The Humanitarian Imperative

After America suffered from the economic dislocation brought on by recession and President Obama's anti-recovery policies, families might naturally be expected to consolidate their resources and cease or limit giving. Yesterday's earth shattering tumult in Chile and the catastrophe in Haiti reflect the continuing, in fact, escalating need to give to reputable, established charities, even when times are tough at home. Even Barack Hussein Obama's desire to eliminate tax deductions for charitable contributions does not mitigate the overwhelming needs that these charities are often the only ones left to address, and without the support of generous Americans, it is virtually certain more lives will be lost.

State of Catastrophe

An epic tragedy, possibly one to rival the Haiti earthquake in terms of scope of destruction and loss of human life, has struck the heretofore relatively peaceful and prosperous nation of Chile. Preliminary reports measure the temblor at 8.8 on the Richter scale, one of the stronger quakes ever measured, making mass destruction and casualties virtually inevitable. This shaking has also sparked fears of and a warning for a tsunami across wide areas of the Pacific. It is an absolute certainty that the people of Chile will need both foreign aid and prayers.

Talked to Death

While no entity specifically called a "death panel" may be found in the text of any of the proposed health care programs, I have found that Obama has an even more nefarious plan to do us all in- he will offer himself more in bipartisan forums, be more available to the press, and talk us all to death. In yesterday's summit, I noted two points. First, Obama is without doubt the most petulant human being that I have ever seen. Second, Obama drones on like Fidel Castro did before the Cuban dictator's health collapsed. A couple more hours of Barack Hussein Obama's talking points and straw man arguments and some might be tempted to invite a death panel over for their first and last visit.

The Sham Summit

Republicans will be brought into Blair House today to serve as props and whipping boys to President Barack Hussein Obama's power grab ambitions as they are couched for the moment in his health care rationing Obama care scheme. President Obama is not interested in any initiatives the GOP has to offer, only in advancing his plan and using those meeting him as stepping stones to an imposed socialism that the people of the United States do not want by wide margins. Why the Republicans deign to be used like this is beyond me? When they were invited to the media spectacle, these Republican politicians should have remembered Nancy Reagan's admonition and just said no.

For Shame Shamu

Shamu, or one of his species held in captivity for our amusement, lived up to the name killer whale today. At Florida Sea World, a massive beast who had previously been involved in the death of two people in separate incidents dating back to the early nineties, killed its trainer. Whales are animals that the left goes out of the way to praise, protect by attacking whalers, and even save with ubiquitous bumper stickers because the animals supposedly possess preternatural aspects of character and immense intellect. This beast was not as smart as most family dogs who know enough not to bite the hand that feeds them. All I have to offer is the hope that this beast who has a propensity to take human lives is placed in a position where it can do no further damage. Shame on you, people who venerate animals beyond all else- like the idiot who earned late night appearances on Letterman and/or Leno before his bear companions devoured him. Shame on you, Shamu- bad whale.

The Fouling Dutchman

(No, this is not a reference to Holland-born former Marist and Indiana Pacer star center Rik Smits although the title would have been equally applicable during Smits's playing days jostling opposing behemoths). I have mostly assiduosly avoiding partaking of the great Northerly winter games, but was briefly lured in as housemates were viewing the spectacle. I happened to witness the Sven Kramer catastrophe with incumbent joy turned to anger as the young skater from the Netherlands realized he had not won the 10,000 meter speed skate by over four seconds in a dominant performance but had been disqualified after being misdirected by his own coach. In an instant, those watching saw the exuberance of a lifetime of work, hard work- training as an occupation- rewarded, turned to bewilderment, then angry realization, cognizance that all that effort had been for naught. This was no simple blooper but a terminal error on the largest stage in the world for Kramer's rather esoteric sport. There can be little doubt that Kramer was the dominant athlete in his competition but that all was lost because rules are unforgiving, with no mere time penalty for a violation of lanes but an outright disqualification. Does anyone doubt that Kramer was the fastest man on the track yesterday?

