Heavy On The Gas

"...we like natural diasters as bookmarks in our chronicles. Earthquakes, flood, tsunamis, volcanoes all appear to be outside of history and non-partisan." - John Batchelor.

I really like your description of natural disasters as ‘non-partisan bookmarks’. I guess it’s been in the back of my mind ever since RE uttered the words, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.”

I just finished listening to Aaron Klein’s Sunday show in which he parsed Barack Hussein Obama’s speech last week re the Middle East. Aaron’s weekly radio program is the kind of radio The John Batchelor Show used to be; and, in somewhat diluted form, still is.

Putting aside what Aaron actually had to say, the very fact that we cannot comfortably take Obama’s words at face value is troubling. Does he support Israel, or does he not? The jury is still out on that. An argument can be made either way. Does he understand the linkage between Israel and America as it has traditionally served? And, in a more immediate sense: What does he intend for America? Again, a variety of opinion prevails.

We’ve come a long way from trying to figure out whether Bill Clinton had sex with Monica Lewinsky or not. The argument we’re having today brings it much closer to home. It puts us in the crosshairs. After two and a half years, we are still at a loss to explain who our president is and in whose interests he might be working. Meanwhile all the metrics by which we have traditionally judged administrations are telling us we’re going down.

It seems what we write here has very little impact; that even what JB and his guests may say on his mighty New York ‘blowtorch’ megaphone is but a thimble’s worth of utterance tossed into the great torrent of popular babble. I think we’re all smart enough to know that no one really cares what we say or write. If people should actually begin to care, it would probably be wise to stop. Mitch Daniels and Donald Trump (among others) seem already to have reached this conclusion.

It is, after all, only ourselves we aim to please. Unfortunately, whether by design or accident, we remain our own severest critics, forever seeking approval from someone ‘outside’. The more astute among us, perhaps, eventually come to realize that there is no one really out there – never was; never will. Call this futile exercise good old-fashioned ‘blame-shifting’.

At one time, there was a great debate to determine the center of the universe. As is customary in any such endeavors, the first three reports were wrong – and from the look of things, all subsequent reports may be wrong as well. In fact, the question may be so absurd as to not even deserve consideration.

Given all we have to worry about, it’s a small matter indeed, intended only for GPS fanatics – as is worry about apocalypse; rapture; the 12th Imam’s well; etc. These are not things we can actually do anything about. What does appear to be possible is for us to handle our own affairs with due care and dignity. And even in that we too often fail (Schwarzenegger, Strauss-Kahn).

When a nation fails, it seldom fails from the outside. It fails from within. It fails due to the fractures and divisions induced by uneven emphasis. By that score, we have failed already – even before Barack Hussein Obama started sporting his first legitimate tooth. Our president is merely the driver whom we have chosen to drive our bus. Netanyahu happens to be on that bus as well. He now wishes he weren't - as he now raises the alarm, saying that our driver may be a little too heavy on the gas.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Cornerstone

For a long time now, money has trumped ideology. This is no longer the case – especially now that every dollar essentially amounts to an IOU. The ideologies of China and the Islamists share only a disgust of corrupted capitalism. Otherwise, they differ in significant ways. After the West has been defeated, these differences will come to the fore and begin to cause problems. China will have to tread pretty carefully for their alliance with Pakistan to work. In the Islamist’s eyes, they too are infidels, tolerated only because they are now brothers in arms.

Seldom discussed (except on Thursdays on The John Batchelor Show) is the pivotal role of Israel. We can pretty much predict how Israel is likely to react to an imminent existential threat for it shares our own sensibilities. Since Obama’s one vote-one man-one time election, it is rather our reaction to an attack on Israel that remains a question. I predict we will do nothing – this despite the clamor of the American people to step in to help.

Whether by its own effort or with the aid of someone else, Israel will survive. India may rise to the role of Good Samaritan. It has a strong a spiritual tradition and will inherently understand what is at stake. Do not summarily reject the spiritual dimension in all this; and don’t rule out China. They might well jump in as well, seeking to profit from the purely practical aspect of doing so. The Islamists will be defeated as they have defiled their religion. America will stand disgraced on the sidelines for the same reason.

