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/

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.

Trump Drops the F-Bomb in Vegas

OMG, Trump swore in Vegas! That’s it! The man’s finished; toast; done.

Show me anybody who’s never dropped trou in Vegas. Yes, but… Trump wants to be President.

Think about it! Who would actually want to be President at this point? Do you really think The Donald needs this to embellish his resume? It’s become an emergency call; a mission of mercy: Saving the country and all. Haven’t you been reading the papers?

Frankly, Americans are feeling they’re under siege. They’re watching their savings diminish; their dollar crashing. They’re being asked to contribute more and more hard-won treasure to bolster the fortunes of their own firing squad.

“We’ll just club you to death if you don’t pay us,” the executioner’s union shouts gaily in unison.

Governors are crying out in fiscal pain. Industry is crying out. Ditto, taxpayers. They say that change must come from the inside. In Massachusetts, they recently voted to curb the unions. That is to say, Democrats voted to curb the unions – in the dead of night, no less. They too were afraid.

In case you haven’t noticed, we’re a Democrat country. If change is to come, it must come from within. We voted Democrat in 2008 – not this. This is not Democrat. This is tyranny; socialism – by whatever un-American name you want to call it

Republicans still don’t get it. They are not the answer. The nation as a whole has already rejected them and their ideologies. The tea parties consist of Republicans and Democrats. They are alarmed. Nothing like this has ever happened before. The Democrats in Washington are not Democrats. Trump is a Democrat. We can accept that. And he’s a real Democrat – not a socialist masquerading.

So, let’s be clear: The political fight in 2012 is not going to be between Republicans and Democrats. Republicans have long since taken themselves out of the game. The fight will be between Democrats and Socialists. Socialists are the enemy of America – Democrats are not. Democrats do not support $6 gas. They do not support Hamas. They do not support a weak dollar; a weakened nation; inflation; wealth re-distribution; chaos; racism. They do not seek to take away our liberties and control every blessed aspect of our lives. It’s the Socialists who support all these un-American things. It is they who must be defeated.

Indeed, if we had true Democrats running the show, we’d be out of the woods by now.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Spitting In the Wind

As POTUS struggles politically, his biggest enemy is rewind. There is now plenty of video of POTUS’ previous speeches and pronouncements. Polls indicate that the ‘hope and change’ thing no longer connects. We’ve heard it all before and the past two and a half years have done nothing to bolster Obama’s credibility for the broad range of American voters.

We’ve also heard the loyal opposition. It too has been discredited to the point imparting a general sense of hopeless acceptance of its inability to make even so much as a dent in the now widespread notion that things will get worse (‘before they get better’ is at this point not even on the horizon).

The notion that gasoline prices will determine the fate of POTUS in 2012 is absurd. It is now apparent that the media will not make it an issue that can be tied to the president. If not an issue, it will have no effect except dragging down the economy still further - which too will not be an issue by virtue of the media basically ignoring the metrics. In fact, there is now the widespread perception that Obama actually wants $5 to $7 dollar gas - and that this would be a good thing - that it would suit his ideological objectives with regard to greenhouse emissions, depopulating the suburbs (and thereby revitalizing urban centers), achieving energy independence, and redistributing what‘s left of America‘s wealth. Add to this the overall perception that Obama is pursuing a course that is essentially anti-American.

This last point can be argued depending on where one stands. The 13% of committed socialists that now seem to have exclusive rights to the president’s ear would submit that things are going just swimmingly, while the rest of us are still hedging our bets.

Obama is playing to both camps. He is hoping to placate the majority with vague ‘hope and change’ rhetoric while reinforcing his credibility with his left-wing base. It’s a tricky maneuver to be sure, but made very much easier given the way major media slants things to favor the Left.

Does Obama have a chance in 2012? I think so. As I wrote in my brief entitled, “In Quest of the Prize Pig”, I feel he has a better than even chance of even winning the political battle.