Born to Betray

Barack Hussein Obama made emphatic promises during his campaign for the Presidency to his most fervent base, the anti-war activists, that if he won the office US troops would soon be withdrawn from Iraq. Over a year into his administration, American forces are still there to the dismay of the peacenik left. And the prospect exists, in fact is very real, that they will not leave Iraq in the foreseeable future. The commander of American forces there, General Ray Odierno, has just disclosed that he has developed a contingency plan for our military presence to remain in place if violence escalates in Iraq as it virtually must as we start to wind down our involvement there. So not only are the arch-leftist consistently let down by Obama's failures on the domestic front, Obama has escalated one foreign war in Afghanistan while our armed forces still languish in Iraq in an incursion that candidate Obama had pledged to end. Those ardent believers must be deeply chagrined that their champion used them for their campaign contributions and votes.

Rahm the Torpedoes

David Farragut, a US naval hero of the Civil War, famously said in the heat of battle "Damn the torpedoes . . . full speed ahead" to convey his intention to move ahead at any cost during the Battle of Mobile Bay. This determination to advance in war may be commendable, but taken in the context of modern day politics, the same stubbornness could put us on the pathway to dictatorship. In the context of the current health care debate, ignoring the will of the public that opposes various iterations of socialized or semi-socialized medicine is no virtue, but an act of political bullying using reconciliation- never before used in similar circumstances, to thwart the will of most of the nation's citizenry. Perhaps the Democrats can and will ram Obama care through, but they will surely pay for it at the polls if there ever is another honest election.

President Ron Paul

Texas physician and Congressman Ron Paul emerged victorious at the Conservative Political Action Conference in a straw poll conducted at the plenum to determine who the attendees deemed should be the next President. While there is virtue in some of what Ron Paul says, the same could have been said of Adolf Hitler. Paul is a reactionary with as many out there sentiments as Obama has on the left. A complete and immediate end to foreign aid and a return of all US forces to the homeland are preposterous on their face. Two hundred and thirty years ago avoiding foreign entanglements was laudable, but in today's jet age world, it is an impossible prescription that only a quack of a doctor would offer as policy. The runner-up Mitt Romney is probably also unelectable nationally as a Mormon former Governor of a liberal state only now finding (pretending) his connection to rightist causes. Third was Sarah Palin, she of so much international notoriety who is still dismissed by many as a lightweight (even intellectually). At least, if she proves her capabilities, she may actually become electable at a national level. In any event, none of the three could ruin America and threaten our rights any worse than Obama.

Hold That Tiger

Tiger Woods's apology was neither particularly credible or creditable. He was certainly the greatest active golfer in the world prior to his downfall and was even characterized as still being a "hero" by a PGA official after yesterday's performance- a gross mockery of the true heroism displayed by our forces on the battlefields, of the work of firemen and honest law enforcers, or even someone who volunteers to an organ donation such as a kidney while they are still alive. Tiger was someone filled with enormous hubris who hit a little white ball along a super-sized manicured and configured yard but did it well, probably as well as anyone who played the sedate gentleman's game before. His rhetorical effort to shield his wife and children from the paparazzi was commendable as they are only public figures through osmosis as it were, and I would hope and suppose that a phalanx of security provided by Tiger accompanies them everywhere. That is the least that should be expected of a father and husband, even if marital fidelity is not assured, a man must protect his family.

Jobs and Inflation

Early in the week, Barack Hussein Obama and his minions trotted out to praise themselves for saving the nation from depression with their stimulus package. Just the day after they trumpeted success, jobless claims rose more than 450,000 which was of course more than expected by the dinosaur media and wholesale inflation for the last month was announced at 1.4%. Sounds like the stimulus was not so stimulating after all, but not to worry, a "jobs" bill with even more stimulus is proposed now that the laser-focus of the President and his team has set on employment. So more backslapping and high fives are no doubt on the way as America surges to hyper-inflation and joblessness remains at Great Depression levels. Who knew America could afford such great prosperity with the coming depression named in the propaganda flack media "the Obama recovery". Let us just hope we have enough of a nation left to recover from Obama.

