Good Grief… !

Will the madness never end?
Islamic Jihadists are swarming like cockroaches out of the ninth century in a last ditch effort to rectify the wrongs of the Crusades.
Narcissist dictators around the world strut like peacocks attempting to test our mettle.
Porous borders are leaking illegal immigrants into the country draining our welfare coffers.
California is paying its bills with IOUs—whatever that means.
The lunatic love children and latent Leninites of the 1960s and 70s have aged into positions of power at all levels of our government.
Former leaders of ADA, Weather Underground, SDS, et al. have been elected to Congress or have infiltrated our educational system at every level.
Our government is issuing Monopoly money in a vain attempt to solve economic problems decades in the making.
Propaganda is being designed to put our minds at ease and convince us that the proposed collectivist measures being undertaken are not really Socialism. It is being pumped into our homes 24/7 on full-color HDTV. A feat that would make Paul Joseph Goebbels green with envy if he could compare it to his beggarly street corner loud speakers of the 1930s.
More and more jobs are lost daily. The government is taking over industry after industry along with our banking system as we continue to increase our debt to China and India.
We pretend to to cut our dependence on foreign oil with propeller windmills and “bio-mass” fuels which are little more than burning our trash, wood, and animal dung. A practice well known to the pioneers and Native Americans as they sought dried “buffalo chips’ and sticks for fire making. Then we call that modern “green” technology. To add insult to injury we confiscate the world’s food supply to make Ethanol. This is all done, proclaims the wild-eyed Mad Woman of Shiloh in the House of Representatives, in order to “save the planet”.
But, what do the mainstream media’s mental mastodons focus on incessantly for days into weeks on end? The death of a pathetic black kid, warped and distorted throughout his childhood; the “King of Poop… Poop, Poop, Ee Doop”. His mentally disturbed antics placed him in the public eye and made him millions. He was applauded by and surrounded with xenophiles who encouraged him without negative counsel for fear of killing the “Golden Goose”. They stood by and watched as a handsome black man converted himself through the miracle of modern plastic surgery into an ugly white woman. They did nothing as he slipped ever deeper into killer addictions. Now they’re fawning all over him with hand wringing and crocodile tears and the whole world joins in.
Where are our priorities? Where is common sense? Where is the fear of the real dangers rampant around the globe? Talk about bread and circuses! I’m thinking the first fiddle in the “King’s” requiem will be named Nero.

AN OPEN LETTER TO BARNEY FRANK

Homophobe?! HOMOPHOBE!? You have the temerity to call a judge of the Supreme Court a homophobe? You ignorant, arrogant pervert! Your kind is not “feared”. They are despised and detested.
Your kind has perverted their own sexuality and attempted to pass it off as an alternative lifestyle.
They have perverted our language by calling themselves “gay” which seems rarely the case.
They have perverted our sense of decency by promoting their cause cavorting in lewd street demonstrations.
They have perverted the development of our youth by promoting their foolishness in our classrooms under the guise of tolerance and diversity.
They have perverted our right to freedom of speech by creating something called “hate speech”. Yet we must accept all manner of profanity and filth as constitutional.
They now attempt to pervert the sanctity of marriage, the very backbone of our culture. The family system of a man, a woman, and children upon which our culture was built, has grown, and has thrived since the Dark Age.
And you…, you were instrumental in the perversion of our rational system of lending money only to those with a reasonable expectation they have the ability to pay it back. This on the pretext everyone is “entitled” to a home. Now you grandiosely cast aspersions everywhere but upon yourself. Like the farter in the elevator who immediately shifts their eyes accusingly on those standing nearby.
It is not a phobia that motivates attempts to preserve the culture which built the world in which we have been privileged to live. It is anger. Anger over the destructive forces of perversity rampant in the land. Perversity perpetuated through tolerance of the irrational. Perversity through political correctness, moral equivalency, and so-called diversity.
If, indeed, homosexuality is denigrated and loathed it is because of what it has slowly and steadily foist upon our culture. I would counsel you, sir, to pray, and pray hard, that the Muslim world is unable to achieve their avowed objective of world domination. As so curiously observed by Achmedinijad; there are no homosexuals in Iran.

