Gang of Four

JB - All the policy bullet points you list for improving the economy are self-evident to anyone who’s had some brush with economic realities in their lifetimes. We may not necessarily like our boss (who likely makes more money than we do); or the owner of the company we work for, who likely has more money than God and even gets his face in the newspaper from time to time. Nevertheless, we tend to respect these people for their achievements or for their effort to keep their birthright in relative working order. In short, we recognize on which side our own toast is buttered.

There are now legions of people in this country who have no such appreciation, chiefly welfare queens, students, political ops, dropouts, gang members, academics, artists, anarchists, Muslims, and all stripes of community organizers and their various kindred of Cain.

These people regard traditional economic theory as irrelevant at best, or something desperately in need of dismantling at worst. Our president belongs to the latter camp.

So, you can yell and scream and educate, and present all the data you want; it will not have the slightest impact on Obama’s policies. The majority of Americans and Obama speak in differing registers. Do not assume that what you hear from his mouth means the same as if you were to say it. He is the champion of a group for whom “Investor’s Daily” might as well be a Chinese language newspaper.

No doubt, these people too will feel the pinch as the economy continues to collapse. They will not see it as the economy having been mishandled. They will continue to believe that their champion is on the right and righteous path. They will continue to demand their pound of flesh as long as there is even a hint of evidence that the American taxpayer is still alive and kicking.

Palestinians do not look across the border into Israel to see how wonderful it is. They did not respect the infrastructure that Israel had left behind when they withdrew from Gaza. Their immediate reaction - though short lived - was sparked by the delirious joy of victory.

So too it is with Obama’s band of revolutionaries in Washington. ObamaCare was never supposed to work as advertised. It was all a ruse. Nobody there had ever seriously thought it would work. How could they have been serious when they never even read the bill? (It is likely that even the president to this day has not read it.) To those who vociferously supported it, it was enough to pass just anything that would light another fuse under America‘s economic infrastructure. (The rest just caved in to pressure.) They trusted the Apollo Alliance, a left-wing think tank, to get the job done - or at the very least create an atmosphere of confusion and strife.

All this is considered good by Obama‘s gang (of four).

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Emptying the 'burbs

During my last stay in India, I saw for the first time several Nanos. They stand out because they are bright, shiny and new. My wife’s son had ordered one a while back but rescinded the order when he found that he would have to wait too long to get delivery. The Nano is not electric, but very small. It was originally envisioned eventually to take the place of the three-wheeled (mostly) yellow, lawnmower engine-driven auto rickshaws. In the meantime other companies have entered the Indian micro automobile market with product - including Ford's Figo.

A side-by-side comparison between battery-powered cars and regular cars would show the scale still tilting in favor of regular cars. Assuming for a moment that the ‘global warming’ argument is still a factor, electric cars would still have to be charged which would require (usually) coal burning electric plants to provide that power. Cars would need to be significantly smaller which would impact safety negatively. Smaller cars might mean making more trips. Accidents involving battery powered cars might require dealing with acid spillage. Disposal of used car batteries might also present a problem. And no one to date - as far as I know - has mentioned how long electric car batteries can be expected to last and what it would cost to replace them. If the Apple iPod series is any clue, replacement may not even be possible.

I suspect there is also something else behind it: ideology. The primary goal of Marxists has always been to establish absolute control. What better way than to decrease the range a government-approved vehicle can travel! The range on a single charge of the hotly-touted GM Volt is said to be 40 miles. That translates into 20 mi. commutes. They’re always talking about depopulating the suburbs and forcing working people back into the cities. The electric car, which may soon become mandatory, might actually accomplish this.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Dilma Rouseff: The Most Powerful Woman in the World

Cathy pines for a forgotten era. It is woman who is now celebrated in all walks of life (except homemaker). Women dominate the political scene. They are heads of corporations and institutions. They are policemen, spokesmen, and Secretaries of State.

Every time a new exciting political star pops up, it is a woman - or so it appears. To me it seems contrived and calculated. Personally, I don’t ascribe to the bias that says women are smarter or more effective than men or vice versa. What is troubling is that we as a nation seem to have reached a consensus that gender affirmative action is the way to go. And I am not a supporter of affirmative action on any level.

My most fervent wish is to be proven wrong about everything. I could turn to reading the liberal blogs, but they are despairing as well (though not for the same reasons). We seem to be caught in an eternal twilight of general nausea. It’s as if the sun has decided to rise only barely above the horizon each day, leaving us in darkness for much of the time.

One of the most significant elections will be taking place in Brazil on October 3rd. Their current president (Luiz Inacio Lula) rose to power on the strength of his effectiveness as a union organizer. His rule can be described as having been center-left. It was significant in that he managed to allow market forces just enough space to breathe to vault the country to the stature of a rapidly emerging global player.

There was always a hint of trouble (for the U.S.) on this horizon however. An avowed leftist, he joined hands with the likes of Chavez, Erdogan and Ahmadinejad. The gap between rich and poor, though improving, continues to be enormous. The well-off in his nation live in constant fear of kidnapping and assassination. Should someone blow out a tire on some lonely road, it’s advised to keep moving rather than get out to change it. Reminds of what I’ve been told about stopping for red traffic lights in Philadelphia at night.

Brazil is under intense development. There is construction everywhere. The money for this has come not so much from taxes as from its abundant natural resources. Cronyism and corruption are suspected to be epic. The new capital (Brasilia/DF) is spacious and impressive. The long-term goal was to create a center where the elites make their homes. As such, those who comprise the service sector are in the process of being quietly moved out to satellite cities where poor-on-poor crime continues to be rampant. Brasilia was envisioned as an international oasis - a hub - for global powerbrokers to strike deals.

The person who is expected to win Brazil’s election is a woman (Dilma Rouseff) who has been carefully groomed by the current president. Though initially trailing in the polls, she has suddenly - some say unexpectedly - emerged as the candidate who will win easily. She is said to be an avowed Leftist and flamethrower. Her magic formula has been simply to say over and over again that she will help the poor. Because she is appears matronly, perhaps, people believe her.

Obama has seen the writing on the wall. He’s been doing everything he can to ingratiate himself with these people. They will not accept his overtures no matter how many concessions he is prepared to grant. They will continue to portray the U.S. as an adversary to rally the home folk; to blame things on when things go wrong. The same is true for dictators all over the world. They can rest easy now, knowing that the piñata has been cracked open; that America will no longer defend itself.

This leaves America’s (former) allies in the lurch. They must now scramble to coalesce around some nation, or band together as a group of the like-mind, that will not shirk the responsibility of fighting to maintain Western ideals. Much more likely though, they will find themselves pressured to abandon their principles in favor of protection.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

The Meaning of 'Destroy'

This backyard exercise by the president reminds me of French film, “Joyeux Noël” (‘05) about the WWI Christmas truce of December 1914, depicted through the eyes of French, Scottish and German soldiers. One minute the adversaries are cowering in trenches, shelling the b’Jesus out of each other; the next, they are singing Christmas songs, drinking and eating together; and, later, burying their dead. It was based on a true story and had a tear-jerker of a plot, showing the futility of war. Naturally, liberals liked it and wondered why the whole world could not be (re)painted in sad and pretty colors.

POTUS is waging a PR blitz throughout the country. People say they like him personally; they just don’t like his policies. This is a cop-out and a win for a president who wants to destroy our nation. It will gain him more time to do it.

