In Anticipation Of Tonight's Debate, An Essay That Deserves To Go Viral

These are busy busy days for  OS, with little time to read, much less write.

However, this essay merits attention, as we limp down the home stretch of a dispiriting political season.

What, one may ask, does the account of this particular obscure 20th-Century monster have to do with the situation we now confront?

In a word, everything.

Our President, and those around him, and those around them, all arrive to us from an academic and intellectual universe that deliberately turns the blind eye to atrocities committed in the name of Progress. Historical Necessity, you know. 

It's all so very polite, well-dressed, well-spoken, tweedy-jacket and sensible hairstyles for both genders. White wine, aged cheese, gossip over who will and won't be granted tenure.

It lionizes people like Castro, Chavez, Che, Arafat, Mugabe, Eva Peron, even Ken Philby wasn't that bad a chap.  He had his reasons, and he was sincere in his feelings as he created all that havoc. One must understand these things, you know.

That horrible man Mr. Solzhenitsyn, well he just doesn't exist. The cheek of him, saying all those things at Harvard after we had honored him so. 

He'll not be invited back, Nobel Prize or no. What was the committee thinking?

Ideas have consequences, and ideologies produce outcomes.

OS asks one thing of his readers. Consider the consequences and outcomes, historically, of the ideas and ideologies promoted by this present administration.

Then, go vote--early--as OS has a premonition of chaos engendered at the polling places of America on Election Day.

As We Prepare For November's Elections, A Thought To Ponder From Tom Paine

Well, not that Tom Paine...an admirer of his, a British subject who spent two decades working in Eastern Europe after The Wall fell, only to return home to a country debilitated by the same ideas that ruined Eastern Europe:

More than half of mankind experienced socialism in the twentieth century. Almost all of us experienced some less full-blooded implementations than were tried behind the Berlin Wall. There has never been a greater experiment in all human history and It led to the deaths of millions and the impoverishment of billions. If ever an idea was ready for the dustbin of history, surely this one was? Yet it marches on. A zombie ideology; dead but still a threat.

As the noise increases in the coming weeks, OS hopes we keep our focus. We don't need a glib hustler who would rather hang out with the ladies on 'The View' while in New York, at the expense of meeting with world leaders who have need of face time.  We need a sober grown-up, even if he is stiff as a board in front of an audience.

We need someone who has not drunk the socialist koolaid, insisting we partake with him.

It May Not Matter Who Wins In Syria, Given The Toll The Fight Has Extracted

There are people in this world, as Jesse reminds us from time to time, who are completely willing to burn the world down around them, just so they can claim to rule the ashes.

He, as usual, is correct.

This BBC slideshow give a glimpse of the ancient market in Aleppo, destroyed in this week's episode of Madness Overtakes Syria.

The next time we hear TheWinnerOfTheNobelPeacePrize describe these tragedies as a 'bump in the road', OS thinks it would be good if we asked a simple question:

To Where does this Road lead?

The Best ObamaChair Pic To Date: Sense Of Events

All those effigies are, well, in bad taste. Not a good idea. OS believes that it's possible to win every argument and never win one heart.

Humor always works best; low-key, to the point, elegant humor.

So, a big HT and OS shout-out to Don Sensing at Sense of Events. This is funny and pointed, if for no other reason that it draws the contrast between Churchill and our present occupant of the White House.

 Now, a brief thought about Eastwood's ruminations at the GOP convention. He walked out to greet the audience without a script, and spotted the chair. It wasn't a set-up, it was improv.

The humorless types in the press were not amused...they called him names, said he rambled, on and on. It never occurred to them what they had just witnessed--an actor, writer, director, producer with over five decades of experience taking the raw material of the occasion, the audience and one lone chair to create something totally memorable. Not bad for someone at age 83!

By the way, along the way--Eastwood ran for mayor of his little town and won, and served the office for several years.

Compare Eastwood with the current occupant of the White House: Which one actually has created wealth with his gifts, created memorable art (and continues to create memorable art), actually administered some office of government before seeking high executive office?  Which of them actually has done something with the days allotted by Providence, apart from running for office and spending other people's money? Why is it wonderful to be an actor/director if one is a member of The Left, and disgraceful and suspect when one is a conservative?

That empty chair looks more apropo with each passing day.

Hit that link--you won't be sorry.

The Obama Administration Moves Our Southern Border To Guatemala: So Says Alan Bersin Of DHS

Really, can't make this stuff up.

While we spend our energies obsessing about what Mitt blurted out while answering a question at what he thought was a private fund-raiser, we might wish to give a bit of our attention to what Alan Bersin says at a public and official function, a reception hosted by the United States-Mexico Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday evening.
 
Bersin is currently Assistant Secretary of International Affairs and Chief Diplomatic Officer for the Department of Homeland Security. He oversees the Department's international engagement and serves as the principal advisor to Secretary Janet Napolitano on all international affairs.

