Staring Us In The Face

As Egypt’s travail progresses, I increasingly hear glowing reports in the media about the demonstrators and their ‘legitimate’ grievances. This may all be well and good. There hasn’t been a legitimate election in Egypt since Mubarak assumed office in 1981 (following the assassination of Anwar Sadat). In all that time it would not be an overstatement to say that the Egyptian people have gotten the short end of the stick.

However, Egypt is not America or any other nation where elections have paved the way for a smooth transfer of power. (We let it happen it in Gaza and it didn’t work out so well.) It might even be said that Egypt has been held together by ten-cents worth of salt water taffy and glue, courtesy of (who else?) Uncle Sam.

There are those who now joyfully opine that this may not have been our best policy - especially now that the jewel in our Middle East crown (Israel) stands somewhat tarnished by events. This view contends that Israel should be left alone to see to itself, allowing for serious reform to develop among its neighbors.

There is every indication that the current American administration is now prepared to do just that. This would release a lot of water currently dammed up. Not sure if Israel could survive the flood.

Leaving the issue of Israel’s survival aside for the moment, there’s now a different, more ominous narrative emerging. Increasingly one hears about this initially noble revolution (throughout the Middle East) being hijacked by extremist elements. No doubt Iran and its proxies, as we, have a stake in its eventual outcome. We hear that we shouldn’t worry; that Iran will never get a foothold (in Egypt) because their population differs from Egypt’s in significant ways. We can only hope.

When Obama was elected, we also had hope. Now, we might say that, first, our Democrat party was hijacked; and, then, our government. We look around and might say that our universities and our media were hijacked by a radical fringe. We might even say that our financial institutions, our churches and our unions were infiltrated and hijacked while we weren’t paying attention. Now, even though we still think of ourselves uniquely as Americans, we find it difficult find a solid hold to steady ourselves. We’re just ‘the people’ who sense that something has gone terribly wrong. We speak out, but our voices trail off into the ether. We gather to show our solidarity with what? - Some guy on the radio? Ourselves?

Meanwhile, the government grinds on along its merry way with seemingly no regard for us. In fact, it is ruling against our will. We find ourselves working for it, even as we thought it was working for us. This is tyranny.

Not exactly sure how long it’s been this way. It’s just that we woke up one morning and saw it staring us in the face.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Sorry Larry... (Liberalism Is Not Dead)

There’s a reason they did health care. And they didn’t do it to have it repealed by the first no-name senator to come along in a now thoroughly disgraced Senate. Yes, all that Barrasso says about it is true on one level. But there are other levels behind it that support Obamacare and all else that Obama has done in his brief two years in office. My clue was the word “replace” (as in ‘repeal and…’). Possession is nine-tenths of the law. The libs control the narrative and will continue to do so. We, as the saying goes, have become chopped liver.

There are 11 years’ difference between my brother and I. So, when it came time for him to drive, it fell to me to teach him. I backed out of the driveway and gave him the wheel. So far so good. We went down Springfield and made a right turn onto Oakley. At the Beekman, I told him to turn left. That’s where the trouble started. He didn’t turn the wheel hard enough and we ended up on somebody’s front lawn. I asked him to back up and try again. He did, and smashed into a telephone pole, leaving a permanent ‘V’ in my newly chromed rear bumper. I had sense enough to end the lesson right there and then and told him to get out of the car.

First, we poisoned world financial markets by ignoring the elementary rules of capitalism in an effort to satisfy some utopian fantasy in which everyone is entitled to own a home. Then we drove our own markets into an accelerating nose dive with health care legislation with similar implausible promises. Next, we continue to pump money into places like Pakistan and Gaza, knowing full well that we are hated even more, precisely for doing so. And finally, we continue to maintain ethanol subsidies which puts food and fuel into the sharp competition within the same basket, reducing the availability primarily of food (world-wide) and sending both food and fuel prices through the roof. In India, the issue of food prices is currently poised to topple the present government. (Each of these topics is discussed in detail under different headings in this weekend’s edition of the WSJ. The lead editorial refers to our ethanol policy as ‘immoral’ as it is already taking a toll on the poor all over the globe.)

Most of our efforts are centered on the reduction of fossil fuel emissions which are said to promote 'climate change’. Even in light of the University of East Anglia e-mail revelations that exposed the whole thing as a hoax, we push on with cap and trade, fuel standards, ever mounting regulations on domestic coal and oil production, mercury light bulbs and what not.

