Trump: Political Outsider

Predictably, the media is following Obama’s lead, now by attacking Trump. They’re doing it in a kind of back-handed way by painting him as a ridiculous cartoon-like character - in the same way they routinely report on the tea parties. They will not engage him on facts.

Anti-Trump elements are hard at work leaking Trump’s past sins. Curiously, they see their most potent card as the one that says Trump liked liberal Democrats – this, at the very same time they try to paint Obama as a centrist. It’s absurd, really, but it seems to have worked, at least with several prominent conservative commentators who have now come out full-bore against a possible Trump candidacy.

Callers to talk shows do not seem to be particularly impressed by the tactic. Trump still appears to score high among the unwashed despite what the media (right or left) say about him. Their argument is that the next election should not hinge on the issue of Democrat vs. Republicans; but rather on patriot vs. non-patriot (or anti-American). Trump scores high on being a patriot.

Additionally, Trump is helped by being a Washington outsider, i.e. he does not identify closely with either one of the parties. There is broad dissatisfaction among the voting public with the candidates both parties have put forth. Trump, so far, is the only candidate under consideration who transcends party affiliation. Hence, come election time, we may come to recognize that party loyalty or a sense of entitlement (for years spent in support of either party) is no longer an issue for voters.

Trump’s accomplishments are palpable. They lie outside the political realm. He is seen as a businessman whose success has hinged on his ability to roll with the rough-and-tumble of capitalism. Claims, that some of his ventures have failed, only serve to burnish his standing as an unabashed capitalist. Failure (right along with success), after all, is one of the hallmarks of capitalism.

Trump is everything Obama is not. Obama is an ideologue and, worse, a politician. As such, he is beholden to what is seen as a corrupt system. Obama has been repeatedly promoted by affirmative action within a system that has failed to deliver broadly. He is the graduate who is rumored to be incapable of reading the words on his ceremonial sheepskin. His thesis (if any) likely consisted of writing the word ‘Marxism’ on the back of a cocktail napkin. He was the one chosen for his overall appeal to would-be donors at a school for the clinically retarded to trumpet the (special) curriculum’s successes. He consistently blames opponents for any shortcomings.

Trump does not blame; he confronts. He speaks distinctly and openly. He appears to shy away from making empty promises. Yet, he makes it clear that he seeks to fashion our nation’s policies on the basis of America’s self-interest.

One measure of Trump’s political standing among voters is the media’s stance toward him. They hate him. He reminds me a little bit of Reagan, who routinely brushed off mainstream reporters’ inane questions as one would brush off a flake or two of dandruff on a dark suit.

In a significant sense, our next election cycle will revolve around the overwhelming desire of the public to defeat major media. Politics (as usual) is likely to drop way down on the list of voters' primary concerns.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Where Is The Birth Certificate?

What explains Jerome Corsi’s book, “Where’s the Birth Certificate?, shooting up to # 1 on Amazon where it has remained ever since? Apparently, people are not convinced that it means nothing, no matter how loudly members of both political parties, in conjunction with the media, proclaim the idiocy of even asking the question. While Americans have always taken political talk with a grain of salt, their wholesale distrust of the media (even so-called right-wing media) is relatively new.

The issue of Obama’s birth certificate has become the central question being asked everywhere – in barber shops, in the supermarket – “Just who the hell is this guy?”

While Obama’s policies plainly expose him as a Marxist, it is not necessarily this that irks the public. In America, isms alone have seldom held the power to inspire. We tend to operate on a far more basic level. We have difficulty in grasping abstractions. We ask for drivers licenses, proof of insurance and registration after car accidents. We do not ask if you are a Christian, Hindu, Marxist or whatever. It seems incredible to us that while witnessing this train wreck of an administration that no one is demanding a priori proof of legitimacy. The fact that it is even an issue being fought out in the courts is astounding to us.

Ironically, if we were to find out that Obama is indeed native born, it would be even worse for us. It would signal that his aggressive ideology is entirely domestic and now apparently mainstream. Many of us would be unable to recall when exactly the change took place, and ask ourselves, “How could we have missed it?”

We didn’t miss it. It’s happening now. And now is the time to get to the bottom of it.

In large part, we are still a nation of laws. We grumble, but we pay our taxes. It is entirely understandable that the authorities on every level are concerned. If it were to come out that Obama is indeed a fraud, all bets are off. Nobody in their right mind could accept that lying down. We either insist on immediate retribution or we cross over into lawlessness.
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One can only see others; one cannot know them. The fallacy in Buddhism is the notion that one can divorce oneself from certain things and remain aloof. This is only true up to a point: one may come to know the depth of self and find it empty. (Interesting to note that the depth of self is something one cannot see.)

As this might relate to me specifically, I feel comfortable writing words on my laptop. My laptop is my Peepal tree. I am blessed by its leaves that give me shade.

