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/

Sick of Hearing Gibberish

There's something going on. Last week it was the moon being too close to the earth. This week it's Saturn. In Iran they're predicting the Madhi's return within months if not weeks. NASA is out watching for meteorites and space junk converging on earth. Batchelor is announcing the meltdown of Japan. Republicans are predicting financial collapse in the U.S. In New York they’re finding the remains of dead prostitutes along a remote beach road on Long Island. Can a major DOH announcement be far behind?

We've heard virtually all of this before and yet we’re all still here. Y2K never materialized, neither did swine or bird flu ravage the planet as predicted. This just goes to show, that every run of excess carries with it its own natural antidote; something working to keep things in check. Sometimes it's as brutal as starvation, war, and pestilence.

We're not quite there yet, but excess is invariably programmed to self-correct. Man can only stand by and watch excesses wax and wane. Often excess is met head on with excess and the two cancel each other out.

The tea parties, for example, arose out of excess by government. Liberalism arose from an excess of conservatism. Now we’re moving the other way. Any move has chaos as for a brother. Inertia is death. The stock market moves up and down, but it moves.

Where there is movement there is life. Where there is life there is death. Is there a balance?

Most assuredly so: We are always in balance. Sometimes it’s weighted to the left; sometimes to the right, but balanced nonetheless.

Shiva dancing in the bone yard: Someone always dances. Someone always provides the inert platform for the performance. Kaddafi is performing, and will do so until his legs are cut out from under him. Then, it will be Osama's turn to dance for a while.

Are we dancing? Individually (perhaps), yes. Some of us are. As a group, though, we've slunk out of the ballroom; wallflowers peeling away from the wall; sick of hearing gibberish.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Guest Contributer: Tom From NJ

Tom replies to my post entitled: "Massacre At Mazari-i-Sharif: It's A U.S. Pastor's Fault."

"We even tolerate the intolerant."

All too true, Peter; at least if the tolerated intolerant hail from one of PC's Most Favored Victim groups. That this is largely PC-driven is proven beyond doubt by the grotesque fact that Muslims as a group -- including the most radical, violent and, yes, intolerant among them -- have achieved full-fledged MFV status among the Liberal Establishment of both parties and the MSM. The latest stomach-turning development here is General Petraeus' mealy-mouthed apology for the Koran burning staged by self-proclaimed Christian minister Terry Jones and his huge throng of tens of like-minded haters.

The good General is no doubt a fine and dedicated officer but he has apparently fallen victim to the military professional's most prevalent occupational malady -- fighting the last war. Petraeus has been trying to adapt the deference to Islamic mores and traditional tribal structures that powered the successful surge in Iraq to a very different situation in Afghantistan, where the shorthand for Islamic mores and traditional tribal structures is most often spelt T-A-L-I-B-A-N. In Iraq, the Sunni elders had their own excellent reasons to morph into active foes of al-Quaeda; in Afghanistan, the incentives for tribal leaders vis-a-vis the Taliban seem almost 180 degrees opposite.

Unfortunately, the response of the General, and the Obama Administration, has been to double-down on an increasingly expensive and ineffective strategy, with his public reaction to the Florida Koran burning being the latest example. Petraeus rightly condemns the Koran burning as an offensive and intolerant act, but he never even mentions, must less denounces, the murderous temper-tantrums of Afghan Muslims that resulted in the deaths of innocent people, even the beheadings of a pair of UN mission officials, nor does he call any attention to the fact that the worst of these tantrums have been whipped up by lying imams who claim repeatedly that burning Korans by the dozen is virtually routine in Great-Satan America.

Now Senator Lindsey Graham, John McCain's poodle, is joining in with a strange and dangerous doctrine that the "loose lips sink ships" ethos of World War II be applied to the "war" that the USA is currently engaged in. Senator Graham, may we dare ask -- what war are we now engaged in, exactly? None has been declared, certainly not in the same way as WW II, and wouldn't we want such a clear legal basis before we limit our traditional American free speech, which in your statement you damn with faint praise as "a good idea, but . . .?"

Never one to miss an opportunity for working a scam, Hamid Karzai is also jumping in on this Koran-burning issue. Admittedly Karzai -- unlike General Petraeus -- condemns the murders as well as the book-burning, but how he and his well-respected, wildly popular regime is going to investigate to describe and explain what really happened. Can anyone doubt, based on the slippery Karzai track record, that the results of this "investigation" will be heavily couched in terms of "blame America first?" Followed by an even larger bill presented to Wash-DC by Karzai for his invaluable and selfless services in "opposing" -- ha, ha! -- the Taliban?