While most other countries struggle to throw off the choke collar of unbridled socialism, we continue to make it tighter. Sure, there’s been an outcry against present policies. But it goes unheard among Washington elites. Liberalism is not dead, as many pundits after the last election proclaimed. It is now busy pursuing a scorched-earth policy, marching on an on over the wreckage of our economy, our agriculture, foreign alliances, and anything else that may have helped us in the past to achieve world class status.

Today, I read about Obama’s plan to increase government spending even further. Haven’t we tried that already? I’m sorry Larry (Kudlow), I just don’t see the silver lining in this scenario. How many dents and scratches have we yet to suffer before we hit the bridge abutment head on?

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

No Remorse

Any written document exists at best as a shorthand in support of a theme. Any sentence within it must not and cannot be regarded as absolute truth. It can only be an approximation. Haiku is a Japanese art form in which three lines of writing aim to convey a broader concept. It usually amounts to a pictorial. The intended effect is a feeling that often defies definition.

When I say, “Obama is out to destroy the nation”, I do not mean by it that he will order the military to carpet-bomb America. And even if true, the landmass would remain along with most of its people. What I really mean is (and it has surfaced at various times, embedded in various terminology) that he is out to fundamentally 'change' the nation. He has said so himself. But we, as heretofore optimistic Americans, automatically jump to the conclusion that this American president would strive to make America a better place - at least, better than it has been. ‘Better’ meaning that all ships are raised by what he intends.

Having watched our president over the past two years, I find this is not the case. The part about ‘change’ is still applicable, but the one about ‘better’ is clearly not. As I look around, I cannot fail to see that now, two years later, everything is worse. The press does not trumpet it as they did with Bush, but nevertheless housing, jobs, and the economy in general are barely limping along. The world too, is a much more dangerous place as rogue nations, seeing America taking a back seat, are flexing their muscles.

All this could not be happening by accident. There is a plan. The plan for the past two years has been to diminish America’s influence in the world. In order to achieve this, America itself needs to be diminished. And this program is proceeding unimpeded.

You may ask yourself, why would any American - never mind the president - be complicit in such a program? The answer is: because he believes it. There are citizens living here who actually hate this country. It stems from a condition of profound narcissism. They look around and see huge problems elsewhere and erroneously assume that America - universally acknowledged to be the greatest power and influence in the world today - is at fault; that everything our nation has ever done has led to this condition; and, worse yet, that America has profited unjustly by it. Therefore, the answer they arrive at is that America must be cut down to size.

They recruit the like-minded, the weak-minded, the corrupt, and those hostile to America from overseas to form a coalition to bring this about. Our president, sadly, is among these.

It may make some sense when written within the frame of a history text or doctoral dissertation. It may even earn one honors by the way in which it was expressed, the balance, symmetry and beauty of the argument. But actual geopolitics does not necessarily conform to academic theory, however elegant. As I suggested at the outset, dogma is but a shorthand (set in stone) for utopian dreams.

There are so many factors that play into the reality of a single situation, it would overflow every existing library in the world just to house a minute fraction. Therefore, it is sheer madness to reduce these to just one or two simple solutions and then to pursue these come hell or high water.

Of far greater import is one’s love for one’s country, one’s faith in one’s people; and of wanting to do what’s best for them. In other words, to subscribe to the concept of 'exceptionalism'. Not to wallow in one’s self-loathing. Also, it’s always so much more effective to lead by example; to begin at home, or with oneself even: to develop discipline; to eschew bad habits; to remain vigilant and caring for those whose situation it may be in one’s power to affect.

Barack Hussein Obama, for whatever reason, wants to go down in history as having changed (no less than) the world. For this, he seems to be willing to sacrifice his own. It will not work. The damage he would end up doing to America would reverberate around the world. No one will be immune - least of all he.

The story of Detroit is not what it seems on the surface. It is of jackals feasting on a carcass. It is of corruption sanctified by hatred - hatred for the whites that built this once great city on the backs of blacks. It is pay-back. It is kicking over the sand castle. It is the Palestinians destroying the greenhouses of Gaza.

Even if convicted, Kwame Kilpatrick will show no remorse.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Gen. McChrystal vs. POTUS Obama

The apology tour continues on all fronts:

When Israel gave up Gaza to Hamas it left in place housing, greenhouses and fully functioning factories. The first thing Hamas did was smash all such infrastructure in the name of (victory) celebration.

