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/

Condo Shopping in Brazil

We’re all news junkies; that is, we try to keep up with the news on a daily basis. We read the headlines on various sites, as well as our favorite blogs to get some idea about what other people are thinking. We pretty much know that the mainstream media does not tell us the truth; that partisan consideration causes them to steer their intended conclusions toward some unholy end. The same is true of the conservative, or ‘alternative’, media.

I’ve been having some trouble with the internet, especially when trying to stream Glenn Beck’s morning radio show. It suddenly cuts out and I need to go down to the basement and reset the box. Honestly, it’s become a pain to listen, and I no longer listen very often. I also don’t watch much TV - especially in the afternoon. For our family, Glenn Beck has essentially ‘disappeared’.

While visiting my father, he explained to me the purpose of Brazil's new capital (now 50 years old), the building if which he had been intimately involved in. It was envisioned as a world capital housing the leaders of a single world government. Its planners predicted that there would be a war in which much of the world would suffer utter devastation. The site for the Brazilian capital was deliberately chosen as to be as far away from everything as possible and would therefore not be much affected.

The city has strict building codes as to limit its population. The expected overflow was to be housed in any number of satellite cities some distance away. Only the highest elite - the cream of the crop - were to have permission to live within city limits.

This came to mind when I first heard that Obama would be going to Brazil on vacation (or is it to shop for a condo?). Suppose now, that something were to happen here while he is away. It’s not unusual for the leader of a nation to leave his country and, while abroad, there is some kind of coup back home.

Suppose communications were cut. Suppose all we could get on the radio is old episodes of the Prairie Home Companion. Suppose there were no mention of what had happened. Suppose TV screens remained blank; the internet dormant.

Suppose Osama bin Laden were to order all his sleeper cells into action. Suppose some manufactured economic problem were to close the banks. Suppose union thugs and others took it upon themselves to target random ‘rich people’ and Republican legislators.

In very short order, America would find itself turned on its head. There would be utter chaos in the streets – not to mention, in every American heart.

Suppose that by some prearranged signal Israel and Taiwan were attacked, as well as Americans and American interests oversees.

All this would be digestible, except for radio silence. We could respond to most things, but not this. For years now, we’ve known that our media plays fast and loose with the facts. We’ve learned to be discerning and deal with it. But no news? How could we possibly deal with that?

Only those who had been tipped off beforehand would know what to do - only the best organized. The rest of us would miss the sleight of hand until long after the dust has settled and the now familiar faces of our talking heads have faded from memory.

http://peterkoelliker.blogspot.com/
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/

Bubba

One of the hallmarks of totalitarianism is that there is no longer any way to ascertain the truth. Truth is simply what someone says it is. We talk endlessly about the new norm. Joblessness is what it is. Promises are meaningless in that there are no longer any standards by which to measure progress. Words are just words that mean nothing beyond vague intention. It all is simply accepted. There is no debate; no new ideas; no argument.

We see this in the clip above. Jared Bernstein does not seem entirely comfortable with what he’s saying even though he appears to be talking to a wall. As such, he still retains some semblance of a reality in which words count for something. He clearly does not believe that the examples he enumerates are valid. He has been fated only to rise to the level of hack.

POTUS says essentially the same things. But he says them with conviction and aplomb. He either believes what he says or he is a reasonably good actor reading from a script.

We here, in America, have come to simply accept an awful lot of rubbish. We accept high tax rates. We accept corruption. We accept onerous regulation; intrusive searches. It is what it is; it can’t be helped. We accept joblessness; outsourcing; speed limits; fees; etc.

The other day I found myself in Times Square. A bunch of people were gathered under a huge multi-story screen that showed live video of the street below. People were excitedly pointing to themselves on this screen and taking pictures. Surveillance was celebrated as a kind of game. People were waving their arms and pointing to themselves. They were being watched and they felt important.

All this goes beyond Times Square - the Great White Way, as it‘s called. We accept Iran’s nuclear weapon’s program by which, we have every indication, they plan to wipe Israel off the map. As such, we accept genocide. We accept Iran’s mistreatment of women. We accept lashing, stoning, hanging, genital mutilation, abortion. We accept pornography; mosques built on Christian cemeteries; illegals crossing our borders. We accept repeat offenders; DWI killers, suicide plotters, voter intimidators.

