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/

Resurrection

Either by sheer ineptitude or by design, leadership (as most understand it) is not one of our president’s strong suits. We recommend that anyone waiting for Obama to make the first move not hold their breath. And why should the president trouble himself? By not acting - or only appearing to act - the stinkweed will still continue to bloom in in Michelle’s much-hyped White House garden.

In today’s WSJ there are two unsigned editorials relating to Obama’s policy regarding oil: he hates it, along with every other carbon based fuel. The Gulf oil spill introduced the opening chords of this multi-layered symphony. It gave the administration the excuse to declare a drilling moratorium. Despite being forced to rescind it at a judge’s order, this administration still hasn’t issued a single drilling permit, citing cut-backs in staffing and problems in deciphering the new regulations.

This is not the only time the Obama administration has chosen to drag its feet to achieve policy objectives. Since a judge declared the government’s health care plan unconstitutional, requiring the government to immediately cease its implementation, Obama has used every delaying tactic to circumvent the judge’s ruling. As in the drilling moratorium matter, it now finds itself in contempt of court rulings. But who would enforce it?

Setting the Middle East on fire also meets Obama’s objectives. Likely to drive up prices beyond endurance, the administration figures this to equate with a huge shot-in-the-arm for the fledgling alternative fuels industry…and, most importantly, ‘cap and trade’ legislation which would place a premium on energy usage to then be pocketed by favored constituencies - hence, wealth re-distribution, another policy objective high on the president’s list.

The entire field is in play; all the fuses are lit. All the president has to do is sit back and watch as the sacred cow dominos fall one by one.

I personally have trouble agreeing entirely with this analysis. There are too many steps involved, any one of which could put the ultimate objective ( so called energy independence) at risk. Not the least of which is that the alternative fuel bandwagon is still far from ready. But it does point to a target much closer: this, being America - to stop the blood flowing to America’s heart. If this can be achieved, by any means, America (as we know it) could be declared dead.

I maintain, that America is already dead. She can no longer defend herself in her present state while threats, both internal and external, abound. External aggression will not finish the job; i.e. strip the flesh off her bones. This will be done internally. The opposition in virtually every sector has already been eliminated. And no one from the outside will come to bury the body in accordance with respectful custom. Her one and only hope continues to be Israel which is under attack itself.

My one consolation is that the architects of this monumental crime will not be allowed to rest on their laurels. Whatever may be said of humanity, it does not celebrate murder.

As America is removed from the cross, a new spirit will sweep the world and the idea of ‘America’ will revive to guide it back into safe waters. It will signal a resurrection of sorts in which even the bad guys will have a chance for redemption, and the Mahdi will jump back into his well.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Small Things

Hey, we voted for the guy! Next time (if there is a next time) we’ll be more careful. Mr. Batchelor is only half right when he says: “POTUS disdains foreign policy. POTUS disdains domestic policy.” Obama distains foreign policy because in this he has already failed. His apologetic overtures and pathetic prostrations in foreign capitals have not had their desired effect. Nobody out there - in the real world - takes mere palaver seriously. It’s got to be backed up with something more substantial than small things and a preparedness to commit treason.

Domestic policy is quite another matter. This is an area in which POTUS feels he still has some leverage. Indeed, domestic policy will be by which he will measure success. If he should succeed in turning his ship of state on a leftward course, all else can be expected to fall into place.

What has become clear is that the American people are jumping ship. Obama had hoped for - but did not expect - their support. As it is, only one arrow remains in his quiver: revolution. To this end he will continue to prod and poke, trying his best to whip the people up into a lather. Once this happens, he will have achieved his goal. He can then impose draconian measures that most will find preferable to chaos.

We saw the same MO employed with regard to the oil spill. Nothing yet as to its cause, which appears to be a closely held state secret. Though, speculation abounds. It provided the rationale to impose an oil drilling moratorium. Now that the threat is over, we don’t see the moratorium lifted. It will remain in place to put pressure on America’s lifeline (energy). Eventually prices will rise beyond what can be sustained, putting additional strain on an already faltering economy. When everyone begins shouting ‘collapse!’, Obama will have achieved what he set out to do.

November’s midterms will not change the script. Conventional wisdom has it that Obama will have been sent a signal and that he will change course. He will not. Besides being a committed ideologue, he is also a realist. He knows that what he has already put in place can not be reversed. He knows that economic collapse is at hand. Perhaps he’s getting cold feet. Perhaps he is already looking for a place to hide. All that is possible.