Let me just take a moment to define the word ’destroy’. ’Destroy’ in war means killing and breaking things; in politics it means rendering the opposition impotent. It does not mean change, improve, or compromise. It does not mean win-win. It does not mean working together as a unit to make things better for all.

To destroy means tearing down a house for the purpose of building a mosque in its place. Destroyers have no regard for the destroyed. If the destroyed happen to still be alive, their utility is exploited; they are enslaved. My grandfather was a medical doctor in his time. When the Russians killed all others, they spared his life only because they needed his services. He became a slave. Not only black people have had the singular experience of having been slaves.

I have seen enough to know that Obama does not like any part of this country that elected him to the highest office in the land. Perhaps the ultimate fault for this situation - and it is a situation - lies with the people who could not think far enough out of the box to anticipate 9/11. And with those who elected him as a remedy for some unspecified ailment; and he turned out to be poison. We’re like babes in the woods. We haven’t learned yet which mushrooms to pick and which berries; and which ones to leave be. Someone along the way should have taught us what to look out for.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Mick Jagger

Always liked this song. It is often overlooked as it has never appeared on any RS album released in the U.S.

Brief: Hugo Chavez' Election Setback

Boxer will lose because her constituents have finally figured out that she doesn’t have enough brain power to light a match. Obama will lose in 2012 - if we should get that far - because he’s deliberately and calculatingly destructive.

It’s become uncanny the way you can read stories about any one of the world’s dictators these days and substitute Obama’s name. In today’s WSJ for instance, on the opinion page, there’s a story about Hugo Chavez’ recent election setback. This came about despite blatant irregularities that favored the dictator. Still, they say, it won’t really make any difference because Chavez will continue to rule by decree.

It is now entirely possible that the results of our own midterm elections will change exactly nothing.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

They Are Mocking Us

“Stop following me.”

“Stop following me.”

“Go away!”

“Go away!”

“Leave me alone.”

“Leave me alone.”

“Stop hitting me.”

“Stop hitting me.”

“I’m telling Mom.”

“I’m telling Mom.”

Remember when the bully in the schoolyard or an older brother, perhaps, used to do this: repeat everything you said with the smirk of superiority on his face? He was mocking you and you would eventually dissolve into tears. This is exactly what the infantile, bullying Left is doing in response to Glenn Beck’s 8/28 gathering in Washington at the Lincoln Memorial. They are mocking us. They are attempting to diminish the gravity and sacredness of what happened there. They are showing themselves as arrogant, as disrespectful of the genuine impulse that had brought so many people from all over the country together.

Just the other day, they mocked Congress itself by inviting one of their funnymen flamethrowers to discuss a dead-serious subject on Capitol Hill. They’ve been mocking Sarah Palin and the Tea Parties and anyone whom they perceive as a legitimate threat to the continuance of their disastrous policies for as long as I dare to remember. Their attacks on these good people have been constant and merciless

Every word out of the mouth of our historic president is a mockery. He talks about the failure of education, about the failure of the housing market, about the failure of journalism, the auto industry, banking, the military, etc. never mentioning that it was he and his party that were the primary reason for these failures. And to drive the point, he recklessly proposes more of the same. Failure has become the new norm.

He mocks the polls, elections, democratic governance in general. He is mocking us as if he knows enough is in place to deny us the power to affect even an iota of change. He is supremely confident that his Marxist revolution is close to fruition on American soil. If history is any gage, he and his minions will gather on the National Mall and spew anti-American obscenities on this sacred ground.

He is confident that the mosque on Ground Zero will stand to be celebrated throughout the Muslim world on the tenth anniversary of 9/11.

They are mocking us daily. In order to get them to stop, we must think back to the schoolyard and figure out what we eventually did to put the bully his in his place.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Destiny Demands a Decision

In some ways Paul Ryan and pols of any persuasion are like Obama: ideologues. They present themselves as right or left cut-outs and hope to sell it to a multifaceted public. The public resists. It understands the ruse. They ask, "Why should anyone reduce the rich and complex organism of himself (or group) to a formula so simple, so rudimentary, so primitive?

"And if ever the suspicion of his manifold persona should dawn on him… and break through his illusion of the single ideology he espouses, and perceive that every individual self is made up of a bundle of selves and interests, he has only to say so and at once the media puts him to pillory, calls science to aid, establishes the efficacy of padded cells, seeking to protect humanity from the necessity of hearing the truth. Why then waste words on proclamations, plans, pledges, and roadmaps that every thinking man accepts as self-evident, that America totters on the edge of existential threat, when a mere utterance of it is a breach of taste?”

What was true in Hermann Hesse’s day (in italics) is certainly true now. Perhaps even more so. For far too long we have used a shorthand for governance - Republican and Democrat; conservative and liberal; etc - while glossing over the fact that we were spinning the mesh of our web in an increasingly tighter and suffocating weave.

Now we have arrived, at a particularly virulent form of socialism, one that seeks to quash every dare of liberty and we ask ourselves, How has this happened? We were more than willing to entertain strange, even alien, notions. But we did so primarily out of curatorial interest, to be able to wag our fingers and proclaim ourselves better. American exceptionalism was ingrained in us. We never thought there was ever the possibility of letting it slipping away.

Now we find ourselves engaged in a great struggle. It is composed of a myriad of smaller struggles and each skirmish we win produces yet another head - or three. Are we willing to invest everything, or will we accept something as insipid as compromise. It seems to me we’ve been compromising all along. It’s even gone beyond face-saving. We’re into the real stuff now. Destiny demands a decision.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Obama 2; Congress 0

Notch another victory for the Obama administration. Obviously, Congress has become dysfunctional to the point of irrelevance. The ‘change’ that Obama envisioned from the outset not only pertains to our nation’s fiscal health and social cohesion, it also involves our system of governance: elections; our two-party system, the Supreme Court, checks and balances; and all the rest. Clearly, Democrats have been cajoled into rubberstamping the president’s market basket, helping to push through deeply unpopular legislation - some say illegally - thus shattering the nexus between the voter and themselves. Washington is now seen as rogue. Voter view themselves as victims without recourse to traditional means of having a say in how their nation is run. As such Democrats are expected to reap the wrath of the electorate in November.

Republicans fare no better. They were content to stand by and watch Democrats literally hang themselves. Republicans are now eagerly awaiting their 15 minutes of fame in the shadow of the gallows, hoping (as JB suggests) to divide the spoils of majority among themselves. The problem is that there are no longer any spoils to divide. The nation is bankrupt. Republicans have stood by, licking their chops; and watched as America was being depleted of its essence. It now no longer matters who wins in November. A huge Republican landslide can only serve to animate talk TV and radio hosts who will find, as time goes by, that Obama will get his way no matter what; that the moment to actually have done something constructive has long since passed.

In a WSJ opinion piece today, L. Gordon Crovitz writes about Iran’s Ahmadinejad. He might just as well have been writing about Barack Hussein Obama. Crovitz begins: “There have been rogue leaders on the world stage before. In cases such as Hitler, Stalin and Mao, people were shocked to learn they actually meant what they said.“

Crovitz asks the question: “A leader who mocks all questions (and) is thumbing his nose at (the) core beliefs of our era, including that information wants to flow freely, and that no one is above this law of increasing openness - What to do with (such) an information pariah?”

