda for America. I’m not so naïve as to think that a Brown win would automatically stop Health Care legislation. Neither will it undo other, to my mind, detestable things that have already been done. It’s the symbolism here that’s important. It’s to show that there’s still some fight left in the opposition; that there’s still hope; that there might still be enough of us to right this listing ship of state. And that if this spirit can be found in Massachusetts (of all places), it can surely be found anywhere else in triplicate. Were such a signal heard throughout the land, momentum would build for the consensus to do something – NOW. Not next year; not next election; not two elections from now.

Barack Hussein Obama must be stopped NOW. He and those encouraging him must be shown that they are cutting against the grain of the American experience. They must be convinced that by pursuing this course, they will suffer consequences. Nothing short of a solid Brown win in Massachusetts next week could do more to nudge the current administration toward epiphany. Yes, the earthquake in Haiti deserves coverage and personal effort. But so would an earthquake along the political fault line that runs through Massachusetts at the moment.

Lastly, I would ask everyone to consider just how we would find ourselves in a position to help out in Haiti or anywhere else where disaster might strike if all the egalitarian policies were to become part and parcel of ourselves like Obama wants. I don’t see any of his good socialist buddies from around the world offering to help. Neither have I noted any reluctance by our own country – still operating under the burden of residual (Bush) evil – to do so.

Speed Bump

A lot of people are getting involved in the political process for the first time. These are people who have heretofore considered themselves as apolitical. It also includes those who have toyed with supporting liberal ideology for the sheer fun of it.

This season came news from what family remains over in Europe (Switzerland) that they celebrated Christmas without Christmas presents this year. Instead, they donated the money that would have been spent on presents to Palestinian charities. These are nice, sensitive, successful, refined and thoughtful people who would never consider themselves as being anti-Semitic. They can afford to continue their masturbatory dreams in which they proudly wear hair shirts and display their banners indicating their so-called moral superiority over everybody else. The Middle East is some distance away. And they have as of yet not been menaced at home.

We, Americans, on the other hand, have been feeling the heat from the threat of the Obama administration’ policies every day. It is existential. It is palpable. It must be stopped if we are to survive. The whole nation knows that Massachusetts could be significant as a speed bump to Barack Hussein Obama's unwanted attentions.

Mass. Special Election: Brown - Coakley

My expectation is that Brown will beat Coakley. The wild card is 'turnout', as Gigot says; but not in the sense in which he says it. A better term for it is 'fraud'. I dare say that election fraud has been a part of elections in America since JFK (and possibly even before). Fraud has always come primarily from the Democrat side. That is to say, when elections were close, Democrats always won.

Election fraud is difficult to measure or even identify because the media (that is 99% Democrat) never picks up on it. There is, however, a way to gage it by seeing how high any given population is taxed. This will give some indication just how gullible and tolerant of corruption any given population is. Massachusetts is in the top ten of highest tax states and we can therefore assume a high potential for fraud exists. Since this particular election has national implications as well, i. e. the oh so elusive 60th vote for health care, all the stops will be drawn out, both by Massachusetts Democrats and by Washington, to get the desired result.

A Republican win despite the heavy Democrat artillery would be significant indeed. It would point to a nation-wide groundswell of anti-government feeling beyond what the usual (slightly) right-of-center pundits (including Batchelor and Gigot) are willing to admit.

On tap: Massive Government Hiring

Nobody is buying American party politics anymore. That's why I personally throw every mailing from the RNC into the trash without opening it. That's why I delete every e-mail from same unread. I'm tired of seeing people doing bad things to this country going unpunished. The closest thing I hear to it is 'Bush-Cheney' with an occasional 'Rumsfeld' thrown in for good measure. Go ahead! Punish them if they were so bad! String Bush up in the market square without a trial, for all I care. But put down some rules for God's sake!

Watching the Sunday shows I now understand how the Obama administration will try to tweak the employment numbers in his favor: massive government hiring. There's, of course, the census workers; a massive health care bureaucracy will also be needed. Then, this week came the news that anyone preparing tax returns will need to be government certified. I think that would make doing your own taxes illegal. There might be a fine or jail, similar to not having health or car insurance. I understand that government centers would need to be set up to accommodate those of us who pay taxes. This too would involve massive hiring.

No, I wouldn’t give a plug nickel to either party at this point. First, because I’m tapped out; and, second, because both parties appear to be pretty much the same. Right now they’re simply playing the ‘good cop/bad cop’ routine. I don’t hear the Republicans shouting, “Fire!” I don’t see them offering alternatives; I just don’t see them at all. Now it could be (and we should never discount this; it remains a huge problem) that whatever Republicans say does not get reported. I still see the basic MSM narrative as casting Republicans as racist and obstructionist (while all Dems are absolute angels). In fact, Republicans have been pushed out of the spotlight all together. All the political action is between the far Left and the fringe Left.

