Collapsing Puppet Theaters

Civil War? About what? Who are the antagonists? All these are questions that are unanswerable to most Americans. If asked, they would hesitate; they'd stumble. And yet, all would feel the answers just on the tip of their tongues. It's just that if they were to allow them to slip (out), they would invariably be made to sound foolish.

The truth is, although Americans know something momentous is underway, most have no idea of what's truly at stake. A 'Civil War' implies at least two sides. Most Americans are reluctant to take sides. Taking sides implies a commitment similar to adopting the mindset required after just having been told one has cancer. One problem is that the sides in this nascent struggle cannot be defined by visible – geographical or racial - markers. Neither is it a war between Republicans and Democrats (which is usually the first default answer given). It's not even between conservatives and progressives; or between blacks and whites, young and old, male or female, etc. All these are purely proxy skirmishes that are always enlisted in service to a greater cause. The real war pits the American people against big, bloated, arrogant, unresponsive and corrupt government.

Whereas one might say that a ‘conservative progressive’ or a ‘totalitarian democrat’ are oxymorons and cannot be; I would say, all these can and do exist as long as they exist in the right measure. Nobody (in theory) would mind a small Marxist dictatorship in Washington if that dictatorship would not intrude on our (the peoples’) liberty and hobble the private sector. But that is exactly what we’ve come to. Our political leadership – right and left alike – have brought us this nightmare whereby we, the people, are being literally enslaved to irreconcilable debt for generations to come. Washington has broken our savings plans, our business plans and is trying to interfere with our natural instincts for self-preservation.

We, on the other hand have refused to cooperate. We have decided we will break Washington even if it means we break our own legs in the process. We will stop doing what we do best. We will not expand our businesses. We will not create jobs. We will not spend our money. We know we’re the ones who keep this big economic engine running – not Washington (that keeps promising better times ahead). Washington has nothing to say about it. Washington will have to backtrack on that promise time and time again because we will see to it that nothing happens. We will only resume pulling our share again once Washington becomes more acceptable to us – and that means primarily ‘smaller’ and less intrusive into our personal lives.

So far, neither side has blinked. Washington thinks it’s in charge. Career politicians of both parties think that if they can just choke the golden goose a little bit harder, it’ll cry ‘uncle’ and begin genuflecting. The people are beginning to understand that they themselves are in charge. They know they alone can bring this government to its knees by simply sitting on their hands.

Little by little, as the truth of it leaks out, the antagonists reveal themselves. On one hand there’s a handful of puppet masters with strings attached both to themselves and their fingers; on the other, there are the good people of the America who have vowed that they will no longer bother to come to the show. Once the elites finally get it, their puppet theater will collapse and they will be forced to move out of town.

Threepenny Opera

In a way it's good that we elected Barack Hussein Obama because his election has forced the citizen owners of America to decide once and for all whether or not they want to live in a communist state. Never before has it been so clear what the Left in our country is up to. The next couple of elections will decide unambiguously what it is we want for ourselves and for our children. It's a simple yes or no question that requires a simple yes or no answer.

The result will show which side has the majority. If it's close, we're divided and we will slip into full-fledged communism. Communism is international and can draw on virtually unlimited resources from outside our borders. If it's not (close), our communist friends should consider moving to another country where they would feel more at home. Anthony ‘Van’ Jones, (for example) if he were to decide to move to China, wouldn't be the first to have made the decision to settle in a more politically compatible climate. Berthold Brecht left the U.S. and settled in communist East Germany*. I'm wondering why Michael Moore doesn't just pull up stakes and move to his beloved Cuba; or Sean Penn to Venezuela? Or why Obama continues to occupy the White House when he'd be infinitely more comfortable bunking with the princes in the House of Saud.
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*Die Lösung (The Solution) was Brecht's belated commentary on the uprising of 17 June 1953 in East Germany:

After the uprising of the 17th of June
The Secretary of the Writers Union
Had leaflets distributed in the Stalinallee
Stating that the people
Had thrown away the confidence of the government
And could win it back only
By redoubled efforts. Would it not be easier
In that case for the government
To dissolve the people
And elect another?

Meghan's Father

John McCain is a hero; a national treasure. He is also a stumblebum who lost his quest for the presidency either deliberately or for sheer lack of nerve. We all knew of McCain’s political prowess; his quickness to anger; his wit and ability to engineer the always effective sound bite size put-down. We waited breathlessly for him to do his stuff during the candidates’ numerous pre-election debates.

It never materialized. In fact, it appeared, he deliberately sidestepped every grapefruit size opportunity to hit it out of the park. In the end, all we could do is feel sorry for him and rationalize that he had been in some way fundamentally damaged while serving his country in a Hanoi prison. Now it is commonly heard that things would be much worse if McCain had been elected.

Republicans have come to know McCain, as a has-been pol, well past his prime. Blind to the dangers his nation is facing, he remains alert for every opportunity to undermine his own party. While the national press adores him, no Republican is fooled anymore. Not even in his own state will grant him another term. If he stays in the spotlight, it’ll be Democrats who will shine it. It is they who owe him big time.

Today’s performance only serves to bolster the indictment against him. It proves that he still has what it takes; that he drew back inexplicably and deliberately withheld the winning hand when it counted most.

Why Are We There?

Let’s step back for a moment and ask the question, “What do we hope to accomplish in Afghanistan?” Is it nation building? No. Is it to prop up an illegitimate puppet government there? Not in so many words. Is it to protect the homeland? Hardly. Is it for oil? Officially speaking, no. Is it to protect Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal? It’s a concern, but no. So why are we there?

As time goes on, this question is becoming harder and harder to answer. If the way in which we’re fighting this war is any indication, it does not seem to be critical that we should win. So why are we there? To maintain a presence? To remain a factor - to reserve a seat at the table where the ultimate solution for the region will be decided? Perhaps.

It seems to me, that if we want to remain relevant in what happens in this tortured region, we must be certain of what we ourselves hope to accomplish. Such clarity, unfortunately, is not readily apparent. We appear to no longer believe in human rights. We no longer believe in democracy. We no longer believe in free market capitalism and the energy that sustains it. We no longer believe in American exceptionalism. We no longer believe in Israel. We no longer believe in ourselves. So, why are we there?