A suicide bomber seldom detonates his own vest. It is usually detonated remotely by someone watching from afar (just in case the bomber loses heart).

Where Are the Republicans?

Good news indeed! But, unfortunately, the bad news overwhelms it. America is now effectively out of the oil business. Without oil, America’s economic engine grinds to a halt - like a car that will coast for a while after it’s run out of gas.

It doesn’t seem like anything can stop this president. He will soon sign legislation that effectively transfers Wall Street from New York to Washington; this, without having read even a single line of it’s 2000+ pages (just like every Senator and Congressman who voted). He will also get comprehensive immigration reform (amnesty) passed and more. Each turn of the screw will be hailed a blessed victory for a president determined to bury America six feet under. (They’re already out shopping for the marble slab.)

Not one Republican member of Congress has spoken out against Dodd-Frank - not that I‘ve heard anyway. (Maybe some have and it was just never reported.) On the contrary, three Republicans voted in support of the effort. That makes it bi-partisan. Everyone can now smile and pat each other on the back, and look forward to going home to brag about all the wondrous things they’ve accomplished for their indentured constituents. Meanwhile, Kagan advances like greased lightning.

Congress has been marginalized to the point where what it says hardly matters anymore. We might as well scrap it and save our money. The same can be said of the Supremes; media and education. Curiously, every dictator who’s ever lived has found it useful to maintain the fiction of justice and representative (rubberstamp) government.

Our Justice Department has gone erratic and rogue. We are left without recourse. We are living under a dictatorship. People are saying it openly now; admitting that the executive branch holds all the reigns. To think otherwise is delusionary.

At this point, what matters most about elections is what Obama thinks about them. If he thinks they’re good for his image, he’ll make an effort to turn the results in his favor. If not, he’ll just ignore the whole thing and pretend it never happened. Either way, it comes out to the same.

Count 'em Again, Barack!

Never before - with the possible exception of President Obama being prevented by a downpour from delivering remarks at a Chicago Memorial Day event - has a metaphor been so chillingly on point. I’m talking about the Gulf oil spill. It conveys everything, from the precipitous general decline of America (especially within the span of the past two years) to its flailing, ineffective measures to get a grip on itself. We must then ask ourselves: Was it inevitable?

Unlike the 9/11 attacks on New York’s World Trade Center, by which a vile and cunning enemy declared war on us, the oil spill appears to have been self-inflicted - but may not be entirely unrelated. We have since done everything possible to obfuscate the reality of the war. There was of course one brief glimmer of recognition as to the enormity of what was at stake, and we did react - some say, stupidly.

The 9/11 bombers never knew just how successful they would turn out to be. Not only did they bring down the (physical) Mecca of American economic dominance, but they also managed to fracture America’s unity, confidence, and will. It’s reverberations would spread poison throughout the American political system, which was the beginning of cascading dominoes, affecting virtually every public and private sector institution.

It would be naïve to think that only a handful of crazed men (who commandeered aircraft and sent them crashing into the heart of America’s economic genius) could accomplish all this with half a dozen box cutters. (By the way, has anyone ever actually thought about what exactly they did with those box cutters?) The ground had already been well prepared. The very idea of America had become brittle as eggshells. It didn’t take much to crack it open.

It starts in the schools. We’ve gone over it dozens of times. Now comes the following insight: A recent study finds that knowledge is absorbed best when it’s imparted by native speakers. How many TA’s today are native speakers?

If the 9/11 attack had not been successful and the Gulf oil spill had happened as it did, we would now be also first stunned, then outraged. We would have plugged that gusher with dynamite and blown it to Kingdome come. As it is, we’re just numb, content to have dodged the bullet ourselves.

I, for one, am beginning to get tired of the story. It’s following exactly the same tired script as everything else these days: ‘We’re ahead of schedule; we’ll have it fixed in no time’ and then: ‘So sorry, it didn’t work; don’t know what could have gone wrong. But we have a much better idea which we’ll start testing tomorrow. It may take a little while to find out if it works…’

It’s the same with the economy. Every day they tell us we’ve turned the corner; that things are on the upswing; improving. And then, when the numbers come out, they tell us it could have been worse. We are in effect asked to praise Obama for the sun coming up in the morning.