Where does that leave us? For one thing, we’ll be left to battle the historical tide as random pieces of flotsam in an ocean as big as the world. And, as the use of mirrors will likely be banned, we’ll be unable to see the likely result of spitting in the wind.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Getting Churchill's Bust Back

Socialism/Communism (whatever you want to call it) is a cancer. There was a time in our history when Communism was shunned in this country. We fought bloody wars to contain it - not always successfully. We knew all along there were Communist in our own country and they needed to hide lest they be found out and publicly shamed.

Communism, as I’ve said many times before, has all the earmarks of a religion that includes proselytizing (in its mildest form) all the way up to and including jihad (as practiced by modern-day Islam). They’re extremely well organized and persistent. They know they can’t win at the ballot box, so they’re ready to exploit every weakness in the system and turn it to their advantage. 'Jimmy of Brooklyn', a frequent New York talk show caller, was right all along. You don’t hear much of him anymore, but he had the goods as far back as in the 80’s. He was always made fun of and treated as a loon, even by so-called conservative hosts. And yet, twenty year later, here we have it, just as Jimmy predicted.

One of the ways the commies get around the natural resistance to Communism is by changing the language. “Communist” was changed to “liberal”. And then, when “liberal” was exposed, they changed it to “progressive”. And now “Democrat” is the acceptable (stealth) term. (I may have the order wrong, but you get the point.) Most of the regular Democrats have been drummed out of the party.

Republicans are now being infiltrated as well. At least, their resistance has been compromised to the point where it is no longer possible to tell who is who in the party. People are quick to assume that the reason Republicans are so ineffective is out of timidity or simply a lack of experience in leadership. Don’t be so sure of that. The Left has many masks. Weeping John Boehner may well know what he’s doing, having been assigned his part in the ‘good cop/bad cop’ routine where both are playing the same side.

An important election is coming up in 2012. The Left will stop at nothing; repeat: NOTHING, to get their way. In some ways it’s do or die for us. Do not respond to ‘crisis’ or threats of crisis. Do not respond to empty promises. Look carefully at the men (or women) who are running. Any openly declared leftist, vote no. Anyone promising to reach across the aisle, vote no. We can no longer afford to compromise with these people.

Also look at the media to see whom they are out to demonize. Palin was a perfect example. Trump is next to be sliced, diced and thrown overboard. Even the Batchelor Show is poised to take part in the fun. We may find out that Trump can swim. He is said to be a real estate mogul. How is it he survived the housing slump? Must be a very crafty guy, quick on his feet; competent. If he should lose the Republican nomination, he said he would run in a third party slot. Conventional wisdom has it that this would split the party and Obama would win.

The most attractive thing about Trump is that he is a patriot. I don’t necessarily see this in any other prospective candidate. Romney is a politician - and has been. He’ll say anything. All the others, excepting Palin, are lesser versions of Romney.

Can Trump win? I think he can. First, second or third party, Trump could win. And he could be the Churchill of our times. …and, believe me, we have reached the point where we are desperately in need of a Churchill. It’s the only way we can ever get his bust back.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Bleatings From The Leper Colony

Ever since George Washington, we have always had presidents with some overarching vision of where they want to take the nation. They might have gotten bogged down in the minutia of governance, or they might have made mistakes that would eventually require retreat. But the basic vision nevertheless remained and focused on bringing America to a better place.

We, the people, more or less accepted the fact that we were not policy wonks; that we were not necessarily privy to all the things that our presidents were privy to – nor would we want to be. We could more or less assume that our president was doing his best to move us forward while keeping our best interests in mind.

We always accepted a certain amount of change – even downturns in our personal and collective fortunes - as being an integral part of life. We even accepted small, incremental deviations from the principles on which our nation was founded. We accepted the slow creep of socialism to accommodate the needs of the poor, the sick and the otherwise unfortunate.

All this changed with the election of Barack Hussein Obama. As the continuing controversy about his birth certificate suggests, there is now a growing concern as to just who this man actually is. Are we better off now than we were just two years ago? The resounding answer is no.

