Heavy On The Gas

"...we like natural diasters as bookmarks in our chronicles. Earthquakes, flood, tsunamis, volcanoes all appear to be outside of history and non-partisan." - John Batchelor.

I really like your description of natural disasters as ‘non-partisan bookmarks’. I guess it’s been in the back of my mind ever since RE uttered the words, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.”

I just finished listening to Aaron Klein’s Sunday show in which he parsed Barack Hussein Obama’s speech last week re the Middle East. Aaron’s weekly radio program is the kind of radio The John Batchelor Show used to be; and, in somewhat diluted form, still is.

Putting aside what Aaron actually had to say, the very fact that we cannot comfortably take Obama’s words at face value is troubling. Does he support Israel, or does he not? The jury is still out on that. An argument can be made either way. Does he understand the linkage between Israel and America as it has traditionally served? And, in a more immediate sense: What does he intend for America? Again, a variety of opinion prevails.

We’ve come a long way from trying to figure out whether Bill Clinton had sex with Monica Lewinsky or not. The argument we’re having today brings it much closer to home. It puts us in the crosshairs. After two and a half years, we are still at a loss to explain who our president is and in whose interests he might be working. Meanwhile all the metrics by which we have traditionally judged administrations are telling us we’re going down.

It seems what we write here has very little impact; that even what JB and his guests may say on his mighty New York ‘blowtorch’ megaphone is but a thimble’s worth of utterance tossed into the great torrent of popular babble. I think we’re all smart enough to know that no one really cares what we say or write. If people should actually begin to care, it would probably be wise to stop. Mitch Daniels and Donald Trump (among others) seem already to have reached this conclusion.

It is, after all, only ourselves we aim to please. Unfortunately, whether by design or accident, we remain our own severest critics, forever seeking approval from someone ‘outside’. The more astute among us, perhaps, eventually come to realize that there is no one really out there – never was; never will. Call this futile exercise good old-fashioned ‘blame-shifting’.

At one time, there was a great debate to determine the center of the universe. As is customary in any such endeavors, the first three reports were wrong – and from the look of things, all subsequent reports may be wrong as well. In fact, the question may be so absurd as to not even deserve consideration.

Given all we have to worry about, it’s a small matter indeed, intended only for GPS fanatics – as is worry about apocalypse; rapture; the 12th Imam’s well; etc. These are not things we can actually do anything about. What does appear to be possible is for us to handle our own affairs with due care and dignity. And even in that we too often fail (Schwarzenegger, Strauss-Kahn).

When a nation fails, it seldom fails from the outside. It fails from within. It fails due to the fractures and divisions induced by uneven emphasis. By that score, we have failed already – even before Barack Hussein Obama started sporting his first legitimate tooth. Our president is merely the driver whom we have chosen to drive our bus. Netanyahu happens to be on that bus as well. He now wishes he weren't - as he now raises the alarm, saying that our driver may be a little too heavy on the gas.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Less Time To Flatten

Emotion – not reason - drives policy. Reason only serves in support. If we are to understand policy, we must first understand emotion. We use a variety of terms to describe emotion. Often such terms are misapplied. It happens quite innocently in the course of common occurrences: The wife asks, “Do you want okra or green beans for dinner?” I say, “Green beans.” She responds by saying, “I know, you hate okra.”“So why did you ask?” I say, and we’re off to the races.

In truth, I’m indifferent to both. Just because I have voiced a preference does not mean I have strong feelings either way. Yet, the word “hate” has been introduced into the conversation.

It’s no secret that Obama does not have a firm grip on the details that define the Middle East. He sees all Muslims as Muslims and all infidels as infidels - black and white. Simple. It is the same view “The Nation of Islam” here in the U.S. holds. Given such scant knowledge would be enough for any average American president to conduct foreign affairs. Unfortunately, Obama is on the wrong side.

Hatred is often mislabeled as ‘fear’. Islamists in the ME fear the West. They see their culture in danger of being diluted by western ways. That’s why they fight. Islam in the West hates the West as an expression of its own self-loathing. There is a difference.

Islam takes fear and envy and wraps them all in the same cloth and sets it on fire. For simplicity’s sake we call it ‘hatred’. They constantly misrepresent the enemy; to make him out worse than he appears. It is for this reason that Islamic nations do not welcome guests – and if they do, these are treated separately – all to maintain the ridiculous notion that all guests are pollutants.

