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/

Mark Levin

America's Swan Song

Today was supposed to be the end of the world – the Rapture – as Christian minister Harold Camping predicted; and thousands of his followers, around the world, from Manila to New York took it to heart. Based on esoteric, inscrutable calculations from the Old Testament, the 6 PM moment of apocalypse has already passed in the Far East without incident. Whether or not this was done simply to promote Camping’s multi-million dollar non-profit ministry or was based on genuine sentiment is anybody’s guess. Nevertheless, the run-up to this non-event caused some to sell their possessions and others to lose sleep. Camping is said to have predicted the end of the word before (in the ‘90’s).

This puts me into an awkward position, having predicted the end of our political world somewhere within the timeframe between now and the 2012 election. There are those who would say it’s already happened with the election of Barack Hussein Obama; that everything that now follows is irreversible with more shoes yet to drop. I’m not yet quite so pessimistic. I still believe that we have time to halt our slide into total irrelevance and chaos, provided enough people wake up to the threat.

Nevertheless, it puts me in with the doomsday prophets who will be proven either wrong or right as November 2012 approaches.

I do not like to be in this position. It is not something I do for profit or undue attention. It simply reflects my view that there are now those who have managed to gain the upper hand in steering our nation toward a vision that is dangerous and destructive overall.

There’s certainly not much sign of it yet – not in my corner of the country, at any rate; where not too many houses are sporting ‘For Sale’ signs, nor are businesses shuttered; and price spikes at gas stations and in the grocery stores appear to have had a minimal effect on a population still relatively well-off. It is at the hardware store and in the barbershops that one begins to hear some grumblings; but our town’s high-end restaurants are still relatively well attended; especially now, with spring in full swing and tables having been set outside. On closer examination, however, one finds that many of the published prices on menus have been pasted over and changed in free-hand.

On TV too, the endless talk about the likes of Schwarzenegger and Strauss-Kahn goes on uninterrupted - next week somebody else will occupy the hot seat – as if no one had a concern in the world. Only politicos warn that if their candidate is not fully supported the world as we know it will shatter. It’s all dismissed as idle talk that some of the more eager armchair warriors among us are wont to engage in.

Yet, I cannot shake the feeling that something far more significant than mere appearance is at stake. In fact, things may be even worse than we are led to believe. My timetable ensues out of the election cycle which many have come to view as America’s salvation.

I see it somewhat differently. The election cycle is likely to speed things up even more. As I watch the so-called opposition trying to position itself in embarrassingly clumsy fits and starts, I take it as a sign that America is yet unaware of the dangers it faces. While said dangers have become obvious to me, I see no evidence of the urgency that would normally be evident in a nation under siege. In fact, I see us becoming quite comfortable with the possibility of Obama winning a second term. Neither do I see the opposition mounting a credible counter-attack.

My greatest fear is that the worst that could happen has already happened, and that the rest is merely a coda to America’s swan song.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

The Pool Empties

(The following can be read in conjunction with 'On A Silver Platter'.)

It was remarkable to see: a foreign head of state giving our president a public schooling yesterday. Some were outraged that this could even happen. Others were jubilant. All felt somewhat uncomfortable.

For far too long Obama has been getting away with it, just saying things for the mere sake of talking without anything to back it up. And we were expected to become all wobbly and swoon at the mere strains of ‘Hail to the Chief' marking his entrance. We’d grown tired of waiting for the oft promised manna from heaven while most of the time it’s been raining stones.

Yesterday, someone finally took it upon himself to stand up to the charade. It’s not that Obama was fooling anybody anymore. All the other world leaders noticed the utter lack of substance in the man. But they just smiled and discretely turned away, pretending to blow their noses while laughing out loud. “Be careful, we’ve got a nut case here,” they said to each other.

Israel couldn’t take it so lightly. Its very existence depends upon a viable partnership between our two nations – now more than ever, as the Middle East is preparing to rise up against it. It cannot continue to play childish games that have no basis in reality.

In what was billed as a major foreign policy statement last week at the State Department, the president reiterated America’s long-standing position toward Israel. “Our commitment to Israel’s security is unshakeable,” he said. Three paragraphs later, he went on, “…and Israel must be able to defend itself – by itself – against any threat.” What the hell does that mean? - that we now will or won’t support Israel if she were to be attacked?

It’s the same with our economy. On one hand, Obama says that private enterprise is expected to pull our nation back from the fiscal brink. On the other, he is singularly responsible for placing roadblocks in the path of every private enterprise and condemning the very notion of capitalism at every turn.

No wonder everyone is left scratching their heads by this American Shiva’s eternal skull dance. And we do know that confusion and uncertainty keeps everything from moving forward.

Desperate to land on some green twig, he’s got us grasping at straws. We pick and choose from his torrent of words to find those that would signal a positive turn, ignoring all others. It’s impossible for us to believe that our very own leader does not have a plan – easy to do as we hear him talking out of both sides of his mouth. He exhorts industry to hire. Industry is reluctant. They don’t just hire to pad payrolls. They expect to see results, even as planning has become impossible in this fog. Consequently, they’re not hiring. They’ll wait until the air clears at least enough to discern some direction.

Netanyahu did us a favor yesterday. He introduced some urgency into the mix. Will our president now feel compelled to sharpen his pencils? Or will he harden his stance toward an ally who has cared enough to expose this administration's treading water while the pool empties.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Small Bits: On Israel

I’ve been writing about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for a number of years now. I’ve been going back and reading what I wrote back in the 90’s. Everything I’ve ever said about this is still true today. I just never thought I’d ever see an American president stick a fork and knife into Israel and hand her over to her tormentors.