And ‘the stone the builders rejected will once again become the cornerstone’ – Psalm 118:22.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Kabuki Theater: The Birth Certificate

Peter Koelliker | April 27, 2011 11:23 AM | Reply
Judging from last night’s show, Larry Kudlow has finally jettisoned his phony optimism and declared Obama’s policies to be all wrong. He, like everybody else, is basing any residual optimism on the assumption that Obama will not be reelected in 2012. All the talking heads agree that this is now inevitable.

The picture that immediately comes to my mind is one of a thief having broken into the jewelry store and set off the alarm. He knows that the cops will arrive in just a matter of minutes and is desperately trying to grab all he can before he hears the sirens. Then he plans to make his escape out through the back door and jump into a waiting get-away car.

What if the cops never arrive? What if there has been some sort of diversion that sent the cops to some different place where they get all tied up? What if the thief has all the time in the world to clean out the place and saunter away? What if the thief gets away with all of it?

Obama does not act like he’s concerned about his reelection. What if he knows that something of such magnitude will happen that it would be impossible to hold elections? Or, what if he knows that the elections are rigged? Who is to question the result?

To say that Obama has been the most unorthodox commander-in-chief we’ve ever had would be an understatement. I’ve never fallen in with the crowd that says he’s stupid. If he’s not stupid, he is smart. Does anyone really think that he, as a smart man, hasn’t thought of everything?

Does anyone really think that what he’s done so far is due to stupidity? He has declared from the start that he means to transform America. We should by now know what he meant. He’s been entirely consistent. Every move he has made has had the effect of diminishing the power and influence of America and pushing her towards chaos. At the same time, he has increased his own standing (the opposition is hopelessly fractured).

I maintain that none of this is accident. We’re all sitting through the slow-moving initial part of a kabuki play, wishing desperately for it to be over. Then, just before the end – before the election – we are suddenly jolted awake. The music grows louder. Trap doors slam open and shut. Actors appear and disappear. How acrobatic and agile they all are! …and then it’s over. We see Obama taking a bow. Time to gather our coats and go home. But there’s no longer a home to go back to. Obama is still president.

Whom can we turn to? Dazed and confused, we walk the streets. All the signs have been changed. America is transformed.

All the while, we’ve watched as the fuses were being lit. Economic collapse. Fuel and food shortages. Civil unrest. War. All the while we’ve sloughed it off. All the while we thought it can’t happen here. All the while we’ve watched the right hand while ignoring what the left was doing.

Obama knows exactly what he’s doing. Unless it rains, his pyrotechnics will catch us off guard. It’s timed to happen before election night 2012. (2008 was just a dry run.) This promises to be the big deal.

I’m telling you, the man won’t just simply go away. He’s following the playbook to the letter. It’s the playbook of revolution. The rest of the world knows it. That’s why they’re all heading for the tall grass. Only we, dullards, sit here. Bored beyond endurance, we still hope to be entertained, even while the furniture is slowly being moved around to accommodate the fancies of our dear leader.
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Today, Obama released his long-form birth certificate. He merely did something that he people have long been entitled to. Good for him. Fake or not, this should put the issue to rest. Still not resolved is just who exactly our president is. Given his track record, we cannot be sure. In his statement after releasing his birth certificate, the president couldn’t help but take a swipe at all those who raised the question. “Birther” is once again a dirty word, used to smear and discredit (Trump), when it is he (Obama) who instigated the whole controversy in the first place.

Of note perhaps is the timing. What else is happening today that the president does not necessarily want us to examine too closely? “Watch the flourishes of my right hand and miss what my left is doing.”

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

No Joy In Mudville

Whereas in dreams landscapes often change and even faces merge into rough composites of people we may have known, the dreamer always remains the same, encompassing all that we understand the core of ourselves to be. It therefore behooves us to make some modicum of effort in making inquiries of anyone we aim to enter into a contract with. If we should want to get the garage roof fixed, for instance, we would normally first seek references before deciding on a roofer.

