History repeats itself

Traveling back to yesteryears, Edith Hamilton in 1932, praised the ancient Roman bequest of 1. peace under law, 2. civil order based on individual rights, and 3. freedom of universal tolerance. She claims that this is our modern Western world’s great inheritance. Another historian puts the legacy of Rome as: 1. A reasonable life ruled by law and order, 2. Organized grouping of towns and cities into self-administered states, and 3. Belief individual human dignity and equality under secure government. Really? Seems to me the empire of Rome possessed some deep, hypocritical flaws.

The presence of overseers called legionnaires, small in number but mighty with a whip or sword were ubiquitous. Seems to me Rome rotted from the inside because according to Juvenal, “soft wealth has corrupted the age with foul ease.” Even though Gibbon claimed that the human race was most “happy and prosperous” from A.D.96 to A.D.180, that period in Roman history only represents 84 years. Check out the preceding and subsequent insanities and cruelties.

Is what’s happening today the demise of another great civilization? It’s an OMG time for sure when a hockey commentator opines: “They have an identity in how we play.” It’s an WTF time for sure when ads on the radio ask if you are “desperate for an honest conversation about brakes. ” A deal is so unbelievable that it’s a “price minus price,” “mega complete.” Yet, this same commercial concludes with a disclaimer that it refers to “one redemption per axle.” What examples of the height of American civilization.

As in ancient Rome, all is not what it seems. How long can this go on? No one dies anymore; children are “declared deceased or they “pass.” Reality is a facade of softness borne out of easy living but of life over-regulated and monitored by government’s soldier-like watchdogs.

Slavery flourished in ancient Rome and even though it was eventually greatly diminished, it was never completely abolished. The caste system just morphed into the medieval world of serfs and nobility. In 2012 President Obama simply perpetuates the class warfare with the propaganda of 99% and 1% ( his followers and supporters, of course, from the 1% he demonizes). Reality is portrayed with the term greed which actually is an ignorant corruption of self-interest and survival. Even on the radio today Glenn Beck’s rant on greed sadly confirms his inability to assess reality.

So which is it? OMG what next or WTF we’re about to be drowned under a new Vesuvius? Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, Europe, America (upcoming China) - a continuum of rise and fall?

The numbers game

In 1942, the Japanese fleet in the Pacific used 10,000 tons of coal per day.

In 2012, in Britain. 4 million properly positioned CCTV’s ( closed captioned televisions) photograph people in public every day.

A number can reveal details of life on the ground in a war zone or peacetime society. Lemmings deal in numbers too; millions cyclically follow each other in a seeming mindless mass migration ( sometimes ending in mass suicide).

Similarly, millions of liberal ( as well as Democrat, socialist, radical and revolutionary) lemmings who love Obama, not only elected him but continue to follow him with a seemingly mindless, mass urge to destroy America.

Plunging us over the cliff.

A friend of mine wonders why a person with “intelligence and generosity” like myself would fall for the ‘tea party.’ The truth, of course, is that because I am an intelligent and generous person, I could be nothing other than a member of the ‘tea party.’ Ditto for millions of my fellow citizens.

HOW IS IT POSSIBLE?

Today we purchased for $1.00 each three novelty figures made of plastic with a photovoltaic cell that when exposed to sunlight cause the toys to waggle their parts. So we have a ladybug, butterfly and a bee happily moving their wings and sitting on leaves that are constantly in motion. Three for $3.00.

I thought I would like to send them to my grandchildren in Australia. But wait - with packing, postage and customs requirement it would cost about $5.00 to send a $1.00 toy! Maybe more...
How is it possible that the toy was designed in the U.S, plastics were shipped to China, the place of manufacture, other parts were made in China , a high tech photovoltaic cell was added, the product was shipped back to the U.S. wholesaler and then distributed to the Dollar Tree store where I purchased it? Deep question. Everyone along the process made a profit and I still was able to plunk down a single dollar bill. Isn’t Capitalism wonderful!

Yet, to send the “dancing insect” through government channels and wrapped in government red tape as a gift to someone else would cost $5.00 ( or more). Is not the wasted dead hand of government ugly to behold?

