How to Cope with the Re-Election of President Obama

The election is settled.  Barack Obama's tenure as president of the United States is to continue.  America's race off the edge of the cliff will continue unabated.

With the failure of the Republicans to capture either the White House or the Senate, it is clear to see that America is ruled by a majority that believes that the pillars that once made us great, Freedom, Strength, Prosperity, and Morality, are instead problems to be solved.  And the Democrats have shown, in their legislation, their policies, and their words, that they have the will to solve those problems.

Remembering the words of Ronald Reagan, we see that government of the people, by the people, for the people, is now to become government AT the people.  Or, to paraphrase a video from this year's Democratic National Convention, we all belong to the government now.

Republicans, meanwhile, will momentarily be in full blame mode.  It's what they do instead of winning -- they blame.  Some will blame Romney, as a poor nominee.  Some will blame his advisors or his poor campaign.  Some will blame his choice of running mate.  Many, of course, will blame social conservatives, those who want to protect the unborn, or defend traditional marriage, or religious liberty, or the right to bear arms.  Some will blame "birthers", as though a desire to assure that the president actually meets the Constitutional qualifications for his office is a fault.  Some will blame "the religious right", and others, more up-to-date, will blame the Tea Party, those racists!  Some will blame the media, but they are too modest to accept credit for their triumph.  Let me cut this short:  nobody's off the hook.  There's plenty of blame to go around, and the GOP will spend the next several months on little else.

Meanwhile, what can we little people do?  we ordinary folks, who've been out working our jobs or running our businesses, saving our money, raising our kids, paying our bills and our taxes and our debts, and living our lives?  Us ordinary people who have never voted for our own pay raise, or considered moving our yacht to another state where it will be taxed less?  We've been playing the game by the rules.  And now, for once and all, we've been shown to be fools.  We've been playing a fools' game, and now the playing field and the rules have officially and permanently changed.  If we don't change with it, we'll be the ones ground into dust when the economy comes grinding to a halt.

And grind to a halt it will.  The economy, and probably our entire social and governmental structure is going to collapse dramatically.  Nothing can stop it now.  We are in the predicament of a woman in labor:  the only way out, is through.  Therefore, the best thing to do is to bring it about as quickly as possible, in order to reduce the pain to everyone involved.  Otherwise, the political, social and economic collapse of the United States could stretch out for the rest of this century.

Republicans, and much less conservatives, will never govern nationally in the United States again.  The relationship between the government and the governed has changed, and this election has cemented the change in place.  It will never be possible to go back.  Under the old rules, this would be a time to congratulate on their victory the people who are about to complete the final subjugation of the decent, hardworking people  who still play by those rules.

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, goes the old saying.  We couldn't beat 'em.  It's time to join 'em.

We have to recognize that the rules have changed, the playing field is different, the goals have been moved.  Things that were once considered honorable or shameful no longer are.  Honor and shame have both been eliminated.  Pride is no longer the reward of virtue, but the celebration of what we used to call sin.

All the advice that follows should be read with the following two imperatives in mind:

I.   Don't break the law.
II.  Don't do more than you must.

Nothing of what follows should be taken to contradict either of these things.  Now, if you are what we used to call a decent person, some of this advice may shock, dismay, or offend you.    Hang on anyway, because I have a special message for you at the end.

And obviously, I can't tell anyone what to do.  You must act as you think best, and avoid responsibility as best you can -- but you can't put the responsibility off on me.  Here's my advice, you might want to think about whether it's right for you:

1.  If you own a business, sell or liquidate it.  America is now ruled by people who believe that they are entitled to as much of your business as they may want, and that you are entitled to no more than they deign to allow.  You're working for them now, and many new taxes, regulations, licensing requirements, zoning restrictions, etc., will be heaped upon the old, with no consideration of or respect for your rights.

2.  If you are an employee, especially a public sector employee, don't do more than you must to keep your job.  Take your full entitlement of sick days, vacation days, personal days, etc.  Take full advantage of all your benefits.  Ask for more.  If you are in a union, go on strike as often as possible.  If you're not in a union, unionize if you can.  Don't stretch, don't work overtime without being paid for it, don't (if you're a supervisor) require overtime or extra effort from the people under you.

3.  If you are unemployed, don't try to look for a job.  Apply for every public and private handout you can.  Don't let your pride stop you, if you've any left.  Pride is for the rich.  Get as much as you can.

4.  If you have a mortgage, default on it.  If you have a loan, default on it.  If you have credit card debt, stop paying on it.  If you can, file bankruptcy.  If you have student loan debt, put it in forbearance or default on it.  Get out of debt if you can, avoid debt as much as possible, but don't pay it off unless you have no other choice.  (You would be amazed at how long you can stay in a house you've stopped paying the mortgage on.)

5.  If you donate to a church or religious organization, stop.  If the churches had been doing their jobs the past sixty years instead of hopping into bed with the sexual revolution and the Democratic Party, we wouldn't be in this mess.