Some say we'd have gotten along just fine without Israel. As one who writes, I know that we are a product of the Judea-Christian tradition. Virtually every one of our literary references and metaphors can be traced back to the Bible. It is so engrained in us – so much a part of us – most of us are quite unaware of it (it’s like the eye not being able to see itself). Knock all that foundation out from under us – and we become nothing.

What we hold now to be so terribly important would simply blow away, like topsoil blowing away with the wind. Don’t say Israel is unimportant – when, in fact, Israel is us. Why would you think this tiny sliver of a country is so hard fought?

Many of us take the family to a movie on Sunday afternoons. Try being compelled by law to attend public hangings in the market square on Saturdays instead. That seems to be the idea of civic duty in some quarters. (Though, these days, it seems to work out to virtually the same thing.)

“It’s not one world,” the late, great Paul Harvey used to say.
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President Obama attempting to dismantle the very basis of our legitimacy as essential actors on the world stage. This has very little to do with the terms we use to describe things. Terms are often interchangeable. It has become clear to me that two distinct narratives have emerged within our nation that are not necessarily compatible. In effect, we are at war with ourselves.

The things discussed in the Bible are often dismissed as no longer relevant because it was written at a different time and spoke to those people in terms that only they could fully understand. We no longer use the same terms or concepts to describe things. (Even today, we run into endless problems when attempting simple translation.)

Today, we often use metaphors we learned in 9th grade science class. Throughout the long and arduous evolution of language, reality has remained essentially the same. Even, despite knowing that the world is round, our maps remain flat. It matters not how we express it. What I’m trying to say is that language is but a thin veneer, and time-sensitive to boot. The cultural heritage of any given people runs much deeper.

Unfortunately, Muslim aggression - and Western aggression (or influence) - is and has been a historical fact. The bone of contention right now is Israel. If there were no Israel, we would have to invent it. We must deal with the aggression, not curse the bone.

As for throwing everything into the pot, to see which one will sink or swim, quite apart from what may or may not be in our own self interest - this too will not work. There is no such thing as peace at ground level or above. Peace is only possible six feet under.

As long as we live, we must always be prepared to fight. If we succeed in keeping the fallout confined to foreign shores, so much the better for us. Nations know instinctively that they must protect themselves. Some make the strategic decision to ride on the coattails of others who might possess the means to protect them. In doing so, they give up a bit of their sovereignty. Others build great armies. It still is not clear to me which of these Israel aspires to.

Time is roughly divided into two-thirds peace and one-third war. Peace is merely the absence of war. War can sometimes be held at bay by fear. Either way, the illusion of power plays a role. This is why great nations build great armies that stand idle two-thirds of the time. It is hardly a waste.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

I Hit Her; Didn't I?

Why do we keep on plowing the same tired old field over and over again, expecting a different crop; asking if POTUS knows? Yes, he knows precisely! I’m getting tired of Obama’s so-called ‘mistakes’ (because he doesn’t know). He knows!

If I were Netanyahu, I would cancel my trip to Washington. We know of Obama’s close ties to the likes of Rev. Wright, Bill Ayers, and Rashid Khalidi. We know their views even if Obama lies to our faces. Why should our president’s views be any different from theirs?

When you love somebody, you believe anything they say. Fair enough. The media is simply in love with Obama. When he says, “Our commitment to Israel is unshakable,” they believe it, ignoring the mountain of all his past associations, influences; and, now, decisions. When we see him acting in ways that go counter to the interests of our nation, we are asked to ignore it and say, “He is our president who represents all we hold dear.”

Netanyahu should cancel to show he has awakened from everyone’s dream expectation; from everyone’s wishful thinking. Did Roosevelt meet with Hitler? Did Churchill meet with Mussolini? No, it’s not done. One does not meet with one’s enemies until after they’ve been defeated and they’ve turned over their swords in solemn ceremony for all the world to see.

There are two ways to achieve peace. One is to win; the other is to lose. If Bush had had even half the support Obama has, he would have gone down as one of the greatest presidents ever. His strategy for the ME was flawless. It might have worked had he not been undermined from within for table scraps. Obama’s strategy is to bat for the losing side (if we are to believe that ‘good’ always wins over ‘evil’).

We see this in every one of Obama’s decisions, foreign and domestic. In the short run it will hurt. There is no need to prolong this war. There is no need to agonize; to try and fit square pegs into round holes and vice versa.

Reminds of an old joke: Manny was a bus driver. As every morning at rush hour, his bus was so crowded with people going to work, some had to stand. The ones near the front could marvel at Manny’s skillful driving.

One day, Manny was coming down a street. There was an old, fat woman crossing the road ahead. Instead of slowing down, Manny sped up. The bus hit the woman squarely. The people who saw the whole thing were outraged. “What’s the matter with you?” they shouted. “Didn’t you see the lady?”

Manny just smiled and turned his head slightly to address them, “I hit her; didn’t I?” he said.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

On A Silver Platter

We now see what the so-called ‘Arab Spring’ – much of which this president has had a hand in – has been all about. In his (billed as a major) foreign policy speech today president Obama essentially told Israel to fall back to its pre-’67 borders as a precondition for peace talks with Palestinians.

We must suspect that it has been Obama’s plan all along to hand Israel over into the hands of its enemies. Reaction should be predictable. He will be praised by Jew haters, which now includes virtually every nation on earth. (It’s nice to know that we’ve managed to sink to the lowest common denominator among nations in less than a single presidential term.) At the same time, it should send shivers through every Israeli (living in Israel).