APOLOGY AND CONTEMPT

On Thursday, February 23rd, United States President Barrack Obama continued a week of apology toward Muslim extremists rioting and killing Americans in Afghanistan. It appears that some Korans containing messages between Islamist terrorists in custody in Afghanistan were seized and inadvertently sent to the incinerator. Since then, an escalation of apologies has rippled through the Obama administration. First the local commander apologized, then the Army high command apologized, then the Secretary of State apologized and finally Barrack Obama, Commander- in- Chief and President of the United States apologized.. Enough already! Of course, Islamist terrorists always riot and kill because their sensitivities and religion have been ‘dissed’ by America.

Note, we have continual groveling for an ‘inadvertent’ error by low level troops. But, at the same time Barrack Obama, President of the United States, deliberately provoked a fight with the Catholic Church by declaring that he and his Health and Human Services Director have the right to overrule Catholic Doctrine and beliefs whenever they conflict with his socialist agenda to remake America. No apology has been given to Catholics by Obama, yet his graciousness will give them 12 months to bring 2000 year old Catholic old doctrine into alignment with his edict.

Who is more important in Barrack Obama’s world view? Islamists or Catholics? By the way, don’t forget he is coming for you and your religious beliefs once he has the ‘pesky’ Catholics under control.

Which evil empire?

Evil: Having bad natural qualities, corrupt, wicked, harmful, corrupt, calamitous, unfortunate, depraved, disagreeable, bad, sinful, wrong, the power of bewitching others by the glance of the eyes. Take your pick from the preceding choices in the definition of evil in the Webster dictionary. Falling off a rock recently and spraining my ankle was in some way an evil, because it certainly was not a good ( the opposite of evil), but evil incarnate in the Devil or Satan is a wholly different embodiment of Screwtape ( from C.S. Lewis) in our world.

Vote on these facts as to whether they are good or evil.

The new federal consumer watchdog (CFPB Consumer Finance Protection Bureau) acting like Big Brother, unveils plans to police the nation’s three major credit bureaus as well as dozens of other firms that collect detailed information on consumers.

4 out of 10 babies in 2007 were born to unmarried women.

Big sister Moochelle Obama orders me personally and by ads financed by us taxpayers to ‘move,’ to eat right and to lose weight or my beating heart won’t be healthy.

Colleges are rushing to offer ‘Occupy’ courses claiming they show grass roots organizing and people power. No college, however, is offering a ‘Tea Party’ course showing true citizen involvement.

Congress approved February as Teen Dating Violence Month because one in 10 high school students ( incapable of assessing the character of another person) report that they are physically hurt on purpose by their boyfriend ( apparently a necessity).

Rick Santorum acknowledged that there is evil in this world.

Bad loans accounted for the recent bank failures and recession but loan companies across America advertise in the local newspapers for personal loans, title loans and auto financing banks with “bad credit welcome.”

The liberal media will have a field night with Republican candidates for president in this evening’s debate. Look for the evil empire to flex its muscles.

PRO AND CON

One reason I like living in America is the truth of bargains at thrift stores; one reason I dislike being here is hearing the lies about the bailout of GM.

How can GM report the highest annual profit ( $7.59 billion) in its 103 year history? This 62% increase means it earned $4.7 BILLION in 2010. GM credits sales of cars and trucks, but in truth a bailout at taxpayers expense took them out of the red into the black in the first place and a second expense incurred from purchases of their vehicles.

How can GM claim little debt and $38.8 billion in liquidity? Well, it was ‘bailed’ out with billions of taxpayers dollars and it will pay few U.S. taxes for years to come as a result of the government’s rescue at taxpayers’ expense.

What are the concessions, cost cutting measures or new procedures to reduce expenses? GM will stick to its labor agreements and prohibit further plant closings through 2014. GM workers will keep their existing pensions ( a $24.5 billion shortfall).

Profit margins at GM are stalled at 2.9% of sales. The present stock price of $27.00 would need to exceed $50 a share for the U.S. government to break even on the rescue, yet the Treasure would consider selling out at $30. Why?