The brouhaha that has erupted between POTUS and Gen. Stanley McChrystal is what normally happens between a professional (employer) and his or her less-than-dedicated novice underling. Only, in our upside down world (since Obama) the roles are reversed. McChrystal is the professional and Obama is the novice. McChrystal’s exposé in Rolling Stone was a cry for help. No way can we win a war with all these namby-pamby restrictions placed on our fighting men and women. Putting them out on the battlefield under such conditions is like signing their death warrants in advance. June is already the deadliest month ever for our soldiers in Afghanistan.

While conservative talk show hosts eagerly line up on every conceivable side of the argument in hopes of boosting the sales of their sex toy advertisers, our brave men and women are dying on foreign soil. McCrystal is a general’s general. His men are foremost on his mind. How can he be expected to explain the sacrifice of his fallen when he knows the exercise is essentially pointless; when we are merely treading water - already slated for withdrawal no matter what happens? We’re not even allowed to define ‘victory’ (or ‘enemy’) for God’s sake! In today’s world, it is no longer a general’s job to march his troops off a cliff just to demonstrate their loyalty to an egotistical, maniacal king.

No doubt, McCrystal also feels the reputation of the armed forces is on the line. Coming home without a clear victory to show for it is bound to signify yet another nail in the coffin of the once proud American military. No other president has used the military so recklessly; so dismissively; so reluctantly; so insufficiently. U.S. presidents in charge of wars from Vietnam through Iraq might have made tactical mistakes and then taken their just lumps. But no president, prior to Barack Hussein Obama, has dispatched American troops for (what now appears to be) the sole purpose of destroying his own military.

The pattern is clear: In order to rebuild America you first have to destroy every functioning piece of it. You have to destroy democracy, history, the economy, education, trust, religion, the press, industry, etc. The big thing that’s left is the military. No doubt, McCrystal sees the writing on the wall: The impossible mission; his troops hogtied, then accused. He will have no part in it.

A Benefit of Doubt

World reaction to Israel's intercept of Turkey's 'Free Gaza' flotilla has been predictable. Israel stands alone. Interesting how our vocabulary has changed. Every word we now use has come to mean its exact opposite. Only the logic remains impeccable. In a world turned upside down, words have lost their meaning … and all that is left is the stench of anti-Semitism which speaks harsher than words.

The cast of characters who believe Israel is always in the wrong is the same as those who believed in ‘global warming’; the same as those who came down with cases of severe BDS (Bush Derangement Syndrome). They are the same ones who believe Barack Hussein Obama is the messiah. They believe anything that is anti-Israel, anti-American, anti-capitalist. They are playing with fire.

This reminds me of an incident years ago when our kids were still small. In those days we were still in the habit of going to church regularly. The sermons were often long and boring – especially for the kids. There were crayons and coloring pads in the pews. Our youngest and I were talking (and giggling) – quietly enough, I thought. Nevertheless, our eldest, Ivy, got annoyed. She felt it was inappropriate for us to be making a spectacle of ourselves. Not wishing to add to our noise, she took a red crayon and carefully wrote “Will you PLEASE shut up already!” in large letters on the face of her bulletin and passed it over to us.

Properly chastised, we handed it back to her. In the meantime, the pastor was coming down the aisle. He was off on some tangent. He stopped suddenly across from where Ivy was sitting. He admitted that he had lost his place and asked to see her bulletin. He fell silent when his eye fell on what she had written (to us).

We all snuck out through the back door after the service was over – never to return.

Though clearly a shameless provocation, the stunt by Turkey’s 'freedom' flotilla produced predictable results. It required the partnership of the world press whose bias against Israel has been well documented. Also well known was Israel’s tendency to hamstring itself. Can you imagine a similar rag-tag flotilla in support of the Iranian opposition washing up on Persian shores? And while we’re at it, where was the international condemnation re North Korea’s sinking of the Cheonan?

Words will be written, purposely distorted and misdirected. Facts will be rearranged to fit agendas. Unlike in our more innocent time so many years ago, when situations also sometimes culminated in misunderstanding, the free world has become drawn into all-out war. Israel stands in the front lines. India is next. In a war no adults are present to mediate disputes. Dictionaries no longer contain proper meanings. No pastor will suck it up quietly and simply walk away, scratching his wizened head, struggling to find a way to give benefit to a doubt.