Crovitz concludes: “In today’s world, a leader who consistently mocks, lies, (blame-shifts) and threatens deserves to be set apart. We no longer have the excuse of misunderstanding. We will (only) have ourselves to blame if (he)… achieves his ambition.”

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

There Will Be Blood

Good news? Hardly. The WSJ this weekend pronounced Obama’s economic policies as ‘repudiated‘. The current bone of contention are the Bush tax cuts. Democrat members of Congress see this as yet another nail in their collective coffins. They are attempting to put as much daylight as possibly between themselves and the administration which seems hell-bent to let them expire.

Overlooked by pundits is the fact that Democrats need do nothing to bring this about. The prospect of steep Democrat election losses in November will not change their minds and make them proactive regarding this issue. Indeed, there is no reason to even attempt a move to appease the public. The electorate is not likely to pardon Democrats on the basis of having second thoughts.

If they happen to share Obama’s Marxist ideology, they might attempt to raise taxes even more during the lame duck session. I’m sure there is already a draft to this effect circulating in some arcane committee - a last hurrah; a final poke in the eye of the electorate; a last opportunity to reward fellow travelers; a last supper of pork. The president, of course, would not hesitate to sign on. Why shouldn’t he? He’s been governing against the interests of the people all along. He’s well used to it by now.

You might wonder why any leader would deliberately make himself so desperately unpopular as this president has done? JB is right. Obama no longer speaks with the conviction he has shown in the past. Yet, there is no sign of him reversing course. Jesus too never faltered in His determination to mount Golgotha. He showed weariness; and, at times, His strength left Him, but He was nevertheless determined to fulfill His destiny.

It could just be that Obama (despite his blinding messiah complex) knows that he’s been found out. The happy-face routine has become old and over. For better or worse, he is the one who has been chosen to deliver America to its final resting place. It could be that there remains a smidgeon of regret in his heart.

What many pundits and analysts still fail to understand is that the passage into communism requires a revolution. Revolutions are often bloody, highly unpleasant affairs. It is becoming increasingly apparent that the American people will ‘not go gentle into that good night‘. There will indeed be blood.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Winner Takes Nothing

Like it or not, whatever strides the U.S. has made since WWII has had a tremendous impact on the rest of the world. In every way, America has defined the standard of modernity. Every success, every setback, receives huge coverage in the foreign press. Often our political travails influence the policies set by governments around the globe.

It is normal for us - even regarded as inconsequential - when our political parties bad-mouth each other. Republican administrations are regularly attacked by Democrats who have been known to say anything they think they can get away with. We pretty much expect as much: Bush accused of favoring the rich; Bush labeled as war-monger; Bush blamed for Katrina; Bush blamed for the World Trade Center bombing. We take it all in stride, even if The New York Times, standard bearer for the Democrat Party, presents it as truth and then retracts it on page 47 a month later. Then there is ‘global warming’, a clever send-up to label America as excessively wasteful, even to the detriment of the planet. There’s the perennial issue of the poor, the homeless, the hungry (never mentioned during Democrat administrations) and, now, the overtly greedy that are said to deny the rest of the planet its daily bread.

Every bit of such claptrap originates from within our own borders. We can identify it as an effort to score points against the opposing party. Much of it is eventually discredited as pure rhetoric. But once its out there in print or on the net, others pick it up and build their case against America.

A prevalent notion abroad, for instance, is that America is a racist country. In fact, any opposition to Obama’s policies, for whatever reason, is liberally portrayed as racist sentiment against a black president. The fact that we elected a black president in the first place is conveniently forgotten.

You hear it everywhere - in India, in South America, in Africa - that America is a racist nation. They get it from reading the likes of Paul Krugman and Frank Rich, whose opinion columns are read widely throughout the world. It is only those who have actually traveled and lived here who know that race is not an issue for ordinary Americans; that England and Russia are far worse when it comes to that.

We’ve been accused often enough to understand it’s just a political ploy. We no longer take it seriously and tend to ignore it completely. It’s simply our own political operatives attempting to score points, points that are then picked up overseas to serve more sinister purposes.

It might have been good if we had nipped our tendency for engaging in some of our more extreme rhetoric in the bud sooner. Democrats, now turned Fabian socialists, in particular have succeeded in turning the domestic propaganda wars into a worldwide crusade. What started as domestic political rhetoric has grown hotter and is now threatening to topple the very foundations of our way of life. They have recruited allies among the ranks of our enemies; and, now, we are finding our nation in peril.

To a large extent, what we are experiencing today has been self-inflicted. The poison wells up from within our own institutions which have been infiltrated (by ourselves) and corrupted. Our present troubles are a consequence of our two-party system being at war rather than cooperating. It’s a repeat of Sherman’s (march to the sea) scorched earth policy. Winner takes nothing.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Taking First Aim

China is in the process of consolidating its power in its part of the world just like Iran is doing in the Middle East. China is confident it can get away with this now because it no longer views the U.S. as a credible roadblock. Obama’s foreign policy is seen to be aimless and lacking any and all conviction. Additionally, China feels it holds the trump move (two queens acting simultaneously) in what we regard as this, our interminable chess tournament of nations: the U.S. debt. The newest strategy for success holds that those who control the debt always win. China has situated herself so that she could wreck the U.S. economy with a single word. Obama is well aware of this.

Unappreciated by China, perhaps, is the likelihood that the present U.S. administration does not care in the least about the U.S. economy; that it is possible that it will at some point even goad China into pulling the plug and purposely send our economy into a tailspin, thus removing the debt threat weapon from the board entirely.

Still, for China, it would come out to one and the same: America voluntarily quitting the world stage and leaving China to do what it wants.

It has often been said that familiarity breeds contempt. China and Japan, both intensely nationalistic, will never see eye to eye. There are factions in the Middle East for which this is equally true. Even the European Union will not survive as the big players, Germany and France, will always plot to secure advantage. This truism is so deeply ingrained in the human condition, we even see it played out on the mean streets of American urban centers where black on black crime is rampant.

The tendency to see ourselves - or those who look most like us - as our primary enemy never fails. It comes to the fore particularly in times of social and economic stress. It is always those that most closely resemble us at whom we take first aim; not realizing, perhaps, that we are sticking our fingers into profoundly intimate wounds that have long since bled dry.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Prairie Fires

Oliver Stone views the world through an ideological lens. Boring. Still, it’s instructive. Stone likes Castro, Che, Chavez and Obama. He is telling us exactly who Obama is: an out-and-out communist.

Was gratified today to hear that William Ayers was denied emeritus status by the University of Illinois. Ayers’ bid was blocked by Christopher Kennedy, a son of the late Sen. Robert F Kennedy, a Chicago businessman, who insisted he did not want to honor a man who dedicated one of his books, “Prairie Fire”, to his father’s killer, Sirhan Sirhan. The vote last Thursday by the University’s Board of Trustees was unanimous.

Ayers is said to be close to Barack Hussein Obama. This is just another indication of how far the Democrat Party has drifted to the Ultra Left. When we talk about our country having been taken hostage by the Democrat Party we err. The Democrat Party itself has been taken hostage. It is no longer the Party of the Kennedys, or the Clintons for that matter. (Though Hillary bears watching closely.) It has retained the name ‘Democrat’ and even claims to support such trappings as free and fair elections, checks and balances, and the overall idea of representative government. (Every totalitarian regime does the same to project the illusion of legitimacy.)

