Howie Day

Heard this today while making dinner.

Traipsing Around In The Hallway

There have been other instances when we first sent in ‘advisors’; then we armed our preferred side; then we provided air support; and, finally, we put American boots on the ground. It did not end well. You’d think we would learn. But aren’t we starting the same cycle all over again in Libya?

There was a time when we went all out in support of the notion that we are killing our planet, based on ‘irrefutable’ scientific evidence, graphs and projections - which were then proven to have been manufactured for political advantage. Yet, we are still operating on the original premise and demanding wholesale changes in the way that we live.

There was a time when Keynesian economics was the talk of the town. It dictated hiking Federal spending in order to increase prosperity and jobs. We were told that that economic activity increases by $2 for every dollar spent on unemployment insurance, and the like. We were told, we had at last discovered the golden goose; we had invented a perpetual motion mechanism that would spew greenbacks forever. Two for one. The more unemployed, the better for our economy… It’s not working.

The result of all these things should have been foreseen by those who promoted such policies. They should have known that it wouldn’t end well. These are the brightest among us, after all. If they don’t know, how should we with our mere high school education and a couple of college credits in basket weaving?

I maintain they did know – maybe not the first time it was tried, but certainly the second and third. And here we’re repeating all the same mistakes over again. Why?

Isn’t it obvious? Redistribution of wealth. It’s a core belief among those now in power that this must absolutely be done. They know the people bought it the first time around. And they know the people will buy it again: all the same promises; all the same lies. And then, when they figure out it’s not working, we’ll simply say, “Oops!” And they’ll assume we noticed our mistake and will correct it. This will give us time to do it again. And, again, we'll say, “Oops!” And “Oops!” it is until they’re ready to revolt, but by then it’s too late. They will have been bled of all their power to seriously resist.

Why Libya? It’s the same principle that applies: “Oops!” and “Oops!” again, until our precious army has been discredited beyond redemption. With the economy in tatters; Congress in tatters; the military in tatters, America’s enemies will have won. That’s when we’ll get Israel!

Don Trump has been getting a lot of press attention for keeping Obama’s birth certificate controversy alive. He himself is not exactly strident about it, knowing it’s become the third rail of American politics …and he does want to be president. It does give an opening, however, to those who want to keep the issue going. Why is it an issue in the first place?

Carter made a lot of mistakes, both in foreign policy as well as domestic. These can be filed away as teachable moments for future American presidents. These were teachable moments too for America’s enemies.

The law draws a distinction between someone falling asleep while smoking a cigarette in bed and someone deliberately pouring gas into the stairwell of a building and setting it on fire. Granted, the end result is the same.

Obama has been in office long enough for us to question his motives. As such, it is logical for us to question which team he’s actually playing on. His birth certificate would provide a clue; as would his school records. The fact that these are unavailable to us just goes to intensify our suspicions. Obama’s reluctance to provide this evidence is an indication of something being seriously amiss: Someone has been, or is about to be, snookered.

At the very least, we would find out if our president is merely a guy with a cigarette, or the guy with the red 5 gallon can, traipsing around in the hallway.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Kim Carnes

Montage missing my fav BD movie: "What Ever Happened To Baby Jane?"

Looking Beyond Corpses

Broadly speaking, there are four groups that are currently trying to overthrow the United States: anarchists, communists, Islamists and opportunists. Anarchists are in it just to wreak havoc; communists harbor an ideology that borders on religious fanaticism; ditto, Islamists; and, finally, opportunists, those who seek maximum profit for themselves in the wake of upheaval. The latter can be compared to those who during past wars haunted battlefields, looking for corpses from which to extract dental work.

All four have united and are waging war against the rest of us. While anarchists and Islamists still hide their faces, the other two have revealed themselves fully. They no longer feel the need to hide their intent. It’s just that we do not believe them. We do not believe that anything could possibly pose an existential threat to the country we hold dear. And, for the time being, they are right to exploit our willful – almost child-like - ignorance to their advantage.

All the important thresholds have already been crossed. We’ve crossed the threshold of ‘how bad can it get’ and accepted ‘new norms’. We’ve accepted the public media lynching of upstanding citizens. We’ve accepted turning our backs on faithful allies. We have discounted the importance family, religion and work. We’ve stood by while our system of education teeters on the brink of total failure. We’ve watched as our investments as well as our currency continue to operate on life support.

The next step, most would now agree, is collapse. And we are compelled to ask the question: “How do we protect ourselves?”

This question is key. It points the way to what we can expect afterwards. The word “protect” is telling. Already, ads responding to this very concept abound: buy gold; buy food (food storage); protect your computer; protect your identity; your health; etc. The protection rackets (opportunists) are already out in force. They signal collapse. What they don’t tell us is what will come after, when none will be left standing, when the rules totally change and revert back to basics: faith, family and the overwhelming desire to rebuild.

Rebuilding is embedded in our DNA - like language. Strength of character and goodness cannot be erased. Neither will talent, and a willingness to overcome adversity. Together we will build ourselves up and even surpass heights previously achieved - because that’s who we are.

Some say I’m a pessimist. I am not. I believe that goodness will triumph over evil every time. I believe the pendulum will continue to swing. Take heart, we’re about to reverse course.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Political Pornography

In our nation, where everything to the right of extreme is labeled ‘extreme’, everything I have written on these pages is considered ‘extreme’. Simply stating a point of fact – that we are going broke – is now ‘extreme’. Stating that we are now providing air cover for AQ in Libya is ‘extreme’ as is criticizing our active support of terrorist Palestinian groups.

As such, any middle ground with regard to any issue has effectively given way. ‘It’s my way or the highway’ appears to be the rallying cry of the hard Left. They will not be satisfied until every one of their demands has been met. No wonder that they have found allies among Islamists whose uncompromising methods closely mirror their own.

I have tried to go beyond surface talking points which, taken individually, are often misleading. I have tried to project the extreme positions which we are asked to accept into what is likely to come after. Not many yet realize fully what a wholesale shift in values would actually entail; how it would affect the lives of individuals; that a fundamental emphasis away from honest work to protection would degrade our nation to the lowest common denominator.

A coalition of (albeit fickle) malcontents seems to have assumed a majority. Whether the numbers are real or not, the perception of this phantom majority nevertheless holds sway as exhibited by our leadership which appears not inclined to change course. If, as polls now indicate, a true majority has indeed had a belly full and changed its positions, it has had no impact on governance in general. The present administration has displayed no willingness to address a growing chorus of concerns. To some, this has brought the Obama administration to the brink of (il)legitimacy.

Yet, there appears to be no one to turn to. We see ourselves as locked into four-year cycles. With the flagrant politicization of virtually every official and non-official institution - primarily media and justice - our hands are tied.

I note that inside virtually every publicly accessible establishment in our New York Metropolitan area that boasts of having TV screens – hospitals, airports, bars, restaurants and the like – these are invariably tuned to CNN or MSNBC. I have yet to see one of these tuned to the FOX channel. There seems to be a common understanding that FOX is somehow biased and ‘extreme’ – even dirty or uncivilized – and offensive to the public at large, almost like pornography. Michael Savage’s intro to his radio program contains the phrase ‘psychological nudity’. He’s doing it tongue-in-cheek, no doubt. But the libs use it as a springboard.

Also of note is that station breaks for what is commonly referred to as right-wing radio are richly peppered with sex-aid advertising. (Such ads, by the way, are inserted by the networks and not by the host of these programs.) It all works to create the overall impression that right-wing talk is not exactly wholesome.

While the ratings would suggest overwhelming interest, if not outright support for politically conservative programming, the stigma attached is clearly working to delegitimize its impact.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Guest Contributer: Tom From NJ

On John Batchelor’s blog, Tom from NJ responded to president Obama’s speech on Libya. I have asked him for permission to post his response on my own blog because it introduces some names we should all become familiar with. These people were not elected but exert much influence over our government’s policies:

On the domestic side, the Obama Administration, led by czar-of-czars Cass Sunstein, is "nudging" the USA step by opportunistic step into a state of "de-development" and rule by executive fiat, often of doubtful constitutionality. On the foreign policy side, Mrs. Cass Sunstein -- aka. Samantha Power -- aided by her accomplices Hillary Clinton and Susan Rice, is performing a similar "nudging" operation, using Libya as her wedge issue.

What specifically is the "nudge" in operation here? Stated simply, it is to gradually disenfranchise We the People from any effective control over our foreign policy -- just as on the domestic side over everything from health care to light bulbs -- with a view towards decoupling the deployment of America's crown jewel - her dedicated, highly skilled, and popular military - from any meaningful connection with the real interests and concerns of We the People.