The tea parties were the first to sound the alarm. They were summarily rebuffed and dismissed. As more and more people dared to raise questions, more and more people were labeled ‘extreme’ and, therefore, illegitimate. Everybody knows at least a part of the threat our nation faces. And yet, every citizen is treated as guilty – at airports, for example – while the obvious culprits are excused from our scrutiny in the interest of maintaining a veneer of tolerance – tolerance for whom? The only ones not tolerated are us! It almost seems like our world has been turned upside down where a declaration of obvious criminal intent somehow provides immediate immunity.

Meanwhile, the rest of us must carefully maintain our resumes, and closely monitor our words and actions lest we stand accused of racism, hate crimes and various sundry sins that might well result in our exclusion. A natural bent towards conservatism in some precincts would practically confine one to the modern equivalent of a leper colony.

Meanwhile, too, we watch our fortunes fading, even as the media celebrates great strides toward some unspecified unknown. Should we venture to connect the dots and project our path to some seemingly alien experience, we are slapped down by harsh voices laced with severe accusation and ridicule. Since when, in America, has anyone not been allowed to speak openly without having to fear intimidation; especially, when what we say, points out gross contradictions in policy objectives; and particularly as these might relate to the fundamental contract we have with our government?

It has not gone unnoticed that this contract is now in serious jeopardy; that our government has gone rogue; that our own leadership is now on the brink of labeling us as illegitimate. We, of course - now that the contract has been broken - can say the same.

We never thought it could come to this – not in America.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Off The Record (in Brazil)

O – “Like you, I am a Marxist/Socialist. In addition, I am a Muslim – born and bred. I see my job essentially as an opportunity to erase the hegemony of the West in general and America in particular. To this end, we are working to choke off America’s energy supplies. As you may know, America actually does have the world’s most abundant resources of carbon-based fuels within its own borders. We have succeeded in halting oil exploration, drilling, refining, etc. In addition, we have been able to severely restrict coal mining operations by encumbering companies thus engaged with so many government mandated regulations and restrictions; it’s become impossible for operators to maintain profitable margins.

“Additionally, we’ve managed to create instability in the Middle East. It should soon become impossible to procure oil from any of these sources. Also, under our green energy initiative, we have succeeded in creating the perception that the use of carbon-based energy is damaging to the planet. We are now also in the process of banning nuclear energy outright (thank you, Japan).

“We have expanded baseline government spending to unprecedented levels, all but insuring the collapse of our currency. In relatively short order you will see severe inflation, shortages and, with it, a rise in civil disturbances. By maintaining a high degree of fiscal uncertainty, we can assure that the powerhouse American economy cannot recover.

“None of this happened overnight, of course. Many brave comrades have worked diligently for many years to break down our network of primary and secondary education as to destroy the people’s ability to engage in critical inquiry. As such, we’ve been able to accomplish much under cover of darkness. My own popularity is still relatively high, even as our systems and institutions are grinding to a halt one by one.

“It must be kept in mind that our efforts are targeted primarily at the West. The East should remain largely unaffected for now. It will be up to my successors to more or less finish the job. In any case, Brazil – and South America in general – should remain relatively unaffected by the change.

“For now, in order to keep up appearances, we have set aside considerable sums for you to develop your oil industry – just to maintain the impression that we are still dealing with the fear Americans have of running out of gas(oline).

D – “I can see some pitfalls in your plan, especially as it pertains to us. Many here see it as yet another attempt by your arrogant nation to reduce us to just another of your Middle Eastern gas stations. It’s a perception of distrust that has built up over many years."

O – “Never mind. Accept the money and do with it what you want. As I said, it’s mainly just to give the impression that we are doing something about energy – to placate the masses, so to speak – while we are turning off the spigots one by one.

“BTW, put in a good word to Hugo, Fidel and the others for me. Do let them know that we’re all on the same page.”

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

The Nightingale And the Rose

Pardon me while I don’t quite bite. Anything can be spun, including facts and numbers - like ‘the economy is improving’ and ‘unemployment is decreasing‘ and ‘green‘ jobs are the future. It’s generally done by introducing a ‘new’ method of counting, using ‘new’ parameters and a different basket of assumptions. In education, overall results are generally improved by lowering the bar and dumbing down tests.

