To Live Another Day

All this is entirely self-evident. Taxation inhibits economic activity. That’s why one sees the flight of people and businesses from high tax states to lower tax states. As jobs and money flee, the tax base shrinks, resulting in less money flowing into government coffers. It’s difficult to understand why this concept is so difficult to grasp for some people.

‘Democrat ex-legislators’ have just sealed Illinois’ fate. It is not hard to figure out what will happen next. “Wisconsin, here we come!”

Unless, of course, Illinois is so progressive, they feel they are not subject to economic consequences. They would first and foremost blame the economy in general - the loss of jobs (new norm) overall, due to whatever - without necessarily understanding what the word ’economy’ actually means. They would further argue that what is quite obvious in ordinary household budgeting becomes counter-productive when applied to a macro model where increased government spending and higher taxes are the ultimate solution. They would have plenty of company in support of that view from the likes of Paul Krugman, Nobel Prize winning economist, to many in the halls of Congress, and in Democrat-controlled State legislatures.

Even more ominously looms the casual wholesale dismissal of economic principles overall; the view that it is and never has been about fiscal policy; that the whole purpose of the exercise is to make things ‘fair’ by re-distributing wealth.

Our current administration has been mounting an all-out campaign to criminalize achievement. Wealth is regarded as some kind of unpardonable stain - and, to some extent, the class warfare narrative has taken hold. If successful, metrics to actually measure economic success or failure would cease to exist. Only one thing would stand in the way of fully implementing the program: neighboring states or countries in which capitalism actually works.

That is why these too have to be destroyed by Federal rules and regulations. It is why Israel cannot be allowed to survive, and why America cannot remain as she once was.
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Read an article this morning in the WSJ by John Eibner and Charles Jacobs, entitled, “Will Freedom Come for Sudan’s Slaves?” about a country that is about to be split in two. Among a whole host of outrages, slavery is still practiced in northern Africa. It is of the most brutal and degrading sort, vividly detailed here.

Earlier this week, I saw a clip of a debate on France 24 about the kidnapping and murder of French citizens in Niger. And yet, we keep our condemnation close to our vests. At no cost must we insult Islamic extremists. They are noble savages, after all. Easier to turn against ourselves and become like them. It is now clear that they won’t necessarily like us any better if we do; but, at least, they’ll presumably no longer be tempted to come across to our shores to raise holy hell. We who have far less experience in the art of intimidation and physical brutality may yet live another day.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Laughing Gas

As we face new threats to our economy almost every day, it becomes clear that socialists really don’t much care about it, or even care to understand it. They see it either as some immortal golden goose or as something diabolical that must be destroyed. It remains unclear what would replace it as communists (as well as Islamists) have been pretty much riding piggyback on our financial system as it stands.

I have never heard or read of a viable alternative to capitalism. I guess we’re experimenting with that now. Printing money and joblessness, both seem to play some part in it. Most economists (bar Krugman) agree that this will not end well. Still we persist, seemingly deliberately driving the economy into the ground. I suspect that after everything has been said and done, the basic outlines of capitalism will emerge once again. I just don’t see what else could possibly work.

We’ve gone too far to go back to herding and growing our own food, and bartering for services. People will not accept a communist or Islamic solution, unless forced to do so.

Pol Pot emptied the cities and drove people into the fields. Those needing glasses were summarily shot. Mao had a similar idea when he emptied the hospitals of qualified staff and sent them off to dig ditches. And the Taliban has vowed to burn all medical books.

I don’t believe it will come to that here, but the danger is that fewer and fewer of our people understand the workings of an economy, believing that money is simply manna from heaven and quite unrelated to perseverance, talent and work. Our schools, with few exceptions, are mostly left-oriented. They endlessly preach the evils of capitalism, but refuse to advance alternatives.

That’s why it takes until young people are already working for them to notice the scale of the tax bite they must endure - if they even know enough to look at their deductions.

Similarly, global strategy and defense appear to be barely understood going forward. Anything having to do with the military is distained by popular culture. This is yet another aspect of what has made America great in the past that has come under attack. The fact that it’s raining birds in Louisiana becomes yet another excuse for us to be scratching our heads, blaming Bush, Republicans, Congress, Big Oil (and industry in general), jihadis, China and patriotic fireworks in that order.

Just breaking: “Hundred of thousands fish found dead in the Arkansas River”.Also: “former Pentagon aide found (dead) in landfill; FBI only assisting - not investigating“. Also: “Navy fires Captain Owen Honors over raunchy videos.”