Obama’s campaign slogan, ‘Yes, We Can’, now sounds hollow. It’s even gotten to the point where most people think he’s doing it on purpose; that nobody could be that incompetent. Who ever thought that competence was even needed? POTUS has always been largely a ceremonial post; hasn’t it? A laugh line on SNL? If that’s true, who (or what) is actually running things? And why are they running us into the ground? What was that spy thing with the Russians all about? They got 10 of theirs back; we only got 4 (but we got the better deal, we’re told). Sorry, Barack. Count them again!

Hollywood Always Has It End Well

The narrative in and around the Gulf is so compelling - so riveting - if it never had happened, we would have had to invent it. And so we did. Plenty of horror movies out there in which some threat is burgeoning and seemingly unstoppable. Then the hero rides to the rescue on his white horse… Hollywood always has it end well.

It occurs to me that in this particular oil spill saga there are no heroes – at least none that we can see (yet). It just keeps chugging along, getting worse every day. The means we have currently devised to mitigate the immediate problem – the loss of jobs; massive dislocation, and overall threat to the environment – seem inadequate. We’ve elected to sacrifice BP on the altar of public opinion and, along with it, even more jobs. The moratorium on drilling ups the ante as even more jobs are absurdly sacrificed to our pagan god, Gaia. In short, we seem to be fighting the loss of jobs with the loss of more jobs.

In the meantime, the spill spills on. There are signs that the media and our ADD president are on the verge of losing interest altogether. The World Cup and our rapidly approaching midterm elections are just too juicy to overlook. And then, of course, there was Michael Jackson’s death anniversary.

Odd to see no one coming to our aid. Besides affecting the lives and livelihoods of Gulf residents – not to mention wildlife – badly, the spill can also be classified as a global environmental emergency. Whenever there has been such an emergency abroad, the U.S. has usually been the first to arrive. We were always quick to offer humanitarian aid to the stricken whether we were invited or not. Earthquakes in Turkey and Haiti; tsunamis in East Asia; famine in Africa; etc. Often our considerable contribution had to be disguised - our sacks of emergency foodstuffs re-labeled - to look like it’s not coming from us but from some NGO (as not to offend the people filling their bellies with our own home-grown grains).

On May 3rd, 2008, Cyclone Nargis hit shore in Myanmar and devastated the densely populated, rice-farming delta of the Irrawaddy Division. It was the worst natural disaster in Burmese history. The ruling junta’s version of our Jones Act prohibited the country from accepting foreign aid – this, despite 200,000 dead or missing and millions displaced. We continued to beg and bribe officials and they eventually relented and allowed some of us in.

No such efforts are being made here. The nations of the vaunted ’global community’ seem to be just standing around, clucking their tongues and shaking their heads. Where are the Russians, the Chinese, the Venezuelans, Brazil? Where is the Middle East? Europe? Where is The Sierra Club? PETA? Nothing to say? Where is the UN to bash down our doors and fix this thing (which, as is becoming increasingly clear, we can’t handle ourselves).

“Yes, we can!” indeed! Since Obama has been in office, we haven’t been able to do anything, except to make things worse. Whether due to incompetence or by design, it doesn’t matter anymore. We’re going to hell in a hand basket. While the rest of the world just stands around watching.

I once saw an Indian film “Bandit Queen” (Shekhar Kapur) in which a woman was publicly beaten to within an inch of her life. The town’s people just stood around and watched. It sent a chill through my heart.

Could this be the legacy of Ameica's fall from grace: Nobody helping anyone? Every man out for himself?

Used And Abused

We take so many things for granted: a soft, clean bed when we’re tired; a drop of water when we’re thirsty; a praline when we’re feeling peckish; bread when we’re hungry. All this comes to mind while watching Volker Schloendorff’s “The Ninth Day” (German; ’05).

Water is a weapon; food is a weapon; oil is a weapon. We thought it couldn’t get any worse with Bush in office. It’s worse now, and we’re already desperate for a turn-around - after midterms; after 2012. Have we finally hit bottom? Or will our slide continue? Oil is spilling into the Gulf. Fish and birds are dying. Industry is dying. Cities and towns – entire States; the country – are going bankrupt. Services cut. Taxes are up. Public services are struggling to meet ever increasing demand.

Turn-around in November; 2012. New York’s Andrew Cuomo is saying all the right things. Scratch a little deeper and you find he’s joined at the hip with public sector unions.

No budget in New York yet; no federal budget till after elections. Uncertainty. Dead canaries in the mines; on Wall Street; in the stores along Main Street that are closing their doors forever.

