Does history repeat itself?

Does history repeat itself? Belshazzar, the son of the last king of Babylon ( the classically indulgent capital), saw “the handwriting on the wall” at a sumptuous feast. Archetypally corrupt and decadent as a ruler, tottering on the brink of overthrow or disaster, he was then shaken by palsy ( whatever the Biblical meaning). Now if Barack Obama IS a Christian as he asserts, can he, will he, certainly he does not now, see the handwriting on the wall of his anti-American regime? A Tea Party member just enjoys the irony of asking the question.

“disruption in collective values"

Is America experiencing a “disruption in collective values?” Yes, when the Tea Party waves the American flag at rallies, it’s signifying this problem. This phrase from a political sociologist, Charles Wright Mills early in the middle of the last century, explains the 1960's sexual and social revolutions ( think urban riots in ‘64, ‘65, ‘67 and ‘68 and eventual Roe.vs.Wade decision). But does it explain the cultural and racial divide today between black and white, elites and ordinary Americans? Mills was a Columbia elitist, famous for his ‘talk’ but never ‘walked the walk’ to solve societal problems. He merely posited questions. Obama, on the other hand, has chosen Marx over Weber, employing Marxism to govern. He subsidizes (offer tax breaks) to his favorite but losing alternative energy causes) but demands Congress remove the normal tax breaks ( given to most businesses) from oil companies. He claims that this is doing the ‘will of the people’, unaware ( or is he?) that the people count on oil for daily living and often for their retirement investments.

Name day

Girls’ names from local paper: Breanna, Haylee, Brooklyn, Shelbee, Meadow, Jaylynn, Payton, Sydney, Casey, Deidre, Jenna, Kristin, Sammy, Kayla, Tori, Regan, Kaylee, Alexa, Savanna, Nivea, Kylie, Makayla, Aki, Alyssa, Payton, Bailee, Taylynn, Hayley, Taya, Shane, Natasha, Carleigh. OMG, what does this trend mean? Parents can’t spell; the public can’t pronounce these names. Past times, the saints, the Bible or a significant person led the way to names, such as Rita, Kathy, Mary, Margaret, Anita, Anna, Roberta, Carol and Bernice. Today, the worlds of the soaps and entertainment influence choice. Is the answer just stupidity? I also noted a few boys’ names: Trey, Easton, Brantlyn, Laike and Kaden. CASE CLOSED. Reality pains me.

A TAX OR NOT?

Did the rubes in the gallery of the Supreme Court get it? Of course, they did. On March 26th, they chuckled at the hypocrisy of calling a tax not a tax until but it’s a tax. March 26th, the day of the 1st hearing on Obamacare is only a few days after the anniversary of the March 22, 1765 passage of the Stamp Act against the American colonies. It too was fiercely resisted because it was an unapproved (authorized) TAX, an instance of knocking down freedom. We had no Constitution then, but we still had common sense. At least the Tea Party sees through the smoke and mirrors of big government interference.

'Entitled' to the Dream

I heard an ad that asked whether the American Dream was dead. It depends. The ad said we are entitled to expect the American dream. Not really. Saving the dream depends not on how much you earn, but how much you save and spend. There’s nothing dreamy about real actions, goal oriented to future wealth.

Obama's Secret Plea to Russia

Obama's 'secret' plea to Russia
From Investors Business Daily by Andrew Malcolm

Barack Obama has, like most in public life, made his share of gaffes--the president of Canada, 57 states, the Austrian language, E Pluribus Unum, the pronunciation of corpsman, among others. To be sure, they are stunning signs of ignorance of things that are common wisdom for most, even Harvard alums.

Closet [ meaning the mainstream media] Obama supporters will seek to downplay the incident. But his Monday mis-step is huge politically and may well come to haunt and hurt him as Republican Mitt Romney rolls out the attack plan for this fall's campaign and before. Of all the GOP wannabes, Romney has been Obama's most outspoken critic, especially on the Democrat's "failed leadership" in foreign policy.

A main strain of Romney's assaults has been basically, Given the spending, chronic ineptness and apologies for America, can you imagine what Barack Obama would do in a second term unrestrained by any need to face voters ever again?