To this end, Samantha Nudge-nik and Co. are creating a precedent which, if allowed to stand, will operationalize the long-time internationalist-progressive wet-dream of routinely deploying the brave men and women of America's super-powerful armed forces in the service and at the behest of the UN, the EU, the Arab League, the "international community," faceless "democratic rebels" or anybody else deemed worthy by the PC crowd, rather than in defense of We the People. Integral to this precedent are several fundamental assertions: (1) The single most significant problem facing our world today is genocide, and therefore; (2) Only a truly international effort -- i.e., one sanctioned by some recognized international body like the UN -- can legitimately and effectively act to eliminate genocide, therefore; (3) "American exceptionalism" today can only mean that our country must take the lead in quashing this primary international menace, and by whatever means necessary.

To be fair to Samantha Power, we should not simply dismiss her constant critical focus on international genocide as just so much cynical political game-playing. It seems she really cares about this undoubted historical scourge and no decent human being can disagree with her condemnation of it. That said, we must also note that Mr. and Mrs. Sunstein, as the quintessential Harvard Power Couple from Hard-Left Hell, seem convinced that their personal agendas represent the only wise solutions to all of our tired old Western world's problems.

On the foreign policy side, we may boil down the Sunsteins' latest paroxysm of arrogant "We the Elitists know best" to the deceptively simple formula of R2P -- "responsibility to protect." According to this sunburst of superior wisdom, the only morally and politically legitimate use of military force is to rescue current and prospective victims of genocide from their dire fate as allegedly decreed by those nasty old nation-states like the USA and Israel.

These Sunstein-esque assertions only beg a series of critically important questions. Who will decide what constitutes "genocide?" Not We the People, but We the Elite. Who will decide what measures to take in any given international crisis? Not We the People, but We the Elite. More specifically, who will decide when and where and under what conditions to commit our splendid armed forces to action? Not We the People, but We the Elite. And from now on just whose interests will our splendid military "protect" when they strike to kill and be killed? Not We the People, but We the Elite. See the pattern forming? It has begun in the Obama Administration's bogus "kinetic military action" in Libya, and who knows where and how it will end. God save America!

Second Coming

I remember back when a gallon of gas cost thirty cents; when there were pay phones and free road maps; when you could drop in on your doctor unannounced and the whole thing set you back less than ten dollars. I remember all that, and it just goes to show that things change. I remember a time when you could strap on a backpack and travel to Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan to enjoy the sights. I remember when Red China was still off limits to us, and Hong Kong was as close as you could get. And it just goes to show that some things get worse.

After yesterday’s presidential address I felt we had passed another milestone. Never have I heard so much malarkey being spouted from the mouth of the leader of a nation in a period of roughly 26 minutes.

He seemed uncomfortable in his own skin while speaking to the folks. Maybe it was because he wasn’t where he was supposed to be: in the Oval Office. Everything he said had been road-tested by his various apologists beforehand and then stitched together into an unruly quilt.

I was stunned. It was the first time I had actually witnessed unadulterated doublespeak.

What happened back in 2008 was not an election; it was a coup. Yesterday, our president looked lost and out of touch – would have felt much more comfortable among his UN buds. He did not want to give this speech; yet he had to, to maintain the pretense of representing a nation. Kaddafi seems much more convincing in this regard.

Obama echoed some past rhetorical abuses, saying how many lives were saved by this unilateral action. It brought to mind an earlier claim of ‘jobs saved’, implying that if it weren’t for him, nobody would now be working in this great country of ours.

Reminds of the film “Black Orpheus” (’59) in which the lead character gets up every morning and plays his guitar. He has convinced the town that if he were not to do it, the sun would not rise that day. After he dies, his young protégée takes up the task and the film ends.

We are left wondering what on earth we would do without BHO. How could we possibly keep rascals like Kaddafi in check? And even in this, he (Obama) displays a benevolent bent. He stops just short of giving the dictator the thumbs down. What compassion! What grace! What wisdom! …as transparent as any of these might be.
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Saif is not the elder. If he were to come to power, it would be enough for the American press to hail Obama as the second coming (again).

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Iraq vs. Libya

Shariah: What's The Problem?

I've had friends who came from broken homes who enlisted in the armed forces. They hoped the discipline there would help them to become men. I’ve had friends who became drug addicts – for the same reason. Drug addiction imposes a discipline on lives that are without.

Liberalism often seems attractive because liberals are good at imposing rules - rules that give structure to minds that lack the confidence to decide. The same applies to tea party followers.

The latter does not seem to be enough largely, because of the absence of consequences. Following the rules or breaking them is all the same. In fact, breaking them appears to assign some special status. The overall result is often confusing and arbitrary.

What about shariah? Is it really so bad as all of us are led to believe? I know, most of us recoil from it as we would from enlisting or succumbing to drug addiction. We hate the thought of early morning drills and dirty needles. We hate being labeled this or that. We have this image of ourselves as free men and women, unfettered by habit or convention.

Someone once said that “Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.” It’s true in a way. Shariah gives you plenty of timelines and obligations. It kind of takes away all that pesky guilt that most of us are dragging around with us. It’s a legitimate response to doubt; a way of living within relatively safe confines where everything is written in stone. It’s also stifling. It kills curiosity and initiative. It minimizes risk. It makes it harder to fail and also impossible to succeed. In this, communism and shariah are one and the same.

Why do so many of us shy away from shariah while, at the same time, embracing socialism, the armed services, political parties – or even drug addiction? I understand that the pictures we’re shown of stonings, public hangings, slit throats, and severed limbs leave us gasping. This is all very frightening to us – flesh and blood consequences. Why, we don’t even remember where the meat we eat comes from anymore.

Shariah is not like that. The overwhelming majority of people who practice shariah are people just like us – like liberals, tea parties members, those who choose careers in the armed services or drug addiction. My grandmother used to say that the soup is never so hot when it’s eaten as when it was cooked.

So, what’s the problem? Why do we fear it? Why do we instinctively recoil from it? If others accept it, why can't we? Is our ego getting in the way of just letting go?

I’ll tell you outright why you should be concerned. All these movements that are sweeping the globe and are targeting America specifically have one thing in common. They seek to overthrow capitalism. Say, you have a skill or talent. Say, you can act, dance, sing, play football, lead a service-based organization; run a store; build a house... Perhaps you’re good with numbers or words. Maybe you’ve learned how to heal, teach, or offer advice - and that’s how you make your money. All that will mean nothing if those coordinating these left-wing and Islamic groups get their way. There will still be wealth and money. There will still be value. But value will be based on protection: You will pay for protection; or, people will pay you according to your ability to protect them. It’ll be a brutal world; a world without certainty that can change in a heart beat. It’ll be 'dog eat dog' – the way it always has been before America came along.

That in a nutshell is our challenge – a challenge made infinitely more daunting because roughly half our nation resides in the opposing camp while the other half remains ignorant of the threat. I can safely say that the next two years will determine the outcome. As it stands, either shariah or socialism has taken the lead. Both are pretty much the same. Pray that the nation wakes up in the meantime and freedom prevails.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Cyndi Lauper

Fun!

Hubris (part II)

In a previous post entitled “Hubris” I discussed the ramifications of a leader who gets himself elected and then governs against the will of his people. We’re seeing this so often now – even in our own country. Granted, the first mistake was ours. This is not to say that we are now collectively responsible for all that follows. If we were to go to a store, for instance, and buy a product that is subpar or even dangerous, we are not obligated to go back to that store again even if this store should still exist and compel us to do so. Yet, every day we pile on increasing layers of outrage at our government’s handling of things.

A parent is different from a pal. Pals bear no responsibility towards each other. Parents do. They are instrumental as role models for their children. They are responsible for their safety. This is not something that demands regulation. It’s instinctual and hardly ever fails. In our last presidential election, we have essentially chosen a pal to lead us – someone we could see ourselves sitting at a bar with and having too many drinks – from Facebook no less!

From my own experience with LSD (during my college days), I learned of the 'perfect moment'; that it is next to impossible for any one person to screw things up; that no matter what we do (or neglect to do), the sun will still rise every morning and the birds will still fly north or south depending on the season; that our personal imprint on life would forever be perfectly balanced by the imprint of another. This lesson taught me to relax and not to take myself so seriously, and simply enjoy the gift of life for its own sake.

This would eventually translate into my fervent belief that mankind is too puny to destroy the planet, as many of my generation claim. From my perspective, I could see that what is commonly referred to as the ‘green movement’ is primarily politically driven. With what’s currently happening in Japan, I’ve been forced to retreat from my earlier position and concede that we, as a species, may have overstepped a dangerous threshold.

What a kindly, wild-haired gentleman with his Princeton chalkboard unleashed may well represent a power that is beyond mere men’s ken to contain. I tend now to side with the ‘greens’ in their reflex jihad against nuclear power. It is a hallmark of men to make mistakes, any fallout from which (up till now) has been capable of being well absorbed within the larger fabric.

Nuclear seems somehow different – a departure from the norm - and yet, if history is a guide, there is no turning back. We happily allow the madmen of Iran and the children of Pakistan at the controls. If it is possible for Japan – by all accounts one of the most sober and disciplined populations on earth – to run afoul of it, we must clearly take a second look at our general policy of indifference toward this particular subject.