All this frantic fudging does not change a single thing of significance. Obama is still a socialist (whether we say it or not). And he may even be a card-carrying member of the Muslim Brotherhood for all we know (whether we even dare ask the question).

Partisanship has nothing to do with it. The proof is in the pudding. America is slipping, the dollar is slipping, our educational system is not producing and we are making mistakes in every area of endeavor relative to the rest of the world.

Whether we point it out or not, whether or not we’re turning off our radios because we’re sick of hearing about it, it’s happening at an alarming rate.

I note that the Batchelor show has one big advantage over everybody else in the business: he doesn’t take calls. Therefore he’s spared the tedious bleating of the inarticulate, the partisan poisoned, and the uninformed. Batchelor only talks to ‘experts’; meaning, that what has made them experts is in large part their familiarity and comfort level regarding language. This translates well to radio. It does not mean, however, that the ‘great unwashed’ - the rest of us - have nothing to say.

While everyone likes to claim the people’s support for whatever murderous scheme they might find themselves accessories to, they remain prepared to drop public opinion for expediency’s sake. In Beck’s case, I am not so sure his being dropped from major markets has so much to do with poor ratings as with his fingering of the great puppet master himself: Soros, who seems to have his fingers in every conceivable pie - just as I never believed that the re-elections of Reid and Pelosi were entirely free of electoral fraud.

I just finished reading ‘The Nightingale and the Rose’ by Oscar Wilde. It is one of the stories that came in a volume published by Puffin Books, a division of Penguin. Like Grimm’s fairy tales, the themes in these stories are not necessarily all clover and honey. Some serious issues are explored here under guise of clear language and simple metaphor. ‘Nightingale’ for instance explores the notion of personal sacrifice for a lost cause. It can bring tears to a child’s eyes and continue to haunt into adulthood.

In America, there have been many more such sacrifices than those currently living here. In fact, it could even be said, that every grave in America holds the remains of a martyr who had some sense of the eternal. What would any of them say if they were to come back today and watch the rose tossed carelessly aside to be crushed by an unseeing wagon wheel? Would they be impressed by the gloss of manipulated polls and surveys? Or would they be moved to weep at the flag (they fought and died for in some cases) being dragged through the muddy streets of our relentless discontent?

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Reply to Corlyss: 'Democracy'

You don’t have to travel anywhere to get what people feel about “democracy” - or “socialism”, for that matter. Pick random people on the streets of New York and ask them what they think and they will tell you the most curious things.

There’s still some brand equity in the word “democracy”. Most people on our side of the pond will say they support it - as they might support a new movie theater, a mosque or Walmart opening up around the corner. Ask them what they think of “socialism” and they’ll tell you that’s just fine as well. A recent high school graduate defined ’socialism’ as ‘being sociable’; people ‘connecting with each other as on Facebook‘.

The confusion about basic terms abounds here and everywhere. The schools just don’t teach anything anymore. In New York State 32 billion is spent annually on primary school education (this does not include property taxes paid), yet two-thirds of students are judged ‘not ready’ for college or careers at graduation. In the cities (like Rochester, Elmira, and Syracuse), it can be as high as 95%.

This, in essence, produces a population that can be made to believe anything you want to tell them - and even impose brutal dictatorships under guise of nice-sounding terms and definitions. It’s called ‘hijacking a popular movement’ and it’s the latest rage to sweep the world, including our country. “One man, one vote” sounds great to most people. It’s what comes next, that’s the kicker: “one time”.

Sorry Larry... (Liberalism Is Not Dead)

There’s a reason they did health care. And they didn’t do it to have it repealed by the first no-name senator to come along in a now thoroughly disgraced Senate. Yes, all that Barrasso says about it is true on one level. But there are other levels behind it that support Obamacare and all else that Obama has done in his brief two years in office. My clue was the word “replace” (as in ‘repeal and…’). Possession is nine-tenths of the law. The libs control the narrative and will continue to do so. We, as the saying goes, have become chopped liver.