Society, even a democratic society, always breaks down into a hierarchy of leaders for the rest of us to follow. Leaders are freely chosen on the basis of their resumes and our assumption that their intentions are similar to ours. When the actions of a leader approximate what we would do under similar circumstances, we can pretty much take it for granted that the leader has our best interests at heart.

Last night, on the John Batchelor Show, John ran a segment in which three of his guests were asked to recall their personal experiences back in the late 70’s, waiting in gas lines (on alternate days) to have their tanks filled. Curiously, all three drove Pintos. We all were so much younger then, but we all remember having participated in some capacity in the drill. Back then, we blamed OPEC and, to a lesser extent, president Carter’s ineffectiveness. It made for large headlines all over the country but never rose to the level of existential concern. After all, Ronald Reagan stood in the wings.

Today, a similar situation earns barely a whisper. True, so far there have been no shortages; only the price of fuel is spiking. Enough money will buy you anything. Still, it’s worrying as we are coming face to face with our own limitations in our need to keep up.

We’re not talking about it because we fear we already know the truth. And we’d rather not know. Every dollar we spend on oil goes to fuel our own destruction. And it’s being orchestrated by our own White House. Every policy decision our current leadership has made seems specifically designed to make us more vulnerable. There can no longer be any doubt: this re-distribution of our wealth in the name of atonement is fast approaching the limit of our endurance. Our dependence on oil remains constant even as our sources and options decline. We have been rendered literally powerless to save ourselves.

With Carter in office, we at least knew that things could possibly turn around with the next election. Now, we’re no longer so sure. Obama appears to have his second term well in hand. We may never get another chance.

That’s why we don’t talk about it. Instead, we grin and bear it. Two years - even one - seems like an eternity. Any plan to unseat Obama seems like a long shot. And though spring is approaching after a long hard winter, there’s not much joy in Mudville as the driving season commences.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

The Nightingale And the Rose

Pardon me while I don’t quite bite. Anything can be spun, including facts and numbers - like ‘the economy is improving’ and ‘unemployment is decreasing‘ and ‘green‘ jobs are the future. It’s generally done by introducing a ‘new’ method of counting, using ‘new’ parameters and a different basket of assumptions. In education, overall results are generally improved by lowering the bar and dumbing down tests.

All this frantic fudging does not change a single thing of significance. Obama is still a socialist (whether we say it or not). And he may even be a card-carrying member of the Muslim Brotherhood for all we know (whether we even dare ask the question).

Partisanship has nothing to do with it. The proof is in the pudding. America is slipping, the dollar is slipping, our educational system is not producing and we are making mistakes in every area of endeavor relative to the rest of the world.

Whether we point it out or not, whether or not we’re turning off our radios because we’re sick of hearing about it, it’s happening at an alarming rate.

I note that the Batchelor show has one big advantage over everybody else in the business: he doesn’t take calls. Therefore he’s spared the tedious bleating of the inarticulate, the partisan poisoned, and the uninformed. Batchelor only talks to ‘experts’; meaning, that what has made them experts is in large part their familiarity and comfort level regarding language. This translates well to radio. It does not mean, however, that the ‘great unwashed’ - the rest of us - have nothing to say.

While everyone likes to claim the people’s support for whatever murderous scheme they might find themselves accessories to, they remain prepared to drop public opinion for expediency’s sake. In Beck’s case, I am not so sure his being dropped from major markets has so much to do with poor ratings as with his fingering of the great puppet master himself: Soros, who seems to have his fingers in every conceivable pie - just as I never believed that the re-elections of Reid and Pelosi were entirely free of electoral fraud.

I just finished reading ‘The Nightingale and the Rose’ by Oscar Wilde. It is one of the stories that came in a volume published by Puffin Books, a division of Penguin. Like Grimm’s fairy tales, the themes in these stories are not necessarily all clover and honey. Some serious issues are explored here under guise of clear language and simple metaphor. ‘Nightingale’ for instance explores the notion of personal sacrifice for a lost cause. It can bring tears to a child’s eyes and continue to haunt into adulthood.