That's an effective line because it leaves the worst things possible to voters' imagination. And there is no response. What can Obama say, "My secret plans aren't as bad as you think."

What makes Obama's Monday blunder so bad is that it doesn't come from any sort of dismissable ignorance by someone who spent formative childhood years in Indonesia. It was clearly backstage conniving on Obama's part and feeds directly into Romney's 'Can you imagine' line.

Plus, it fits with the suspicions of millions that the community organizer has unspoken plans to take America in a transformative direction involving much more government. How else to explain his baldly touting more domestic energy while reducing federal drilling permits and torpedoing the Keystone pipeline?

The Etch-a-Sketch line by a Romney aide played into the meme that he might remake himself for the general election, something every successful primary candidate does to reach the broader audience necessary to win beyond one party. In 2008, the autumn Obama promising a centrist fiscal policy was a far cry from the spring primary fellow vying with Hillary Clinton for union support.

Now, Obama's gaffe suggests to opponents their suspicions are credible about the Democrat's hidden agenda that he sought secretly to discuss with the Russian.

[Tom McLaughlin: Romney is my last choice as a Republican but he’s a world ahead of ‘the Community Organizer’.]

Soldier Dogs

The U.S. Dept. of Defense utilizes 2700 pieces of ‘equipment’ called patriot dogs, 600 of which serve in war zones. To date statistics reveal that 17 handlers have been killed and 44 dogs have died. Cost effectiveness has been proven. Humaneness ranks high. Positive reinforcement validates the program. Then they are the bonds between soldiers. Are we a great country or what?
This is a plug for the new book “Soldier Dogs,” by Maria Goodavage

Semper Fidelis

In 1796, Napoleon wrote: “No occurrence of any of my other battlefields impressed me so keenly. I halted on my tour to gaze at the spectacle and reflect on its meaning...This soldier, I realized, must have had friends at home and in his regiment; yet he lay there deserted by all except his dog... I had looked on, unmoved, at battles which decided the future of nations. Tearless, I have given orders which brought death to thousands. Yet here I was stirred, profoundly stirred, stirred to tears. And by what? The grief of one dog.” ( Napoleon had come across a loyal dog sitting by a soldier’s corpse, groaning and licking his hand).

In 2000, Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD) introduced HR 5314 to allow adoption of military dogs. He wrote: “Our service dogs must be honored and treated as heroes because that is what they are. And they must be allowed to retire to loving homes, as any soldier is. They have served us with honor and distinction, and have saved countless American sons and daughters from injury and death. They have risked their own death and injury for no more than the love and affection of their handlers. They would never, ever have left us behind, and they would never give up on us because we were too old or infirm to do our jobs anymore. If they can offer us this sort of service and devotion, how can we do less for them? We own them.”

"Free" or "Crony" Markets

Which should America support - ‘free markets’ for energy sources that are cost effective or ‘free subsidies’ doled out by the administration for wind, solar, thermal or algae that are wasted on crony capitalism? The Tea Party has known all along that Obama only talks to college students ( even OSU) whose hormones are receptive to deceptive mush about alternative energy sources, gorged on subsidies and grants. Reasoning persons know they cannot provide more than a few percentage points worth of energy compared with cheap and available coal and gas and that they don’t require subsidies and grants. We know the XL pipe line promise he made today is made with crossed fingers. What can we do other than educate each and every person we meet on a daily basis?

Adolescents in College!

Who says most college students belong in college? Not me. After Obama’s visit to OU to talk energy policy, it’s apparent adolescents fall for any cause; they are all about romance and nothing about reason. Some youth pass through the irrational years without incident or connection, but most do not. Then we have the black, female? college ‘student’ ranting proof of the lack of natural selection in a class on evolution in Florida. Watch the video, a further example that higher education should be reserved for the select few. Where does the Tea Party stand? Strongly against such a waste of time and money, of course - on teachers, tuition and talent. Watch the video of continuous f... words ( and more) for proof of the absence of return on your subsidized investment.