The fact is that the Democrat Party of today is a party with all the bells and whistles of Marxism. Whereas Obama may just be a puppet, the amiable, partying, putting face of the party, those pulling the strings are revolutionaries. Their game plan is well underway and they will not rest until every American is enslaved by an uncompromising, unworkable ideology in the rubble of what once was a free and proud nation.

Every Tea Party member understands this on some level. The counterforce is considerable and growing. In fact, going by the numbers alone, it has become overwhelming. Numbers, however, mean nothing to revolutionaries. They will use every means possible to achieve their goals.

We’re in for a rough ride, folks! For those of us who align themselves with the ideals that have made America great in the past, it is apt to become the fight of our lives. Losing is no longer an option.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Rats Fleeing

The departure of key personnel from the White House also marks the abandonment of the last vestige of any relevant metrics with regard to polls, vote count (Rahm and Axelrod), the economy (Summers), the war in Afghanistan (Gates) by which to evaluate the success or failure of the Obama administration. From now on the White House will be operating purely on faith. Faith does not require data, logic or reason as a basis for decision making. All it requires is the blunt outline of an ideology.

This, simply put, means that Obama will likely continue to do what he alone feels is right. He will no longer be required to pay attention to voters’ concerns or to statistics that define traditional economic realities, or actual conditions on foreign battlefields.

This shifts our Republic to an autocracy. If the president, even after elections, refuses to work with Congress, or even bypasses Congress altogether; if he refuses to listen to the wisdom of experts; if he chooses to ignore the complaints of the electorate, then we are all at the mercy of a single, possibly mad, mind.

As Hermann Hesse so eloquently puts it in “Steppenwolf”, his true magnum opus (as opposed to “The Glass Bead Game” which is commonly considered as such), “All interpretation, all psychology, all attempts to make things comprehensible, require a medium of theories, mythologies and lies…”

We now know that Obama is not the 'savior'. He may not even be the smartest among us. To trust any single man to steer our nation of 50 States is pure madness. The one item that was missing from the Republican plan - the most important item - was to immediately initiate impeachment procedures.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Katy Perry on Sesame Street

The Unveiling of America

Some say that the only constant re the human condition is pain. Healthy bodies produce chemicals that shield us from pain. Yet the pain is always there. Strip away our organic defenses against it, and pain slips back out to torture us until we find another veil - usually one of a synthetic nature - that once again makes it bearable enough to ignore.

Then there’s hunger. The veil is nutrition. Some of us have woven it into an art form. The leaders of some African countries use food as a weapon, ripping the veil off their enemies - usually women and children, who are always the first in line to suffer the sins of war - subjecting their bodies to the painful pangs of hunger and eventual death.

Then there’s the ever insatiable sex drive. Muslim societies literally wrap their women in veils (burkahs) in an effort to keep (what they regard as) the wayward impulses of their male population at bay.

The daily struggle for security - to guarantee tomorrow’s meal; tomorrow’s distraction - makes use of money as a veil to ease this constant concern.

Finally, there’s our fear of death that produces acrid toxins in our systems. The veil is religion that promises the after-life - at considerable cost, however; tying us to ritual and overt displays cementing group solidarity, the currency of which being the protocol of exclusion, i.e. we abstain from this, we don’t do that, etc,

All such veils, when stripped away result in pain.

Our current administration is seeking to strip away of our veils - the comfort of our traditions - leaving us vulnerable, bitterly exposed and hurting. (Abu Ghraib, you ain’t seen nothing yet.) It’s an exercise in coercion aimed at getting us to submit unconditionally; to abandon our pearls (before swine) of fair-minded opposition, and feed on our energy; our talents; our wisdom to swell their flawed and undeserving elitist egos. They do it because they think they can.

Time will tell if this unveiling of America will serve to turn us into obedient lap dogs, or cause us to unleash our superior numbers against our tormentors.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

The Final Cut

I, for one, am getting tired of hearing about all the supposed failures - both internationally and domestically - of the Obama administration. We all act as if our present leadership and America are one an the same when, in fact, Obama’s goals and America’s goals are diametrically opposed. We now have a situation in which if America fails, Obama wins and vice versa. No where is this more apparent than in our sudden shift in foreign policy.

Obama's goal, simply put, is to destroy the United States. This is why he pays no head to what Iran is up to in the Middle East and in our own hemisphere. This is why he pays no heed to North Korea and its Chinese puppet masters. This is why he keeps undermining our economy. This is why he is deliberately choking off our energy supply. This is why he refuses to address our immigration problems. This is why everything - our traditional international policy commitments as well as our economy - is falling apart.

Our so-called president has a strategy alright. But it is not a strategy that bodes well for America. He thinks if he destroys America, all our traditional adversaries will fall on their knees before of him and accept him into their fold. It is clear that he considers America to have been an evil influence in this world. By destroying America, he believes, the world will be a place more to his liking and he will be proclaimed universally as hero and savior.

He fails to grasp the fact that no traitor can ever be regarded as a hero; that he will continue to be reviled around the world; that he will spend the rest of his days cloaked in infamy.

He will counter by proclaiming himself to have never been American. Only then he will produce his birth certificate which will show that he was never one of us; that he has always been a foreign agent. This, the world will reject. For every nation will be sucked into the vacuum left by America’s sinking and he will be singularly blamed. Every nation will burn in the chaos of hell caused by America’s drowning and wish for the return of a strong and honorable Atlantis to provide balance in a world torn from its roots and bleeding.

It is up to us to remove him from office before the final curtain falls.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

We Will Soon Find Out

Larry Kudlow seems finally to have understood (by his comment that ‘POTUS will go Left for his new economic team’) that Obama couldn’t care less about the economy. The question remains: How far left will he go? Will he go all the way to spark a communist revolution in this country? I suspect so. What better way to achieve it than to precipitate complete economic collapse?

The price of gold on the upswing is not so much a consequence of gold becoming more valuable. It is rather an indication of the dollar depreciating. Pretty soon we could be taking whole wheelbarrows of money to the supermarket to buy a loaf of bread. Don’t you think this would end in social upheavals of the kind this nation has never seen? Don’t you think that this would pulverize the foundations of every institution in this country, reduce them to dust to be blown away by the wind? POTUS would remain the only functioning authority over the ruin of a once great nation.

When Argentina suffered through its period of severe inflation in which the price of common products rose every day, the people themselves pegged the value of commodities on the value of a gallon of fuel. Money became irrelevant. Gas stations in effect became banks.

‘Growth recession' is an oxymoron. There is either growth, or there is recession. The two terms are mutually exclusive. POTUS himself is the one who continues to talk this nonsense. By it, he hopes to gain time to perfect his economic nuclear program. We’re all slow to figure it out. POTUS is banking on it. The majority of us still refuse to believe that the man we elected president would actually do this to us. Meanwhile, every day our economy wanes. The trigger will activate when the promise of new leadership will release all our pent up demand. By that time the guts of the system will have been so totally wrecked. Stepping on the gas will cause the economic engine to explode. …and then, nothing. The old car will stall, never to move another inch.

Already we see the signs of what’s coming. Investors in large numbers have abandoned stocks. Money and jobs are leaving the country. Bonds are shaky. Real estate is collapsing all around us. The last refuge is gold. What comes after gold? Nobody knows. Chaos, perhaps. The abyss. We’ve never been there before. Increasingly it becomes apparent that we will soon find out.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Running Out The Clock

I don’t believe this president is ‘running out the clock’. Only someone who feels he’s on the ropes will try to run out the clock - the boxer who has lost all confidence that he can defeat his opponent with a single decisive blow. POTUS is not there yet. He still has two more years. He’s done a lot already, perhaps more (legislatively) than any other president in history.