Does anyone understand any of this? Does a self-respecting country really behave this way? Meanwhile, by no means rattle the Chinese cage. They have a choke hold on our debt, after all. They’ll buy whatever they can with it before they prick the balloon and we are left with nothing but laughing gas to defend ourselves.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Liu Xia Taken

This goes to the point of just how much the Nobel Prize committee has been politicized. It has been seriously embarrassed recently, having awarded prizes to the likes of Barack Obama, Al Gore, Paul Krugman among others. The committee has been blatantly exploited as a political tool by the Left, and it has finally sunk in. This year they’ve tried to redeem themselves by awarding Mario Vargas Llosa and Liu Xiaobo. In doing so, at least in Xiaobo’s case, they’ve succeeded in making things much worse for him. The Nobel Prize committee has been playing in the deep, ideological end of the pool. They’ve done so without having first learned how to swim. It would be best for them to disband and start over.

The same can be said for the Republican Party. Their projected wins in November will thrust them into the spotlight. They will be held to an impossible standard. Any hint of flaw or wavering will be exposed, and magnified by the media’s version of Hubble. It would be best for both parties to disband and start over.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Portents

As happens so often, over and over again: On one hand, successful and creative individuals discover that the exercise of free self-expression is the one elixir that makes life overall tolerable; while, on the other, they invariably go out of their way to support leftist causes. The Left consistently uses these ‘useful idiots’ to grab power and then spits in their faces once the goal has been achieved.

Case and point: For years now, octogenarian author, Nadine Gordimer has been championing leftist causes in her native South Africa. Now that the ANC - which she has long actively supported - has come to power, she has been reduced to pleading for the right to free and open expression once again. (Three of her novels were banned during Apartheid.)

It has come to light that the present, freely elected SA government is highly corrupt. The government blames the media and threatens censorship and worse. The recent unlawful arrest of a Sunday Times reporter has sent a powerful and terrifying message throughout the South African journalist community.

In case no one has noticed, in our country the same media that vaulted Obama to the presidency, is now also coming under attack. Hollywood’s turn is certain to be next. They won’t notice, of course. They’ll be too busy congratulating themselves for the deportation of conservative talk show hosts to U.S. government re-education camps. It’ll all have been legal and above board, after proper public trials with the honorable Nobel prize recipient and Princeton luminary, Paul Krugman, presiding. (By the way, read his column today. It’s a laugh. He’ truly outdone himself.)

Folks, we’ve got a live one here!
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Along a similar vein, there’s a story by Mary O’Grady in today’s WSJ about the supposed coup attempt in Ecuador this past week. As I have suggested previously, substitute the name Obama for Correa in the story and you’ll have a very good indication what may yet lie in store for us.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Blame-Shifting

It's one of the most popular forms of amusement in Washington these days. It's called 'blame-shifting'. But, strictly speaking, this is a misnomer, as Batchelor himself suggests. The point of the exercise is to give the illusion that those at fault are not at fault. (If one were to tie 'blame-shifting' to its obvious nomenclature, somebody would actually have to be at fault, and suffer the consequences of being at fault: go to prison; go to the gallows, etc. But since nobody is actually in prison and nobody is likely to be executed, I guess, nobody is at fault ...and the crimes continue.)

Friedman, like Krugman among others, has consistently soiled himself in defending the indefensible. Designated by academe and liberal media as a high intellect, he has had to hold his nose and swallow hard in trying to defend the Left’s faulty logic, its broad disregard of historical precedent and its blatant double standard. It is not clear to me whether or not he knows that he has prostituted himself or if he actually believes the stuff he writes. No doubt, he’s made a good living among the like-minded. But even their never robust ranks are thinning, leaving behind only the most seriously hobbled. How long Friedman can continue (assuming he’s reasonably sane) doing his stick before packing away his writing tools and sending them off to permanent storage is anybody’s guess.

Is Friedman deliberately lying or is he just plain stupid. It’s the same question in essence we could pose regarding President Obama. Both men are likely to keep the answer close to the vest. In the final analysis it’s not about them; it’s about us. How we ourselves answer these questions will determine whether we are on the road to better health or locked into a death spiral.

'The Girl from Ipanema' an other postings...