I do not claim to know more than what I write, and vice versa. I am blessed by the leaves of the Peepal tree that sometimes alight on my head. As for knowing – only God knows.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

J'Accuse

What’s there not to like? Obama now goes around and openly says all this Marxist stuff. And we just sit around applauding – like the monkey pull-toy clapper I had when I was three. It’s we who see but refuse to listen. All this ‘eat the rich’ garbage the administration constantly spews is nothing to cheer about. First, they come for the rich; then they come for the smart… Then everything grinds to a halt.

You might say, ‘But I’m neither rich nor smart.’ But don’t you see? It just keeps going like that until they also come for the stupid. You think the stupid are immune? Eventually, they’ll come for everybody. And you’re somewhere in there as well. If they’re allowed to come for one, they’ll come for all. You’re not separate from the rich, even if you’re poor. We’re all in this together. That’s why I don’t understand why we’re so willing to sacrifice even one while we’re all standing in line.

What the hell does ‘rich’ and ‘poor’ even mean these days? We’re all playing with the same Monopoly money. They’ve practically squeezed the life out of it.

I've never understood the Jews standing so quietly in line for the showers. They must have seen that no one ever came out. What did they think? That God would intervene? God intervened alright and gathered them up to His bosom. They were such a damn spiritual lot! Maybe that’s all they really wanted. I understand the guards first wore them down – made them work till they could barely eat anymore. Not that the food they gave them was so great.

God, I hate what’s happening to our country! I won’t go quietly. Even if they’ve already rigged it, I’ll tell them till my last breath that I know. And, if any of them still have a conscience, I’ll make them feel ashamed.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Dilma's Dilemma

Another teachable moment. Another glimpse into the mind of our president, Barack Hussein Obama. How he is handling Libya could have been foreseen long ago. Other commanders-in-chief have done as much at the mere drop of a hat. It’s not what happens there that should be of concern to us. Of far greater concern should be what we ourselves have become.

We have become a nation of lawless and corrupt governance. Our Constitution specifies that Congress must be consulted, and be made to approve any deployment of American troops overseas. Barack Hussein Obama is the first president to bypass this convention. Instead, he claims to derive his power from what he refers to as the ‘international community’ (UN). As such, he has further shredded the Constitution of the United States. At the same time, he is continuing to marginalize the role of Congress. So much for representative governance.

Again, all this could have been foreseen. Months back, I wrote that the deliberate chaos in the 111th Congress would serve to discredit the institution irreparably. Here we have it in black and white. What does this say about the sanctity of our vote? In a short two years we have devolved from a constitutional republic to a tyranny.

Our media does not appear to grasp the enormity of what has happened to us. Small wonder. The success or failure of any quasi-democratic setup depends on an educated public. Our schools have become mere cookie cutters. The level of understanding among recent graduates is astoundingly below par. It cuts across the board from math through English. “When NEWSWEEK recently asked 1,000 U.S. citizens to take America’s official citizenship test, 29 percent couldn’t name the vice president. Seventy-three percent couldn’t correctly say why we fought the Cold War. Forty-four percent were unable to define the Bill of Rights. And 6 percent couldn’t even circle Independence Day on a calendar.”

I understand that polls are often skewed to elicit certain answers; to show specific results, most likely ones that grab headlines and spur magazine sales; and, don’t forget, of course, to promote the urgency for more money for favored institutions (such as teachers unions) and in NEWSWEEK’s case, Democrats. In this particular survey, published this week, I suspect, the numbers are probably even worse. The teaching of civics and history has perhaps suffered most in recent years. It’s natural that these would be edged out by an ever greater emphasis on ideologically based solutions. Let’s face it, Marxism is now in vogue.

As our president travels splendidly throughout Brazil, burnishing his Marxist credentials, his unconstitutional behavior with regard to Libya goes almost unnoticed. Obviously, most Brazilians have not yet gotten the message that he is one of them as evidenced by the feisty street demonstrations against him. But Dilma knows why he’s come. She’ll let him grovel and beg for her validation. Still, she must weigh her ultimate approach to him against her own need for a demon. The U.S. has always served admirably in this regard.

Even if the new Brazilian president should withhold her favors, the trip should still be regarded as a success. When things go wrong in Libya, Obama can always say, “It wasn’t me. It’s all Hillary’s fault. I wasn’t even there.”

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Would You Marry Him?

A little girl I once knew would always ask when someone said they liked so-and-so, “Would you marry him?” The truth be told, I don’t much care for Putin. I know he’s corrupt and vindictive. There’s not very much that speaks in his favor.