IS “CONSERVATIVE-ACTIVIST” AN OXYMORON ?

A friend of mine recently lamented on the “Last of the Righteous” (“Letzte der Gerechte”); I have been giving it considerable thought since his email. Putting aside for the moment the more obvious reasons for the seeming demise of conservative thinking such as so-called “political correctness” and a clumsy if not inept Republican administration; I am concerned as to what actions or non-actions have contributed to this phenomenon. And, what actions, if any, could be taken to reverse the situation.

A study of the objectives, strategies, and tactics of the liberal movement indicates their objectives are as clear today as they were at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. At that time the proletariat—no doubt still smarting from their serfdom in the feudal system—had their cause taken up by lazy intellectuals like Karl Marx, et al. ( I am reminded of the comment attributed to Reich Marshall Göering: “When I hear the word ‘intellectual’, I reach for my revolver”.) Marx, neither a member of the elite nor willing to put his shoulder to the wheel as a worker, lived off the largesse of friends and mentors while he stirred up trouble among the working classes. He spent his life beating the tattoo of how “unfair” was the system which permitted the success of those with ideas for products and methods to provide goods and needed services to growing markets. The laboring class was with rare exception bereft of the wit to pour piss out of a boot even though the instructions were printed on the heel.

The Marxist objective was and is the redistribution of wealth according to the precepts of those intellectuals who thereby gain their power from a grateful proletariat. Little if anything has changed today. The ne’er-do-wells, nitwits, and knot-heads still covet that which others have achieved through hard work and thoughtful actions. Leftists of today busy themselves seeking out that which appears to be inequitable—ergo, “unfair”. They deny or refuse to recognize the difference between opportunity and entitlement. Thus the collectivist objective remains consistent and the working class numbskulls remain the pawns in the ongoing economic chess game.

The tactics, however, shift and change as strategic expedience dictates. It vacillates between obstructionism/violence and subterfuge/chicanery depending upon the strategy of the moment. When confrontational activism through strikes, civil disobedience, and violence ceases to be effective the strategy is changed to a more subversive/passive form. Following Chicago’s 1886 Haymarket Riot, realizing the dangers and downside of civil disobedience as a strategy, the decision was made by the radical elements involved to subvert the educational system instilling into the mush-filled heads of our youth the essential “unfairness” of the Capitalist system. A more recent example of this strategic shift is seen with the former Weatherman Underground “terrorist”, William Ayers. Why are we all surprised that after his failed attempts to overthrow our system through violence he disappears only to emerge on the scene 40 years later as an “educator”? And, where else  but the University of Chicago, a veritable hotbed of radical thinking? We have just elected to the Presidency one of his cohorts. Much has been made of Obama’s bad judgment in the choice of his associates—terrorists, radical preachers, and unsavory real estate con men, among others. This misses the point. If he had an equal number of associates who were not of this ilk it might present a different picture. He might be forgiven for his naivtè. But, this is not the case. It seems that all of his early associations are at best questionable. One must presume they all had, at the very least, shared objectives. By his own off-hand remark to “Joe the Plumber” caught on videotape, Obama is focused on redistribution of wealth with the objective of making things “fair”.

He achieved this position through empty rhetoric—utilizing oratory skills unheard in recent times. Whatever one may say in defense of George W. Bush’s skills; oratory would not be numbered among them. Thus if Obama’s objective is, as it would appear from his early associations, that of a collectivist society; then he will have achieved his activist goal through passive means. That is, by oratory, persuasion, and obfuscation of his true objective.

Conversely, an individualist/conservative society, one which functions on individual agency and a free market capitalist system, stands or falls on its merits. If you develop and well manage a product or service that people want—you win. If you create something nobody wants or don’t know how to manage the process—you lose. Everybody, including the government, minds their own business. Those less fortunate in intelligence, acumen, or physical capacity are dealt with through the charity of those who have managed to succeed and wish to share that success with others out of gratitude for their own good fortune. It is a free will culture where everyone must wisely administer their agency. It is essentially a passive process which does not readily lend itself to activist methodologies.