GM tries to blame a $747 million dollar loss on the European debt crisis, never looking into their back lot of overspending. Their Chief Executive Dan Akerson says sales will grow in 2012 but he could not predict whether GM will make more money this year. Where then will come any future profits?

Now to the kicker… a profit-sharing bonus check of $7,000 will be given to 47,500 United Auto Workers. In addition to which they will receive $250 each person meeting quality targets. Why? Do the math to learn that this totals $332,500,000 million dollars at taxpayers’ expense.

No real profit exists, only lies. GM still operates at the taxpayers’ expense.

No bargain at a thrift store will compensate for this outrage, this theft of my freedom and the freedoms of my fellow Americans.

Music at Odds

Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson, the white commander of the First South Carolina Volunteers, in the Civil war, wrote often in his diary of the songs of the black soldiers and their music. “Give these people their tongues, their feet and their leisure and they are happy. ” marveled Higginson. “At every twilight the air is full of singing, talking and clapping of hands in unison.” In 1866, after Emancipation, the Jubilee Singers of Fisk University was established in Nahville, Tennessee by the American Missionary Association to keep negro spirituals alive. The words of songs recorded by this Colonel Higginson from the first volunteer regiment were sung. Simple they were, poignant they be still, but complicated they were not.

Ride on King Jesus,
No man can a-hinder me.
Ride on King Jesus,
No man can a-hinder me.

This old hammer killed John Henry,
This old hammer killed John Henry,
This old hammer killed John Henry,
But it won’t kill me!
No, it won’t kill me!

Swing Low, sweet chariot,
Coming for to carry me home.
Swing low, sweet chariot,
Coming for to carry me home.

Mr. Rabbit, Mr. Rabbit,
Your ears are mighty long.
Yes, kind sir,
They’re put on wrong!
Every little soul must shine, shine, shi-ine.
Every little soul must shine, shine, shine.

There is a balm in Gilead,
To make the wounded whole.
There is a balm in Gilead,
To heal the sin-sick soul.

Kum Ba Ya, My Lord
Kum Ba Ya
Kum Ba Ya, My Lord
Kum Ba Ya

In contrast, 20th century nature lovers and populist poets speak.

Country Sunset
Soft opalescent pinks and blue
of fluid sunset sky
Show abalone pearl-tipped clouds,
sea-shells – hung up to dry.

Country Stream
The lovely stream
So country-free
Now skirts a hill,
Now skips a tree,
Then, leaving shade
Where willows toss
Their gray-green leaves,
It runs across.

A slanting meadow
Daisy-starred,
Then lingers by
A near farmyard
Where, after seeming
Rest, once more
It turns and twists on
As before.

Winter Noise

Silently they fall – the first snowflakes,
Shrouding the world in white.
Cold and wondrous – this winter season
Icy streams bubbling over stones
Chickadees and finches
Calling to their mates.
Through woods of bare tree tops
Old man winter whispers his frosty breath
Branches creak and sway in the frozen silence,
Echoes of woodpeckers tap, tap, tapping.
A pause and then-
The thunderous quiet of winter.



Simple rhythmic repetition or complicated thought. Which do you prefer? You decide between two musical traditions at odds with each other.

Where's Whitney?

When asked who’s Whitney Houston after her recent death, I said, ‘a singer.’ But now I am able to ask, “Where’s Whitney?” I made it a point to hear her ‘perfect’ rendition of the Star Spangled Banner at the Super Bowl years ago, and her ‘beautiful’ rendition of her signature love song. Wow what a gifted woman But where’s Whitney now?

She had it all – beauty, voice, acting talent, money, love.

She threw it all away by the irresponsibility of alcohol and drugs ( and more ?).

Her over-the-top maudlin, worshiping and sentimental funeral aims to celebrate her life and her ‘home-going,’ presumably to Heaven. Has Heaven’s owner approved? Perhaps, Whitney’s funeral is for a Hell-going.

Remember, when the masses shouted, “Off with their heads,” to the King and Queen of France during the ignominious French Revolution? Not a good outcome. Disaster. The masses and media have now demanded that the flag of New Jersey’s capitol be flown at half-mast in tribute to Whitney Houston. Not a good omen. Silly but Sad.

