Laughing Gas

As we face new threats to our economy almost every day, it becomes clear that socialists really don’t much care about it, or even care to understand it. They see it either as some immortal golden goose or as something diabolical that must be destroyed. It remains unclear what would replace it as communists (as well as Islamists) have been pretty much riding piggyback on our financial system as it stands.

I have never heard or read of a viable alternative to capitalism. I guess we’re experimenting with that now. Printing money and joblessness, both seem to play some part in it. Most economists (bar Krugman) agree that this will not end well. Still we persist, seemingly deliberately driving the economy into the ground. I suspect that after everything has been said and done, the basic outlines of capitalism will emerge once again. I just don’t see what else could possibly work.

We’ve gone too far to go back to herding and growing our own food, and bartering for services. People will not accept a communist or Islamic solution, unless forced to do so.

Pol Pot emptied the cities and drove people into the fields. Those needing glasses were summarily shot. Mao had a similar idea when he emptied the hospitals of qualified staff and sent them off to dig ditches. And the Taliban has vowed to burn all medical books.

I don’t believe it will come to that here, but the danger is that fewer and fewer of our people understand the workings of an economy, believing that money is simply manna from heaven and quite unrelated to perseverance, talent and work. Our schools, with few exceptions, are mostly left-oriented. They endlessly preach the evils of capitalism, but refuse to advance alternatives.

That’s why it takes until young people are already working for them to notice the scale of the tax bite they must endure - if they even know enough to look at their deductions.

Similarly, global strategy and defense appear to be barely understood going forward. Anything having to do with the military is distained by popular culture. This is yet another aspect of what has made America great in the past that has come under attack. The fact that it’s raining birds in Louisiana becomes yet another excuse for us to be scratching our heads, blaming Bush, Republicans, Congress, Big Oil (and industry in general), jihadis, China and patriotic fireworks in that order.

Just breaking: “Hundred of thousands fish found dead in the Arkansas River”.Also: “former Pentagon aide found (dead) in landfill; FBI only assisting - not investigating“. Also: “Navy fires Captain Owen Honors over raunchy videos.”

Does anyone understand any of this? Does a self-respecting country really behave this way? Meanwhile, by no means rattle the Chinese cage. They have a choke hold on our debt, after all. They’ll buy whatever they can with it before they prick the balloon and we are left with nothing but laughing gas to defend ourselves.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Choke Circles

Go easy on the lad (Mohamed Osman Mohamud, the would-be Oregon Christmas tree lighting bomber), John. It used to be that young people like him came to America for the opportunity to make something of themselves, to provide for their kids a better life than they could by staying in their own countries. Now, they come here to destroy us. Why?

Because America is no longer the land of opportunity, the home of the free and the brave. We’ve been announcing throughout the world that we’re second rate and worse: the vortex of evil. In this we’ve been aided by our corrupt political class and by our academic intellectuals who miss no opportunity to trash us in every way possible.

Boys like Mohamed Osman Mohamud arrive here with a much greater vision than our own. They come here poised to feed off its carcass. Their vision of an Islamic Caliphate puts America’s vision of itself to shame. Theirs is a cause powerful enough to justify freezing off toes, like the soldiers at Jockey Hollow did; or to die, to sacrifice themselves. Self-sacrifice is the ultimate expression of hope. We do it every day - go to work and do battle till our teeth gap and our hands start shaking; until we can’t go on anymore - for our children. Mohameds the world over have been told they can become gods in a flash of explosives; that enough such flashes will fell an empire and the glory of Islam will arise from its despised ruins.

Why ‘despised’? Because America is no longer willing to defend itself. We’re running around the world whining about how perfectly evil we are. We grovel and apologize to those who had once looked up to us. We’ve become like Swiss cheese - full of holes. It’s allowed for the infiltration of hostile networks on all levels - the biggest (unoccupied) hole being the Oval Office, where Karla now sits.

Yes, all the Mohamuds out there have read their John LeCarre novels. They know how it’s done. We’ve blown our own networks and left ourselves open for anything and everything. What are the FBI and CIA doing these days other than talking with imposters, doling out money to anyone with their hands out, and lying to us? No way to run a Circus.

Besides the ideology - besides the promise of reward, veneration by billions of the like-minded, and purity - there’s the game; the pure joy of having brought it off. Even failure rattles the West. First it was box cutters; then it was shoes that didn’t explode - now we’ve got every Westerner emptying his pockets and taking off his shoes - then liquids… and now underwear. Just imagine! They dance to every tune we happen to be playing, even the false notes - those big and powerful, and arrogant, dying saps; running mechanically in ever tighter choke circles.

Only, Mohamed too has it wrong. Dresden was rebuilt. Hiroshima thrives. And the sand- eating hoards will eventually be sent back to the desert where they can do the least amount of damage. Let them enjoy their brief stay in the temperate climes - courtesy of the ever-generous Club USA.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Moscow Subway Bombing

Looks like a classic example of the dog turning on its master. (Note: I make no qualitative distinction between dog and master.) From these (cyber) pages we have learned that Russia encourages Tehran; that Tehran encourages terrorists. Will Russia now cooperate with America to defeat terrorism?

Answer: No. Putin does not see America as a credible partner in any serious area of endeavor. Putin has looked into Obama's eyes and saw nothing useful there - only immense pride and unearned arrogance. Putin will handle this on his own. He will be utterly ruthless. He can be expected to take full advantage of the crisis. He will make heads roll publicly to distract from his own failings.

Americans watching from the sidelines will not feel encouraged. They will despair at what they see as their own president's efforts to counter terrorism. FBI raids of Christian militia groups will fail to allay fears.

Since passage of the health care bill, there has been much talk in the media about right-wing violence. The NYT – party organ of our current administration - has suggested that the tsunami of public disapproval of the bill has nothing to do with the bill itself; that instead, it has become an excuse by white males to attack a sitting black president. We are now to believe that any criticism of Obama’s policies is the result of racism. This is a dangerous tact this administration is taking.

Obama was elected primarily to vanquish white guilt. It appears to have backfired. Obama’s election is about to give race baiters a field day. I propose we shut down all conservative websites, and silence conservative talk radio. Why, when disagreement alone is deemed sedition, hand them more nails with which to crucify us?