Respect

For those who would be tempted to view our times within the context of the American Civil War, the BP Gulf oil spill would represent Fort Sumter. We currently find ourselves somewhere between Fort Sumter and Gettysburg. The oil spill was the first clear shot across the bow of America. It gave our president his first opportunity to clamp down on America’s jugular. Since then, the Left has managed to rack up an impressive string of victories. Even counting a significant number of electoral setbacks (during midterms), this seems to have had zero effect on the Left’s forward momentum. The economy is still in trouble and our position globally has become increasingly tenuous. It is clear that the American Left is hard at work toward seeing that America slips to second or third rung status among nations. So far, they are succeeding.

I have long predicted that something will happen that will forestall the 2012 elections and that Obama would remain in office. If this is correct, it would suggest the timeframe within which to expect Gettysburg. Gettysburg could be anything, foreign or domestic. Too many fuses are already lit; too much ordinance likely to detonate. When it does, there will either be chaos or the system will collapse into a shadow structure (already built and in place).

No one is willing to fully accept that any of this can happen – not in America. Those raising alarms are systematically silenced, crushed by ignorance, and by a general unwillingness to connect the dots and follow trend lines to their logical conclusion. Others, only semi-aware, place their hopes on 2012, our next chance to replace the leadership in Washington. They do not consider the possibility that we might never get there.

How to prepare? First off, know what you stand for. If you stand for liberty and the spirit of America, say so outright and without hesitation. Your worst move is to succumb to the bullying tactics of the Left, or to retaliate in kind. If you happen to be on the left, come out of hiding and state your intent plainly. Stealth will no longer serve you. Everybody must have a voice in determining where we want to end up. For the exercise to succeed, all cards must be put face-up on the table. Winner takes all.

Recognize too that your money is gone. It is being used as a weapon against you - to get you to do things you wouldn’t ordinarily consider doing. Write it off; start fresh. Hunger is another matter. But even hunger can be used as a weapon for a righteous cause. Anna Hazare moved the world recently by going on a hunger strike – so did Gandhi.

Know where you stand and adjust to doing without creature comforts. Obama’s threat to raise a billion dollars for his reelection campaign is meaningless. The money he intends on using has no value – and he knows it. It is a bluff to fend off adversaries. Doing without money will be easier than it seems. For one thing, you can no longer be bribed or corrupted by it. You will be free to pursue what’s right and true. And your reward will be far greater than anything money can ever hope to buy, among these: self-respect.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

America: Not For Profit

There have been calls for revolution right here in America. Most prominently such calls have recently been heard at the protests in Wisconsin‘s state capital. Neither did the oft stated comparison to Egypt’s revolution escape public notice.

As in a series of strokes, first symptoms are seldom recognized as dangerous. Our first rattling of the cage came with the election of Barack Hussein Obama. We’ve been in revolution mode ever since. It’s reached a point where a counter-revolution is now building: the Tea Parties.

When Americans speak of revolution as pertains to their own country, it is difficult to determine what exactly they are talking about. ‘Revolution’ has become a sort of shorthand for ‘change’ popularized in 2008 during Obama’s election bid. Back then, it essentially meant nothing. Change would happen no matter which candidate were to be chosen. Bush was no longer on the ballot after all.

Perhaps, revolution can be identified as ‘accelerated change'. No doubt, this is what we got with Obama. Few would have envisioned how much this administration would be able to accomplish in just two short years. In the process, it has managed to bludgeon any number of sacred cows. (We’ve already gone through the list dozens of times.) These are now screaming to high heaven.

What we are seeing now can perhaps more properly be termed ‘civil war’. Revolution always comes first. With Obama’s election in the history books, the revolution is effectively behind us. Conventional wisdom has it that those best organized tend to come out on top (in a revolution). The American Left was far better organized than the Right, evidenced by the Left winning hands down.

Conservatives may be late to the dance, but they are organizing. There are other factors, of course, that will determine the ultimate result. Of these, enthusiasm may be the most potent. It can gather itself into real momentum. Momentum can only be temporarily halted by ‘organized’ force.

