Looking Beyond Corpses

Broadly speaking, there are four groups that are currently trying to overthrow the United States: anarchists, communists, Islamists and opportunists. Anarchists are in it just to wreak havoc; communists harbor an ideology that borders on religious fanaticism; ditto, Islamists; and, finally, opportunists, those who seek maximum profit for themselves in the wake of upheaval. The latter can be compared to those who during past wars haunted battlefields, looking for corpses from which to extract dental work.

All four have united and are waging war against the rest of us. While anarchists and Islamists still hide their faces, the other two have revealed themselves fully. They no longer feel the need to hide their intent. It’s just that we do not believe them. We do not believe that anything could possibly pose an existential threat to the country we hold dear. And, for the time being, they are right to exploit our willful – almost child-like - ignorance to their advantage.

All the important thresholds have already been crossed. We’ve crossed the threshold of ‘how bad can it get’ and accepted ‘new norms’. We’ve accepted the public media lynching of upstanding citizens. We’ve accepted turning our backs on faithful allies. We have discounted the importance family, religion and work. We’ve stood by while our system of education teeters on the brink of total failure. We’ve watched as our investments as well as our currency continue to operate on life support.

The next step, most would now agree, is collapse. And we are compelled to ask the question: “How do we protect ourselves?”

This question is key. It points the way to what we can expect afterwards. The word “protect” is telling. Already, ads responding to this very concept abound: buy gold; buy food (food storage); protect your computer; protect your identity; your health; etc. The protection rackets (opportunists) are already out in force. They signal collapse. What they don’t tell us is what will come after, when none will be left standing, when the rules totally change and revert back to basics: faith, family and the overwhelming desire to rebuild.

Rebuilding is embedded in our DNA - like language. Strength of character and goodness cannot be erased. Neither will talent, and a willingness to overcome adversity. Together we will build ourselves up and even surpass heights previously achieved - because that’s who we are.

Some say I’m a pessimist. I am not. I believe that goodness will triumph over evil every time. I believe the pendulum will continue to swing. Take heart, we’re about to reverse course.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Detroit: Downsizing America

Liberals as well as conservatives are dumbfounded, taken off guard, outraged by president Obama’s handling of the Libyan situation; committing American troops into a theater of ‘kinetic military action’ without clear goals defining ‘victory’; without formally addressing the U.S. Congress or the American people. This means that this president must be intending to go it alone, much like Syrian president Assad is apt to do - or Kaddafi, for that matter.

Obama keeps hinting that this operation will be short and sweet after which time we’ll be out of there and wash our hands of the killing. History shows, however, that this sort of thing has a habit of dragging on. I listened to Dan Henninger last night. He’s one of my favorites on the WSJ editorial staff, but even he had it wrong. He views the conflict as ‘something’ sweeping the Middle East; something so powerful, it cannot be stopped or its direction determined. I do not believe in some amorphous ‘something’. Unleashed? Yes, the way someone might unleash an attack dog. Directionless? No. We all know where it’s headed, but are afraid to say it out loud.

America is not America without also being a super power. Yet, we can plainly see that it is this administration’s intention to degrade us to some unspecified common denominator. I don’t remember the president campaigning on a platform to make America worse. We all fell for the ‘change’ routine while assuming that ‘change’ meant ‘better than Bush’.

This sentiment is not exactly new. Liberals have in the past often promoted the banning of SUV’s on the premise that SUV’s are dangerous to smaller cars. It would seem that, if SUV’s are indeed so dangerous (to smaller cars), it is the smaller cars that should be banned.

I didn’t make this up. I’ve heard the argument before. At the time, we all laughed about it and didn’t take it seriously. Now, it seems, we’re coming face to face with it. The new norms, as presented to us, clearly strive to downsize America.