Such borders are clearly indefensible should Israel be attacked – and it will be. Obama is betting on being able to gain acceptance in the Islamic world by sacrificing Israel. It will not work. Islamists will feel emboldened and will not stop until Europe and America are Islamized as well. Much can happen between now and then, but this nonetheless represents a milestone in the long view of some who are playing the game.

Exactly how long the game has been going on is at this point hard to tell. Perhaps Israel was doomed from the start. But this speech certainly clarifies things. The implied trade-off, of course, is that there might now be a chance for peace were the Arabs to get what they want; that wars and terrorism (and high oil prices) would cease to be a problem and that all the world would prosper.

You know my view. I’ve stated it often enough. We cannot build stability, prosperity and peace on genocide. Others have tried and it has never worked. I view Israel as the keystone of a delicate arch. It should be defended and reinforced – not removed and discarded. The arch is likely to collapse. All else we can survive: socialism; corruption; a broken economy; a broken government; even the unrelenting threat of terror.

A fallen Israel we cannot.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Goodwin Liu: A Liberal's Liberal

If there be any doubt remaining as to where Barack Hussein Obama intends to take the country, consider his nomination of Goodwin Liu to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The 40-year old University of California (at Berkeley) law professor needs to secure the 60 votes as early as today in the Senate, needed to overcome a promised filibuster by Republicans.

Besides having had no hands-on judicial experience, Liu’s writing’s and pronouncements show him to harbor views that would seem excessively liberal even by the liberal standards of the 9th Circuit.

The WSJ in its lead editorial today quotes Liu:

On Chief Justice John Roberts: “A Supreme Court nominee must be evaluated on more than just legal intellect.”

On Samuel Alito: “Judge Alito’s record envisions an America where police may shoot and kill an unarmed boy to stop him from running away with a stolen purse.”

More: “(Alito) approaches law in a formalistic, mechanical way abstracted from human experience.”

More: “(…judges should) determine, at the moment of decision, whether our collective values on a given issue have converged to a degree that they can be persuasively crystallized and credibly absorbed into legal doctrine.”

On the use of international law in the courtroom: “The resistance to this practice to this practice is difficult for me to grasp, since the U.S. can hardly claim to have a monopoly on wise solutions to common legal problems faced by constitutional democracies around the world.”

And: “’free enterprise’, ‘private ownership of property’ and ‘limited government’…are code words for an ideological agenda hostile to environmental, work place, and consumer protections.”

Republicans have been known to roll over for Democrat judicial appointments. Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan both were installed without much fuss. The thinking goes that American presidents should pretty much be afforded the right to pick whoever they want as court vacancies occur. If recent history is a guide, Obama can expect to get this nominee through the confirmation process as well after some initial, obligatory grumbling from the peanut gallery.

Recent developments have shown, however, that suspicion remains high that Obama’s agenda is damaging to the country overall. Nowhere is the impact of a presidency greater than in president’s prerogative to appoint wildly partisan judges for life. As more and more – especially Republican – lawmakers are waking up to the fact of what’s happening to our nation, future nominations can be expected to be hard fought – starting today.

This is not to say that people like Liu should not be allowed to express their views. Far from it; our Constitution (or what’s left of it) expressly allows for it. It’s just that we are not necessarily obliged to put such people in leadership positions.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Checkmate!

It has since come to my attention that Mr. Strauss-Kahn was the front-runner socialist candidate to oppose France’s Sarkozy. It occurs that socialists – like moderate Republicans - have a difficult time of it these days. On one hand, they are still wedded to the notion that money (paper) equals power. On the other, they are tasked with maintaining this illusion even as the power of money seems in decline. They find themselves between a rock and a hard place, attempting to satisfy two opposing currents: conservatives, who tend to be supply-siders, clamoring to save the system by next-to-impossible cuts in government spending; and Communists/Islamists, demanding that we jettison traditional economic theory altogether.

Between saving the system and jettisoning it is where socialists make their home. They represent the moderates – the wavering and undecided - in a war that one side or the other is destined to lose. Either way, socialists are already road kill. If the incident making headlines this morning on the front pages of virtually every daily [save the (Hometown) Coffee News] has been engineered, it might have been done by either side.

Socialists are especially vulnerable because of their inability to commit. Academe is full of them and so is the media. If there should come a conflagration, socialists will be the first to feel it. They will be targeted by both sides. They will be forced to proclaim their allegiance. To them, that will be akin to stripping naked. Some will refuse to do it.

I’d like to think that an actual shooting war can still be avoided; that we will fight it out on a political and economic level. If this be the case, Bush Derangement Syndrome was the prelude. Virtually everybody in America and around the world fell for it and drunkenly played along. It brought us Obama. Now that we’re well into the first movement, the stakes are already higher.

Winning this war will not depend on who we are against. It will depend on whom we are for. We have arrived at the heart of the matter. People are attacking us throughout the world. Why? Because we – America – are perceived as being supportive of Israel. All over the world, Israel has become the pariah of our time. Even many of us have begun to waver. It has become chic to support revolution in the Middle East and promote the idea of a Palestinian (terror) state on Israel’s doorstep. We do not realize that by supporting these things, we chip away at Israel’s ability to defend itself. We can no longer afford to laugh when Israel is attacked or made fun of the way we stood back and allowed it to happen to Bush.

No use crying over spilt milk. We’ve already lost too many battles. Our educational system is in ruins; our Constitution barely exists; our government barely functions; our economy limps along. The next battle will be fought over Israel. The final phase started with the demonization of Bush to which we all happily acquiesced. After Israel has fallen, the next and final target will be America.

