The Cat's Meow

We have lost the language. We no longer listen to each other, we only speak. As such, we do not hear what anyone else is saying. It’s become a problem worldwide. Arab hatred for Jews is based on a lie. The idea of ‘global warming’ was based on a lie. Democrats painting Republicans as racist is a convenient lie, as is the current campaign against ‘the rich’.

The templates are set. There is no escaping. We, on the right, have hardened our templates as well in response to the Left’s aggression. We ourselves have countered with lies. In this climate, how can mere words be anything but partisan? Our alienation from each other goes much deeper than words. It can no longer be solved by simply inventing new words and casting new templates.

Words and templates seem flimsy when seen alongside powerhouse emotion. Palestinians hate Jews. Democrats hate Republicans. Communists hate capitalism. The poor hate the rich. Words are the kindling. Once the fire is started, it can no longer be contained. More kindling will not douse it. We are already into the next phase: power.

As Tom rightly points out, the Left has been meticulously organizing since the 60’s. They’ve done so incrementally, taking tiny steps: at first it was casual Fridays. Now, they also have the power. They control the narrative. All we on the Right can do is counter with kindling. Truth has long since become irrelevant - economic theory, for instance.

The only way out is to ‘reset’ (sorry Hillary!). Something of such significance must happen as to be capable of blowing all previous assumptions away - bringing people back to basics; getting them to actually face each other again, and begin responding to others’ basic needs.

In the past, the only human instrument capable of bringing this about has been war. In war, ideologies are not of much use. All such armchair posturing is subjugated by the need to survive. Soldiers may even encounter situations in which they must depend (in one way or another) on the enemy for their survival. (Note: leaders seldom face this dilemma.) Life hangs in the balance, but at least you’re looking at the whites of someone’s eyes who is not you, and you’re almost bound to find that common thread (good or bad) that defines a human trait.

I hold that when it gets down to brass nuts, men will behave like men – with kindness and good will. It may take something calamitous to get us back to there.

NY-26 is an example of localized political pantomime. We’re seeing lips move, but we’re not actually there. It would be a mistake to characterize these (or any) voters as dumb (or easily led.) There is a reason for why things happen the way they do.

From this distance, it looks like the partisan shtick all over again with a twist: It seems to me that Republicans are even more hated than Democrats. Republicans are hated for being weak and not standing up to Democrats. They’re hated for reaching across the aisle; they’re hated for compromising. They’re hated for getting up and smiling broadly under the TV lights after having just betrayed some important principle, thinking themselves the cat’s meow.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Cornered Dogs Bite

Every human thought leaves an imprint. When I look across my front lawn in the morning after a freshly fallen snow, I see it crisscrossed with animal spoors. Each one is different. It is not the difference in the appearance of the tracks that is significant; rather, it is the fact that there was movement: each animal wanted to get from one place to another. It is doubtful that two or more animals ever met because each track was likely made in its own time. If there had been some threat, all the tracks would show the animals running in one direction – away from the danger. In the absence of a threat, the pattern is quite random.

Reading this morning’s headlines, we find that the stampede against the U.S. dollar continues, now with the IMF chiming in. We read that long-standing alliances are rupturing with nations fleeing U.S. entanglements and influence, seeking something more stable, more predictable. They do not make a value judgment as to what’s right, wrong or fair. They simply look to attach themselves to what they perceive as power that would serve to protect them.

The USS America is sinking – whether by benign neglect, sabotage or by deliberate design – and the whole world is running away from the disaster that has become rap America. The pattern in the snow is now discernible. Argentina is now embracing the Venezuelan model. Venezuela has adopted the Tehran model (as have Turkey, Syria, Egypt, etc.) Israel remains undecided. She finds herself cornered. What Israel is likely to do remains a mystery. India too is at a loss to know which way to turn. China faces internal problems. She is keeping her powder dry, knowing that chaos will arrive at her doorstep soon enough. She is doing her best to shore up her defenses (while the West views it as aggression). Japan has her own problems.

We can sit here and evaluate each turn of the screw within its own frame. Every happenstance is quite worthy of a tome or two – even an entire library of tomes. We can go back in history and learn what has happened before, how it developed and the ultimate result - all of it, simply to keep the blogs pumping out words like the ash from a volcano that obscures its source.

The source is America’s continuing disintegration. It’s not true, as some would proclaim that America’s sinking would leave nary a ripple. It has and will produce wave after wave and the result is all but certain: chaos, dislocation and bloodshed. Cornered dogs have been known to bite. We all will be tempted to bite in a last-ditch effort as we dig deeper and deeper down into our emptying pockets to appease those with tyrannical intent - the ones with the biggest clubs and the willingness to use them. Thoughts of freedom and liberty – even dignity - will become subservient to our will to survive.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Guest Contributer: Tom From NJ: Big Starker & Little Schnook

Support for public unions certainly is the Progressives' current litmus test and grand tactic, so it is right to identify the unions as part of their sine qua non. But I'd like to take things a step further. In terms of strategic goals, the Progressive sine qua non is POWER, grabbing it, using it, keeping it. This is why the public unions are playing such a critical role in the Progressive coalition because they understand power and will let nothing -- not the law, the constitution, or the political process -- get in their way. The rest of the Progressive coalition is composed mainly of eggheads, far-left ideological cranks, MSM types, Alinsky disciples, elderly hippies and others of the drug-addled classes, professional agitators (aka. Community Organizers), permanent collectors of welfare and SSI, etc., and therefore lack the muscular intimidation factor that union thugs always bring to the table, even when allegedly "representing" school teachers (Miss Bishop and Mr. Chips are long gone!). As Andy Stern said when he was still head of the SEIU, "If the power of persuasion fails, we will use the persuasion of power."

The Progressive movement of today reminds me of the ninety-pound weakling in school who gives his lunch, his allowance money, whatever it takes, to make some muscle-bound brute his loyal protector and keep him that way. Thus can Little Schnook talk and act big, because he knows he has Big Starker around to do his dirty work for him. Despite his "cool" self-image and basketball pretensions, Barack Obama is Little Schnook. His alleged street smarts and Chicago toughness are a pose made even remotely credible --although not abroad, apparently -- largely by his association with Big Starker, i.e., the labor movement, especially the public unions. BTW, Saul Alinsky was just the same, basically an egghead sociologist who liked to pose as a streetwise tough guy, especially when safely in the friendly company of real tough guys. But I digress.

The American political "game", if you will, has rarely been played for stakes higher than those on the table right now and right through November 2012. The Progressives know this and so do their great comrades, the public unions, and they do not intend to give up power no matter what We the People may say at the polling place. What is the true Progresssive idea of "democracy" today? Check out Wisconsin 2011 or -- same thing --St. Petersburg, Russia, 1917. In both cases, the Little Schnooks cheered on the Big Starkers as they applied "the persuasion of power" to their opposition. Of course, the Russian "workers" were far more successful in grabbing, using, and keeping power than their American counterparts have been to date. However, hope springs eternal, especially in those radical precincts where, in the end, power is really the only sine qua non. Of course, between now and 2012 it may become increasingly unclear who is master and who is servant, Little Schnook or Big Starker.