How does one impose on others the imperative necessity to exercise their free will? It would appear therefore it is possible to achieve activist objectives through passive means. Paradoxically, it is difficult if not impossible to achieve passive objectives through activist means. In short; how does one impose a conservative point of view upon the electorate in a manner like unto that which radical liberals are able to impose theirs? What manner of civil disobedience would be required to force the adversary to take responsibility for their own actions and sustenance? I have a hard time visualizing an activist conservative mob carrying placards reading: “Think for Yourself!”  “Hard Times Mean Hard Work!”  “There’s No Free Lunch!”  “Take Charge of Your Life!”           …“God Bless America!”

The Picture Show

Back in the 1930s we never checked to see what time the movie started at the local “picture show”. It didn’t really matter. The double feature, newsreel, Pete Smith Special, and “Looney Tune” ran continuously. It made little difference at what point one entered the process. You simply sat through the presentation until you came to the point at which you entered, said to your date; “this is where we came in”; got up, and left. We weren’t forced to leave. Sometimes, we would even sit through the whole process again. No one questioned the logic of such a system… it was just the way things worked. I even recall a girlfriend back then who followed the same system when I joined her once at a Catholic Mass. I was surprised as she got up in the middle of a ritual and said, “let’s go; this is where we came in”.

I was born a couple of years prior to the Great Depression. My family was fortunate in that my father was able to maintain his job through it all. He was in advertising and if any company of any size had hope of surviving in those times it was essential that they advertise their products. This good fortune was not the case for everyone in our extended family. I remember one of my mother’s favorite expressions; “charity begins at home”. There was always concern that my cousins would get outgrown clothes and the like. It was a universal attitude among everyone we knew. There were the persistent stories of men jumping to their death from high buildings as one by one various businesses failed. The whole debacle was precipitated by people who, in the 1920s, sought to “buy low and sell high”. Like most Ponzi schemes, it worked for a while. Folks would take their small savings, or borrow against their anticipated profits in order invest in stocks or real estate with the idea they would sell it in a short time, take the profit, and thereby build a great deal of wealth. If you got in early it worked quite well. But, like most things built out of thin air, it eventually had to collapse. I remember well such expressions as “castles in the air” and “house of cards”. The ripple effect was world wide. Germany was reeling under the oppression of reparations demanded of them following World War I. Many there were angry at the loss of large areas of their empire believing they were taken from them unfairly. A leader appeared on the scene promising to restore their nation to its former glory. The socialists and communists were attacking capitalism at every opportunity. The collapse of 1929 gave them extra fuel for the fires of collectivist concepts by promising the redistribution of the world’s wealth to the proletariat. Here in America this line of thinking was given a foothold as government programs kept workers busy building infrastructure; roads, bridges, parks, reforestation, etc. Negotiation with the new German leader proved fruitless. Problems in Asia escalated as the Land of the Rising Sun, in the throes of industrialization, sought more space and natural resources to feed their rapid growth. All the diplomatic theorist’s efforts failed to resolve the issues created by so many foreign groups hell-bent on having their own way in the world. One day in December of 1941 the whole process was transformed. The massive effort to defend against the complete loss of our democratic way of life and freedom became a top priority. It brought the struggles of the Great Depression to an end as our industrial engines fired up to produce the materials needed to win the Second World War.