All That Glitters

Pronounced success by United States athletes at an international athletic event has given the dinosaur media much to distract us with in the tradition of bread and circus. Though yesterday I stated that the economic situation was "none too dire", I certainly would not suggest that it is rosy either with staggering real unemployment, a lurch towards socialism which could make the crisis truly unrecoverable, and the worst housing/real estate crisis that the United States has ever known. Not only have foreclosures on residential property hit epic numbers, those upside down (owing more than their home's worth) have skyrocketed. The other shoe will soon drop in the commercial real estate market which could precipitate a deeper recession (read as depression as a distinct possibility). In real human costs, those the main stream media would focus on and obsess over were a Republican in the Oval Office, homelessness including first time homelessness has reached a record mark, but this tragedy is largely ignored because Obama has D after his name. The papers of record, haughty propagandist that they are, and their electronic fellow travelers can not seem to report much about bread lines when their man could feel some of the blame. I watched a brief TV report about a Nashville man being transported to a local hospital suffering from exposure as he lay unsheltered in the middle of our country music tourist district. I wonder if Bush were still President if some political jibe would have been made by the reporter or anchor, maybe, but they plenty to divert our attention with with the great Northerly, warm weather winter games.

Not So Dire

While the world economy is undeniably bad, the deterioration is nothing that a little free market capitalism would not fix. Greece is imperiled precisely because of so much government intervention, with the Greek public sector becoming a cradle to grave socialist gravy train. At some point, the gravy simply has to run out. The Greek approach at governance should be instructive to the Obama administration on whom the lesson is lost as Obama seeks to grow already generous public sector benefits, salaries, and payrolls at the expense of citizens who remain outside the public sector while fostering an ever increasing dependency class who become locked on the dole of government aid. Thus the public sector and the welfare-dependent are pitted against the private sector in perpetuity with the productive bearing a parasitic burden until they too fall into dependency. Of course, none of this dislocation in America is necessary as the map to renewed prosperity is well known as the path taken back to a booming economy by both JFK and Reagan. It is to lower marginal tax rates, ease Federal taxes, and let the engine of prosperity- which has always been the free market- work. So long as US business is not strangled by taxes and regulation, our ingenuity and industry can get us out of the economic mess. Obama of course knows this and is deliberately doing the opposite to fulfill his promise of change, which to him has always been and remains the march toward the same kind of socialism that is felling Greece.

Such Voter Remorse

After a significant purchase, an automobile, a home, for example, the buyer often has doubts- could I have made a better deal, found a better product, spent my hard-earned money on better things. This phenomena is called buyer's regret. Many well-intentioned moderate voters cast their lot with Obama, as he was portrayed in the dinosaur media as a brilliant, post-racial, politically-centrist candidate when nothing could be farther from the truth. Obama had the most liberal voting record in the US Senate but this was glossed over in the main stream media. Obama had radical associations throughout his adult life that were ignored in the old-line press until Sean Hannity baited (forced) George Stephanopoulos to ask a single question of Obama on the matter. Obama was a twenty-plus year member of a church that was aggressive in anti-US rhetoric with Obama's pastor, mentor, and father figure, Jeremiah Wright, actually damning America from the pulpit. All the indications of the left-wing nature of Obama himself were not covered but covered-up by those expected to bring truth into the light of public scrutiny as they turned from journalists to press agents, uncritical of Obama, but hyper-critical of those who sought to expose his leftist leanings and history. Now, some of those who voted for Obama feel duped, that they never heard the actual nature of their choice and wish they had gone with the McCain ticket. They see America going from bad to worse under socialist stewardship and blame themselves as a sorrowful consequence of one ill-considered misstep in the voting booth made in the absence of information that the main stream media deliberately kept from them, one woeful decision that has forever altered the course of their (and our) lives. Only now, they realize it is too late to take their votes back.