He’s also put in place a mechanism that will make America bleed for years yet to come. He has had to give in a little from time to time - at least verbally - to throw the hounds off his trail. But he will continue to do just what he has set out to do.

Ahmadinejad works the same way, mouthing petty lies now and then as to give the Russians and others cover for continuing to honor their agreements with him - financial, technical and otherwise. We all know he’s lying through his teeth, but it’s enough to placate those who are desperate to believe in the essential goodness of evil men.

In the meantime, the clock is running unimpeded, allowing the Hitler of Iran to have his nuclear arsenal and Obama his re-making of America into a Marxist Utopia.

The reason Obama has lost his magic is because he knows that a growing number of people have become dead certain of what it is he is doing. With each apparent capitulation, his argument grows weaker in the face of what’s continues to happen.

Summers and others are gone because they too have figured it out. There’s no chance of Obama’s policies working. There’s no chance of better times returning without changing course - ...unless, of course, the president intends exactly what is happening.

The media focuses on Velma Hart as someone capable of articulating exactly what it is that has America‘s panties in a knot. She is a rabid supporter of the Obama fiction and even she has doubts.

No doubt, the media want’s Obama to change course. They can see that what this administration has put in place has not worked. Their distaste of Republicans trumps all, however. They will never support Republicans. They need Obama to change course; adopt Republican policies if need be. Even this they can handle, like counting Iraq as one of Obama’s foreign policy successes, or counting ‘jobs saved’ as his domestic triumph.

Unlike Obama, The New York Times is not necessarily unpatriotic. It is simply pro-Democrat. It defines their hopelessly entrenched tradition. They would rather go out of print than portray Obama for what he truly is. Like Obama, they will double down when push comes to shove, even while precariously perched on a knife’s edge.

I realize that, like any man of a single physical body, Obama's personality oscillates between infinite poles. I realize it is simplistic - moronic even - to ascribe a single motive to any living man. I draw my conclusions (wrongly perhaps) from what I see. America is waning under this president, whatever the reason. To deny this is no reflection on Obama, perhaps; but it is a fact. Neither will Obama’s eventual electoral defeat solve the problem. This hydra has many heads, many of which combine to define very an essence within every living American soul. Even the most virtuous among us is afflicted. And it is there that we must ultimately find the cure.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Impeach the President

There are two reasons for why Obama won’t extend the Bush tax cuts: one is Bush, the other is ‘tax cuts’. Obama’s sole support came from those opposing Bush. He’s already had to swallow hard and continue some of Bush’s signature policies, especially in foreign affairs. This has already eroded his base of support significantly. Then there are those who have changed their minds about Obama in general. It is fair to say that Obama has very little support from the electorate overall. Caving on the issue of extending the Bush tax cuts will surely erode his base even further, though it is difficult to see how this is even possible at this point.

Two, if, as I have come to believe, that it is Obama’s intent to implode our economy, it would be silly of him to extend the Bush tax cuts. Doing so, would only serve to stimulate the economy.

POTUS may know that even if the economy were going full tilt by the time 2012 rolls around, he would still not be re-elected. In short, he has nothing to lose but his ideological principles. As far as the electorate is concerned, POTUS is dead meat no matter what he does.

I still say, his next target will be our electoral system. Without it, he is free do what he wants, whenever he wants to do it. He’s practically there now with his army of czars and regulators and left-wing judges. The window is closing fast on all those who still maintain that Barack Hussein Obama wants to do us no harm. The only way out for Republicans is to impeach the president as soon as possible.

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Richie Havens

Monty Python And the Holy Grail

I discovered this gem 10 years late. The kids were already old enough to watch and understand movies. We saw this one over and over again and we laughed every time. Even when not watching it, we had come to know the script by heart and acted it out precisely. “Bring out your dead!” was one of our favorite parts to reenact.

Those were innocent days. Or so it seemed. Our future still lay ahead of us. Even with all the political drama raging all around us, we felt somehow secure, ensconced in the apparently limitless American dream. We felt we could forge ahead as long as the government kept foreign threats from materializing into something that could hurt us. There was no question that our government was up to the job.

We had jobs. We went to work every day. We could even afford to be choosey. Say, we didn’t like what we were doing, we could always go and do something else. The kids did their homework with pencil and paper. …or else they read history texts with a picture of George Washington on the cover.

We would never have guessed that it would all fall apart under a church-going, half-white, half-black president who would turn all black the minute he took office.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Puppet Show

Lady Gaga and POTUS are twins separated at birth. Both are pure media creations - holograms. Nobody in their right mind would admit to being a fan. It’s all smoke and mirrors for the gullible; the mind-numbed; the disturbed.

There is no substance here. To pretend otherwise is delusional. The support is virtual, as are the crowds. Nobody is fooled - only the spin machine has gone into overdrive and has devolved into chasing its own tail.

The worst that can happen to anyone is to believe in one’s own spin. Eventually one trails off into madness - a state where nothing fits anymore. Iran has already gone that way. China is on its way; and America is going there fast.

This is what following the money has brought us: the belief that one can buy anything - even public office. The lesson learned should be taken from the story of Judas Iscariot. Forty coins were said to have put the machinery in motion that established a new religion. Those same forty coins amounted to the price of a potter’s field. It’s absurd to equate the two on the basis of value. Equally absurd is to consider the Gaga twins and pronounce them a trend. The trend would exist whether the flotsam twins were here or not. Puppets are interchangeable. The progression - sometimes slow; sometimes fast - of history is not.

We can only hold on to the faith that everything balances out in the end; that everything is self-correcting. America, to the extent that she has sinned, will suffer. I don’t think it will be as bad as some make it out to be. I also believe that America will find her way.

America will not remain forever distracted by the Kasperliteater that’s been set up in the market square while anarchists remain active on the perimeter, pouring accelerant on buildings.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Petraeus: Between A Rock And...

Gen. Petraeus is between a rock and a hard place. He’s been given a job in which the only outcome can be failure. He is aware of that. The soldier in him would never allow him to say so publicly.

POTUS knows it too. He is quite prepared to sacrifice Petraeus when things begin to go come apart. By sacrificing Petraeus, he also sacrifices the military - a win-win for Obama: two birds with one stone.

POTUS has no intention in winning abroad. His only interest is in winning at home. Some would call it ‘failing’ To Obama, however, failure is a win. That is why Petaeus and Obama will never see eye to eye. They don’t speak the same language.

Petraeus is a patriot; Obama isn’t. Nothing more need be said.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

The Big Tent

There’s a lot to hate about Republicans. They allowed this whole Clinton-Obama cabal to happen, all the while claiming to have answers. How are we to trust them in leadership positions? Answer: We can’t.

Unfortunately, at the moment, the Republican political machine is all we have to counter Democrats. Whereas Batchelor’s disgust for Republicans is entirely justified, it is also somewhat of a meaningless indulgence on his part. His satire, ridicule and wit would be more properly directed at Democrats. In Batchelor’s world, Democrats come off scot-free. I suppose he considers them to be like bears, and simply accepts what bears do (in the woods or otherwise).