In any case, Petraeus, Karzai, Obama, Graham, the MSM, and all the rest of our dhimmis-in-training will sooner or later blame alleged American "intolerance" as the root cause of murderous anti-Western protests in Afghanistan and elsewhere in the Ummah. None will question why, after all the sacrifices in blood and treasure Americans and their Western allies have made to benefit or "protect" -- today's buzz-word -- various Muslim populations, significant percentages of those same populations seem fully prepared to believe any outrageous charge that those same Westerners are nothing more than tools of the Jews and/or Crusaders in sheep's clothing waging war on Islam. Which is to say, could these murderous tantrums actually be the result of MUSLIM intolerance? But to say so is not PC and is, therefore, taboo, unlike willingly undermining our Constitutional protection of free speech, the better to tolerate the intolerant. God save America!
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My comment: They engage in 'murderous tantrums' because it works for them. Can you blame them? Like children, the more they act out, the more we allow. Tolerance only works up to a point.

Shariah: What's The Problem?

I've had friends who came from broken homes who enlisted in the armed forces. They hoped the discipline there would help them to become men. I’ve had friends who became drug addicts – for the same reason. Drug addiction imposes a discipline on lives that are without.

Liberalism often seems attractive because liberals are good at imposing rules - rules that give structure to minds that lack the confidence to decide. The same applies to tea party followers.

The latter does not seem to be enough largely, because of the absence of consequences. Following the rules or breaking them is all the same. In fact, breaking them appears to assign some special status. The overall result is often confusing and arbitrary.

What about shariah? Is it really so bad as all of us are led to believe? I know, most of us recoil from it as we would from enlisting or succumbing to drug addiction. We hate the thought of early morning drills and dirty needles. We hate being labeled this or that. We have this image of ourselves as free men and women, unfettered by habit or convention.

Someone once said that “Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.” It’s true in a way. Shariah gives you plenty of timelines and obligations. It kind of takes away all that pesky guilt that most of us are dragging around with us. It’s a legitimate response to doubt; a way of living within relatively safe confines where everything is written in stone. It’s also stifling. It kills curiosity and initiative. It minimizes risk. It makes it harder to fail and also impossible to succeed. In this, communism and shariah are one and the same.

Why do so many of us shy away from shariah while, at the same time, embracing socialism, the armed services, political parties – or even drug addiction? I understand that the pictures we’re shown of stonings, public hangings, slit throats, and severed limbs leave us gasping. This is all very frightening to us – flesh and blood consequences. Why, we don’t even remember where the meat we eat comes from anymore.

Shariah is not like that. The overwhelming majority of people who practice shariah are people just like us – like liberals, tea parties members, those who choose careers in the armed services or drug addiction. My grandmother used to say that the soup is never so hot when it’s eaten as when it was cooked.

So, what’s the problem? Why do we fear it? Why do we instinctively recoil from it? If others accept it, why can't we? Is our ego getting in the way of just letting go?

I’ll tell you outright why you should be concerned. All these movements that are sweeping the globe and are targeting America specifically have one thing in common. They seek to overthrow capitalism. Say, you have a skill or talent. Say, you can act, dance, sing, play football, lead a service-based organization; run a store; build a house... Perhaps you’re good with numbers or words. Maybe you’ve learned how to heal, teach, or offer advice - and that’s how you make your money. All that will mean nothing if those coordinating these left-wing and Islamic groups get their way. There will still be wealth and money. There will still be value. But value will be based on protection: You will pay for protection; or, people will pay you according to your ability to protect them. It’ll be a brutal world; a world without certainty that can change in a heart beat. It’ll be 'dog eat dog' – the way it always has been before America came along.

That in a nutshell is our challenge – a challenge made infinitely more daunting because roughly half our nation resides in the opposing camp while the other half remains ignorant of the threat. I can safely say that the next two years will determine the outcome. As it stands, either shariah or socialism has taken the lead. Both are pretty much the same. Pray that the nation wakes up in the meantime and freedom prevails.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Flammable Fashions

It makes no sense to talk about anything else today. 5000 degrees. It seems like the very gates of hell are in danger of bursting wide open. I remember the cyclone that hit Burma some time back. The government (or junta, as it’s called) would not accept western aid and barred western reporting. What we did manage to see was horrible enough, though soon forgotten.