6.  If you pray, stop.  God could have raised up better leaders for our nation, could have given us the grace we needed to elect someone better.  God could have preserved our freedoms, ended abortion, saved traditional marriage and ended war and corruption.  You've been praying for these things for years.  It's time to face up to the fact that the answer to your prayers is "no".  How many people have prayed "deliver us from evil," of the God who has now delivered our nation into evil?

7.  If you donate to charity, stop.  Help your friends and family if you can, but don't give to charitable organizations of any kind.  Under the new rules, that's the government's job.

8.  If you are a college student, stay in school as long as you can.  Get another degree.  Take out another federal student loan, apply for another grant.  And if you're unemployed, try to go back to school.

9.  If you are serving in the military, don't re-enlist, unless you are gaining some benefit from serving.  The American values you signed up to defend are no longer honored in America.  Are you really so willing to lay down your life for Obamacare, abortion, gay "marriage", and the auto-industry bailout?  If you are considering military service, only join if you are assured of a benefit you can't get another way.

10.  Adopt a new moral code, better adapted to the new realities we face.  Part of that new reality is that all morality is relative, and no one may force their moral code on anyone else.  Divine revelation has been overthrown as a moral authority.  That leaves you to be your own moral authority.  (The fact that all law enforces someone's morality is to be disregarded in the New America.)  If someone objects to your new moral code, just tell them they can't force their morality down your throat.  You're no longer allowed to cite God as an objective moral authority equally binding on everyone.  So why should you allow anyone else to cite any lesser authority to be binding on you?

11.  If you have children in private or parochial school, or if you homeschool, put them in public school instead.  They will need to learn how to survive in the new world, which will require skills you cannot teach.

12.  Don't buy anything new that you can buy used.  Don't spend a lot on anything you can buy cheap.  Don't dine out at Morton's or Ruth's Chris, go to Applebees, or better yet McDonald's.  Reuse anything you can, but don't recycle unless you have to.  Don't see movies at the theater.  Don't buy DVDs or download movies, either, rent them.  Netflix, not iTunes.  Hit the thrift store, not the furniture store, CarMax, not the dealership.  Wal-Mart, not Saks.  Give up or curtail expensive hobbies.  Don't buy new golf clubs, and if you must play a round, do it at the municipal course; drop your country club membership.  And as much as you can, avoid activities that are attended by fees or taxes.

13.  Don't speak up, don't stand out.  Don't write letters to the editor; in fact, cancel your subscription to the newspaper and any news magazines you may take.  Don't post your opinions to Twitter, Facebook or your blog.  Don't comment on political, religious, or social issues.  Cultivate interests in sports, pop music, arts & crafts, cooking, home improvement, and reality television.  Don't vote.

14.  Consistent with #4 above, don't build or buy a house!  Rent your home.  If you own a home you can't get rid of, rent it out if you can, and live somewhere cheaper.  But do treat your tenants well, I might be one.

15.  If you are an alien, legal or illegal, return to your country of origin if you can.  Things are about to get bad here.  If you are a naturalized citizen, or an alien who cannot go home again for whatever reason, then I'm sorry.  The American Dream you probably came here for has now been officially abandoned.

16.  If you are an orthodox Christian minister of any denomination, start making plans to go into hiding, unless you nurture an ambition to become a martyr.  Orthodox preachers will be martyred in America in the near future for the "hate crime" of preaching traditional Christian morality.  It happened in Mexico less than a century ago.  It can happen here, now.

17.  If there's something you've always wanted to do but haven't because it was immoral, indulge yourself.  We now live in a degraded culture, where anything goes.

18.  Buy a gun.  Buy ammunition for your gun.  Buy more ammunition for your gun.  Learn to shoot it and take care of it.  Buy more ammunition.  Soon there will be a complete breakdown of law and order.  But in the meantime, know and follow the laws regarding guns in your area.  And buy more ammunition.

19.  If you are in the stock market, get out.  If you have cash, buy gold.  Soon, stocks, bonds, financial instruments of every kind, and even cash, will lose most or all of their value.

20.  Demand as your due anything you can possibly get from the government.  Under the new rules, you have a "right" to anything you want to argue for.  And unlike the old rules, if it's a "right" then you're entitled to have the government provide it for free, or make someone else provide it free to you at their expense.

21.  Do not have any more children.  Children are a great blessing and source of much wealth, economic and otherwise.  They are also a short term financial burden comparable to little else. 

22.  The time for "tolerance" is over.  Those who disagree with you or disapprove of you will not extend tolerance to you, and you should get out of the habit of showing tolerance for them.  Call them names, make them mad, do to them what they do to you.  Reject their morality just as forcefully as they reject yours.  We're in the minority now, let's take a lesson on how to effectively be in the minority.

The America of the future has three classes:  A ruling class, a productive class, and a dependent class.  The ruling class will tax and regulate the productive class in order to give largesse to the dependent class, who will then continue to vote to keep the ruling class in power.  One class is to be hosed for the benefit of the other two.  The election of 2012 was our last chance to forestall this from coming about, and we blew it.  We all belong to the government, remember.  The only concern now is not to be in that productive class who will be forced, like the Horse in Orwell's Animal Farm, to work ever harder, even until he drops, for the benefit of others.  If you're pulling the wagon, it's time to take a break, climb aboard, and let the other fools pull you.