What I do care about is my own government spouse, the one with her hands perpetually in our pockets: Barack Hussein Obama. I used to think that Obama and Putin were very much alike. My only published article (on another website) made the point that Obama was not so much a Marxist as he is corrupt. I have since tempered my assessment somewhat; recognizing that, in the end, it probably comes out to the same.

Obama, unlike Putin, appears to be ideologically driven. Does that make him less or more dangerous than someone like Putin? Hard to say. In Obama’s case it only complicates things. No one rightly knows where Obama’s corruption ends and his ideology begins. The two appear to run parallel. Whereas ideology can be excused by the faithful (and even by those in the loyal opposition), corruption remains a crime in any language.

What is surprising is that Putin appears to be getting away with it. The mechanisms he has put in place are virtually foolproof. Only the truth seems to be leaking out albeit at the edges.

Whereas we can ague openly amongst ourselves as to Obama’s true motives (obviously, ‘socialism’ does not scare anybody anymore), we waste precious time while the dissolution of our nation continues. In Russia, the argument is over. The only thing left is government spin with an occasional endorsement from outside.

Russia is in deep doo-doo. That is, its people are not free. That is to say, it’s people are poor and destined to remain so. There is no ideology to cushion their pain.

It’s winter and it’s cold in both Russia and America. It is of no benefit to share a bed with either one of their leaders.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

The Invisible Man

I just finished reading “The Invisible Man” by H.G. Wells. It is said to be one of the forerunners of today’s very popular science fiction genre. Though told in a straight-forward manner, focusing primarily on keeping the plot moving, there is more here than meets the eye: the mechanics of 'invisibility', for instance. Take a piece of glass and insert it into water, and it becomes invisible. Take a red piece of glass and insert it into that same water and it will still show red. To make it invisible, the water would have to be red as well. This could easily translate into a metaphor for cultural shifts as well. As long as a foreign or alien concept is introduced stealthily (or invisibly) into the culture, it will not be rejected outright. This is the way Marxism has been introduced in America, cloaked in the thoroughly traditional American corpse: the Democrat Party.

As the host begins to die, Marxism becomes visible in stages just as Wells’ lead character, Griffin, becomes once again visible after he has been killed. First socialism reveals itself; then communism; proceeding through all the subsequent stages all the way up to and including authoritarianism. Tyranny is always the final stage. In it, there is only one authority to determine the path forward.

In Wells’ novel, the people band together to capture and kill Griffin before his invisibility can prevail and metastasize into crippling terrorism. They still cannot see him, but they understand what he has done and aims yet to do. Instead of shrinking from the unseen, they attack it.

This is in contrast to Ralph Ellison’s work of the same title. The situation here is reversed. Blindness is deliberately nurtured by the seeing. They willfully ignore a whole class of people and pretend it doesn’t exist. This also is relevant today. The likes of Limbaugh and conservatives in general are routinely ignored by the media, on college campuses, in Hollywood, etc. For all intents and purposes, their views, their solutions, their very army of eager supporters do not exist despite their steadily intensifying impact (which, of course, does not exist as well).

In these two titles you have the dual aspects of invisibility. On one hand you have invisibility as a deliberate disguise for nefarious purposes; while, on the other, you have, the deliberate ’ignoring the elephant in the room’ syndrome. Both are at best dishonest. While the first can be excused as betrayal, the second amounts to willful act of cowardice. Both represent an exercise in delusion.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Dreams of My Father

The Democrat Blue Dogs are gone – most of them – leaving behind a much more toxic mix. ‘Democrat’ has become a misnomer.

“National Democratic revolution” comes immediately to mind, along with “ideological integration, revolutionary imperative, minority domination, liberation alliance, unity…, infiltration, incursion, viable agency for change, reformist option, armed tactics, mass political mobilization in combination with legal, semi-legal and clandestine methods"; add to this: wealth re-distribution, protest, strike, disruption, shortages, smear campaigns, property confiscation, resistance; the breakdown of civility, morality; family, security, identity – all to create a general climate of collapse within which a Marxist solution becomes possible.

How far we have come since Obama’s election! - a man we knew next to nothing about. How much we have learned in the past two years! – about communism and Islam (which share similar goals).

We’ve gone from anointing a savior, to suspecting an incompetent, to tolerating an imbecile, to fearing an enemy. And still we submit to the theft of our privacy, to the judgment of medical death panels (what else would you call them) to be groped by minimum wage airport thugs – burka wearers excluded, of course.
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Italics taken from Nadine Gordimer’s “Burgers Daughter”.

Emptying the 'burbs

During my last stay in India, I saw for the first time several Nanos. They stand out because they are bright, shiny and new. My wife’s son had ordered one a while back but rescinded the order when he found that he would have to wait too long to get delivery. The Nano is not electric, but very small. It was originally envisioned eventually to take the place of the three-wheeled (mostly) yellow, lawnmower engine-driven auto rickshaws. In the meantime other companies have entered the Indian micro automobile market with product - including Ford's Figo.