The last shoe to drop before America falls is Israel. And almost nobody talks about it. George Mitchell has quit. Hillary is off in Pakistan. Our president plays golf.

If we commit now to standing by Israel in its hour of need, we still have a chance of saving America. It’s not going down in the way one may think. The last battle – as all the others - will be won by attrition. It is my contention that if Israel falls, it will rip the soul out of our nation and we won’t be inclined to raise even a finger in our own defense.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Less Time To Flatten

Emotion – not reason - drives policy. Reason only serves in support. If we are to understand policy, we must first understand emotion. We use a variety of terms to describe emotion. Often such terms are misapplied. It happens quite innocently in the course of common occurrences: The wife asks, “Do you want okra or green beans for dinner?” I say, “Green beans.” She responds by saying, “I know, you hate okra.”“So why did you ask?” I say, and we’re off to the races.

In truth, I’m indifferent to both. Just because I have voiced a preference does not mean I have strong feelings either way. Yet, the word “hate” has been introduced into the conversation.

It’s no secret that Obama does not have a firm grip on the details that define the Middle East. He sees all Muslims as Muslims and all infidels as infidels - black and white. Simple. It is the same view “The Nation of Islam” here in the U.S. holds. Given such scant knowledge would be enough for any average American president to conduct foreign affairs. Unfortunately, Obama is on the wrong side.

Hatred is often mislabeled as ‘fear’. Islamists in the ME fear the West. They see their culture in danger of being diluted by western ways. That’s why they fight. Islam in the West hates the West as an expression of its own self-loathing. There is a difference.

Islam takes fear and envy and wraps them all in the same cloth and sets it on fire. For simplicity’s sake we call it ‘hatred’. They constantly misrepresent the enemy; to make him out worse than he appears. It is for this reason that Islamic nations do not welcome guests – and if they do, these are treated separately – all to maintain the ridiculous notion that all guests are pollutants.

Israel is seen as a pollutant on what Islam perceives as its land. They do not fear Israel (as Israel poses no existential threat); they fear the influence of a modern, successful, western nation in their midst. They fear not being able to maintain close theocratic control over their own, whom they view as chattel – easily distracted from the straight and narrow and apt to chase anything that glitters. They feel their hold slipping. As such, they will go to increasing lengths to see to it that their sheep, goats, camels and women stay in line.

The frustration that mounts within their populations is building to explode. Even that - by careful, systematic manipulation - can be directed to serve the theocratic regime. All the rage is channeled against Israel and the West (for protecting Israel). In this way the Islamic theocracy shields itself from having to answer for its own failures.

On Aaron Klein’s radio show today, not much was made of NABKA Day. It’s a day like any other for a nation under constant siege. What was interesting, however, was Aaron’s exchange in his last segment with Hussein. Hussein finds it inconceivable that anyone would question Obama’s legitimacy. He asks, how it could be possible for every one of America’s official high legal authorities (plus the media) to give Obama a pass without an adequate background check and takes umbrage at Aaron’s suggestions? He went on to accuse Aaron of fueling hate for hate’s sake.

We have seen other hoaxes before. Some have exploded (‘global warming’), some have not and are ongoing. Maybe freedom and liberty; rule of law; capitalism; a nod to representative governance all are hoaxes. But these are our hoaxes - hoaxes that Americans have chosen to live by. Obama’s hoaxes are entirely different. These are unwelcome. These were introduced into the body politic by stealth. They seek to tear down and destroy everything we’ve ever held dear. All we have to do is just look around: economy is in tatters, foreign policy in tatters; education in tatters; Constitution in tatters; government in tatters; etc.

The long knives are out for talk radio as well. Avlon’s article is one of these. Smerconish’s show is another. Both seek to pour oil on troubled waters. Unfortunately, I have heard, there’s not enough oil. (Can’t you just picture us throwing windmills and batteries into the drink?)

Emotion drives policy. If you hate that sandcastle on the beach with the penis shaped towers, you go over and you level it. It’s that elementary (my dear Watson). Chances are that it will take you a lot less time to flatten it than it took to build.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Facebook Amen Corner

Just in case you haven’t noticed, Facebook has become the “Amen corner” of the net. People post things like pretty pictures of sunsets and say things like “Obama is great” and everyone who responds says something like, “What a pretty picture!” or, “What a pretty sunset!” Or, “Yes, he truly is.” And, “We’re so blessed to have George Soros guiding his every move.”

Now, if anyone should disagree with same sex marriages or abortions, for example; it’s better just to keep it to oneself. One’s comment will be promptly deleted, even if one counters with a reasoned argument.

This has happened to me several times. I could say all I want against Iran’s mullahs, but let me say one word about our sainted co-presidents (Soros-Obama) and puff, it’s gone.

I never put the writings I post here on Facebook, but others do. It’s hit or miss. I suspect they have some kind of machine that scouts for word clusters involving “Soros”, “Obama”, “Koelliker”, “fraud”, "treason”, “anti-American”… (you get the idea), and nixes it. Amazing what technology can do these days. And, from news reports I read, our government is getting more and more involved in cyberspace.

I’d imagine, if I were Iranian and blogging from Iran, I’d run into the same buzz saw (only the clusters are different). What’s in a name, anyway?

Alas, the world is getting smaller. We’ll soon be condemned to all doing (and thinking) the same things. In a way, I don’t blame the jihadis. They’re the last ones on earth who can claim to be free. At least they haven’t looked yet who has them by the tail while they’re slamming us around.

