Heavy On The Gas

"...we like natural diasters as bookmarks in our chronicles. Earthquakes, flood, tsunamis, volcanoes all appear to be outside of history and non-partisan." - John Batchelor.

I really like your description of natural disasters as ‘non-partisan bookmarks’. I guess it’s been in the back of my mind ever since RE uttered the words, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.”

I just finished listening to Aaron Klein’s Sunday show in which he parsed Barack Hussein Obama’s speech last week re the Middle East. Aaron’s weekly radio program is the kind of radio The John Batchelor Show used to be; and, in somewhat diluted form, still is.

Putting aside what Aaron actually had to say, the very fact that we cannot comfortably take Obama’s words at face value is troubling. Does he support Israel, or does he not? The jury is still out on that. An argument can be made either way. Does he understand the linkage between Israel and America as it has traditionally served? And, in a more immediate sense: What does he intend for America? Again, a variety of opinion prevails.

We’ve come a long way from trying to figure out whether Bill Clinton had sex with Monica Lewinsky or not. The argument we’re having today brings it much closer to home. It puts us in the crosshairs. After two and a half years, we are still at a loss to explain who our president is and in whose interests he might be working. Meanwhile all the metrics by which we have traditionally judged administrations are telling us we’re going down.

It seems what we write here has very little impact; that even what JB and his guests may say on his mighty New York ‘blowtorch’ megaphone is but a thimble’s worth of utterance tossed into the great torrent of popular babble. I think we’re all smart enough to know that no one really cares what we say or write. If people should actually begin to care, it would probably be wise to stop. Mitch Daniels and Donald Trump (among others) seem already to have reached this conclusion.

It is, after all, only ourselves we aim to please. Unfortunately, whether by design or accident, we remain our own severest critics, forever seeking approval from someone ‘outside’. The more astute among us, perhaps, eventually come to realize that there is no one really out there – never was; never will. Call this futile exercise good old-fashioned ‘blame-shifting’.

At one time, there was a great debate to determine the center of the universe. As is customary in any such endeavors, the first three reports were wrong – and from the look of things, all subsequent reports may be wrong as well. In fact, the question may be so absurd as to not even deserve consideration.

Given all we have to worry about, it’s a small matter indeed, intended only for GPS fanatics – as is worry about apocalypse; rapture; the 12th Imam’s well; etc. These are not things we can actually do anything about. What does appear to be possible is for us to handle our own affairs with due care and dignity. And even in that we too often fail (Schwarzenegger, Strauss-Kahn).

When a nation fails, it seldom fails from the outside. It fails from within. It fails due to the fractures and divisions induced by uneven emphasis. By that score, we have failed already – even before Barack Hussein Obama started sporting his first legitimate tooth. Our president is merely the driver whom we have chosen to drive our bus. Netanyahu happens to be on that bus as well. He now wishes he weren't - as he now raises the alarm, saying that our driver may be a little too heavy on the gas.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

America's Swan Song

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

'Touchdown Jesus'

This clip reminds of ‘Touchdown Jesus’ struck by lightning and burning to the ground in Monroe, OH this week. Surely the faithful cross themselves while driving past its charred remains in their imagined hearses. Surely no greater portent of garden variety apocalypse could rise to this level of symbolism.

Throughout our history, every major and minor religious cult has had to deal with the issue of apocalypse. It usually involves the return (to earth) of some deity which can then be expected to ‘separate the wheat from the chaff’.

It works on both, a personal level (heaven/hell) as well as on a societal one (the four horsemen). The nation of Iran appears to have melded this concept (the 12th Imam) with global (nuclear) politics - a dangerous mix for all of us.

Proclaiming a specific date for apocalypse does not come without risk. Should the date come and go without anything happening, it devalues the stock of the self-proclaimed prophet instantaneously. In the run-up, however, grand reputations are built. Sixteen Century Nostradamus is still held in high regard today. Even famously stoic JB admits to being mysteriously drawn to apocalyptic visions. In one way or another, we all are. It absolves us from having to face death alone.

The modern version, of course, involves ‘global warming’ and all its derivatives. Its course was entirely predictable. In its ascendancy, fortunes and reputations were made. In its demise, same were dashed. Just this week, it was announced, that not even the high priest’s (Al Gore’s) marriage is likely to survive.

Still, the overall concept will never fade. It’s being pursued in Iran as we speak; even as we ourselves scramble to reframe our own apocalyptic argument along the lines of '(Big) OIL SPILL'. It ultimately boils down to a divergence within what we commonly refer to as ‘religion’ itself. No matter how many atheists proclaim the death of God, men are essentially ‘religious’ animals. They split into two groups: those who have true faith, and those who don’t. The faithless also believe; but they are invariably drawn to the apocalyptic side.

Apocalypse

What has become clear over the past year is that Barack Hussein Obama does not like America. That, more than anything, troubles Americans. Mistakes made due to inexperience, or even ineptitude, would have been easily excused by an inherently forgiving public. No one is under the illusion that POTUS is easy work. He would have been forgiven even a dalliance with interns had he shown even minimal respect for America and its hallowed institutions.

Instead he has consistently shown utter disregard for the documents of America’s founding and modeled himself after the commonest banana republic dictator as he continues to push for policies that go hard against the grain of American ideals and principles.

“Disappointment” is not the proper word for what America is feeling right now. “Scared” is far more appropriate. People are scared that he will actually succeed in bringing down the house. They have already begun to question his motives. His budget is just the latest example. It is clearly designed to destroy what’s left of the fiscal integrity of our nation.

Whereas Obama has been roundly applauded oversees, at home he has already overstayed his welcome. The people are desperate to elect a congress that will curb his appetites. …and no doubt they will. They hope it will not come too late. Even overseas they look at him with deepening suspicion. No one has the stomach to watch a nation commit suicide in public – especially if that nation has had the distinction of being the leader of the free world. Even our traditional adversaries are concerned as they are now suddenly and unexpectedly confronted by a reality that only their wildest rhetoric could have invented.

No, John! Disappointment can only be attributed to those few among us who have been advocating for America’s demise ever since the Berlin wall came down – those miserable, self-loathing, ivory–tower hypocrites who will never be happy until they see innocent blood flowing on America’s streets. For them America can never be forgiven for having had the audacity to reach for the sky. In this way, they approximate Iran’s mullahs, those there in power who would welcome a sanguine cleansing to usher in their global Caliphate. Our own 20 per centers want the same, except they call it ‘revolution’ (to usher in some implausible communist Utopia).

These are interesting times indeed: identical upheavals in different parts of the world – each one quite probable within most of our lifetimes. It’s a horse race now. Curiously, should one succeed, it is likely to forestall the other. Who will be the one to escape the apocalypse? Or will these actions coordinate for maximum effect? Stay tuned. The four horsemen are coming ‘round the last turn.