A side-by-side comparison between battery-powered cars and regular cars would show the scale still tilting in favor of regular cars. Assuming for a moment that the ‘global warming’ argument is still a factor, electric cars would still have to be charged which would require (usually) coal burning electric plants to provide that power. Cars would need to be significantly smaller which would impact safety negatively. Smaller cars might mean making more trips. Accidents involving battery powered cars might require dealing with acid spillage. Disposal of used car batteries might also present a problem. And no one to date - as far as I know - has mentioned how long electric car batteries can be expected to last and what it would cost to replace them. If the Apple iPod series is any clue, replacement may not even be possible.

I suspect there is also something else behind it: ideology. The primary goal of Marxists has always been to establish absolute control. What better way than to decrease the range a government-approved vehicle can travel! The range on a single charge of the hotly-touted GM Volt is said to be 40 miles. That translates into 20 mi. commutes. They’re always talking about depopulating the suburbs and forcing working people back into the cities. The electric car, which may soon become mandatory, might actually accomplish this.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

There Will Be Blood

Good news? Hardly. The WSJ this weekend pronounced Obama’s economic policies as ‘repudiated‘. The current bone of contention are the Bush tax cuts. Democrat members of Congress see this as yet another nail in their collective coffins. They are attempting to put as much daylight as possibly between themselves and the administration which seems hell-bent to let them expire.

Overlooked by pundits is the fact that Democrats need do nothing to bring this about. The prospect of steep Democrat election losses in November will not change their minds and make them proactive regarding this issue. Indeed, there is no reason to even attempt a move to appease the public. The electorate is not likely to pardon Democrats on the basis of having second thoughts.

If they happen to share Obama’s Marxist ideology, they might attempt to raise taxes even more during the lame duck session. I’m sure there is already a draft to this effect circulating in some arcane committee - a last hurrah; a final poke in the eye of the electorate; a last opportunity to reward fellow travelers; a last supper of pork. The president, of course, would not hesitate to sign on. Why shouldn’t he? He’s been governing against the interests of the people all along. He’s well used to it by now.

You might wonder why any leader would deliberately make himself so desperately unpopular as this president has done? JB is right. Obama no longer speaks with the conviction he has shown in the past. Yet, there is no sign of him reversing course. Jesus too never faltered in His determination to mount Golgotha. He showed weariness; and, at times, His strength left Him, but He was nevertheless determined to fulfill His destiny.

It could just be that Obama (despite his blinding messiah complex) knows that he’s been found out. The happy-face routine has become old and over. For better or worse, he is the one who has been chosen to deliver America to its final resting place. It could be that there remains a smidgeon of regret in his heart.

What many pundits and analysts still fail to understand is that the passage into communism requires a revolution. Revolutions are often bloody, highly unpleasant affairs. It is becoming increasingly apparent that the American people will ‘not go gentle into that good night‘. There will indeed be blood.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Meet The New Boss; Same As The Old Boss

We tend to measure history in segments - epochs; eras; ages; periods - each, distinct in the metrics it generated. We tend to assign specific dates to these. Though, it is doubtful that people living at the time of the change(-over) fully appreciated that the old was being shunted aside and a new was just beginning.

Most people are simply riding a wave. As they are riding along with it, they are unaware that the wave is moving. It is up to historians to look back and see that the wave has indeed moved and how the shoreline was altered by it.

When future historians look back on us they will mark Barack Hussein Obama’s election as the end of an era and the beginning of a new one. When we cast our ballots in ‘08, few of us realized just how much was at stake. Historians will mark that election day in November as the beginning of America’s sudden and stunning decline; as, up until then, America had been the most influential nation among nations. It would soon become clear that America was no longer prepared to protect its interests or borders. This seemingly voluntary draw-down would reverberate around the world. We don’t know yet for sure, but one direct consequence of this particular American election might yet lead to WWIII - a war we would likely lose and make us subservient to an alien culture.

The wave of promises that hoisted the banner of the Obamanation over the land would prove to be illusory. Disappointment, culminating in unrest, would provide the opening for a heretofore hidden agenda to be implemented - one, that no American in his right mind would have voted for had he kept himself informed.

Obama and the media are still lying. They’re still promising the metrics of traditional American prosperity. When in fact they should be saying distinctly for all to hear, ‘We are working hard to make every American a ward of the State. Everyone will be adequately provided for according to his or her need. Everyone will be expected to contribute according to his or her ability. Everyone will be equal, (except some will be more equal than others). Shariah will constitute the law of the land.’

Sound extreme? I don’t think so. Take the time to attend some classes at your local college or university. Go out and see a movie. Read the newspaper once in a while and see what’s happening. Go to church on Sunday. Listen to modern pop songs; listen to Spanish language radio stations or to those that play rap songs that cater to blacks. Know what passes itself off as mainstream these days.