Batchelor is only partially right about one thing though. Republicans are by nature subservient; it‘s true. Batchelor goes wrong, however, when he cites Republicans’ greatest sin as being subservient to their creaky old leadership. It’s actually far worse than that: Republicans, even when in power, are subservient to Democrats. Republicans whine and moan, and compromise endlessly. This is the main reason why we have ultimately come to this sad point in our history.

Democrats, turned rabid Marxists, now control the levers of power. They will do things simply because they can. Republicans are running around yapping. We, the people know that this can’t go on.

They (Democrats) have the guns; we have stones. We will not throw them. They don’t need to fire. They know our weakness: We will castigate our own before standing up for what is right.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

The Man On the Moon

Normally, we can predict things only on the basis of what has already happened. Since, with Obama's election, we entered into a new paradigm, long range predictions are impossible. No doubt, Republicans are set to win big on November 2nd. What happens afterwards, however, is entirely up in the air.

Here’s what we do know will happen: Republicans will indeed be judged by very strict standards. Just one child going hungry anywhere in America will be found and hung around Republican's necks (even if all the others are well-fed to the point of obesity). Republicans will be paraded endlessly with this single hapless child around their collective necks in every public square and forum. If, on the other hand, Democrats should continue with their majorities as before, any increase in the nation's poverty rate will be utterly ignored by the press.

Democrats adhere to no standards. They do not allow themselves to be judged. The press will never judge them as they are considered kissing cousins.

I'm afraid our steady advance towards the abyss will not stop or reverse under Republican rule. It can only slow as Republicans are always ready to compromise by at least half. Incest has always been a powerful player in Washington/DC. In this way, we cannot avoid reaching the wall.

When there’s no other way out, usually a war comes along to sort everything out. Think of a pressure cooker. The steam at present is quite sufficient to satisfy several meal tickets. It is not yet enough to blow the kettle sky-high. Two more years of Obama should do the trick. We may yet be able to put that man on the moon after all.

http://peterkoelliker.blogspot.com/
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Hanging Chads

On the other hand, gridlock is the only real remedy left to us. It’s the price we, the bourgeoisie, must pay after we have allowed our government to go rouge. “…the bourgeois treasures nothing more highly…than a quiet mind which he prefers to being possessed by God, as he prefers comfort to pleasure, convenience to liberty… The bourgeois is by nature a creature of weak impulses, anxious, fearful…and easy to rule. Therefore, he has substituted majority for power, law for force, and the polling booth for responsibility.”

Unfortunately, as I see it, such half measures will not be enough to remove the leftists from power. They have studied us as we are only now beginning to study them. They know our weaknesses better than we know them ourselves. They know exactly what moves we will make; how we will react to provocation and such. They’ve got it all planned out: a bomb here, shortages there, a racial incident…

Leftists will write the operatic score and the media will play it over and over again. We will be tempted to puncture our own eardrums just to make it stop.

Unless we can convince them that we too are a power to be reckoned with; that we can think outside the box; innovate; surprise; ambush; strike …and then melt back into ominous shadows, they’ll walk all over us. Look at New York’s primary election fiasco; look at Philadelphia, Chicago… Look what they’re doing with the votes of those serving overseas! With today’s Justice Department being what it is, who is there to complain to. And, as I’ve said before, what does Congress matter anyway when the president holds the veto pen in one hand and executive privilege in the other?
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Italics loosely translated from Hermann Hesse’s “Steppenwolf” to fit.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Enter Stage Right

What is becoming clearer with each passing day is that the electorate has had enough. Their wrath is primarily aimed at Democrats. Nor are Republicans immune. Republicans are blamed for allowing it to happen.

The major media seems astounded at Tea Party successes around the country. They’re giddy in the hope that it will hurt Republicans. They do not see that the whole country has turned primarily against Democrats. They only see the cracks appearing within the Republican establishment, which they then translate into gains for Democrats.

They do not yet understand that there is a third way. It would mean clearing the tables of all incumbents, and starting over. Party no longer has meaning for most Americans.

The constituency is already here, suited up with bells and whistles, all ready to go. All they’re waiting for is someone to believe in. Perhaps, as with initial incident reports, the first three candidates are always wrong. Can we count Obama as the first; Palin as second? The next to enter from stage right should be the one.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Steppenwolf

Charlie Rangel had clear sailing in the age we have yet to name. “When we’re talking about the horrors of the Middle Ages, for example; we must remember that these so-called ‘horrors’ are usually overblown. A man of the Middle Ages would find our modern age far more detestable, far more horrible and cruel, far more barbarous than his own. Every age, every culture, every custom and tradition has its own character, its own weakness and its own strength, its beauties and cruelties; it accepts certain sufferings as matters of course and puts up patiently with certain evils.

"Human life is reduced to real suffering - to hell - only when two ages, two cultures and religions overlap. A man of the classical age who had to live in medieval times would suffocate; just as a savage would in the midst of modernity.

"Now there are times when whole generations are caught on the cusp between two ages - between two modes of living - and thus lose a feeling for themselves, for what is self-evident… Charlie's habitual corruption for instance.

"Naturally, not everyone feels the turmoil of upheaval equally strongly, or even within the established framework of the age. A nature such as Nietzsche’s had to suffer his nation’s travail a generation in advance." Rangel, on the other hand, rode the wave comfortably all the way as it was cresting.
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Italics loosely translated from Hermann Hesse’s ’Steppenwolf’.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Bashing the Tea Parties

Another day, another swipe at the Tea Parties to build up your lib creds - just in case the power of legitimized corruption wins this round. It’s easy to swipe at Tea Parties - just like it was easy to swipe at Bush. There is literally no down-side. You’re practically guaranteed a ring-side seat while Mom & Pop America are being drawn-and-quartered publicly.

I didn’t even want to reply to this one. I don’t think it deserves a reply. Like I said, it’s too easy and not worthy of your talents - which may well be considerable. Besides, it’s not true. And, oh yeah, you’ll get your 30-40 comments. Whoopee! Much more of this and the JBS website will begin to approximate tumbleweeds; crickets and The New York Times.

You’re right, of course: I had a tough time explaining Tea Parties to Raman over coffee last week. I’m not sure I was able to convince him. He didn’t believe me about POTUS either. Why should he? All the Americans over here are big time libs; the papers are communist; the mayor’s name is Stalin. The principal meeting place is the Russian Cultural Center. The American Consulate is a fortress. I’m lucky Ram didn’t strike me from the mailing list.

No downside should the Tea Parties win out either. You know very well they’re not about reparations or revenge. And that, admittedly, may be a failing. A little fright night thrown into the mix wouldn’t hurt at this point.

Nothing like if the ACORN types should win out in the end. Or Erdogan. Or that little Hitler in your ancestral place. They’d surely see to it that you and me, along with everybody else, 'd have our asses in a sling. Like if the Palestinians should prevail over Israel; or AQ over everybody too fat to wear a belt.

What’s got you so upset at the Tea Parties anyway? Is it because you think that because of their civilized ways they can’t win? This could be true - but still, siding with the likely winners of this contest is not a principled stand. Remind that principle is all that some of us got left in this country.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

We Have To Pretend...

What’s disturbing is that we’re still in Afghanistan. Our government is running this show. Who knows why? Despite the media’s best effort to put 9/11 on the backburner, it keeps mutating - popping up in most surprising guises. The latest happens to be that pesky mosque our government wants to build in conjunction with Islam near our sacred Ground Zero burial site. This pits our people against the government which seemingly has aligned itself with our self-proclaimed enemy.