We Had Presidents

During the one term of the first President George Bush, many conservatives were nostalgic for Ronald Wilson Reagan and justifiably so. Americans yearned for a return to the simple years of Eisenhower during the turbulent sixties under the guns and butter bane of Lyndon Johnson. Americans were wistful for the great days of Jefferson when Madison was managing to suffer consistent battlefield defeats to the British during the War of 1812. During the malaise days of Jimmy Carter, even Chester Arthur beckoned with the distant recollection of better times. Now we have Barack Hussein Obama, a dictator in the making, possessed of peacock arrogance and a Marxist's mentality who makes all previous Presidents look good by comparison.  Happy Presidents Day

The Town Criers

Today's main stream media is comprised largely of scare mongers, fear merchants, hype artists, and mouthpieces pretending to be objective while flacking for the political left. The alleged man-caused global warming hysteria offers a great example of how supposed journalists took sides and abdicated what used to be their responsibility to investigate facts. Those covering climate change bought the line of those with vested interest who stood to profit immeasurably if carbon taxes and cap and trade became law without any skepticism that should be the hallmark of a journalistic professional. But the hype is not limited to a single subject, every story from seasonal to swine flu becomes the next impending cataclysm. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are exaggerated as if every day is the Battle of the Bulge or Iwo Jima, so that when calm reflection and deliberation are needed, the most odious defeatists are the focus of media attention (recall "the war is lost" Light-brain Harry Reid). There are of course, lamentably, US casualties, but we are not attending tea parties but actively engaged in combat on battlefronts, and despite Obama's insanely restrictive rules of engagement, we are winning. Local media is not exempt from the criticism directed at the national propagandists. Nashville reporters parrot the party line of their New York and Washington fellow travelers and even create a sense of panic by bellowing snow, even as they warned was coming last night, when thankfully at least where I travel around the city, there was none. At least grocery stores benefit from hyped weather events where if you call for frozen precip on a Nashville TV station, you create a run on milk and bread like the silver panic of 1893. Unfortunately, cooler heads can not prevail in a dearth (some might say a dinosaur media-imposed vacuum of information), which is why I thank God everyday for talk radio and the Internet.

Man of Steal

Matt Drudge and Mike Savage both highlighted a report last night by the none too conservative New York Times detailing President Barack Hussein Obama's determination to accomplish much of his agenda by executive order. The Old Gray liberal imprint suggests today that Obama will advance much of his environmental scheme, including cap and trade, by fiat in spite of legislative resistance in Congress and the opposition of most of the American people. Obama will even bypass the US House and Senate as much as possible to institute health care reform, the Obama care sixty-eight percent of American voters are against according to a recent poll. Other nations such as Venezuela face rule by decree, but since the time of Lincoln's Presidency, the good old USA has not grappled with such megalomania. If Obama succeeds in thwarting the national will, and imposes such destructive programs, we will find capitalism and prosperity but distant memories.

Accepting the Challenge

Barack Hussein Obama will evidently meet with the Dalai Lama. The President has not to this point kowtowed as he did last year to Communist Chinese demands that he not meet the religious figure who has tried to secure human rights for Tibetans beleaguered by their Chinese conquerors who have colonized Tibet with Han Chinese expats and enslaved Buddhism's ancestral home of Tibet. If the meeting takes place, observe the atmospherics- they mean everything. Will the confab be a large media event, open broadly to the press corps? This would show Communist China that Obama and by extension the United States are not in fear of the Reds. Will the conversation be discreet with only a limited photo-op? This would suggest Obama does not seek to offend mainland China which does after all hold so much US debt. Or will the Dalai Lama be led in through a back door as Israel's Binyamin Netanyahu was as an insult as if an elite were ushering in (and then out) hired help. The face to face encounter of the leader of one of the world's great religions with the leader of the free world is a good first step, both in securing rights for Tibet but also for showing that Obama is growing a backbone, but how the conference is presented by the White House with spin masters and handlers means so much.

Road to War

As Iran escalates her nuclear capacity and aims her proxy militia, Hizbollah, which has co-opted the nation of Lebanon at Israel, with Syria's backing, the President of the United States, the one man on earth with the capacity to stop World War III, sits silent. In a time that calls for boldness, Obama is diffident. In fact, should Israel feel abandoned, backed into a corner, and facing an existential threat, forcing her to take military action to forestall the atomic destruction of Tel Aviv, I am in no way confident that President Barack Hussein Obama would not turn his wrath against the Jewish state, at a minimum imposing sanctions and perhaps overseeing the complete dismantling of the Zionist enterprise. Ronald Reagan by most reports was an ardent supporter of Israel and initially endorsed the bombing of the Osirak nuclear reactor whose construction and activation was a step on the path to providing Saddam Hussein with the capacity to rid the world of Israel, but even Reagan, friend of Israel was turned by advice from Foggy Bottom and held Israel culpable for her act of self-preservation by means of preemption. Barack Obama is no Ronald Reagan. Obama is no certain ally to the Jewish state and will surely not do anything to declaw Iran with US force. Obama's timidity now sadly assures a great calamity later.