It’s not enough to keep the dial glued to conservative talk radio - or even NPR. There’s a wave gathering out there that demands a chicken for every pot and a car for every garage once ‘THE (ubiquitous) MAN’ has been defeated. POTUS knows this. He is riding the wave, securely tucked in its curl. The wave cannot be stopped by logic or simple political calculation. In the absence of a similar wave generated to counter it, it will rush forward, never stopping until it has reached the ends of the earth.

What nobody seems to get is that 'THE (defeated) MAN' will have been dragged out to sea by sheer exhaustion; that it is always easier to topple than to build and maintain; that 'THE (new and improved) MAN' will again come from men; and that again no one (but a few) will be happy with the new arrangement.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Killing Jobs

No mystery here. POTUS is too embarrassed to talk about jobs. It’s too obvious what he’s doing. He’s killing jobs… and he’s doing it on purpose. It would be too much of a lie - even for him - to say otherwise. He stresses education: Marxist education; re-education. He celebrates Katrina (not the Boy Scouts) because, he feels, it focuses the nation once again on the much ballyhooed failures of Bush.

Obama keeps stressing the failure of past administrations. As his wife once famously proclaimed, “Barack will never allow you (the people) to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed.” Back to what? Jobs? Economic growth? Prosperity?

He means to turn the nation into a land of the jobless. Only then will he be able to impose his solutions and to do whatever Marxists do with legions of beggared masses.

In Obama’s world view, a return to prosperity would spell defeat. He cannot allow it because he knows that it is the rich who would prosper again and return the nation to a two-tier system of rich and poor; of winners and the losers. This would be unacceptable to POTUS who wants everyone to exist on an equal (economic) plane, some being more equal than others by virtue of skin color (and political orientation).

Virtually all the talking heads miss this point. They view Obama’s policies as failures while he sees them as successes. Limbaugh recognized it early on when he said he wants Obama to fail. The Left was stung by the clarity of his revelation. He had swerved too close to the truth. And he was attacked relentlessly for it.

In Obama’s world, America had become a cancer. He sees himself as the surgeon mandated to cut it out, leaving but an empty shell with no relation to past glories and what we all have traditionally regarded as success. American exceptionalism to Obama was and is anathema as long as it put our nation on a higher (economic) level than the rest of the world; as long as there is even one child starving in Africa. America had no right to endure its standard of living because, to Obama, it was never a result of hard work, talent and ingenuity. It was the result of theft.

A thief has no conception of the value of work. Therefore he has also no conception of what it takes to run an economy. He happily takes what does not belong to him and thinks it is good. Obama is essentially a thief. He has never worked a day in his life. He was pre-ordained to his present position by skillful apparatchiks who carefully groomed him to fit Shiva’s part. He is no more than a ventriloquist’s dummy. A hollow man. Dead wood, on which someone has chosen to hammer (and sickle) out an implausible Fabian tune.

Punching Holes in Reality

In his writings, Jorge Luis Borges punched joyful holes in reality. He wrote mostly short pieces: hit and run. It is because of this that his writings never got the recognition they deserved. It only appeals to a select group of metaphysically-oriented intellectuals. The rest of us who are deeply engaged in life’s struggles tend to come away with very little.

Borges emphasized form over content. His writing is no doubt meticulously structured and at the same time dazzling in its denseness and complexity. As such, he is much as one who paints or sculpts. Borges managed it with words alone. If Borges had not suffered severely from progressive eye disease, I suspect he would have secured for himself a place in the visual arts.

Obama’s speeches are much like Borges’ writings. One never suspects that reality supports what he‘s saying. A leader’s job is different from that of an artist. We don’t look to a leader to necessarily entertain or dazzle. We look for results. Obama’s rhetoric leaves us empty. Even as he herds us towards the Marxist ideal, his vision lacks warmth, empathy and compassion. It is coldly theoretical. But unlike Borges, whose blindness released him from the world of color and form, Obama seems still trapped by the spectacle of high living which turns bitter on the tongue of all those who are asked to sacrifice.

Animal Farm

Not much is known about North Korea these days but it may in fact mirror George Orwell’s classic “Animal Farm” to a tee. I recommend this slim volume to anyone who may be tempted to believe that central planning is the answer to all the world’s ills. All the elements and personalities of Marxist lore are uncannily brought into sharp focus in this dystopian spoof that was originally meant to bring the brutal reality of Stalinism home to the general reading public: the pigs; the useful idiots; the need for an enemy; food and health rationing; weapons development (the windmill); the re-write of history; propaganda; corruption; oppression, and more.