Japan is different. It is a cutting edge society that mirrors our own in many ways. We run similar risks; risks we never dare contemplate until it happens. I saw a man running away from an advancing wall of water. The water was way faster than he. The camera panned away before showing what likely took place.

I picture tsunamis of all kinds draped in political garb: Islamic aggression; unsustainable spending and debt; the steady advance of liberalism (progressivism, socialism, communism) and, of course, ignorance.

Things in general are in flux and moving - which is not necessarily a bad thing. The stock market generates money whether it’s moving up or down. The puzzle is to predict correctly which way it’s going to go. When all signs point one way, it’s usually a good idea to run the other - unless, of course, one happens to get struck by traffic.

The nuclear power industry is likely dead (if it wasn‘t already). Indian Point will likely be shut down and buried. Rolling black-outs will become a part of our lives. We’ll build back-up systems for hospitals and the like. Homes too will have some kind of configuration of batteries, solar panels and wind turbines (for those who can‘t be without).

Perhaps this will be the shot in the arm the green army needs to get off the ground. In the meantime, we will review our teaching moments and spin them to suit our asbestos egos while insisting on wearing the fetching colors of government issued hazmat forms and labels, praying to God they might catch fire and burn.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Even the Trees Know

For people to the left of (and including) ‘liberal’ along the political spectrum, money has no meaning; work has no meaning; the individual has no meaning; words have no meaning; integrity has no meaning; history has no meaning; hope has no meaning; truth has no meaning; life has no meaning; nothing has meaning.

As such, the Left does not exist.

It happily (and cleverly) mimics the Right in word and sentiment in order to gain entrance. Once inside, it metastasizes and seeks to destroy the host.

It is up to the host to fight its disease. It must keep itself strong and resistant to the leaching void. Knowledge is key. The Left always attacks knowledge first. It uses words to turn truth on its head. It sweetens the pot with empty promises. It adds the salt of hatred. It borrows the tears of personal misfortune. It wallows in the blood of heroes. It pretends to be more alive than the living.

Witnessing the descent of America, I know I am right. “To be or not to be”; I am. “I think, therefore I am”; I am, and will be. I know the Left is fighting a losing battle. Life will always win out over death. And though death is always with us, it is just an illusion that serves to give meaning to life.

As we watch people fighting overseas, freely offering their bodies up for a cause, we are reminded that pain equals healing; that it is we who are in danger of forgetting the nature and purpose of pain - a comfortably numb generation, stumbling about in the dark, no longer knowing which is up, while even the trees know which way to turn.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

When The Law Is Eric Holder

Exactly right, Corlyss! This is all part and parcel of the ‘politics of personal intimidation’. That’s why there are no ‘good’ Muslims around. They’re afraid they will be singled out; their neighbors and families harassed.

The emphasis has shifted away from polls and is now firmly entrenched in virtual power. It’s long been the case on the nation’s college campuses; in the media; in the arts; on the cocktail circuit. Never let your conservative sentiments slip. You’ll find yourself disgraced; ridiculed; excluded. I’ve noticed it myself, buried in my bunker as I am. “I’m no longer your friend,” says one. “You’re just plain crazy,” says another. “I think you should see about getting some help,” a third suggests.

A few years back, I thought I might be able to further my career by writing liberal stuff. I tried. I just couldn’t do it. Yet, there are some out there doing it and collecting salaries.

Loved the ‘Arcade Fire’ tune though. I think I’ll post it on my own blog later. Oh, I know they’re all lefties - but, then again, they couldn’t all be that mindless. Most are just putting on an act to stay alive.

With these latest tactics, it only takes a relatively few - enough to fill a camera angle. Everything else drops off the frame. After that, you can say anything you want and have it be everywhere. It’s like these watchdog groups that consist of three people and a fax machine - the ones that caution against treading on cryptobiotic soil. I guess now it’s even gone beyond that.

In India, computer usage is strictly monitored. When you go into a cyber café to check your e-mails, you’re required to sign in and show your ID or passport. “There’d been threats against the Chief Minister,” they say.

It’s about to happen here as well. The government will control the internet in the name of ‘National Security’ and only the ‘right’ people will have full access. It’ll only take one mishap traced to some loony tunes in some basement garage to initiate a crackdown and make it permanent.

The freedom to assemble was included in the United Nations’ ‘Universal Declaration of Human Rights’ in 1948. The fact that it had to be an enumerated right in the first place meant that some countries viewed it as a threat and did not allow it.