There are 11 years’ difference between my brother and I. So, when it came time for him to drive, it fell to me to teach him. I backed out of the driveway and gave him the wheel. So far so good. We went down Springfield and made a right turn onto Oakley. At the Beekman, I told him to turn left. That’s where the trouble started. He didn’t turn the wheel hard enough and we ended up on somebody’s front lawn. I asked him to back up and try again. He did, and smashed into a telephone pole, leaving a permanent ‘V’ in my newly chromed rear bumper. I had sense enough to end the lesson right there and then and told him to get out of the car.

First, we poisoned world financial markets by ignoring the elementary rules of capitalism in an effort to satisfy some utopian fantasy in which everyone is entitled to own a home. Then we drove our own markets into an accelerating nose dive with health care legislation with similar implausible promises. Next, we continue to pump money into places like Pakistan and Gaza, knowing full well that we are hated even more, precisely for doing so. And finally, we continue to maintain ethanol subsidies which puts food and fuel into the sharp competition within the same basket, reducing the availability primarily of food (world-wide) and sending both food and fuel prices through the roof. In India, the issue of food prices is currently poised to topple the present government. (Each of these topics is discussed in detail under different headings in this weekend’s edition of the WSJ. The lead editorial refers to our ethanol policy as ‘immoral’ as it is already taking a toll on the poor all over the globe.)

Most of our efforts are centered on the reduction of fossil fuel emissions which are said to promote 'climate change’. Even in light of the University of East Anglia e-mail revelations that exposed the whole thing as a hoax, we push on with cap and trade, fuel standards, ever mounting regulations on domestic coal and oil production, mercury light bulbs and what not.

While most other countries struggle to throw off the choke collar of unbridled socialism, we continue to make it tighter. Sure, there’s been an outcry against present policies. But it goes unheard among Washington elites. Liberalism is not dead, as many pundits after the last election proclaimed. It is now busy pursuing a scorched-earth policy, marching on an on over the wreckage of our economy, our agriculture, foreign alliances, and anything else that may have helped us in the past to achieve world class status.

Today, I read about Obama’s plan to increase government spending even further. Haven’t we tried that already? I’m sorry Larry (Kudlow), I just don’t see the silver lining in this scenario. How many dents and scratches have we yet to suffer before we hit the bridge abutment head on?

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Name Calling

Calling Hu Jintao a ‘dictator’, ‘cutthroat’, murderer and worse is like calling Obama a ‘socialist’. It’s meant to inspire fear in some, awe in others; and serve as a clever phrase to disseminate at cocktail parties.

It’s all true! So, what are we going to do about it? Jaw-jaw: “No he isn’t.” “Yes, he is!” This kind of thing can go on forever - at least until the party winds down and it’s time to go home.

Hu Jintao is not “fearful of the facts”. Why should he be? He works within a political system which manufactures facts to suit. We do the same. Only we still pay attention to facts as they appear, which some call lies and others don’t. That makes us divided as to the facts. …and you know all what they say about ‘divided houses‘.

It all boils down to who holds the reigns. The one in power determines the facts. That’s how it is and how it has been. History books have always been written by the ones who have earned that right by victory. From God’s point of view, written history is always only half right.

The truly troubling aspect of all this is what is now referred to as the “re-write of history”. It means that we can no longer trust anything we see.

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/

Would You Marry Him?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

The Invisible Man

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

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

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

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

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

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

We Are All Socialists Now

We can now put another ornament on Obama’s socialist (mop) Christmas tree: net neutrality. Nobody can yet exactly say what it means. The full text of the new rules haven’t been released yet. But, putting yet another chunk of the free market under government control should tell you all you need to know.