What’s on the “big screen” today? The remnants of ancient Persia and Arabia smarting because they feel that important areas of their empire have been unfairly stripped from them through the exploitations of colonization or to provide the homeland for the world’s Jews. A dynamic leader is in place promising them a return to their former glory.  Another industrializing Asian giant is seeking, not land and natural resources this time, but rather capital and markets for their products. The collectivists—the Communists and Socialists—are still promising the proletariat the utopian dream of their fair share of the redistribution of the world’s wealth. We have been on a ten to fifteen year binge of escalating real estate and stock values bought with leveraged money which in order to succeed required the process to continue ad infinitum. The Ponzi scheme seems to be nearing the end if not already there. A so-called progressive Congress forced  financial institutions to change the rational rules for lending by banning “red lining” and insisting money be lent to people unlikely able to repay it. Adding insult to injury such transactions were dubbed NINJA loans; No Income, No Job, No Assets. There should have been enough folks old enough to remember the movie plot from 1929. Instead they now debate how to avoid the inevitable. Instead of the Dust Bowl of the 1930s we have large areas of the nation deluged with water. These are but a scant few of the highlights. But sufficient to anticipate the familiar closing scene.

I hear the “Looney Tune” theme music beginning; I think this is where I “came in”.

Change I Can Believe In?

As those of my generation will surely recall; the Germans following WWI felt angst and anger at the reparations imposed by the Victors which was wreaking havoc on their economy and creating inflation of the worst sort. They were demanding “CHANGE”. Adolf Hitler offered “CHANGE” in the form of a socialist society extolling the virtues of the working classes and the down trodden while placing the blame for their predicament on the bankers, merchant and business classes who were in large part Jewish.  Hitler won the populist support through his skillful oratory thereby working the masses into a frenzy of belief. We are all too aware where that led.

Does the current situation not have a familiar ring? I tremble for the direction this country is taking. I reel under the thought of the effort it would take to turn this behemoth from the path it is on. I hear nothing but whining about the high price of gas and and about how “big oil” and “big pharmacy” are ripping us off. Who created the demand? Who has demanded big SUVs to haul kids to Little  League? We used to play ball in a nearby vacant lot… oh, yes; and without a cheesy uniform. Who demanded a pill for every little ache and pain? We used to find a Bayer aspirin sufficient for most non-life threatening ailments… oh, yes and there was always cod liver oil. Who demanded a pharmacological solution for keeping their kids under control? I seem to recall a swat on the butt was sufficient to bring most unruly kid’s attention deficit back into order.

For Hitler the scapegoat was the Jewish business leaders in his country and the Jews promulgating Bolshevism in Russia and thereabout. This time the “boogeyman” is big business. You know, the successful men and women who create the jobs for all the educational dropouts who want what the wealthy have, but don’t have the wit nor perseverance to obtain it. One need only review the financial status of all the many million dollar lottery winners a year or two after their “big win”. So, they buy into the first oratorical blowhard that comes along and promises he’s going to make certain we all get to share equally. One more utopian dream the real world will be forced to clean up after.

I hear all the complaints about the war which “Mr. BIG CHANGE” promises to bring to an end. It could have been brought to an end long ago had we actually fought a war. But the whiners, the nay-sayers, and our modern day Neville Chamberlain or Anthony Eden who believe diplomatic promises mean anything at all to people hell bent on killing off the infidels and taking over the world. We place our young men and women in danger for the right of these “hand-wringers” and Marxist thinkers to speak their mind. Then we bring them home and put them on trial for murder for daring to rid the world of some Islamic scum who otherwise would be back the next day to blow up more of their buddies with a homemade IED. When we speak up to bolster the American Spirit to win; we are derided as “jingoists.”

Those of my generation recall a far different American Spirit. We recall gas rationing; sugar, shoes, and coffee rationing; collecting paper, fat, and scrap metal; wrapping bandages for the Red Cross; selling/buying War Bonds. We recall Hollywood and its actors and movie makers creating movies which inspired and supported our armed forces. Of course they were propaganda. But it was propaganda which supported our cause, promulgated our beliefs, and inspired young and old alike to accept their share of the burden of winning. Today we have fatheads like Michael Moore to muddle the minds of the less than bright with propaganda based on distorted facts and best serving our enemies. We had “Rosie the Riveter” and every old geezer beyond the age of serving was a block air raid warden. With that attitude and the willingness to use the weapons we had, we managed to defeat two of the greatest menaces to world peace since Genghis Kahn in a matter of four years from less than a standing start. And today they are our allies in belief and in commerce. And finally; we all recall with a lump in the throat the Gold Stars hanging in the window of at least one house on every block. I do not see the testicular fortitude required to avoid a disaster.