This poses a difficult problem for Republicans: Despite the outrages the Dems are committing every day, Republicans too are despised especially by their base. The likes of Gingrich and Powell are hated almost as much as Pelosi and Reid. Enter a third (Dobbs) party; and Democrats win again. Makes you wonder who exactly is fueling the third party movement.

By the way, want to know how it is the Dems have so much money? Extortion and outright theft.

Tribute to Franz Kafka

Whenever I say things like, I believe there will be a major catastrophic event before the next presidential election (in our country), people ask me how I know I’m right; how I can be so sure. I tell them, “I’m right. I’m sure.”

I suffer from the unfortunate condition which does not allow me to close my eyes. It just so happens that, at the same time, I am destined to live out my days in a cube-shaped void in which the single, naked, high-wattage light bulb, that hangs in its exact center and is higher than I am able to reach, is not connected to an on/off switch. It is therefore always on. Naturally, under such circumstances it is impossible to sleep. I haven’t slept normally in years.

Whenever I get overly exhausted, I lapse into a coma. There I remain until my system has had a chance to reset itself. Sometimes it takes weeks, during which time I am fed intravenously.

It’s perhaps fair to say that, because of my condition and circumstance, I view life somewhat differently from others. For one thing, I experience life as a series of jolts. Each time I reawaken it is with my near-photographic memory completely in tact. I examine my surrounding anew and note what has changed. My neighbors are seldom aware of the changes to which I draw their attention. They are living the life of the proverbial frog that finds itself in a pot of water that is slowly being brought to a boil.

My ‘jolts’ can be plotted as the points on a graph. Connecting the dots, the line slopes invariably downward, toward some sort of abyss. The slope has been growing steeper in recent years. It is now almost vertical. I can practically predict the precise moment when we will reach the end. After that, though, all my calculations collapse into chaos and my predictions fail me.

'Mona Bone Jakon'

Seems like Monday morning quarterbacking; trying to figure out what happened in Sunday's game. Team Obama is wondering how the underdogs were able to get past their defenses and score (big).

On the (flat) gridiron each team has an even chance; on the diamond, the team that goes second gets last dibs; on the track, the better horses are sometimes physically handicapped (by adding weights to their saddles); in golf... We understand all that. But this here is not a game, Mr. President. This is not about being fair. This is about winning the war against Islamic terror (which you claim doesn't exist).

If we can agree, though, that this is a war against al-Qaeda (as you now claim), know that al-Qaeda has no single banner to signify a particular region. Members can be found anywhere and everywhere. Only their target is specific: Israel, America, and anybody who does not wholeheartedly and openly advocate for Israel’s total destruction.

Democrats have put so much stock in thought crime legislation over the years. It is no longer enough to kill somebody to qualify for punishment. No, you must also shout hateful epithets while you are doing it (and you must either admit to it, or someone must have heard you). I’m sure they’re already working on trying to figure out how to punish someone in advance of the crime; i.e., on evidence of hateful thoughts alone. It was on that basis returning war veterans, pro-lifers and others were targeted by Homeland Security last year. Just because they were laughed out of the room does not mean they’ve forgotten what they meant by it.

Barack Hussein Obama finally admitted that we are engaged in a war. It is not a war he feels comfortable in fighting. Quite frankly, he would much rather engage in fighting Republicans, white people, rich people, accomplished people… (We’ve been over this list far too often before. I agree it has all the earmarks of ‘forever’ and would give anyone who is not Obama a thin line to tread. In fact, anyone in Yemen or anywhere in the Middle East, except Israel, may have a better chance of escaping Obama’s contempt than just plain, ordinary, garden variety Americans).

Be that as it may; the question arises, why don’t we apply hate (or thought) crime legislation to the various plotters, bombers, inciters, supporters, battlefield captives, etc.; then we could be certain of quick conviction and an appropriately satisfying, maximum penalty to be carried out with all pomp and circumstance. Let’s at the same time perfect our ability to discern the guilty thought before the actual crime can occur (as the Democrats claim they are on the verge of being able to do) and we would surely be sitting on top of the world. No one could hurt us - except we ourselves. …and that is precisely why it’s not on this president’s agenda.