As with other legislation that has passed this year, the new rules basically amount to a framework that allows government to regulate as issues emerge. “At the digression of…” appears to be a ubiquitous phrase in any such legislation. It is also important to note that no such legislation - from ‘health care’ to FINREG to START - has been assembled willy-nilly and without purpose. All of it has been carefully crafted and been filed away from public view for a long time to be taken out at a time most favorable to passage. Law makers have had virtually no way to assess the merits of any such legislation and were required to vote in hurried fashion, strictly along party lines.

Net neutrality, of course, bypassed Congress altogether. There was no opportunity to probe the past associations and affiliations of those who crafted and promoted it. Suffice it to say, that those of us who suspected Obama’s socialist bias all along were right. Vote socialist, and you get socialist - and worse.

At this pace, we can expect a seemingly legitimate bill to slip through a rubberstamp Congress within the next two years that gives Obama the presidency with unlimited power for life. It’ll all be done under the rubric of crisis - Chavez style.

Crisis is the mother’s milk of authoritarian regimes and as such we cannot expect much to improve our situation. Crisis is one of the easiest circumstances to manufacture. Socialism thrives on it. It has never played to finding solutions anywhere its been tried. It just dissolves the parameters by which to judge success or failure.

Republicans and tea party members will have their work cut out for them. Rolling back or de-funding existing open-ended legislation is, they will find, is much like trying to nail Jello to a wall. Their best bet will be to proceed with hearings, focusing on constitutional grounds. This will, however, leave them open to the charge of practicing McCarthyism. The public at large will not be encouraged to support such dramatic high-profile displays. It will judge any effort on the part of Republicans as grandstanding, racism, and rank partisanship. They can be expected to fold like cheap cameras and just go along.

It’s been coming for a long time. It’s all been planned so meticulously, down to the last detail. The shame of it is that we too had a chance to stem this socialist tide. Bush too had control of Congress for a time, but squandered the opportunity to gird us against the threat. The Right has done nothing but capitulate. We now face a situation not dissimilar to our fight against Islamic terrorism in which a whole roster of clarifying terminology has been swept off the table. Mention ‘socialism’ and the full weight of political correctness comes crashing down from the sky to stifle any further hope for honest debate.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Pay-Off

I’m not surprised that the administration has decided to bail out European banks. Europe still sees Obama as the bright, young articulate; noble descendant of slaves who has come (back) to exact his revenge. They don’t yet see him as the radical bomb thrower - too lazy to do his homework - most of us have now come to know.

European bankers are not stupid. They know exactly that the whole financial mess started in the U.S. with the housing crisis; which in turn affected bank balance sheets; which then caused bankers to spread the damage around by disseminating toxic IOU’s all over the world - including Europe - hoping that no one would notice.

European bankers are not lapdogs of the American government. They are free to speak out and expose certain truths, especially in regard to who might have been involved in the initial fraud; and they could name the names of the corrupt institutions (Fannie and Freddie) and politicians (Frank and Dodd among many others) who perpetuated and protected these schemes to their own advantage. These have not gone away and crawled under rocks in abject shame. They are still with us and, in many instances, still formulating policies that rob the American worker of the fruit of his labors - all, in name of some half-baked anti-capitalist notion of ‘social justice‘.

Our paying off the Europeans amounts to a tacit admission that none of it has worked as advertised; that we were essentially at fault for having promoted such claptrap under questionable guise. We are paying them off to buy their continued silence and thus save the skins of our guilty. If they (European bankers) were to talk, the revelations would put even Wikileaks to shame.

The global financial meltdown (which we started) can no longer be blamed on capitalism alone. Socialist and communist countries have not been immune. I am not one to blame America at the drop of a hat, but this has been our fault from the start. If we are to apologize for anything, this is it; if we are on the hook for reparations, this is it. If we should not be able to afford the cost of making amends, or if there is a political price to pay, so be it. What we have done to get this slime ball rolling is criminal - entirely worthy of Interpol investigation and subsequent World Court proceeding - and the Europeans are well aware of it. And we know that they know.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Schattenspiele

If Obama were to back off his ‘class warfare assumption’ he would lose what’s left of his base - 20%. The president knows he is sunk politically. America is not a place where class warfare works. Ask anyone who has ever visited here from abroad.