Our indifference is hardly blind. It stems from the enormity of the task ahead: getting the genie back into the bottle. Many will say it can’t be done. Yet, even with the very real potential of the birds raining from the sky and the sun circling endlessly around an blind planet, it seems we cannot afford not to try.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

The House Always Wins

The fever of revolution is sweeping the world. Syria, UK, U.S. (tea parties), China – you name it. Nobody is immune. There’s a restlessness loose on the globe. It’s born out of a growing intransigence on all sides; a failure to cooperate. Walid Phares is right: Every uprising has its own stamp; its own individual character.

It might always have been so. It’s in embedded in our DNA: sons rebelling against fathers; fathers rebelling against the State. What is different now is that the chucks have been jettisoned – America has turned coat - and the festooned chariot, carrying the idol, is hurtling madly through the madas (streets around a Hindu temple), mowing down worshippers and rogue priests alike in its pitiless path. There’s no telling where it all ends.

With no chucks to stop it, the chariot will tip over or crash into a building, tallying more victims. The ghee and curd soaked idol will lie shattered in the dusty street for all to see. Like it or not, the chucks were important – as is the law and leadership. With the idol lying broken in the dirt, the time will have come to begin again - from scratch. It’s not that we’re not capable of it, but it’s a long hard road.

It’s foolish to say that leadership has always to be a certain way. Bush was wrong to insist on ‘democracy' everywhere. It works for Switzerland, but you can’t say it’ll work for Zimbabwe.

Even Switzerland is restless now. For the first time in Swiss history, the celebration of its Independence Day on historic Ruetli Meadow was threatened with cancellation. Switzerland - as most nations - is struggling with the issue of immigration. They fear disturbances by neo-Nazi groups and were unwilling to pay for additional security. In the end, private enterprise promised to donate the money needed to keep order and reassure folks.

What struck me about the video in John's post (Daraa, Syria uprising) is that people spoke English. They were clearly distressed. Why did they speak English? Answer: for American TV, of course; to let Obama know that they are in trouble. The news obviously hasn’t reached them yet. They may also have been preparing themselves for jobs in America – where the streets are paved with ...debt. And, again, the news hasn’t reached them yet – that America has become a ward of the same system that Syria has.

The rich, the powerful, and the bored use the world’s grievances like dice at a crap table, hoping to best their friends and walk off with the prize. But time and time again we learn what every Las Vegas pauper already knows: that the house always wins.
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Watch episode# 2; parts 1 and 2 (Temple Cart) of Louis Malle’s “Phantom India” on You Tube to see what I’m talking about. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIGodDxlnVo ('cut and paste' into your browser.)

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Soros: What's In A Name?

I don't understand why we don't see it. We've erased the word 'war'. We've erased the word 'victory'. We're working on erasing Israel. Who does it benefit? Answer: Iran. We've got Iran in the White House!

We can tell Obama all we want about what he should do. He won’t listen. In fact, by telling him, he’ll know to do exactly the opposite. We can tell him to lower taxes, cut regulations, allow drilling, etc. There are a lot of very good and time-tested ideas floating around. It won’t matter. His goals are fundamentally different from ours. And until we accept this, and see it for what it is, we will continue on our downward trajectory.

I’m not even blaming Obama. He’s just a water boy for the big man who’s pulling the strings: George Soros. Soros appears to have some giant mad chip on his shoulder about having been born a Jew. There’s nothing more lethal than a self-hating Jew. (Hitler is said to have had a similar hang-up.)

Soros’ name changed three times. Brings to mind all the social security numbers that have been attributed to Barry S. ‘Soros’, the name that stuck, is a palindrome. That makes it special. It also means ‘next in line’ or ‘designated successor’ in Hungarian; and ‘will soar’ in Esperanto. George was taught Esperanto from birth. I need hardly explain the significance of Esperanto to this audience.

The evidence suggests that Soros engineered Obama’s electoral victories. It’s not a stretch to assume that he even now controls the lad.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Queen w/ David Bowie

Detroit: Downsizing America

Liberals as well as conservatives are dumbfounded, taken off guard, outraged by president Obama’s handling of the Libyan situation; committing American troops into a theater of ‘kinetic military action’ without clear goals defining ‘victory’; without formally addressing the U.S. Congress or the American people. This means that this president must be intending to go it alone, much like Syrian president Assad is apt to do - or Kaddafi, for that matter.

Obama keeps hinting that this operation will be short and sweet after which time we’ll be out of there and wash our hands of the killing. History shows, however, that this sort of thing has a habit of dragging on. I listened to Dan Henninger last night. He’s one of my favorites on the WSJ editorial staff, but even he had it wrong. He views the conflict as ‘something’ sweeping the Middle East; something so powerful, it cannot be stopped or its direction determined. I do not believe in some amorphous ‘something’. Unleashed? Yes, the way someone might unleash an attack dog. Directionless? No. We all know where it’s headed, but are afraid to say it out loud.

America is not America without also being a super power. Yet, we can plainly see that it is this administration’s intention to degrade us to some unspecified common denominator. I don’t remember the president campaigning on a platform to make America worse. We all fell for the ‘change’ routine while assuming that ‘change’ meant ‘better than Bush’.

This sentiment is not exactly new. Liberals have in the past often promoted the banning of SUV’s on the premise that SUV’s are dangerous to smaller cars. It would seem that, if SUV’s are indeed so dangerous (to smaller cars), it is the smaller cars that should be banned.

I didn’t make this up. I’ve heard the argument before. At the time, we all laughed about it and didn’t take it seriously. Now, it seems, we’re coming face to face with it. The new norms, as presented to us, clearly strive to downsize America.

My question is: How far down are we willing to go? What exactly does Obama have in mind? Perhaps the ‘greens’ can give us some clue: A country bereft of energy; its people taking up farming, herding, bartering, canning… Sounds like Pol Pot to some degree. (I don’t think that Obama would send his goons out to shoot me for lighting up a cigarette or reading a book; but who knows, all that might still be in the offing. Neither would Obama order the burning of medical journals as the Taliban are wont to do. But the effect of Obamacare would essentially amount to the same.)

There are many ways to skin a cat – or fox. I’m sure Obama knows them all. Yesterday, I noted from my stats that nobody read anything I posted on my blog that day. I was convinced that someone had blocked my feed. It seemed reasonable to assume, especially since it’s been going blazes. Today, it’s back to normal. I do wonder what happened.

As for the fox: There has been a fox that parked itself all morning in our backyard, enjoying the trickle of sun. He was a chubby, healthy looking thing; lazy as all get out; yawning, snoozing, stretching, and the like. There’s a specific spot by the old sugar maple where all the animals come when they’re hurt. Last year, a deer with a bum leg spent a couple of days there, its mate alert and watching from across the fence. After a couple of days, both wandered off as if nothing had happened. I remember, a long time ago, our various cats would hang out there as well.

I believe there are specific spots on this earth that are ‘power centers’. Usually great cities are built around such places. I’m wondering if it is possible to kill such spots – pave them over; seal them. Probably not. If so, what’s happened to Detroit? (The obvious answer is liberalism.) What else might be hatching there?

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Soros: Out For Revenge

Obama’s obvious and consistent mishandling of things has led some to suspect more sinister motives. In the case of Libya, why should any nation allow our president to put it on the hook, especially while Obama himself appears to be in full retreat? Neither has he, our president, demonstrated any particular fealty to the concept of alliance. I do believe that word has gotten out that Obama is only in it for himself – and, quite possibly, for something much worse. I can’t see anyone sticking his neck out for him.

I will say that we, the American people, will ultimately be stuck with what Hillary started. I’ve said it before: the way it stands now; it looks like a win-win for Kaddafi. The only way we can salvage anything at all is by forestalling any outcome whatsoever for as long as possible. I never thought I’d come even close to agreeing with anything Keith Olbermann says. That would put Obama to the left even of Olbermann. Never thought there was so much room remaining there.

What I’m saying is that there may be much more to this (and a whole host of other stories) than how it appears. For instance, why is it that, ever since Obama has been in office, virtually everything has been going south for us? Why does it continue to be so impossible to view every one of Obama’s policy objectives as viable solutions? There appears to be a pattern.

There’s one thing that Beck never mentions: the timeline. I personally believe they’ve already started rolling up the carpets and what remains of our country along with it. It will all be over and done with within the next two years.

Do explore the Soros connection to the ‘London School of Economics’. Make note of all the names that pop up even during a most cursory search – names we have come to associate with the Fabians of today. Imagine how insulted Soros must have felt when the Kaddafi’s kid embarrassed him after he (Soros) had gone to all the trouble of vouching for him, urging his entry into LSE.

There’s a lot more to this story. And it isn’t over yet. There may not be much we can ultimately do about it but, purely out of curatorial interest, let’s begin connecting some dots, just to let them know that we’re on to them; that we’re not total morons.