And this is where we find ourselves today. With the media being on the lam, it’s hard to tell at the moment which side will ultimately prevail. Libya is far easier to predict. Kaddafi will use all he has to quell the uprising. Unlike other Middle Eastern tyrants, he must have been planning for this eventuality all along. It won’t be pretty.

Any outside help offered to his regime will be handsomely rewarded. No doubt Russia and others are considering it. We have already stated publicly that we will not make any move that could be construed as an attempt to profit. This makes us unique among nations; and is yet another indication of the direction in which our own revolution is headed.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Sudan: Happily Ever After

Too early to celebrate southern Sudan's independence from the north. Yes, elections are always a plus (or are they?) There are now indications that the elections occurred solely for purposes of clearing the table. Civil wars are always messy. It’s far easier to conduct campaign between recognized nations. The flashpoint will be Abyei. Oil will be a factor. AQ will agitate. It will not allow a Christian nation to stand. The West will fail to protect its interests.

Elections will hardly matter. It’s just a show to appease Western sensibilities. The West is obsessed with symbolism, even if symbolism amounts to mere ritual.

Last weekend, the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu celebrated Pongal. It coincides with the festival Makara Sankranthi celebrated throughout India. Pongal in Tamil means "boiling over" or "spill-over”. The boiling over of milk in a clay pot symbolizes material abundance for the household. Pongal, celebrated at harvest time, is traditionally intended to thank the Sun God and farmstead livestock that helped create the material abundance.

You now know more about Pongal than the average Indian does. They see it merely as a three-day celebration sanctioned by the government and to which the Chief Minister contributes amusements and protection at designated sites. It is a secular holiday in which all can participate - just like elections (the world over) these days.

Sudan's north-south civil war has simmered since 1955, claiming an estimated two million lives.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Kanthapura

The hard Left is not only anti-American; they’ve now ratcheted up the stakes and revealed themselves as being anti-human as well: Anything non-human must be preserved and protected at the expense of individuals. To the Left, humans are evil interlopers on a near-perfect planet. It is no wonder that they support abortion, eugenics and land grabs.

There’s something sick in this and the sickness has now spilled over into our politics. Except, they think we’re sick as well. We are often all too quick to accept their premise, after which point they’ve already won the argument.

Environmentalism has become as potent as Islam. When one flies internationally these days, the screen on the back of the seat in front of you shows the aircraft’s progress across the oceans and over the landmasses. The maps fail to show borders. Often there’s a disclaimer, saying that the maps are non-political; that national borders are deliberately omitted. There are so many border disputes at the moment, the airlines thought it best to avoid the issue entirely. Instead, only the locations of towns are given. These then can be seen as city states while the land around them is a kind of no-man’s land - fly-over country - to be randomly allotted to service the cities as is deemed appropriate. Nations are no longer willing to defend national borders. And indeed, the whole concept of national borders is rapidly growing irrelevant.

What is growing in importance is ideology. And ideology knows no borders. It has long been a dream of the Left to erase all borders and become global. The promise is peace. Unfortunately, conflict will never disappear. There will always be killing. In fact, in the absence of borders, wars may become even more virulent and deadly - as in civil war; pitting neighbor against neighbor, brother against brother, etc.

How does one fight such a war?

I have recently read “Kanthapura”, a novel by Raja Rao. In it he describes a winning strategy. He details how Gandhi’s influence on the grass roots built an invincible army against which the Crown could not win. The secret was peaceful resistance - with an emphasis on ‘peaceful’.

Most trouble in the world originates with ego. Take ego out of the equation, and one literally becomes invincible. This is a lesson the Tea Parties should take to heart, for the fight is drawing near. As the concept of borders crumbles and the emphasis shifts to ideology, the great armies that have so heroically defended us in the past become increasingly useless. We will need to depend largely on ourselves for survival. Rao’s Gandhi may have shown us the way.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Collapsing Puppet Theaters

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

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

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

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

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

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