“Change I can believe in”? I think not.

How are we so hoodwinked?

It is imperative that every thinking person be aware of what is and has long been transpiring in our country. We are being scammed from every direction; the so-called news media, advertising, Hollywood numb sculls, and any and all who distort facts and warp the information we receive to promote their objectives. They do it through the misuse of linguistics. Having spent over sixty years in advertising and marketing, I am reminded of a technique which often came into play when promoting a product of dubious purpose or value. If we didn’t have a real story to tell, we could always; “baffle ‘em with BS, and dazzle ‘em with opticals.” It is one thing to sell a cheesy dust mop or a Ginsu knife knockoff; it’s another thing altogether to sell a political agenda through spurious methods.

General Semantics, it would appear, is a discipline better suited to esoteric philosophy and mathematics than to a system for communicating with a populace speaking in sentences liberally interspersed with “like”. “Like Dude, it’s hard to, like, imagine they could, like, understand, like, the whole, like, concept of, uhhh like, time-binding uh, totally, like whatever.” General Semantics’ creator and early adherents; Alfred Korzybski, S.I. Hayakawa and others, in their attempts to give us the tools and the understanding of language and how it affects us emotionally have instead generated a nightmare of misuse of their information and theories. What has occurred is akin to giving six year old boys guns and live ammunition with which to play “cops and robbers”. Sooner or later it will come to a bad end. Our whole concept of reality is being turned upside down as politicians and social activists use the theory of Non-Aristotelian logic to twist language and the meanings of words. They do it to alter the way we understand and feel about the world around us. Politicians and activists of all stripes have taken the theories and perverted them to advance their various agendas. They have replaced common sense, which General Semantics holds to be irrelevant, with what amounts to total nonsense. We end up with triangulation, moral relevance, and a denial of soul and Spirit. The theory maintains “the map is not the territory”. That idea has been inverted and is used in the rhetoric directed at the uninitiated and poorly educated proletarian public precisely because they perceive things in just that manner—the word is the reality. Thus by renaming “welfare programs” and calling them “entitlement programs” what was originally conceived as a charitable effort ceases to be community largesse and becomes a “human right”—whatever territory for which that phrase is a map. It is all a sign of the beginning of the end of the life and culture we have known and loved. (cf. Isaiah 5:20–21)

Minds and emotions are continually manipulated for the purpose of obtaining tacit agreement to concepts barely understood. I have spoken often of what I call the “hamburger hoax”; showing a beautifully staged photo of a hamburger and then presenting something which in no way resembles the photo on the menu board. Somehow we find that acceptable. Too many are then distracted from the resulting fallacious images and ideas by gulping down the placating pap that comes through the TV in the form of sports events, reality shows, and the likes of “American Gladiator” and “Wipeout”. If the perpetrators cannot find a way to repurpose the words or their meanings, they simply undertake to remove them completely from our lexicon. We all stand by as religious symbols and ideals are removed from the public view by the secularists who prattle on about the separation of church and state while pretending their beliefs and ideals are not a religion. How long will it be before the emerging socialist government we are allowing to overtake our country decides on a “final solution” for Christians, as did an earlier socialist regime obsessed with negative feelings for the Jews? Will they then build a Colosseum and unleash the lions for the public amusement on NPR’s “This American Life” and title the program “Our Roman Heritage”?

Memorial Day; it’s not about Johnsonville brats.

God has blessed America in that there are still enough of the right kind of men… and women… around to do the job necessary to protect all that has been achieved by the sacrifices of so many to whom we pay homage today. Now if only it were possible to rid the nation of all those who don’t seem to fully appreciate what we have here—that would truly be a great blessing.