INFLATION

In the 1930's: 5 cents bought a loaf of bread, 10 cents a gallon of gas, 75 cents a T-Bone steak dinner, $15.00 a used car. $1.00 could feed a family of 8 for a day. All other food and commodities were prices respectively. In 2012, gas is almost $4.00 a gallon, my Aldi bottom-of-line bread 79 cents a loaf, I can feed two senior citizens for about $7.00 a day and beef is priced out of my ethics. Enough said.

Read Animal Farm

The common folk are being told by the Obama administration not to travel to danger-ridden Mexico. Yet Malia, age 13, with 13 of her school friends can spring vacation there protected by 25 secret service agents at your expense. Some children are more equal than others. The common folk are being told not to feed the homeless in New York by Mayor Bloomberg because the food might be danger-ridden by too much salt, fat, sugar or fiber. Yet Alexandria Pelosi interviewed welfare recipients in New York who crunched on chips, sipped beer and blew smoke into her face in total defiance of Nanny Blooberg’s orders. Some people are obviously more equal than others. The President you say is the President who can break all the rules? Black men and white women who live on government checks ( of various kinds) are more equal than you and me who cannot skip work any time we might dream of doing so? Dream on. Meanwhile, read Animal Farm, a fiction book, yes, not true unless you apply it to the real world today.

Safety in numbers

There’s safety in numbers. By the 1980’s Communist Russia contributed only 2% of the world trade. 300 large towns lacked central sewage systems. Only 1/5th of the roads were all-weather. More than 100 million people were crammed into less than 9 square meters of living space.

There were only 16 million Catholics in Africa in 1950. By 2006, 2 years after the death of Pope John Paul II, there were 120 million; this number is expected to climb to 228 million by 2025. 75% of Catholics will be living in non-Communist Asia, Africa and Latin America by 2025.

Back home, ObamaCare is now projected to cost American taxpayers 2 trillion dollars over the coming 10 years.

Communism, Catholicism, liberalism – examples from 3 distinct life forms noted above. What safety net can be thrown to us?

One in 110?

Is it true that one in 110 children develop autism? That over the past 20 years, there’s been a 600% rise in cases of autism? YES if you change the qualifications for diagnosis and increase funding from government to foster its agenda. YES, autism is a fraud.

Except in the sports arena. Now that its’ bracket time and MARCH MADNESS, I can prove that the developmentally challenged do not go unnoticed or will not soon fade away from popular sports. What is the answer to a question from a coach about an upcoming basketball game? “Just be better than the team you’re playing,” he says. JUST WIN? DUH?

Brilliant, deep analysis? If there’s a hate crime against tall people or against autistic hoops disorder, I’m afflicted, I’m a victim. I’ve felt this way since childhood. I’m totally withdrawn into myself and my prejudice against basketball as a boring, bounceball sport, tattooed tall man’s venue. Ironically, I consider myself intelligent.

No need for good teachers

1. A good teacher comprehends his subject
2. A good teacher must be able to communicate his knowledge
3. A good teacher must enjoy being in a classroom
4. A good teacher believes in serving each student’s future
No, no, no, no We do not need good teachers ( overpaid or underperforming). We need students - ‘ready’ to learn, meaning they know their duties and responsibilities as students. Even in the presence of a droning, dull instructor, a math student, for example, can learn math if he/she listens, practices skills, does homework and accepts his role in the classroom (or internet). Nothing bugs me more than getting the major premise wrong or backward.

Riot of Robins

it’s spring
and a riot of robins
whipped on wings across
my yard…males meant
to murder each other or
at least threaten such.

each day now,
copper breasts wake me
with cheery song and
pull down the sun
with lilting words.

first about, last light,
Who gives thrushes
with blue-egged nests,
and hope for change
permission to be?

WE WANT GOD

Crowds in Victory Square in Warsaw Poland, millions of Polish enthusiasts, during Pope John Paul II’s visit in 1983, shouted: “We want God, we want God, we want God in the family, we want God in the Schools, we want God in books.”

I know what you are thinking. Millions of Americans today need to be rallying, shouting: “We want God, we want God, we want God in the family, we want God in the schools, we want God in books.