Under the Cloverleaf

A 32 plus million dollar project funded by Federal stimulus money is the first major shovel-ready project to which my hometown Nashville has been subjected. Road construction designed to link I-440 and Briley Parkway was originally scheduled to be part of the project in the 1970s. I suppose punctuality has never been one of government's great virtues. The connection was envisioned to alleviate traffic congestion but at its start over the weekend, caused seemingly interminable delays. If and when the work is completed, I doubt that gridlock will be vanquished as the politicians who backed the project then (1970s- when Nashville's population and traffic was a fraction of what it is today) claimed and those today still crow about. They must have never looked at the freeways of Southern California and their connectors where short commutes become endurance marathons, testing patience on a daily basis. The net effect of the spending when the roadwork is completed will be negligible at best and the traffic jams caused by the work will be a nightmare.

No Dream Sequence

It is surreal or should be to wake to news that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has had to change a press conference from the National Press Club to telephonic interviews due to the blizzard conditions that have paralyzed Washington D.C. along with vast swathes of the Eastern seaboard and Midwest. The press conference had been originally scheduled of course to address man-caused global warming. The irony was lost on the flacks at NOAA who persist with the line (lie) that Al Gore and those who will profit immeasurably from carbon credits trading have so successfully pushed on the gullible that seas are rising, glaciers melting, and winters fading away. So as I sit only a couple miles distant geographically from Al Gore's energy guzzling manse, I am it seems in a wholly other universe trapped in my house by Nashville's second large snowfall in two weeks. I guess at Al "the king of global warming" Gore's estate the sun is shining and the yard is verdant, green with the bounty of warming. As for me, I can not even see a blade of grass under all that snow.

Not For You

The current Democrat President Obama and his last Democrat predecessor Clinton both claimed to be great champions of public education. Both happened to have daughter(s) of K-12 age when they came into the highest office. Did these champions of learning avail themselves and their children of the public schools of Washington D. C.? No, they most certainly did not. Neither President would send his precious kin into the cauldron of D.C.'s failing public education system. Both Obama and Clinton have selected the Sidwell Friends School, an exclusive institution founded by Quakers but now a path directly to the corridors of power that virtually assures lifetime success with networking opportunities from the Ivy League to K Street awaiting those who attend in their later lives. Sidwell is a wonderful avenue to which most every day Washingtonians are systematically excluded. The audacity of politicians, particularly the current and last Democrat President to stand like Orval Faubus in the door of the schoolhouse to block school vouchers to give the children of ordinary citizens similar opportunity is nauseating. These leaders are not interested in advancing learning but in furthering the interests of the two national educators unions. They believe nothing is too good for their own children, and nothing is appropriate for your kids. In their minds, opening the doors to a brighter future is for me but not for thee.

For Troubles Sake

A Latin adage, si vis pacem, para bellum, has never been more true than it is today. Our nation had been throughout the last century the beacon of liberty for the world and more importantly, the defender of freedom. What emboldens a petty tyrant like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to declare that Iran will start enriching her uranium stockpile to 20%- the threshold of weapons-grade? What causes the Red Chinese to believe that they can dictate with whom the President of the United States meets? Obama dare not meet the Dalai Lama because the Chinese Communists now hold so much of our debt that their new found clout and the coward in the White House allow the Reds to play social director to a man whose office made him the presumed leader of the world. The free world and those aspiring towards freedom always looked to the US to lead the way, but with the Appeaser-in-Chief now in office, the oppressed of the world are left to fend for themselves at the mercy of their oppressors. It was never solely the ideal of freedom that made the US the leader of the free world; it was the force behind that great notion. Obama has abdicated that and the rest of the world both friend and foe know it.