Admitting a Heaven, presumes a Hell. Who’s to say who occupies either address? Who has the right to presume to judge?

The Bible says, to those to whom much has been given, much is asked. We just witnessed a ‘fail’ on the ask part. Much was given (talent) and that’s all.

Socialism and Education

Marx envisaged two lines of action to destroy the bourgeoise; one violent revolution, the other a slow increase in state power through extended social services, taxation, and regulation, to the point where a smooth transition could be effected from an individualist to a collectivist society. When ‘violent’ tyranny was the result. When ‘slow’ poverty and decline were the result.

In contrast, private property, production for profit and by private ownership and regulation by a free competitive economy, bring maximum prosperity and maximum freedom. No one can bring prosperity to himself without bringing it to others ( except where prosperity is due to government subvention).

Every day of this Obama administration, the goals of Marx’s silent revolution play out. The words of H.G. Wells sound out louder and louder: “Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.”

The results of laissez-faire education (that is value-free), mis-education if you will, were exposed in the 1930’s already by Albert Jay Nock:
Nature takes her own time, sometimes a long time, about exacting her penalty- but exact it in the end she always does, and to the last penny. It would appear, then, that a society which takes no account of the educable person, makes no place for him, does nothing with him, is taking a considerable risk; so considerable that in the whole course of human experience, as far as our records go, no society ever yet has taken it without coming to disaster.

The key word here is ‘educable,’ meaning exposure to the contrast between socialism (Marxism) and individualism in a free-market society and the conclusion that the former is undesirable and a lie and the latter is the best truth possible for real living.

Ongoing Struggle

When an undergraduate dared question the establishment, a firestorm of controversy erupted 61 years ago.

William F. Buckley Jr. wrote in “God and Man at Yale,” in 1951 these two sentences:
“I believe that the duel between Christianity and atheism is the most important in the world. I further believe that the struggle between individualism and collectivism is the same struggle reproduced on another level.”

In conjunction with various thinkers over time who have echoed my Tea Party philosophy, I believe that government should not do anything which individuals or voluntary associations can more efficiently do for themselves. Capitalist or free-enterprise economics have succeeded very well in the Western World in raising tremendously the volume of production and standard of living. Needless spending beyond other reasonable means of repayment further weakens civilization’s progress.

Where will America be in another 61 years if the advice of Buckley, 61 years ago and me in 2012 continue to be ignored in academe, in our public schools, in our Washington establishment, in our courts, in our general cultural climate? Christianity ( God ) and Man ( individualism as opposed to the State and Socialism) continue in a death struggle early into 2012.

WILFUL BLINDNESS

Somehow in the 1980s we redefined in our schools colonialism, slavery, and imperialism as exclusively European, rather than merely human pathologies — as if the Arab world did not match or trump the European slave trade, as if the Ottomans had no empire before the Europeans in the Mediterranean, as if Persians, Japanese, and Chinese had not sought to conquer, enslave, and exploit their weaker neighbors.
We seem to have forgotten that what is admirable in the U.S. is not just the result of the vast American landscape, a natural selection of the more audacious and risk-taking immigrants, frontier life, and the resulting rugged individualism, but because the Founders were nursed on the European Enlightenment, Christianity was imported from Europe, and Anglo-Saxon law was built upon in a new continent. We live in such a strange age of lies: to say the above is considered heresy, but to live our daily lives on political or economic premises other than the above is synonymous with chaos and misery. So we live two lives: the counterfeit one that we declaim loudly in a politically correct fashion, and the real one we live by but do not dare articulate.

Left vs. Right

"Well! I'll be G-d d----d if I'm going to pray if we aren't going to fight." This sentiment from a Union sailor during the Civil War shows the inherent bond between religion and war. It could have an application to the war between left and right Americas today. It's a historical fact that guns and the Bible (war and religion)have propelled 'civilization'. They go together as part of the human condition. Opposing this factual combination just reflects ignorance or wishful thinking. How do we know civilization has advanced? Two examples from the Union Navy: 1. The inclusion of contrabands (former slaves)into the ritual of the grog ration was a significant advance for racial relations, 2. The limited insertion of contrabands into night watches(the lookout) meant that they possessed the same discretion, judgment and intelligence as whites.
How do we apply the sailor's profane wisdom to today's political scene? The left not only opposes both war and religion, but also denies its inherent symbiosis. The right accepts reality and proposes that it be improved by prayers and a fight against encroachment of individual freedoms.