Now, if you are a "decent person" as we used to say, you're probably not very happy about this advice.  I promised you a special message, but I didn't promise it would make you happy:  Most people -- all the people who just voted to re-elect Obama -- are already doing most of this.  If you're not, you're a fool.  Maybe a proud fool, or a godly fool, or a holy fool, but a fool, and you will soon be parted not only from your money, but also your freedom.

For myself, I don't believe that there will long remain many who can afford such pride or righteousness.

Now, you may well ask, "what if everyone did this?"  Of course, "everyone" won't.  But if enough people do enough of this program, then the entire national structure, the economy, the banking system, the monetary system, the investment system, the political structure, everything, will come crashing to the ground, sometime around next July, I think.

And then, if we haven't completely forgotten what real virtue is, we can rebuild America from scratch, and maybe this time we won't listen to that minority that wants to force us to call good evil, and evil good.  In the meantime, whether you take my advice or not, we're all in for some rough times.

The End of American Military Power

We haven't yet reached the end of American military power, but you can see it from here.  Wes Pruden has the story:

Many of these soldiers, sailors and Marines feel betrayed by the senior officers of the services, beginning with the commander in chief. The old customs and traditions which have held the services together through war and peace have been scorned and trashed, replaced with the politically correct attitudes and regulations that gag real men. Even saying so is a sure way for an officer to ruin a career. The men in the ranks understand this, too.

The Army’s Center for Army Leadership at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., asked 16,800 commissioned and non-commissioned officers whether they think “the Army is headed in the right direction to prepare for the challenges of the next 10 years.” Their answers, as reported by CNS.com, ought to be enough to scare a commander in chief straight. His defense chief, too. But it won’t, because they’re exactly the men responsible for the survey results.

Only 26 percent – 1 man in 4 – say they think the Army is on track to continue as the scourge of evildoers who yearn to do the republic ill. Nearly 40 percent say the service is headed in the wrong direction, and 36 percent say they don’t have an opinion (and no doubt if they did, they’re smart enough to keep it to themselves).

The pessimists – or “realists,” as they might be called – cite two reasons. One is the hollowing out of the military as proposed by President Obama, and the other is the stifling effects of the politically correct run amok. They don’t understand why the men entrusted to manage the Army go along without protest with the nonsense mandated by the White House. Generals and admirals, just like shavetail lieutenants, know who punches their tickets.

 The Politically Correct Army depends on a poor economy for its recruits, and the public schools training those recruits will, increasingly, produce men and women who are poorly suited to the discipline of military service.  One shudders to consider what will be left of the military after four more years of President Obama. 

And yet, consider it we must.  With the automatic budget cuts coming to the military at the end of this year, which no one has acted to prevent, new projects will have to be cancelled, old ones scaled back.  Ships will be mothballed, without being replaced.  Manpower will be cut, but it may still be difficult to find sufficient recruits of adequate quality.  Personnel currently serving should not be counting on pay raises between promotions.

Moreover, with declining discipline, I predict a day when we see surveys rating military bases as the best "party bases", much like we now people rating colleges as the best "party schools."  I can't wait to have my tax money go for that; can you?

More on Why -- and How -- Obama Will Win

Writing at Powerline, John Hinderaker explains why the election is closer than many think it ought to be (H/T:  The Other McCain):

On paper, given Obama’s record, this election should be a cakewalk for the Republicans. Why isn’t it? I am afraid the answer may be that the country is closer to the point of no return than most of us believed. With over 100 million Americans receiving federal welfare benefits, millions more going on Social Security disability, and many millions on top of that living on entitlement programs–not to mention enormous numbers of public employees–we may have gotten to the point where the government economy is more important, in the short term, than the real economy. My father, the least cynical of men, used to quote a political philosopher to the effect that democracy will work until people figure out they can vote themselves money. I fear that time may have come.

In a followup post, Hinderaker expands on this:

Because Obama’s policies have suppressed economic growth, the ranks of the unemployed and underemployed have grown steadily. As unemployment benefits have finally run out, the long-term unemployed have, by the millions, declared themselves to be permanently and totally disabled. Millions of Americans have come to be dependent on government largesse as a result of the economic folly of the Obama administration. So how are those people going to vote? One might think that, angry at the government policies that have robbed them of their ability to be self-supporting, they would vote Republican. No doubt some will. But many more will cling to the only life raft in sight, and will vote for the party that promises the never-ending continuation and expansion of government benefits.

 Hinderaker also links to Andy McCarthy, writing at National Review Online:

Here is the blunt explanation: We have lost a third of the country and, as if that weren’t bad enough, Republicans act as if it were two-thirds.

The lost third cannot be recovered overnight. For now, it is gone. You cannot cede the campus and the culture to the progressive, post-American Left for two generations and expect a different outcome. So even if Obama is the second coming of Jimmy Carter — and he has actually been much more effective, and therefore much worse — it is unreasonable to expect a Reagan-style landslide, and would be even if we had Reagan. The people coming of age in our country today have been reared very differently from those who were just beginning to take the wheel in the early 1980s. They have marinated in an unapologetically progressive system that prizes group discipline and narrative over free will and critical thought.

