Hu Jintao Is Awesome

In Japan, when people screw up, they resign – sometimes permanently - from everything. At the very least, they say, “I’m sorry” and ask what they can do to make amends. This would not work in the U.S., primarily because we have taken the concept of ‘failure’ off the table. We no longer know what ‘failure’ is. Nor do we know ‘success’.

We use these terms loosely as carrots and sticks, depending on whether or not we like any given person. ‘Liking’ or not becomes the ultimate criteria that dictates how we respond. If we like somebody and they do something bad, we either ignore it or shift the blame to someone whom we do not like. Similarly, if we hate a person, and this person then does something good, the credit for it gets shifted to someone we consider ‘good’ (even if he had nothing to do with it). In short, individual action – no matter what the result – will never be judged other than in light of one’s standing within the assumed hierarchy of liking or not liking.

That’s how we got to the point where anything a Democrat does is always good and anything a Republican does is always bad. The concept has now been expanded to include race, gender and religious affiliation. We have been told over and over again just who the bad guys are. Performance has very little to do with it, though we still use performance metrics as a club to enforce politically assigned assumptions.

We have since learned that a nation does not run itself; that competent leadership is essential. In fact, we have learned that things can always get worse. Bush wasn’t so great – or so we were told. ‘Anybody but Bush’ would do just fine. Many of us are still trying mightily to prove this theory right. After all, we’ve done exactly what we were told we should do. We’ve elected (good) Democrats to run the most important offices in the land. Things haven’t exactly worked out. We might even say that things have gotten worse. Now we are struggling with the notion that this is how things should actually be.

Katrina was easy. It was Bush’s fault all the way. Bush hated black people and wanted to give them their comeuppance. Now, with the tornados in the South, we can’t exactly blame Obama. He’s doing the best he can; besides, he has come out against ‘global warming’ which would presumably assure that nothing like this ever happens again. It’s only Republicans who continue to stand in the way of his ‘green power’ initiatives that’s keeping this president from solving our weather problem for good.

It’s pretty much the same thing with everything else. Life has become entirely too complicated for representative government to work. The leaders of China have a much easier time of it.

They can build dams, roads and cities at the snap of a finger. They can build high-speed rail and carrier battle groups. They can move populations. They can stifle opposition. No wonder President Obama thinks Hu Jintao is perfectly awesome.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Lions And Ducks And Bears

The Middle East is burning. Protests spreading in Libya; protests spreading in the Middle East and beyond. Once the cat is out of the bag, everything becomes unpredictable. In Libya, the prize is light crude. Many nations - especially in Europe - depend on it. Oil prices rising everywhere - affecting everything. Someone in Libya shouts, “Where is America? Where is the UN? This is a massacre! We need help. Now!”

They don’t ask for Chinese intervention. They don’t ask for Russia - or Europe. They ask for America. An automatic reflex.

“Sorry guys, you’re on your own. We’ve got our own insurrection to deal with. Wisconsin. And it’s spreading to other states.“

“But what about the oil? We’ll pay!”

“Sorry again, guys. We don’t need your oil. We’re ’green' now. Don’t you see? We’re green. Oil is a cancer. We’re trying to choke it off. We’ve got windmills, batteries, solar panels - and mercury light bulbs. Besides ….besides what?

“While we may have started all this mess with the likes of Google, Facebook and the unions, it’s out of our hands now.”

Kaddafi is toast. He burnt us once too often. No sympathy for that dictator. He’s fresh out of IOU’s - and so are we. The rest will fall in place after the dust has settled. Blame it on Israel.
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In the center of the town, opposite the station, is the village green. There, right in the middle, is a pond. The family often goes there to feed the ducks after dinner with the bread that’s left over.

Dad says, “Look kids! They’re over there.” And the kids run over to where they are.

When the parents catch up with them, mother remarks, “My, how they’ve grown!”

Dad is unsure whom she’s referring to - the children or the ducks - and says nothing. When their bags are empty, the children are anxious to leave.

“Say good-bye to the ducks,” Mom says.

“They’re not ducks,” chime the children in unison.

“What are they then,” asks Mom.

“Bears,” say the children.

Mom and Dad laugh. They think it’s cute. From then on, the family refers to the ducks floating silently on the surface of their own reflections on the village pond as ‘bears‘.
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Later that year, the county proposed a bear hunt to cull the sloth that’s become a nuisance to garbage cans and pets. There were so many people against it that the idea was scrapped.

Mom mentions it one evening to Dad. “They’ve banned duck hunting,” she says.

Dad looks up from his paper. He seems annoyed. He liked to go duck hunting with his friends - in season, of course. “What’s wrong with duck hunting?” he exclaims.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Chaos In Egypt

The U.S media has been up front in its comparison of the Egypt situation with what happened in Iran back in the late seventies. But there’s a twist: Both the media and the government are using the occasion for U.S. bashing: All U.S. policy up to this point has been wrong, they say, and even immoral. There is practically no discussion about Israel or the fact that Egypt controls the Suez canal.

The view consistently promoted by the media is that Obama will either fix everything or that he is doing the best he can given the situation on the ground. In fact, Obama is doing neither. Rumors are circulating that the Obama administration itself actually encouraged the foment in Egypt. While only just rumor, it is to some extent believable as it has become clear that Obama is neither a friend to Israel nor of (big) oil. If the price of oil rises out of reach for Americans (due what’s happening now throughout the Middle East), so much the better. It fits right in with the Left’s agenda and will force America to get serious about developing a carbon-neutral energy strategies (to which the president devoted much of his State of the Union Address. Significantly, perhaps, no mention was made of Israel and the still unresolved conflict with its neighbors). Israel, as you must know by now, has already been given up as a lost cause.

While all eyes are turned to the chaos in Egypt (and throughout the Middle East), the real revolution is taking place in America. Obama came in with the promise of being a transformational president. As far as he is concerned, his vision for America is right on track. My best guess is that he will be re-elected in 2012.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

(Green) Jobs Strategy - Part One

I would bet Thomson is excited. They're likely saying, "So glad we voted for Obama; so glad the new prez hails from Illinois; so glad he's chosen our community to be in the vanguard of his (green) jobs strategy."

I'm wondering why this prison was built to begin with. Sounds like some kind of political pay-off to me, like the ‘bridge to nowhere’ up on Palin’s turf. What a windfall for Thomson, though; during the toughest economy in generations, no less - to just happen to have an empty prison exactly at the time when GITMO needed to be closed!

"What'll happen to GITMO?" you have a right to ask. You paid for it, after all; and all the improvements to it since. (You know, just to make it nice for our foreign visitors.)

"Nothing, I guess. I guess it'll stay empty - like the Thomson facility is and has been." Speaking of 'empty', I hope they remembered to shut off the water. From what I hear, it gets cold up there in Thomson. Wouldn't want the expense of frozen pipes. That, by the way, won't be a problem at GITMO.

I also wonder how long it will take for Thomson to become a stain on the map; before our visitors will have to be moved again - back to GITMO, perhaps (or somewhere else). Wouldn't it be easier to just let them go and give them all social security numbers? That way they'd be subject to Geithner's IRS scam and be taxed to death - probably as fitting a punishment as any for plotting against Obama's new world order.