TAXATION IS THEFT

So the very existence of taxation – any taxation – opens the door wider to those who wish to use the state to butt further into other people’s business. It’s true that we can marshal theories and arguments about the analytical primacy of the private; the analytical (and in some cases also temporal) primacy of private property; and the analytical (and also sometimes temporal) primacy of social order.

But the fact remains that there is no method of taxation that avoids significant arbitrariness in its application and consequences. (“If X is taxed, why not tax Y, too?!”) It’s this arbitrariness – which is practically inseparable from the fiat that is legislation – that opens the door wider to those who claim, in one breath, not to wish to mind other people’s private business but, in a second breath, insist that much of what looks to non-”Progressives” as private is, alas, really public and, therefore, the business of us all.

The second reaction is one that I heard on the radio yesterday. It’s a reaction by U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) to the brouhaha over Obamacare’s confrontation with the Catholic church over health-insurance to cover contraception.

Here’s what Ms. Gillibrand said (in a tone of extraordinary self-righteousness): “The power to decide whether or not to use contraception lies with a woman – not her boss. What is more intrusive than trying to allow an employer to make medical decisions for someone who works for them?”

The twisted logic underlying Ms. Gillibrand’s worldview is stunning. First she wants to collectivize health-care funding. Second, she then expresses indignance that express orders by the state on how private parties spend their funds are resisted by those private parties. And third, she parades her indignance as being a defense of private spheres of actions that ought not be intruded into by outsiders!

As Reuvain Borchardt (quoted here with his permission and original emphases) wrote to me by e-mail in response to Ms. Gillibrand furtherance of twistocracy: “Am I missing something, or is this woman an idiot? First the gov’t forces employers to provide insurance; then, when employers don’t wanna provide a service they morally oppose, the gov’t says HOW DARE YOU INTERFERE WITH PRIVATE DECISIONS! I never thought I’d be shocked by something a politician said, but frankly, Gillibrand deserves to be impeached immediately, for failing CIRCULAR LOGIC 101

Who is in league with Beelzebub now?

Here is a description from an Englishman of the character of a Yankee at the time of the Civil War, 1861: “The narrow, fanatical, and originally sincere Puritanism of their ancestors has, in the course of six generations, degenerated into that amalgam of hypocrisy, cruelty, falsehood, unconsciousness of the faintest sentiment of self-respect, coarseness of self-assertion, insensibility to the opinions of others, utter callousness to right, barbarous delight in wrong, and thoroughly moral ruffianism, which is now fully revealed to the world as the genuine Yankee nature.”

Not to be outdone, an English magazine commented about the North in “league itself with Beelzebub” and about Abraham Lincoln after his Emancipation Proclamation who …”seeks to paralyze the victorious armies of the South by letting loose upon their hearths and homes the lust and savagery of four million Negroes.”

Even Confederate sailors raiding on the seas at this time mounted a mock tombstone after Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation reading: “In Memory of Abraham Lincoln, President of the Late United States, who died of nigger on the brain. 1st January, 1863.

Are we not lucky that we have moved past racial and political hyperbole? Or have we just substituted masterful prestidigitation by our Commander in Chief? Recently he mandated that Catholic organizations must provide contraception. Today he mandates that Catholic organizations are except from providing contraception but their insurance plans must provide contraception. This is the same mandate portrayed as an exception and reconsideration to ameliorate moral concerns.

Who is in league with Beelzebub now?

Audacity of Hopelessness

Man, Oh man, it never ends… the audacity of hopelessness in our Obama administration. Leading from the affront to our liberties, Obama’s latest edict clinches my case. Within a few days, we have suffered from three attacks. #1. on religious conscience with the rule that Catholic organizations and health providers must pay for birth control and contraception in their insurance coverage. #2. on bread (the staff of life raised and baked with virtually no salt) which the CDC ( Center for Disease Control) claims accounts for the bulk of our dangerously high salt intake. #3. on banks that must be punished with $20 billion dollars ( some of which is going to Acorn) and new mandates for ‘tricking’ consumers in home loans even though these banks were ‘blackmailed’ by the government into writing mortgages with risky or no credit.

