Target Rich Environment

The coming year will surely bring much to chronicle, to dissect, and perhaps to lampoon. On the serious side, America remains locked in a war with jihadists worldwide with much of the fighting taking place (of course) in Afghanistan under the most restrictive rules of engagement US forces have ever been forced to fight under with the conflict drifting into Pakistan quite a bit and marked by an ever increasing number of missile strikes emanating from America's remote drone aircraft. Will 2011 see more conventional US involvement in the failing Pakistan state with open use of American boots on the ground beyond the twilight war in which the CIA and US special forces are already deeply involved? Will chaos in and terror issuing forth from Yemen or Somalia force American military incursions into either of these failed (in the case of Somalia) or failing states? Will North Korea become so cavalier in their aggression that they force the hand of South Korea and will China use the ensuing chaos to make their move on Taiwan? Will Iran instigate enough trouble in the Gaza Strip and or Lebanon to spark a regional war with Israel that could avalanche into World War III? Will Shia Iran achieve status as a state armed with a nuclear arsenal and blackmail the Sunni states of the Middle East into submission and even attempt to extort Europe? Will Barack Hussein Obama continue his twin policies of blame America first with his genuflecting to autocrats and apologizing for our defense of liberty in the world which Obama evidently considers colonialism and imperialism and blame Israel always which has been his dangerous and provocative course so far in office as he continues to reward extremism, intransigence, and ultimately the jihadist terror that America should be doing everything to fight? Will the US State Department (as rumors assert) really seek to facilitate the payment of a ransom to Somali pirates who have seized the crew of twenty-six Bangladeshi sailors from a US flagged vessel? If so, this would go hand in hand with President Obama's seeming mania for unilateral nuclear disarmament as was recently evidenced in the new Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty which cedes America's advantage in strategic nukes with Russia clearly winning in the exchange by being granted veto of US missile defense while retaining a huge numerical edge in tactical (battlefield) nuclear weapons. Oh how my nation has changed from "billions for defense but not one cent tribute" as marked America's early determination to defeat the (Muslim) Barbary pirates to Obama's seeming ethos of "not one cent for defense, but billions in tribute". Will 2011 see this formerly mighty Republic, the storehouse of the world's liberty, continue to crumble as we relinquish our individual liberty (as in the TSA airport serial molestation) and are spent into oblivion by an insouciant egoist?

America's Unholy Triumvirate

In spite of some fleeting good news with unemployment slightly less grim, common sense conservatives in the United States will continue to face the onslaught of socialism unleashed, emanating from President Barack Hussein Obama, pushed through America's Senate which will still be led by "Light-Brain" Harry Reid and under the thrall of Democrats with the only defense by the GOP there being the filibuster, and with every Democrat overreach by the rule by regulation executive branch and grow the government and Federal intrusiveness initiative pushed through the Senate by Reid bolstered by the third leg of the stool Constitutionalists must overcome- our judiciary with our courts infested by judicial activists who insist our rules as codified in our founding document are but suggestions of a "living, breathing document"- forever transmutable to conform to current norms, a sort of ever-permeable flavor of the day. All three co-equal branches meant to balance in preservation of liberty and respect for individual rights are at war against our foundational notion of freedom. GOP gains in the US House as well as at the state level have sparked some small confidence and forced Obama's hand in extending the Bush era tax cuts renewing economic growth somewhat, but have no doubt that the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of our Federal government remain captive to the fiat of radicals. These leftists who will still rule over us in 2011 will continue to enjoy active cover from the dinosaur media and the university elite. None of these adverse facts have been altered in the slightest by Republicans gaining control in a a single chamber of the US Congress. How the GOP newbies address the challenges of all this amassed opposition will soon become apparent and will be telling. Will the new Republican Representatives buckle at the first main stream media onslaught accusing them of starving children or depriving old folks of their cost of living increases from Social Security? Will Congressmen who pretended an affinity for the Tea Party turn out to be less than golden and emerge as Scott Brown did in the United States Senate as nothing more than a Republican in name only (RINO)? These sub rosa liberals are just as dangerous to the Republic as the more openly socialist Democrats and surely there are at least a few in the US House of Representative's ranks (as Louisiana's so-called Republican Joseph Cao showed himself to be in the departing Congress by voting with the Democrats to advance Obamaism). America and the world can not afford to have conservatives capitulate in the coming Congress. The new GOP House majority must resist the Democrat triumvirate to stave off a new tyranny in America.

King Solomon's Mines

Even after discovering enormous resources, King Solomon reputed to be wise, managed with ambitious building projects to spend beyond his nation's means, and Barack Hussein Obama is no King Solomon. Our 111th Congress has earned a dubious distinction, spending more than any previous Congress, in fact more than the first one hundred Congresses combined. It is surprising that smoke from the Treasury Department's overheated presses can not be seen wafting over the Potomac. This sort of squandering of tax revenue that citizens have sweat blood to earn before the government comes to confiscate it, invites inflation and not simply the ordinary kind but perhaps hyperinflation as was seen in the Wiemar Republic and more recently in Zimbabwe. At the least, this uncontrolled zest for growing government is summoning a collapse similar to the one we are currently witnessing in Greece, but unlike Greece, the whole rest of the world is not big enough to bail the United States out. The globe does not possess sufficient resources to keep up with what Obama and the lunatic Democratic Congress have been spending and it is highly doubtful while on his Hawaii vacation at our expense that the President will stumble on a vast trove of platinum or gold- in this day and age, there are no more undiscovered Solomon's Mines.

Obama Praises Vick

President Barack Hussein Obama lavished praise on Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie for giving dog-murdering quarterback Michael Vick "a second chance". Supposedly the Presidential telephone call to the football club magnate was prompted not so much by any of Vick's accomplishments on the gridiron but more out of Obama's concern that young black men who have been incarcerated are sufficiently rehabilitated when they leave prison or jail that they deserve access to the job market. This is such a noble notion, so commendable that I believe the President should replace his retinue of highly vetted Secret Service agents in his protective detail with ex-convicts to demonstrate to the public just how trustworthy these reformed criminals are and how it is safe for all of us to trust our lives to them. I hear Obama talking the talk, but somehow, when it comes time to walk the walk, I would wager that President Obama would not want thugs like Vick anywhere near himself or his family. So like so many of the President's pronouncements, I hear this Obama commendation of employer Lurie as hollow words that Obama himself would never follow in matters with real world consequences such as the safety of his daughters or Michelle.

Is Recovery Likely?

Is the prospect of a vibrant economic resurgence in the cards for America in 2011? Is a boom just around the corner? I would contend that despite the GOP capturing the United States House of Representatives, the prevailing ethos of the United States government remains essentially redistribution so long as Barack Hussein Obama is in the Oval Office and particularly with Democrats retaining control of America's upper legislative chamber- the Senate. I do not mean to portend doom for our nation, but the best Constitutional conservatives, liberty lovers, and those who actually respect the God-given natural rights of man can expect is gridlock. As long as an opponent of natural law rules over us and is bent on creating a climate of social justice, the most that can be gained (I fear) is stasis. And will holding the line be enough- will that be sufficient to avert global depression, particularly if more economies of the so-called PIIIGS collapse. Greece has already collapsed, Ireland is flailing; tiny Iceland was the first domino- fortunately being so insignificant that little damage redounded when Bjorkland fell during the last President Bush's tenure, but Portugal, Italy, and Spain are still trapped in "debt threat"- a term I believe I have just coined and a route Barack Hussein Obama inexplicably is leading the US down. The real question in the coming year will be whether the US House will stand firm in thwarting the socialist agenda pushed by President Obama and the Senate Democrats or whether they capitulate to the cloying dinosaur press, union activists, and their own Republican in name only contingent that holds so much sway in the Senate? Only time will tell but loud voices of tea party discontent can only help build Republican backbone.

Year Winds Down

We are about to witness the departure of the most intrusive, anti-Constitutional United States Congress ever (and from a liberty loving prospective- none too soon). Our medical autonomy has now been captured by Barack Hussein Obama and the cadre of nameless and faceless bureaucrats that he will install as Obama also expands and broadens the powers of the Internal Revenue Service to enforce Obama care. A December 25 Robert Pear article in The New York Times chronicles the existence of "end of life" counseling that suggests the the Sarah Palin christened "death panels" will indeed be part of the Obama health scheme. Reform of the financial system did little to bolster confidence in the markets but much to give the executive branch of the Federal government more arbitrary power. The Federal Communication Commission just arrogated authority unto itself over the Internet that seemed to be working just fine without interference from the Obama regime. On the domestic front, government at all levels has never held more sway over the common citizen who without access to redress because of our activist courts has never enjoyed less recourse (and because of complicity of traditional civil rights organizations and the docility of America's dinosaur media standing with team Obama, the individual has no vocal advocate in his defense). 2010 should be marked with the grim acknowledgement that freedom is fading and in the nation that has enshrined individual rights and been the guardian of liberty for the rest of the globe, an essentially un-American tyranny is on the rise.