Israel is seen as a pollutant on what Islam perceives as its land. They do not fear Israel (as Israel poses no existential threat); they fear the influence of a modern, successful, western nation in their midst. They fear not being able to maintain close theocratic control over their own, whom they view as chattel – easily distracted from the straight and narrow and apt to chase anything that glitters. They feel their hold slipping. As such, they will go to increasing lengths to see to it that their sheep, goats, camels and women stay in line.

The frustration that mounts within their populations is building to explode. Even that - by careful, systematic manipulation - can be directed to serve the theocratic regime. All the rage is channeled against Israel and the West (for protecting Israel). In this way the Islamic theocracy shields itself from having to answer for its own failures.

On Aaron Klein’s radio show today, not much was made of NABKA Day. It’s a day like any other for a nation under constant siege. What was interesting, however, was Aaron’s exchange in his last segment with Hussein. Hussein finds it inconceivable that anyone would question Obama’s legitimacy. He asks, how it could be possible for every one of America’s official high legal authorities (plus the media) to give Obama a pass without an adequate background check and takes umbrage at Aaron’s suggestions? He went on to accuse Aaron of fueling hate for hate’s sake.

We have seen other hoaxes before. Some have exploded (‘global warming’), some have not and are ongoing. Maybe freedom and liberty; rule of law; capitalism; a nod to representative governance all are hoaxes. But these are our hoaxes - hoaxes that Americans have chosen to live by. Obama’s hoaxes are entirely different. These are unwelcome. These were introduced into the body politic by stealth. They seek to tear down and destroy everything we’ve ever held dear. All we have to do is just look around: economy is in tatters, foreign policy in tatters; education in tatters; Constitution in tatters; government in tatters; etc.

The long knives are out for talk radio as well. Avlon’s article is one of these. Smerconish’s show is another. Both seek to pour oil on troubled waters. Unfortunately, I have heard, there’s not enough oil. (Can’t you just picture us throwing windmills and batteries into the drink?)

Emotion drives policy. If you hate that sandcastle on the beach with the penis shaped towers, you go over and you level it. It’s that elementary (my dear Watson). Chances are that it will take you a lot less time to flatten it than it took to build.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

On The Verge of America's Third Revolution

Listening to Aaron Klein’s radio show today, I learned that Muslim student associations routinely recite the Muslim pledge of allegiance at their meetings on school grounds. This seems odd to me. While other religious organizations are often barred from holding meetings (on school grounds), the Muslim students seem to be getting away with it. It is not unusual for any organization to have a motto, pledge or mission statement. While most are relatively benign in content, the Muslim pledge sounds overtly seditious (to me). They are openly calling for the overthrow of the United States (and capitalism), pledging to give their very lives to their quest for global domination.

Why is Homeland Security not investigating these groups? Why is it that every other group (Tea Parties, veterans groups, the Boy Scouts, Catholics, etc.) is quick to raise suspicions within our Homeland Security apparatus while Muslim groups are given a free pass? (And I still don’t have an answer as to why Muslim women are not subject to mandatory airport pat-downs.) Can anyone still say ‘double standard‘? ‘Inexperience‘? ‘Incompetence on the part of our leadership‘? Or is it treason?

While every other religion is shunned, ridiculed and shamed into pulling in its horns under a policy of ‘separation of church and state’, only Islam faces no legal or societal roadblocks. In fact, as a nation we seem to roll over and play dead to any Islamic demand.

The answer is so obvious, it almost seems superfluous to articulate it. America has become a Muslim nation. It happened when we elected Barack Hussein Obama to be our supreme leader. The rest of the world knows this. If we could accept the fact that this has happened, we would begin understand a whole lot of things that have escaped our reason since the day our current president was sworn in without a Bible: from his refusal to show his birth certificate, to what is going on in the Middle East, to Wisconsin.

