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/

No More Sequels

It’s easy to predict this one - to run it all the way out to its conclusion. It’s like we’re all at the movies, watching a James Bond thriller. It’s been cat and mouse all the way. The final scene is approaching. Bond has located the farm house where the beautiful hostage is kept. He creeps stealthily towards it. He has already poisoned the dog. He reaches the porch. The floorboard creaks. He stops. All remains quiet.

The door is unlocked. Standing aside of the frame, he pushes it open. It creaks on its hinges. A car passes along the road. Bond freezes. All else remains quiet.

Meanwhile, the villain lurks in the shadows inside the house with his hand over the mouth of the beautiful hostage. He watches Bond’s movements on a monitor.

Though cautious, Bond thinks he’s in the clear. He had checked the barn earlier. There were no cars there. Bond draws his gun before bursting into the house.

Involuntarily, we put a hand over our mouths. We want to scream at the screen, “Watch out!!!”

Why is the media suddenly becoming so cagy about Egypt? Saying anything but the obvious is treated as virtual blasphemy. No speculation endues. History starts with Obama, even as his own history remains incomplete. All we need to know is that before Obama, all history led to ruin. The U.S., the most powerful nation on earth, was in charge and everyone else had to dance to its tune - and life on the planet was a misery to most.

Perhaps it’s not accident that Obama started his presidency with what was billed as a major speech in Cairo. I just re-read it. It struck me as childish - almost simple-minded. I’m sure nobody there bought it. They might even have been offended by its condescending tone.

Platitudes don’t translate easily to bread. Not much there by way of loaves and fish. Certainly not much mention of political strategy which, taking into account that America was speaking, was a lie of omission. Just so much American soma, Coca-Cola, change, and all the rest. Nobody believed it.

Except, it wasn’t America speaking. The ‘change‘, that would involve them, had actually come from America . And though nobody knew it yet, much of what Obama said was true - a reflection of the new America, the one in bed with jihad and the Muslim Brotherhood. Nobody foresaw that Egypt would become the crucible. Except, Obama knew.

Now more of us know because we can see what‘s happening. We see the outline of what’s coming - what’s already here. Yemen and Jordan bookend Saudi Arabia. The Suez Canal remains a vital shipping lane. Oil remains vital to functioning of the West. Tehran claims armies and allies. Israel cries foul. There will be no more sequels.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Swishing Swords

We don’t have a political problem. Politicians are what they are and will do what they must. What we do have is a problem with is political oversight. The press in particular has become so utterly corrupt, it’s literally mind-blowing. It all starts in the journalism schools of course - and in schools in general. It is there that the national narrative is being forged.

Islam has its madrassas in which they teach that Islam must rule the world. They prepare the young to be martyrs and practice jihad. We are on the receiving end.

So what do we do? Instead of confronting them, we counter with a parallel approach. We too, inexplicably, want to bring down our system. We recruit science. We recruit culture. We recruit (what’s left of our) religion. We recruit the impressionable; those who represent the least among us, the most vulnerable, the young, the afflicted, the perverted, the sick to join the cause. We change the language to make it seem that we have no enemies. We disarm unilaterally. We destroy our currency, our influence. We blur the line between good and evil. We ignore our own self-interest. We allow the clock to run down and, at the same time, fail to prepare for when it does.

We give comfort to our enemies. We abandon our friends. What other result can we possibly expect from such utter neglect other than to hear our enemies laughing as they draw their swords?

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

The Trash Police

Your reference to ‘Dickens’ threw me. I thought for a moment you had double posted. In fact, I had just put down a book that makes a similar point by name: James Baldwin’s “The Fire Next Time”.

Baldwin writes well, but is far from profound. He wallows in his hatred and uses the wide brush whenever he can. This book - the first I have ever read by this author - could have been written by anyone with a grudge. It is the corners of self-loathing turned outward. By changing just a few of the words around, one might imagine a rabid feminist writing thus - or a misogynist, a Democrat, jihadist - or a committed Marxist.