Is it perhaps to inflict another crushing blow on our military; to re-create Vietnam, April, 1975? Is it our stealth desire to install an Islamic Caliphate in the region? Is it to overwhelm global political systems to the point of ushering in a world-wide economic and political collapse; hence, revolution; to clear the tables of any and all evil Western influence?

When Bush spoke of the “axis of evil”, we had the last indication of a strategy that had the potential of advancing America’s largely benign influence. With one or two coherent, coordinated strokes we could envision a victory that would bring peace to the region by holding any corrosive elements at bay; assuring the uninterrupted flow of oil to western nations; and securing Israel’s right to exist.

All of that has been officially disavowed now. There is no longer any reason for us to be conducting any foreign campaigns; no reason to spill the blood of our bravest and finest. Why then are we there? All that makes sense at this point is that we are aiming to blunt the last arrow in our quiver that stands in the way of total chaos.

The John Edwards Affair

All this should come as a cautionary tale to Republicans who are now smiling broadly, fully expecting to take over leadership of congress after the November elections. So much hasn't happened yet. When it does, the outlook could change. Every contested seat represents a drama that hasn't yet been fully scripted. For one thing, the Dems have the money. For another, the Dems are ruthless. They may already have sex tapes in their vaults ready for release at opportune moments. If they don't, they're quite capable of making it up and saying 'sorry' later. The MSM can be expected to play along with the Democrats. The public is always highly prone to be distracted from the real issues by any one of a variety of gambits that left-wing spin-meisters are likely to hatch. And they and their compliant media allies are well versed in the art of electronic lynching and smear. They know that we would much rather argue about who slept with whom (yes he did; no he didn’t; yes he did…) than face the larger issues involving our own destiny.

Republicans don't usually play this game. The way the rules are now structured, Republicans are always at fault. They react to Democrat ploys rather than formulating their own strategies. They are likely to spend an inordinate amount of their time and resources defending themselves. In this Republicans are rather dull - to say nothing of wielding power once it has dropped into their laps.

The intrigue will start in earnest once the Republican front runner has been decided on. Expect a third - seemingly attractive - choice to be introduced into the mix. Whoever is chosen for this particular task will be expected to fall on his or her sword once the Republican effort has been sufficiently undermined. Don’t laugh. This play has been run before with considerable success. People have short memories. It could just work again.

Will the Dollar Hold?

Well stated, Mr Doakes. Your submarine analogy goes even further than what you are suggesting. I heard something in passing on Glenn Beck this morning. It’s positively chilling how long the Left has worked on pushing their agenda, not just on America, but also the world. On the surface, the hook they use is the promise of eternal peace. The ‘peace movement’ was the forerunner of the ‘global warming’ hoax. It got traction because the ‘absence of war’ has always been a worthy, if unattainable, goal for any thinking people. Yet, war seems to be hard wired into the protocol of global politics. It is the only remedy for when differences in the expectations of diverse populations become insurmountable. In the end, you once again have a level playing field in the shared memory of the horrors of war and kindled a desire to once again begin working together and compromise for the common immediate need to reconstruct some sense of stability. Note that many of the arguments we are currently having preclude compromise. This is dangerous and can only result in the unthinkable.

Even though this seems to be how the fabric of the human community is structured with its predictable cycle of horrors seemingly woven in, liberal and progressive think tanks have been busy working up schemes whereby the continuum of natural human history can be distorted to eliminate certain inconvenient truths: war, for instance. So, it was thought that by linking the world’s economies into an unbroken chain, no population would ever again risk a tear in this now single bolt of fabric. We’ve seen much of Europe, for example, choosing a single currency with which to conduct business. We see the ME oil producing nations advocating for a single petro-dollar. We see the Asia-Pacific rim contemplating something along the lines of what Europe has done. All the while, the U.S. dollar has been the unofficial standard of world currency.

This is like your analogy to the air-tight chambers of a submarine. If the world were to adopt a single currency – a single economic system – to bring all countries under the same umbrella as the globalist envisions, there would be no more chambers; no way to close the hatches. A rogue nation like Zimbabwe could be the tear that renders the entire cloth useless.

Will the dollar hold? Will we be able to forestall world-wide financial Armageddon? It’ll all depend on (and I keep coming back to this) whether or not we are willing to admit mistakes and hold people accountable. Without this, the system simply fails and no one is at fault. While pains are taken to discover whether a church or house fire is accidental or deliberate, we seem to be unconcerned as to the source when it comes to an attack on our financial systems.

Haste Makes Waste: On With the Revolution!!!

There's yet another problem coming to the fore with certain cars: steering. It seems that in their continuing quest to make cars lighter - struggling to comply with government mandated fuel efficiency standards - automakers have decided that a computer chip would eliminate the need for a considerably heavier steering-assist motor assembly. There have been problems with under and over-steering. I can't help but thinking that Toyota's acceleration woes are due to much of the same. There is no reason why the old, reliable and time-tested systems should be replaced simply to meet some government mandate based on what we now all know is faulty science. This is precisely how mistakes happen – mistakes that could have been avoided under normally occurring market-based timelines.

It is perhaps a sign of the times that our government – sensing itself on the ropes – declares that everything must now be done in a rush. Health care must be passed now; the same with jobs (bill); cap and trade; education and banking reform; immigration; don’t ask, don’t tell; energy independence; and so many others. The rush is on perhaps to avoid the shifting of political realities; or, perhaps, to build monumental political legacies; or, perhaps more ominously, to overwhelm the system a la the Cloward-Piven (strategy).

As the old adage, “Haste makes waste,” will continue to hold true, perhaps the whole point of all of this is precisely: ‘waste’ the old, on with the revolution!!!