Mailing It In

The publisher of this blog is at least partially taking the day off from the vicissitudes of politics and weighty issues and will instead be celebrating Christmas the way our frequently vacationing President, Barack Hussein Obama, (who is now on a jaunt to his reputed boyhood home of Hawaii) has been governing the United States. After the passing of our beloved dog Lily, who was in so many ways the heart of our household, one week ago last midnight, the Despot has decided to let his alter ego "the brokenhearted blogger" scratch out a thought for the day. It took him all night and copious research. Here it is: "If you remain chaste, it is unlikely you will be chased very much!"

Hinges of Hades

The Ivory Coast could well be slipping into a period of Rwanda-style internecine strife or Congo-like prolonged bloodshed. The United Nations is far from calming the situation but in fact unwittingly fanning the flames of an easily avoidable conflict. On the same African continent in Zimbabwe, election after election is stolen and the UN does nothing. In Venezuela, rigged outcomes prevail in Chavez-orchestrated faux plebiscites. Even contemporaneous with the voting in Ivory Coast, the dictator of Belarus staged a phony vote to keep himself in power. What is so exceptional about Laurent Gbagbo that the United Nations and the United States demand that he be deposed from his tinhorn perch? Why are the multilateralist busybodies trying to impose Alassane Ouattara who is a Muslim whose campaign made some populist mutterings and seemed inclined to some "social justice redistribution" over the existing dictator who happens to be Catholic and whose allies control most of the guns? If Gbagbo was left unmolested, protests would likely settle down within days and with little loss of life but by pushing the matter, the United Nations seems to be out to inadvertently start a bloody civil war, with fighting taking shape on ethnic, tribal, and religious lines (along of course, with freelance rogues jumping in to contest over the wealth of natural resources). The situation eerily evokes the Balkans where hasty decisions by Germany and the Vatican to recognize the independence of Croatia sparked spiraling violence that led to Europe's worst combat since cessation of hostilities at the end of World War II. The United Nations should have left well enough alone with Gbagbo in charge of the Ivory Coast- their interference invites another slaughter in Africa.

Declaration of Dependence

Barack Hussein Obama has attempted to create a culture of dependency, sapping initiative and forcing people who formerly contributed to society to become involuntary dole dwellers. That is what unemployment hovering around a double figure percentage means- forcing those who have been self-supporting through their adult lives to become wards of the state when what they seek is not government beneficence but steady work. Nothing Barack Hussein Obama has put in motion has enhanced the job prospects of millions of unemployed Americans. Maintaining the Bush tax rates helps in some measure but that tax structure was to the last President Bush's credit and in no way should any accolade redound to Obama who spoke for nearly two years about ending the tax breaks for "millionaires and billionaires" (deliberately conflating the two to exacerbate class envy when there is indeed an enormous difference between a family farm owner or small businesswoman and Warren Buffett or Bill Gates). A new year is coming, a new day is dawning as Republicans may exert more sway with their newly gained control of the United States House of Representatives, but I am far less than sanguine as Democrats with their socialist impulse are still in charge of both the US Senate and (obviously) the White House. Any jobs-boosting measure by the House will likely be diluted or added to beyond all recognition with budget busters by the Democrats in the upper chamber and their Republican in name only colleagues who remain, and Barack Hussein Obama will still have the power of veto over any legislation that promotes free markets or a real return to our capitalist ethos. So I look to the next two years to create more acrimony than progress and more tyranny with rule by regulatory regime as we have just seen implemented in the government power grab of the Federal Communications Commission with the very non-neutral and highly partisan push for "net neutrality". All in all, what is emerging should give me plenty to write about (or at least quietly ponder locked behind the fence of my reeducation camp).

Gospel of Diplomacy

A type of worship exists at the United States Department of State. This is exaltation to negotiation which justifies the existence of and funding for America's diplomatic corps. I will now commit a heresy against this church by declaring that this mania for talk and obsession with compromise is what birthed the coming START regime which will manifestly compromise our defense against missiles which will now be subject to Russia's veto. Russia plays realpolitik and has Russia's, not US interests at heart. I am sickened, absolutely disgusted that both my US Senators embodying the Tennessee delegation Lamar Alexander and perhaps more shockingly, the more discernibly conservative Bob Corker went along. This agreement is beyond useless- with over 1200 ICBMs (inter-continental ballistic missiles) each, either Russia or America can destroy the human population of the earth several times over. We are no safer on that account. Russia has a tremendous advantage in battlefield (tactical) nuclear weapons that Barack Hussein Obama did not seek to include in this agreement and has not the slightest intention to counter, and most dangerous of all from the US perspective, is relinquishing our absolute right (and moral obligation) to deploy missile defense (such as anti-missile missiles) to protect our Western European allies should they be subjected to Iranian nuclear blackmail or even a loose nuke acquired by a terrorist topping a stolen Scud. I do not care that every living US Secretary of State endorsed this foolhardy enterprise- they are members of a church that must continue to justify budgets to perpetuate themselves as the fail over and over again to protect Americans as can be seen in all the custodial interference cases where an American child is taken by one parent to some hellhole abroad and the Department of State can do absolutely nothing about it. Ambassadors and State Department personnel forget who they represent and when they return to Foggy Bottom, they are not telling how they championed American interests or advanced initiatives favorable to the US but rather come back lobbying for whatever country to which they had been dispatched. In British foreign service, this is termed "going native" while at the Department of State it has become standard practice. Always remember that the Cold War was continually perpetuated by the sad sisters at State and was won (thankfully) by the right side (the US and our free allies) not by any diplomatic foray but by the Reagan Strategic Defense Initiative (often belittled as star wars) that threatened to spend the bad old Soviets beyond their means and render their aggressive missile arsenal useless. Our Department of State is a temple to the false god von Mitternich, deliberately forgetting that every velvet glove must be filled with an iron fist.

Just Stop START

When the first Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) was signed, the United States and the free nations of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization were at crossed sabers with the Soviet-dominated slave states of the Warsaw Pact. As the new START is deliberated in the United States Senate no such tension prevails, the Soviet Union is but a memory and many stalwarts from the old Warsaw Pact (Poland, the Czech Republic, the Baltic states, etc.) now sit with rather than against the United States- indeed making meaningful contribution to NATO. The new START is an outdated and useless effort from a bygone era where two superpowers jousted for control of the globe. There is no prospect whatsoever that Russia as it exists today and the United States will fight each other. The real menace today comes from outlier countries North Korea and Iran and their atomic weapons ambition (which highlights the need for a viable missile defense) or a nuclear weapon falling into the hands of a terrorist entity like al-Qaeda. All this recently negotiated mess of START does is prevent America from developing and deploying a robust missile defense for the homeland and for our allies. That and the fact that verification procedures are less binding on Russia make entering the treaty a strategic danger and an impediment to US national defense that responsible Senators must block. There is no political motive in thwarting yet another Obama agenda item that if adopted actually weakens the nation because if passed the arms limitation treaty is beyond the merely symbolic, the new START actually endangers the country and our allies.

Defund the Effort

No successor Congress in the United States is bound by the actions of a previous Congress. Just as Barack Hussein Obama's precipitous pledge to close the Guantanamo Bay prison camp remains unfulfilled because the US House and Senate would not appropriate the money to implement Obama's foolish promise, so too can "Don't ask- don't tell" be maintained by the incoming Republican majority in America's House of Representatives by refusing to pay for the implementation of any new policy. This is precisely the sort of gymnastics Democrats have pulled before on matters of national security such as trying to tie President Reagan's hands on aiding the anti-Communists in Nicaragua with the Boland Amendment. The new Congress coming in after January 4 can simply cut all funds for integrating open homosexuals into the ranks to preserve the good order and discipline of the United States military.

Another Maudlin Moment

Last evening, my father and I went down to our daylight basement to an area seldom traversed in our old home. The lack of foot traffic has kept the pile in this portion of the house more or less pristine. When I moved a table to allow dear old dad entry to the office, he pointed out a surprise. "Look," said my father, "Lily left paw prints on the floor". Indeed, I saw she had- Lily left her mark, those paw prints on our carpet, in our home, across our lives, and deep in our hearts. 

Gay Versus Civil

This morning I was catching the headlines on CBS before rapidly switching to substantive content on FOX News Sunday, when I heard Charles Osgood talk of "civil rights" leaders applauding the overturn of the "don't ask- don't tell" law by the US Senate. Traditional civil rights leaders have done exactly the opposite- they have in fact opposed the "gay rights" agenda as homosexual activists have deliberately conflated the two. Race is an immutable, God-given characteristic while homosexuality is the perversion you choose to perform on your partner. In Washington, DC, black pastors have stood just as forthrightly against homosexual marriage as they have for legitimate civil rights. It is the supreme insult to try and tie a sexual preference which is a desire for a physical act that need not be acted on with the color of one's skin. Will rapists be extended the "human right" of sexual imposition on those weaker than themselves? Will child molesters be given legal protections as NAMBLA (the North American Man Boy Love Association) has long advocated? To see someone as sanctimonious as US Senator Dick Durbin (Democrat, Illinois) wax moral about a sexual immorality should be absolutely appalling. Our leftist politicians are trying to supplant our Biblical morality with their libertine permissiveness and grab a "thank you" for it. The chaplains of the United States military will now have to censor the Lord's holy ordinance for the sake of political correctness. I would also hate to have to take the risk of a foxhole transfusion with an individual much more likely from his own behavior to carry hepatitis or HIV. Leave it to our leftist overlords to take a disgusting, disease-ridden lifestyle and call it a moral good that deserves special protection under law. The morally bankrupt are now cashing our checks.