I don't know if you know this, but Kaddafi is said to have once been on board with Soros' 'Open Society' crap. After the scandal involving his son at LSE, Soros probably got on the phone with Kaddafi and told him his kid is a wanker. And Kaddafi probably told him to kiss his a** and hung up. Nobody talks this way to the man who has all the money in the world.

You want a nice neat string to tie it all together? Maybe it all hinges on an aging nutcase individual having decided to get back at all those whom he perceives as having slighted him. His ‘Open Society’ has probably very little to do with some illusory Utopian vision. What is more than likely is that the whole thing has been constructed as a platform from which to exact revenge.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Conspiracy Theory: History In Reverse

I think it’s high time we get away from blindly criticizing Obama; the media; foreign, energy, and fiscal policy; and everything else; and begin connecting some dots. The only one doing it publicly at the moment happens to be Glenn Beck (and we all know what’s happened to him).

On this morning’s program, Beck laid it all out – soup to nuts. The players involve everyone in the Obama administration, union thugs, media flacks, prominent international figures (including Kaddafi) with George Soros at the top pulling the strings. Sounds like crazy talk. Sounds like a conspiracy theory. Those who believe in conspiracies are usually nut jobs. Right? – except when said conspiracy theories turn out to have been right all along. But, by then, conspiracies have become (often tragic) histories. And there’s no more time left to do something about it, other than live with the shame.

It’s not that I agree with all that Beck claims. There are some weak points and stretches. Overall, though, it sounds credible. It certainly does begin giving a shape to all we’ve been talking about (particularly) over the past two years – events that we believed stood alone and thus could be easily dismissed. I’m even starting to wonder about our friend, John Batchelor, and why he has been concentrating so hard on China lately. China, as I see it, is not part of the Soros deal. As such, it can only serve as a distraction from what is happening right under our noses.

Crazy talk or not, the time has come for a deeper examination of events than we’re getting. It’s interesting that there are some things that the media just won’t touch, while obvious examples are being made of those who dare to approach that third (Soros) rail – like Sarah Palin, for instance. (I'm talking about Palin's naked patriotism and her support of Israel.)

Then there is this from the “Business & Media” website (God knows who runs it) that published an article yesterday, entitled, “Unreported Soros Event Aims to Remake Entire Global Economy” by Dan Gainor. I’ve put up the link below (but I’m rather inept at this sort of thing, so I give you the information above as well).

http://www.mrc.org/bmi/commentary/2011/Unreported_Soros_Event_Aims_to_Remake_Entire_Global_Economy.html

It’s not that I’m against trying to remake the world. What I object to is how it’s being done. It’s being done in the proverbial smoke-filled back room by fat-cat elite narcissists. You can be quite certain they don’t have America’s best interests in mind.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Dusty Springfield

Big hair.

Roy Orbison

Common misperception: Roy Orbison was blind. He was not.

WAR: Comic Relief

Everywhere I turn today on the radio dial, I hear the usual yuck-yucks and clucks about what Obama did today. The war in Libya is topic number one of course. Japan has fallen to a distant third behind the many marriages of Elizabeth Taylor. Actually, the past few days we’ve seen very little of Obama. It has been Hillary Clinton who’s been out front, trying to explain this and that.

What’s curious about this is that war isn’t at all funny. The yuck-yucks center on the administration’s failure to explain how we got into it and what we can expect. The details we’re given change by the hour and are often contradictory. For instance, Obama claims that it’ll last just a few more days with us in charge, and then we’ll hand it off to some unspecified 'other'. Then, we learn, that nobody else wants it. It’s like watching a group of kids playing hot potato. Or, the kitchen sink gets clogged and we go in with all kinds of ‘shock and awe’ (to borrow a phrase). We ask the kid next door to come over and help. All he brings with him is a screwdriver while we’ve got the 130 ft. snake out. Whom are we hoping to hand off to? It’s comical, in a macabre kind of way. But here we are. The Germans have already pulled out. NATO is hiding in the tall grass. The others were never in. ‘Allies in disarray’ is how Drudge put it.

We’ve seen this before: an administration getting pummeled for deciding to go to war. Whether Kaddafi lives or dies is almost beside the point. It almost seems like the U.S. president is always the ultimate target of our scorn and ridicule; that as soon as any U.S. leader orders military intervention, it’s like, at the same time, he’s holding a loaded gun to his own head.

You might get the impression from reading this blog that I dislike Obama. The truth is I really don’t dislike him at all. His exploits have taken us in many unforeseen (and foreseen) directions. It’s been a blessing to be alive during these times of tumultuous change. The Obamas (in one incarnation or another) have always been with us. We’ve just never put them in charge of anything before. This time we did. And what did we expect? We got exactly what we voted for.
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On today’s Glenn Beck radio program, the name Stephen Lerner surfaced in connection with a union plot to collapse the American economy. Later in the day, Limbaugh also spent a segment on it. This seems consistent with what happened before (just preceding the 2008 election). When the Justice Department was notified, they ignored what must surely constitute a serious threat. Say, the kid with the screwdriver (above) goes home and were to fantasize on Facebook about putting that screwdriver of his through Obama’s eye; he would no doubt get a visit from the Secret Service before sundown. Lerner, apparently is playing for the right team (unions). So, we can assume he can happily fly under the radar, as far as Big Sis is concerned.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

They All Were Despised

Pawlenty, Shmawlenty! This is the first time I’ve heard of this man. We know nothing about him except that he can talk and say all the right things in a campaign commercial while a rousing dirge plays in the background. Where has this man been for the past two years? He should have been shouting ‘Fire!’ in this crowded American theater all along – along with everybody else. Now it may already be too late. Reminds of that sorry-looking fish he’s holding on the cover of TIME. (What is that? Buckshot?)

Pawlenty is portrayed as a loser with close similarities to McCain. He even lost to Palin when it came time for McCain to pick a running mate. No, I’ve actually been reduced to looking at Kucinich for leadership. At least he had the guts to call for Obama’s impeachment. Wouldn’t it be delicious irony if Obama’s greatest threat came from the left?

Maybe it is right what Islamists say about us; that our days are numbered; that we have lost our way; our will; our resolve to fight and prevail while dancing pointless pirouettes on White House parkette, just marking time before the barbarians arrive and knock down the gates. Perhaps it’s already happened and we’ve got our heads so far up..., we can’t even see what’s being done to us. And that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? - our precious, gilded as*es, making believe our sh*t doesn’t stink.

That’s how they see us – our enemies: faded prima donnas in drag. There won’t be much to sweep away after it’s all over; our egos lying shattered on the ballroom floor. It shouldn’t take much to clean up the mess. Hell, we could do it ourselves – but we won’t. There are certain jobs Americans just will no longer do.

Right now our enemies are doing a pretty fair job of cleaning our clocks. One janitor is as good as the next. Maybe we’ve cried ‘wolf’ too many times: We can no longer tell the difference between them. Clinton, Bush, Obama (actually it started in earnest with Reagan). They all were despised.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Off The Record (in Brazil)

O – “Like you, I am a Marxist/Socialist. In addition, I am a Muslim – born and bred. I see my job essentially as an opportunity to erase the hegemony of the West in general and America in particular. To this end, we are working to choke off America’s energy supplies. As you may know, America actually does have the world’s most abundant resources of carbon-based fuels within its own borders. We have succeeded in halting oil exploration, drilling, refining, etc. In addition, we have been able to severely restrict coal mining operations by encumbering companies thus engaged with so many government mandated regulations and restrictions; it’s become impossible for operators to maintain profitable margins.

“Additionally, we’ve managed to create instability in the Middle East. It should soon become impossible to procure oil from any of these sources. Also, under our green energy initiative, we have succeeded in creating the perception that the use of carbon-based energy is damaging to the planet. We are now also in the process of banning nuclear energy outright (thank you, Japan).

“We have expanded baseline government spending to unprecedented levels, all but insuring the collapse of our currency. In relatively short order you will see severe inflation, shortages and, with it, a rise in civil disturbances. By maintaining a high degree of fiscal uncertainty, we can assure that the powerhouse American economy cannot recover.

“None of this happened overnight, of course. Many brave comrades have worked diligently for many years to break down our network of primary and secondary education as to destroy the people’s ability to engage in critical inquiry. As such, we’ve been able to accomplish much under cover of darkness. My own popularity is still relatively high, even as our systems and institutions are grinding to a halt one by one.

“It must be kept in mind that our efforts are targeted primarily at the West. The East should remain largely unaffected for now. It will be up to my successors to more or less finish the job. In any case, Brazil – and South America in general – should remain relatively unaffected by the change.

“For now, in order to keep up appearances, we have set aside considerable sums for you to develop your oil industry – just to maintain the impression that we are still dealing with the fear Americans have of running out of gas(oline).