Conventional wisdom had it that relatively small gatherings can never be a threat to the enormity of a state. They never envisioned virtual assemblies on Facebook.

Still, a treat is a threat. It might be overt or implied. It’s a matter for the law to handle. It gets a bit trickier when the law is Eric Holder.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

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/

New York, New York

The system that New York produces is self-consuming. That is to say, liberalism, is self-consuming. New York is an irresistible flame in which moths burn their wings. All Cuomos, Clintons, and Kennedys have been brought up to be either Icarus or saffron-clad monks. It’s what’s expected.

There are specific places around the globe that exude power. New York City is such a place. New York burns hot. Around it is scorched earth. It has not become the center of the world for nothing. Both China and Brazil have built great cities nobody has ever heard of - or will. Andrew Cuomo has willingly cast himself into New York’s flame. So have many others, only to be consumed by it.

To be New York’s governor is like riding a bucking bronco. There’s no question that you’ll be thrown. The challenge is one of endurance; to stay on as long as you can - and (perhaps) be thrown mercifully into the blanching waters of the Potomac.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Columbia Drug Bust

University campuses have long existed as bubbles divorced from the real world. Drug use is seldom challenged by campus authorities . (I would bet if the events leading up to the arrests had been confined to the campus alone, nothing would have come of it. The fact that NYPD was involved says a lot.) In addition, a faux grading standard often prevails that echoes today’s ‘too big to fail’ policies. It is assumed that pass/fail pretty much covers the gamut - failure being reserved for the most flagrant violations and, like the death penalty, is almost never tapped.

Kids going to the Ivies go there with the understanding that they are already special, either by virtue of their parent’s wealth or their connections. It is possible to graduate from such schools having done nothing of note. At the same time, the opportunity still exists to do a lot. A fair number of students will fall into the former category. I did.

I could have attended an ivy league school. I was accepted, but chose not to go. At the small Pennsylvania liberal arts college I ended up attending, it was the same. Under the tutelage of liberal professors I was afforded every opportunity to graduate with honors, even without having applied myself. I’ve often wished for a do-over.

This was 40 years ago. Since then it’s only gotten worse. Liberalism has steadily advanced and bled into departments that one might have thought to be immune. I don’t think 40 years ago, a hoax like ’global warming’ could have been perpetuated to the extent it is today. Yet, even then, traditional disciplines were already openly fornicating to produce now innumerable lesser cousins.

In the resulting bastardization of academic discipline that now holds sway over traditional learning, ideology has succeeded in making considerable inroads. Along with it came a lack of regard for authority, law and country.

There is a healthy flush of rebellion in every young person. It’s the job of adults to channel this properly as not to become destructive. We’ve allowed precisely the opposite to happen. We’ve taken this natural rebellious spirit and encouraged it to pursue destructive ends.

Our current president and his wife both are the product of ivy league education. They are much younger than I and thus were exposed to a much greater dose of the poison than I.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

We Will Never Change Them

Polls suggest that Americans on the whole like the president. They just don’t like his policies. Why, then, do we really want to win in November? Answer: To send a message; to get Obama to change direction; to change his heart and mind. It’s the same reason we stayed in Iraq as long as we did. It’s the same reason we are in Afghanistan.

We need to accept the fact that there will always be enemies who want to hurt us. The extent to which racism exists within our own country must be acknowledged and dealt with reasonably. Ditto, anti-capitalism; anti-Americanism; poverty; ignorance; liberalism. All these reflect a minority view or condition. In a free society, this will never go away entirely. We are not obliged, however, to elect groups with such fringe concerns to high office and hope they will be satisfied and leave us alone.

They will continue to make noise and that noise (along with our own noise) is protected by our Constitution. The problem is, their noise is amplified by the media. It makes it seem that there are more of them than there are of us. Not true. We (the majority) own the country and it has worked tolerably well for us. No reason to change course now and become socialist, communist, Marxist or Islamic.

We have to accept that we will never change them. Trying to do so, will inevitably enrage them even more. But we need not play second fiddle to them either. We need not read their newspapers, buy their books or watch their films. We need not patronize their pundits. We can marginalize them just as they marginalize us. At the same time, we need not apologize for our own. We need not say ‘over the top’ to something that’s precisely on point.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

American Universities Doing Their Part

My neighbor and his family are currently away, vacationing in Japan. They are expected back this weekend. They will be here for approximately a week and then they’re off to sunny France for an additional two weeks. Both he and his wife are immigrants. He works for Google.