Getting back to how we could have missed it – let the panty bomber on the Detroit bound plane in the first place despite so many clues - allow me to relate a personal story: I must admit to being a huge fan of Cat Stevens. At some point I found myself wandering around 'Landmark Books' at Citi Centre Mall in Chennai. I noticed a Cat Stevens CD on the shelf; one, ‘Mona Bone Jakon’, that seemed to have escaped my attention. I bought it and brought it home. There I tried to listen to it. I soon gave up, trying to figure out how this CD could be so bone-crushingly bad. It was only then that I noted the picture of a garbage can on the cover.

People Starving in Africa

It seems the press is forever caught flat-footed. During most of the Bush administration, major media types practically wore out the once legitimate word, 'unexpected'. Every positive development (and there were many) re the economy was 'unexpected' - the subtext, of course, being always the same: How can things be going so well with an absolute moron in the White House?

Now with Obama safely ensconced and wielding ultimate power, the press still hasn't been cleared to jettison the word 'unexpected'. Every measurable weekly, monthly, quarterly tally since Obama took office is cratering, obvious proof of a systemic failure in government policy. It is consistently reported as 'unexpected' – subtext, again, being: How can economic data be so dismal with our boy genius in the White House?

It’s an interesting tactic by the White House to blame everything on people who would want the POTUS to look bad. This sets up all kinds of possibilities for Obama: War against talk radio; internet; bloggers; returning veterans of foreign (lost) wars, legal immigrants; tea party revelers; emigrants; people with money, people with jobs, people with families; meat eaters; accomplished people; people with talent; private sector people; anybody even a smidgeon to the right of Karl Marx; non-union people; people who exhale more than their allotted share of CO2; etc.

There is of course the lingering possibility – gaining in credibility every time Congress meets with the president’s blessing – that what we view as failure, he views as success. After the back of the Great Satan is broken, who will take credit; who’ll get the blame? It’ll be interesting to see how the greatest train wreck in human history will be evaluated after everything is said and done.

This puts me in mind of the very first lie I was subjected to as a child. “Clean your plate,” I was told. “There are people starving in Africa.”. It was a veiled threat by which I was made to feel somehow guilty. Today I know that the lack of food in Africa or anywhere was not because I might have eaten more (or less) than my share, but because food in the affected areas was used as a weapon by ruthless dictators who wanted to keep their populations in check.

Give us...

Obama, like the panty bomber, also thought he'd never have to deal with any of this. He thought that when he became president everyone around the world would immediately and happily join his fan club. That, at any rate, was what he was told would happen. It’s the 72 virgins promise tailored to entice disgruntled Americans. It is what progressives believe - and narcissists, who insist the world turns solely around them; that even if unintentional evil should (God forbid) happen, they themselves are responsible, through careless oversight of subordinates. Get out the sackcloth; the seeds and sprouts. Return to the Puritan ways of no joy.

The rest of the world, after all, is pure as the driven snow. The fault is likely to extend to the rest of the clan that would include everyone who poses no threat. It is they who can be heroically manipulated without risk. It is they who will obediently crouch atop the stone slab to be bled.

Beyond the clan, only appeasement works: the offering of the first-born; the most beautiful; one's most valuable; a fine blond scalp; the sacrificial blood of one's own. It's the Chicago way of gang initiation: a permanent scar, a tattoo, a finger; it's LA, Brooklyn, Camden (NJ); it's south of the border, throughout most of Central and Latin America; it's tribal, winner takes all; winner makes the rules; winner is drunk with power - finds himself trapped within 'the heart of darkness'; Kutz, Hitler, Ahmadinejad, Mugabe, Chavez... four of nine muses (plus one) with Pegasus.

Poor POTUS; really thought he had the ticket and was willing to shell out all he had for the glory of having brought the white man’s system to its knees; that white house with the pillars on the National Mall for eternity. (“Barack won’t allow you to go back…”) He can't understand why his natural allies are all laughing at him. ‘I'm one of you!’ he pleads. ‘You are not. You are a pretender, and a traitor to boot. You must give us much more to prove your worthiness.' ‘Give us Israel!’ shout the Arabs. ‘Give us Taiwan!’ shout the Chinese. South Korea, Kashmir... ‘Give us the wealth of your own nation on a platter of finely crushed skulls. Give us your people so we might enslave them - and maybe, just maybe, we will let you live.’

Whistling Past the Graveyard

John Brennan, it seems, is in charge of Washington's war of words on the terror front. It is both a hopeful and disturbing clue as the current administration continues to reveal itself. It is hopeful insofar as the administration appears content not to fundamentally change anything and to just use different words to talk about it. If this assessment holds true for every other initiative Obama has promised, we can be reasonably confident that a future administration will find a way to reverse any resulting damage relatively easily. It is also disturbing in that verbiage alone seldom changes the fundamental nature of a problem. Thinking it does, would rather serve as a lethal diversion at the very time when the world does not stop (rushing into a vacuum) and actual events threaten to overtake us.