Many of these very same trends are rapidly developing within our own nation today. The slide into Marxism seems easy at first. Later, the mix of delusion and raw power tends to turn lethal when issues of succession are at stake. We are now seeing this in North Korea.

The West (including much of America) has already capitulated to Orwell's pigs. Barack Hussein Obama represents the closest we have ever come to tyrannical rule. You might ask yourselves, Who is Obama’s designated enemy? Who is the one, we are constantly told, that is keeping the central planners from achieving their Utopian goals? The answer is YOU.

The Blunt Edge of Brutality

Religion, like language, is hard-wired into the human psyche. At their core, all religions are the same. Religion typically splits into two aspects: spiritual and political. The spiritual aspect of religion is straight forward. Its ‘signature’ is tolerance. It deals with questions regarding faith, God and eternity. The political aspect of religion currently draws most of our attention because it has the potential of affecting our immediate circumstances. The same is true for ‘isms’. We can say that man is in essence a religious animal. Or we can say man is in essence political. Both statements accurately reflect a singularity of the human condition.

While it is true that equating man’s spiritual nature with his political nature is paradoxical, the two are nevertheless inseparable. Mankind is most at ease when the political aspect of whatever his primary concern may be (as Alfred North Whitehead suggests) is benign. A wizened curmudgeon professing his belief in Marxism within the confines of an ivory tower suite is no threat to anyone. Man suffers when such concerns become militant as happened during the crusades and is happening now as militant Islam makes its moves.

The constant striving of religion is to reduce all the divergent aspects of life to one. People who may be several happy meals short of enlightenment do not recognize the essential oneness in what they see. They fail to make the connection that ties everything together. There are two ways to force the issue to its resolution. One is persuasion (proselytizing), militancy and violence; the other is tolerance.

Tolerance is the more difficult nut to crack. We have chosen the easy path. It is easier to lop off the heads of non-believers. It’s easier to ban conservatives from speaking at universities. It’s easier to call for jihad. It’s easier to cause havoc and break things, and then pick up the pieces of whatever is left and cobble these into a single atrocity based on the principle of exclusion. It is also easier getting people to submit.

We here in the West have chosen submission. Our enemies attack us and we submit. In order to rationalize our cowardice, we change the language. We blur the line between good and evil. We assume our enemy’s narrative and admit that we are at fault; that it is we who must adjust or even erase ourselves. Our mea culpas – and even our sacrifices - are flawed; it is only ego that speaks. We abandon our principles; our allies. We no longer tolerate ourselves.

This is the mindset of our current administration. It pays no mind to the violence, pain and dislocation that is certain to ensue. For them, all these comprise the necessary gateway through which we all must pass in order to achieve a more perfect union – the Utopia that is envisioned in James Hilton’s Shangri-La, in B.F Skinner’s “Walden Two”, in Pol Pot’s Cambodia, etc.

In today’s world the concept of tolerance has been all but abandoned. Political strife has taken its place. Unfortunately, just as religion cannot be exorcised from the human psyche, we cannot fight ‘isms’ with ‘isms’ and arrive at a good place. Religion has always been a double-edged sword. We have chosen the blunt edge of brutality.

Were We Attacked?

I couldn’t sleep last night. It wasn’t the red fox screeching outside my open window; it wasn’t my lumpy bed; it wasn’t the extra cup of Brazilian coffee I had after dinner.

You keep saying “accident”. How do you know the Deepwater Horizon platform explosion and its subsequent collapse two days before the world was to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day was an accident?

Nobody could claim that 9/11 was an ‘accident’. There were too many witnesses. But everything done since has been to assign ultimate blame to America. Then there was what was widely suspected as the torpedoing of the South Korean naval vessel by North Korea a month ago. If true, this was clearly an act of war, but nobody’s talking. Why? Because chivalry demands a suitable response to an act of aggression and no one is currently in the position to respond to an act of war given the multitude of other concerns nations in general are facing. Bin Laden himself said that he based his murderous campaign against the West on his belief that the West would not respond effectively to the challenge.

Better to sweep this sort of thing under a rug and pretend it didn’t happen. Worry about nickel and dime economies, tea parties, and who’s sleeping with whom…

Just in case nobody’s noticed, the axis of evil has expanded to our own hemisphere since Obama has been in power. Venezuela, for instance, has been palling around with the likes of Russia, Iran, North Korea and Zimbabwe. Notwithstanding the North Korean MO of torpedoing ‘enemy’ ships and now possibly oil rigs, these rogue nations have been paying attention. They’ve seen that we will not retaliate no matter what happens. We’ll try to get away by proposing media lynchings based on Sarah Palin’s sock drawer …and ‘accidents’. The American media/government complex will happily go along with it. Besides, it fits in neatly with their anti-war, anti-oil (energy) Marxist agenda. The public has been suitably trained to immediately assume ‘accident’. Did Obama give it away when mentioning sending in S.W.A.T. teams?