For whatever delusional hopes Democrats had in voting for Obama and a better, united nation, they should be ashamed. Obama and his liberal transformers have exercised the audacity of hopelessness - proud of it, successful at it and shining no light at the end of the tunnel of doom.

Serving one’s self

Getting rich in public service - is this what God had in mind when he called his favorites, good and faithful servants? When a farmer said, “Self is the best servant”? Politicians enrich themselves at every turn, with pork. If what is legal becomes the norm rather than what is moral, we are all going to be very poor. The names of politicians should be on the front page of the Washington Post every day until election day and their constituents should vote them out of office regardless of what they have “accomplished” with other people’s money.

From the Washington Post: A U.S. senator from Alabama directed more than $100 million in federal earmarks to renovate downtown Tuscaloosa near his own commercial office building. A congressman from Georgia secured $6.3 million in taxpayer funds to replenish the beach about 900 feet from his island vacation cottage. A representative from Michigan earmarked $486,000 to add a bike lane to a bridge within walking distance of her home. Thirty-three members of Congress have directed more than $300 million in earmarks and other spending provisions to dozens of public projects that are next to or within about two miles of the lawmakers’ own property, according to a Washington Post investigation. Under the ethics rules Congress has written for itself, this is both legal and undisclosed. The Post analyzed public records on the holdings of all 535 members and compared them with earmarks members had sought for pet projects, most of them since 2008. The process uncovered appropriations for work in close proximity to commercial and residential real estate owned by the lawmakers or their family members. The review also found 16 lawmakers who sent tax dollars to companies, colleges or community programs where their spouses, children or parents work as salaried employees or serve on boards.

A congressman, Hastings sought an earmark for a project near property he was selling to his brother. In 2009, he secured $750,000 toward the planning of a new bridge that will replace an outdated railroad underpass in Pasco, Wash. Hastings certified that he and his wife had “no financial interest” in the earmark. Hastings noted on his Web site that the project would “improve the safety of motorists and pedestrians, while improving freight mobility and response times for emergency services.” He said nothing, however, about its proximity to Columbia Basin Paper & Supply, the janitorial supply company that Hastings owned and ran until he was elected. His brother now operates the company. County records show Hastings and his wife still own the land and a 7,000-square-foot building. The overpass, as planned, will start about three blocks away. “After winning election in 1994, the Congressman acted to remove himself from the business as he took office and made an agreement with his brother for him to purchase it over time,” wrote Erin Daly, Hastings’s press secretary. City officials said replacing the underpass is one of their top priorities. In an interview, Hastings said the location of his property had no bearing on his support for the project. “It never crossed my mind.”

“SELF IS THE BEST SERVANT.” words from a hard-working farmer ( who loved the land) early in the 20th century, reflect the true meaning of personal responsibility to self and society.

Post Super Bowl thoughts

The 1% players and entertainers at the Super Bowl, supported by the 99% patrons – a lesson in hypocrisy. The liberal OWS ( Occupy Wall Street) camps across America should be protesting, not corporate greed, but the privileged 1% of sports players and coaches, celebrity entertainers, music moguls and rich, university sponsors.

Can you believe that 300,000 new books will be published this year in what is apparently still a literate nation? Can you believe that one second of a commercial during the Super Bowl cost $117,000? Can you believe that religious freedom has just been taken away from Catholics by our President Obama?

If you can believe these three pieces of reality, you might believe that a Tea Party patriot like myself takes a stand each year on Super Bowl night. I do not cast aside my repulsion of popular sports; rather I channel it by reading a book for a two hours after serving a home-made pizza on Super Bowl Sunday.

Wake up America! We have already lost ambition in many of our ‘men’, modesty in too many of our ‘women’, small freedoms in every aspect of our daily living and our retirement nest eggs to the prodigal foxes in Washington.