Shunned Concepts

Note that Republicans have been rendered borderline giddy by what recent polls are showing. They’re clearly expecting a huge payday next November and beyond. I would caution that there are still many pitfalls that lie ahead. For one thing, people are not overly enthused with Republicans either. They see Republicans as being something on the order of unindicted co-conspirators. There may yet be a huge push for a third party (which would split the Republican vote and give Democrats a victory). Democrats themselves are divided, though none of them can be expected to vote Republican.

The Obama election set the template: “Anybody but Bush and (to some extent) Republicans.” Republicans themselves buckled, disavowing their own support and principles, reaching across the aisle to embrace questionable Democrat proposals. All this has left a bad taste in voters’ mouths. Taste is the sensation that lingers the longest in memory. It is a factor that cannot be overlooked.

Even more disturbing is the possibility that once the new congress is seated, it will find itself marginalized and unable to stop anything that the executive branch puts forth. Once the people catch on, they will begin to question the efficacy of representative governance. “Democracy” will become a shunned concept, similar to what “capitalism” has become.

Holding Our Collective Breath

I am confused by John's use of the word "powerful". How can one who is considered "powerful" be "thrown under the bus"? Could anyone have imagined Bush throwing Cheney under the bus for any reason?

Admittedly, there are (what are commonly referred to as) the “levers of power” of which the Obama administration appears to be in full control. These, however, have ceased to be connected to anything substantial. They are merely there to animate the skeletal remains of some long-buried East German trope. Without active involvement and support of the public, all this Washington posturing and horse trading means nothing. And polls show that a full 80% of the American people are either distrustful or categorically opposed to where the party in (so-called) ‘power’ is taking us.

Obama, as leader of that party, may succeed (third-world, Noriega-style) in greasing the skids toward some kind of Marxist brand of socialism. In the process, he may even be tempted to congratulate himself for having destroyed America’s productive private sector; democracy itself; discredited history, capitalism; doomed accomplishment and freedom of expression while promoting mediocrity and failure in the name of ‘social justice’. But he would be fooling himself.

The reason all these uniquely American traits seemingly lie dormant just now is not because of what Obama has contrived but because of our own free will we’ve put on the brakes and are holding our collective breath - not in a nod to environmentalism, but - in protest of Obama’s outrageous anti-American policies. Once Obama has been disposed of in the trash bin of history, you will see all that America holds precious come roaring back to life even stronger and more vital than it has been in years.

Stop Dicking Around

I don’t see one thing substantive in John’s criticism of Newt. All I see is emotion, culminating in put-down. Why do we insist on trashing our own? Do we have to agree with everything every one of them says - like the Dems agree with their stuffed shirts and empty skirts? No. But we also don’t have to trash them (the way Democrats trash us).

Non-Democrat Party hacks truly are an odd lot. We trash the likes of Limbaugh and Palin in public; then we turn on our radios and listen in secret. We disparage Palin. We say she’s “clearly unqualified”. Does that mean that Obama was qualified to lead our nation? Is Biden qualified? Pelosi? Reid? Why does the question of qualification never come up about Democrats? Is Al Franken qualified to be a U.S. senator? Is he even qualified to be a talk show host? Not by his ratings. So what’s the deal with Palin? Didn’t she run one of these 57 (sic) states, no less – and not into the ground, like some former governors (of CA, NY, VA and NJ)?

What are we really talking about? Electability? Would Michael Moore vote for a Palin? No. Would Sean Penn? Whoopi? Rachel? Clooney? No. No. No. No. Would The New York Times or the Huffington Post ever consider endorsing any Republican – no matter what he or she says? No.

So there you have it. Our candidates do not have to be acceptable to the libs. They have to be acceptable to us. I happen to believe that we still outnumber them despite the big noise they’re capable of generating. And I’m not the only one. Democrat lawmakers themselves are running for the hills. If they were confident, they’d stay and savor their advantage. Maybe all those so-called conservatives who are so quick to disparage our own should gracefully duck out and take a powder. Watch from the sidelines and keep their traps shut.

There’s more at stake here than party politics. Newt has it exactly right. America is in danger. It may already be too late. I happen to think not. But one thing is for damn sure; it soon will be too late if we don’t stop dicking around.

Dutch Disease

In economic parlance there are no less than three terms that describe essentially the same condition: "Resource Curse", "Paradox of Plenty" and "Dutch Disease". All these refer to unstable or failed states that, at the same time, can claim to have a wealth of natural resources. The theory goes, that their natural resources are precisely the reason for the failure of such states; that the resources themselves have made these states the targets of exploitation by foreign interests and, to a lesser extent, of corruption domestically. Obvious examples of states suffering from “Dutch Disease” are liberally spread throughout the Middle East, Africa and South America.

The easiest to scapegoat is always the foreigner. In fact, it has almost become obligatory to blame foreigners for any and all domestic difficulties. Foreigners must also meet certain standards of worthiness; that is to say, they must demonstrate sufficiently deep pockets to justify the bother and risk involved in pursuing the protocol of extortion. Foreigners must also exhibit enough sensitivity to be open to severe introspection as to be able to arrive at the entirely narcissistic conclusion that all that has ever happened is one’s own fault.

Future colonizers, exploiters, human and arms traffickers, in order to excel in their chosen craft, will have learned to avoid the pitfalls of circular thinking. They will pick a point along the proverbial arc and stick with it. They will know that the point they picked represents nothing more or less than the position most advantageous to themselves. Thus they will have fully understood the adage, “Take care of yourself (first) and all else will take care of itself.”

Grayson is an oaf who, along with his Democrat colleagues, is also about to squander the precious resource of political power. Predictably, he and the others will blame everyone but themselves. Republicans will have to avoid the illusion of the “big tent” and come to terms with the fact that their fine feathered friends in the press, academe and Hollywood will have to suffer the elements while the work of putting our nation back together proceeds in earnest inside.

Insufferable

I don't think we can trust the Russians to do our bidding. The Russians are like a rusty old knife - impossible to cut anything without mangling it. If anything, China is the sharper tool in the drawer. We, remain the only ones with some inkling of reality. We are the last hope of having it be right for at least some of us.