Look, education costs are crushing alright. I know; I put two kids through college. Both turned out alright and have jobs, thank God. But higher education in America has ceased being education in the classical sense. Instead, it has become a ticket for entry into the upper classes. The basics are no longer stressed. What is critical is that one conforms to and shows promise in advancing a specific ideology. The lower grades have essentially become day care and PC engines of social conditioning.

Education in America has become pure fluff. This is why we require foreigners to innovate, build, and maintain whatever remains of our industrial and financial base. In this we have already been overtaken by what we condescendingly refer to as the Third World (primarily Asia). Since fluff, like financial derivatives, can be priced at whatever the gullible are prepared to bear, education has become a toxic investment.

It has come to my attention that major American colleges and universities are looking to open up campuses in India. Will these be having American teachers? I doubt it. Perhaps there’s a strategy emerging here. It has been said that the best way to bring about the downfall of a nation is to export liberalism to it. Let no one claim that American universities are not doing their part.

We'll Never Know

It is those who question that control the narrative. During the Bush years, we questioned Republicans. The answers were insufficient. This would bring Obama and Democrats to power. Now, the tea parties are questioning Democrats and it looks much like a Republican sweep in November. Questions tend to “float like a butterfly and sting like a bee”. Seldom fatal, questions nevertheless put the heavy plodding of ideologues to shame in terms of artistic expression alone.

Back in the days when only Walter Cronkite and a just a handful of others read the news, no questions were raised. We all just tuned in to see what was happening. We pretty much accepted what we were being told. No alternate narratives were advanced. We now know that Cronkite was essentially a lefty, though it didn’t show and we never asked. It was during this time that the Left began to build its powerbase under cover of ignorance by infiltrating and taking control of every one of our sacred institutions.

Later, with the advent of (political) talk radio, questions were once again being asked. The public was fascinated and the whole notion of radio – which had been dying – revived. But overwhelmingly most people came to resent the ‘new’ medium. They did not appreciate the discord. Reasons needed to be found to dismiss the intrusion into mainstream corporate/government fiction. The drive was on to marginalize it; to pronounce it as ‘crazy’, radical - or merely burlesque. Still, as the taxpayer would continue to be raked over the coals, radio would grow into a significant player in our nation’s narrative; so much so, in fact, that serious consideration is now being given to banning the medium altogether – or at least to produce legislation to bring it to heel.

This is not to say that controlling the public narrative is akin to power. In some cases it might be argued that the questioning actually served to bolster the status quo by creating a backlash and give the likes of Limbaugh a black eye. However, questions remained and would accrue, especially as it became apparent that the course that the powerful, self-proclaimed elites had chosen for us would lead us to ruin.

The tea parties changed the equation. They succeeded in putting the elites on notice. Fueled by the questions that talk radio had been hammering all along, the tea parties have now grown into a movement. Questioning the powerful has become the narrative that now threatens to implode the very core of what is overwhelmingly seen as a failed agenda: liberalism. A new tactic had to be developed to counter it.

The questioning would have to be stopped dead in its tracks. We have been seeing this for some time now. Books that have sold in significant numbers remain ignored in literary and academic circles. Obama’s background remains a blank. The questions put forth by talk radio and other alternative sources are routinely dismissed. Conservative speakers are banned from university campuses.

It hasn’t worked. Despite the best efforts of the politicians and their media lackeys, the country stands on the cusp of rebellion. Stage three (stage one: ridicule; stage two: plead ignorance) would have to be implemented – and fast. We are seeing this now: News being squelched at its source.

As such, tea party activity remains largely unreported; as do problems along our Mexican border; looming economic collapse; the unmasking of the ‘global warming’ as fraud; etc. “Out of sight, out of mind” has become the motto of major news organizations.

To me, the most telling example of this trend came to mind in the non-reporting of the S. Korean naval ship’s sinking by N. Korea last month. The story of a clear act of aggression by a hostile power on one of our allies should be front page news everywhere. It is not. JB is the only one (to my knowledge) who is talking about it. Not even Bahukutumbi Raman who is like ‘white on rice’ regarding anything Asian has mentioned it.

We cross into dangerous waters when we go from ‘no news is good news’ to simply ‘no news’. How long before we will realize that 5.7 Jews have been massacred in Israel? How long before we realize that our dollar is not worth the paper it’s printed on? How long before we realize that our country as we have known it is gone forever? How long before we recognize that the president we elected was a Trojan horse working at the behest of our enemies?

I guess, if current trends take root, we’ll never know.