Detroit: Downsizing America

Liberals as well as conservatives are dumbfounded, taken off guard, outraged by president Obama’s handling of the Libyan situation; committing American troops into a theater of ‘kinetic military action’ without clear goals defining ‘victory’; without formally addressing the U.S. Congress or the American people. This means that this president must be intending to go it alone, much like Syrian president Assad is apt to do - or Kaddafi, for that matter.

Obama keeps hinting that this operation will be short and sweet after which time we’ll be out of there and wash our hands of the killing. History shows, however, that this sort of thing has a habit of dragging on. I listened to Dan Henninger last night. He’s one of my favorites on the WSJ editorial staff, but even he had it wrong. He views the conflict as ‘something’ sweeping the Middle East; something so powerful, it cannot be stopped or its direction determined. I do not believe in some amorphous ‘something’. Unleashed? Yes, the way someone might unleash an attack dog. Directionless? No. We all know where it’s headed, but are afraid to say it out loud.

America is not America without also being a super power. Yet, we can plainly see that it is this administration’s intention to degrade us to some unspecified common denominator. I don’t remember the president campaigning on a platform to make America worse. We all fell for the ‘change’ routine while assuming that ‘change’ meant ‘better than Bush’.

This sentiment is not exactly new. Liberals have in the past often promoted the banning of SUV’s on the premise that SUV’s are dangerous to smaller cars. It would seem that, if SUV’s are indeed so dangerous (to smaller cars), it is the smaller cars that should be banned.

I didn’t make this up. I’ve heard the argument before. At the time, we all laughed about it and didn’t take it seriously. Now, it seems, we’re coming face to face with it. The new norms, as presented to us, clearly strive to downsize America.

My question is: How far down are we willing to go? What exactly does Obama have in mind? Perhaps the ‘greens’ can give us some clue: A country bereft of energy; its people taking up farming, herding, bartering, canning… Sounds like Pol Pot to some degree. (I don’t think that Obama would send his goons out to shoot me for lighting up a cigarette or reading a book; but who knows, all that might still be in the offing. Neither would Obama order the burning of medical journals as the Taliban are wont to do. But the effect of Obamacare would essentially amount to the same.)

There are many ways to skin a cat – or fox. I’m sure Obama knows them all. Yesterday, I noted from my stats that nobody read anything I posted on my blog that day. I was convinced that someone had blocked my feed. It seemed reasonable to assume, especially since it’s been going blazes. Today, it’s back to normal. I do wonder what happened.

As for the fox: There has been a fox that parked itself all morning in our backyard, enjoying the trickle of sun. He was a chubby, healthy looking thing; lazy as all get out; yawning, snoozing, stretching, and the like. There’s a specific spot by the old sugar maple where all the animals come when they’re hurt. Last year, a deer with a bum leg spent a couple of days there, its mate alert and watching from across the fence. After a couple of days, both wandered off as if nothing had happened. I remember, a long time ago, our various cats would hang out there as well.

I believe there are specific spots on this earth that are ‘power centers’. Usually great cities are built around such places. I’m wondering if it is possible to kill such spots – pave them over; seal them. Probably not. If so, what’s happened to Detroit? (The obvious answer is liberalism.) What else might be hatching there?

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/

Declare the Wearing of Glasses a Crime

You can always count on Bill Maher to say something stupid. His appeal (if it is that) is not in what he says; it is in how he says it. Also, never forget that one of the reasons ‘W’ ran into so much trouble politically was because many of his supporters thought he was not conservative enough. In other words, that he caved in too much to Democrats.

The Left's complaint about POTUS is just that. They feel he has not been radical enough. He has allowed talk radio to dominate the narrative; he has bailed out the rich and famous on Wall Street; he has not closed Gitmo; he has continued Bush’s wars; etc. The hard core Left in this country is basically a destructive and vengeful force. They’d likely see happen what Pol Pot did in Cambodia: clear out the cities and drive people out into the countryside; erase any vestige of human history; declare the wearing of glasses a crime (for it means that one might be inclined to read books). They shun education, technology, art and free individual expression in general. To the extent that Obama has failed in this, they proclaim him a failure and he, who is essentially of a similar mindset, recognizes his shortcomings.