We refuse any standards by which to separate good from evil, right from wrong. “It’s all good“, we say. “Whatever.” We need do nothing but clear our minds, think happy thoughts and submit. No standards; no critical thinking ; no logic; no plan. We wear our pants low to make it easier for cellmate Bubba to have his way with us.

Tanning Salons Be Damned

Logic tells us that Ahmadinejad has lots to fear. The same is true of Barack Hussein Obama. Obama is losing his base; alienating his opposition even further, and causing such a stir that has even the disinterested now scratching their heads. Will he moderate his stance; adjust course? No. He will press ahead with his agenda; he will double-down with the full force of his office in support. He will scatter the corrupt seed - his empty words - here and there, and those starving for truth and hope will momentarily be held off only to find that those seeds will not sprout. Yet, it will give him a precious moment to re-group in his stony desert garden, pass another (empty shell) bill with a promising name that his cabal of insurgents can define later and spin into a noose.

Is he frightened? Perhaps a little. But he is a man possessed. He sees himself as historic; a man with a mission. He would readily sacrifice himself, his family, his nation for the improbable vision he holds so dear. His fear is but a speed bump, a mere annoyance, a paper cut. There are enough urging him on; telling him he is right, that he must do more, faster.

Obama, like Ahmadinejad, represents just a sliver of the population that continues to assure him that their cause is just. As such, he lives in an impenetrable bubble of assent. All others - no matter how great their numbers - are infidels who must be brought to heel or be killed. Truth absent, there is no argument, no compromise. The time is at hand to act.

Remaking a nation is no small task. Obama cannot lose faith. The time may never come again for the possibility of a mosque at Ground Zero to even be worthy of contemplation. He is cutting against the grain. The pain he may feel, to him is ecstasy; it is the pain of birth. He is not immune to doubt or suffering. He views these as the price of justice. He cannot conceive of suffering in any other context than wrenching his own into the sun, even if by his own actions that self-same sun should turn blood red in defiance of folly. Tanning salons and democracy be damned.

Metrics

We do not have an economic crisis. We have a crisis in leadership. The ‘bad’ economy is merely a symptom of the crisis in leadership world-wide. The economy is not fragile. It is not failing. It is telling us precisely about the state the world finds itself in.

If you use a thermometer to check your child’s temperature and find he has a fever, a reasonable response should not be to blame the thermometer; to pack it in ice or throw it down in a rage. Yet this is exactly what we’re doing. The economy is merely a metric - a tool - a device to measure the relative health of a nation(’s overall policies). A tool can never exceed its function. As policy is always contingent on mercurial political demands, the economy can be said to reflect the relative soundness of political realities as well.

In an effort to build (false) constituencies, politicians have taken the value out of work. They’ve taken winning out of the game. They’ve taken the truth out of history. They’re taking the killing out of war. They’re taking the people out of governance. In doing all that, they’ve taken hope out of the future. What they’re attempting here amounts to no less than a man-made contingency operation; attempting to change the world into what it has never been before – into what it can never be. It’s no wonder alarm bells are going off everywhere you look.

If it were merely theft, it might be a blessing. The thief is caught and punished. The victim either writes off his loss and begins again, or he is in some way compensated. Either way, there is closure. What we’re witnessing at the G8 summit in Toronto is not theft. It is trying to change the way things actually work; it is trying to upend the laws of gravity. It is going against nature without the temperance of conscience, without an understanding of trespass onto the sacred ground of reality.

You don’t go about building a machine in which every module is wholly dependent on every other. You build it so that failing modules can be easily swapped out. You don’t build an oil tanker (or submarine) without breaking it up in to compartments. If one should be breached, it can be sealed off and the rest of the ship survives. “Too big to fail” spells disaster and worse. In fact, if “too big to fail” should become the norm, we will no longer be able to tell what is disaster and what is not. There will no longer be anything to compare. Every traditional standard loses its meaning. What is is. No further argument is possible. This, plain and simple, is the definition of tyranny.

The reason America’s economic metrics are bad is not because of some vague notion of the failure as relates some equally vague academic construct. (“You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.”) It is a failure that originates and is maintained by the people themselves. In our set-up it is the result of people rebelling against a self-serving, wrong-headed, oppressive, ruling class. The people themselves produce all the metrics needed. Governments ultimately serve at the will of the people. Without their acquiescence, government is illegitimate. The metrics tell us that this has now become the case.