Says Assistant Secretary Bursin at Homeland Security:

“The Guatemalan border with Chiapas is now our southern border,” Bersin said. He cited a study by Pew Research which showed that last year more Mexicans left the United States than entered it. This, he said, ended six decades of illegal immigration from Mexico.

Bersin said the change in the flow of migration is not a “flash in the pan.” He said economic conditions have played a part in reducing illegal immigration. But so, too, has border security, he argued. 

“The economy contributes to it but the enforcement posture in the United States has increased since 1993 in a way that was absolutely unforeseen. One of the great bipartisan accomplishments of the last generation, some would say the greatest accomplishment, Republicans and Democrats alike, was restoring the rule of law to the U.S.-Mexican border,” Bersin said.

Whew--glad we got that cleared up! We've restored the Rule of Law to the US-Mexican border!

Which really doesn't exist anymore...

Presidential Press Secretary Jay Carney, Winner Of The Ron Zeigler Award

It's become completely a no-brainer, spike it in the end zone decision by OS's Awards Committee.

For those who don't remember Ron Zeigler, he was Richard Nixon's loyal-to-the-death press secretary. He would proclaim a lie one day, contradict the next day with another lie, and then finally admit that those first statements were lies, while assuring one and all that the country could believe today's pronouncements.

He did this with a completely straight face, day after day, never a moment's apology, as if the cognitive dissonance of replacing one lie with another and another never occurred to him. His only competitor in our time was Baghdad Bob, who claimed the Iraqi Army had crushed the invaders, as the US Marines were pulling up across the street behind him.

Some of Ron's most famous quotes--

"This is the operative statement. The others are inoperative." –April 17, 1973

"If my answers sound confusing, I think they are confusing because the questions are confusing and the situation is confusing."

"The president is aware of what is going on in Southeast Asia. That is not to say that there is anything going on in Southeast Asia." –1971, answering a question if the allied troops were preparing to invade Laos.

Jay Carney must be channeling Ron and Baghdad Bob this week--it's deja vu all over again.

It did not take a genius to see that the attack on the consulate in Benghazi was a planned and orchestrated affair. Ever seen a group of protesters show up will mortars, full-auto weapons, RPG's, and knowledge of the layout of the target?

Turns out, there were never any demonstrators at all...just attackers...

But the 'spontaneous demonstration that just got out of hand because of that terrible terrible awful disgusting YouTube video' story was the Administration's story, and Jay was sticking to it. Even after the Libyan Prime Minister stated flatly that it was a planned attack. And that they had warned the Administration days before. Even after attacks on British diplomats had occurred some days before. The Ambassador himself knew himself to be on an al-Queda hit list. Ni modo. It was all the fault of The Video! Couldn't possibly be al-Queda operation! We've killed 'em all, we've got them on the run!
Bin-Laden's dead and GM lives!

They sent Susan Rice, our UN Ambassador, to five Sunday talking heads shows to talk the White House line. They talked and talked, and ducked and ducked, and spun and spun, and lied and lied and lied. And lied.

Because to admit the truth is to admit that Obama and Hillary left their ambassador hung out to dry, and got him killed.

Here's the sequence.

Finally, today, Jay Carney does admit the obvious. But never an apology, never a moment's embarrassment, never a moment of consideration that this sort of behavior absolutely crushes what little sense of trust anyone may have in him or his boss. 

It was a Ziegler Moment. And Jay decided to 'fess up while in the air on Air Force One--with loud background noise, spoken sotto voce.

'This is the operative statement. The others are inoperative.'

'This is the operative statement. The others are inoperative.'

'This is the operative statement. The others are inoperative.'

It would be comic, except--this is how people get killed, wars get started, banks are allowed to blow up the economy, friends of the President are able to commit massive fraud and walk away scot-free, a thousand guns are put in the hands of drug cartels by the ATF and no one notices until the bodies pile up. Even then, no one can seem to locate anyone remotely responsible for the carnage.

The Politics of Golf, And The Golf Joke Of The Season

Mr. Obama does love his golf! One hundred rounds and counting since he took office.

George Bush loves his golf as well. From September 11, 2001 until he left office, President Bush gave up the game. He felt it would be unseemly to spend days on the course while he had troops in the field.

OS found this joke in the comments at the link above. Please feel free to share along.

It's an old joke, but like all great jokes, its power is rooted in truth.

Ye Can't Fool a Scottish Caddy

During his golfing vacation at Martha's Vineyard - President Obama had been slicing off the tee on every hole.

In frustration, he turns to his Scottish caddy to inquire what might be going wrong.

Sez the caddy: 'Aye, there's a piece of shyt on the end of yer driver."

The President picks up his driver and cleans the club face, at which point the caddy says:

"No, the other end."