D – “I can see some pitfalls in your plan, especially as it pertains to us. Many here see it as yet another attempt by your arrogant nation to reduce us to just another of your Middle Eastern gas stations. It’s a perception of distrust that has built up over many years."

O – “Never mind. Accept the money and do with it what you want. As I said, it’s mainly just to give the impression that we are doing something about energy – to placate the masses, so to speak – while we are turning off the spigots one by one.

“BTW, put in a good word to Hugo, Fidel and the others for me. Do let them know that we’re all on the same page.”

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

LIBYA : INCREASING CONFUSION

“The rebels' strategy is to push west but this has got off to a halting start, and without further concerted air strikes it is difficult to see how this rag-tag army will ever achieve its aim of unseating Col Gaddafi.”

---Ian Pannell, the BBC correspondent in East Libya , in a dispatch of March 21,2011
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Increasing confusion over basic aspects of the Western-led military operations --- ostensibly with the authorisation of the UN Security Council (UNSC)---- in Libya doesn't bode well for the achievement of the principal objective of the operation as authorised by the UNSC, namely, the protection of civilians in the areas outside the control of Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan despot.

2. The No Fly Zone was authorised by the UNSC to protect the civilians from air strikes by the Libyan Air Force. States of the Arab League supported the proposal for a No Fly Zone under the impression that it meant patrolling by the planes of the members of the coalition in the Libyan skies in order to immobilise the Libyan Air Force.

3. The UNSC resolution has been interpreted by the US , the UK and France as authorising not only the immobilisation of the Libyan Air Force, but also its destruction on the ground. Hence, the repeated air and missile strikes for three nights in succession on ground positions in Tripoli , the capital, and other areas under Government control. This destruction, instead of immobilization, is causing large civilian casualties in the areas under the control of the Government. Even if one does not accept the figures of civilian casualties as given out by the Libyan Government, the fact that there have been civilian casualties in the Government-controlled areas cannot be denied. Civilians are being killed in Government-controlled areas in attempts to protect the civilians in the rebel-controlled areas.

4. The severity of the air strikes----- which is totally disproportionate to the requirements of a No Fly Zone to protect the civilians--- has already started causing disquiet in the ruling circles of the Arab world, but not yet amongst the population. There has not yet been any public demonstration against the disproportionate air and missile strikes under the pretext of preparing the ground for effective enforcement of a No Fly Zone. Amr Moussa, the Secretary-General of the Arab League, has been the first to give expression to this disquiet. One could expect others to do so in the days to come if this disproportionate resort to air and missile strikes continues.

5. The reported destruction by a missile strike of a building near Gaddafi’s place of residence under the pretext that it housed the command and control of Libyan air defence forces has given rise to suspicions that the Western-led coalition has arrogated to itself without the authority of the UNSC the objective of removing Gaddafi through military action. There have been vague answers from Western leaders to the question as to Gaddafi’s removal is one of the objectives of the military action. While the Americans have been somewhat vehement in their denial, the British have not been. While denying that Gaddafi is a direct target, the British do not rule out the possibility of his becoming an indirect victim of the air and missile strikes.

6. This calculated ambivalence results from Western realization that there is unlikely to be an early end to the military operations so long as Gaddafi continues to be in power in Tripoli . Even if the Libyan Air Force is totally destroyed on the ground, the rag-tag army of the opponents of Gaddafi is not in a position to move by road over a 1000 kms from Benghazi to Tripoli , defeat Gaddafi’s forces and remove him from power unless it is assured of sustained air support. Moreover, it has to pass through areas inhabited by tribes loyal to Gaddafi. Unless their ground fighting capability is degraded, the rebel army could face difficulty in reaching Tripoli . Having degraded Gaddafi’s air capability under the pretext of facilitating the No Fly Zone--- which itself was more than what was authorized by the UNSC--- the West now faces the prospect of having to mount more air and missile strikes on Gaddafi’s ground troops in order to degrade their fighting capability. This could aggravate the disquiet among the Arab members of the coalition.

7. If the rebel army does not capture Tripoli in another two or three weeks it is likely to face another adversary en route to Tripoli----the desert storms which could increase in frequency and intensity in the days to come. During the Iraq invasion of 2003, desert storms immobilized some US tanks and slowed down the advance to Baghdad . Fortunately, the desert storms did not last long. If they last long in Libya , not only it could slow down the rebel advance to Tripoli , but it could also hamper air strikes due to poor visibility thereby increasing the reliance on missile strikes which generally cause more civilian casualties than air strikes.

8. These problems---actual and potential---have been confounded by the lack of convergence over the command and control of the entire operation. Presently, the command and control is being temporarily exercised by the Americans, but President Barack Obama is anxious to erase as rapidly as possible the impression that this is an US-inspired, US-led and US-manipulated military action using the fig-leaf cover of the UNSC resolution. He wants one of the European members of the coalition to take over as quickly as possible the leadership of the command and control. What role should the NATO play in this command and control? Germany , Turkey and the Arab members of the coalition are not comfortable with the idea of a NATO role. The UK and Italy are in favour of it.

9. If these problems are not sorted out in the coming days and if there is no convergence on what exactly the UNSC resolution means and how to achieve the objectives as laid down by the UNSC resolution, one could find the situation in Libya becoming messier than it is today. ( 22-3-11)

(The writer, Bahukutumbi Raman, is Additional Secretary, (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi , and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com )

The Doors

Classic!

To my readers#2:

Two things I love about these blogs is making up titles and adding pictures. This is not something I can do on John Batchelor’s site. I have a lot of pictures that I’ve taken over the years to choose from. I also recently discovered boxes and boxes of slides in the attic that my father took. I bought a scanner and added some of these to my digital collection. I think he would have been happy to see his beloved hobby bearing fruit so many years after his death.

Additionally, it’s been fun watching the graphs that tell me you have been reading my stuff – and not just those of you in the U.S. I’ve had visitors from as far away as China (and from virtually everywhere in between).

As a kid, I used to dream of becoming a writer. The problem was, I had nothing to say. For a while, I tried making stuff up. But nobody was much interested. I dropped the whole thing and, for many years, never wrote much or read.

Now this inclination seems to have reasserted itself. I no longer struggle when I sit down at the computer. The things that are happening now are way more compelling than what I could ever have imagined. Truly, “you can’t make this stuff up”.

I am profoundly grateful that you keep coming back to ‘REFLECTIONS’. I assure you, it’s all original and not cut-and-paste (unless so indicated). Spun from today’s events, I always try to lock on to an angle that might have been overlooked. Often, days later, I find something similar said or written somewhere …and I smile.

While you’re at it, do check out my other blog (http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/). It’s about travel and is non-political. It too has been getting quite a bit of traffic lately.

Dilma's Dilemma

Another teachable moment. Another glimpse into the mind of our president, Barack Hussein Obama. How he is handling Libya could have been foreseen long ago. Other commanders-in-chief have done as much at the mere drop of a hat. It’s not what happens there that should be of concern to us. Of far greater concern should be what we ourselves have become.

We have become a nation of lawless and corrupt governance. Our Constitution specifies that Congress must be consulted, and be made to approve any deployment of American troops overseas. Barack Hussein Obama is the first president to bypass this convention. Instead, he claims to derive his power from what he refers to as the ‘international community’ (UN). As such, he has further shredded the Constitution of the United States. At the same time, he is continuing to marginalize the role of Congress. So much for representative governance.

Again, all this could have been foreseen. Months back, I wrote that the deliberate chaos in the 111th Congress would serve to discredit the institution irreparably. Here we have it in black and white. What does this say about the sanctity of our vote? In a short two years we have devolved from a constitutional republic to a tyranny.

Our media does not appear to grasp the enormity of what has happened to us. Small wonder. The success or failure of any quasi-democratic setup depends on an educated public. Our schools have become mere cookie cutters. The level of understanding among recent graduates is astoundingly below par. It cuts across the board from math through English. “When NEWSWEEK recently asked 1,000 U.S. citizens to take America’s official citizenship test, 29 percent couldn’t name the vice president. Seventy-three percent couldn’t correctly say why we fought the Cold War. Forty-four percent were unable to define the Bill of Rights. And 6 percent couldn’t even circle Independence Day on a calendar.”

I understand that polls are often skewed to elicit certain answers; to show specific results, most likely ones that grab headlines and spur magazine sales; and, don’t forget, of course, to promote the urgency for more money for favored institutions (such as teachers unions) and in NEWSWEEK’s case, Democrats. In this particular survey, published this week, I suspect, the numbers are probably even worse. The teaching of civics and history has perhaps suffered most in recent years. It’s natural that these would be edged out by an ever greater emphasis on ideologically based solutions. Let’s face it, Marxism is now in vogue.

As our president travels splendidly throughout Brazil, burnishing his Marxist credentials, his unconstitutional behavior with regard to Libya goes almost unnoticed. Obviously, most Brazilians have not yet gotten the message that he is one of them as evidenced by the feisty street demonstrations against him. But Dilma knows why he’s come. She’ll let him grovel and beg for her validation. Still, she must weigh her ultimate approach to him against her own need for a demon. The U.S. has always served admirably in this regard.