We accuse China of manipulating media; we accuse Iran. "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:3)

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Bad Liar Black Hats

Don’t expect Boehner and Republicans to turn things around. For one thing, they don’t have the power. All the power has been consolidated by the White House. For another, they may not be riding the white horses either. They may just be losers in a race consisting entirely of black horses.

I’m wondering how many of you feel that you’re just hanging by a thread; that you’re just one paycheck away from ruin - or one illness; one car accident; one death in the family; one natural disaster? The feeling has become palpable for more than a few people. You are not alone.

We are a proud people and not given to complain. We tend to believe that the neighbor across the street is doing alright. As we watch neighbors increasingly packing up and moving away, we realize that the hooded man with the scythe is on the loose. He just hasn’t gotten to our house yet.

Fear sells. You know that yourself. Don’t tell me you’ve never been tempted to buy gold (and not just because it’s pretty); store food and water in the basement; subscribe to Lifelock; First Alert; and to whatever the name of that company is that claims to save your files when your computer crashes.

Now there are those who will not readily submit to fear-mongering of any kind. Good for them. But even the most confident and self-reliant among us now know that something’s wrong. Look at Trump. I’m sure he’s taken care of for life. Yet, he too thinks that something should be done to hobble the political class (left and right) that’s running away with our country.

We now build government policy around fear. We allow ourselves to be in effect strip-searched at airports; now there’s talk about doing the same thing for people using trains. All the while, we know very well who bad apples are. (I’ve raised this point before, but still haven’t got an answer: Why are Muslim women exempt?) No, it is we, our wives and mothers, and our children who have to prove we are innocent at these unconstitutional checkpoints! What gives?! It doesn’t add up. The guy who tried to blow up Times Square was granted U.S. citizenship barely a year before, while my own wife is denied the same courtesy. People who cross our southern border illegally will now be granted blanket amnesty, while all those who submit to the ‘process’ are told to wait - seemingly forever.

They’ve got our own phones keeping track of us. They can listen in any time they want. They’ll be reading the odometers in our cars. They’ll tell us where we can build factories and where we can’t build our houses. They worship snail darters before letting us sow our seeds. They won’t let us drill holes in our own ground. It just goes on and on. We’re increasingly kept on a very short leash.

Let me suggest that those who denounce Barack Hussein Obama may very well be racist after all. He’s a black man, to be sure; but he isn’t all that different from previous presidents we’ve had; this new miracle Congress isn’t all that different from previous congresses; the candidates the Republican Party appears to be fielding for the 2012 election cycle aren’t that much different from Obama.

They’ll all do as Tim Geithner tells them: raise the debt ceiling (which, btw, has been raised over a hundred times before since its inception). So what’s the big deal this time around? Despite all the posturing, they’ll raise our taxes and find another name for it.

I now understand why the people were so desperate to get rid of Bush. They wanted someone different; someone who would change our direction; to make it better – not worse. What we got was worse - at a lightning speed, no less. Obama’s only crime is that he’s a bad liar. We can see right through his schemes. And it doesn’t end well.

How much are you personally prepared to give up when the hammer finally falls? What are you willing to do for that sandwich, that gallon of gas? Are you ready to sell out your neighbor to save your own skin? These are questions you must be prepared to answer when it becomes apparent that the white hats have been ambushed and delayed; or, when you realize that we’ve just plumb run out of white hat material.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Closets

No doubt someone will do a word search and find how many times our media has mentioned ‘Osama’ and ‘Obama’ since Osama was killed by SEAL team 6. I wonder who would win that particular contest. Since we don’t really have all that much useful to do, we might even try to find out how often reporters and talking heads have used these two names interchangeably. They’re really quite similar – the only difference being, that one is dead and one is still alive. Both have killed, after all. (And don’t let me go into degrees of killing – killing one, or thousands – and get all caught up in an argument to determine at which point killing actually becomes a menace.)

Now you might say that one is on our side while the other one wasn’t. Fair point; but let’s define ‘sides’. Let’s say there are ‘sides’. Our side demands submission; that is to say that we expect their side to refrain from killing us. Their side appears not yet convinced that such submission is to their benefit. In Islam, submission is the ultimate goal. They will kill enough of us to convince the rest to submit. The same is true of us (in a way).

Killing is the ultimate statement anyone can make. In taking a life we become god-like, and thus assert that we exist. After one has done it, there is no walking it back. It is the finality of it that should frighten those who subsist on the illusion of death. Submission, on the other hand, is to bow to one’s fate. One continues to live, but one might as well be dead. When the Palestinian suicide bomber (whose vest failed to detonate) was asked why he did it, he claimed that he was already dead; that the Israelis had rendered him dead long ago. Another example is the phrase, “Give me liberty, or give me death” – the American apple pie version of the same thought.

It’s difficult to work things out and enter into an understanding when one has abandoned all reason; when reason needs at the very least to have a foundation on which both sides can agree, such as life being better than death. Islam doesn’t work that way. Therefore, the default position is power. Islam has discovered that the slow action of water running over a stone will over time reduce that stone. Islam has seen the action of water create great canyons. It is committed to chip away at what it believes to be evil and transient. In fact, Islam demands it.