The narratives are not always easy to follow. In the progressive weltanschauung, good and evil are relative. Good is whatever it is said to be in the moment; don’t ask anyone to explain why “choice” is a value when it involves killing the unborn, though it is seen as an obvious nuisance when it involves the right to choose the double cheeseburger over the salad. Evil is contextualized and root-caused into vaporous abstraction.  [Emphasis added.]

 More and more writers are coming to understand that, as much as they may be believe that Romney "ought to win", and even in a landslide, Obama is doing better than they expect -- and far better than they like to admit.  And so they're beginning to predict that this election will be a squeaker.  The truth is that Obama is still doing better than they're able to admit.  The rules of elections have changed, too.  They're playing the fool's game right up to the end.

What they're not doing is coming out and admitting that the world no longer works the way it did when they acquired all their expertise as commentators.  Which would require them to admit that they no longer have much in the way of special relevant expertise as commentators.  They're also not offering any explanation of what the new rules are, and how you can succeed under those rules.

For example, as McCarthy correctly notes, "good is whatever it is said to be in the moment."  This is one of the new rules.  Good and evil are no longer eternal and immutable, they are whatever they are felt to be at the moment.  But:  felt to be by whom?  Assert yourself!  You can assert that what you want is "good" just as easily as the next fellow.  If you can't force your morality on them, you can at least demand that they not force their morality on you.  And believe me, that's exactly what they want to do.  Even under the new rules, you don't have to let them.

The New Normal Economy

Victor Davis Hanson notes that the new normal for our economy is one in which savings doesn't benefit savers, the old can't retire, and the young can't find jobs:

I’ve witnessed two of the most radical developments in my lifetime the last four years — changes far greater than those brought on by the massive new increases in the national debt, the soaring gas costs, the radical decrease in average family income, the insolvent Medicare and Social Security trajectories, or the flat housing market.

One is the fact of less than 1% interest rates on most savings (well below the rate of inflation), and the other is an epidemic of 20-something unemployment.

Sometimes, you may find that you are ignoring the obvious.  Or, you may not realize that what is happening to you and to most of your friends is actually part of a nationwide trend.  In one sense, it's comforting to know that you're not alone.  But in another, it's even more depressing to think that there's probably no solution to these problems for any of us.

The hallmark advice of retirement planning was always to scrimp, save, and put away enough money to make up for retirement’s lost salary, increasing medical bills, and the supposed good life of the “golden years.”

...But well aside from the fact that many Americans have been laid off, taken pay cuts, lost home equity, had their 401(k)s pruned, or had to take care of out-of-work relatives, there is no 5% any more on anything, not even 2% or  in most cases 1%.  Saving money means nothing really in terms of return, only the realization that inflation eats away the principal each year.

...The old American idea of receiving a fair so-so interest on a little money in the savings account vanished. And no one seems to care.

I've never been able to save money.  Perhaps I shouldn't bother trying.  Whenever I get a little set aside, something always comes up and my savings is wiped out.  Retirement?  Fugeddabouddit!

Few seem to note that those who receive nothing on their retirement savings don’t retire so easily. And when they don’t retire, jobs don’t open up — which brings us to my next observation: the lost generation of those between 21 and 30, who at various ages and periods came into the workplace the last four years. Many have 8% plus student loans. I doubt half of those will ever be paid off, given the epidemic of unemployment in this cohort.

Unemployment rates of those 16-24 are now officially over 50%. Even the cohort between 16 and 29 suffers from 45% unemployment.

What's the best way to ensure perpetual Democratic rule?  Expand the dependent class, so that Democrats can appeal to them by promising to soak the rich to support them.

The new model for the next generation is to cobble part-time work together, intern, occasionally draw on unemployment, send out resumes hourly, and hope for something to turn up (preferably in government, state or federal). 

What Hanson doesn't mention is that this generation will be motivated, like no other before it, to avoid having children.  Marriage rates can be expected to fall, divorce and abortion rates to rise.  No wonder the Democrats are all about making taxpayers and employers provide free abortions and contraceptives.

But these days, the game has changed somewhat — or rather been downscaled: the PhD is not being hired for anything other than part-time teaching; the JD is reduced to the law library gofer; the freshly minted MD is the equivalent of a salaried, high-paid nurse; the credentialed high-school teacher is subbing; the engineer is a draftsman; the carpenter is cobbling together home repair mini-jobs.

 I know people in most of these situations.  I know a Ph.D. who works at three part-time teaching positions, two JD's who can't afford to practice law, they're computer consultants, and at least one highly skilled industrial engineer who barely scrapes by "cobbling together home repair mini-jobs."

It's easy to blame Obama and the Democrats for bringing our problems to this extreme over the last four years.  It's much harder to have confidence that Romney and Republicans can be successful at reversing them over the next four.

"Government is the only thing we all belong to."

Once upon a time, feudal lords bearing titles like "King", "Duke", or "Baron" owned all the land, and even owned the people who lived on it.

Over time, various political movements, economic realities, and armed rebellions led us to a state of greater freedom, and private ownership of property.