Road to Ruin

The road to ruin is paved with phony numbers. The Obama administration trumpeted success this week, although the President himself generously acknowledged more needs to be done, with the announcement that unemployment had fallen to 9.7%. This figure should astound as it is either manipulated or downright fabricated to give Obama some positive spin. In the same week that it was announced that the previous year had been worse for employment with a figure of 8.4 million jobs lost- the number revised a million upwards, and with employers not adding but cutting 20,000 more positions for the week, how could the rate of unemployment be heralded as going down? The Department of Labor provided a nominal figure while failing to mention discouraged job seekers who had simply given up looking and unemployed workers who had been jobless for so long that their benefits simply ran out. If these numbers were included, the true unemployment rate would be well over 15%, and if you take into account the underemployed who were forced to accept much less than they are qualified for and used to earning, we see the US is still gripped by an economic calamity.

Free the Missionaries

Easing human suffering and spreading the Gospel go hand in hand in the Great Commission. A group of American Baptists, ten in number, took that message to heart, saw the catastrophe in Haiti and rushed to help. They found a Haitian preacher who ran an orphanage and could no longer provide for his charges and offered to take some of the wards who faced privation in Haiti across the border to a facility in the Dominican Republic where they would be better provided for and at some later point, more permanent care such as adoption could be found. In the first statements made in English after their detention, the woman who is acting (and I use this word intentionally) as Justice Minister of Haiti, fully impeached her own case and all charges against the missionaries by claiming that the Americans intended to "sell the children for $10,000 each". These US citizens are being held by a nation that did not function even before the earthquake on the way to a kangaroo court. The world leftist media, secularists who hate believers, have breathlessly reported that some of the so-called orphans actually have surviving parents without bothering to mention an interview with the mother of one of the children who thanked God that the Americans had volunteered to take the children to a safer place and hoped that at some time in the future the missionaries would bring the children back to visit that I saw aired only on the 700 Club. The real story is that Haitian officials have no concern for the welfare of their own people and would have used the so-called proper channels to place impediment after impediment in front of those trying to help the children and solicited bribe after bribe at every turn. The powers that be in Haiti have been interested only in feathering their own nests for generations and continue to be utterly unreliable and thoroughly corrupt. Haiti was a failed state without the normal institutions of government which necessitated the UN presence there with peacekeepers, largely from Brazil on the street for half a decade and even before that no fair system of justice existed under Papa Doc Duvalier, his evil son and successor Baby Doc, or Aristide, a defrocked Catholic priest cum Marxist.  If you are concerned about the future of Haiti, the welfare of Haitians and the missionaries themselves, or even the process of justice, you should contact your US Senators or Congressman immediately (not the US State Department- they do not care), and ask them to force Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Obama to end the charade of the judicial process in Haiti and demand and facilitate the immediate release of the ten detained Americans, who were never going to traffic children but had willingly sacrificed, leaving the safety of home and family to help Haitians in their time of need.

Protect Their Own

In my home state of Tennessee, the week began with our Democrat Governor Phil Bredesen delivering a grim State of the State address. There is nothing unique in Tennessee's struggle with the entire nation buoyed by our Obama prosperity (for once, really the worst economy since the Great Depression). Tennessee is however beset with one glaring expense most other US states do not suffer under. Tennessee has to pay for our own effort at socialized medicine called TennCare- an insurer of last resort to the poor and the medically uninsurable (patients with pre-existing conditions such as cancer). Tennessee now faces the dilemma of cutting some of the reimbursement that is literally breaking the state, which sounds like a grand idea but would engender the loss of huge amounts of Federal matching funds, or do nothing, face insurmountable mounting expense and have the state first violate state Constitutional mandate to not run at a deficit and eventually go under (yes, a state could go bankrupt- cities notably Cleveland, Ohio and New York City have faced the prospect). To save Tennessee from this fate, Governor Bredesen is proposing cutting over 1200  state positions, including more than 700 that are actually filled. This means real state jobs lost although the 1200 number is effectively a fiction, and it is certain many of those  jobs actually lost will be workers whose pension and benefits are already fully vested and relatively new hires who stand to lose little if forced to leave the state employment for life system with an early exit (presuming they are able to find other gainful employment). And that is where the rub is- why are government workers exempt from the real pain the rest of us are feeling? Why are civil servants not subject to the same vicissitudes at the hands of government as workers in the private sector? Those who worked in government used to say their benefits, which tended to be more generous than those offered by private sector companies, made up for their salaries, which often were somewhat lower. Now those working for government at every level, municipal, state, and Federal, have compensation packages that are higher in salary than comparable non-government jobs and something virtually unheard of today- real job security. They are entrenched in their positions regardless of the need for them or their competence or lack thereof. So while the rest of us suffer, the non-defense payroll of the Federal government swells under Obama to 2.15 million workers, the largest it has ever been and these are good jobs, jobs for life with perks and security. Do you not have a warm feeling knowing that the only sector of the economy that is growing, indeed thriving, is unionized government workers including bureaucrats with the power to further ruin your lives- and you have the privilege of paying for them.