In order to maintain the appearance of relevance, he must give the impression that his support is bigger than it is. That much can be done with three people in a paisley curtained room with a fax machine.

When trust is broken, especially in infancy, the scar never heals properly. Our experiment in socialism will not go well. It has been peddled under false pretenses. Instead of things getting better, they are getting worse. People will remember the promises that are now clashing with reality.

When a young girl is raped, she will grow up distrusting men. It may lead her to choose either the life of a whore or that of a spinster. This is why we place a premium on crimes committed against the very young.

Communism assumes values that are contrary to our tradition. As reality sinks in, even those who feel intimidated by the often veiled intricacies of capitalism will come to recognize the folly of abandoning it. The blunt edge of authoritarianism is never attractive.

There are now more of us than there are of them. Our president knows this. The exodus back to familiar climes is gathering steam. Only the NYT and its echo wannabes persist in pursuing the human lampshade Schattenspiel, primarily because the smell of blood in the water is just too irresistible for those who no longer seek redemption.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Metrics Don't Matter

Cracking open today’s WSJ, you’ll find an article entitled “There’s No Escaping Hauser’s Law” by W. Kurt Hauser on its opinion pages. The pull quote reads, “Tax revenues as a share of GDP have averaged just under 19% whether tax rates are cut or raised. Better to get 19% of a larger pie.”

Seems plausible enough. At least, there appears to be enough data to back it up. So, why is our government doing everything it can to keep its heel firmly planted on the neck of business?

The Left’s battle cry remains, “Tax cuts? Who will pay for it?” It implies that there is presently not enough money to pay for government programs. We can agree on least that much. The solution would seem to be growing the pie and thus increasing the revenue stream to government coffers by first and foremost lowering taxes.

Since we refuse to do this, it becomes obvious that for the Left tax revenue is not the issue. Socialism is.

The disagreements we have on this blog are relatively minor. We all share the same basic assumptions. Not so the Left. The Left does not believe in economies; they do not believe in the individual’s right of free expression; they do not believe in success; they do not believe in failure as an option. The Left intends to enforce equality. For this to happen, success must be reduced to failure. Failure is so much easier to achieve. So, failure it is; standards removed; judgment banned.

It took Marx over 300 pages to write “Das Kapital”. It would take me at least that much to refute it. And even so, the Left cannot be converted. Equality is like a religion to them. And it’s taken on aspects of jihad. That’s why the Left refuses to engage (except on its own terms). The Left aims to win. Worldwide communism; worldwide Caliphate.

Anyone who still thinks Obama is in some way deficient is a fool. In the U.S. president’s mind he is succeeding. Brand Obama a socialist or a Muslim all you want. It does not scare the Left. They operate under entirely different assumptions. To them, capitalism’s success is a false success. It is evil. Equality is their one and only goal. Whether it is achieved by forced labor (“Arbeit Macht Frei”), gulag or shariah is all the same to them. Capitalism must be destroyed. It’s a war in which the only outcome can be the domination of one over the other. Metrics don’t matter.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Destiny Demands a Decision

In some ways Paul Ryan and pols of any persuasion are like Obama: ideologues. They present themselves as right or left cut-outs and hope to sell it to a multifaceted public. The public resists. It understands the ruse. They ask, "Why should anyone reduce the rich and complex organism of himself (or group) to a formula so simple, so rudimentary, so primitive?

"And if ever the suspicion of his manifold persona should dawn on him… and break through his illusion of the single ideology he espouses, and perceive that every individual self is made up of a bundle of selves and interests, he has only to say so and at once the media puts him to pillory, calls science to aid, establishes the efficacy of padded cells, seeking to protect humanity from the necessity of hearing the truth. Why then waste words on proclamations, plans, pledges, and roadmaps that every thinking man accepts as self-evident, that America totters on the edge of existential threat, when a mere utterance of it is a breach of taste?”