No more, the rules have changed. Once again, according to the Democratic Party, you belong to the government:

These people are comfortable with this sort of language. So comfortable, in fact, they can't imagine that anyone would be uncomfortable with it.

This is our last chance to defeat this dangerous worldview. If President Obama is re-elected, this mindset will become so lodged in our popular culture and our legal structure that it will take generations to reverse.

The rules have changed. What will you do, in the two months remaining, to defeat the party that thinks you "belong to" government? Don't tell me; go do it!

The Air We Breathe

There can be no doubt that the finest news blogger around is Robert Stacy McCain, who leads a great team at The Other McCain.  Stacy gets it.  Mostly.  He's still playing by the old rules, but he knows the rules have changed, and he does an outstanding job of documenting the fact:

McCain's "Rule 5" is the reason
for all the pretty girls on this blog.
(H/T:  Stormbringer)

In advance of Paul Ryan’s speech — as demonstrated by the fundraising e-mail from DNC executive director Patrick Gaspard decrying “false attack after false attack” — it was decided to call Ryan a liar. This was the pre-determined theme, and when the DNC issued its message memo, their obliging stooges in the press corps repeated the contents without bothering to verify the facts for themselves.

Democrat drum majorette Joan Walsh rushed to the head of the parade to accuse Ryan of “brazen lies,” and the Washington Post ‘s Glenn Kessler took dictation from David Axelrod:

In his acceptance speech, GOP Vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan appeared to suggest that President Obama was responsible for the closing of a GM plant in Ryan’s hometown of Janesville, Wisc.
That’s not true. The plant was closed in December, 2008, before Obama was sworn in.

This was not independent reporting, but rather stenography for the Obama campaign, as demonstrated by Twitchy, which provides the Twitter talking points from both the DNC and Axelrod himself. And their supposed “facts” are flatly wrong, as Stephen Gutowski shows.

The plant in Janesville, which was GM’s oldest active factory, “was idled in 2009 after it completed production of medium-duty trucks,” according to
Karl Rovethe Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. That is to say, five months into the Obama administration — three months after passage of the $800 billion “stimulus” bill, stuffed full of phony-baloney “green jobs” subsidies for politically connected firms like Solyndra — and not, as the “objective fact-checking journalists” claimed, during the Bush administration.

What is so profoundly offensive about the unethical and dishonest behavior of Chris Matthews, Joan Walsh and other such Democrat sockpuppets is that they won’t admit who they are and what they’re doing. They are not independent journalists, they’re partisan publicists, yet they expect to be taken seriously as reporters when they can’t even be bothered to do a Google search and find out when a factory closed.

They are a disgrace to the profession to which they claim to belong. Truth matters. Truth is precious and powerful. Liars are a dime a dozen.

This is why so many liberals keep screaming that FoxNews tells lies.  From every news source they hear the same story, over and over again, so when they hear someone say something different, and more importantly, something they don't like, they're sure it must be a lie.  As William F. Buckley said, "Liberals claim to want to give a hearing to other views, but then are shocked and offended to discover that there are other views."  This is why they're shocked and offended.  Liberal media bias, and not just in news but in entertainment media as well, is the environment we live in, the air we breathe.

Romney and the GOP: Playing by the Old Rules

I was chatting a week or two ago with a friend of mine, a Congressman, who's in a tough re-election battle.  I expressed my confidence to my friend that he would win re-election, but I also shared my pessimism about Romney's prospects to defeat the president.

"I sure wish Romney would hit Obama harder," he told me.  "He's barely done it at all."

Yesterday, Rush Limbaugh sounded the same note:

"Clearly what we've known for years is true. The Republican hierarchy, from its consultants on down, truly believes that mentioning Obama by name and then criticizing will cause these swing voters ... to run straight back to the Democrats. It is clear they believe it. 

"Naturally, I profoundly disagree... I want to know why these independents don't get turned off when Obama calls Romney a murderer and a felon. Why is it that independents only get turned off? Why is it that our guys are agreeing with a Democrat consultant? Why is it that the independents only get turned off when we're critical?"

This is a clear-cut example of what I'm talking about.  Romney is still trying to fight according to the Marquis de Queensbury rules, while Obama and his supporters are in a gutter street fight, and any stick is good enough to beat Romney with.  Or brass knuckles.  Or knives.  Or guns.

Romney's supporters...

vs. Obama's supporters.

In a situation like this, it's foolish to stand on honor and not hit back with the same sort of weapons and tactics our opponents are bringing to bear.  We need to be out there making our case for our policies, yes, but we also need to show how Obama's policies, contrary to the lies that his people are telling up street and down alley from sea to shining sea have brought this country to the brink of ruin, and he promises nothing other than four more years of the same!

I'd rather have an opponent who looks
like Melinda “La Maravilla” Cooper!
(H/T:  Wombat Sports)

There's only two months left until the election, and I'm skeptical that there are very many people paying attention yet.  Well, it's not even Labor Day.

And we still have the Democratic National Convention, with its celebrations of Islam, abortion, rape and sodomy, and Obama, the president of Islam, abortion, rape and sodomy, and four days of fawning media coverage of speaker after speaker telling us how wonderful Obama is, and what demons Romney and Ryan are.  What do we have to counter that with?