My mother had an expression she used a lot when I was a kid. “If you give people enough rope, they’ll eventually hang themselves.” It was sort of a corollary to something Goethe wrote: “Sometimes not getting what you want is preferable to getting what you want.” Or words to that effect. Those leaders with the wisdom and understanding who do know what is going on along with these brave young men and women not only must deal with our external enemies, but also the enemies within. They seem to have been barely able to keep those internal antagonists in check just enough to allow all the arrogant and misguided liberals to have sufficient freedom of speech to continue the carping rhetoric along with the pipe dream of their Utopian agenda.

My point is this. There are times when I think the only way for the liberal ignoramuses to learn a lesson is to give them what they want. Pull the troops out of everywhere. We might with equal wisdom cease sending our resources all around the globe trying to help the ungrateful masses who seem only to resent us as a result. Then we’d see how they dealt with the ensuing mayhem. It would be interesting to observe how fast they changed their demonstration signs from: “Bring our troops home…” to “The government isn’t doing enough to protect us!”.

For those of us old enough to really remember the buildup to WWII, we clearly recall the pacifists, anti war isolationists, the America First Committee, et alii, who kept the government’s hands so tied on any kind of preparedness that our soldiers were training with wooden guns while the smug French placed their confidence in the infamous Maginot Line. The public, more worried about from whence their next meal was coming, bought into the propaganda spread by the Father Coughlins and the German-American Bunds. It took Pearl Harbor to wake them up. Back then, however, they finally got the picture and rose to the occasion with a true understanding of what was at stake. Nearly everyone then loved and appreciated America and believed in the idea of Duty, Honor, Country. I am not at all certain that would happen today with way too many Americans.

It is sad to me that the crop of nitwits I see currently running for Congress, and even some for President, are out there promising people things they can in no way deliver. They are neither kings nor dictators. They apparently have no clue as to what is really transpiring and the voting public is even more in the dark. The real tragedy for those whose sacrifice we honor today is not that families gather to enjoy a backyard barbecue; but rather that we are slipping dangerously close to losing that for which those brave men and women gave their last measure of devotion, even their very lives.

The Clinton Nightmare; will it never cease?

Ever since the Clintons favored us with a “two-for-one” presidency it has been exasperating keeping track of their numerous nefarious acts. Who can forget “Hillary Care”? A health care reform process that cost the taxpayers over $13 million only to fail even though she had threatened to demonize anyone who opposed it.

Hillary assumed authority for selecting a female Attorney General. After two failures she settled on Janet Reno. Even Bill Clinton admitted the appointment to be his “worst mistake”, the Waco debacle being the most obvious.

The Clintons installed Hillary’s former Law partners into high positions in the government. Web Hubbell to the Justice Department from which he went to prison. William Kennedy was ultimately forced to resign from his position in the Treasury. Their White House staff appointment, Vince Foster, allegedly committed suicide under circumstances which raised many still unanswered questions. The allegations surrounding the death of Ron Brown, their appointment as Commerce Secretary, who died in a plane crash in Bosnia are mystifying. After questions arose regarding his fund raising practices; the threat of indictments grew and Brown stated publicly that he would not go to jail alone. The apparent result from this veiled threat is reminiscent of the days of the Chicago Mob which in the 1930s populated the bottom of Lake Michigan with innumerable bodies shod in concrete galoshes. Hm-m; Hillary comes from Park Ridge, IL, an upper class suburb of Chicago.

The Clinton’s choice for Director of White House Security, Craig Livingstone, a close friend, met a not dissimilar fate when he was investigated for improper access to 900 FBI files of Clinton enemies along with the problem of the White House Staff’s use of drugs. The Clintons simply denied knowing him. This Clinton lie was later exposed by the testimony of an FBI agent during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in 1996. At least Craig lived to tell the story.

In “travelgate” the entire staff of the White House Travel Office was fired for “gross mismanagement” and their careers ruined in order to make way for Clinton”s friends, the Harry Thomasons. So much for job security in the Civil Service System. Only one of the former travel office workers was ever indicted on any charges, and his charge was dropped after only two hours of deliberation.

As for Bill’s sexual promiscuity; who can forget Paula Jones and the myriad other women who accused him of rape and sundry other crimes, or Monica Lewinsky and fellatio in the same White House office wherein Ronald Reagan would not even remove his suit coat out of respect?