Unfortunately, we're in the midst of a class struggle. It's been called other things, but it's basically about class. The elites have grown too big for their britches and have become insufferable to the rest of us. They got the shock of their lives when they discovered that not everybody thinks they're so great. Before we solve that particular problem among ourselves, international intrigue remains off limits for us. We may even have to leave Haiti and Israel go.

I doubt if the next couple of elections will solve much of anything. What it will do is separate us according to where we are willing to take a stand. Then comes the battle. The losers won’t want to throw in the towel - and it'll go on like that for a while. Who knows how it'll end up? All I know is that the rift has grown too deep. It can't possibly come together in my lifetime.

Alice in Wonderland

My bet is on “H” for Hatter. Only madness is capable of unraveling the complex web of falsehoods and deceit we have woven for ourselves. Only madness can tear asunder the current political and ideological gauze that shrouds reason and smothers (common sense) solution; only madness can remove the putrid, festering blockages formed by petty corruption simply by paying no mind to the obviously insignificant and boldly stepping (hip-deep, if need be) forward. If not madness - then what?

Hillary is way too committed to shades of color. She’s a woman, after all. It makes her inflexible. It’ll cause her to break up in the crosscurrents. Madness (as in ‘Hatter’), on the other hand, is quick, witty and adaptable to any script, precisely because it understands the limitations of script. Madness needs no teleprompter. Put the Red Queen up against madness and she’ll be tempted to hang herself before long.

The only alternative is blunt-edged war – a ‘madness’ in its own right. It’s the season whose time has come when everything has grown beyond complicated; when nothing works anymore. I thought of this yesterday when our drains clogged and we had to call Roto-Rooter. Remember the jingle?

Flowers: Back Street Girl

Reflections on the Dalai Lama's visit to the White House (entering and leaving by the backdoor):

There are those who wonder whether or not there will be repercussions from this little courtesy call. China is losing face. China does not like losing face. In Asia, losing face is everything. China will retaliate.

It does not matter that the Dalai Lama was asked to enter and leave by the back door where the garbage is put out. China will retaliate. China can retaliate. With a mere whisper they can send our economy into a tailspin from which it can never recover.

That’s playing pretty fast and loose for this POTUS person; pretty bold move on his part. Why? We know, given his history and associations, that he cares nothing about ‘freedom of thought’ going anywhere. Just today it has become clear that Barack Hussein Obama does not give a tinker’s cuss about what Americans think. He plans on ramming his health care package down our throats anyway. We know that he never loses even a wink of sleep thinking about the long-suffering inmates of the gulag known as ‘Iran’. We can well imagine that one such as he cannot even find Tibet on a political map.

Why, then, this gesture, half-hearted as it is? Perhaps it is to provoke China into responding. Perhaps America’s economic collapse is his goal after all. Perhaps he envisions himself as the man who cleansed the world of its most despicable evil: the dollar, America’s single most powerful tool of oppression. Perhaps he wonders why it hasn’t happened already. God knows he’s tried harder than any man to send it over the edge. Maybe he thinks with a little spiritual help from the Dalai Lama he’ll be able to get it done.

It’s odd to think that the Dalai Lama is consenting to being used in this way; odd to think that he’s unaware of his potential role in a saga in which so many will be hurt.

Traitors In Our Midst

What does all this tell us? It doesn’t tell us anything we don’t already know: We’ll swing Republican in the next election cycle. The Dems have overreached and frightened the people. So, while we catch our breath and wait (and make fun of the Dems) – just like we waited and made fun of Republicans the last time around - it might do well to take a few moments to consider what happens next.

We’ve already seen this movie before. The next scene should not come as a great surprise. Republicans too will be shown as dangerously inept and cruel-hearted. Every unfortunate child in the country will be afforded a page in The New York Times to shout its contempt the GOP; for capitalism. Obama will have been forgotten, as it is not the habit of Republicans to blame predecessors by name or party affiliation.

In fact, Republicans will be sorely tempted to outdo the Democrats in hopes of stemming the barrage of mainstream editorial and academic criticism. By doing so, they will earn the contempt of their base to no particular advantage. Two (or four) years later, it’s Democrats again; and so on and so on…

Luckily, there is a God. Clio will not allow people to go rushing from side to side on Titanic’s deck in perpetuity. At some point (with all due respect to Al Gore) she will put an iceberg in its path. This will come in the form of an outside event. The most likely (at this point) could be a coordinated attack on the dollar. It could also be war breaking out in the Middle or Far East, choking off our energy supply. Such events (and a host of others like it) could of course also conspire to happen all at the same time.

In any case, it would take on the function of a kind of Zen slap in the face, telling us that we have to pull ourselves together to survive to haggle about racial quotas and gay marriage another day. No doubt, it will signify our acid test to determine whether or not we even deserve to be called a nation anymore. Leaders will emerge. Will they be up to the task? When the chips were down, they always have been in the past. No reason to doubt their resolve and competence.

One thing they will have to face is the disposition of the traitors in our midst. In recent times unbelievable suggestions have been openly floated; history re-written, deleted or changed; constitutional principles ignored; heroes besmirched. This cannot be allowed to continue. For the very reason that our survival will be at stake, I can guarantee it won’t.

Kissing Cousins

Today, the similarities between Barack Hussein Obama and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are striking. Both men are ideologically driven; neither has the support of his people; and each one has vowed to ram through his agenda despite the lack of wider support. As such, both men see themselves as greater than consensus, and uniquely chosen – one by God, the other by history – to single handedly usher in the next new age that, according to each, has been denied to mankind by the evil it commits or condones.

Obama took no exception at being labeled the ‘messiah’ while he was running for office. He gave no indication that he thought some of his more ardent supporters might be wrong when they claimed that he could walk on water. It’s not as if he gently deflected their clearly premature adulation as Jesus did, saying, “You say so.” No, he donned the multi-colored mantle and paraded it proudly before a world audience, ecstatic and smiling. And he came to believe that his mere presence would automatically realize any ‘what ifs’ he had memorized from the wish lists of his leftist university mentors.