The reason I couldn’t sleep was because I kept wondering: Were we attacked?
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Note: The Deepwater Horizon was built in Ulsan, South Korea by Hyundai Heavy Industries at a cost of approximately $365 million and entered service in 2001.

Articles of Faith

Man-made ‘global warming’ has assumed the status of a state religion for many Americans. Michael Mann is one of its high priests; Al Gore is pope. It fills the need of some to identify some part of themselves with the eternal, which was dashed when TIME magazine announced that God was dead. The new religion comes complete with sins (littering); sacraments; (abortion); proselytizing; dietary rules; salvation and apocalypse. The key here is ‘man-made’. It links devotees directly with the godhead. As such, thousands of strictures are observed and rituals performed in the hope of mitigating the original sin of audacious existence. Non-believers are looked down on as heretics.

The rise of this religion has followed a well trodden path. Our educational system has been used to indoctrinate - much like the madrassahs of Pakistan and Yemen. There is a militant element that stems from the uncertainty arising from the fear of unmasking. For the moment, believers can take comfort in the knowledge that their president is one of them – as it should be. It is they who installed him to the highest office in the land.

Obama too is a disciple. He represents the religion’s political arm. As long as he holds on to political power they are safe. The fact that ‘global warming’ has been exposed as a hoax holds no sway. Many books have been written questioning the authenticity of the historical Jesus. Still, Christians believe and will continue to do so.

‘Global warming’ devotees do not necessarily delude themselves even if it were to come out that every scrap of science supporting it is proven false. They have put aside reason. For them it’s an article of faith; a shorthand for the human condition as they perceive it. They believe in the fallen man for whom there can be no redemption. They believe in the apocalypse in which all is destroyed – unless they can convince (or force) the others (those who were not chosen) to adopt what they deem as right.

The earth is their God. Their leaders are priests. Should any one of these be shamed or in any way diminished by infidels, they will run and sharpen their knives. Should one of their oracles be killed, it will be said he was martyred.

The rank and file is not the problem. They are delusional and weak. It is those who use them to fulfill their own tyrannical ambitions; those who send them out on crusades and suicide missions who must be closely watched.

‘Global warming’ is here to stay. So far, it has defied the separation of church and state. So far, its growth has been spurred without raising suspicion. The danger to the rest of us should have become apparent by the reluctance to let it pass; to give it up; to persist as if the University of East Anglia e-mails had never been made public. Even now, the U.S. government is pursuing cap and trade legislation. Something else is behind it. Too much has been invested in this hoax to stop it dead in its tracks. And yet, it’s only a part of a far greater hoax (that started with Marx), one more attuned to human greed and the lazy desire to control everything.

Everything Is Broken

There is no respectability left in this Congress. There is no one who levels with the American people who elect its members. There is only the corrupt Right and the corrupt Left who work in tandem to pass the baton of corruption between them. The few unaligned voices in the middle are systematically drowned out. Reason has been deemed the flattened carcass of a skunk in the middle of the road.

With each turn of the screw by the executive branch it gets uglier. The modesty wraps of the sausage factory peel back exposing the scam. Obama is exhorting the legislative chambers to implode. The American people have awoken from their torpor. They are aware that our system of representative governance is broken; that our country hasn't been governed effectively in years. The best that can happen now is that no further legislation be passed - not until the people have had a chance to clean house.

Obama, on the other hand, knows exactly what he’s doing. He has assigned Congress an impossible task. He has given them a gun and is inviting them to pull the trigger. This would leave only himself in tact – with unlimited power.

Every Washington second-tier politician knows that the curtain has slipped. ("Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.") They are collectively fighting for their lives. Some know what's coming. Some have already left the sinking ship. It is not altogether clear that the American rank and file will know what to do; or that they’ll even be given a chance to do it. They are at a severe disadvantage. All the major institutions - the media, academe, organized labor, Hollywood - are against them. The world has turned against them. They know the way to go with Sisyphus' stone is up. But every foothold has been ground down.

After the Congress has been replaced by a rubberstamp politburo, it will be the military’s turn to be replaced. Then the dollar. I might have the exact order of events wrong. But, either way, all these things are being meticulously planned for. It is the fulfillment of a dream that every Trotskyite has had since the fall of the Soviet Union. They feel they can get there now that Obama is in office. It’ll be interesting to see what they can do to muck up our elections. But in the end, it won’t really matter – will it? With Congress broken, with the economy broken, with a Marxist occupying the White House, it’s hard to see how they could fail.

Two Wolves and a Lamb

There's so much one hears daily on the radio talk shows and on cable TV, it all melds into one dull, interminable groan. There is a theme, though, that seems to be emerging on the Democrat side of the aisle: "the majority must rule", i.e., democracy.