Leaving Round Midnight

Gentle reader- please allow me to deviate from the daily economic and geopolitical course today to describe a grand companion and wonderful friend of the canine variety who passed from this mortal coil on my bed at midnight. Lily- the heart of our household has left us after a valiant struggle- showing her determination and preternatural vitality in a battle against liver cancer that her vets thought would claim her a month ago- not even showing any signs of illness until Wednesday night. Lily never allowed even a single cow to be rustled on her watch (though we actually have no cattle). While her fearsome visage protected us, we held off every grizzly attack (of course, any bear within a hundred miles is confined in a zoo). Lily brought humor, light, and life into our home and she is already sorely missed. Please permit this further departure from the normal discourse to continue with a heart-felt (and heartbroken poem): "Lily's Song"                                                                                        Lily's Song                                                                                                        Heaven- heaven knows that I love you                                                                                                      Heaven- heaven knows that I need you                                                                                                     Heaven knows I need you so                                                                                                                        Heaven- heaven knows that I want you                                                                                                    Heaven- heaven knows that I'll miss you                                                                                                  Heaven- heaven knows I don't want you to go 

Budget Breaker Busted

In a rare moment of clarity, the United States Congress has rejected the one trillion, two hundred billion dollar omnibus spending bill that has now been withdrawn by Harry Reid, who had previously seemingly never met a spending bill that he did not like. Reid likely still enjoys free spending with our money but saw the writing on the wall that the public simply would not now accept such insanely enormous numbers. If the bill had held under the magic trillion dollar mark, the bill would almost certainly have passed, then the additional three hundred billion more dollars could still have been stealthily squandered by attaching that spending to subsequent bills, but the incoming GOP majority in the US House would hopefully have rejected that tack. When the new Congress is finally sworn in, perhaps there will be an end to some of the spending shenanigans that have drowned America in a sea of red ink.

America Run Ragged

A compromise has passed in regard to extending the Bush tax cuts in the United States Senate, but it seems it is this nation's very foundation that has been compromised. Our original ethos has been attacked, our most deeply held values assailed (as in the mockery that is homosexual marriage and the attempt to foist gays serving openly on the US military), and we are being drowned in fiat currency that other nations may become loathe to accept. "Full faith and credit" used to carry weight but look at who is in the Oval Office and see how much faith you would place in Barack Hussein Obama. Would you want this neophyte representing you in a civil action? Would you trust him to run your bank? Would you want to buy a used car from someone reeking of insouciance? I do not think I would.

More Congressional Overkill

The United States House of Representative and Senate are aptly demonstrating why so many members lost their reelection bids and are soon to be departing. The Congress has taken a common sense extension of the Bush era tax cuts and turned into a pork-laden monstrosity, bloated with earmarks and committing America to more spending beyond the nation's means. A concept that stands on its own merit- not raising taxes in the teeth of a recession has been manipulated to fund pet projects and grow government beyond all sane proportion. I initially favored advancing a compromise with Obama, but that was before the bill was stuffed with extraneous and expensive (in fact cost prohibitive) nonsense. The bill may yet pass, but if it does Republicans who go along with it will have done a great disservice to the American people and will have betrayed their most loyal voters.

Snow Paralyzes Nashville

My hometown of Nashville, Tennessee had some accumulating snow over the weekend- by no means a North-country style blizzard but a mere two or three inches that ground Music City to a halt. Freezing precipitation in the forecast is good news for our grocery stores as they sell every jug of milk and loaf of bread (indeed most comestible items disappear although I have never witnessed a run on Brussels sprouts). My own parents who live less than a half mile away from a Harris Teeter brought in enough to feed twenty-five people as the flakes started to fly (thankfully omitting Brussels sprouts) but buying copious amounts of much else. What are a pair of senior citizens going to do with five gallons of dairy before it expires? Bathe in it- I suppose as it hovers around ten degrees Fahrenheit outside in the fifty-nine degree house that dear old pater is too cheap to warm comfortably. Another group that is overjoyed when Nashville has frozen precip is our wrecker service- with every tow truck being brought into rescue stranded motorists and assuring the tow drivers a vastly more prosperous Christmas (for them and their families). This driving into the ditch trend is caused by the unique mindsets of two types of driver: grannies (not sex specific or really so much age-related as there are young timid drivers as well) who slow to ten miles an hour in places where the posted speed limit is forty and the second group- the cowboys (once again not gender specific) who may make some small concession to the forming road ice and slow from sixty to a mere forty-five in the forty mph zone before spinning out of control or brushing one of the granny drivers off the pavement. You just have to love the winter in places this far South where a minor snowfall becomes a prolonged siege. 

Redeeming Family Honor

Mark Madoff offed himself by way of hanging. This may have been in part some form of atonement for the sins of his father. Of course the notoriety, the pressure, and a looming civil suit may have factored into Madoff's suicide. Other cultures have even more perverse ways of preserving so-called family honor. The honor killings (almost exclusively) of females in the Middle East spring rapidly to mind and these horrific misogynistic offences even prevail far from Arab nations in homes where a strict interpretation of Islam is practiced as far away as England and as far afield as the US state of Texas where a Muslim cab driver murdered his own two daughters for becoming too Westernized. In any event, no honor is restored, no cleansing of family name accrues; only more lives are lost. There is no redemption in hanging by a dog leash and absolutely no honor in honor killing.

No Noble Notions

My family watched The Chronicles of Narnia last night having seen the competing Jimmy Stewart holiday movie forty or so times. One aspect of the movie (and the C.S. Lewis book on which it was based) is the glorification of combat. From the age of the Crusades, mortal engagement for the greater glory of God was elevated, with knights with grand heraldry and shining panoply being portrayed heroically. Not withstanding that after the initial success of the First Crusade because of the sort of surprise aspect of it- that the Muslims won all the rest with some like the infamous Children's Crusade not even making it off the continent of Europe  (not to mention the utter brutality that these knights of Christendom exhibited toward Muslims and Jews including defenseless women and children). Paeans to the good fight by James Fenimore Cooper spawned Mark Twain's derision with the Missourian, who had seen death in battle, figuratively eviscerating such high-minded characterizations of organized murder. One group in particular still venerates death and killing as the highest honor and that is the jihadist with martyrdom as that which is to be sought- a high religious aspiration. While we were watching the fiction of Narnia in the comfort of snowy middle America, some poor deluded practitioner of the religion of peace was meeting his maker detonating himself as a suicide bomb across the water in heretofore peaceful idyllic winter wonderland Sweden. Sane people must always and forever abandon the idea of glorious sacrifice, while dying for one's country may sometimes be necessary and courage in defending liberty should always be recognized, the loss of life should never be cast in a shiny wrapper.

Another Troubling Nation

Venezuela under the misrule of Hugo Chavez finds herself both troubled and increasingly a thorn in the side of the United States. Hugo Chavez who evidently possesses Stalinist aspirations has made himself essentially ruler for life in rigged election after election deemed clean by useless international monitors including former US President Jimmy Carter. Chavez has nationalized many industries, and despite having vast oil reserves among the nationalized resources, most Venezuelans continue to live in poverty. The murder rate is astoundingly high, rivaling Mexico as this hemisphere's murder capital. Good government and honest policing are nonexistent. And now according to recent reports, Venezuela will host Iranian ground to ground missiles capable of hitting the United States. America should not allow this, insisting that the Monroe Doctrine be enforced against Iranian interference in Latin America. The US still has the power to blunt Iran's overtures in the Americas, but Barack Husein Obama will never use it- making it a fait accompli that Chavez will increase his power and that the dangerous influence of Iran will only grow.

London Punks' Pique

Riots ravaged London with Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne, actually having his vehicle attacked, and he and his bride being under physical threat from a mob evocative of the one that stormed the Bastille awhile back across the Channel. These street thugs were not starving subjects rebelling against the hanging of one of their own for poaching a royal hart. These were college youth angry at having to pay for a greater portion of the education that they are receiving. This anarchy rocking England to her core is emanating from privileged young people utterly spoiled by their own overweening sense of entitlement. Can you fathom how powerful the United Kingdom would be today if this kind of zeal was exhibited after the 7/7 outrage with equal numbers of patriotic youth rushing to recruiting offices to join Her Majesty's Forces? This fervor properly directed could strengthen Britain but as it is being exhibited now may be that nation's undoing. 

"Just One Puff"

I will preface these thoughts by saying I do not smoke; I can not stand exposure to cigarette smoking, and that close relations have suffered and even died from the prolonged use of tobacco. The Surgeon General of the United States now contends that smoking even one cigarette increases one's chance of dying. Balderdash, bovine scatology, and utter nonsense- these substances are no doubt hazardous but exaggerating their danger beyond all proportion just makes the anti-smoking crusader that much less credible. If they were indeed such deadly instruments, ban them outright immediately. Do not pussyfoot with restrictions on where they can be smoked and high taxes; a complete prohibition is the only tack logically in order if they are such poison- except of course that tobacco could not conceivably be as toxic as it is now portrayed or just about all of us would already be dead. 