In America, there have been many more such sacrifices than those currently living here. In fact, it could even be said, that every grave in America holds the remains of a martyr who had some sense of the eternal. What would any of them say if they were to come back today and watch the rose tossed carelessly aside to be crushed by an unseeing wagon wheel? Would they be impressed by the gloss of manipulated polls and surveys? Or would they be moved to weep at the flag (they fought and died for in some cases) being dragged through the muddy streets of our relentless discontent?

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

The Beginning Of A Tyranny

"What does Obama make of manned space?" Obviously not much. Frank Gaffney has it right. The ultimate aim is to transfer of knowledge, wealth, power (especially) to the (Muslim) world, thereby diminishing the U.S. position overall by an administration hell-bent on pay-back.

I think it may be time to go into the archives of ‘The John Batchelor Show’, download and print a hard copy. In this way we might just be able to explain to our children and grandchildren what has happened to our country after the government decides to scrub the web clean. This thought was sparked by the Justice Department’s refusal to prosecute the (New) Black Panthers on charges of voter and poll worker intimidation in Philadelphia, a clear violation of current law. Obama’s refusal to comment on the matter shows where his own sympathies lie.

This has not been the only indication of this administration’s unwillingness to abide by tradition. From the outset, Obama and his Democrat-controlled congress have sought to enact a virtual blizzard of incomprehensible (and unenforceable) laws and then proceeded to go about enforcing same selectively. This is not justice; this is the beginning of a tyranny.

The American people have thus far gritted their teeth and born every Democrat overreach. To the administration’s considerable consternation, they will likely continue to do so, waiting patiently for their chance to clean house in November. We may never get that far.

The pattern that is emerging is clear. The administration is bent on achieving total control over every aspect of American life from soup to nuts. The only ingredient that still eludes it is an outbreak of violence which would then provide the excuse to clamp down hard on media, the internet, gun rights and the freedom of assembly. There might even be cause to cancel (or postpone) elections.

No doubt, the administration is banking on the final shoe to drop. They are prodding and poking the electorate into taking a defensive stance which would then be interpreted as aggression (hence justifying a crackdown). In light of the fact that Democrats do not seem at all concerned about getting re-elected, it can be assumed that they feel they still have an ace up their sleeves. This ace could be violence. Since it hasn’t happened so far (and there have already been several reported attempts at incitement), it is fair to assume that the administration is growing desperate. I would not put it beyond them to engineer some kind of incident out of whole cloth before the November midterms. Keep an eye on Glenn Beck’s August rally at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC which is expected to draw huge crowds Even the Black Panthers have promised to attend. Note that permits for the event have not yet been issued by the Parks Department. May cooler heads prevail.

When King Samir Shabazz screams about killing white babies on a public street and our black president does not denounce him immediately; when incidents of blatant voter fraud are no longer prosecuted by the Justice Department; when a clear and present Islamic threat must never be mentioned by name in polite company; when defending one’s (Arizona) territory becomes the object of a Justice Department inquiry and suit, it means we have crossed the fine line into chaos. In chaos everything becomes possible; nothing is improbable, and we are all at severe risk.

Should we survive this presidency, it might do to be able to show what it was that has brought us to this low point in our history. The past year and a half has produced plenty of omens, few of which were taken seriously. Now that it’s happening, it behooves every one of us to prepare ourselves for the worst. Let’s begin by preserving the record for future generations to ponder.

I Smell a Rat

The country was already long gone before we elected Obama. We’d already celebrated abortion; questioned the sanctity of marriage; argued about alternative lifestyles and put any perversity into the hands of anyone old enough to click a mouse. We wrapped it all in the flag and called it freedom, choice – liberty. Meanwhile, we were so busy with all this stuff; we never had the inclination or the time to pay much attention to what our schools and our government were doing.

In 1973 I sold my distressed blue jeans over in India for a small fortune. These were not available there at the time and everybody wanted them. Today, I could fill my suitcase with Playboys, Penthouses, Hustlers and the like and probably make enough money to pay for my trip. They never check at immigration. Nowadays, they’re more interested in bombs, wires, matches and water bottles. It never occurs to me to do this, however. You might say it just did.