People are understandably confused as to the various terms that are being used to describe governance. In the ever-shifting sands of word definitions, there's no longer any way to tell the difference between "socialism", "communism", "Marxism", "Maoism" and the like - especially since such terms are being used indiscriminately as pejoratives by individuals who are interested only in scoring put-downs.

On the other side too distinctions have become blurred. "Democracy" is touted as the highest to which man can aspire: one man, one vote; every vote counted; etc. Seldom mentioned is that ours is actually a republic: "a state in which the supreme power rests in the body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by representatives chosen directly or indirectly by them."

There's a reason for why we are a republic instead of a democracy: democracies seldom survive. Which brings me to a quote I heard among all the din only yesterday. It's a quote commonly attributed to Ben Franklin that actually stuck and bears repeating: "Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch."

Equality and Marxism

The backbone of Marxism is equality. Equality is like an artificial limb that replaces one that has been severed or has been withered by disease. Equality can be viewed in one of two ways: Equality of opportunity, or equality in outcome. The two are vastly different and, if one or the other were implemented, it would produce widely divergent results. Today, they are seen falsely, either as one and the same, or used interchangeably.

When it was found that taxation could be crafted for purposes of social engineering, the old idea of viewing taxes purely as a revenue stream withered on the vine. Politicians now consider taxation as a vehicle to advance their own careers, used primarily to reward supporter and punish opponents. Social engineering is always dependent on fostering a false impression of groups which are then goaded to oppose each other. With a population thus fractured, it becomes possible for politicians to pick through the shards and build a base of support. Sometimes their fingers get bloodied.

This system has worked successfully for politicians; so much so, that these have now evolved into a parasitic, elite class with powers and privileges quite divorced from the everyday experience of its constituents. Today we are, in effect, no different from countries like Russia or China.

There are two reasons why it has turned out that way (or has worked to promote the fortunes of career politicians like Ted Kennedy): One, the public does not understand that for the government to punish one, it punishes all. (The same is true for bestowing favors at the expense of others.) The public is yet too unsophisticated to realize that it is government itself that is inherently prone to evolve into an existential threat to their freedoms; that this danger does not derive from proxy skirmishes between parties or artificially defined population segments. Two: the public remains unaware of its own power in the shaping of policy; that without public support, government is reduced to an empty shell.

The battle we face today is not between Republicans and Democrats; it is not between progressives and blue dogs; it is not between rich and poor; old and young; blacks and whites; male and female; etc. The battle is between a (hopefully) united people and their now clearly illegitimate government. Government has grown too large; too unresponsive. This is not a new phenomenon. Incrementally, this has been building for some time. It is only since the Obama administration has come to power that the American public has been awakened to the possibility of being held hostage to unaccountable totalitarianism because of Obama’s insistence on heading toward full government control within the span of a single presidential term.

No doubt, big changes lie ahead. No doubt, the American people will re-discover their footing, and a dystopian future can yet be averted. There will be disruption; there will be chaos. But when the dust settles, the steady advance of government intrusion into the lives of ordinary Americans will have been thwarted and turned back to reflect a more reasonable balance everybody can live with.

The Devil is in the Details

There are two glaring misfires in the clip above: First, the notion of the Obama administration needing a straw man to take to the woodshed and say what is what. This administration is the straw man and the lesson of Massachusetts that professional Democrats must take home is that voters have spoken and will continue to speak. “No confidence!” they shouted loud and clear, even from the most blue of blue bastions. The game plan can no longer be amended or tweaked. Even retreat is no longer an option. The troops have mutinied. There’s nothing left for the generals to do but resign in disgrace, for they no longer have an army.

The second is the notion that the banks are primarily at fault for what happened (and will continue to be at fault). Everybody knows by now that banking is one of the most heavily regulated industries in the country; that the banks essentially did what they were told by their government handlers (which was to by-pass normal banking procedures and give out loans to people who could not afford them; all, in the name of ‘social justice’). Banking is (as is every business in a free market) largely self-regulating; i.e. good business practices lead to just rewards, while bad business practices lead to failure. When an entity (such as the federal government or ACORN) steps in and subverts this organic process, the system fails. It then tries to compensate; but is hamstrung, unable to address the original problem - undue government intervention - and thereby sets itself up as the straw man for political party apologists (let’s face it, the entire ‘mortgage for free’ scheme was born and bred Democrat).

Stop any one on the street and ask them if they think there needs to be health care reform, they would tell you, ‘by all means’. Health care reform or no health care reform is not the issue. The devil is in the details. Do we use our mandate to do something about the too high cost of heath care to force a Marxist agenda, or do we just reform health care?

The same question could be asked with regard to banking. The people have spoken and they will continue to speak. They are saying that they would prefer this administration do nothing until adults can take over.