Why I Love Mormonism--Simon Critchley NYT

OS is up to his ears in projects--lots of good things happening, but not much time to write this week.

However, he did run across this essay, and sends it in the direction of his hordes of loyal readers.

Critchley is an English academic resident upon our shores, and he provides a kind and gentle account of his views on the subject of the Mormon religion.

Mormonism is heretical, no doubt about that. At the same time, its errors tend to push its adherents in the direction of striving for virtue and productivity. Think the Mormon Tabernacle Choir as one public face of that approach.

By contrast, the heresy of Liberation Theology, in which the Beloved Leader was steeped, encourages resentment and class warfare. It's Marxism with a Christian patina, very popular amongst all those seminarians of the 1960's who 'heard the call to the ministry' and maintained their military draft exemptions while in seminary--in looong doctoral programs. Rev. Wright's famous (or infamous) pronouncements from his Chicago pulpit are not untypical of the theology he and his espouse.

So, this year, we have Heretic A vs. Heretic B at the top of the ballot.

Oh joy.

Yew payz yer munney, yew takes yer choice.

Fire, Meet Gasoline: Peter van Buren Explains The Libya Tragedy

My, oh my...

Our leadership really is that feckless. They left the ambassador hung out to dry in an incredibly dangerous situation, had ample warning, and did nothing to protect him.

These people must be sent home, before they get us killed. If they'll do that to a career foreign officer, they'll do it to us.

OS Answers Your Questions: Hillary Really Is That Naive, Obama Really Is That Clueless, The Muslim Brotherhood Are Not Our Friends, And The Press Is Spending Its Energies Vilifying Romney

One question at a time, ya'll, cuz we have entered the Twilight Zone...

Hillary's statement after she found out that she had gotten her friend killed because she hung him out to drly in an unprotected building in Benghazi on September 11:

This is not easy. Today, many Americans are asking – indeed, I asked myself – how could this happen? How could this happen in a country we helped liberate, in a city we helped save from destruction? This question reflects just how complicated and, at times, how confounding the world can be.

Huh? Complicated and confounding? How'z-about incredibly dangerous, with vast swathes of it occupied by really bad people who will take innocent life without a second thought?

This is the woman who would have been President, and is in charge of representing our interests to the rest of the world, which she finds 'complicated and confounding'.


#2: Obama Really Is That Clueless

This guy skips intelligence briefings--many many of them. Won't meet with Bebe Netanyahu about the NUKES in IRAN, but will certainly be on time to meet with Letterman. All campaign appearances going ahead on schedule. First things first, after all.

#3: Mubarak Was A Bad Dude, But Obama Kicked Him Under The Bus In Favor Of The Muslim Brotherhood

Holy Jimmy Carter, Batman! We've seen this all before...and are still living with the fallout of Jimmy Carter kicking the Shah under the bus. The thugs who deposed the Shah run the place, and are busily building nukes to aim at Israel, whose leader Obama won't meet with, 'cuz he's got a show with Letterman.

By the way, in 2009-2010 Obama could have thrown his support behind all those kids who so desperately tried to turn Iran toward sanity. Instead, he stood by silently while the Iranian regime crushed their hopes. Those kids were pro-Western, by all appearances. They hate the mullahs. Why would Obama do that, and then turn around and support the Muslim Brotherhood takeover of Egypt?

It makes no sense. His behavior makes no sense.

#4: See #3 and #1  

#5: Yep, you got it. The real outrage is aimed at Romney for suggesting that Obama is clueless and our foreign service is feckless.

You gotta love Obama's response--how did he have time to do that interview with the world burning down around him, btw?

Mr. Obama fired back later in the day, accusing his opponent of politicizing a national tragedy. “Governor Romney seems to have a tendency to shoot first and aim later,” he told CBS News for its “60 Minutes” program. “And as president, one of the things I’ve learned is you can’t do that — that, you know, it’s important for you to make sure that the statements that you make are backed up by the facts, and that you’ve thought through the ramifications.” 

OK, let's go over this again--numbers 1 through 4--and compare that record of behaviour with Himself's critique of Romney....hmm....and the press's microscopic coverage of Romney vs their blind acceptance of anything Himself might utter.

And then, we have his 'encouraging words' to campaign volunteers in Las Vegas yesterday--no cancellations of campaign appearances--

Obama, during his talk with the volunteers, described his visit to the State Department today. “I had a chance to go to the State Dept. to comfort some of the friends and co-workers of the the folks who had fallen and I reminded them that as hard as things are sometimes, as difficult as change is that if we’re resolute, if we don’t give up, if we don’t give in, if we don’t become cynical, if we continue to be realistic about how hard change is but also keep in our hearts that sense of idealism and sense of purpose then over time good things happen,” he said.

That's an interesting word, 'Change'. 'Change' from what, to what? Never ever defined, but there has to be a goal in mind. One does not become President without having a goal in mind...