The rules have changed.  I hope we haven't nominated a fool who's still playing by the old rules.

The Question

George Weigel is beginning to get it:

What's coming won't be this pretty.

If everything in the human condition is plastic and malleable—if there are no givens—then claims to “my truth” on which you cannot legitimately impose “your truth” make sense. If, on the other hand, some things simply are—such as the human dignity of the unborn child or the nature of marriage—then we can learn what is right and wrong, what is true and false, what is conducive to human happiness or conducive to human misery, by pondering those givens and trying to discern the deep truths they teach us about ourselves and how we should live: truths that have been illuminated for centuries by biblical religion.

America began with the assertion of deep truths written into the human condition by “Nature, and Nature’s God” (as the Declaration of Independence put it). In an election season likely to be dominated by very practical (and important) questions about the economy, it will be well to keep a deeper, more searching set of questions in mind: Are we still a nation dedicated to certain moral truths? If so, how do we recover an ability to talk about those truths together?

And if not, what have we become?

Weigel doesn't offer an answer.  I would argue that to ask the question is to answer it.  No, we're not still such a nation, and what we've become is something that will quickly devolve into something horrible.  Orwell's character Winston Smith wrote in his diary that "freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two is five.  Once that is granted, all else follows."  That freedom is fundamentally at risk.  

(Pretty girl H/T: Stormbringer)

You Can't Deny Science

And the science says, liberals dominate the social sciences...

In news that could only surprise a liberal, the social sciences are not hotbeds of intellectual diversity, and don't want to be (H/T:  Cold Fury):

Psychologists Yoel Inbar and Joris Lammers, based at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, surveyed a roughly representative sample of academics and scholars in social psychology and found that “In decisions ranging from paper reviews to hiring, many social and personality psychologists admit that they would discriminate against openly conservative colleagues.”

This finding surprised the researchers. The survey questions “were so blatant that I thought we’d get a much lower rate of agreement,” Mr. Inbar said. “Usually you have to be pretty tricky to get people to say they’d discriminate against minorities.”

One question, according to the researchers, “asked whether, in choosing between two equally qualified job candidates for one job opening, they would be inclined to vote for the more liberal candidate (i.e., over the conservative).”

More than a third of the respondents said they would discriminate against the conservative candidate. One respondent wrote in that if department members “could figure out who was a conservative, they would be sure not to hire them.”

This is nothing other than typical liberal contempt for dissenting views.  It's a clear illustration of the fact that liberals will suppress dissent by any means at their disposal whenever they have the power to do so.

In 2011, Mr. Haidt addressed this very issue at a meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology — the same group that Mr. Inbar and Mr. Lammer surveyed. Mr. Haidt’s talk, “The Bright Future of Post-Partisan Social Psychology,” caused a stir. The professor, whose new book “The Righteous Mind” examines the moral roots of our political positions, asked the nearly 1,000 academics and students in the room to raise their hands if they were liberals. Nearly 80 percent of the hands went up. When he asked whether there were any conservatives in the house, just three hands — 0.3 percent — went up.

This is “a statistically impossible lack of diversity,” Mr. Haidt said.

"Statistically impossible" -- that means it couldn't have happened by accident.

Helen Slater as Supergirl

Beyond their findings on discrimination, the pair determined that while conservatives are minorities in their field, they are not statistically negligible: About 40 percent of respondents identified themselves as moderate or conservative on economic issues, while 30 percent did so on foreign policy issues. The widest divide occurs on social issues, the contested terrain in the culture wars shaking the academy. On these contentious issues, 90 percent identified as liberal and only 4 percent as conservative.

“As offensive as it may seem to many social psychologists,” Mr. Inbar and Mr. Lammers write, “believing that abortion is murder does not mean that one cannot do excellent research.” To think otherwise, they argue, damages the scientific credibility of psychology — a field that has been criticized in the press for being a pseudo-science.

Remember this when you hear about what psychologists say about any, and I mean any, subject.  You'd heard of media bias.  Now you know know about academic bias.

How Hatred Became a Liberal Value

Paul Rahe explains (H/T:  Dyspepsia Generation):

Alicia Silverstone as Batgirl in "Batman & Robin"

I remember when liberals sported on their automobiles bumper stickers reading, “Hatred is not a Family Value.” Then, back in 2003, in The New Republic, Jonathan Chait wrote an essay explaining why it was legitimate to hate George W. Bush, and the dam burst. Civility is no longer a liberal ideal. And now – as yesterday’s armed attack on the Family Research Council in Washington, the five-hour delay in President Obama’s condemnation of the act as he calculated whether it was in his interest to comment or not, and the mainstream media’s initial reluctance to report on the event, much less highlight the activist LGBT connections of the shooter suggest – left liberals are willing to wink at violence. It may be regrettable, they think, but, like stealing elections, it is all in a good cause – and before figuring out how to respond to an outbreak of violence on the part of their allies, they pause to calculate the political consequences. You will not hear liberals arguing for a crackdown on the use of force by animal-rights activists, environmental activists, union thugs, and the Occupy movement.  [Emphasis added.]