Who would have foreseen this twist back in 2001? You really can’t make this stuff up. When the Towers fell, we are told, we had the full support of the world. When Bush came to office he inherited a surplus. Everything that was good, we are told, was squandered by Bush. History started and ended with Bush. Now, poor Obama, our historic messiah is simply trying to put things right.

In order to do this we have to roll back time. We have to pretend 9/11 never happened. We have to pretend that Muslims don’t hate us. We have to pretend that they won’t fight to the last man to get us to submit (to sharia). We have to pretend that they wouldn’t murder every last Jew if given even half the chance. We have to pretend we’re unified. We have to pretend the opposition - defined as anyone criticizing Obama’s policies - has had its tongue cut out; that the noise it generates is mere gibberish. We have to pretend that our president is not a Muslim. We have to pretend that he doesn‘t want to change us fundamentally into some version of Satan. We have to pretend we’re continuing to fight an inherited war without strategy, without history, without reason. (Note: This last point could be true.)

We have to pretend we’re not simply going through the motions of governing. We have to pretend we’re fighting a war we are winning. We have to pretend that we are not the enemy. We have to pretend we are not doing our damnest to destroy the dollar. We have to pretend that the doors to the Trojan horse we dragged into our courtyard have yet to open.

With all we are asked to believe (that goes against everything we know to be true), what are we going to tell the Taliban that will change their precious hearts and minds?

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

The Worm Has Turned

Conventional wisdom has it that every election hinges on pocketbook issues. The standard measure of a party on Election Day has always been JOBS. Since Obama’s election the worm has turned. Midterm elections will be primarily about Islam.

With the benefit of hindsight, we now know that 9/11 was a watershed moment in modern American history. It began a cascade of events that gave us our first Muslim(-leaning) president.

Obama’s views on how our nation should be run are more in accordance with shariah than what has come to be known as American tradition. The people of America have figured it out. At this point, the economy could do a completer turn-around between now and election day, and Democrats would still be defeated because the electorate views it as a referendum on Obama’s term in office.

The mosque controversy in New York and the holy book burning talk have served to focus attention on our government’s inability to handle the Islamic threat. Existential threats trump pocketbook issues. And while Islam’s belligerent and insulting behavior toward us is routinely ignored by our leadership, it is not lost on the people. They are beginning to demand that we pull up our socks and handle it.

Preaching tolerance and turning the other cheek has been deemed a failure. Also, increasingly, we see our enemy gaining strength. Iran is about to go nuclear. Our nation’s policy of ’changing hearts and minds’ has not worked.

It’s now coming down to the wire. We’ve run out of time. We need to hold moderate Muslims responsible for their silence. A society can be broken, but will never change, when pushed from the outside. Change must come from within. We need to get (what we are told is the great majority of moderate) Muslims to root out and turn against extremism within their ranks. Up till now they’ve been perfectly happy to go along with it. We need to incentivize them to do otherwise.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Tim Hardin

A haunting classic.

Throwing In the Towel

I see JB is wisely avoiding the subject that’s surely on everybody’s mind. These people should not be receiving all this press attention. I understand the entire congregation could fit into a single bus with room to spare.

One can look at it in one of two ways: (1) Someone is finally taking a stand against those pointing guns to our heads. Make no mistake, these are terrorists. They want their will imposed on us. “You do this,” they say, “and we will do whatever …kill your wives and children.” They’re now getting away with making terrorist threats. The next step will be, “If you refuse to build our mosque near ‘Ground Zero‘, we will view it as an attack against Islam and do whatever …kill your wives and children.” Oh wait, it’s already been said.

And so it’ll go on. We’ve already demonstrated our willingness to capitulate - to throw in the towel. When one of our allies was attacked on the high seas by North Korea, we did nothing about it. When Israel is threatened we do not counter that threat. In fact, we join in and pile on.

Or, (2) we can continue to ignore the issue of our seemingly limitless cowardice. We can ignore what’s happening along our southern border; we can ignore clearly stated existential threats; we can ignore our own laws to accommodate certain privileged classes; we can ignore gross fiscal mismanagement; we can ignore corruption; we can ignore or even outlaw opposing views. We can simply pretend that all is well; that everything could be far worse.

What is the media’s obsession with this preacher? Is it to deliberately stir up trouble - to incite? Is it to prove to the world that America has fallen to its knees and can‘t get up? Is it to crucify the last man who will stand up publicly and defend his nation?

They say uncertainty is our enemy. It is because of uncertainty that our economy is failing. I have a solution: Let’s pass a law against Koran burning; let’s pass a law against smoking and drinking; let’s tear down our churches and banks and build mosques in their places; let’s legalize the stoning of women for any reason any man might come up with; let’s make women wear burkahs; let’s lash them if they dare show an ankle; let’s ban girls from schools; let’s approve of throwing acid in faces that are judged too pretty; let’s ban music, radio, and TV; instead, let’s hold public hangings, lashings, stonings on the Village Green on Sunday afternoons and let’s make attendance to such events mandatory.

In this way we can wipe out uncertainty. And we won’t have to worry about the markets because we will have banned money as well.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Unpopular

Unpopular? Hardly. Bush was unpopular; so was Nixon. Obama is way beyond ‘unpopular’. Obama is a menace.

Obama need not rally his troops for the midterms. They’ll understand why he’s saying what he’s saying. They understand that he needs to convince whoever’s in the middle that he’s not Left. They understand that without the middle, their cause is lost.

In the time he’s been in office, Obama has clearly demonstrated where he stands. He’ll say that his work is not yet finished; that once it is, people will see the difference. We see the difference already. We see that the way to the bottom is infinite. We could get to be like some nation in Africa, always at war, no food, organized slaughter and rape, escalating to periodic genocide. So much for the noble savage - and yet, the salt of the earth everywhere is innocent. Leadership makes all the difference.

Yes, there’s still a ways to go till we reach that bottom from which other bottoms may look like tops, but we’re dropping awfully fast. Maybe in two years time we can claim sister cities in Somalia.

I think people know what’s at stake. The polls pretty much confirm it. When even major media says that the Dems are in trouble, it must look really bad for them. Congressional approval numbers hover around 11. I’d say, subtract 10. The people know what’s going down.

Obama can be expected to do a lot of talking in the next couple of weeks. Was Rahm pushed or did he flee? He’ll likely not be mayor of Chicago either. Guilt by association. All Democrats suffer from it - even that nut job, Grayson from Florida.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Straw Dogs

What must be kept in mind is that what Obama says and what he does are two different things. In this way he resembles Ahmadinejad (who, by the way, shares the same country of birth with Valerie Jarrett). He even says one thing to one group and something else to another.

Obama knows that saying something positive about business, for instance, will get picked up and be blown out of proportion by the press to give the impression that a major new initiative is in the offing. This then serves to call off the dogs for a while in which time Obama/Ahmadinejad continue to do exactly as they want.

We all know very well what Obama/Ahmadinejad want. We just don’t want to believe it. We will literally grasp at straws to keep from believing it. And Obama/Ahmadinejad are well acquainted with straw, and the dogs they continue to fashion with it.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/
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Since people have asked, the above scene in the header represents the Shore Temple in Mamallapuram (formerly Mahabalipuram) in South India. It is the only temple of its kind remaining, a number of others having been claimed by the sea. It is a mere 50 km from where I sit in the hub of an extremely busy urban environment. We escape to there often on weekends, simply to chill.