Hemisphere's Saddest Country

The Western hemisphere has been blessed almost exclusively with nations enjoying relative peace and prosperity- the glaring exception being of course Haiti. Beset for generations with leaders who were kleptocrats, incompetent, or both, Haiti has just gone though an election, conducted in the midst of a cholera outbreak, blamed on United Nation personnel ostensibly there to help after an earthquake caused the most fatalities in this half of the globe in the modern era. After surviving the ravages of the Duvalier family with both Papa and Baby Doc notably vicious and corrupt, the country had the misfortune of turning to a defrocked priest who now preached the gospel of Karl Marx to run it. He was replaced by a routinely incompetent bureaucrat who left the administration of Haiti to the United Nations as violence was beginning to fill the power vacuum. Now a runoff election excluding a widely popular candidate will take place to see who has the onerous burden of filling the leadership void and trying to drag that bedraggled nation from the gates of hell. Unfortunately no matter who leads, Haiti will certainly remain an aid-dependent basket case ward of the more developed states.

Demagogue Versus Democrats

President Barack Hussein Obama, a constant practitioner of divide and conquer domestically, now faces resistance from his own hard Left base in attempting to extend many of the last President Bush's tax cuts and modify the reborn inheritance tax from 55% on the first dollar after $1,000,000 inherited to 35% after the first $5,000,000 per spouse. There is no death tax this year prompting many affluent elders to try to shuffle off this mortal coil before the end of December. What is amazing to witness is the ire of House and Senate Democrats against successful Americans. These Democrat power elite did not reserve their wrath for the mad ayatollahs of Iran- they hardly mention them or for the Stalinist aggressors of North Korea, Congressional Dems show no particular concern for them, but let a job creator keep some of what he has earned, and the Democrats in Washington explode. Let the wealthy keep what they have sweat blood to acquire, permit their children to maintain family businesses that they have operated for generations- no way, the Democrats want a death tax to kick in that will force the family to liquidate to pay the tax burden, putting that many more Americans out of work as Mom and Pop shops sell out and family farms shut down to pay the tax man. The Democrats in D.C. are not alarmed by real existential enemies of America, but see the backbone of American job creation as the one true enemy. Our socialist overlords are opponents today of everything that gave the USA her greatness.  

Obama Gives In

Has Barack Hussein Obama seen the light and turned away from wild-eyed radicalism and finally gotten down to the serious business of governance? Did his compromise on extending the Bush-era tax rates signal that Obama is willing to make the concessions necessary to save the country? Or did Obama merely acquiesce because he knew how badly he was going to lose? The Bill Ayers wing of the Democratic Party, the proverbial bomb throwing socialists are up in arms- saying their President "caved" to the Republicans. This is the group so bound in class envy that they allow atmospherics to overwhelm reality. The Leftists comprising the heart of the Democrats in the Congress are so bent on class warfare that they refuse to address the seemingly intractable real world problems and denounce the President of their own party when he makes some small steps that are right for the nation. Did the GOP win in the bargain? Did Barack Hussein Obama's power base suffer a defeat? Who cares so long as what they did will ultimately be of benefit to the US economy? 

Permanent Employment Crisis

Ben Bernanke appeared on Sixty Minutes last night and just as when his predecessor Alan Greenspan spoke, the world listened. Bernanke was less than sanguine that America's employment situation would improve any time soon. Clearly, the Federal Reserve Chairman remains much more concerned with what happens to his friends on Wall Street than with the day to day struggle on Main Street. And this is the problem for all the jiggering with monetary policy by the Fed and the bailouts and stimulus squandering by the Congress and the executive branch. Every day citizens have nothing to show, have gained nothing by in large after trillions (an enormous and heretofore almost inconceivable sum) have been spent. Jobless Americans in the millions have become a constant. And as long as the public accepts mendacity and mediocrity from the political class and the so-called elites, near ten percent unemployment (with joblessness counting those who are underemployed and those who have given up looking actually much higher) is bound to continue. We need more than the sunny optimism that Ronald Reagan was noted for, but the last great President was no Pollyanna but a steady-handed leader who had a concrete plan to restart the Carter-stalled US economic engine. Any prescription for growing the US out of recession should now involve a lower not higher capital gains tax and lower marginal tax rates or some incarnation of the "fair" or flat tax at a rate not exceeding the low twenty percents at the highest. So long as a committed redistributionist remains at the White House, these growth measures will never happen. 

America's Reluctant Warrior

Being slow to anger is an admirable characteristic that the United States has consistently demonstrated since Woodrow Wilson was so hesitant to enter the First World War. Once roused though the angry giant of America demonstrated a ferocity and commitment unprecedented in the history of nations and people at war until Harry Truman fought for stasis rather than victory in the Korean Conflict and LBJ refused to do all that was necessary to win in Vietnam leaving Nixon with peace with honor and "Vietnamization" with the public already too polarized to seek a clear win. So it may be a Democrat trait since the end of World War II not to fully invest in the notion of victory because that of course means the very politically incorrect initiation of total war. Barack Hussein Obama is aptly illustrating lack of will in Afghanistan where he landed on a previously secret mission to bolster troop morale but did not even bother to meet his allied Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai while on the ground there. Casualty figures in that conflict have skyrocketed for American forces there and it was announced that more US troops have died there in 2010 than in the entire time the last President Bush had conducted the fighting there from 2001 through 2008. This tragedy is so lamentable because it was so easily avoidable. It should have been easily predictable that US forces would sustain huge losses when mission tempo was increased under the most restrictive rules of engagement Americans have ever been forced to fight under (I in fact said it was bound to happen on this Despot forum). Placing large numbers of troops in harm's way and then binding their hands guarantees losses. The kind of restraint Obama has forced on our combat forces is not laudable. Seventeen thousand more Americans being sent over there without easing the rules of engagement are just that much more cannon fodder (or more literally IED-fodder). I have a few suggestions to win in Afghanistan that will not be implement by President Obama because victory is not his declared objective- withdrawal is with "Afghanization" replacing "Vietnamization" as the Pentagon buzzword. To win, America has to be ruthless. If someone is caught placing or detonating a charge, he should not be read his rights and arrested, he should be seen as an illegal combatant operating out of mufti and summarily executed. If a US soldier or Marine is killed, the area should be demolished after a seventy-two hour notice to evacuate has been issued. If a suicide bomber strikes, his family home should be bulldozed and his loved ones dispossessed. In areas of concentrated or heavy resistance, artillery and air power should be brought in and overwhelming force must be used. If these tactics are employed, Afghanistan is still winnable for America, and not using them amounts to negligent homicide against our own forces.

Such Sorry Spectacle

The Democrats in the United States House of Representatives (many sitting as lame ducks soon to be replaced) demeaned the institution of the Congress by giving an ovation to disgraced tax cheat Charles Rangel as he was censured for activity that could  lead lesser lights like us- we mere citizen-tax payers to a cell in a Federal prison. This is the second similar instance of collective shame in my mind for this august body's Democrat members- evocative for me at least of the applause they and their staffers offered to Gerry Studds when he "came out" as a "proud" homosexual after he was caught engaged in sexual relations with an underage male page. What is there to cheer about criminal conduct in elected office unless those doing the cheering are thick as thieves? 

Congressional Truth Teller

An honest US Representative may be seen as a rarity. A frank Congressman may be as scarce as a unicorn. John Boehner no doubt yesterday told it like it is as regards the cheap political games and public relations machinations of the Democrats in regard to allowing taxes to rise across the board. Boehner summed it up succinctly, marvelously- "chicken crap"- he called it and after writing several million words and with determined consideration, I could not have said it any better myself, particularly in light of the disappointing unemployment figures which showed only thirty-nine thousand new jobs, far less than the number necessary to draw us out of our seemingly endless job crisis or signal an end to the morass of recession. Economic uncertainty feeds instability and prevents private sector business from taking its traditional role to guide the nation back onto the path to prosperity. Since when did raising any one's taxes in the teeth of a recession sound like a good idea?