Ahmadinejad too is a product of his nation’s increasingly insular elite. He was schooled in Islamic Bible stories. As Allah is said to be stern, ruthless and without mercy, Ahmadinejad too has become a reflection of the god he both loves and fears.

Both leaders have their backs to the wall. Neither one can countenance compromise. Indeed, neither one respects others enough to give them a fair hearing. Ahmadinejad brutalizes his opposition while Obama belittles his. This cannot end well.

What did the Fuehrer do when the war appeared lost; when more and more of his own generals began to plot against him? He doubled down and took increasingly more reckless chances. “The German people have failed me,” he was said to have declared before taking his own life. In his own mind he could never hold himself personally responsible for the eternal shame he had brought to his nation.

Similarly, both Obama and Ahmadinejad will never yield. They will do whatever it takes to force the foot into the glass slipper. Even after the carriage has turned into a pumpkin, they will still be desperately trying to crush bone and hack off toes. I predict, they’ll have to be physically pried away from the sharp-edged illusions that grip them.

Democrats are not stupid. They can see where it’s going. The party is imploding. They are trying to put as much distance as possible between themselves and the bomb. Unlike Obama, they still envision that the nation can survive the blast and float into some safe harbor for repairs.

Bugging Out

According to B. Raman, the U.S. is looking for a "visible and resounding military victory against the Afghan Taliban, which it can project to its own people and to the international community as enabling it to implement its policy of engagement with the ideologically uncommitted elements in the Taliban and thinning down its involvement from a position of strength and not weakness." I think Ram is giving us way too much credit here. No doubt, he's got most of it right. The bottom line, however, is that - graceful or not - Obama wants out. As long as the press can tie a string of Taliban corpses to his shirt tails, they will say, “He has done his job; he’s our hero.”

Will the Taliban allow this to happen? I think not. The Taliban knows that the U.S. is not committed beyond appearances. They may know that, more than a year into the Obama presidency, he is still blaming Bush, even while doubling down on Bush's own (so-called failed) policies. Meanwhile, Democrat prospects with respect to mid-term elections are cratering. For the Taliban, the war in Afghanistan has now become pure sport. They are set on punishing America. With each success they celebrate their own version of the ‘David and Goliath’ saga – their own version of trendy ‘AVATAR’. The Taliban will find a way to deny Obama his trophy. They are committed to his defeat more than Republicans are; they are having fun; they are winning. …while America is simply looking for an excuse to bug out.

Rule Number One

We tend to define trends and/or movements by the prominent personalities that happen to be around at the time. No doubt, if today we had HRC instead of BHO the issues would be the same. Ideologically these two are not all that different. Similarly, WJC was also defined by an era. The trend toward full-blown socialism was already well underway and gathering steam. It was only Bill Clinton’s personal problems that caused him to adopt a more careful approach.

Hillary would have had no such constraints. She would have pursued Obama’s agenda with ribald enthusiasm - except, she might have been more politically savvy. Perhaps, if she would have won the election, we would now still be unaware of the total make-over of ourselves that is envisioned by our elites behind the scenes.

In some ways, we lucked out. Obama has torn down the curtain and allowed to us see what’s happening with our government. And increasingly we don’t like what we see. He’s provided us with a rallying point against it. Even during Bush’s terms we were far too distracted by childish Democrat talking points to recognize the persistent trend toward over-size government. Now, at last, we no longer have an excuse not to mobilize against the wolf that threatens to devour us.

As with Islamo-fascism, we have previously only been dimly aware of the threat. Some of us who might have had some inkling still thought that the beast could be appeased in some way. Its arguments, taken in and of themselves, seemed compelling. It was only when the grand strategy came into sharp focus that we got unnerved and up on our hind legs to counter it.

Our battle is not between Democrat and Republican. It is not between Right and Left; rich and poor; young and old; etc. Our battle is between us and our government. Our government has steadily grown. It has become adult with wants and ambitions of its own. These do not necessarily have our best interests at heart. The tipping point came when government came to consume more than the private sector could possibly provide. Boldly, our out-of-control government is now shamelessly demanding even the bones.

There is really only one rule: not to kill oneself. All other rules derive from this one. It applies equally to all life, plant and animal alike. Ironically, all life is at some point driven to the abyss where the sin is eagerly embraced and spirit’s spark is surrendered. It is at that point where death is shown to be illusory, just as life ever was.

The jihadis, or the followers of any fanatical movement, have discovered this secret – the secret of immortality. This secret, if revealed too soon, would create a havoc of inaction. It is the perceived scarcity of time, for those who are conscious of it, that makes every moment precious and irretrievable, lending a certain urgency to what they do.

Break the rule, and you hold the temporal world in the palm of your hand. You become all-powerful over those whose natural bias tends toward life. Nothing so shocks the faithful as to see a Buddhist monk setting himself ablaze or a suicide bomber brazenly detonating his blast in a Tel Aviv pizza parlor. To cushion the impact, we have invented such notions as sacrifice and jihad. We have invented reasons for something that is not reasonable. And as such, we are able to continue to observe the stricture that says we will only consent to be killed by something (noble) outside of ourselves.

We are now faced with having to account for an enemy who does not accept our rules. Know that he is already dead; that he has never lived; even if ultimately victorious, that he will not live in the future. In this way we can assign his motive to an act of God: not for us to be understood. We must preserve our faith that we will not be there where the earth begins to tremble, where armies invade, where the tsunami strikes; the volcano blows.

As for changing God’s mind? Little chance of that. Still we must fight the good fight against any evil – be it Islamo-fascism or over-sized government - to its predetermined end and take comfort in the fact that we have served impeccably. Only thus will the celebration of life be consummated, but only for those who have dared to live – however briefly – and, for their sake, victory over the eternal void will have advanced.

Post-Modern Maps

Both Russia and China have come to recognize America's present weakness and are making strategic moves to divide up the world between them. Their aim is to position themselves as to make it so that America will never again be able to act as an obstacle to their expansionist plans. Both countries recognize that now is their chance to set the table to their liking. America will not interfere as long as Obama remains in office. Chances are that after the next presidential election America’s leadership will not be quite as forgiving.