Even if the new Brazilian president should withhold her favors, the trip should still be regarded as a success. When things go wrong in Libya, Obama can always say, “It wasn’t me. It’s all Hillary’s fault. I wasn’t even there.”

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

In The New World Order Protection Is Key

As we try desperately to come to grips with the latest twists and turns of a world turned upside down there is now a clear pattern emerging. It might be well to keep certain things in mind as we struggle to adjust ourselves to what is now generally referred to as ‘the new world order’. First and foremost, it behooves us to fall in step with the music that now all but overwhelms us, even as the old familiar sounds are beginning to fade. We can no longer depend on traditional notions of what is right or wrong. Our immediate inclination is to throw up our hands and declare that there is now no longer a difference; that the line has been blurred irrevocably; that any notion of wrong has been banished from our consciousness and that everything is now alright. But this would be wrong.

A partial listing of the tyranny of the new right and wrong follows: Christianity – evil; Islam – good. Capitalism – evil; anything that does not involve profit – good. America – evil. Democracy – evil. Family – evil. Stability – evil; chaos – good. History – wrong. Tyranny – good. Slavery – good. Abundance – evil. Propaganda – good. Unions – good; free enterprise – evil. Bullying – good. Sex –good. Suicide bombing – good. Israel - evil. Genocide - good. Abortion –good. Constitution – evil. Oppression – good. Pornography – good. Piss Christ – good. Feminism – good. Self-immolation – good. Suicide – good. Food – depends. And the greatest good of all – the one who will further define all that is good and evil in this world and the next: Saddam Hussein Obama. Oops! I meant to say ‘Barack’.

Happy Purim, folks! Enjoy! This may be the last.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Schoolyard Games (and Accidents)

Even more interesting to me than what’s happening at the moment is to watch the tectonic political plates of world alliances shifting. The heavy dude jumped off the see-saw, which sent all the other kids flying. Now the heavy dude is scrambling to get back on, but he’s hurt and someone’s taken him to the nurse’s office. She determines that the heavy dude is essentially out for the count; that there’s something other than just scratches, bumps and bruises ailing him. He may be insane.

Meanwhile, all the other kids are still crawling around on the ground. Some had their glasses knocked off. Now they’re trying to find each other. The see-saw has been abandoned. A new game must be found; new teams chosen. Turkey to Iran. Bahrain to the Saudis. Israel is the kid that no one will pick.

Germany to the Russians. The French want to go it alone. Pakistan to China. Brazil to Venezuela. India, alone. May have to form leagues with an eye towards finals. The fat kid still in rehab. Can no longer be counted on to do anything.

As the world turns: uncertainty and confusion. Posturing. Pawns are bleeding. Scramble, scramble. Where it ends up, nobody knows. ... and where the hell are the teachers? Union meetings, no doubt.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

LIBYA: OBAMA'S IRAQ

Note: By bringing Ram's posts to your attention, it does not mean I agree. Still, I feel, it's useful in any case to present a coherent view from another part of the world. - P

LIBYA: OBAMA'S IRAQ
by B.RAMAN

"Despite the fact that it was French war planes which launched the first attacks, it's clear that this early phase of the operations is an overwhelmingly American affair - all but a very small number of cruise missiles have been fired from American ships and submarines, " said Paul Adams, the BBC correspondent in Washington DC, while commenting on the air and missile strikes launched by the US, France and the UK against ground targets in Government-controlled areas in Libya on the night of March 19,2011.

2. As I watched the TV visuals and read reports on the strikes, I was reminded of what the George Bush administration called the decapitation strikes before it started the invasion of Iraq in 2003. The military action in Libya has been projected as having the limited objective of a humanitarian intervention to protect civilians in the areas under the control of the rebels. But its real objective is to have Muammar Gaddfi, the Libyan despot, removed from power as quickly as possible and instal a pro-Western leader at Tripoli so that Western oil and gas companies could return to Libya and resume oil/gas production.

3. Oil--- and not human rights or concern for democracy--- is the driving force in Libya as it was in Iraq. Saddam Hussein paved the way for his own isolation and destruction by antagonising his own people through cruel repression and his neighbours through his arrogance. Muammar Gaddafi has similarly paved the way for his own isolation and ultimate destruction through similar policies of repression and arrogance. No force on earth could have saved Saddam in 2003. No force on earth could save Gaddafi in 2011.

4. Gaddafi is politically doomed. When a ruler---- be a democrat or a despot---- loses the support of his people his end is inevitable. The question is no longer whether Gaddafi will fall, but when and under what circumstances. What suffering it would cause to the Libyan people? Are they going to be the real beneficiaries of the UN-authorised and Western-manipulated intervention or the consumer economies of Italy and other European countries dependent on the flow of oil and gas from Libya?

5.The Iraq invasion set in motion the train of events that ultimately led to the discrediting of the policy-makers of the Bush Administration in the US and the Tony Blair Government in the UK. As Obama himself had often conceded, the involvement in Iraq contributed to the USA's difficulties in the Af-Pak region.

6.One thought Obama had learnt the right lessons from Afghanistan and Iraq. It is apparent he has not. After the Second World War, the US had rarely covered itself with glory when it embarked on external adventures----whether it be in Kora or in Vietnam or in Somalia or in Afghanistan or in Iraq. If Obama thinks Libya could be an exception, he is mistaken.

7. The only effect of the Libyan adventure will be that the march of democracy, which started in Tunisia and spread to Egypt, will be stopped.The Arab despots, who have jumped into the Western bandwagon against Gaddafi, have done so not because their hearts bleed for the civilians in Libya and for their human rights. They have done so because they calculate that the diversion of the Western attention to
Libya enables them to crush the human rights and aspirations for democracy of their own people.

8. The Western need for Arab support in Libya in order to show it as a truly international coallition of Western crusaders and Islamic people has already led to a cruel suppression of the pro-democracy agitators in Bahrain with Western voices and conscience remaining muted as the Sunni ruler, with the help of 2000 ground troops from the States of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC), crushes the Shia protesters. Western near-silence in Bahrain today and in Saudi Arabia tomorrow is the quid pro quo for the Arab support in Libya.

9. Whatever be the outcome in Libya, its echoes will be heard wherever American lives are threatened and American interests are endangered---whether in the Af-Pak region, or in Yemen or in Egypt or elsewhere. We have seen the resurgence of the Afghan Taliban in Afghanistan with a Neo Taliban keeping the NATO troops bleeding. We will be seeing a resurgence of Al Qaeda with a Neo Al Qaeda endangering American lives and interests everywhere. Anger breeds terrorism. More anger will breed more terrorism. 20-3-11)

( The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and Associate of the Chennai Centre For China Studies. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com )

My comments:

I do not accept that oil is the primary factor this whole mess hinges on, though it will be promoted as such by anti-Western, anti-capitalist factions around the world including those in the West. If it were so, we would have insisted on free oil for services rendered in Kuwait, Iraq, etc. Instead, we deliberately made it a point not to benefit materially from any U.S. led intervention in the region. It didn’t work and nobody basically believes it.

This Libyan exercise bears the stamp of previous interventions of this kind: intervention for humanitarian reasons. I don’t buy that as well. More likely it was something relatively as trivial as retribution for Abdelbaset al-Megrahi’s release from a Scottish prison under questionable circumstances in which the West had its nose publicly rubbed in the dirt. (Also, if you’ll recall that one of the raps on Saddam was that he tried to kill Bush the elder.)

Thus far, there is nothing to suggest that Kaddafi will not survive this. The Ummah will rally around him in an effort to defeat Israel and the West. Kaddafi remaining in power would bookmark this victory as another in a series of victories against infidels. If Obama indeed sees himself fundamentally as an Islamist, it would represent a victory for him as well.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

'How Do I Know When I'm In Love?'

Do I need a reason to despise Kaddafi? Do I need a reason to despise anyone - or not despise? Reasons can be countered effectively by other reasons; by clever manipulation of words. In the end, reasons never make much of a difference. One still continues to despise or not despise. It’s like love, or not to love.

Love exists outside the realm of reason. That much has been generally acknowledged. In the film “Of Gods and Men” a young girl asks the old monk, “How do I know when I’m in love?” He answers something to effect that she would not ask the question if she knew it was true. She counters that the man whom her father has chosen for her leaves her unmoved. “Then it isn’t serious,” the old man says.

“Have you ever been in love?” the young girl asks.

“Many times,” the old monk replies after a pause. Finally, he proclaims his love for God and the scene ends.

Words are seldom adequate to capture emotion. Those who seek to imprison their emotions in words alone tend to remain stunted. I’ve always liked Kaddafi as much as I've hated certain U.S. presidents. And I’ve never had a reason to change my mind.