Stick with me on this… Yesterday, I made it a point to listen to two radio programs I don’t ordinarily listen to: Philadelphia’s Michael Smerconish and New York’s Joan Hamburg. Both host talk shows; both are hopeless suck-ups to Obama. I wanted to test a theory of mine. The conservative shows I normally listen to are peppered with ED and PE commercials. It’s annoying because this is the primary reason I’m embarrassed to recommend such programs to my kids and liberal friends.

Sure enough, the Obama suck-up talk shows had no such commercials. Smerconish made up for it though by dwelling endlessly on sex related topics.

It would seem that male enhancement ads are so totally out of character (and misdirected) on shows like ‘The John Batchelor Show’ for instance. I’m also quite certain that it’s the networks that insist on it – that Batchelor himself has not much say in this. It appears to be the price the liberal media structure feels justified in exacting for the privilege of playing on what it claims as its own turf (not necessarily for profit, but) to put a chink in the credibility of the criticisms certain to be rendered.

I smell a rat.

Full Speed Ahead!

Lou, Lagnese – I’m curious. I know you two (John Batchelor Show commenters) – very likely being of somewhat stronger constitution than I - read the opposition blogs; you know, the ones that post proudly in support of anything (brand) Obama while despising the tea parties. I must admit, I have never been particularly tempted. Still, I’m wondering how these bloggers can justify Obama’s disastrous fiscal policies; his endless appeasement of rogue, suicidal regimes; his insistent clinging to the now discredited ‘global warming’ hoax, and so many adjunct policy forays (as into health, security, education, etc.) that any reasonable human being can plainly see are bound to fail? Is it stupidity? Ignorance? Is it to poke a stick in the eye of some political nemesis? Is it in pursuit of some improbable Utopian dream? Is it suicidal? Or does it stem merely from a desire to appear outrageous in the vain hope of ascending to Andy Warhol’s 15 minutes of fame?

No doubt, in comparison to what is now frequently termed the ‘lamestream media’ these left-wing blogging types are far more virulent. One can gather as much by their intemperate rhetoric as reflected on the signs their kindred of Cain often carry at street rallies, sit-ins and such. One gets a sense of it from their unfounded accusations hurled our way – unfounded, because none of it applies. It must come from somewhere, most likely from their own misdirected assessment of themselves.

Just wondering what we’re up against. Any chance of them turning – getting ‘religion’, so to speak? I just thought - if it were to get bad enough – can we expect them to flock to our side? Or is it a hopeless cause, trying to convert them?

There are all sorts of books slated to come out (or released already) detailing Obama’s roots; among them “The Manchurian President” by Aaron Klein and Brenda J. Elliott. All are (or will be) selling tolerably well. But has it all come too late?

Understanding is not enough. The Tea Parties understand. Most of the citizenry understands; America understands. What of it? We ourselves here are essentially preaching to the choir. We argue the finer points amongst ourselves. But we convert no one – or, if we do, they too watch helplessly as health care passes; as our allies are dissed and dismissed; as Iran builds its bomb; as the oil slick spreads; as prices rise; as our sons and daughters turn against us.

I don’t see the ship turning. With the mist of the falls already surrounding us, our captain cries, “Full speed ahead!”

Cowering Before Midgets

Only by listening to the John Batchelor Show can we hope to understand how the geopolitical plates connect. The idea of proxy wars fought by client actors is not something the MSM is very good at conveying. For them, the automatic hand-off is invariably back to America in order to prove their point that everything is America's fault - or, to be more precise, everything is the fault of America's Republican administrations.

Even though this template cracks time and time again from persistent misuse, the MSM will not give it up. They are as if enslaved, consumed by the notion of guilt which, they pompously feel, only they have the power to adjudicate. As they lack both the knowledge and the power to see beyond themselves, they keep harping on the same straw dog, not realizing that no one can realistically assert with certainty the innocence of anyone; that every man must testify to the crimes of all others; that cowering before midgets solves nothing – for the only real sin is the sin of surviving in a world where everyone else is doomed.