As such, China has been positioning itself in Asia and Africa, forming alliances and settling scores; buying up all the natural resources it can get its hands on with what it knows will soon be the worthless dollars it has stashed away in its vaults. In addition, China has its jaundiced eye set on Taiwan and India.

Russia continues to lust after the eastern block which it seeks to bring back under its influence. It also 'owns' Europe as the West continues to be so shamelessly dependent on Russian gas.

Trouble in the Middle East is tolerated - even stoked - for now as it serves to keep the U.S. distracted. After the two heirs apparent have successfully dispatched of the U.S. economically and politically, and put their own affairs in order (vis-a-vis each other), the Islamists can expect to suffer a virtual bloodbath. Radical Islam will no longer be appeased. It will be stamped out. There will be no pretense of observing human rights; no ponderous crafting of a two-state solution. Russia and China will tolerate no hint of trouble. They will wipe them out should they find it expedient to do so. They won't even send in their soldiers; they'll just bomb them back into stone.

Americans will be forced to work to pay off their debt until so diminished as to allow open entry to their new masters. And a new age will have begun, with old books re-written and maps re-drawn to reflect new realities.

I remember going to a fancy new restaurant in Chennai that featured Mediterranean food. The printed menu showed a map of the region. It was a post modern map in that it did not include Israel. I’m now wondering if similar maps (of the world) would also fail to include America.

Bloodying the Sheep

Now that climate change has been certifiably demonstrated to have been a fraud, what else has been fraud? When we were said to have been on the brink of economic collapse? Y2K? Global swine and bird flu pandemic? Poverty? Racism? Terrorism? WMD? Health care crisis? No child left behind? Toyota? The Obama presidency?

Every one of these issues has been politicized. Each one has been orchestrated, promoted and exploited primarily by the Left: Democrats; Marxists; globalists. Each issue has been used as a vehicle to accelerate wealth re-distribution from the private to the public (non-productive) sector; promote panic, chaos; drive wedges; create political power bases based on threat and fear.

The American people will have to begin taking a closer look at every one of these issues (as well as emerging ones) and ask questions. Ordinarily, a free and impartial press would function as the instrument of such scrutiny. But the press itself has become an issue – a platform for the high rollers who have brought us… (well?) fraud.

In all this it’s trust that’s lacking. We can no longer believe what we are told. The propaganda we’re hearing clashes with what we see. We are told the government is broke. The IRS is charged with cracking down on tax cheats, closing loopholes; promoting fairness all around. Meanwhile half of those now in power have distinguished themselves by having broken tax laws. None have been prosecuted; none have gone to jail – as we would have.

There are two classes of privilege in this country: those in power of whom it is said they can do no wrong; and, we, who must negotiate as best we can under a maze of gibberish law and restriction that renders us permanently guilty no matter what we do or how we do it. Whereas they live in their insular Washington hell, we are the livestock out in the stall. Whenever the overbearing stress of ennui strikes them, they come out to the barn and bloody the sheep.

Not much in our news about Argentina these days. But it might do to check it out. It might well be a snapshot of where we’re headed. Cleo’s lessons of history ignored, condemns us to making the same mistakes over and over again.

Sarah Sucks

Sarah Palin represents everything that the Left despises. As such she has become a lightning rod; a target. She can expect to be smeared cruelly; repeatedly and publicly humiliated; tortured with lies. Every nuance of misstep will be exploited and blown out of all proportion (as when she innocently writes one-word notes on the palms of her hands). Palin has become Bush in drag.

The ginned-up hatred for Bush, culminating in an infectious virus - known by its acronym, BDS - never went away. It’s been free-floating, seeking a fresh host to hollow out; to destroy by riddling it with mockery and insult. In the year after Bush, others were attacked but promptly abandoned. There was still too much meat left on the old bones. Bush’s corpse was more convenient to feed on – but even that has now run its course. The next kill will be a woman. BDS has finally found its claws. The liberal blogs are virtually jumping up and down. The 20 per centers think they have found themselves a meal ticket.

It is not reaching to speculate that they will succeed in destroying her. Already, ask any kid in school or college and he will tell you that Sarah sucks. Ask for clarification - shrug. (“She kills baby polar bears – or is it babies? At any rate, it’s bad.”) Sarah sucks, that’s all that’s needed to create a boogeyman for children. The consensus abroad is that Sarah sucks as well. Obama is still riding high in the opinions of foreigners because he’s black. Darkness is the new religion. It represents The Reformation of race religion. Even in India, Obama is king; even though more careful observers have noted that Obama has pretty much decided to throw India under the bus.

Nevertheless, Sarah Palin has the support of 80% of the American people. 80% support in places like Iran and Venezuela doesn’t count for much. In America, the jury is still out on what 80% support actually means in practical terms. There’s also the question of Sarah surviving the worst the Left can dish out. She, like Bush, is flesh and blood – as we all are. How much abuse can a body take? It’s now obvious that Bush failed in the end. Sarah is slated to be the next victim.

Line ‘em up; and knock them all down. That seems to be the new way – the Chicago way; the “change we can believe in” way - in America today.

Doin' just fine...

I wish I had a dime for every time I’ve heard the reporting of some financial statistic accompanied by the word ‘unexpected’. It’s been like this throughout much of the past decade. During most of the Bush administration the economic news month to month was mostly ‘unexpectedly’ good. During the Obama administration the economic data month to month has been consistently ‘unexpectedly’ bad.

It’s interesting to note that whenever Barack Hussein Obama talks about his own presidency, he always puts it within the context of the past two years – like, We have lost 8 million jobs in the past two years, saying in effect, It wasn’t all my fault; Bush was in on it. I’m just trying to make what Bush did less painful for the American people.

It might have worked for a couple of months, but nobody is buying it anymore. The fact is that things have deteriorated considerably since Obama came to office. Worse yet, there’s no prospect of things getting any better as long as Obama and Pelosi-Reid Democrats rule the political roost. Their policies seem to run counter to what we can expect of healthy, self-correcting free markets. At best, this indicates total fiscal ignorance. At worst, it betrays a deliberate assault on capitalism in general.