Read it all.   Liberals have been about hating what is good for a very, very long time.  They hate babies and children, they hate authentic religious faith, they hate traditional marriage, they hate economic prosperity.  And they hate, they hate, they hate the people who stand in their way as they try to destroy these things.

Why We Can't Communicate

Found on Facebook, re-posted with permission:

A number of my friends have been posting of late to decry the poor quality of political discourse in the 2012 election season.

It's understandable.  The slanders are going back and forth pretty heavily, and though it seems to me that the problem is far more on one side than the other, others will have different perceptions.

But what they may not be aware of is that little, very little, of political speech is actually intended as "discourse":  the two sides are doing such a poor job of talking to each other because they aren't trying to talk to each other.  Mostly, they're talking to their own supporters, trying to keep them in camp, trying keep their spirits up, their enthusiasm at pitch, and keep them excited.  But also, they're talking to the dwindling number of undecided voters.  A little of this is of the "see how good I am?" sort of message, but much more of it is of the color of "how can you vote for that devil!?"  Finally, a bit of political speech is actually aimed at the opponent's supporters.  Now, you might think that there would be an effort to persuade here, but there isn't.  Instead, almost all of this speech is intended to suppress the turnout of the opponent's supporters; thus the message is entirely negative, intended specifically to turn people away from the political process altogether, to create a "they're all bums anyway" sort of despair.

In America today, we are divided.  We are divided about basic questions like what is a person or what is a family?  We don't agree on what constitutes a marriage, whether there's a God, what God expects of us, what constitutes Good and Evil or how to achieve them.  We disagree on whether a man is entitled to the fruits of his labors, or whether he owes them to the state.  We disagree on what is our duty to each other, and on who should define that duty.  We disagree about the proper size and role of government, and on how best to educate our children.  We disagree about whether there should be one set of laws for all, or freedom to do things differently.  We disagree about what are rights, and about what rights are.

Increasingly, we don't even speak the same language, using the same words to mean very different things.  And, increasingly, we abandon media that facilitate consequential communication, and turn to media that trivialize communication (yes, like Facebook).  We've abandoned our brief, failed experiment in "objective journalism" (which at least had as its ideal the notion of serving the entire public) in favor of agenda-driven reporting and commentary serving a diverse market of information consumers.  Information consumers, who, by the by, are consuming (mostly) for free a very expensive to produce product -- but it's paid for by someone who wants you to consume it.  Who?  and why?

We disagree about history, about divinity, about humanity, about sexuality, about liberty.  We lack respect for those who hold differing values and opinions.  Only this last is understandable to me; few of us ever experience being respected by those who hold differing values and opinions.

I don't know the solution.  I'm highly skeptical there is one.  I'm completely certain that there is no short-term solution.  My best hope is that we won't tear ourselves to pieces before a solution can be found.

But it's hardly surprising that the people who are vying for our votes present such a poor image.  It's our own reflection.

Dina Meyers as Batgirl in "Birds of Prey"

 Not only are we divided, but one side is determined to wipe out the other, and in order to achieve that has taken over academia, the news and entertainment media, most of the judiciary and most of the government.  They use our virtues, institutions and traditions as weapons against us, and they are on the verge of rendering our values not only obsolete, but illegal.  The process will be completed during the next presidential term, if Barack Obama is re-elected.  In such a situation, there can only be victory or defeat.  You may wish to compromise, but true compromise is not possible with an opponent who uses compromise itself as a weapon against you.

There will be no heroes to save us.  Which will it be?  Victory or defeat?

Obama Slanders Romney as Murderer

That headline was a bit strong perhaps.  But maybe not.  The Other McCain had trouble with his headline on this story, too.

Here it is from Obama's SuperPAC:

The short version:  Mitt Romney is responsible for this guy's wife dying of cancer.  What's worse than having your wife die of cancer?  Politicizing your wife's death from cancer.  Especially when Romney left Bain two years before this guy, Coptic, was laid off, and when Coptic's wife continued to have health insurance from her own employer until her death five years later.

McCain covers the facts better than I could, so check it out there.

My take is simple.  We live in a country where the ends justify the means.  That's no longer a saying meant to be an insult, it's an official strategy.  Anything goes.  Liberals and Democrats should be ashamed of this, but liberals and Democrats are incapable of shame.  Instead, they take Pride -- with a capital P -- in their sins.  Look for the "Slander Pride Parade" coming to a Main Street near you soon.

And somebody will believe and remember this ad.

Polish President: Trusting Obama a "Mistake"

The Telegraph reports:

Reflecting Warsaw's long-standing anger over the 2009 cancellation of a controversial Bush-era anti-ballistic missile system President Bronislaw Komorowski said Poland should build its own missile shield to ensure national defence.

"Our mistake was that by accepting the American offer of a shield we failed to take into account the political risk associated with a change of president," said Mr Komorowski in a magazine interview. "We paid a high political price. We do not want to make the same mistake again. We must have a missile system as an element of our defences."

We were told in 2008 that President Obama would cure all the ills of American foreign policy, and salve the wounds inflicted on the world by George W. Bush.