Mosscomes

The principles of war are Mosscomes: Mass, Objective, Security, Surprise, Command, Offensive, Maneuver, Economy of Force and Simplicity. For success in battle, planning must follow these traditional, time-tested Principles of War. The biggest lesson learned from following these principles is that if you have a distinct mission, reliable intelligence, well-trained troops, responsible and decisive commanders, and a winning spirit, success can only be the result. With our current Commander-in-Chief in the White House, does this still ring true?

You bettcha! I read an expose of Obama's style of governance-checking boxes for his preferred political choices. Minions, carry out his decisions. I suppose that if each of the Mosscomes were perverted to liberal, Alinsky tactics (and strategy) Obama could be said to adhere to them tried and true. Especially maintaining an offensive ( pun intended) speaking style. Simply put, Obama intends to 'totally transform America.' What a warrior, alias community organizer!

Pick Three

Three or three, take your pick. After a nutcake opened the cages of his wild animals in Ohio (having fed them with 3000 lbs. of chicken a week, no mean feat), and then committed suicide, a new law says private individuals cannot own exotic pets unless they follow new, stricter regulations. There are exemptions, however, for circuses, zoos and research facilities.

On Feb. 23, 1945, internees, paratroopers and guerrillas, three strands, came together for a rescue operation of over 2000 prisoners, at Los Banos, in the Philippines.

Why must every no include a yes or a possibility? Even Obamacare has issued over 1000 exemptions. Why must a total non sequitor like a suicide that led to a massacre of escaped wild animals require new laws? Why must a plea deal provide for an escape from the death penalty for who who truly deserves to die?

Take your pick between two trios - circuses, zoos and research facilities as exemptions or internees, paratroopers and guerrillas as exceptions in courage. I choose the latter. Daily, one needs an uplifting moment in the course of our depressing grind.

Republicans Hate Tea Party

“Across America, state Republican parties and legislators are pursuing the opponents they most despise with renewed vigor.

You would think that the targets of these efforts are President Barack Obama and Democratic Party officeholders who are hell-bent on turning America into a financially broken, post-constitutional, Washington-controlled playground safe only for crony capitalists and regulators gone wild. You would be wrong.

In Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Utah, to name just four, state GOP establishments are laboring mightily to marginalize the millions of constitutional conservatives whose activist energy (but not their outlook) dates back to the beginnings of the Tea Party movement three years ago. By their behavior, it’s clear that those who run many state parties and quite a few incumbent moderate Republican lawmakers are more threatened than pleased at the results of the 2010 elections, when the GOP took back the U.S. House and significantly improved its representation in statehouses and state legislatures. Oh, they’re happy with the majorities they have, and want to pick up control of the U.S. Senate this time around. They just don’t like many of the people who won the races which gave them those majorities, would rather not see any more interlopers come in and try to upset the status quo, and are targeting several newbies for political extinction.”

AND NOW TO OHIO:
“.............because the state’s party apparatus has surely taken notes on how to fend off status quo disrupters from Kevin DeWine and Ohio’s establishment Republicans. Having more than one candidate besides Welch will virtually guarantee the others’ defeat. Readers will see why shortly.

In 2010, DeWine, chairman of the Buckeye State’s Republican Party (or, as I prefer to call it, ORPINO, the Ohio Republican Party In Name Only), successfully fended off Tea Party-supported primary insurgents in two statewide races. At the same time, he orchestrated a campaign to protect State Central Committee supporters from Tea Party challengers which was so dishonest that it might make even Team Obama blush. It included largely false claims in flyers and ads that ORPINO’s favored candidates had “Tea Party Values,” and dispatching poll watchers throughout the state on Election Day to hand out slate cards supporting the establishment’s statewide ticket and individual Central Committee members.

Because of ORPINO’s extraordinary related primary spending spree, Kevin’s coffers were apparently so low that according to House Majority Leader Bill Batchelder, DeWine asked potential donors to steer their money to the party instead of to individual candidates. On top of that:

A source close to (now-governor John) Kasich said that DeWine, a month before the 2010 elections, asked donors not to give to Kasich, and instead to give to the candidacies of Republicans Jon Husted and Dave Yost, who were running for secretary of state and auditor, respectively.

