Outside The Gulag

The principal difference between the Left and Right as pertains to fiscal policy is to strip money of the concept of ‘value’ and replace it with the concept of ‘rights’. The whole movement is animated by the Utopian vision of ‘collective salvation’. In most countries of the world they wouldn’t give you a plug nickel for a beggar’s carcass - dead or alive. You would nevertheless have to pay a certain sum for a freshly killed chicken. A chicken has value in that it can be eaten.

There are, of course, excesses on all sides of the argument. Why should some people be living in the lap of luxury while others are starving? And, what happens when ‘rights’ are extended to animals as some purists demand?

The logic, as always, breaks down on its fringes. The ‘rights’ advocates already find themselves on shaky ground in that what they advocate does not and has never existed (successfully). Their vision boils down to pure rhetoric. The ‘values’ people are constantly on the defensive having let the gulf between excess and need get out of hand.

The recurring question (and problem) concerning the latter is: Who would administer the standard to which we could all agree? Clearly, none of us are the same. We have different talents and are burdened with different vices. Some are creative; others are drones. Some sound compelling on the radio; some do not. Some can play basketball better than others. Should each one be treated the same – as is appropriate under the law – in fiscal matters as well?

The Leftists would concur that this is indeed their goal. It is the sum total of their Utopian vision. All they would need to implement it is the mandate and power to overturn the present system.

Even Leftist would abandon their vision if they could grasp the consequences of their quest. Their vision assumes that by exchanging a (perhaps) relatively minor part of a car’s engine, all the other parts would continue working just the same.

When Jaguar rolled out its E-Type in 1961, several publications ranked it as the most beautiful car of all time. And that it was. I remember coming out of a Chinese restaurant in New York City one night and seeing one for the first time. A sizable crowd had gathered around it. I was mesmerized.

Almost immediately, owners started complaining about the car’s Lucas (British) electrical system. Later, this issue was said to have been solved by swapping out Lucas for Bosch (German). In this case, the swap turned out for the best.

When talking economics, however, the swapping out ‘value’ for ‘rights’ does not augur well. It would likely mimic a body rejecting a transplant. ‘Value’ will always be a key component as long as human beings are allowed to make choices. ‘Rights’ can only extend to the degree that choices exist. The very logic that the Left is asking us to accept is incompatible with human experience outside of the gulag.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

If there Were No America

I had relatives living on the South Indian coast when the tsunami hit. Within minutes I was on the phone trying to find out if everything was alright. It was. It turns out, we were far enough away from the beach to escape serious damage. The water's advance had stopped just down the road. The neighbors attributed it to the favored status by the gods of the legendary Indian singer, Yesudhas, whose house stands at the end of our block, at the corner of 4th Seaward and Balakrishna.

What has come to be known by its date, 9/11, happened a few years earlier. The news of it spread like a wildfire around the world. I was working at the time. It was a brilliant, clear day. We could see the smoke rising from numerous vantage points on the NJ side of the Hudson. After my shift I went home, shaken. That night I received phone calls from three continents …inquiring.

Today, the lettering announcing 'tsunami relief', painted on the side of the boats that were donated by the West to the fishermen who had lost their livelihoods, is fading. The new boats still go out every morning at daybreak without fail as they have done for a thousand years. In New York City, there's still a giant hole in the ground. No foreign nation has come forward to lend a hand.

I've long wondered what would happen if there were no America. Who would send food to the starving, blankets to the freezing, building materials and expertise to the homeless, hope to the oppressed? Surely none of the would-be giants of the new world order one hears so much about these days would be so inclined.

And, maybe, in the end, it won’t really matter all that much. I was talking about it with my wife just last night – about how vulnerable we all are; how even what we consider to be the ultimate in stability, terra firma, is just a brittle crust that’s floating on a sea of lava; that the whole universe could at any given moment decide to make us the target in a shooting gallery; that our own lives are only a heart attack away from being snuffed out.

So what do we do? Faith. We must live on faith. Attacking a people’s faith is the quickest way of rendering them helpless. Yes, by God! We will get our country back!

Death Penalty

Once again, a blizzard of contradictions swirls around a decision reached by the current administration. It is difficult to see any upside to anything that might result from trying KSM in a NYC Federal Court.

In mathematics, any inconsistencies and/or discrepancies can always be resolved from the reach of the next higher dimension. So too, POTUS’ reasoning can be discerned by asking, “Why?” Already we see red flags emerging in watching Obama comment on the decision from oversees havens, essentially saying, “No comment. Eric Holder is handling it.” This means that, should anything happen to warrant blame, Holder becomes the guy who will be asked to fall on his sword.

Why, indeed! To me it’s quite consistent with what’s been happening from the start of this presidency. Many people, particularly the MSM, are not quite ready to admit it yet lest they get egg on their Botoxed faces – which just goes to prove that the Himalayan sage was right when he proclaimed that ego is the last thing that one gives up when faced with certain death.

Obama wishes first and foremost to destroy America. He is well on his way to having accomplished just that with regard to America's economy. He is working on the destruction of representative governance; education; private industry, energy; strategic (foreign) alliances… there are others I could list. The big item remaining, however, is the military which would include the intelligence services.

A public trial will bring out the inner workings of the CIA and make them public. It will also rekindle the debate about waterboarding and torture - all of it, designed to make the military look bad and ineffective. There are those who suggest it will outright destroy the viability of the CIA. It will also spur the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld haters to renew their demand to put the entire Bush administration on trial for war crimes. And ultimately it will give the blame-America-first Left a platform from which to spew their venom which may just be enough to result in a “not guilty” verdict.

KSM has already admitted guilt. He has asked to be martyred. Why we need a (circus) trial at all is a mystery. Unless, of course, it's to put the U.S. on trial and establish guilt there as well. It then becomes a game of deciding who bears the greater guilt. Would the death penalty apply to the U.S. as well?