We cannot connect. We are far too busy with our own lives to grasp the abstractions on which Islam builds its theology. We see them simply as aggressive and unyielding, without realizing that we are unyielding as well. What we call ‘advanced’, Islam calls ‘evil’. We claim to be non-violent, but it is us they are reacting to. Our money is perceived as poison by them. It threatens the purity of their abstract view. It is we who are the bulls in their china closets. What we think of as our kind-hearted outreach only shatters more of their china. They see us as aggressors. It is we who fail to recognize their purity; who label their purity as dangerous and corrupt and threaten to overwhelm it. It is they who find themselves backed into a corner from which they snarl and fight …and wear away our belief in ourselves like the stone at the edge of the ocean that eventually becomes sand.

We stand at a crossroads. Will we stand up and fight as Krishna demanded of Arjuna during the epic battle of Kurukshetra, or will we continue to appease, knowing that appeasement – like valium - becomes addictive? We too have a right to practice what we believe. In our ever shrinking world, can we really afford to build enough closets for everyone to live separately?
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Picture: Arjuna's Penance, Mahabalipuram, India.

In Every Room

When you say ‘we’, I think you mean the media (elites). Their next step in this chaos of information, disinformation, self-aggrandizement and outright lying is quite obvious. Equally obvious is that we’re not buying it – you’re not buying it, and there’s no good reason to believe that anyone of any significance is either.

The job of the MSM is to turn this Osama killing (if it really was that) into a ‘prodigal son’ moment for POTUS – to have us forget whatever else he’s done. They’ll manufacture polls that say it is so; that the American people now approve of how Obama is handling his job.

The same was true of the health care debacle. Our marches on Washington; our phone calls that paralyzed Washington phone banks; our e-mails; our town hall confrontations; our special and midterm election votes – all should have been huge stories. They were not. And the impression remains that we, the people, are now on board with this, America’s first black and historic president. We are not.

The narrative between what the press would have us believe and what we know to be true is several miles wide. In a fair election contest, this chasm would be exposed. This is why I believe the next election (2012) will not be fair (if even held). The degree of fraud will depend on internal polling as we get closer; or, on the Left’s ability to put a Republican Progressive in place as to essentially effect a Hobson’s choice.

I believe that POTUS and his handlers know that this latest OBL narrative is full of holes. On one hand they are happy that it’s sucking all the oxygen out of the room. (Legislatively, Washington is once again stalled.) On the other, they are now scrambling to patch it by wagging fingers at Pakistan. There will be accusations and threats of congressional inquiry. Aid to Pakistan may or may not be withheld. Pakistan will end up so utterly smeared and discredited that nothing they can possibly say or do can absolve them. Again, that is the plan, tailored to American audiences. The world will see it differently.

POTUS does not seem to be concerned. He has likely been hoodwinked as well. He may actually see himself as the ‘bigger than life’ hero the press is making him out to be. At this point, I actually believe that we, the people, know more about virtually everything than Obama does. Should something not add up in his own mind and he is moved to raise questions, he will likely be told to relax and go out and play (a round or two on the WH putting green) – that everything will be taken care of; that his next speech has already been queued in on the teleprompter. All he has to do is read it with his customary make-believe gravitas; and, BTW, that make-up has suggested he tape his ears back a bit to make him seem less like Dumbo, the flying elephant in every room.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

View from India: Wake Up Call

by Parvathi

It was unexpected - the killing of Osama - in the sense, we were not aware of how hot the pursuit must have been. It was said to have taken place without anyone knowing. That's hard to believe. Either way, Pakistan is absolutely miserable about its public image - America's favorite, not being told about the operation that took place just a few miles from its capital. Or worse, did Pakistan trade Osama for Afghanistan?

Strangely enough, Osama bin Laden no longer had what it takes to evoke any great emotion. In the ten years after 9/11, Al Qaeda has morphed and metastasized into a movement in which Osama appeared no longer to be central. It had become an ideology - a social movement, some say - that can no longer be easily wiped out. Who knows, maybe Osama hiding in Pakistan hated his miserable life - whatever. The most suspicious thing to me about the whole operation were the repeated reports by the press about Osama's burial at sea, complete with proper Islamic rites. Burial at sea when he was killed on land? Islamic rites - really?

Someone seems to have slipped up on their homework. Was it even Osama who was killed? Or was it all staged to boost President Obama's sagging public image? He now goes down in history as the man who avenged the carnage of 9/11. What about Osama's image as a martyr to the cause? What about the backlash for not giving him a proper Islamic burial (facing Mecca)? Who knows? Time will tell. My commitment to politics reaches only as far as the armchair remote; I see only generalities.

But the Islamic faith is an unique one. For one thing, it speaks of an abstract God who is beauty and truth. There is no image to focus on and pray to. Islam also recognizes that all men and women are equal: the beginnings of Socialism perhaps?

I had a wonderful experience of staying with a Hyderabadi Muslim family, years back, when I was in college. The men and women ate separately sitting round a low table. What fascinated me was this: their servants also ate with them - something I had never seen anywhere else before. These people were very rich upper class traders, but at the table all were one. I saw this again while watching a Bergman movie about the 19th century Swedish middle/upper-middle class. Of course here the men and women were not segregated as in the Muslim household. Neither way seemed particularly unnatural. It has always stayed with me, this wonderful feeling of community that came across.

This morning while walking on the beach I saw a beach party in progress. A big group of young people were celebrating someone's birthday with cake and candles. They were busy cutting pieces of cake, serving each other, drinking fizzy soda pops and all the rest of it. Standing at the fringe of it all and watching avidly were two beach urchins. The smaller one was asking his big brother questions: what are they eating? why the candles? how does a cake taste?