Also seldom mentioned is the fact that all the economic indicators only started trending downward since Democrats took over the Congress in 2007. Before that, we seem to have been doing just ‘unexpectedly’ fine.

We just don't believe...

Back in the day, just around the time when Audi had its troubles - which Audi could never adequately explain or defend - I was coming home from work one night and found the garage door closed. It was raining. I slammed the gearshift from ‘drive’ into ‘park’, jumped out of the car and went to open it. Suddenly I saw the car slowly rolling towards me. I was lucky it wasn’t an Audi and that I had parked it far enough back. The car was slow enough to give me a chance to raise the door, jump to the side, get back into the vehicle and slam on the brakes before hitting the back wall. It turns out that instead of ‘P’, I had shifted to ‘1’ with the engine running. After that experience I have always doubted the tales of the Audi bashers.

What intrigues me about the Toyota story is how so many view our own government’s involvement at the periphery with suspicion. They quite rightly point out that Toyota is one of the most significant competitors of G(overnment) M(otors); but then they take a further leap in claiming (also correctly) that anything bad that can be disseminated about Toyota would help give a leg up to U. S. government-owned GM. And that this was the real reason for U.S transportation chief, Ray LaHood, jumping on the bandwagon so quickly, telling people to “stop driving them (Toyotas)”.

Besides, we just don’t believe anything the government says anymore about anything: color-coded terror threats; unemployment numbers; pandemic alerts; etc. It’s all become a great big game with this administration to say anything, but do only that which nobody talks about.

It all takes me back to when Bush was said to have personally orchestrated the World Trade Center bombing (because Cheney wanted a war).

This is what scares me: Whereas I never saw the ‘truthers’ as anything but a bunch of cranks, I’m tempted to give credence to any Chicago-style bad-mouthing, death threatening, kneecapping, cement shoeing, land filling ploy originating from within this White House. Remember: “Never let a crisis go to waste.”

It's Still Bush's Fault

No doubt, the Obama administration is going down in flames. Getting rid of this one and replacing him (or her) with this or that one is purely political theater – and, in this particular case, much like moving the deck chairs around on the Titanic.

It’s interesting to note that the blame game, particularly on the left, has already begun. Progressives, seeing the writing on the wall, won’t let this one go without one last salvo of the classic guilt trip directed squarely at the most sensitive part of American sensibility.

There can no longer be any question that the American people elected Barack Hussein Obama - not for his resume, but - for his skin color. In this way, they had hoped to put the lie, for once and for all, to accusations of racism that have been emanating unabated from certain quarters for decades. According to a new theory, hatched at the highest levels of academia, America’s contrition has come too late.

In a recent interview of Princeton ‘Politics and African-American Studies’ professor, Melissa Harris-Lacewell, on the Joe Scarborough morning show, he confronted her with Obama’s shortcomings since he’s been in office. Her rationalization, to my mind, was nothing short of astounding. She said that Obama had been left with a “hollow prize”; that, by the time Americans saw fit to elect a black man president, America had already been gutted, spent, used up; adding, that this is similar to blacks that have had the misfortune of having been elected mayor of failed cities like Detroit.

In other words, “It’s Bush’s fault.”

What 'Is' Is

What constitutes ‘mob’ these days? How do they teach it in college? Is it bribery, extortion, theft, protection, drug running, brass knuckles, cement shoes, severed horse heads, stuffing ballot boxes, vote buying, ‘kiss of death”? Excuse me, I no longer quite know what ‘is’ is. Isn’t this essentially how our government works these days?

Congress has been up to its neck in shady dealings. They’re not even embarrassed. It’s been all out in the open. Republicans shut out of negotiations, negotiations behind closed doors, bills passed in the dead of night, pay-offs, vote-buying – whatever it takes. The ends justify the means.

The American people are simply sick of it. They can see when something is wrong. They enjoyed watching ‘The Sopranos’ on TV. But they don’t want their government operating that way. Which is it that Americans distrust more: the Mob or third-world totalitarian dictators? If a vote were held today, it could well be a tie.

Will Obama stump for Giannoullias? He’ll be tempted to. There are those who would advise against it, thinking that a presidential endorsement would amount to ‘the kiss of death’ at this point. I’m sure they wouldn’t put it quite like that. Obama, tone-deaf as he is, would take it as a yes. He still believes that Massachusetts had nothing to do with him.

The Republican will win – even in Chicago. Unless, of course, Lazarus is able to raise enough dead. The people of Chicago have been held hostage for far too long. It took Oscar Tulio Lizcano eight years for the opportunity to escape his FARC captors. Chicagoans know that their time is at hand.

Say what you will about Republicans but, compared to the Dems, they’re clean as the driven snow. They may not be quite as smart, but they won’t need smart this time around. All they’ll have to do is show up. There’ll still be plenty of time to blow it after they’re in office.

Apocalypse

What has become clear over the past year is that Barack Hussein Obama does not like America. That, more than anything, troubles Americans. Mistakes made due to inexperience, or even ineptitude, would have been easily excused by an inherently forgiving public. No one is under the illusion that POTUS is easy work. He would have been forgiven even a dalliance with interns had he shown even minimal respect for America and its hallowed institutions.

Instead he has consistently shown utter disregard for the documents of America’s founding and modeled himself after the commonest banana republic dictator as he continues to push for policies that go hard against the grain of American ideals and principles.

“Disappointment” is not the proper word for what America is feeling right now. “Scared” is far more appropriate. People are scared that he will actually succeed in bringing down the house. They have already begun to question his motives. His budget is just the latest example. It is clearly designed to destroy what’s left of the fiscal integrity of our nation.

Whereas Obama has been roundly applauded oversees, at home he has already overstayed his welcome. The people are desperate to elect a congress that will curb his appetites. …and no doubt they will. They hope it will not come too late. Even overseas they look at him with deepening suspicion. No one has the stomach to watch a nation commit suicide in public – especially if that nation has had the distinction of being the leader of the free world. Even our traditional adversaries are concerned as they are now suddenly and unexpectedly confronted by a reality that only their wildest rhetoric could have invented.