Penury of Reason

Our Founding Fathers would look upon the docile sheep of this country today with utter and absolute contempt. They would never believe that Americans would line up to be manhandled by government flunkies  (the TSA) and worse, would allow handicapped with prosthetics, their own wives, and their children to be molested. The generation that wrested this nation from England in blood and fire could never contemplate how a minuscule handful of atheists could succeed in having religious symbols, prayer in school, and public worship banished from the public square particularly around the coming Christmas holiday. The idea of homosexuals flaunting perversion openly and in "pride parades" would having provoked revulsion and outrage back when America had saner generations, and they surely would never have understood how homosexuals would be permitted in the military. What is there to celebrate about a lifestyle that is so filthy and promiscuous that it spreads HIV and hepatitis among those who practice it? Earlier citizens went armed knowing that the unarmed were automatically subjects and would never have accepted gun control measures that hearten criminals and make the law-abiding less safe. Back when sanity prevailed, Americans would never have tolerated zero tolerance in schools where a seven year old sketching a weapon or a high school girl taking a Midol would result in detention, suspension, and even being sent to an alternative school. Nor would Americans in days of past glory have countenanced a public education system so thoroughly dominated by so-called educator unions. Any museum featuring Christ being soaked in urine or covered with ants would have been burned to the ground in days when men were men. The notion of race extortion would never have been accepted and a shakedown like Pigford II would surely have been blocked. Giving restitution of more than a billion dollars to more than eighty thousand alleged black farmers when the actual number of black farmers peaked at below thirty-five thousand defies logic and squanders more money that the Federal government simply does not have. Our late great patriots would never have countenanced being robbed and demeaned by government- that is why they staged their Revolution!

"Government Is Watching"

ABC's Good Morning America happily chirped that "government is watching" today in regard to the cancellation of an expensive program that the United States Department of Transportation was launching to change signs with street names from all capital letters to first letter capitalized and the rest in small letters. The Federal scheme had also involved changing the height of letters from four to six inches but the ABC report did not mention that. Many wholeheartedly agree that "government is watching" and increasing its intrusiveness every day and those with any sense are none too happy about that. Even the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is about to be given broad new sweeping powers with the coming passage of the Food Safety Act which will inevitably raise food costs as producers compliance costs rise and will put smaller producers who can neither absorb nor pass on the increased cost out of business. You need not be paranoid to be concerned with government overreach in everything from expanding FDA powers to the coming "net neutrality regulations". I am in no way sanguine about government's helpful hand in our health care either. "We are from the government and are here to help" may become the most feared words to hear as bureaucrats come to complicate our lives.

Leaving Fool's Paradise

No sane person looks forward to a third world war, but solely for the sake of argument, let us assume World War III is inevitable. Would you not rather embark upon the cataclysm with eyes wide open than blissfully unaware? Some might contend we are already involved in World War III with the clash of civilizations extant between the West and Islam. This is indeed a plausible contention and this type of fight might involve brush fire conflicts as we are already engaged in- Iraq which may be winding down, Afghanistan where combat is worse than ever, Yemen, where America's covert involvement has been chronicled by Wikileaks, and a greater involvement in the failed-state Somalia where the United States already had a bloody and unsuccessful adventure in what started as a humanitarian effort. This clash of civilizations will likely continue to involve sporadic terror attacks against the West that will be costly in terms of casualties and the security precautions that they will necessitate. This type of war would be tragic and enduring but life would go on unchanged for most unless the terrorists acquired and used some weapon of mass destruction in a densely populated urban center, causing the West to initiate a disproportionate response that could conceivably even involve an attack on Islam's holiest sites in Saudi Arabia which (once again confirmed in the recent Wikileak release) has sponsored and paid for so much of the terror directed against the West. The second possible scenario for global conflagration is equally plausible with Iran attempting or succeeding in an atomic attack on Israel or engaging in nuclear blackmail against the Persian Gulf states. Israel would react in the first instance with her own nuclear arsenal and obliterate Iran while in the case of atomic extortion against the Sunni states, the West would feel duty bound to protect the source of most of their petroleum. With either possibility involving Iran, the blood shed would be catastrophic but in the Sunni-Shia rift, strange bedfellows would emerge, with Western forces fighting with rather than against the Taliban and perhaps even elements of al-Qaeda who of course are Sunni Wahhabists and have destroying the Shia, who they consider to be apostate, as one of their highest objectives. The next possible global war scenario was mentioned yesterday on this forum and encompasses the Koreas. This action could drag in Red China which could also initiate a world conflict by trying to swallow Formosa. As Red China climbs to superpower status, the world must remember that the elite in power today are the perpetrators of the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989 and still despise our openness and freedom. The two factors that militate against war with China are China's own reliance on the West as the market for the goods that they produce (that the consuming West and Japan have become Red China's economic bulwark) and the struggle they share against Islamic extremism as we have seen in China's fight against the Uighurs in Xinjiang. The unified front of the West and the Chinese Communists against world jihad might ironically make a third world war less likely. In any event, it will be better to know what to expect, to wage the conflict with full knowledge of the horrors bound to come rather than to fall blindly into World War III. 

Forcing America's Hand

God knows Barack Hussein Obama does not want another war. Obama certainly did not wish to inherit the two active fighting fronts in Afghanistan and Iraq that America was already in when he came into office, but there was nothing he could do about that beyond withdrawing as quickly as possible without concern for whether strategic objectives have been reached and certainly without achieving victory (even dismissing the notion of "victory" being possible).  Arriving in the Oval Office with a peacenik mindset, Obama never contemplated a third war with active hostilities resuming between the Koreas. The US national security team did not even fathom the prospect that a power vacuum emerging in North Korea would set off a leadership struggle there that would kindle one more active shooting war. This new threat is more grave than the nuclear terror posed by North Korea alone- it also could provoke rising superpower Red China. Every assurance has been transmitted to China that South Korean-US maneuvers now ongoing are no threat to the People's Republic, but China does not accept such assurances on face value and still harbors every intention of at some point unifying the mainland with irredentist Taiwan. The Communist Chinese are watching very carefully for any sign of American weakness vis-a-vis our allies and just saw South Korea flinch by canceling or postponing an artillery exercise on Yeonpyeong Island that was so recently barraged by North Korea. Contrary to demonstrating that America and her allies are reasonable and mean the evil doers no harm, this lack of resolve conveys the opposite message- that the Obama regime is weak, lacks the will to stand with allies, and ultimately looks to appease the surviving members of the Axis of Evil (North Korea and Iran). It should be apparent to even the most casual observer that as the wiki-leak confirms, the hand of Red China is deeply implicated in both Iran's nuclear rise and North Korea's ongoing belligerence. At some point though, perhaps through miscalculation, North Korean aggression may be so bellicose that it forces the United States to act, no matter what kind of misleader we have in the White House. And that may be how World War III starts, not with a roar but with an Obama whimper. 

Our Heedless Leader

The President of the United States ran under the slogan of "hope and change", but this particular ruler is inflexible and doctrinaire. Barack Hussein Obama is an agent of only one form of change- advocacy for radical socialism which happens to be contrary to America's founding ethos and his rigid refusal to compromise away from redistributionist schemes is becoming the primary impediment to sustained economic recovery. Obama will not countenance extending the Bush era tax cuts on the highest earners, even though these earners tend to be the largest private sector job creators. A jihad on job creation, a war on the free markets is no way to end the nation's longest ever recession. Private sector employers do not expand in the face of uncertainty and higher taxes certainly do not grow Subchapter S corporations where business earnings are taxed as individual income. These Subchapter S corporations have traditionally comprised the majority of US business startups and have also typically done most of America's hiring. Now government entities are doing most of the hiring as America becomes mired in a socialist tragedy- awaiting our inevitable day of reckoning a la Greece or Ireland. As circumstances evolve, our "change" President will remain as unflinching as ever in seeking to impose a Fabian socialist or even Marxist agenda. And no matter the rhetoric, Barack Hussein Obama has no desire to prevent this and every intention of imposing his vision of Amerika.

America Cries Foul

As much of the globe has already heard, United States President Barack Hussein Obama, presumably the leader of the free world, sustained a serious enough injury to require a dozen stitches during a pickup basketball game when he smashed into a flying elbow (and no- six-foot, seven-inch Republican US Senator John Thune did not deliver said elbow). No political rival was near the court and the whack was evidently pure accident. This incident is not the first time or even first time in recent Presidencies where a US chief executive was hurt. George W. Bush fell while mountain biking and was somewhat torn up. (As an aside, Bush was also incidentally nearly felled by a pretzel). Gerald Rudolph Ford was roughed up on the ski slopes (which lesser politicians including former entertainer and then sitting California US GOP House member Sonny Bono and political aspirant Michael Kennedy sadly actually died on) which is why recent Presidents may have avoided riding up the lifts. Teddy Roosevelt was such a devotee of the manly art of pugilism that he sparred against a boxing champion at the White House and was so badly mauled that he suffered permanent injuries. Even if you think Obama is doing a worse job in the Oval Office than a literal Democrat donkey, you will agree that for safety's sake, he should avoid competitive basketball and stick to more sedate pursuits on the greens or perhaps take up a more cerebral game like chess. Anyway, the split lip now sewn back together may help President Obama cut back on (his other genius pursuit) smoking for a few days.

No Vexing Issues

President Barack Hussein Obama and his family enjoyed an untroubled Thanksgiving feast yesterday with his bride Michelle even granting the American people permission to enjoy pie for the occasion. Such magnanimity,  such grace and beneficence to deign her subjects may by royal warrant, no less, eat cake (no that would have been someone else- perhaps a French speaker with an Austrian accent way back in the 1790s)- Michelle did say "pie" not "cake". Why should little matters like war or economic collapse interfere with a celebratory dinner or a trip to Spain or a golf match for that matter? Barack Hussein Obama and clan have taught us mere citizens a valuable lesson in how to prioritize and value the really significant things in life. 