A man stood watching the two kids. He had a prayer cap and sported the traditional Muslim beard. He walked up to the group said something to them. The young people cut a couple of pieces and the man went up to the boys with the pieces of cake. The older one said he did not like cake, but the younger one just grabbed his and ate it with gusto. He looked positively ecstatic. The older one then reluctantly took the other piece. They thanked the man with the prayer cap. He said, "Allah is just, beautiful, and true." and walked away. The beach urchins turned and went their own way.

I never thought of telling the group to share their cake with the two kids.

-- from Parvathi's blog FINE LINE; reprinted by permission.

When Did OBL Die?

The question that has everybody lining up on one side or another is: Who actually is responsible for the killing of OBL? Obviously, every right-thinking American must admit that America (and the world) is a better place with OBL gone. The WH is positioning itself for the next election cycle. Obama stands to gain the most simply by having been there. He will do his best to remind voters every day that he was the one who found, and gave the order to kill America’s arch villain.

It looks like a successful strategy until we begin to scratch the surface a little. For one thing, there is now evidence to suggest that Obama was backed into a corner; that he was at first reluctant, but was forced to pull the trigger when confronted with the fact that OBL had been located.

It is also becoming quite obvious that the WH had help; that someone in Pakistan not only knew, but assisted.

The speed with which OBL’s body was disposed of will continue to raise questions. Now the latest: Was OBL’s body dumped into the sea, or was it dumped somewhere in the Hindu Kush? Conspiracy theorists will continue to ask: Is bin Laden really dead?

All this back and forth sorely misses main point. The real question that should be asked is when did OBL die?
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Picture: Original art by Fritz Horstman entitled, "To Perish Twice".

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Guest Contributer: Tom From NJ: Seed Corn

Despite all the adoring hoopla accorded by the MSM to their precious Obama as he cavorts like a war president on his post-UBL victory lap, The Messiah could well be heading for a major political fall here. And make no mistake, politics -- specifically the hyper-partisan, hyper-personal politics typical of Barack Obama -- is what is in play here and nothing else. In short, in trying to make not only the elimination of UBL but also the whole 9/11 story all about HIM, The Bamster may be setting the stage for his own "Mission Accomplished" moment that embarrassed George W. Bush long after he landed that jet on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln.

First, the UBL assassination is yet another example of POTUS living off the seed corn left behind by the supposedly cretinous Dubya. Only now it's not the tax cuts, it's our national security at stake, and here Obama is heedlessly devouring that seed corn. Having now profited shamelessly and hypocritically off the Bush-era policies of harsh interrogations that he himself hotly opposed, Obama continues to pooh-pooh their necessity and morality while allowing his leftist-racist-corrupt AG Eric Holder to hound with a criminal investigation the very CIA interrogators who made the UBL takedown possible, not to mention the gutting of the defense budget that POTUS is alleged to have in mind. These contradictions will become clearer to voters sooner or later, despite MSM resistance, and we unfortunately cannot rule out some sort of successful terrorist strike in this country over the next year or two, especially since The Bamster himself has wasted so much of our national security seed corn. In which case, Obama's victory lap – BTW, isn't that "spiking the football?" -- could well come back to haunt him and, to paraphrase Rev. Jeremiah Wright, his war-on-terror political "chickens” could “come home to roost" in 2012.

Second, there's the complete bungle the Obama Administration is making out of its post-UBL communications. Dubya’s communications operation was often inept, but the Obama Administration’s is totally clueless with its numerous makeovers, walk-backs, and flat contradictions within its ever-changing UBL takedown story. In addition, I think it’s a serious mistake over the long haul to suppress all photos of the happily deceased bin-Dirtbag. It’s not because a new set of wackos we might call “deathers” need to be convinced that UBL is really dead; they won’t listen anyway. Rather, an image or two released to the world of the great jihadi bin-Laden with his head blown open would finally prove definitively who is the “weak horse.” In that case, such photos would probably not be ideal “recruiting tools” for new AQ recruits but another source of discouragement like their beating at US hands in Iraq. Perhaps The Bamster thinks that withholding the UBL photos gives him a chance to play rope-a-dope effectively like he did with the “birthers” and Donald Trump over his birth certificate. Maybe or maybe not -- but can’t POTUS come up with some sort of original strategic thinking for a change?

Therefore, I agree with Henry Kissinger in his interview at NRO – Obama is an able tactician but he lacks any real strategic sense abroad or, I would say, at home either. Kind of what we might expect from a Community Organizer as opposed to a true statesman, or even a moderately competent President, as started to become apparent to the electorate by November 2010. So, POTUS had better not rush to proclaim "Mission Accomplished" especially since, as Kissinger and others have pointed out, the "mission" has never been clearly defined by Obama, certainly not at the strategic level.

Why Not Again?

There is a house in Thiruvanmaiyur along the beach road where I usually take my morning constitutional – a big house of indeterminate color, with all kinds of frills, picture windows and Rapunzel towers; one, that stands out and would catch the eye of sidewalk artists and movie audiences – that seems mostly abandoned. The yard is choked with weeds and refuse; neighbors heaving their trash over the wall. It is said to be used occasionally for photo shoots for some of the oodles of movies the highly successful Tamil film industry cranks out on a daily basis.

One time I was out there early morning, watching the fishermen unloading their catches and I noticed a helicopter hovering over that particular place. I didn’t think too much about it at the time; but lately, I’ve been thinking that it could also very well function as India’s version of our witness protection program or as a safe house for Tamil Tiger plotters. Hide in plain sight. Why not make the lie so big, so obvious, that no one will question it?

Mockery is one of the most potent weapons in the human arsenal. It has always been so. Christ on the cross was said to have been mocked. Obviously, Bush was mocked constantly. Since Obama’s election, mockery has been pretty much off the table as the president has shown himself to be far more adept in the art (of mockery) than any of his critics.