No, John! Disappointment can only be attributed to those few among us who have been advocating for America’s demise ever since the Berlin wall came down – those miserable, self-loathing, ivory–tower hypocrites who will never be happy until they see innocent blood flowing on America’s streets. For them America can never be forgiven for having had the audacity to reach for the sky. In this way, they approximate Iran’s mullahs, those there in power who would welcome a sanguine cleansing to usher in their global Caliphate. Our own 20 per centers want the same, except they call it ‘revolution’ (to usher in some implausible communist Utopia).

These are interesting times indeed: identical upheavals in different parts of the world – each one quite probable within most of our lifetimes. It’s a horse race now. Curiously, should one succeed, it is likely to forestall the other. Who will be the one to escape the apocalypse? Or will these actions coordinate for maximum effect? Stay tuned. The four horsemen are coming ‘round the last turn.

Equality and Marxism

The backbone of Marxism is equality. Equality is like an artificial limb that replaces one that has been severed or has been withered by disease. Equality can be viewed in one of two ways: Equality of opportunity, or equality in outcome. The two are vastly different and, if one or the other were implemented, it would produce widely divergent results. Today, they are seen falsely, either as one and the same, or used interchangeably.

When it was found that taxation could be crafted for purposes of social engineering, the old idea of viewing taxes purely as a revenue stream withered on the vine. Politicians now consider taxation as a vehicle to advance their own careers, used primarily to reward supporter and punish opponents. Social engineering is always dependent on fostering a false impression of groups which are then goaded to oppose each other. With a population thus fractured, it becomes possible for politicians to pick through the shards and build a base of support. Sometimes their fingers get bloodied.

This system has worked successfully for politicians; so much so, that these have now evolved into a parasitic, elite class with powers and privileges quite divorced from the everyday experience of its constituents. Today we are, in effect, no different from countries like Russia or China.

There are two reasons why it has turned out that way (or has worked to promote the fortunes of career politicians like Ted Kennedy): One, the public does not understand that for the government to punish one, it punishes all. (The same is true for bestowing favors at the expense of others.) The public is yet too unsophisticated to realize that it is government itself that is inherently prone to evolve into an existential threat to their freedoms; that this danger does not derive from proxy skirmishes between parties or artificially defined population segments. Two: the public remains unaware of its own power in the shaping of policy; that without public support, government is reduced to an empty shell.

The battle we face today is not between Republicans and Democrats; it is not between progressives and blue dogs; it is not between rich and poor; old and young; blacks and whites; male and female; etc. The battle is between a (hopefully) united people and their now clearly illegitimate government. Government has grown too large; too unresponsive. This is not a new phenomenon. Incrementally, this has been building for some time. It is only since the Obama administration has come to power that the American public has been awakened to the possibility of being held hostage to unaccountable totalitarianism because of Obama’s insistence on heading toward full government control within the span of a single presidential term.

No doubt, big changes lie ahead. No doubt, the American people will re-discover their footing, and a dystopian future can yet be averted. There will be disruption; there will be chaos. But when the dust settles, the steady advance of government intrusion into the lives of ordinary Americans will have been thwarted and turned back to reflect a more reasonable balance everybody can live with.

The Whole Ball of Wax

There are really only two ways of looking at things – civilization, modernity, capitalism, politics, science and technology – in short, the whole ball of wax. In order to make a proper assessment, we must put it in perspective. Realize that this would apply only to humanity, a relatively small but, nevertheless, evolving part of what we regard as creation. Secondly, we must recognize all humanity as a single family, members of which are essentially predatory but each also painted with a broad streak of idealism that seeks to embrace eternity on his or her own terms.

The split (hence conflict) arises from a divergent premise: one, that assumes that such evolution has its limits and that we are rapidly approaching the end, that we must turn back at all costs; while the other rests secure in the faith that we can and must go forward by the grace of some higher being.

It came to mind last year, as I watched a bare-bodied Brahman man, dressed only in a loin cloth, rushing out of his gate and halfway into a Chennai street choked with vehicular traffic. There he stood bent but defiant, eyes wide, clearly confused and angry. He was soon driven back against the wall by the blaring horns of unyielding SUV’s and swerving motorbikes. I watched him as he gathered his rags and retreated beaten, back into his walled compound.

In India, where so many seek their sustenance on the top layer of multiple strata of (not yet cold) successive dynastical rule, the social tectonic plates sometimes shift to expose antiquity that is either struggling to catch up or that rejects any notion of what is termed ‘progress’ outright. The impulse is the same: feeling oneself out of sync with present day; spent and hopelessly inadequate, unable to cope.

In much of the world it turns to rage. The gap between rich and poor has grown too wide to be bridged by anything other than suspicion. The elders decide that the relentless bombardment of technological, political and social innovations must be stopped if the family is to survive. “We are being swamped,” they conclude. …and the source of all this evil inequity, of course, is always the lead horse: America.

Even within America itself, this divergence festers. Half the people advocate for free markets, free speech, freedom itself… while the other half is determined to shut it down. Interestingly, the reason given for the latter is to ‘save the planet’. Never mind that the science stinks. America leading the world over the cliff, they maintain, stinks as well. God is dead. We must save ourselves. We must at the very least allow time for the rest of the world to catch up. We must go back and find the lost sheep and bring back them into the fold.

With the whole world, and even with half of our own population, having lost faith in themselves, convinced that we have reached the end of the road, what chance do we - who still believe - have to forge ahead into new and exciting realms of discovery?

The state of our space program today is emblematic of the dilemma we face. The enthusiasm and imagination are still quite sufficient to conquer new frontiers. But it is being curbed by the faithless who insist on turning back. Eventually, even our spirit will yield to what defines the uninspired existence of animals.

Some claim that the human spirit will never extinguish. They point to art as being the next frontier. But even art is wholly dependent on an abundance of freedom and remains suspicious of the man with the plastic doggie bag stealthily following behind.