What was true in Hermann Hesse’s day (in italics) is certainly true now. Perhaps even more so. For far too long we have used a shorthand for governance - Republican and Democrat; conservative and liberal; etc - while glossing over the fact that we were spinning the mesh of our web in an increasingly tighter and suffocating weave.

Now we have arrived, at a particularly virulent form of socialism, one that seeks to quash every dare of liberty and we ask ourselves, How has this happened? We were more than willing to entertain strange, even alien, notions. But we did so primarily out of curatorial interest, to be able to wag our fingers and proclaim ourselves better. American exceptionalism was ingrained in us. We never thought there was ever the possibility of letting it slipping away.

Now we find ourselves engaged in a great struggle. It is composed of a myriad of smaller struggles and each skirmish we win produces yet another head - or three. Are we willing to invest everything, or will we accept something as insipid as compromise. It seems to me we’ve been compromising all along. It’s even gone beyond face-saving. We’re into the real stuff now. Destiny demands a decision.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Clash of Civilizations

Paul Harvey used to preface some of his stories by saying, “It’s not one world.” It isn’t. Howard Dean has not suddenly become Republican or conservative. He is and will (most likely always) be a socialist. Hillary Clinton is a socialist. Obama, at the very least, is a socialist. ‘Big government’ is fundamental to socialist thinking.

At the same time, socialists are not suicidal. They do not check their common sense at the door. They know that in order to survive as a viable alternative, they cannot totally ignore certain political realities. For Muslims to build a 13-story mosque in close proximity to Ground Zero is simply a bad idea, unless we fail to understand that Muslims have declared war on us; that they cannot be appeased or bargained with; that any altruistic gesture we might intend will not make them like us, and will be proclaimed a victory for their side, allowing them to propagandize and recruit in continuance of their war against us.

In a recent exchange with a friend about ultimate causes, it came to me that the fundamental difference between man and animal is ego. I had it right, but I did not go far enough.

We’d been putting bones out on the driveway after supper with the expectation of seeing them gone by morning. We’d often wondered just who our nocturnal visitor might be. We imagined any number of the ‘friendly’ animals we’d become familiar with over the years of living here. After an overnight blanketing of fresh winter snow, their various tracks cross the lawn in every conceivable direction. Most of these we can readily identify.

Last night I had to go out for milk. When I returned, I happened to see the interloper in my headlights. I still can’t tell you what it was: larger than a cat; smaller than most dogs; large pointy ears; protruding snout; thin, spindly legs. There have been reports of fox and/or coyote in our neighborhood, but I’ve seen the fox in daylight and it wasn’t that.

I almost felt sorry for the intruder. He looked so frail and wobbly, and nervous to boot. We don’t put scraps out every day. I imagined him coming by on days when we don’t - and being hungry. It also occurred to me that he - as most any animal - had no arms and was obliged to eat directly off the ground. The difference between us, I reasoned, is that we at some point decided to get up on our hind legs and remained that way. This allowed our front legs to develop into arms, hands and fingers with which we could do things. We could now build something and say, “I did that. It’s mine.” - hence, ego.

Thought would develop similarly as well - based on differing assumptions - into different appendages. Ayaan Hirsi Ali in an opinion article in yesterday's WSJ entitled “How to Win the Clash of Civilizations” briefly summarizes the late Samuel Huntington’s assertion that “the essential building blocks of the post-Cold War world are seven or eight historical civilizations of which the Western, the Muslim and the Confucian are the most important.

The balance of power among these civilizations, Huntington argued, is shifting. The West is declining in relative power, Islam is exploding demographically, and Asian civilizations—especially China—are economically ascendant. Huntington also said that a civilization-based world order is emerging in which states that share cultural affinities will cooperate with each other and group themselves around the leading states of their civilization.

Ali concludes: “The West's universalist pretensions are increasingly bringing it into conflict with the other civilizations, most seriously with Islam and China. Thus the survival of the West depends on Americans, Europeans and other Westerners reaffirming their shared civilization as unique—and uniting to defend it against challenges from non-Western aggressors (sic)."