Respect

For those who would be tempted to view our times within the context of the American Civil War, the BP Gulf oil spill would represent Fort Sumter. We currently find ourselves somewhere between Fort Sumter and Gettysburg. The oil spill was the first clear shot across the bow of America. It gave our president his first opportunity to clamp down on America’s jugular. Since then, the Left has managed to rack up an impressive string of victories. Even counting a significant number of electoral setbacks (during midterms), this seems to have had zero effect on the Left’s forward momentum. The economy is still in trouble and our position globally has become increasingly tenuous. It is clear that the American Left is hard at work toward seeing that America slips to second or third rung status among nations. So far, they are succeeding.

I have long predicted that something will happen that will forestall the 2012 elections and that Obama would remain in office. If this is correct, it would suggest the timeframe within which to expect Gettysburg. Gettysburg could be anything, foreign or domestic. Too many fuses are already lit; too much ordinance likely to detonate. When it does, there will either be chaos or the system will collapse into a shadow structure (already built and in place).

No one is willing to fully accept that any of this can happen – not in America. Those raising alarms are systematically silenced, crushed by ignorance, and by a general unwillingness to connect the dots and follow trend lines to their logical conclusion. Others, only semi-aware, place their hopes on 2012, our next chance to replace the leadership in Washington. They do not consider the possibility that we might never get there.

How to prepare? First off, know what you stand for. If you stand for liberty and the spirit of America, say so outright and without hesitation. Your worst move is to succumb to the bullying tactics of the Left, or to retaliate in kind. If you happen to be on the left, come out of hiding and state your intent plainly. Stealth will no longer serve you. Everybody must have a voice in determining where we want to end up. For the exercise to succeed, all cards must be put face-up on the table. Winner takes all.

Recognize too that your money is gone. It is being used as a weapon against you - to get you to do things you wouldn’t ordinarily consider doing. Write it off; start fresh. Hunger is another matter. But even hunger can be used as a weapon for a righteous cause. Anna Hazare moved the world recently by going on a hunger strike – so did Gandhi.

Know where you stand and adjust to doing without creature comforts. Obama’s threat to raise a billion dollars for his reelection campaign is meaningless. The money he intends on using has no value – and he knows it. It is a bluff to fend off adversaries. Doing without money will be easier than it seems. For one thing, you can no longer be bribed or corrupted by it. You will be free to pursue what’s right and true. And your reward will be far greater than anything money can ever hope to buy, among these: self-respect.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

A Bridge To The Future

It must be kept in mind that everything is always in balance. Cancer, for instance, is a precise response to some other condition - as is tyranny. Now it may be that the environment we create by attempting to right perceived imbalances is not conducive to the survival of concepts such as freedom or liberty - or even to the continuance of human species, or life (as we know it) overall - but the system nevertheless remains in perfect balance. Perfect balance is an absolute requirement for existence.

Therefore, it is unwise to jump heavy-handedly from one extreme to another in an effort to equalize things. For one thing, Republican and Democrat, rich and poor, black and white, etc. are not opposites. They are merely different aspects among many. Heavily weighting one over another merely induces momentary displacement or shock. It has long been duly noted that deliberately induced rapid weight gains and losses are harmful to a person’s health. Any such measure of health does not mean that things are out of balance overall. It merely means that the environment that has been created is toxic to our well-being (in our present state); the same as the environment on the moon could be considered toxic to man. At the same time, it would be wrong to say that the moon is out of balance. It is and remains in perfect balance with itself. (If the moon were the only entity in the universe, both God and man would be there.)

A while back this blog mentioned the discovery of a new life form not based on carbon. Scientist were said to be surprised to find such a thing. It had heretofore been thought that life can only be carbon-based. Wrong! Life is and will continue to be, and seek expression of itself. Liberty is and will continue to be, and find a way to express itself. The path may lead inward or outward. It ultimately does not matter what we do to tinker around the edges where existence has already been established as fact.

The addition of Bill Daley to the Obama team would definitely have an impact on the WH operation. It remains yet to be seen exactly what impact it will have. Again, as something is lost, something else is gained in equal measure. The argument could be made that nothing will essentially change as long as POTUS does not listen, or if POTUS should refuse to adjust his aim.

Aim is the key here. We have watched POTUS long enough to know who POTUS is and what he wants. All pretty much agree that we can’t get there from here. America will never be a socialist nation. It will never consent to being an Islamic nation. It will not tolerate dictatorship. POTUS must take stock and understand the limits of what is possible. Pragmatism always works - miracles most often do not.

No doubt, America has changed over the years. There are those who would want it to reverse course. Reversing course, however, is also not acceptable. Genies can never be put back into the bottle. The only path for America (or any nation) is forward. A president can influence; he can articulate. He can shape by degrees. He can be a bridge to the future. What he cannot do is sever the continuum. Attempting to do so would shatter not the nation, but himself. And in so doing he would bring disappointment and hardship to the people who placed their trust in him.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Destiny Demands a Decision

In some ways Paul Ryan and pols of any persuasion are like Obama: ideologues. They present themselves as right or left cut-outs and hope to sell it to a multifaceted public. The public resists. It understands the ruse. They ask, "Why should anyone reduce the rich and complex organism of himself (or group) to a formula so simple, so rudimentary, so primitive?

"And if ever the suspicion of his manifold persona should dawn on him… and break through his illusion of the single ideology he espouses, and perceive that every individual self is made up of a bundle of selves and interests, he has only to say so and at once the media puts him to pillory, calls science to aid, establishes the efficacy of padded cells, seeking to protect humanity from the necessity of hearing the truth. Why then waste words on proclamations, plans, pledges, and roadmaps that every thinking man accepts as self-evident, that America totters on the edge of existential threat, when a mere utterance of it is a breach of taste?”

What was true in Hermann Hesse’s day (in italics) is certainly true now. Perhaps even more so. For far too long we have used a shorthand for governance - Republican and Democrat; conservative and liberal; etc - while glossing over the fact that we were spinning the mesh of our web in an increasingly tighter and suffocating weave.

Now we have arrived, at a particularly virulent form of socialism, one that seeks to quash every dare of liberty and we ask ourselves, How has this happened? We were more than willing to entertain strange, even alien, notions. But we did so primarily out of curatorial interest, to be able to wag our fingers and proclaim ourselves better. American exceptionalism was ingrained in us. We never thought there was ever the possibility of letting it slipping away.

Now we find ourselves engaged in a great struggle. It is composed of a myriad of smaller struggles and each skirmish we win produces yet another head - or three. Are we willing to invest everything, or will we accept something as insipid as compromise. It seems to me we’ve been compromising all along. It’s even gone beyond face-saving. We’re into the real stuff now. Destiny demands a decision.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/