Begrudging Israel's Existence

Just as in the cowardice evinced in the Korea situation, evil marches on in the assault on Israel's very existence underway at the United Nations. There have always been large majorities against the Jewish state in recent years in international forums, with Arab states, Muslim nations, and despotic regimes always ready to condemn Israel. Only the fair mindedness of the American people, that America was just and had Israel's back, and possessed the power of veto in the UN Security Council kept anti-Israel motions at bay. Unfortunately for the cause of justice and tragically for Israel, Barack Hussein Obama no longer considers Israel to be worthy of US protection and any American support for Israel now hinges on the Jewish state making territorial compromises that imperil Israel's very existence. Notwithstanding the fact, that nowhere in the Palestinian leadership is there an arbiter that wants peace or even accepts Israel remaining as a Jewish state, with America paying no heed to continued Palestinian incitement and violence, Israel is expected to return to pre-1967 War suicide borders and abandon control of the Jewish people's holiest sites. Jews have always looked to the Kotel, also known as the Wailing Wall, and the last physical vestige of the Temple, as the center of religious practice. The words "next year in Jerusalem" were a fervent hope and sacred prayer- not "next year in Crown Heights" or "next year in Scarsdale"- the very heart of Judaism can not be traded away for hollow Obama assurances or even F-35 advanced strike fighter jets. Just look at the way Obama has shied away from commitments to South Korea after the Chenoan sinking and the recent artillery barrage. If Obama will not lift a finger after fifty allies are murdered in a nation where twenty-eight thousand US troops are already on the ground, Israel must recognize that America will never assure the security of the Jewish state. Benjamin Netanyahu must simply say no to Hillary Clinton and Barack Hussein Obama and not give away the strategic depth Israel requires for future survival.

Matter of Maturity

I have conspicuously avoided facile sports analogies on this forum with a very occasional reference to one contest or another essentially esoteric to Americans. But an analogy about a particular quarterback, the leader of his team and the leader of our nation springs to mind. I am a Nashvillian and as such am offered inescapable coverage of the Tennessee Titan football team for which I grudgingly admit I root. Of late, there has been reportage ad nauseum concerning Vince Young who sustained a thumb injury in the last game. Vince Young is a tremendous athlete who gives the Titans the best chance to win of anyone at his crucial position with his strong arm and great speed of any quarterback in the league except perhaps disgusting "dog fighter" Micheal Vick. But while Vince Young has reveled in success (including being the hero of his national championship team at the University of Texas), he has not handled adversity encountered on the professional football field well. The last time Young sustained a serious on-field injury, there were fears he was in such a personal crisis he might harm himself or even attempt to take his own life. Young basked in fan adulation but was crushed by boos that he could not understand receiving after trying so hard and playing through less serious injury. It is not in enjoying success that maturity is measured but in coping with inevitable setbacks in any realm of life. Loss and failure weigh heavy on this young gladiator who could not accept his coach was only acting in his best long-term interest by not putting him back in the game where a further injury sustained to his thumb could have become unrecoverable, even with surgery. Coach Jeff Fisher did not allow  Young to return to the game out of love and concern. In no way was Fisher punishing Young. This was a sage elder trying to direct a less experienced charge, but in this case, the fledgling  would not listen. In America, we have a young President, brash and bold and filled with confidence who is so possessed of self-certitude that he has become invincible to logic and oblivious to reason and only pays lip service to the notion of defending America's allies as our enemies know all too well (as in the Korean crisis).  How one overcomes adversity and being willing to listen to those who have seen more of life are yardsticks of maturity where both Young and Obama seem wanting. Both Barack Hussein Obama and Vince Young believe they are bigger than that which they actually represent. 

The Koreas Ignite

A new Korean conflagration may be in the offing as the last Stalinist regime on earth smells the weakness brought forth by the pronounced lack of will in the White House. Active fighting has flared between the two Koreas who since the 1950s have coexisted with an armistice but no peace treaty. This extremely dangerous resumption of hostilities was predicated no doubt by the succession struggle in North Korea, but make no mistake- the North Koreans took Barack Hussein Obama's docility into consideration before embarking on their deadly path. This conflict with World War III potential would not have started had not Pyongyang sensed America's passivity under our crypto-Marxist leader who could not even conclude a trade agreement successfully with South Korea. When the United States is saddled with weak-kneed leadership with a pronounced lack of resolve, the globe is at greater hazard.

More Media Madness

Last night's NBC evening newscast featured more idiocy issuing forth from Lester Holt who was broadcasting from Afghanistan. Mr. Holt casually stated that the "war on terror started in Afghanistan", evidently forgetting the USS Cole outrage in the waters off Yemen and September 11, 2001 when al-Qaeda visited Manhattan. The big wet kiss to the Afghan atavists continued on the telecast with Holt dining in the home of a baker who had fought the Russians and fled but then recently returned to Kabul with his family from his sanctuary in Iran. This mujahid was just as friendly and welcoming as your doughnut man down the street in Anytown, Middle America in sharing the bounty of the Eid festivities. No effort was made to portray the other face of the holiday involving the sacrifice of goats, sheep, cattle, and even camels- that was all sanitized, kept from view of the American audience as part of the dinosaur media conspiratorial effort to whitewash the more brutal aspects of this "religion of peace". The US homeland must not be alarmed that butchers prevail in the faith that brought jihad across the globe. Then the NBC farce from the fighting front went on with Richard Engel displaying his utter lack of knowledge of war-fighting by speculating on a point man "stepping on an IED". Any reporter with the slightest military acumen would know the difference between a contact-triggered land mine and a remote-detonated bomb, the type of which is claiming most of the US casualties in Afghanistan, but evidently Engel does not. Where are the days when so-called war correspondents knew the rudiments of the combat about which they attempt to report? The main stream media once again gets it offensively wrong, acts as press agents for people who want to kill us, and has only the vaguest knowledge of military terms of art, but what else would you expect? This kind of misreporting is par for the course on ABC, CBS, NBC, and in the New York Times. At least on FOX, Oliver North occasionally appears to clear up the muddle. If truth prevailed, at least the American people would learn who and what we are fighting.

Pillar to Post

Some think a sea change occurred in the recent US elections. I am in no way so optimistic. The Democratic caucus has been distilled, lost almost all its moderates (with a literal handful of exceptions including former Tennessee Vol and Washington Redskin quarterback Heath Shuler, now a US Representative from North Carolina and the presumptive leader of the dying Blue Dogs), and now ranges from pure socialist to quite radical. The GOP retained a number of Republicans in name only (RINO) with the Alaska US Senate race still being contested. The number of conservative firebrands and tea party candidates that won their races and are due to be sworn is actually relatively small, with most Republicans in office suffering from Lindsey Graham syndrome, where they do not accept the premise that most Americans want the Obama agenda blocked outright but still believe that Republicans can and must work with Barack Hussein Obama for the good of the nation with widely hated schemes like Obama care and cap and trade only needing a little tinkering- some adjustment on the margins. Those RINOs do not recognize that the election results were any sort of seismic shift and certainly not any sort of quiet revolution. These go along to get along Republicans need to go- they need to be voted out in large numbers in 2012 GOP primaries because as long as they are in office, they will seek common cause with those dragging America into socialism.

Not Sorry Charlie

I have to ascribe some cynical motives to proceedings in the United States House of Representatives regarding Charlie Rangel. First, his years of misconduct were ignored with no hearing taking place before the Ethics Committee until after he had safely won reelection. Then, this slick who saddled the American tax payer with onerous burdens only receives censure for ignoring the Federal Tax law he imposed on the rest of us but never quite fully complied with- if you were as cavalier about your income tax as Congressman Rangel had been, you would be in a Federal prison- not retaining a seat in the august body of the US House. One more aspect of the timing, with the hearing finally taking place before the newly-elected Republican majority in the House is sworn in, is that the toughest sanction against Rangel of expulsion was taken off the table, so the lame duck Democrats protect their own yet again. And if you think that censure would be the end of Rangel's career with Harlem voters, guess again. The only constraint the eighty year old fast talker has about being perpetually reelected is his health. The Rangel ethics scandal is just one more way that he and his Democrat party can give the heartland the middle finger.