Jihad among young Muslims around the world seems to have become a trendy lifestyle issue, like being ‘green’. I remember going to Germany last in order to sell my grandmother’s home. We only had a week or two to do it. Everything had to go. Most things were given away, but there was also a lot left that had to be taken to the dump. So off we went with load after load.

In Germany, you practically have to have a degree in what can be thrown away and what can’t. There’s a wall with razor wire surrounding the dump. Inside, there are no less than 20 receptacles that precisely specify what can be put inside. People are closely watching all the time, and they don’t hesitate to dress you down if you happen to make a mistake. After all was said and done, there was still stuff left over which couldn’t be dumped. We drove away red-faced and stopped to get gas. It was there we stuffed the garbage cans to overflowing.

In Germany, recycling has become a religion. People who do not tow the line are excommunicated or worse. The catechism of eco-terror as practiced by the state is unforgiving - and it’s catching on here in America.

The jihadis of Great Britain are getting sloppy. They understand the part about sacrificing themselves for a cause, but they no longer take the time to plan carefully. Their numerous failed attempts prove as much. They just want to get it over with as soon as possible while imagining their names in celestial lights. The Germans, on the other hand are mechanical, dogged and precise. It’s all the same game, fueled by generous doses of righteous indignation and ending in control.

“Two little Hitlers will fight it out until, one little Hitler does the other one’s will.” - EC

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/

The Blunt Edge of Brutality

Religion, like language, is hard-wired into the human psyche. At their core, all religions are the same. Religion typically splits into two aspects: spiritual and political. The spiritual aspect of religion is straight forward. Its ‘signature’ is tolerance. It deals with questions regarding faith, God and eternity. The political aspect of religion currently draws most of our attention because it has the potential of affecting our immediate circumstances. The same is true for ‘isms’. We can say that man is in essence a religious animal. Or we can say man is in essence political. Both statements accurately reflect a singularity of the human condition.

While it is true that equating man’s spiritual nature with his political nature is paradoxical, the two are nevertheless inseparable. Mankind is most at ease when the political aspect of whatever his primary concern may be (as Alfred North Whitehead suggests) is benign. A wizened curmudgeon professing his belief in Marxism within the confines of an ivory tower suite is no threat to anyone. Man suffers when such concerns become militant as happened during the crusades and is happening now as militant Islam makes its moves.

The constant striving of religion is to reduce all the divergent aspects of life to one. People who may be several happy meals short of enlightenment do not recognize the essential oneness in what they see. They fail to make the connection that ties everything together. There are two ways to force the issue to its resolution. One is persuasion (proselytizing), militancy and violence; the other is tolerance.

Tolerance is the more difficult nut to crack. We have chosen the easy path. It is easier to lop off the heads of non-believers. It’s easier to ban conservatives from speaking at universities. It’s easier to call for jihad. It’s easier to cause havoc and break things, and then pick up the pieces of whatever is left and cobble these into a single atrocity based on the principle of exclusion. It is also easier getting people to submit.

We here in the West have chosen submission. Our enemies attack us and we submit. In order to rationalize our cowardice, we change the language. We blur the line between good and evil. We assume our enemy’s narrative and admit that we are at fault; that it is we who must adjust or even erase ourselves. Our mea culpas – and even our sacrifices - are flawed; it is only ego that speaks. We abandon our principles; our allies. We no longer tolerate ourselves.

This is the mindset of our current administration. It pays no mind to the violence, pain and dislocation that is certain to ensue. For them, all these comprise the necessary gateway through which we all must pass in order to achieve a more perfect union – the Utopia that is envisioned in James Hilton’s Shangri-La, in B.F Skinner’s “Walden Two”, in Pol Pot’s Cambodia, etc.

