A Brief Comment About Putin

By now, most politically-minded observers have read Vladimir Putin's comments in the New York Times.

Hopefully, more than a few have read the response penned by Jim DeMint as well.

I'm not going to get into a lengthily commentary about what should be obvious. DeMint's comments -- and ones by others -- effectively do that.

Criticisms of the U.S. -- some more than justified -- are beyond easy. If I can paraphrase Reagan in one of his rather funny but insightful jokes; In the U.S. we can criticize our leaders. Russians has the same freedom and they too can criticize America's leaders.

Chastisements coming from the current Russian bureau-autocrat are on par with the usual critiques heard and read daily on college campuses and in classrooms across America and by self-important intellectual whiners everywhere. It's been pointed out that what Putin wrote was basically what those on the political left say and write daily. What's really ironic is that the American president Putin directs much of his critique to has, in the past, held many of the same beliefs. In Putin's favor (and not Obama's), I'd note that he at least has some pride and confidence in his own nation. Pity our current president can only occasionally make a brief comment or two in favor of America and its system and values, and when he does it usually comes across as less than sincere. Obama and his wife have a long history of being typical American academic mentalities far removed from anything that could be even vaguely considered confident in our nation's -- exceptional -- founding principals (which is seen by the left as cheesy at best and fascist in spirit).

One more thing I want to note about Putin in general. I understand the macho posturing for a guy in his forties or so. Guys want to look cool. Rinding bare-chested on horseback, wrestling wild animals, and posing with dead tigers just makes one look ...like they're posing. When you're a man over sixty, its time to simply look dignified in your suit and play responsible elder statesman. When the latest Putin- as-James Bond/Indiana Jones photo comes out, it reminds me of those once attractive women who are now old ladies but insist on wearing a short skirt and dying their hair bleach blond -- it just looks pathetic.

I truly hope that one day the long suffering people of Russia will be graced with a decent truly representative government that will leave them to excel, pursue happiness, and even criticize the state and its leaders. For now, 'some minor advancement from the past, but very minor.

Consensus is when everyone agrees to be stupid.

Government: The Gift That Keeps On Taking

This guy is great. My sympathies and appreciation goes out to anyone who rubs the pathetic reality of state-theft in the faces of the worthless parasites of government who daily / hourly coerce, compel, and assault free peoples.

No doubt that many who adore, or at least tolerate, the minions of state find this guy's actions absurd or perhaps stupid, but somebody has got to occasionally play with bureau-mind's feeble thought and remind us all just how much we are letting government enslave us to a death of a thousand cuts.

'Can't say it enough; screw the government!

The Loving Commands of State

There are things in the politics of contemporary events that infuriate me and this is one of them.

The state just plain sucks. I can only hope that the bureau-minions responsible for such things get their just "reward" in the end. "In the end" would be a good place to start.

Elysium

Whether you understand or appreciate astrology or not, this is an excellent critique of the new science fiction / political polemic, "Elysium."

Unlike many lefties I've known, I can actually sit through a propaganda piece that insults my worldview and intelligence. I can still appreciate acting and film-making even when the producer and director have goals beside creative entertainment. The best example, Avatar - nonsense to the extreme. But, I watched it. It had some merits.

I'll watch Elysium. Unlike so many on the left, I can endure a cheesy and transparent expression of the other sides views, if there's something else going on that I can enjoy. I'll watch it but I'll be rolling my eyes.

The Civility of the Righteous

This is sooo true. I can't count the number of times total strangers as well as friends have energetically insulted me just because they can't fathom the idea that others could support the virtues of limited government and maximum liberty. In the article, I particularly like the anti-tea party comment. I don't know where these people are finding this fictional nemesis. In virtually all video footage, interviews, and writings, the tea parties have shown themselves to be nothing more than citizens opposed to the massive increase of government intrusion in our lives. How progressives are able to see "racism," "fascism," and other extremist traits in a a group of mostly common folks is bizarre and tells us more about the progressives' fantasy world then any real world conditions.