Everyone knew that Kasich was in a tightening race against incumbent Governor Ted Strickland. Kasich won by only 2% of the vote.

This sordid saga has led me and many others in Ohio to believe that DeWine wouldn’t mind if the generally Tea Party-sympathetic Kasich becomes so damaged that he decides not to run for reelection in 2014, clearing the way for ORPINO golden boy Husted. That Husted lived illegally outside of his district when he was a state rep and state senator (my opinion, and sadly not that of the courts) and did a complete about-face on the need to require voter identification at the polls once he was safely elected (now he thinks that voter-ID is a really bad idea) seem not to matter. Husted is currently attempting to visit all 88 Ohio counties because he claims it will help him perform better in his current position. Sure, John.

Some people I have spoken to believe that it was naive of Kasich to expect that DeWine would become constructive after giving in to a purge of most of his staff after the 2010 elections. Really? When was the last time Democratic National Committee Chairman Debbie Wasserman Schultz openly and bitterly criticized the Obama administration? Unfortunately, DeWine hasn’t mellowed a bit, and the two are openly feuding. Kasich is attempting to run an opposition Central Committee slate in this year’s primary which I fear is destined to suffer the same fate as the attempt two years ago. Just in case my prediction is wrong, DeWine is trying to rewrite the Central Committee qualification rules at the last minute to prevent insurgent winners who haven’t voted in the last three statewide primaries from being seated.

A state party chairman who is at serious loggerheads with his governor should recognize the need to step aside in favor of someone who will cooperate. Kevin DeWine won’t do that. Unless something changes, and quickly, the center-right atmosphere in this most important of swing states in next month’s primary and the fall general election will be quite acrid.

This leads to potentially the biggest problem of them all, which is that the GOP establishment and its pundit class constitute the sorest of sore losers. They have expected genuine conservatives to swallow their pride for decades and vote for moderate squishes who were in some ways barely better than their Democratic brethren (e.g., John McCain, Bob Dole, and Gerald Ford nationally, as well as more state and local candidates than one can hope to count). But as was the case in 1980 with Ronald Reagan, it appears that there is no establishment desire to reciprocate and provide meaningful resources to the winners if their people lose, starting with Mitt Romney and his acolytes at the national level and moving on down from there — even if it leads to Barack Obama’s reelection.”

Please, people. Say it isn’t so.

Evil Investments

Private-equity firms exist for one reason - to create value for shareholders, the largest percentage of which are public pension funds. How evil does this sound? They do this by finding and investing in underperforming businesses that have potential for growth ( not actual growth at the time of acquisition). If a business doesn’t grow, investors and jobs suffer; if it does prosper, shareholders win and employees have jobs. How evil does this sound? Not very, in my opinion. Private investments, not government ownership ( public) therefore, drive incomes or losses in individuals’ pension and retirement funds.

If criminality and greed enter into this equation, the equation itself is not evil. The persons practicing criminal behavior and possessed by greed are evil. Let’s not transfer guilt onto the bulk of legal, capitalist and beneficial private-equity firms, bolstering our economy and the savings and investments of ordinary citizens.

Elites vs. Tea Party

"There is a religious war going on in this country for the soul of America. It is a cultural war as critical to the kind of nation we shall be as the Cold War itself. And in that struggle for the soul of America, Clinton and Clinton are on the other side and George Bush is on our side." Who was Bill Clinton?

According to a George W. Bush supporter, he was ..." a womanizing, Elvis-loving, non-inhaling, truth-shading, war-protesting, draft-dodging, abortion-protecting, gay-promoting, gun-hating baby boomer."

So what's wrong with truth? Everything today. The Republican Party should embrace the Tea Party movement; co-opt it, embrace it. But what has been happening? We have been rejected and marginalized by the status-quo promoting, elite-lifestyle loving, perk and pork-promoting, compromise-seeking, power-preserving, big-spending, abortion ignoring, subsidy-sustaining, conservative-rejecting good 'ole boys' network.

What Pat Buchanan expressed in the above quote about our culture in a past Presidency, rings true again today, pre-2012's political, Presidential election.