It’s no different with Hillary. I’ve always despised her for her elitism, her indifference; for her opportunism, the way she always calculates for best political advantage. She married for it. (There obviously wasn’t much love.) Then she lied. Then she became a carpetbagger (in New York). She promised New York everything and then broke her promise. Now as Secretary of State she thinks she has found an opening to the top floor, never realizing that she is being used (the same as everybody else). Both Hillary and Petraeus have been given more than enough rope to hang themselves with.

Winner: Obama.

Sleepless in Chatham (NJ)

Obviously, not everyone agrees. There must then be more than one side to the story. Russia, China, India, et al were maneuvered into ‘agreeing’. They agreed by voting ‘present’ – which is a way of saying, “Do what you want, but we’ll have no part of it.”

Action involves risk. Risk must be balanced by benefit. For far too long American foreign policy has excluded any notion of ‘benefit’. It has been unbalanced. In Iraq we never insisted on payback. Its oil is now going to our rivals. As the chaos and killing there continues, we cannot even claim ‘victory’ on that front. Neither do we insist on Libya’s oil in exchange for our effort. And indeed, Libya’s oil is already spoken for and going to those who voted ‘present’.

You would think that Obama, of all people, would understand the benefits that accrue by voting ‘present’; that voting otherwise engenders risk which, in turn, invites loss. It has been my contention that Obama – whether by way of retribution or an affinity for victimhood - deliberately invites loss. Neither revenge nor national suicide are attractive to anyone but himself.

Saw the French film “Of Gods and Men” last night. As my friend and I settled ourselves outside afterwards to discuss the merits of the film, a woman approached us. She clearly had been disturbed by it. She said it was the worst film she had ever seen. She said it was good to have someone to talk it out with and hoped that she would not have bad dreams.

It was basically an anti-war film. In addition, it blamed the West. As such, it entered the realm of propaganda. Propaganda can never rise to the level of art. It targets those lacking any clear cut principles …and leaves them sleepless.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Holding the Bag

What we are witnessing on every front is quite remarkable. It’s tough to keep up with it all and even tougher to make sense of it. Whatever happens in Libya, we now own it. There’s one school of thought that thinks it’s already too late; that the civil war there is already over; that Kaddafi has won; that to interfere at this late date will only serve to forestall the inevitable.

So why did we do it? My guess is we were stung by the Saudi’s sending troops into Bahrain without telling us. To make up for it, we decided we must do something to show that we’re still relevant. (Democrats are always asking themselves if they’re relevant.) Never mind; when push comes to shove, our allies can be expected to excuse themselves to go to the bathroom. Many in our Congress know this; that we’ll be left holding the bag. They also know that we’ve had no time to prepare. It took Bush many months to launch an invasion into Iraq. I remember, even the weather became a factor. It pays to remember that initially Bush was hugely successful. Our troops hardly had to fire a shot. We could hardly believe our luck when our objective was met in record time.

But we just couldn’t leave it at that. We just had to embark on ‘nation building’, changing hearts and minds and all such rot. And even this would have succeeded if we hadn’t politicized it here at home. Democrats wanted Bush discredited at all costs. They were quite willing to gamble away all just to see it happen. As such, they happily undermined America’s effectiveness and prestige. They destroyed the levee known by its age old dictum that ‘politics stops at the water’s edge’, inviting a flood of recrimination and abuse from abroad. It worked and we lost our way.

What a price we’ve had to pay!!! Now we truly are irrelevant. Nobody takes us seriously anymore. Even the guy at the gas station on the corner can hardly stand to look at us. We have shamed ourselves in the eyes of the world, hastening our own demise to no purpose.

I say this in response to John Batchelor’s words last night when commenting on the self-immolation of a Tunisian fruit vendor and likening it to the recent self-immolation of a Tibetan monk. These were brave and honorable deeds that will go down in history as important turning points. When a rich and powerful country does the same, however, it is seen as utter folly.

What exactly is our goal in Libya? When will we know we have won? What exactly will we have won? And should we lose, and Kaddafi stays in power?

It has been my contention from the start that Obama is out to wreck every one of our key institutions. Already he’s done a fair job of it. The only thing remaining is the military.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

America Is No Longer A Player

Apparently it takes two years to get the measure of a man. Equally apparent is that it takes some Americans even longer.

Last night’s show is one to be bookmarked. It dealt primarily with the foreign policy failures of the Obama administration, especially as pertains to the Middle East. On the eve of the president’s trip to Brazil, we can now look forward to a fresh set of policy embarrassments looming in South America. This is one of the reasons Hillary Clinton continues to distance herself from this administration.

Everything about the discussions last night was pretty much on target. And it is not something that will ever be reported in the NYT and in other liberal mainstream media outlets. Obama is their baby, after all. A mother will always stand up for her child.

But neither Batchelor or Hoenlein (or any of their guests) ever got down to actually pulling the trigger. Triangulation no longer works. Only facts are relevant. By parting ways with Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Israel among others, the U.S. has planted itself firmly in Iran’s twelver camp. This did not just happen because of inattention, ignorance, or character flaws. It is deliberate. Anyone might be relieved to see our president as dupe and bumbler-in chief. It might even be so. In any case, Obama has been the public face of events that have occurred since he has been in office. It is he who must be held to account. No doubt, others much smarter than Obama are pulling his strings.

On the home front it’s the same story. Obama’s presidency has been a disaster anywhere you look.

One hopeful sign (if you can call it that): I see China inching closer to the breach. As I have predicted previously, Israel will survive. Iran will not. Half ‘evil’ will always win out over 100% ‘evil’. America is no longer a player.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Condo Shopping in Brazil

We’re all news junkies; that is, we try to keep up with the news on a daily basis. We read the headlines on various sites, as well as our favorite blogs to get some idea about what other people are thinking. We pretty much know that the mainstream media does not tell us the truth; that partisan consideration causes them to steer their intended conclusions toward some unholy end. The same is true of the conservative, or ‘alternative’, media.

I’ve been having some trouble with the internet, especially when trying to stream Glenn Beck’s morning radio show. It suddenly cuts out and I need to go down to the basement and reset the box. Honestly, it’s become a pain to listen, and I no longer listen very often. I also don’t watch much TV - especially in the afternoon. For our family, Glenn Beck has essentially ‘disappeared’.

While visiting my father, he explained to me the purpose of Brazil's new capital (now 50 years old), the building if which he had been intimately involved in. It was envisioned as a world capital housing the leaders of a single world government. Its planners predicted that there would be a war in which much of the world would suffer utter devastation. The site for the Brazilian capital was deliberately chosen as to be as far away from everything as possible and would therefore not be much affected.

The city has strict building codes as to limit its population. The expected overflow was to be housed in any number of satellite cities some distance away. Only the highest elite - the cream of the crop - were to have permission to live within city limits.

This came to mind when I first heard that Obama would be going to Brazil on vacation (or is it to shop for a condo?). Suppose now, that something were to happen here while he is away. It’s not unusual for the leader of a nation to leave his country and, while abroad, there is some kind of coup back home.

Suppose communications were cut. Suppose all we could get on the radio is old episodes of the Prairie Home Companion. Suppose there were no mention of what had happened. Suppose TV screens remained blank; the internet dormant.

Suppose Osama bin Laden were to order all his sleeper cells into action. Suppose some manufactured economic problem were to close the banks. Suppose union thugs and others took it upon themselves to target random ‘rich people’ and Republican legislators.

In very short order, America would find itself turned on its head. There would be utter chaos in the streets – not to mention, in every American heart.

Suppose that by some prearranged signal Israel and Taiwan were attacked, as well as Americans and American interests oversees.

All this would be digestible, except for radio silence. We could respond to most things, but not this. For years now, we’ve known that our media plays fast and loose with the facts. We’ve learned to be discerning and deal with it. But no news? How could we possibly deal with that?

Only those who had been tipped off beforehand would know what to do - only the best organized. The rest of us would miss the sleight of hand until long after the dust has settled and the now familiar faces of our talking heads have faded from memory.

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

Alif Allah-Arif Lohar and Meesha Shafi

I posted this a couple of months ago on my other website. But it wasn't getting the traffic it deserves. It's modern sufi music from Pakistan (the Coke sessions). Stick with this one; it builds into a real toe-tapper. And the women aren't bad either.

'Three Jewish Children' by Caroline Glick

I would urge you all to read Caroline Glick's column in today’s Jerusalem Post entitled, "Our World: Three Jewish Children". As a reading of this column were not horrific enough, I suggest a little exercise: Substitute the word "America", "Republicans", "conservatives", or "tea parties" every time you see the word "Jews" and you'll have a fair indication of what's happening in our own country today.

We are not yet at the point where hatred has been stoked up to combustible levels; we still harbor hope that our political process can contain outright violence. But realize we find ourselves only a few steps away from the abyss in which all niceties fall apart. I would argue that if John McCain were president, we would already have crossed that threshold; that the election of Barack Hussein Obama merely gave us some time to reconsider and turn away from a path that was mapped out under Bush.