Too Many Hands Demand Greasing

Lou is not entirely wrong. He never is. Government Health Care as was proposed in the bill that was passed last term won’t work. It was never meant to work. It was to do two things only: (1) to project a show of political strength in an area that had never before been breached; and (2) to throw the entire system into a conniption à la Cloward and Piven.

That is why nobody who voted for it knew the least thing about it. The project was simply handed off to people who are well versed in the politics of confusion and disruption: the Apollo Alliance under the auspices of the Tides Center.

All lawmakers needed to know was that the project was in good, like-minded, left-leaning hands. The rest were strong-armed by party loyalty and procedure. The only defense available to them now is that they were naive and swayed by simple-minded rhetoric. We don’t need naïve lawmakers representing us. They will be removed.

Chennai has become the medical tourist capital of India. Any medical procedure, performed entirely in accordance with Western standards, can be had here for roughly 1/10 of what it would cost in America. This would also include round-trip airfare.

In my own case, I would need two sinus lifts, two bone grafts, two tooth implants and two crowns. All this would come to less than $2000.-. The reason is that here providers must vigorously compete. The business is entirely cash and carry. No interference from insurance companies, trial lawyers, and government red tape. It could be done so in America as well. It’s just that in America just too many hands demand greasing.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Fear Is A Cage

Monday night, Labor Day, my brother went to get some Chinese take-out near where he lives not far from Princeton. He was brutally attacked by a group of (non-English speaking) under-age marauders. Fortunately, someone must have called the cops who arrived within minutes. Nevertheless, he suffered a black eye as well as a broken nose.

I am reminded of the beating death of the unsuspecting Dabbawalla dishwasher in Summit a couple of months back. And also of the numerous attacks on Hispanic men over in Staten Island (11 by last count) where the Mexican authorities have since become involved. And also the attack on the Indian professor (I forget where) in South Jersey. The MO is always the same: the victim’s head is targeted for punishment. Often one of the gang video tapes the assault.

My brother is the gentlest, most unassuming person you’d ever want to meet. He’s the last one to pick a fight in any situation. This was a random thrill attack if there ever was one. Our social fabric is tearing apart.

Why are these things this happening…? I ask myself. What is there to be gained? Plenty! Random attacks on citizens destabilize society. Random attacks give targeted attacks cover. Chaos is also something that is desired by some. The legal system is fully primed to lean over backwards to accommodate criminal activity. Our Justice Department has made it clear that certain minorities are exempt from prosecution for certain crimes. At the same time, our southern border remains wide open.

So, what would anyone expect? Islam and Black Liberation Theology are the religions of the poor. Therefore, whatever anyone does in their name is protected. The double standard has been duly noted and legitimized at the highest levels of our hierarchical social structure.

It is not against current law to burn a Koran or piss on a cross. It is still against our law, however, to assault or murder innocents. Fear is a cage. The law is a carefully braided rope. Why do we use it to hang ourselves, when we could be using it to set ourselves free.

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The Incredible String Band

God bless the internet that preserves some of these nuggets for posterity. Where did they go? The String Band. I remember back in college they had quite an enthusiastic following. Then, along with "Pearls Before Swine" and so many others, they just up and disappeared.

Meet The New Boss; Same As The Old Boss

We tend to measure history in segments - epochs; eras; ages; periods - each, distinct in the metrics it generated. We tend to assign specific dates to these. Though, it is doubtful that people living at the time of the change(-over) fully appreciated that the old was being shunted aside and a new was just beginning.

Most people are simply riding a wave. As they are riding along with it, they are unaware that the wave is moving. It is up to historians to look back and see that the wave has indeed moved and how the shoreline was altered by it.

When future historians look back on us they will mark Barack Hussein Obama’s election as the end of an era and the beginning of a new one. When we cast our ballots in ‘08, few of us realized just how much was at stake. Historians will mark that election day in November as the beginning of America’s sudden and stunning decline; as, up until then, America had been the most influential nation among nations. It would soon become clear that America was no longer prepared to protect its interests or borders. This seemingly voluntary draw-down would reverberate around the world. We don’t know yet for sure, but one direct consequence of this particular American election might yet lead to WWIII - a war we would likely lose and make us subservient to an alien culture.

The wave of promises that hoisted the banner of the Obamanation over the land would prove to be illusory. Disappointment, culminating in unrest, would provide the opening for a heretofore hidden agenda to be implemented - one, that no American in his right mind would have voted for had he kept himself informed.

Obama and the media are still lying. They’re still promising the metrics of traditional American prosperity. When in fact they should be saying distinctly for all to hear, ‘We are working hard to make every American a ward of the State. Everyone will be adequately provided for according to his or her need. Everyone will be expected to contribute according to his or her ability. Everyone will be equal, (except some will be more equal than others). Shariah will constitute the law of the land.’

Sound extreme? I don’t think so. Take the time to attend some classes at your local college or university. Go out and see a movie. Read the newspaper once in a while and see what’s happening. Go to church on Sunday. Listen to modern pop songs; listen to Spanish language radio stations or to those that play rap songs that cater to blacks. Know what passes itself off as mainstream these days.

It’s not enough to keep the dial glued to conservative talk radio - or even NPR. There’s a wave gathering out there that demands a chicken for every pot and a car for every garage once ‘THE (ubiquitous) MAN’ has been defeated. POTUS knows this. He is riding the wave, securely tucked in its curl. The wave cannot be stopped by logic or simple political calculation. In the absence of a similar wave generated to counter it, it will rush forward, never stopping until it has reached the ends of the earth.

What nobody seems to get is that 'THE (defeated) MAN' will have been dragged out to sea by sheer exhaustion; that it is always easier to topple than to build and maintain; that 'THE (new and improved) MAN' will again come from men; and that again no one (but a few) will be happy with the new arrangement.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

An American Quilt

Most pundits still treat the November midterms as any other similar election cycle; when, in fact, previous metrics are no longer relevant. The November midterms will not hinge on anything as flimsy as accusations of scandal. In normal times, scandal, smear, and innuendo even, could turn elections - as could race, looks and/or a glamorous trophy wife, cute kids and a dog. November will bring on recycling day in America, when we put all our stuff considered crap out to the curb. Inventory will have been very carefully taken.

To appreciate the difference this time around you only need look at the media. Nobody is paying much attention to the media anymore. In fact, major media endorsements - like POTUS himself - have become a liability. People will read fawning puff pieces in the NYT about the vaunted Cuomo legacy, for instance; and that will be enough for people to vote against square-jawed Andrew (formerly of HUD). Similarly, they will read scathing attacks on Tea Party candidates in the same elitist, left-leaning, partisan rags; and that will be enough to make up their minds.

Scandals are no longer to be believed. These are seen as petty smear contrivances that are usually effective only against Republicans. We are now in a post-partisan phase. The ‘anybody but Bush’ crowd has been swept aside and replaced with ‘anybody but Obama’ types. The media will do its best to paint both as one and the same.

Strangely enough, the country is now as unified as it ever was. It has become accepted that Obama occupies the extreme fringe of our American quilt. The people will not rest until this fringe is severed from power. The anti-Bush mania was only a warm-up; a dry-run based on late night frivolity. This time it’s serious, however. The question remains: Will normal methods suffice in abnormal times?

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/