Piggy's Broken Glasses

While it’s entertaining to indulge in clever segue; delicious irony; add to it a dash of cynicism, perhaps; and execute astounding word pirouettes - the time has come when we long for a voice, saying clearly and distinctly, “Look, the house is on fire; get hold of some buckets; and some of you go out and find these bastard pyros before the whole town burns down to the ground. And make sure you catch at least one of them alive so we can waterboard him and find out who the hell’s behind it.”

If every world leader friendly to America were brought down by some sin, what would it prove? That the wages of sin only work one way? That the sinners on the other side are automatically absolved forever? The point is that Berlusconi is about to be brought down – to be replaced by whom? Anarchists? Leftists? America haters?

Our instincts have been right all along: close the borders before starting to consider amnesty; plug the leak in the bottom of the boat before we start arguing about who does the bailing - and how.

We all admit that our economy is broken. Obviously, the track we’ve taken of appointing those who broke it in the first place to fix it hasn’t worked. It’s time to regroup and try something else.

In the same way that finding bin Laden would have meant eternal salvation for George W. Bush; in the same way as unmasking Obama would give Trump the American presidency; in the same way Obama envisions handing Israel over to the Islamists would secure for him a luxury apartment in downtown Mecca - the only plan right now must involve stopping the hemorrhaging.

We’re bleeding trust, confidence, talent, savings, jobs, respect… Take a look at the video that’s up on Drudge right now. Is this not an apt metaphor for where we now find ourselves? Union thugs. Tea parties. ACLU. ACORN. “Lord of the Flies”: “The chief led them, trotting steadily, exulting his achievement. He was a chief now in truth; and he made stabbing motions with his spear. From his left hand dangled (not the conch, but) Piggy’s broken glasses.”

Time for some adults to step into the ring. We’ve already - long back - agreed to put cops in our schools. Better start hiring more. People will soon be demanding protection in every fast food joint on the planet. And there are a lot more of them around than there are schools.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

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/

We Must Believe

You’re not helping, John, bashing Republicans at every turn. When Barack Hussein Obama took office, I felt a shift under my feet. ”I don’t mean fear to anger. I mean a sudden shift, a tumultuous upheaval, an uncontrollable displacement, concepts whose surfaces had been insignificant heaving over, up-ended, raised as huge boulders smelling of the earth that still clings to them, a shift that came to me physically, as intestines violently stir and contract when some irritant throws a switch in the digestive tract. Earth, guts – I don’t know what metaphors to use (anymore), to describe…” my clutching for words to explain my sense of impending doom.

You obviously haven’t felt it yet. You’re as one deciding between cake and ice cream – Democrat or Republican – while the rooms of the mansion we cohabit burst into flames one by one.

Is the WSJ now also on the no-fly list – like FOX, MSNBC, Rush, Drudge, JPOST among so many others? The WSJ, whose offices you yourself frequently avail yourself of; the same WSJ that chronicles daily fresh, flagrant abuses by our essentially one-party government.

(Note, I threw MSNBC in with my mix of no-flies because it too has been singled out for censure after having been deliberately dragged down to unfathomable depths of ridiculousness for the sole purpose of giving the exercise an appearance of balance.)

Time will tell who is right. Yes, we are grasping at straws. Whereas Republicans don’t look promising, there is no alternative at the moment. Give them a chance. They will rise to the occasion. We must believe it, for the others (Democrats) are already way beyond redemption.
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Italics taken from Nadine Gordimer’s “Burger’s Daughter”.