The world too much with us

A policeman tazes a 9 yr. old who wouldn’t attend school.
Whole Foods -thanks to subsidies and tax credits- will build a store in Midtown Detroit.
Pick up your trash or it will eventually float in to the ocean – keepoceansclean.org.
Thieves steel a few dollars worth of copper tubing and flood an entire church.
A study finds more liquor and cigarettes equal more food stamps fraud.
A program helps upsidedown homeowners who owe more than a home’s worth.
Too busy for more than 1 dental visit? Come to Stone Creek, one time only.
A Bravo cable show shines a light on (mega-rich) called Shahs of Sunset.
Fracking (waste water disposal from gas drilling probably causes earthquakes.
Energy saving light bulbs for $50 will save you $100’s of dollars a year.
A psychiatric facility doesn’t understand the motivation of a gunman who opened fire.
The Pope is ‘political’ for objecting to forced contraception, but not the President.
Coach Urban Meyer apologizes when GLBT’s object to a lavender jersey.
Young people are smoking more than ever after all the punishment press.
Finally we have a bill in Ohio to protect to wild animals in captivity.
Unemployment’s down; manufacturing’s up.
After 1 yr. Japan’s is still being scapegoated for an act of God, the tsunami.
Easter Seals wants parents to diagnose ‘developmental delay’ early in their children.

Each item above was mentioned in the ‘news.’ Lies, nonsense, non sequitors, stupidity? All of the above if you choose to admit reality; none of the above if you laugh yourself

The Upward Look by Boethius

In what divers shapes and fashions do the creatures great and small
Over wide earth’s teeming surface skim, or scud, or walk, or crawl!
Some with elongated body sweep the ground, and , as they move,
Trail perforce with writhing belly in the dust a sinuous groove;
Some, on light wing upward soaring, swiftly do the winds divide,
And through heaven’s ample spaces in free motion smoothly glide;
These earth’s solid surface pressing, with firm paces onward rove,
Ranging through the verdant meadows, crouching in the woodland grove.
Great and wondrous is their variance! Yet in all the head low-bent
Dulls the soul and blunts the senses, though their forms be different.
Man alone, erect, aspiring, lifts his forehead to the skies,
And in upright posture steadfast seems earth’s baseness to despise.
If with earth not all besotted, to this parable give ear,
Thou whose gaze is fixed on heaven, who thy face on high dost rear:
Lift they soul, too, heavenward; haply lest it stain its heavenly7 worth,
And thine eyes alone look upward, while they mind cleaves to the earth!

What with the insanity of news daily delivered to us mortals, how fitting we should “gaze”… “upward.”

TEA PARTY

Unsilenced Cal asks: Do you know when the Tea Party began? Ans. After the February 19, 2009 rant by Rick Santelli about Obama’s ‘Housing Bailout’ on CNBC . But, that was just giving a popular name to a movement, already in progress, against government’s out-of-control spending. The movement began with protests in 2008 against the TARP giveaway begun by Pres. Geo.W. Bush. I know because I then stood with other angered and aroused Americans in Columbus. In a mere 3 years, the Tea Party movement has re-invigorated debate about three key principles - Fiscal Responsibility, Constitutional Limited Government and Free Markets. Sounds simple, but if you don’t go back to what was right in our history, you won’t know what’s wrong with our government today. The Tea Party has not one leader but thousands of leaders, each a ‘visionary’ fighter like you and me working to improve conditions in 5 aspects of life in Obamaland. More on that tomorrow. PS. Ask God to especially reward a Marine father who recently died trying to rescue his two children from a fire in his home.

Voter Blindness

Unsilenced Cal asks you to visit Boethius awaiting his execution 1500 years ago, as he consoles himself with a philosophical discussion about life and fate. Boethius tells us that wealth, rank, power, glory and pleasure are ranked in the highest renown and associated with the highest excellence. Worldly fame is always prized. Both Obama and Romney - who just won Ohio due to the counts in the big cities- fit the definition of a fortunate man. But Boethius also tells us that the blindness of ignorance renders a man weak and feeble. So who by virtue of his ignorance of what’s good for America is the weaker of the Presidential candidates, not the stronger? The Tea Party hopes it is man who can reduce the power of government and return more of it to the people.