I can't count the number of times I've politely listened to someone ramble insults at me that had no grounding in facts or accurate appraisal of what I believe or have said.

In the end, they're control freaks. The bottom line for most on the left is that the world must change to their model and anyone who doesn't wish to go along for the ride must be brow-beaten into submission or ostracized from public discourse.

..some dignity please.

The Cup is Half...Gone

At this point, I'm rather torn between an optimistic or pessimistic view of how events will eventually play out for The United States in the age of stealth turbulence. Most astute observers would certainly gauge the age of Obama as something far different than those of decades past. While Obama himself has been a grand catalyst to America's decline (on a variety of levels), one certainly can't give a free pass to his enablers in the Demo-comm party and other assorted "progressive" individuals and institutions.

In times past I tended to the optimistic. Idealistically, I truly believed the American character and coincidences of history made the U.S. virtually immune from the totalitarian impulse so easily sprung upon other nations. "Bouncing back" was a given. Innovation, self-reliance, and the "selfish" pursuit of happiness virtually guaranteed that a pendulum wandering too far away from individual liberty would be pulled back to saner and more prosperous designs.

This recent article isn't brilliant, scholarly, or particularly unique but pretty well summarizes "the mess we're in."

The base strengths of the American character have been ambushed on all sides by those who would feed the beast of state. In an era when the departments that run education and the country's pension system (Social Security) purchases huge rounds of hollow point bullets....something is a bit foreboding beyond mere reasonable suspicion.

Even if the citizens of America somehow sober up from their progressive binge in experimental socialism, it will take some unique and gifted leadership to put the country back on track and wean its population from the age of free stuff at another's expense.

A cold turkey libertarian approach to economics and government would do the trick over time but with close to half the population still enthralled by - or at least accepting of - a now watered down version of "hope and change," there isn't much that can really be achieved without massive protests and civil upheaval thwarting sane policy in its tracks. This, combined with the continued nonsense dispensed from most media outlets, entertainment, and, "education," and there appears to be little chance of a restoration. To the contrary, Hillary Clinton seems poised to basically give Obama a symbolic third and fourth term.

I think many are making a mistake to think that Obama and company are merely trying to gently nudge America into a Euro-style welfare statism. To me it is much clearer that he is still a community [dis]organizer fully implementing the ideals of Saul Alinsky and Cloward-Piven, etal. All of these so-called "pivots to the economy" have been deliberate distractions as he does what he has always intended - to bring the American system and it's role in the world crashing down with nowhere to go but pure statism. Whether it settles into something corporatist, socialist, or commie-fascist will be a moot point - it simply will become another nightmare for those who merely wish to prosper and be left alone.

The cup is now neither half full nor empty. It's been chipped away so that, in the end, all that will remain is cupped hands.

Too bad...

Posts and Paranoia

I don't want to become paranoid and, realistically, I'm sane enough to know that there are many reasons one's blog may dissipate from common access but, over the last few days my stats show that literally no one is accessing this site (I'm only writing this in the possibility that they are and they're just not showing up on my stats).

There are always a few people who regularly check in through the week (thank you!) but now they are gone as well. I certainly doubt the coincidence that literally everyone who previously read my blog has decided to stop...at the same time.

I currently don't have time to deal with the possibilities but, for now, ...oh well. Perhaps later I can get my site up and running.

This could be no more than a technical failure of some kind but it's also not entirely unreasonable to suspect the usual suspects in the never ending game between those who hold sober views and the idealists who seek to crush all opposition.

Seeing Through No-color Glasses

If the events surrounding the recent Zimmerman trial had transpired as a scuffle between two white people, or two black people, or two hispanic people, or......, most sane people would find it a hard call to determine if a murder had taken place. At best, they'd suggest that a jury with all the facts presented from the prosecution and defense would best be able to determine the most just outcome.

Enter, race. Now everyone is conjuring an decision as to who is a hero, victim, or villain.

'Just plain dumb.