When Hillary wouldn’t release the Whitewater documents Ken Starr was appointed as Special Prosecutor. After an $80 million dollar expenditure of taxpayer money the investigation led to Monica Lewinsky and Bill showing himself as the liar he is: “I never had sexual relations with that woman…”. This all cost Bill his license to practice law and brought on the impeachment proceedings by the House. How many former presidents can lay claim to that legacy?
Hillary found herself in a similar predicament nearly getting herself indicted for perjury and obstruction of justice. She managed to avoid it by repeatedly declaring; “I do not recall,” “I have no recollection,” and “I don’t know” fifty-six times while under oath. And now we learn she has received a huge advance on a book of her memoirs. Perhaps she has now discovered a cure for amnesia.
Her book “It Takes a Village” clearly demonstrates her Socialist approach to governance.
Seeking a Senate seat in a state in which she never lived brought forward more despicable acts by the Clintons as Bill pardoned FALN terrorists to gain Latino votes and the New Square Hassidim to attract Jewish votes. Bill also pardoned several of her brother’s clients for monetary gain.
Then to add insult to injury, as the saying goes, the Clintons left the White House taking with them some $200,000 worth of White House furniture, china, and artwork which had to be returned after considerable public pressure.
All these facts are but the high spots in two political careers truly without precident. And NOW, I hear on the news there is a great deal of talk and consideration being given to the idea of Chelsea Clinton running for president in 2016. When, oh when, dear God—when will the curse of the Clinton dynasty be removed from our dreams? When will the nightmare end?

Remembering Joe McCarthy

In the years following WWII, while the returned veterans were enjoying this “best of all possible worlds”; there were signs of problems and harbingers of what lay ahead. There were those who warned of the communist threat in our midst. Notable among them was Joseph McCarthy a Senator from Wisconsin. He was a regrettable ombudsman for the cause of seeking out those in our government and elsewhere who had collectivists leanings or were outright communists. His demeanor, lifestyle, and tactics were a distraction from the purpose for which he claimed to be dedicated. This notwithstanding, his warnings ultimately proved to be well advised. There were indeed people in the government who were bent on the destruction of our free and democratic republic. But, more so in Hollywood which had become a hot bed of radical thinkers in the lower echelons of writers and creative personnel. They would eventually rise to the top like scum on a stagnant pond. Even more frightening were those who were then ensconced in our colleges and universities who perceived Marx and Engels as heroes of their utopian thought process. We had just defeated two of the most formidable enemies the world had seen since Genghis Kahn and no one was willing to believe that victory could be abrogated by the likes of government servants, egg-headed professors, or Hollywood numb sculls. As so often is the case, we judged the message by the messenger and set aside his warnings. As a result others were cast in the same light who carried similar messages. There was a cartoon strip around that period called “Pogo”. The little Pogo character at some point made the statement; “we have met the enemy and he is us.” The nation was accustomed to big aggressive enemies and was concerned about the spread of communism everywhere in the world but where it mattered—here at home. Would that we might have seen past McCarthy’s feet of clay and observed the real threat that would burst forth upon us in the mid 1960s and throughout the 1970s. There is a Zen koan which tells of the monk who is attempting to point out the moon to his dog. The dog will only look at his finger. This same wisdom, had we been able to see past the messenger, might have saved our culture from itself.

Roe v. Wade explained…

Joy Whatshername, one of the mental mastodons on ABC’s “The View” has favored us with greater understanding of precisely what the motivations are of those who would repeal Roe v. Wade. They are simply “against women”. All along I foolishly thought the opposition was based on a concern for the life of the unborn. If this legislation had been promulgated by conservatives liberals would be accusing them of promoting genocide. Inasmuch as most of those seeking abortion on demand are poor and/or ignorant; with government funding we could likely achieve what Adolf Hitler and Josef Mengele were unable to accomplish.

Were it not for her arrogance and ignorance one would suspect the woman to be the comedy relief on the show–if only she were funny.