Bits: Around the World in 80 Days

If Mexico started shelling us from across the border, how long would we do nothing more than to hide in our cellars? This is the reality Israel has been facing for some time now. It knows that the shelling is designed to provoke a greater war in the region – a war (barring a Biblical miracle) she would lose.

Israel has essentially zero friends. Even if she were to defend herself successfully, she would be condemned by virtually all nations. Should she lay herself down in front of the lions and beg for mercy, there might be a chance – but you know how lions are.

At the moment – even with Obama’s empty rhetoric – Kaddafi has more street creds than Israel could ever hope to have. Kaddafi’s crime was to stand up against AQ and the Iranian axis. We jumped on the scaffold too soon. The axe hadn’t been sharpened yet and we looked foolish just holding sticks in our hands.

Kaddafi will fall – they all do – but it will be on his terms. In 50 years, all the kids will be wearing t-shirts with Kaddafi’s picture on it.

Kaddafi had long ago agreed to support and be a key member of Soros’ Open Society. In that he was one up on us. (We joined up much later.) He knew how to work it. He knows where the bones are buried, even if he never intended to swallow all of it.
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Thaddeus gets it – up to a point. The reason it no longer matters if the president shows up for work or not; the reason it no longer matters if the parties tie themselves in knots over what essentially amount to non-issues; the reason our government has ceased to function in its service for the people of the United States is because our government is now elsewhere. It is elsewhere that the real decisions are now being made –while Washington remains a convenient diversion, a pointless, but seductive charade.

Look at the flourishes of the right hand and miss what the left hand is doing. If you really want to know what’s going on, look to Soros' Open Society, look to the UN, look to The Hague, look to NATO. Washington has long since surrendered its sword.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Soros: The Dog That Doesn't Bark

Having had the privilege of witnessing 62 springs in this our glorious northern hemisphere – and, yes, I have already applied to receive Social Security – I have come to the conclusion that there must be a hidden hand directing all this – sorry Lou. How else would one explain the precise timing, the sheer beauty of emerging flora from the tiny snowdrop to the greening of the mighty oak; the return of the Robins and Cardinals; the sap rising in the old Maples that stand guard around the house? It cannot be an accident.

At the same time, it is clear to me that with all this glorious precision surrounding us, there must also be an author behind the political mess we find ourselves in. It can’t just be put down to neglect. If it were due to pure absence, we would hardly take note; we would live like the animals, in perfect harmony with our environment and with each other. We would not feel compelled to envision a God to either worship or deny. No, absence cannot explain the mess that Washington has created.

To put wars, systemic corruption and hatred down to chance is as silly as saying that existence has no father. My obsession with finding the hidden hand that’s guiding our nation to ruin is based on the belief that someone must be held accountable. It’s obviously not Obama. He’s much too visible – a useful idiot. In this case, it must be the dog who doesn’t bark; the dog whose existence is easy to deny, as we find it easy to deny God.

My candidate is George Soros who seems to have his paws into practically everything that stinks. He appears to be a man of many personal hatreds. He has all the money in the world. He can shake up dictatorships as well as kingdoms. Democracies are harder to pry loose from their moorings; this just goes to show you how far we’ve fallen already.

Take Wisconsin, for example. Wisconsin elects a governor with the mandate to get its house in order. He tries to do so amid much vocal opposition, much of it imported from outside the state. Today there is an electoral contest for a seat on Wisconsin’s Supreme Court which has up till now held a narrow conservative majority. Today’s election could shift the balance in favor of the liberals. If this were to happen, all the governor’s achievements will likely be overturned.

Tonight, this election is too close to call. Only a couple hundred votes separate the candidates. It is claimed that a lot of union money has poured into the state to defeat the conservative incumbant. Not mentioned in most reporting is that in a survey of attorneys conducted by the Milwaukee Bar Association in February 2011, Prosser, the conservative, received 296 "qualified" votes compared to 112 for Kloppenburg, Prosser’s liberal opponent. In addition, in Wisconsin’s non-partisan Supreme Court Primary, Prosser received 55% of the vote compared to Kloppenburg’s 25%.

This election should not be close. Somebody is pulling strings. If Kloppenburg wins, elections no longer have any meaning in this country.

I do not blame the Dems; their job is to win. The same is true of Republicans. Politicians will do what politicians do. I hold the press responsible. They know full well what’s going on. Yet their coverage overwhelmingly favors Democrats in all things. By it, they tilt the playing field. And who controls the press? Who has all the money in the world to grease the skids with carrot juice and sticks? Why it’s lefty George Soros, of course.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Dropping the Ball

By all accounts, it was a festive time in New York’s Times Square last night. People from all over the world were standing shoulder to shoulder to celebrate the coming of the new year. Nothing bad happened. The police was quite up to the task. The weather was as warm as it’s ever been at this time of year.

Despite other New Year’s celebrations in major cities around the globe, this one is the big one. If time were to suddenly stop just before midnight - even after Paris, Delhi, and Christ Church had already slipped over - we would see ourselves as stuck in the old year forever.