People are waking up – even those who initially supported President Obama’s agenda. I found it fascinating when this past Tuesday the influential Business Roundtable issued a critique of a whole host of Obama/Democrat initiatives, concluding, “In our (BRT’s) judgment, we have reached a point where the negative effects of these policies are simply too significant to ignore.”

Much of America – including business leaders – had been up front shilling for the administration on a variety of issues, believing it best to play ball with what they perceived to be the new reality in Washington. They enthusiastically propagandized for ObamaCare, for ClimateCare, fiscal overhaul, stimulus, etc., believing they could escape the consequences of such potentially disastrous policies by striking deals (with the devil). They did so, often at the expense of support from their own members. AARP, AMA, Big Oil, Religion and Wall Street come immediately to mind. Every one of these is now beginning to have second thoughts. They are beginning to understand that they have been used shamelessly. Red-faced, they now realize that the lowly rank and file had been ahead of the curve all along.

This is how governments fall – when trust between the leadership and those faithfully paying the dues is broken. At that point the leadership becomes illegitimate. In our country too, the unions will find that they are being used and abused; that ‘equality’ in Obama’s view does not mean equality with the fat cats on any American Street but, rather, equality with ‘the workers of the world’, some, earning less than a dollar a day. They will find that their living standard, far from rising, will fall. And all this, despite having carried the water for an administration that is only out for itself.

Horse Latitudes

"My routine mistake in reading the news is presuming that there is a best outcome. There is just an outcome. You survive, then you deal with it." - John Batchelor

I can’t really argue with that. Der Mensch denkt, und Gott lenkt. English translation: Man makes plans and God laughs. Still, there’s the narrative to consider. You can’t build a narrative on chaos. There has to be some underlying principle pulling it all together – a frame. Whether it’s socialism, tyranny, or preserving the American way (of life), at least it’s a narrative. Right now we have nothing. We’ve lost our identity and, with it, our direction.

We’ve created a vacuum. Vacuums are unsustainable. It’ll fill up with something. None of us can agree on what to fill it with. A trophy president won’t cut it anymore. Oil spill. The air has gone out of our balloon. It drifts; it falls.

The chaos of uncertainty. It’s killing us. We’re not a dumb people. We know what’s (not) happening. We’ve taken our foot off the gas. It’s always been a race; and we’re slowing down. Even the seventh century Islamic jalopy is gaining on us.

Dead in the water. The horse latitudes. What else can we throw overboard? The economy stalls again. ‘Green’ is out of reach and will continue to elude our grasp even if we insist it won’t.

Tired is no excuse. We’re tired of carrying the load. Whether anyone admits it or not, America has been a great stabilizing force in the world. We’ve extended our hand to so many. All they had to do was ask. We even went so far as to extend our hand to those who spit in our faces. Now we’re overextended. We’re torn. We’ve got nothing left to give.

Who will ride to our rescue when the curtain falls for the last time? Will they be celebrating in Gaza? In Tehran? In Caracas? In Havana? In Pyongyang? In Harare? - shooting their guns in the air. And what happens in the capitals that once shared our vision? They will curse us for our tiredness.

And what will happen to us? You say we “survive, then deal with it”. But what if we don’t?

George Soros: Kingmaker

Many people in Utah are still angry about then-President Bill Clinton's designation of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in 1996. It put the area off limits to further development – especially mining. The Grand Staircase contains one of the two major sources of highly prized clean-burning coal. This type of coal is only found in one other place in the world: Indonesia.

Questions were raised at the time about Clinton’s connections to a wealthy mining family in Indonesia from which it was alleged he received beaucoup campaign contributions. - Quid pro quo?

There’s more than one way to skin a cat. Follow the money is usually a good bet. The Clinton co-presidency was after money. To Barack Hussein Obama money is strictly secondary. Obama’s currency is ideology. By rendering idle the Gulf’s oil rigs and auxiliary equipment, he makes certain that such equipment will be forced to move overseas. In addition, two billion of our tax dollars will soon be going to the (left-leaning) state-owned Brazilian oil company, Petrobras, to explore drilling in the off-shore Tupi oil field in the Santos Basin. The WSJ wrote, “The U.S. Export-Import Bank tells us it has issued a ‘preliminary commitment’ letter to Petrobras in the amount of $2 billion and has discussed with Brazil the possibility of increasing that amount.”