Our World: Three Jewish Children

By CAROLINE B. GLICK
03/14/2011 22:41

Ruth Fogel was in the bathroom when the Palestinian terrorists pounced on her husband Udi and their three-month-old daughter Hadas, slitting their throats as they lay in bed on Friday night in their home in Itamar.

The terrorists stabbed Ruth to death as she came out of the bathroom. With both parents and the newborn dead, they moved on to the other children, going into a bedroom where Ruth and Udi’s sons Yoav (11) and Elad (four) were sleeping. They stabbed them through their hearts and slit their throats.


The murderers apparently missed another bedroom where the Fogels’ other sons, eight-year-old Ro’i and two-year-old Yishai were asleep because they left them alive. The boys were found by their big sister, 12-year-old Tamar, when she returned home from a friend’s house two hours after her family was massacred.

Tamar found Yishai standing over his parents’ bodies screaming for them to wake up.

In his eulogy at the family’s funeral on Sunday, former chief rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau told Tamar that her job from now on is to be her surviving brothers’ mommy.

In a rare move, the Prime Minister’s Office released photos of the Fogel family’s blood-drenched corpses.

They are shown as they were found by security forces.

There was Hadas, dead on her parents’ bed, next to her dead father Udi.

There was Elad, lying on a small throw rug wearing socks. His little hands were clenched into fists. What was a four-year-old to do against two grown men with knives? He clenched his fists. So did his big brother.

Maybe the Prime Minister’s Office thought the pictures would shock the world. Maybe Binyamin Netanyahu thought the massacre of three little children would move someone to rethink their hatred of Israel.

That was the theme of his address to the nation Saturday night.

Netanyahu directed most of his words to the hostile world. He spoke to the leaders who rush to condemn Israel at the UN Security Council every time we assert our right to this land by permitting Jews to build homes. He demanded that they condemn the murder of Jewish children with the same enthusiasm and speed.

He shouldn’t have bothered.

The government released the photos on Saturday night. Within hours, the social activism website My Israel posted a short video of the photographs on YouTube along with the names and ages of the victims.

Within two hours YouTube removed the video.

What was Netanyahu thinking? Didn’t he get the memo that photos of murdered Jewish children are unacceptable? If they’re published, someone might start thinking about the nature of Palestinian society.

Someone might consider the fact that in the Palestinian Authority, anti-Jewish propaganda is so ubiquitous and so murderous that killing the Fogel babies was an act of heroism. The baby killers knew that by murdering Udi, Ruth, Hadas, Yoav and Elad they would enter the pantheon of Palestinian heroes. They can expect to have a sports stadium or school in Ramallah or Hebron built for them by the Palestinian Authority and underwritten by American or European taxpayers.

And indeed, the murder of the Fogel children and their parents was greeted with jubilation in Gaza.

Carnivals were held in the streets as Hamas members handed out sweets.

Obviously YouTube managers are not interested in being held responsible for someone noticing that genocidal Jew hatred defines Palestinian society – and the Arab world as a whole. But they really have no reason to be concerned. Even if they had allowed the video to be posted for more than an hour, it wouldn’t have made a difference.

The enlightened peoples of Europe, and growing numbers of Americans, have no interest in hearing or seeing anything that depicts Jews as good people, or even just as regular people. It is not that the cultured, intellectual A-listers in Europe and America share the Palestinians’ genocidal hatred of the Jewish people.

The powerful newspaper editors, television commentators, playwrights, fashion designers, filmmakers and professors don’t spend time thinking about how to prepare the next slaughter. They don’t teach their children from the time they are Hadas and Elad Fogel’s ages that they should strive to become mass murderers. They would never dream of doing these things. They know there is a division of labor in contemporary anti-Semitism.

The job of the intellectual luminaries in Western high society today is to hate Jews the old-fashioned way, the way their greatgrandparents hated Jews back in the days of the early 20th century before that villain Adolf Hitler gave Jewhating a bad name.

Much has been made of the confluence of anti-Semitic bile pouring out of the chattering classes. From Mel Gibson to Julian Assange to Charlie Sheen to John Galliano, it seems like a day doesn’t go by without some new celebrity exposing himself as a Jew hater.

It isn’t that the beautiful people and their followers suddenly decided that Jews are not their cup of tea (or rail of cocaine). It’s just that we have reached the point where people no longer feel embarrassed to parade negative feelings towards Jews.

A DECADE ago, the revelation that French ambassador to Britain Daniel Bernard referred to Israel as “that shi**y little country,” was shocking. Now it is standard fare. Everyone who is anyone will compare Israel to Nazi Germany without even realizing this is nothing but Holocaust denial.

The post-Holocaust dam reining in anti-Semitism burst in 2002. As Jewish children and parents like the Fogels were being murdered in their beds, on the streets, in discotheques, cafés and supermarkets throughout Israel, fashionable anti-Semites rejoiced at the opportunity to hate Jews in public again.

The collective Jew, Israel was accused of everything from genocide to infanticide to just plain nastiness.

Israel’s leaders were caricatured as Fagin, Shylock, Pontius Pilate and Hitler on the front pages of newspapers throughout Europe. IDF soldiers were portrayed as Nazis, and Israeli families were dehumanized.

No longer civilians with an inherent right to live, in universities throughout the US and Europe, Israeli innocents were castigated as “extremist-Zionists” or “settlers” who basically deserved to be killed.

Professors whose “academic” achievements involved publishing sanitized postmodern versions of anti-Jewish Palestinian propaganda were granted tenure and rewarded with lucrative book contracts.

Today, when properly modulated, Jew hatred is a career maker. Take playwright Caryl Churchill’s 1,300- word anti-Semitic monologue Seven Jewish Children.

The script accuses the entire population of Israel of mass murders which were never committed.

For her efforts, Churchill became an international celebrity. The Royal Court Theater produced her anti- Jewish agitprop. The Guardian featured it on its home page. When Jewish groups demanded that The Guardian remove the blood libel from its website, the paper refused. Instead, it left the anti-Semitic propaganda on its homepage, but in a gesture of openmindedness, hosted a debate about whether or not Seven Jewish Children is anti-Semitic.

From London, Seven Jewish Children went on tour in Europe and the US. In a bid to show how tolerant of dissent they are, Jewish communities in America hosted showings of the play, which portrays Jewish parents as monsters who train their children to become mass murderers.

Seven Jewish Children’s success was repeated by the Turkish anti-Semitic action film Valley of the Wolves- Palestine, which premiered on January 28 – International Holocaust Memorial Day. The hero of that film is a Turkish James Bond character who comes to Israel to avenge his brothers, who were killed by IDF forces on the Turkish-Hamas terror ship Mavi Marmara last May.

No doubt owing to the success of Seven Jewish Children and Valley of the Wolves-Palestine and other such initiatives, anti-Semitic art and entertainment is a growth sector in Europe.

Last month Britain struck again. Channel 4 produced a new piece of anti-Semitic bile – a four-part prime-time miniseries called The Promise. It presents itself as an historical drama about Israel and the Palestinians, but its relationship with actual history begins and ends with the wardrobes. In what has become the meme of all European and international left-liberal salons, the only good Jews in the mini-series are the ones who died in the Holocaust. From the show’s perspective, every Jew who took up arms to liberate Israel from the British and defend it from the Arabs is a Nazi.

WHAT ALL this shows is that Netanyahu was wasting his time calling on world leaders to condemn the murder of the Fogel family. What does a condemnation mean? France and Britain condemned the massacre, along with the US. Does that exculpate the French and British for their embrace of anti-Semitism? Does it make them friends of the Jewish state? And say a British playwright sees the YouTubecensored photographs. No self-respecting British playwright will write a play called Three Jewish Children telling the story of how Palestinian parents do in fact teach their children to become mass murderers of Jews. And if a playwright were to write such a play, The Royal Court Theater wouldn’t produce it. The Guardian wouldn’t post it on its website. Liberal Jewish community centers in America wouldn’t show it, nor would university student organizations in Europe or America.

No, if someone wanted to use the photographs of Yoav’s and Elad’s mangled corpses and clenched fists as inspiration to write a play or feature film about the fact that the Palestinians have no national identity outside their quest to annihilate the Jewish state, he would find no mass market.

The headlines describing the attack make all this clear.

From the BBC to CNN the Fogels were not described as Israelis. They were a “settler family.” Their murderers were “alleged terrorists.”

As far as the opinion makers of Europe and much of America are concerned, the Yoavs and Hadases and Elads of Israel have no right to live if they live in “a settlement.”

So too, they believe that Palestinians have a right to murder Israelis who serve in the IDF and who believe that Jews should be able to live freely wherever we want because this land belongs to us.

Until these genteel Jew haters learn to think otherwise, Israel should neither seek nor care if they condemn this or any other act of Palestinian genocide. We shouldn’t care about them at all.

caroline@carolineglick.com