War With Deadline

The political echelon of the Obama administration has declared that the war in Afghanistan will end in 2014. The Pentagon struck with a touch of realism terms the date "aspirational". War can not be successfully waged (with a goal of victory) on some artificial, politically-dictated timeline. Total war between a nuclear state and a non-nuclear state or non-state actor can be ended after a grim but sincere ultimatum- "we will subject you to atomic obliteration" at some date certain "if you do not cease hostilities, surrender some block of territory, etc." But that iron-fisted position is far from where the Obama administration is or wishes to take us. Our war-fighting is just the opposite- waging war under the most restrictive rules of engagement US forces have ever been forced to fight under, causing unnecessary American casualties, and ironically Afghan deaths as well as the use of disproportionate force by NATO troops would convey our seriousness and determination and cause the Taliban to capitulate quickly. We have the military means and destructive apparatus to subdue our enemies at much less risk to our own forces but our cowardice of political-correctness forbids US forces from using them even though ultimately their use would facilitate "victory" (which remember is a term in the context of Afghanistan that Barack Hussein Obama refuses to use). In 2014, no matter who is in the White House, combat will still be raging in Afghanistan. If Obama is in office, America will be bled white by attrition, but if a serious leader from another party sits in the Oval Office, the gloves may be removed that have been constraining our effort to win and we may be well on the path to vanquishing the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

Penalize Job Creators

Virtually all private sector jobs are created by those with taxable incomes of more than a couple hundred thousand dollars. Those who make less are highly unlikely to be capable of much hiring. If the Bush tax cuts are allowed to expire, those who could grow the economy the most will obviously have their taxes go up which will diminish their capacity to create new jobs. If Barack Hussein Obama permits the tax cuts to lapse (which is effectively a tax increase of course in the teeth of a recession), social justice and fairness will not have been served, new entrepreneurship is sure to suffer, and less new employment is bound to follow. If Team Obama wanted real stimulus, they would lower the marginal Federal income tax rates, as both John Kennedy and Ronald Reagan did. The American public would be amazed at the increase in the rate of hiring that would ensue if his one reasonable measure that would free up capital was take. But Obama and the socialist cabal around him do not seek and will never permit that.

Inadmirable Leadership Trait

The best officers always advance before their men. Widely loved generals like Omar Bradley eschewed the officers' mess and ate the same rations as lowly buck privates- dining beside the enlisted men. In the First World War, Douglas MacArthur charged alongside his troops but neither carried a gun nor donned a helmet because he was convicted of the notion that God's destiny for him did not include a German bullet or shell. The willingness to subject oneself to the same risk and degradation as soldiers of the lowest ranks is to be commended. Today's senior officers and certainly the politicians of this era do not share this trait. The generals tend to stay in headquarters miles from the fighting- some remaining in Florida to wage war in Afghanistan and Iraq (where officially the US combat role has ended- except that Americans still fight there). Our elected leaders conduct their affairs even more shamefully- they specifically exclude themselves from law that they foist on the rest of us. That is why I am certain that President Obama will not endure the indignity of having his wife and daughters manhandled to prove he is "one of us" to calm the growing anti-TSA insurrection. Obama would not stoop that low- he is not an average American and would under no circumstances pretend to be. Unlike MacArthur who was God's supplicant in leading men, Obama looks to the beaming visage in the mirror and asks what should I do next. That is a problem encountered in governance since the days of ancient Rome where certain emperors proclaimed themselves as living gods. They did not spark confidence in their publics, nor were they loved. This style of ruling will never fly for very long in the American republic.

America's Flying Public

The passengers of airlines are righteously indignant about being subjected to the type of search normally performed in prisons on convicted felons just to retain the right to board a commercial flight. Even the pilot and crew are subjected to these radiation-emitting scans or grossly intrusive pat downs. This is nonsense- if the pilot who happens to possess the ability to crash the plane on a whim also happens to have a can of now prohibited soda- who cares? Our Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is bizarre. If President Barack Hussein Obama wishes to mollify the public against this offensive nonsense, he should subject himself and his wife and two daughters to the same procedure on live television. The cameras need not broadcast the X-ray scan results but merely have the whole Obama clan go through a live and active "naked" screening as we are now required to do if we need to fly. Obama and family should then volunteer for the additional grope screen those who opt out of the scanner must endure. When Obama is willing to do that (as he may be on his own behalf), and when he is willing to have his daughters broadcast undergoing the same procedures (which he would never permit), then the flying public should quit its carping. Until then, Americans have every right, indeed a sacred obligation to squawk. 

Beware: Ireland Falling

Ireland was termed an economic miracle just a few short years ago. This was true as Ireland was booming and this new found prosperity brought ever more generous government benefits. The problem was with each share the abundance program, private and corporate wealth was necessarily diminished to pay for some supposed greater public good. Then suddenly and subtly, the recently gained good times began to evaporate. The Irish are finding as Greece found, that government simply can not provide everything because tax payers can not afford it. Lyndon B. Johnson proved America could not enjoy both guns and butter. The problem of Greece remains deeper and broader than was anticipated. Barack Hussein Obama is oblivious to these lessons and spends full speed ahead while Ireland which has done without the burden of paying much for her own defense, can now not even now afford butter.

Netanyahu Say "No"

Either Israel is wholly legitimate as ordained by God or does not belong on the map. The Balfour Declaration is a crowning legal touch as are deeds to property purchased by Jews since before the 1948 creation of the Jewish State along with proofs of Jewish purchase of pieces of land since then, but make no mistake- the word of the Lord is the ultimate authority. Israel can not dance to the tune Obama is playing and claim to be an independent nation. Benyamin Netanyahu must assert ancient and historical Jewish rights and Biblical prerogatives or they will be lost in the short term of one failed American Presidency. President Barack Hussein Obama wishes to make his mark in the Middle East over the vanquished corpse of the Jewish State. Obama's unGodly behavior here is not enlightened, it is simply evil. If Israel accepts even a modest three month freeze on Jewish rights, she is becoming an American vassal state and a wholly owned entity of Team Obama, a cadre that does not have the best interests or even the survival of the Jewish State at heart. 

Carving Up Israel

Barack Hussein Obama is determined to resolve the Israel problem once and for all to cure all the ills of the Middle East and bring the age of peace to the world. Obama is convinced that a small number of Jews living on the land promised them by God are the source of all the globe's dissension. If only those obdurate Jews are brought to answer, then Messiah Obama will in his mind have earned that unwarranted Nobel Peace Prize and that Islamists thus appeased will abandon jihad and no more violence will be brought forth from the Islamic realm. First, there is no prospect of reasonable Israeli concessions bringing peace as Israel has no arbiter on the Palestinian side actually willing to countenance a "Jewish" state. All the Israeli territorial concessions will render is a Jewish state that is indefensible and easier for the Jihadists to digest. Of course, PA leader Abbas will accept whatever Israeli give aways that the Obama administration is able to force as part of the gradual destruction of the Jewish enemy first propounded by Arafat as "the Plan of Stages", but the ultimate goal will remain the removal of the Jewish presence in the Holy Land. Then there is Hamas which is much more popular than the Palestinian Authority amongst the Palestinian people who reject negotiation and favor the use of all out force to push the Jews into the sea over the more subtle but no less deadly "Plan of Stages". No peace or lasting accommodation is possible with these genocidal people. No withdrawal of Jews will ever satisfy them unless it is completely from the region. All this talk of a ninety day freeze on Jewish construction deliberately misses the point of who and what is blocking peace. It is not the construction of a few domiciles for Jews anywhere (the blocking of which is racist) but an utter rejection by the Palestinian leadership of having Jews as neighbors. Until the Arabs are willing to accept Jews as equals- not dhimmi (or corpses), there will never be true or lasting peace in the Middle East. This effort by Obama is a clever attempt to create a rift between Netanyahu and his core constituency- the Israeli Right. The Obama administration is offering such seemingly generous terms as twenty more free F-35 joint strike fighters for a mere ninety day delay with the certain knowledge that none of the air superiority jets are likely to be ready for delivery until after Iran has made Israel a nuclear cinder. Team Obama would like the Likud so divided that it causes the Netanyahu governing coalition to fall to be replaced by a Kadima-led coalition perhaps with Israel's Barak-led Labor Party which now sits with Likud in governance but could easily be persuaded away to "go with a winner" which the Obamabots know will be more malleable in agreeing to concessions that lead to Israel's suicide as a Jewish state. You have to admit that as far as triangulation and divide and conquer go that the Obama team excels, but as far as doing what is morally right and simply just in the context of Israel, Team Obama, which now ties protecting Israel in multilateral bodies like the United Nations and blocking the unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state to Israel accepting the ninety day construction halt initiative, is sorely lacking.