Now it begins to make sense: why the slackness in the Federal government’s response to the Gulf oil spill; why the moratorium on drilling. If you still want to ‘follow the money’ consider this: George Soros remains a major private investor in Petrobras. There was no one more eager to remove George Bush and Republicans from U.S. governance. Soros, a Hungarian-born Jew, understands the nexus between money and political power. He single-handedly funds every left-wing organization and cause in America. He contributed liberally to Democrat (including Obama’s) campaigns over the years. – Quid pro quo?

Shift Sleep Disorder

I once worked the night shift: 12 midnight to eight. It wasn’t very pleasant. I never got used to it. What I remember most was that sleeping in daylight never broke time up into a series of digestible days. Time just seemed to go on and on - an unbroken spill that steadily petered off into exhaustion.

The ‘end of the Obama beginning’ is not what everyone expects: the end of Obama. It is only the beginning. I have written often that, in my opinion, Obama is not about to fade away. (I hope I’m wrong.) What it could mean is that Obama will let his mask slip and reveal himself as everything people thus far have only whispered about - not as incompetent; not naïve; but - as determined to take the country further left than anyone could ever have imagined. In order to do this, he will seek to unleash the four horsemen: pestilence, war, famine, and death.

It’s already started: The oil spill in the Gulf; Federal authorities have already closed U.S. park land along with three Arizona counties along the Mexican border because it is no longer safe for Americans after the territory was taken over by violent NGO drug smuggling cartels. This, like the spill, too will spread.

Our economy continues to teeter on the brink. What can be expected to happen when government checks begin to bounce off the rim like wayward basket balls? When businesses are forced to close forever? When trains no longer run, and store shelves and gas tanks are on empty?

The remaining months of the Obama presidency will be operatic indeed – like a forty car pile-up on a California freeway to be savored in slow-mo as we stand mesmerized by the spectacle of fire, blood and twisting steel. By 2012, we may already have our first glimpse through haze of the still smoldering ruin that once was America; of the eternal twilight, hallmark of the Left’s equalitarian vision which the majority of us freely consented to embrace.

SmackDown

No matter which side you take re Washington’s BP shakedown, there’s more than enough suspicion that the whole thing has been staged. Wrestling too was once a legitimate sport. It no longer is. This is not to say that WWE (formerly WWF) is not popular. It is.

Purists will point to modern high-profile wrestling as a sham. Those who patronize the sport agree that it’s 100% drama, theater and hype – but they are more than willing to suspend their disbelief for the duration of the show (as we all must when we go to the movies, watch television, read books, newspapers or just listen to friends either boast or complain). The slightly squeamish among us can take solace in knowing that the blood we see is fake – ketchup, which we all just adore.

Not so in the Gulf. The oil washing up on the coast is real. The birds and fish are actually dying. These are the actors who are facing a real existential threat. Suspended dividend payments to retired BP share holders who will now have to cut back on medicines and cold weather jaunts to tropical climes are real as well. They may yet be willing to forgo their loss and see it simply as the price of admission. As in professional wrestling, however, they will be asked to suspend their disbelief for the duration.

The news out of Washington does not get better. Last week we were told that, due to unforeseen circumstances, health care costs - far from declining - will actually increase; that, no, you will not be able to keep your insurance provider or doctor. What else haven’t we been told? Every week the estimated damage from the oil spill rises. Taxes rise; job creation continues to falter.

Yet, we are told, the green valley of plenty lies just ahead. Somewhere, over the hills, the drums of war are beating. Israel, Kyrgyzstan, the Koreas are on the brink. Fake blood? Fake oil? Lies? (Spoonfuls of sugar help the medicine go down.) …and, don’t forget, fake money to salve any wound that doesn’t kill outright.

Enjoy your SmackDown, America. You paid for it.

'Touchdown Jesus'

This clip reminds of ‘Touchdown Jesus’ struck by lightning and burning to the ground in Monroe, OH this week. Surely the faithful cross themselves while driving past its charred remains in their imagined hearses. Surely no greater portent of garden variety apocalypse could rise to this level of symbolism.

Throughout our history, every major and minor religious cult has had to deal with the issue of apocalypse. It usually involves the return (to earth) of some deity which can then be expected to ‘separate the wheat from the chaff’.

It works on both, a personal level (heaven/hell) as well as on a societal one (the four horsemen). The nation of Iran appears to have melded this concept (the 12th Imam) with global (nuclear) politics - a dangerous mix for all of us.