My question is: How far down are we willing to go? What exactly does Obama have in mind? Perhaps the ‘greens’ can give us some clue: A country bereft of energy; its people taking up farming, herding, bartering, canning… Sounds like Pol Pot to some degree. (I don’t think that Obama would send his goons out to shoot me for lighting up a cigarette or reading a book; but who knows, all that might still be in the offing. Neither would Obama order the burning of medical journals as the Taliban are wont to do. But the effect of Obamacare would essentially amount to the same.)

There are many ways to skin a cat – or fox. I’m sure Obama knows them all. Yesterday, I noted from my stats that nobody read anything I posted on my blog that day. I was convinced that someone had blocked my feed. It seemed reasonable to assume, especially since it’s been going blazes. Today, it’s back to normal. I do wonder what happened.

As for the fox: There has been a fox that parked itself all morning in our backyard, enjoying the trickle of sun. He was a chubby, healthy looking thing; lazy as all get out; yawning, snoozing, stretching, and the like. There’s a specific spot by the old sugar maple where all the animals come when they’re hurt. Last year, a deer with a bum leg spent a couple of days there, its mate alert and watching from across the fence. After a couple of days, both wandered off as if nothing had happened. I remember, a long time ago, our various cats would hang out there as well.

I believe there are specific spots on this earth that are ‘power centers’. Usually great cities are built around such places. I’m wondering if it is possible to kill such spots – pave them over; seal them. Probably not. If so, what’s happened to Detroit? (The obvious answer is liberalism.) What else might be hatching there?

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Too Big To Fail?

The prevailing sentiment in America today is that we are ‘too big to fail'. Failure, in fact, is no longer an option. It is off the table. So if there should be a failure, the task is not to find out why, reverse course, and try again; but rather to clothe failure in some semblance of success by introducing such terms as ‘new norm’, ‘outright lie’, and ‘unexpected’. Metrics, like ‘consumer confidence’ and ‘jobs saved’, come to the fore as being the lynchpins in maintaining the illusion of life in what is essentially dead.

As such, we overlook the fact that our government has failed, that our economy is failing, that our media and system of education are not doing the job despite the billions poured into them. We also overlook overwhelming public sentiment that we are fooling ourselves and projecting an image that is paper thin where substance is concerned.

We spend huge sums on Super Bowl half-time shows that are bereft of talent; and, as such, embarrassing. The person hired to sing our National Anthem never even bothered to learn the words properly.

Our economy has become so much paper-mâché, it would take a mere breeze to punch through it. All the signs of pathology are there in plain sight. A house bought in 1960 for $36,000 has not been improved or grown in size. Yet, on today’s market it would fetch 10 times as much. Same with cars, a gallon of gas, milk, cigarettes - you name it. Nothing has essentially changed. A house is still a house, a car is still a car, milk is still milk, etc. What has changed is the money it takes to buy these things. It has lost value. It has become wholly arbitrary, relative to the value of any given item.

Money is the only metric it is still possible for us to manipulate; to give the impression that we are doing well. The ‘fixes’ have become wildly irrational (the HuffPost-AOL deal, for example). People no longer have confidence in what we’re doing is right. They’ve decoupled. They’re sitting on their hands, hobbled by uncertainty, distrust, and a sense of revolution. This is something taking place within our own country right now - that no one wishes to acknowledge. It’s a bloodless revolution, but no less effective. And it will ultimately bring the house down.

It no longer matters what Bernanke does, or how much or little he does. It doesn’t even matter if he’s there or not. Ditto, Obama. What matters is that the people are no longer behind any of it. And, without popular support, the whole system winds down and descends into chaos.

There is now some question as to if it’s being done deliberately or not. It might just be that America’s enemies are riding a wave, claiming credit.

In a world turned upside-down, the relative vitality of a thing is now measured by how much enthusiasm can be drummed up to destroy it. This would put Hosni Mubarak right up there, along with Sara Palin and Michelle Bachmann.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

To Live Another Day

All this is entirely self-evident. Taxation inhibits economic activity. That’s why one sees the flight of people and businesses from high tax states to lower tax states. As jobs and money flee, the tax base shrinks, resulting in less money flowing into government coffers. It’s difficult to understand why this concept is so difficult to grasp for some people.