Science of Violence

A Chinese saying "the nail that rises receives the blow" suggests harsh consequences await those who fail to conform. In Communist China, this threat still holds as true as back in bad old imperial days where dissenters were publicly flayed alive in a grotesque barbarism called "ling chi" or the death of a thousand cuts, only now the victims are killed more privately by lethal injection (which recently replaced a bullet to the neck or head in a public venue) before their organs are harvested for sale and transplant or their bodies sold for plastination or research. The Chinese are by no means alone when it comes to tyrannical intimidation. Their Communist brethren in North Korea have concentration camps in their prisoner nation and ad hoc firing squads for those unlucky enough to have crossed some imagined line in the minds of politburo officials (their deaths engendered by a quest for food for their families into neighboring Red China or for reading a Bible verse). The Islamic Republic of Iran gunned down or ran over those engaged in civil disobedience, then hanged at least a couple of protesters with the declared intention to hang at least nine more. This bandit state that has violated international norms by seizing an embassy and abducts wayward foreigners every chance it can and believes the world will kowtow once a nuclear arsenal has been acquired and the Zionist entity vanquished. Israel is not a hapless protester or helpless bystander but a phoenix risen from the ashes of the Holocaust with a nuclear umbrella of her own which may rival or even surpass the atomic armories of Red China and France, giving the Jews a deterrent or retaliatory capacity only surpassed by Russia and the US. Rest assured, that though their focus has been and will remain the preservation of innocent lives, the Israelis have not been idling the last forty-five years in Dimona and are as practiced and capable at the art and science of war as any nation on earth.

National Economic Suicide

President Barack Hussein Obama did not so much propose a budget as a pact for financial suicide as a nation. The largest budget ever suggested, creating the largest deficits ever encountered, the Obama plan offers three potential options- none good. The US could face stagflation with unemployment continuing to be high and potentially rising. We could be "lucky" and like Japan find ourselves in a cycle of deflation where domestically produced goods could nominally cost less not because the dollar is worth more but because everything in America will be worth less. The most alarming specter and one I have previously warned of that is increasingly likely is hyperinflation with a devalued dollar having less and less purchasing power. In the extreme, hyperinflation has produced the Weimar Depression which led to the rise of Hitler in Germany and today's Zimbabwe "prosperity" where it takes a wheelbarrow of money to buy a loaf of bread. No one who has ever gained power and position can be as economically naive as Obama appears- this destruction can only be deliberate.

Iran Rattles Sabers

An alarming headline topped Drudge last light. Iran evidently does not seem aware that sanctions imposed by the world have encaged her but rather that the bluster and fanaticism of the Islamic Republic have caged the world. In fact, the screaming lead on Drudge which remains this morning is Ahmadinejad crowing "Iran will deliver telling blow to global powers on February 11" which the accompanying story goes on to relate is the date of celebration of the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. Iran's mad leadership does not feel the least bit constrained but feels she has boxed in the world, and with an appeaser in the White House and big talkers like Sarkosy in European leadership, Bibi Netanyahu is left with his tiny country to save the world from seventh century atavists with twenty-first century wonder weapons.