Proclaiming a specific date for apocalypse does not come without risk. Should the date come and go without anything happening, it devalues the stock of the self-proclaimed prophet instantaneously. In the run-up, however, grand reputations are built. Sixteen Century Nostradamus is still held in high regard today. Even famously stoic JB admits to being mysteriously drawn to apocalyptic visions. In one way or another, we all are. It absolves us from having to face death alone.

The modern version, of course, involves ‘global warming’ and all its derivatives. Its course was entirely predictable. In its ascendancy, fortunes and reputations were made. In its demise, same were dashed. Just this week, it was announced, that not even the high priest’s (Al Gore’s) marriage is likely to survive.

Still, the overall concept will never fade. It’s being pursued in Iran as we speak; even as we ourselves scramble to reframe our own apocalyptic argument along the lines of '(Big) OIL SPILL'. It ultimately boils down to a divergence within what we commonly refer to as ‘religion’ itself. No matter how many atheists proclaim the death of God, men are essentially ‘religious’ animals. They split into two groups: those who have true faith, and those who don’t. The faithless also believe; but they are invariably drawn to the apocalyptic side.

Slouching Towards Serfdom

The lasting legacy, I fear, from this, loosely referred to as the Obama administration, will not be from oil gushing into the Gulf; from value evaporating from our paper currency; from American influence eroding abroad – all of which can be reversed and made to look whole again. Instead, it is the abrasion of (our) trust in elected officials.

There was a hint of it already back in the Bush administration when some people insisted that 9/11 as well as the aftermath of Katrina were part and parcel due to Bush’s evil designs: the first to provide Bush-Cheney with an excuse to invade Iraq; the second, because both men hated blacks.

The concept of the possibility of a rogue government was now out there. Clinton supporters (or even Clinton himself) enhanced its legitimacy in the political realm when they lamented that 9/11 happened during Bush’s tenure. If it had happened when Bill was in office, he could have been a great president.

“Disaster” as political tool to advance policy objectives and to strike crippling blows at the opposition was already well rehearsed by the time Obama was sworn in as the 44th president of the United States. Some even claim that the pre-election fiscal meltdown was instrumental to Obama’s installation. Rahm Emanuel emblazoned the concept into the national dialogue by dropping all pretence with his “Never let a crisis go to waste” comment.

Here we are now, wondering why the oil continues to spill; why there are an ever growing number of victims? The suspicion is that, even if it wasn’t sabotage, why is it taking so long (to plug the hole)? Clearly, the outlines of a solution are beginning to emerge: The policy objective of choking off America’s energy supply seems to be gathering steam; the prospect of a large pool of money for the federal government to waste on unprofitable ventures looms large, as does the demonization of Big Oil, Big Coal, Big Nuclear, paving the way for yet another government takedown and thrusting another huge number of people onto the welfare rolls.

All this talk about Obama feeling dispirited and actively thinking of voluntarily forgoing a second term is just that: talk. Barack Hussein Obama is doing just fine (at our expense, I might add). In short order, we can expect the private sector to be just that: private Obama. We’ll all, in one way or another, be working for him. We will live or die as he decides. He will elevate those who support him, while those of us who do not will find the yoke becoming ever tighter; the load ever heavier.

We are seeing the birth of a Chavez-style total socialist takeover. Even with the systems he himself has installed failing on all fronts, I don’t see Chavez in political trouble. Castro has managed to hold on for decades. Don’t think it’s because the people are particularly enamored of them. Ditto, Kim Jong-Il; Ahmadinejad; Mugabe; etc.

We are well along on a similar path, even with a Congress of elected, essentially rubberstamp officials standing in whispered opposition. And yet, the country on the whole is continuing to say, “It can’t happen here” – like a diabetic progressing through the stages of his irreversible disease. It has happened!

'Disasters' have become political bots to keep us in line and make us depended on the good graces of whoever has the audacity to declare himself king. Don’t tell me bots don’t work. They work just fine. Bots are but tools, the extensions of human hands. Unless we begin thinking critically, we openly embrace the prospect of serfdom.

Texas Textbooks Rewritten

My son and I usually take a walk after dinner. More often than not, we stop halfway at our local 7/11 for a snack. Yesterday, we happened to be following a man who also appeared to be heading that way. Arriving there, I stayed outside while my son went in. When he came back out, sucking on a Coke can, he told me what had transpired inside.