Besides, it’s in bad form to mock a black man. One might be accused of racism. Though, this too might be dependent on other factors as we are discovering that black or white may not be the issue at all. Justice Thomas, for instance, might be mocked and no one will say much about it. It’s only Obama that cannot be mocked. What’s the difference? Both men – last time I looked – are black. Here we come to the nub or it: only certain black men can be mocked while others can’t. The modifier that explains all this appears to be ‘conservative’.

Note how liberals strut around, routinely mocking tea parties, Republican lawmakers and presidents, popular talk show hosts and commentators, second amendment supporters, presidential aspirants, religious leaders and their congregations, etc. Make no mistake, these are attacks and they do damage.

You might say that Limbaugh (and some others) mocks the Left. The difference is that Limbaugh gives reasons for his mockery. The Left gives no reasons. Ordinarily, the press would step in to mediate. But, we all know that the media tilts the playing field to favor the Left. Limbaugh’s words and audience are routinely treated as if they do not exist. Instead, people like the girls on ‘The View’ are given star headline treatment.

The day after Osama’s killing, Limbaugh went on air and mocked Obama. There it was! The Left was outraged (if they said anything). What was supposed to be America’s proudest moment since the start of the war on terror, was being mocked unabashedly. Other talk show hosts, known for being critical of the president, refrained from doing so. Not Limbaugh!

Maybe it’s just me, but I too found the whole deal somewhat hollow. For me personally, it did not seem to rise to the status of a significant event. And any attempt to see it as such seemed somehow contrived and cheap, and quite worthy of mockery – an ‘emperor has no clothes’ moment, if you wish. A proper trial would have sat well and settled it. The subtext is, of course, that we can no longer expect a proper trial in this country. Obama has taken that from us as well.

It should have been a moment of quiet restraint and reflection. It needed to be handled with much greater fineness than simply dumping a corpse into the drink. Mike had it right, I think: ‘Defeat snatched out of the jaws of victory’, he wrote. Neither does it impress that al-Qaeda confirmed the kill publicly. I seem to remember AQ websites being largely supportive of Obama winning the election in 2008. They got their wish. Why not again?

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Short Bits: Killing Osama

I seem to remember a soldier being court-martialed for giving a captured terrorist, a fat lip. Now I could be wrong; I never heard anything about it again. I understand, the rules of engagement are really quite stringent – unless, of course, they are overruled by the Commander-in-Chief.

A police officer who has killed in the course of duty often requires many hours of counseling. Now that Obama has a targeted kill under his belt, he cannot help being a changed man. (Somebody must have given the order to ‘kill on sight’.) He can now go one of two ways. Either he will grow hesitant and indecisive, or he will take on the role of mob boss with renewed gusto.

Killing has always been the ultimate wet dream of the Left. I remember people incessantly toying with the idea while Bush was still in office. And just this week liberal talk show host, Mike Malloy, proposed on air that the Navy Seals kill “mass-murderer” George W. Bush.

Despite the apparent applause from all virtually quarters, I cannot shake a distinct sense of unease.
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Now for a different view by Corlyss D, Guest Contributer, responding to John Batchelor's question, "Why not capture him (OBL)?"

Hypothesize me no hypotheticals. They are frankly less than worthless. Reality demands response. You can sit and think and think all day long about "what ifs."

I say good on SEAL Team 6! We need more of that kind of covert assassination rather than a moralizing epitaph for the dead. A writer who fancies himself a historian and moralist declared a couple of years ago that the only "winners" of WW2 were the European Jews because most of them died and, in so doing, aquired a sort of beatification of the defenseless. The writer implied that was a state that all peoples should aspire to if they want their reputations to survive conflict. Bugger that.

"Why not capture him?" (John Batchelor asks.) "Infamous war criminals make for epochal landmark war crimes prosecution (the delusional, deprraved, stupid Martin Borman: and surely the Nuremberg gang was far more frightening the Bin Laden)."

Why capture him? The Nuremberg trials might have been epochal, but they were a huge political mistake. They gave the illusion of state action without a legitmate state. They polluted the judicial process with a star chamber whose outcome was never in doubt. They wasted a lot of money creating the impression that there was such a thing as consensus in an international community that was hardly more developed than the Libyan resistence is today. Churchill was right: the trials have indeed come back to haunt the hell out of us, establishing a precedent that lives in the feckless ICC and the misguided internationalist blather that motivates many policy makers in the EU and other trend-setters seeking legitimacy for an international community incapable of doing anything but relief work by consensus. Quasi-states are impotent in so many categories of critical civil society functions that to bestow on them serious state functions like law enforcement and war-making capability is simply delusional.
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Final thought: I guess what has me upset is that this Osama killing accrues to Obama. It’s just one more way for Obama to maintain the illusion that he is an ‘American’. He is not. Everything he’s done has been detrimental to our nation. I say it’s deliberate. Read Kimberly A. Strassel’s opinion piece entitled “Obama’s ‘Gangster Politics’” in today’s WSJ; and then go on to read Gerald P. O’Driscoll, Jr.’s “Barney Frank’s Latest Bad Idea”. Then turn the page and read Michael B. Mukasey’s “The Waterboarding Trail to bin Laden”. And that’s just today! Every day brings a fresh outrage or more. And now we’re supposed to forget it all and say he’s the best thing since sliced bread? Not me, brother!

Perhaps Cicero said it best:

“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. The traitor is the plague.”

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.

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