All the money we have poured into the Middle East for oil appears to have bought them our media, our major institutions, and even our government. Does anyone seriously think that they will ever let go of it? The second American revolution is already in the rearview mirror. It happened while we were sleeping. The sooner we wake up, the sooner can America’s third revolution begin.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

More Christians Than Lions

There’s another narrative here that the media couldn’t quite bring off; but, God knows, they tried. That was to say, because of Obama’s visit to the hospital, Giffords opened her eyes. It would have made for terrific copy world-wide. It would have gone along seamlessly with an earlier thread: Obama as messianic figure.

All the other stuff worked. They really can’t complain. Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Tea Party - all in the dog house. The need for yet more money to treat people with psychological problems and to house psychopaths; maybe even a brand new Federal department complete with death panel czar to oversee it all. More welfare for the afflicted; higher taxes, of course. More money for education; more gun control… on and on it goes.

Finally, it’s all Republicans’ fault. Listening to Aaron Klein broadcasting from Israel last Sunday, he related how Israelis were convinced that Jared Loughner was a right-wing tea party member - and these were people working in news rooms!

In India, it’s the same story.

There are more Christians than lions; but, hell, you’d never know it.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Full Speed Ahead!

Lou, Lagnese – I’m curious. I know you two (John Batchelor Show commenters) – very likely being of somewhat stronger constitution than I - read the opposition blogs; you know, the ones that post proudly in support of anything (brand) Obama while despising the tea parties. I must admit, I have never been particularly tempted. Still, I’m wondering how these bloggers can justify Obama’s disastrous fiscal policies; his endless appeasement of rogue, suicidal regimes; his insistent clinging to the now discredited ‘global warming’ hoax, and so many adjunct policy forays (as into health, security, education, etc.) that any reasonable human being can plainly see are bound to fail? Is it stupidity? Ignorance? Is it to poke a stick in the eye of some political nemesis? Is it in pursuit of some improbable Utopian dream? Is it suicidal? Or does it stem merely from a desire to appear outrageous in the vain hope of ascending to Andy Warhol’s 15 minutes of fame?

No doubt, in comparison to what is now frequently termed the ‘lamestream media’ these left-wing blogging types are far more virulent. One can gather as much by their intemperate rhetoric as reflected on the signs their kindred of Cain often carry at street rallies, sit-ins and such. One gets a sense of it from their unfounded accusations hurled our way – unfounded, because none of it applies. It must come from somewhere, most likely from their own misdirected assessment of themselves.

Just wondering what we’re up against. Any chance of them turning – getting ‘religion’, so to speak? I just thought - if it were to get bad enough – can we expect them to flock to our side? Or is it a hopeless cause, trying to convert them?

There are all sorts of books slated to come out (or released already) detailing Obama’s roots; among them “The Manchurian President” by Aaron Klein and Brenda J. Elliott. All are (or will be) selling tolerably well. But has it all come too late?

Understanding is not enough. The Tea Parties understand. Most of the citizenry understands; America understands. What of it? We ourselves here are essentially preaching to the choir. We argue the finer points amongst ourselves. But we convert no one – or, if we do, they too watch helplessly as health care passes; as our allies are dissed and dismissed; as Iran builds its bomb; as the oil slick spreads; as prices rise; as our sons and daughters turn against us.

I don’t see the ship turning. With the mist of the falls already surrounding us, our captain cries, “Full speed ahead!”

What's Happened to the Engineer?

Aaron Klein, the Jerusalem Bureau Chief for World Net Daily writes, "Republican lawmakers last month placed a 'hold' on Obama's pick to head the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) over concerns he (Erroll Southers) could undermine safety by unionizing airport security." As I read this, I would have to say that no one is in charge at the TSA. The system still functions, but solely on the momentum of what previous administrations have put in place. However, it now appears that the clocks are winding down.

We could take it a step further and scribe a wider arc to include the entire U.S. government; and we could say with equal certitude that no one is in charge there as well - not in a practical way, at any rate. We are reminded of it over and over again as we watch the dollar's steady downward slide; as we watch gate crashers crashing White House security; as we watch our foreign policy unraveling; as we watch for the mailman to bring us our government checks.

On so many levels, in so many areas, we are barely moving on rapidly dying momentum. Since Barack Hussein Obama took office, nothing of substance has been added. The Yankee Clipper is running out of steam and the passengers are getting nervous. "Why are we slowing down?" they're asking. "What's happened to the engineer?"

What indeed! Could somebody check? How long do you think it would take to bring in a new guy to take over?