A similar problem exists with Republicans. They smugly feel they must do nothing as the Obama administration happily implodes. ‘Nothing’ is static; everything else is dynamic and requires us to be on our toes at all times to be able to react and anticipate appropriately. The world is one of action where elbows are constantly in motion for the purpose of cutting in line. I said 'elbows', not 'words'. Words are not heard when everybody's shouting. Refusing to elbow assures one of being last in the queue (which could easily translate into much worse than lost time). ”Sorry, we just ran out.”

We run a high risk by being unwilling or unable to engage. Any working system requires a constant flow of energy to maintain its momentum. Otherwise, entropy sets in and the system winds down and dies. Words alone, though they do no harm, cannot provide the energy needed to sustain it. Otherwise we could do away with eating and subsist just on talking alone. There is, of course, an additional danger in talking too much. Words can hamstring legitimate processes to the point of kindling cancers - which, again, atrophies elbows.

So far, most of us have assumed that Barack Hussein Obama’s veil of words does nothing but attempt to hide ineptness. It allows us to ignore Obama’s elbows. We have basically never come to terms with the reality that the office of the POTUS is a powerful post; that its power could some day be used against us. Today, every one of us who gripes and complains with varying degrees of aplomb and cheerfulness is merely ‘whistling past the graveyard’. This was especially true during the Bush administration. It brought us Obama. “Buffoon” still remains the all-time favorite in our lexicon of expressions relating to our government. As “Marxist stooge” begins to vie for second place, it is perhaps time for us to begin asking where we might have gone wrong.

Best Intentions

>...(a) myriad jihadi movements, all having the same strategic objective of humiliating the US, destroying Israel and forming an Islamic Caliphate.<

BAHUKUTUMBI RAMAN builds a convincing case that our assumptions re Al-Qaeda may not necessarily be right. One of these, however, is dead-on and cannot be disputed: 'destroy Israel'. From there follows, ' humiliating the U.S.', because we are there, conspicuously protecting Israel. Whether the desire to cleanse the region of Israel constitutes the fulfillment of religious prophecy (to establish an Islamic Caliphate) or merely to allow regional players to determine their own political destiny – Tehran vs. Riyadh; Sunni vs. Shiite; etc. – without what is seen as undue outside interference, holds little relevance to the argument (except for the bloviating class).

My guess (as one who has been known to bloviate) it’s the latter rather than the former. Israel has been an irritant in the Middle East since its formation. Irritants, in the eye for example, demand immediate removal of the foreign object. Any delay in treatment invites infection which may spread and ultimately result in the loss of the eye. There can be little doubt that the fact that the U.S. has doggedly worked to protect and sustain the Jewish State in the midst of an overwhelmingly Islamic region has affected U.S.-Arab relations adversely.

No peoples of any region take kindly to interlopers. Peaceful, tolerant, neutral Switzerland recently voted to ban the building of additional mosques. (There are four so far.) We here in the U.S. have aptly demonstrated that we too do not take kindly to having alien influences shoved down our throats and that we are prepared to fight to keep it from happening.

I am not suggesting that we abandon Israel. The moment we (the U.S.) decided to advocate for Israel’s right to exist, we committed ourselves to getting it done. When our parents give us the money to enroll in a college or university program, it is understood that we will do our utmost to graduate. It’s the same with a nation publicly committing itself to anything: going to the moon; tackling terrorism; nation building; eliminating poverty, crime, ignorance; finding cures for diseases; etc. No less than that nation’s credibility is on the line. It must be done wholeheartedly, seriously, and with the expectation of succeeding.

We are failing in many of the goals we have set out for ourselves. No doubt, there have been set-backs. And it’s time to ask why. Perhaps we’re over-extended. Perhaps promises we’ve made in the past are no longer enforceable. Perhaps conditions have changed. Perhaps what had initially come under the header of ‘good intention’ has morphed into something else: extortion, perhaps, of which we now find ourselves to be the victim. Perhaps we need to reset and re-calculate where we stand. Perhaps we need to assess our weaknesses going forward. Perhaps there are battles that need to be put to rest – one way or another. Perhaps we should refrain from adding to our obligations for a while.

Have we become overwhelmed by our own ‘good intentions’? Have we bitten off more than we can chew? Or are we being sabotaged by a clever enemy who knows how to fight us in our own houses by turning our own weapons against us – an enemy who knows precisely how to overload our systems; overwhelm our capacities; create confusion and distrust and leave us at the mercy of silver-tongued tyrants?