In today’s world the concept of tolerance has been all but abandoned. Political strife has taken its place. Unfortunately, just as religion cannot be exorcised from the human psyche, we cannot fight ‘isms’ with ‘isms’ and arrive at a good place. Religion has always been a double-edged sword. We have chosen the blunt edge of brutality.

Bloodshed and Anarchy

Just another in a long series of well-connected rich boys sucked into the Islamic jihad excitement. Our liberal press clearly had trouble with this one. They never learned what we JB listeners already know, that the first three reports are always wrong. They ran like laughing hyenas with the first two (reports) that seemed to indicate that the perp was white, and possibly a tea party member (or Beck listener) upset at Obama’s health care legislation. Even Mayor Bloomberg fell for it. Once the identity of the would-be bomber had been established, the back-tracking began to resemble the sound of heavy furniture being dragged across the floor. In some instances, the foot-dragging left unattractive marks. Shahzad’s house was said to be in foreclosure by the evil banks (which must have made him mad) - never a thought was given to the likelihood that one determined to commit the jihad of his life would care less about paying his bills. If he had succeeded, his future at home would have been secure. He and his turncoat father would have been celebrated as undisputed heroes of the jihad. For us, it would have been an unmitigated disaster with only one tiny sliver of silver lining: the fact that this particular jihadi had wanted to live.

The authorities with boots on the ground performed admirably throughout. It’s their liberal bosses who got egg on their faces. Homeland Security was out to lunch once again, having allowed this guy to operate - incompetently as he did - after having taken the trouble of placing him on the watch list. In all fairness, our leadership from the Mayor on up had ample cause to be confused. They’d been issued lexicons with a serious printing error. Antonyms are listed under the heading marked ‘synonyms’ and vice-versa. Good is now bad; war is now peace; up is now down; black is now white; etc. We’ve returned to an antebellum mindset, except now it’s the white male that is suspected first after a crime has been committed.

This is why I have become pessimistic or, better yet, resigned. This is why I do not put much stock in the November midterm elections - because the system that produced Obama will continue to exist. Even if a handful of right-minded individuals were elected overwhelmingly, the wrecking balls are already in place to take them down. Look at New Jersey’s new governor for whom the knives are already sharpened. Look at the president of Greece, facing bloodshed and anarchy in the streets. In both cases, reform is but a speed bump in the road that can do little to halt the Left’s steady advance. America’s enemies are on the march. They have too many potent weapons to arrest the pigskin’s progress towards the goal line. The blue-haired ladies and their retired working stiff mates are no match for the wildly inspired brutes who control the ball - first and ten on the three yard line.

Enlightenment

On Batchelor’s website today there was a picture of Colleen R. LaRose, dibbed by the media as Philadelphia’s ‘Jihad Jane’, dressed in a black, tightly wrapped niqāb, showing only her eyes through a horizontal slit. It reminded me of a short story by Andre Malraux I just finished reading entitled, “The Tank Trap”. It talks about four men in a tank during WWII. The driver of the tank also saw the world only through a narrow slit. The aperture was designed for the crew’s protection but it was also severely limiting, revealing barely where they were going, not where they had been or what might be approaching from the sides.

Man’s highly touted perceptions in general can hardly be said to foster a state of enlightenment. On our best days we see only a narrow spectrum of light; we hear only a narrow band of sound – much less than a dog. We think in symbols arranged in linear form. In short, we are almost blind. It is the human condition itself that pronounces us ignorant as we stumble through the debris of fractured perception while, ironically, we often presume to hold ourselves on the same level as an all-knowing, all seeing God. It is a sign of supreme arrogance that has led so many of us to abandon the concept of ‘God’ altogether. As such we presume to control populations, the oceans, mortality and even the weather.

The truly enlightened man is humble. He is profoundly aware of his limitations. He does not abandon his humanity in favor of ridiculously play-acting God’s supposed role. All today’s troubles (and all the troubles that have ever been) are spawned by the striving for control which stems from a failure to recognize the remarkable fact that only the blind are forever condemned to rule.