Pioneer Tea Partiers

Unsilenced Cal asks what lesson can we learn from the epic path of the pioneers to Oregon called the Overland Trail? Answer – the typically American belief in the free exchange of goods, services and ideas. 350,000 people migrated, 20,000 pioneers died; 5000 in a single year. Enough of the trail’s dauntless adventuring has been recorded to keep its achievement fragrant and marvelous in memory. Let us not forget them. Free market adventurers, manufacturers and farmers alike wanted to buy and sell to make themselves prosperous. In a little more than a half century, the path of humanity westward accomplished what the Old World did not achieve in 60 centuries. Is this a great country or what? Let’s fight to keep it this way. The Oregon stampede was labeled an ‘insanity,’ but it does not equate with the insanity the Tea Party sees today emanating from Washington.

Should you Pay to Play?

Unsilenced Cal asks if Americans know the definition of a virgin. Do we care? The writer James Q. Wilson who recently died, believed ( naively?) that man is a moral creature, that our moral sense is the product of evolutionary biology or perhaps God’s law. Without it our free society cannot survive. Freedom of religion, should be, is guaranteed by our Constitution. The government cannot mandate its insignificance. So says the Tea Party. Sandra Fluke chooses to give away her virginity. Rush Limbaugh noted this on his radio show. Yet, she wants you to pay for her version of a moral sense. Obama wants you to pay for other citizens’ contraception and life choices. Whatever YOU believe. So what’s right and what’s wrong with this version of the human condition?

Perspective

Unsilenced Cal asks you to think about this. The tea party is not anti-war; it is about perspective. The tea party advocates the freedom to live in our literal world, not a Utopia envisioned, planned and implemented by liberals. Lt. Bayard Wilkerson wounded in battle on July 1st, 1863, coolly amputated his partially severed right leg with a pocket knife. Hours later he died. His father’s anguish is expressed in these words. “Oh, you dead, who at Gettysburg have baptized with your blood the second birth of freedom in America, how you are to be envied. I rise from the grave whose wet clay I have passionately kissed, and I look up and see Christ spanning the battlefield - his right hand opens the gates of paradise, and with his left, he beckons to those mutilated, bloody, swollen forms to ascend.” Dreams are nice diversions, but the government neither during the Civil War nor now can make life perfect.

Misery Index

Over time, I have become ‘fed up’ with the WSJ, it’s catering to the elite, snobbery and the 1%. Why continue to subscribe? My better half still sees value in it. That said, I point out the recent “Wait-time Misery Index” article. Waiting for the cable guy or the furniture delivery must be matters of consequence to the rich and famous. Deeply disturbing to their important routines and lifestyles, the problem must be explored and solutions suggested. For the 1%, time is money or leisure, I guess. I see it as a sign of ease and self-absorption.

Call me a poor sport, but matters of consequence are pointed out in the “Little Prince,” by Saint-Exupery, not in the WSJ’s personal journal, weekend or off-duty sections. I wonder why readers and patrons of the WSJ would splurge on any person, place or thing profiled on their pages.

In contrast to problems with anxiety for the wealthy, America’s mainstream seems to have no problem with nonsense such as represented by our local Mayor Coleman of Columbus. In a speech commemorating the bi-centennial of Ohio, his speech writer ( I doubt the phrase originated with Mr. Coleman himself ), soared to the height of rhetoric claiming that Ohio is on “the precipice of a renaissance.” Living in this state, I can tell you we are about to fall off the proverbial cliff having never seen a renewal of prosperity or morality. I cannot ignore the impossibility of his contradiction.

Speaking of contradiction, it’s the essence of reality. Salami and cheese, turkey and cheese are unacceptable lunches for a 4 yr old in today’s schools according to our liberal administration. Yet, for me, cream cheese and jelly ( or P.J. and jelly) were mainstays of childhood’s yummy nutrition. Fried chicken, biscuits, potato salad and apple pie were good enough for Rev. Billy Graham’s picnic dinners but they now represent old-fashioned unhealthy choices for politically-correct restaurants.

Us vs. them. The 1% vs. the 99%. The wealthy vs. the mainstream. Are we are letting them, the 1%, the wealthy dictate our behavior? NOT ME!