In fact, New York represents the world in a nutshell - an amalgam of people of every persuasion existing side by side like odd sticks of furniture in a comfortable room. When something gets upset in this room, all people come together and grieve. That’s why the ruins of the World Trade towers have been among the most visited sites in this city - more popular than Angkor Watt.

By all accounts, yesterday’s Times Square New Year’s celebration was a huge success. By global standards New York’s New Years Eve countdown is a relatively modest affair. There are no huge fireworks displays; no god-like rulers making pronouncements. Instead, second or third-rate actors are given a stage to shine. This is the people’s party. They often come from far away just for the once-in-a-lifetime experience of having been a part of it. It’s bigger than Stonehenge.

Last night, the people attending were happy to have made it through yet another year - even with the obvious shift of political power and money to the nation’s (unindicted) capital well underway; even with the slight irony of all the world’s eyes watching America drop the ball.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Cleanliness Is Next To...

One way one may classify groups and attach labels to them is by the way they behave. There have now been two marches on Washington recently, the first said to have been organized by Glenn Beck; the second by a variety of factions, most loyal to the president of the United States, consisting of union members and a variety of left-leaning organizations, communists, socialists, student groups, community organizers and welfare recipients.

No doubt, there is some significance in who was there first, as there was some significance in the raw numbers of those attending each event. It has been generally acknowledged that the Beck rally was bigger. This could mean that Beck’s followers are more enthused. It could also mean that Beck’s followers have the momentum while last weekend’s rally was no more than an afterthought - a hurried attempt at playing catch up.

Numerical data, however, can be manipulated. Already I hear conflicting assessments. More to the point, perhaps, is the visual part. By all accounts, the people attending the Beck rally were considerate of each other and scrupulously clean, leaving very little (if any) trash behind. Not so the people attending last weekend’s rally. There were said to be literally mountains of trash left behind for others to clean up.

This fact alone clearly betrays a state of mind. Last weekend’s marchers apparently thought of them selves as ‘entitled‘. They seemed okay with leaving a mess.

A common observation by Westerners is that India is ‘dirty‘. This, despite handleless brooms being available in virtually every shop, and those same brooms being in motion several times a day, moving trash from one place to another. Philosophically, it may be attributed to a bias toward maintaining internal spaces (the mind) rather than the street. Culturally, it could indicate the expectation that someone of a lower caste will clean up. Middle and upper class Indians seldom do things for themselves. They employ maids, cooks and drivers. It never occurs to them to pick up after themselves, to wash dishes, clothes, etc.

Dependence is not a circumstance that will get us far. Already, it has a become a problem in India finding help. In Bombay, the maids have organized into unions. It is they who are likely to dictate terms: “I don’t do windows.”

Back in the ‘90’s, I took the kids out West for a tour of the National Parks. We rented a car and spent about three months on the road. I was surprised in flipping through the stations on the radio how many music formats were dedicated entirely to the to the ’60’s and ‘70’s. New music was almost impossible to find. It may just be that Californians have never grown up. What they have term as ‘progressive’ is merely a throw-back to a bygone era - glorious as it was in its certainty of immortal youth, promise and fantasy. It’s always hard to change when one stubbornly decides to dig in one’s heels and swim against the tide. I don’t remember all those Haight-Asbury apartments as having been all too clean.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

'Runaway Train' ('85 film)

So we’re into “The Big Stall”. Really now? And what do we do in the meantime? Make up word games? I think it’s time we give the American people some credit. They’re not on board with this administration. They’re no longer playing the game. They’re on strike!

We’re not victims of uncertainty. We’re not victims, period. We’ve already decided what must be done. We’re no longer passive, intimidated or scared. We’re actively sitting on our hands; dragging our heels; clawing the curtains off the wall. We’re not about to participate in the rape of our country; in the besmirching of our noble tradition, our proud history and birth right.

We’ve decided not to work, innovate, expand, hire. Just like we no longer watch the network news or read the liberal rags they still call ‘newspapers‘. They’ll blame it on the internet, alternative news sources, word of mouth, and what have you. But you and I both know it’s not that. We’ve grown tired of the propaganda and the outright lies. And, while I’m at it, we’ve had just about had enough of being blamed for everything under the sun.

As time goes on - and it can’t go on much longer - the pundits will continue to discuss the faltering economy as if it were some amorphous monster out to destroy every vestige of good cheer. When, in fact, the economy is us. Come right out and say it: ‘We are the American economy.’ It is we who are putting on the brakes. We know what we’re doing.

As time goes by and things in Washington do not change drastically, it is we ourselves who will bring the house down. We know that Washington cannot survive without us footing the bill. With less and less of us paying taxes, Washington will fail, states will fail, cities and towns will fail; even we might fail. Right now it’s a tug-of-war to see who fails first. One thing’s for damn sure: If we’re going, they’re coming with us.

We’ve already decoupled the engine from the “Runaway Train“ (’85 film). Now we’re slowing. Oscar ‘Manny’ Manheim (Jon Voight) has seen the light. He has switched allegiances. It’s not much by Hollywood standards. But it’s a start.