Apparently, the man we had been following came in to the 7/11 in search of Aleve. The Indians behind the counter were either indifferent, or they couldn’t understand what the man was saying. In short, the man’s inquiries were met with shrugs.

It was at this point that my son turned to the man and said, “My father’s outside. He has a doll with your name on it and he’s sticking pins in its head. For ten dollars I’ll go outside and tell him to stop.”

The Gulf oil spill represents a big headache for our president. He has gathered the sum total of his brain trust (‘global warming’ scientists, socialist academics, and ‘green’ technical experts) at the White House to solve the problem. They all shrug. Obama refuses to talk with Tony Heyward and others. He declines overseas offers of help in a rare display of patriotic pride. He does not attend Memorial Day services at Arlington Cemetery. He does attend a Paul McCarthy concert. In other words: fiddling while Rome burns.

At some point, an idea that might actually work (to halt the gusher) will breach the White House cordon. It will be an idea that originates from outside the box that defines the president’s ideological agenda. It may be something simple like prayer. Or, it might involve words that George W. Bush is known to have had trouble pronouncing.

Will this (our) president go for it? Unlikely. More like Carter’s 444 days and beyond. A presidency crashing like an oil-weary pelican; the 3-D media-sponsored illusion of governmental omnipotence shattered beyond redemption, to be swept under the proverbial rug until that time when Texas textbooks can be re-written once again.

Erebus and Terror

At this point, what's in it for BP to fix this thing? Zip. What's in it for POTUS to fix it? Zip. They’re both on the same page (but for different reasons). Obama can now comfortably proceed with his no-growth agenda while Heyward is hung out to dry. The Gulf will recover. BP will not.

I read somewhere that Heyward could exit with a substantial golden parachute. He could go to New Zealand and have his life back. Unless, of course, Holder has him extradited to The Hague and tried as a world-class criminal. Anything is possible these days. Before the East Anglia e-mail scandal broke there was talk about treating ‘global warming’ skeptics on par with Holocaust deniers. After it all fell apart, what was left for these folks to do? Answer: GIGANTIC OIL SPILL.

What we have yet to broach is (and this is critical) How did it happen? ‘Why’ seems another word struck from our pc no-fault lexicon – replaced by ‘accident’ or ‘Act of God’, presumably the same God who kept Obama from saying things he doesn’t believe in at Memorial Day services in Chicago. I hear the weather at Arlington was just fine.

Clearly, our country is suffering through an accelerating litany of disasters, each benefiting only one man; only one cause. It makes me suspicious. Heyward’s best bet is to just sit back and let the Obama administration destroy itself. Obama’s best bet is to keep grabbing power. What Heyward and the rest of the country don’t yet seem to realize is that, far from weakening our current president, disasters (foreign or domestic) only tighten the noose that’s already around our collective necks.

Erebus (the darkness) was born of Chaos. Erebus went on to sire Hemera (goddess of day) and Aether (god of sky). So far so good. But he wasn’t finished. Cer (goddess of death) was next, followed by Oneiroi (god of dreams), Hypnos (god of sleep), his twin brother Thanatos (god of hell), Momus (god of satire), Nemesis ( goddess of revenge), and Charon, the ferryman who ferried the souls of the dead across the river Styx, to the land of the dead.

…and there’s our future all laid out for us to see,
as foretold in ancient Greek mythology.

We All Live In a Yellow Submarine

The spin machines are working tirelessly, producing a whole host of villains – no heroes yet. Blame-shifting proceeds unabated but has not yet produced the expected result – or has it? “Drill baby, drill!” is dead in the water. Gas prices are certain to rise, hammering yet another nail into the coffin of an economy already on life support. America will become more – not less - depended on imported oil. Thousands of American jobs lost - in energy, fishing and tourism. Billions lost to municipal tax collectors; unemployment benefits extended to last for the duration of the average human lifespan.

In our upside-down Obama world, all this could indeed amount to a positive sign from heavens: a reason to impose more crippling legislation; the rationale for choking off the life blood of our economy; a way to create more beggary, discord and chaos; a reason to clamp down hard on a populous that has been left dazed and confused with nowhere to turn.

Should five or ten years from now the magic bullet be found – the one that finally turns off the spigot - we will wonder why it hadn’t been thought of sooner. It is possible that we will see Barack Hussein Obama still hosting lavish parties at the White House with such luminaries as Paul McCarthy and Jay-Z in rapt attendance …and it will suddenly dawn on us(,) why.