Over the past few days I've found it easier to respond to other's comments than to formulate comments of my own. It's been a busy time. There's been a lot to digest. We seem to be moving mighty quickly in some direction. As not enough people are willing to acknowledge Obama's failures here at home, perhaps assessments from abroad will open our eyes and unlock our minds and break our grip on celebrity idolatry and (by now) thoroughly disgraced liberal dogma. I note that the 'Girl from Ipanema' already has managed to turn more heads than conservative blogs and talk radio ever has.
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Our academic elites have written the rules so that whatever happens, America loses. Any natural disaster anywhere in the world is due to ‘global warming’ – hence, it is America’s fault. Any war fought anywhere in the world is due to American imperialism and, hence, is America’s fault. Any crime that can be attributed to race anywhere in the world is due to American racism and, hence, is America’s fault.

Conversely, non-white racists by definition can never be ‘racist’. NGO criminal activity by definition can never be considered as ‘criminal’. Nations (other than America) that threaten, bully, invade, etc. by definition can never be the
‘aggressor’.

Those are the rules America’s ivory tower elites have fashioned for all the world to follow in an attempt at evening the playing field. Fair and square, America with it’s deep ( now empty) pockets always loses. I wonder what will happen to all these university ‘think’ tanks when America decides to take its ball and go home? What new game will the world find to play? Railroad ties, anyone?
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We used to fight to win. Then, we pretended to fight to win. Now, we fight to lose outright; to render ourselves impotent; to embarrass ourselves; to take ourselves down a peg; to hand victory to our enemies. We no longer believe in our Constitution; in Democracy; in Capitalism; our tradition, history; our innate goodness; in our future. A nation that no longer believes in itself does not fight – it begs.
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In a larger sense, all this hatred against America originates from within the borders of America itself. America is shot-through rotten with America haters. These are not foreign nationals who have come to live in America. These are liberals and progressives from the 60’s who have risen to power within key institutions.

Our local newspaper in Chennai (India), where I live six months out of the year, carries Paul Krugman’s columns twice a week. It is the only American voice that these people hear on a regular basis. For the past eight years they’ve read about Bush being evil, stupid and corrupt. Now they hear that everything that ever was American is broken and that Barrack Obama has come to save the world. Indians who read this tripe day in and day out will believe it. For them, no other information exists. Ask any Indian and he will tell you that Bush has destroyed America and Obama has come to save it.

So, now we’re training terrorists to kill our only allies in the Middle East. Seems not to make much sense. Yet, it follows the overall liberal narrative precisely.
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It's beginning to get even to me: all the cheering - not for Rio, but - for Chicago's comeuppance in the Olympic crap shoot. In the same way 'we' (yes, Spencer, we all have mice in our pockets) applaud poor employment numbers, rising foreclosures, bank failures; foreign policy disasters; etc.

It's a total repeat of the Bush presidency. Even the personal attacks aren't far off any longer. We're in a rut (literally. I remember rutted roads as a child. You could release the brake, put your foot on the gas, and never touch the steering wheel.) We don't need a goat in the guise of ‘leader’ to sacrifice on the dull monolith we’ve built to resemble an altar. We need smart; we need energy; we need inspiration; we need vitality to lead us out of the woods.

As long as the paradigm remains the same (the choking blood lust) no one claiming such qualifications will ever come forward to take on this particular job - only charlatans, cretins and suicide bombers. It's never been more true: We get the government we deserve. Let's take a moment and avert our eyes from the public hangings from crane hooks in the market square. Let's try and work to put two or more independent thoughts together and design a strategy to rescue our Republic.

“The Hanging Man’ just won’t do anymore. It’s quite a bit worse than merely ‘inaction and surrender’. We’re watching the clock running down at the very the moment before it stops. A nation that has no vision – indeed, a nation in which no vision is allowed to exist – ceases to function. I hate to say it, but at this point even 'socialism' would buy us time.
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I'm afraid Gene misses the mark. I'm a baby boomer and I know exactly why I'm not buying. It's my way of protesting a government that has become alien; unresponsive; non-caring; intrusive; thuggish; oppressive; stifling; arrogant and just plain silly. Not much I can do about it, but what I can do I will do. I've put the brakes on buying.

I need a new car, but I've put it off. For years now, I've been called a 'pig' for spending too much; for depleting the planet of its resources; for being the cause of 'global warming'; for killing polar bears and snail garters. Well, I'm sick of it. I'll do exactly as they say. I won't spend a dime I don't have to. And what's more, I'll gladly leave the country to escape the hangman's noose. In short, I think we're on the way of strangling ourselves. I’ll return, of course, after we’ve got it all sorted out. In the meantime, I'd just as soon be somewhere else and watch.