‘Democrat ex-legislators’ have just sealed Illinois’ fate. It is not hard to figure out what will happen next. “Wisconsin, here we come!”

Unless, of course, Illinois is so progressive, they feel they are not subject to economic consequences. They would first and foremost blame the economy in general - the loss of jobs (new norm) overall, due to whatever - without necessarily understanding what the word ’economy’ actually means. They would further argue that what is quite obvious in ordinary household budgeting becomes counter-productive when applied to a macro model where increased government spending and higher taxes are the ultimate solution. They would have plenty of company in support of that view from the likes of Paul Krugman, Nobel Prize winning economist, to many in the halls of Congress, and in Democrat-controlled State legislatures.

Even more ominously looms the casual wholesale dismissal of economic principles overall; the view that it is and never has been about fiscal policy; that the whole purpose of the exercise is to make things ‘fair’ by re-distributing wealth.

Our current administration has been mounting an all-out campaign to criminalize achievement. Wealth is regarded as some kind of unpardonable stain - and, to some extent, the class warfare narrative has taken hold. If successful, metrics to actually measure economic success or failure would cease to exist. Only one thing would stand in the way of fully implementing the program: neighboring states or countries in which capitalism actually works.

That is why these too have to be destroyed by Federal rules and regulations. It is why Israel cannot be allowed to survive, and why America cannot remain as she once was.
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Read an article this morning in the WSJ by John Eibner and Charles Jacobs, entitled, “Will Freedom Come for Sudan’s Slaves?” about a country that is about to be split in two. Among a whole host of outrages, slavery is still practiced in northern Africa. It is of the most brutal and degrading sort, vividly detailed here.

Earlier this week, I saw a clip of a debate on France 24 about the kidnapping and murder of French citizens in Niger. And yet, we keep our condemnation close to our vests. At no cost must we insult Islamic extremists. They are noble savages, after all. Easier to turn against ourselves and become like them. It is now clear that they won’t necessarily like us any better if we do; but, at least, they’ll presumably no longer be tempted to come across to our shores to raise holy hell. We who have far less experience in the art of intimidation and physical brutality may yet live another day.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Lipstick On A Pig

Oh yes, I know, everyone is busy painting lipstick on a pig right now. It’s our version of celebrating Eid. We’re so hoping for Obama to make good, we’re even willing to gauge out our eyes just to make it so. The fact is that more of us still have jobs than don’t. This means that most of us can still be persuaded to pull Obama’s lunch wagon. (By the way, all this talk about us becoming more and more like Europe is a bunch of hogwash. If you ask me, we’re headed straight for Stalingrad.)

If it turns out that those with jobs should begin to feel the pinch, only then will the situation change. Only then will we all begin reading from the same page.

Apparently it’s all been forgotten: health care, the new EPA regs (regarding carbon emissions), higher taxes on the local level, FINREG, net neutrality, gas prices, etc. It’ll all kick in this year. A new norm for unemployment; immigration, border security, foreign affairs, inflation, energy dependence…

I honestly don’t see the optimism. True, the world around us appears to be digging out - at least they’re trying. We’re just digging deeper.

Stocks are up today. They generally rise in the third year of a presidency. Will they this time? The year has barely started. Some people have made money, it‘s true. This is supposed to be a bad thing - so this administration keeps saying anyway. And now they’re claiming a (minor) victory. Make up your mind! Which is it?

The fact is, it’s jobs that drive America. People working - creating value. Nothing I’ve heard will produce more or better jobs as long as Obama is president. Now it could well be that with the ‘net neutrality’ bandwagon gaining ground, there’ll be nothing but good news from here on in. That won’t necessarily mean it’s so. It just means that we'll be suffering in our bunkers - alone.
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Pete Postlethwaite died today. To my mind he was an actor’s actor. Loved the film “Brassed Off”.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/