Nashville's Mayor Obama

Who ever would have imagined that the city known as the buckle of the Bible Belt (which happens to be my hometown) would elect a self-professed "progressive" as mayor? My dear pater who happens to be pushing ninety and has lived here since 1938 says he has never seen such a free spender setting himself against the wishes of long-term locals like Mayor Karl Dean. Prior to the importation of so many leftists associated with the city's many universities and the growth of the government sector which in Nashville happens to encompass metropolitan, state (as the state's capital), and Federal workers in large numbers, this city was as conservative and fiscally tight as any in the nation. Now, Nashville seems to be trying to keep up with Obama's stimulus spending pace, building a gilded convention center with a separate hotel complex that is not needed during such pressing economic times. Now, the Fairgrounds which has housed the state fair, a monthly flea market, and a racetrack is set to close against widespread sentiment that it should stay open. The flea market will be moved to a moribund mall complex known as Hickory Hollow and the city fathers have the brilliant idea of charging a "small admission fee" to allow people to go in and spend more money there. I have a feeling that quite a bit of the merchandise there should it open will be junk that people will regret having paid an admission charge to peruse. They may go once out of curiosity and never visit again to see the same "bargains" they can find without paying admission for at the Farmers' Market. A cynic might suggest that so much money is being spent and so much moved around that it provides a greater opportunity for graft, for if no such grandiose projects are being undertaken, bribes and kickbacks and slippery dealing are much less apt to occur and more easy to ferret out. If a city spends a couple of billion dollars on unneeded and unwanted projects, someone is going to be enriched mightily (and as my father who has seen plenty of life in parts of ten decades starting in 1921 points out- not necessarily entirely on the up and up). Yes, embarking on projects that yield nothing for most of the citizenry, but ultimately leave the property tax payer exposed through general obligation bonds backing development only a few private parties are destined to benefit from are not the best use of resources in a city recovering from an epic flood during the nation's longest standing recession. What if the tourist who are supposed to bear the expense of the convention center do not materialize because of the horrific economy? Residents of Nashville, particularly those who pay property tax, are left holding the bag and responsible for all the newly engendered debt. And the idea that businesses are not coming forward with alternate plans for Hickory Hollow or the Nashville flea market because they shy away from controversy is nonsense. They simply are not committing now because for private enterprise now, such efforts are not economically viable. Why should the city launch expensive initiatives that make no sense from a business standpoint? Mayor Dean should confine his efforts to public health and safety unless he has an obviously popular mandate not to do what is controversial but that which is widely embraced by the tax paying public who will in the end have to pay for projects if other anticipated sources of funding like hotel tax revenue fail to materialize. A city like a family must live within its means.

Performance Oriented Presidency

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has written a book that chronicles some of the aftermath of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. In it, Jindal suggests that some of the effort made had little to do with helping the cleanup and everything to do with creating the illusion of "we are on top of this" spin. Great Presidents like Ronald Reagan did not care who got the credit for an initiative so long as it benefited the nation which is why Reagan was often seen chatting up "Tip" O'Neill and giving the Democrat US House Leader so much credit. Other American Presidents who were "results oriented" included the last President Bush who gave Teddy Kennedy accolades for helping to write and advance the Education Bill. Unfortunately, so far Barack Hussein Obama has not been results oriented but content on creating image over accomplishment. Demonstrating some administration stagecraft through former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel was far less taxing than doing nose to the grindstone business of actually helping contain the spill, far from the camera's eye. No, President Obama does not seem so concerned with great results as a statesman would but quite interested in good public relations. Obama is all about performance (as in the phoniness of theater) and this emphasis to "look good" has actually led the country in some instances in the worst possible way.

World Rebuffs Obama

The G-20 (and the G-7 for that matter) have always been dominated essentially by whatever economic impetus that the United States of America desires. Not so much at the current forum, with the rest of the group of economic powers siding with China in her currency dispute with the USA- America is no longer loved nor feared. We have become the blind colossus swinging wildly, flailing in tragicomic parody of our former robust self. The Nobel Peace Prize conferred on Obama becomes mockery as even the Olympic Committee turned Obama away in his failed bid to attain the games for Chicago. America was the envy of the world as recently as the last President Bush, with many nations seeking our friendship and the others quite seriously pondering Bush's "you are either with us or against us" enough to even have formerly recalcitrant Libya turn away from weapons of mass destruction pursuits and "make nice" with the West. Sadly, Barack Hussein Obama as my father suggests has led America from the last, lone superpower to the butt of jokes. Now America is left with the only avenue to display her strength being unjustly turning on tiny, beleaguered Israel which is where I suspect Obama may direct his wrath.

Note of Thanks

This rare personal correspondence is to thank those of you who have expressed support to my family during Lily's ordeal. She is in the literal fight of her life and her courage and determination are a marvel. Her prognosis at this point is not a good one but so long as there is life, there is hope- until hope and love and precious memories are all that remain. 

Our Sacred Ground

They shed their blood to forge this nation, then to keep her free/ Then pushed away a Mexican tyrant so that Texas as a US state could be/ In eighteen and sixty one they swelled the ranks to rejoin a country torn asunder/ They bled for liberty- to free the slave, not for callow plunder/ Only too late after the sinking of the Maine did Spain realize her blunder/ Next came World War One where Doughboys and Devil Dogs helped turn back the Hun and on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the fight came to an end/ To commemorate this moment and honor those who served, this Veterans Day was born/ But the war to end war did not succeed and still remained the scorn/ As was bound to happen, hostilities returned- visiting again on a sultry Sunday December 7, 1941/ Unleashing total war with brutality that would stun, forcing sixteen million patriotic Americans to take up the gun/ Then after more Americans fell than in any other war/ Peace through strength was restored/ But the intermission and relief were all too brief/ With first Korea, then Vietnam/ Finally bringing recognition of nurses' sacrifice- that ladies wear the uniform as well and pay the price/ Tell them as well of gratitude much earned/ That all who go to war the lesson learned/ And give to them the hearty "Thank you, Ma'am" that they deserve/ Recalling that all who put themselves on the line have nerve/ Then came brushfire conflicts in twilight wars/ Before Saddam and Osama hid behind their doors/ If you know someone who served or serves, thank them well this day remembering on our behalf, it was and is the ultimate price they were and are prepared to pay.

Time of Testing

Nations, individuals, and families all face trying times. America has been irresolute in spending and the printing of fiat currency and even refuses to acknowledge that Islamism is the enemy in an existential war. Barack Hussein Obama deliberately distorts facts with his sophistry about the US not being at war with Islam during his speech in Indonesia. Of course, the United States has never been at war with the Muslim faith but elements of that religion vastly larger than al-Qaeda have been at war with us. Does President Obama not recall that the bombing of the US Marines' barracks in Lebanon which prior to the September 11, 2001 outrage was the deadliest terror attack on Americans was carried out not by al-Qaeda and its Sunni sympathizers but by Shia supporters of Iran under the auspices of Hizbollah? The problem of jihad runs much wider and deeper than al-Qaeda and unfortunately will be far more enduring. Indonesia has been far from the beacon of tolerance that President Obama suggested, just look at their treatment (including fatal torture) administered to the Catholics of East Timor, the murder of Australian journalists in Balibo there, and the persecution of the residents of Indonesian-occupied West Papua, along with countrywide instances of discrimination against Christians across Indonesia. If this is Obama's model of Islamic tolerance, he sets a low standard and the rest of the West should look somewhere else. Perhaps Iraq is the example of much vaunted Muslim tolerance, freed with American blood and treasure, where Christians were relatively safe under the thugship of Saddam Hussein- no to find the paradigm of Islamic tolerance, we can not look there with more than fifty Catholics murdered in a hostage taking last week at a major church and with at least three more Christians killed in bomb and mortar attacks against their tiny, scattered enclaves in Baghdad today. How about erstwhile ally Pakistan as the model for Islamic tolerance- nope not there either with two Christian brothers shot dead by a defender of the Islamic faith as they left their trial on a trumped up charge and a Christian woman (named Asia Bibi) being sentenced to hang this very day there for blasphemy. Perhaps enlightened Turkey is where Muslim tolerance shines, no wait... a Christian publishing house was slaughtered there with three believers tortured and beheaded in a country that pretends European aspirations. No Mr. President, the West is not at war with Islam, but Islam to a shocking degree is and has been at war with us. On a personal note in a matter of testing for me and my family, I beseech my readers to say a prayer for Lily, our seven year old Keeshond who was at my father's side guarding and protecting him through five spinal fusion procedures. Lily is having a complex operation today to remove cancer from her liver and spleen. She is a grand companion and gentle comforter and in many ways the heart of our household. Please pray with me that she has the opportunity to come home with us. Thank you.

President Perturbs Pakistan

United States President Barack Hussein Obama has upset Pakistan with his proposal to elevate India to the Security Council of the United Nations- such a pity with Pakistan being so good and reliable a friend too. Pakistan's true colors have been aptly demonstrated in their support for al-Qaeda without which it is doubtful Osama bin Laden would even have been successful in forming the world's arch-terror organization, to continued logistical support for both Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban, to evident operational assistance provided by at least some elements of Pakistan's version of the US Central Intelligence Agency, the ISI, to last year's Mumbai murder squad to help perpetrate the massacre, to becoming the world's worst proliferator of nuclear weapons to "terror" states like North Korea through the A. Q. Khan network, Pakistan has earned American enmity. It is not "rogue" elements of the ISI that have undermined Pakistan but the Sunni power structure in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia that conspires against the West. Shia and Christians face gross persecution in Pakistan as well. Pakistan is no erstwhile ally but a cagey enemy proven to be the villain in many plots of jihad against the rest of the world and this is in spite of being the beneficiary of billions of dollars of American largess. So far as any nation being involved in the Security Council is concerned, my opinion has been and remains that the United States should exit the United Nations and expel the headquarters from New York and all UN organizations from our shores. The United Nations is a wholly illegitimate enterprise controlled by kleptocrats and dictators, rife with anti-Semitism, and the leading force in Jew-baiting and Israel-bashing today. The globe would be better off without the UN with it being supplanted perhaps by a multilateral organization comprised only of open society democracies like the USA, Great Britain, France, Germany, Japan, the Czech Republic, Poland, Israel, and India (among others) but excluding tyrannies like Red China. Please President Obama perturb the nations like Pakistan that have done us so much recent harm.