Mention that the Democrat party also does not speak with one voice, though it may seem so. What is clear is that the extreme left wing is calling the shots, while the moderates are being shunted out. It’s the same with Republicans. This makes for fascinating drama. Left and Right politics are irreconcilable – because they are essentially one and the same. With the middle forcibly hollowed out, the shell is bound to collapse.

For now it makes for good political talking points to blame Big Oil. It’s quite superfluous to dig for the truth behind the explosion. We might actually have to face the fact that there are people out there who despite our good (communist) intentions are determined to bring us to our knees – which is actually quite alright with the Pol Pots among us who envision Utopia as an endless system of gulags.

Rubber Rooms

I love the way the money we would save by abandoning our efforts overseas has already been spent by the progressive Left. No doubt, we need more teachers to teach about the evils of capitalism; the evils of Democracy, and of racism in America; the evils of fossil fuels; the cancers of freedom, liberty and of the anachronism of humanity in general.

There are never enough teachers, whether in the ‘rubber rooms’ or in the classrooms to bone up and teach - not math, history or language – but of the yet unrealized glories of Obama's Marxist vision of vast plantations worked by sweat, brawn and the rotting carcasses of the infirm. Teachers who by rote say only one thing: 'Arbeit macht frei', which equates roughly to the ball and chain metaphor without the actual ball, without the actual chain; Pol Pot’s vision of workers abandoning the cities to the ravages of ruin for the ideal of Schlaraffenland, the bountiful earth, the miracle of the loaves and fish; for the unsullied human imprint that excludes individuality, inspiration, exceptionalism, imagination, talent and failure – and, by extension, of course – success.

What is success anyway, if not the desire to make someone else look bad? Strike it from the face of the earth, and there will be true equality without stress and acrimony.

I went to the MoMA in New York this weekend. I’d never seen so many people there before, prompting my nephew (from Brazil) to remark, “In New York nobody works.” And so it seemed – on a weekday, no less - so many people, milling aimlessly around among the ghosts of past masters, seeking what?

I would soon find out why. The draw was an exhibit of a new art form - outside the box - involving live humans sitting or standing still without blinking, facing each other or looking away; expressionless. Some were alone; some were naked, not even allowed the dubious dignity of porn: photography prohibited. Ironically, these were precisely in a box, constrained by the space of a frame; constrained by directorial decree; the opposite of dance. I was saddened to see it. I don’t remember their faces. I only saw submission to the artist’s triumphant straight jacket (display) that kept them unnaturally motionless. It reminded me of Seaworld where dolphins are made to jump through hoops – or circuses. And yet, these were especially distressing to watch being denied even motion. A forthright display of corpses would have made far greater sense.

Then, this morning, one of the talk shows had Michio Kaku on. This is a man who had at one time inspired me with his folksy explanations of string theory. I heard him say that he had been receiving e-mails asking if God was mad at the world, causing earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, rain and flooding, and such. Kaku is a pleasant, gregarious intellect, much admired by the self-proclaimed intellectual elite for his way with words. He explained in plain language the workings of the earth’s tectonic plates and seemed to dismiss the hand of God entirely. No doubt, the e-mail writers were greatly relieved to hear that the terrible hand of God had nothing to do with recent disasters. No doubt, they felt assured that the demon head of their crushing guilt would remain hidden in the recesses of their exploding hearts - disguised as calm - for yet another day. It is God they fear the most.

Finally, the discussion turned to ‘global warming’, as every conversation by convention must. Kaku supported the concept, explaining it in tortured economic terms (new to me, but just as implausible). I turned the radio off. Such a brilliant mind bound by popular orthodoxy was too much for me to take this early in the day. Kaku reminded me of those living, inert human figures at the museum who could not move, despite nothing obvious restraining them, except the dictate of the artist/Kommandant who pays their bills.