Instead, have world leaders opening reflecting on the utter folly of trusting Americans.  Our opportunity in 2012:  to lock in a string of Democratic presidents, starting with another four years of Barack Obama, who will continue to undermine freedom and security not only for Americans, but for our friends abroad as well.

Planning for the Revolution -- by the U.S. Army

The Army is making plans on how to operate with the U.S. against U.S. citizens:

A key and understudied aspect of full spectrum operations is how to conduct these operations within American borders. If we face a period of persistent global conflict as outlined in successive National Security Strategy documents, then Army officers are professionally obligated to consider the conduct of operations on U.S. soil. Army capstone and operating concepts must provide guidance concerning how the Army will conduct the range of operations required to defend the republic at home. In this paper, we posit a scenario in which a group of political reactionaries take over a strategically positioned town and have the tacit support of not only local law enforcement but also state government officials, right up to the governor. Under present law, which initially stemmed from bad feelings about Reconstruction, the military’s domestic role is highly circumscribed. In the situation we lay out below, even though the governor refuses to seek federal help to quell the uprising (the usual channel for military assistance), the Constitution allows the president broad leeway in times of insurrection. Citing the precedents of Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War and Dwight D. Eisenhower sending troops to Little Rock in 1957, the president mobilizes the military and the Department of Homeland Security, to regain control of the city. This scenario requires us to consider how domestic intelligence is gathered and shared, the role of local law enforcement (to the extent that it supports the operation), the scope and limits of the Insurrection Act--for example maintaining a military chain of command but in support of the Attorney General as the Department of Justice is the Lead Federal Agency (LFA) under the conditions of the Act--and the roles of the local, national, and international media.

The Scenario (2016)

The Great Recession of the early twenty-first century lasts far longer than anyone anticipated. After a change in control of the White House and Congress in 2012, the governing party cuts off all funding that had been dedicated to boosting the economy or toward relief. The United States economy has flatlined, much like Japan’s in the 1990s, for the better part of a decade. By 2016, the economy shows signs of reawakening, but the middle and lower-middle classes have yet to experience much in the way of job growth or pay raises. Unemployment continues to hover perilously close to double digits, small businesses cannot meet bankers’ terms to borrow money, and taxes on the middle class remain relatively high. A high-profile and vocal minority has directed the public’s fear and frustration at nonwhites and immigrants. After almost ten years of race-baiting and immigrant-bashing by right-wing demagogues, nearly one in five Americans reports being vehemently opposed to immigration, legal or illegal, and even U.S.-born nonwhites have become occasional targets for mobs of angry whites.

In May 2016 an extremist militia motivated by the goals of the “tea party” movement takes over the government of Darlington, South Carolina, occupying City Hall, disbanding the city council, and placing the mayor under house arrest. Activists remove the chief of police and either disarm local police and county sheriff departments or discourage them from interfering. In truth, this is hardly necessary. Many law enforcement officials already are sympathetic to the tea party’s agenda, know many of the people involved, and have made clear they will not challenge the takeover. The militia members are organized and have a relatively well thought-out plan of action.

With Darlington under their control, militia members quickly move beyond the city limits to establish “check points” – in reality, something more like choke points -- on major transportation lines. Traffic on I-95, the East Coast’s main north-south artery; I-20; and commercial and passenger rail lines are stopped and searched, allegedly for “illegal aliens.” Citizens who complain are immediately detained. Activists also collect “tolls” from drivers, ostensibly to maintain public schools and various city and county programs, but evidence suggests the money is actually going toward quickly increasing stores of heavy weapons and ammunition. They also take over the town web site and use social media sites to get their message out unrestricted.

When the leaders of the group hold a press conference to announce their goals, they invoke the Declaration of Independence and argue that the current form of the federal government is not deriving its “just powers from the consent of the governed” but is actually “destructive to these ends.” Therefore, they say, the people can alter or abolish the existing government and replace it with another that, in the words of the Declaration, “shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.” While mainstream politicians and citizens react with alarm, the “tea party” insurrectionists in South Carolina enjoy a groundswell of support from other tea party groups, militias, racist organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan, anti-immigrant associations such as the Minutemen, and other right-wing groups. At the press conference the masked militia members’ uniforms sport a unit seal with a man wearing a tricorn hat and carrying a musket over the motto “Today’s Minutemen.” When a reporter asked the leaders who are the “red coats” the spokesman answered, “I don’t know who the redcoats are…it could be federal troops.” Experts warn that while these groups heretofore have been considered weak and marginal, the rapid coalescence among them poses a genuine national threat.

The mayor of Darlington calls the governor and his congressman. He cannot act to counter the efforts of the local tea party because he is confined to his home and under guard. The governor, who ran on a platform that professed sympathy with tea party goals, is reluctant to confront the militia directly. He refuses to call out the National Guard. He has the State Police monitor the roadblocks and checkpoints on the interstate and state roads but does not order the authorities to take further action. In public the governor calls for calm and proposes talks with the local tea party to resolve issues. Privately, he sends word through aides asking the federal government to act to restore order. Due to his previous stance and the appearance of being “pro” tea party goals the governor has little political room to maneuver.

The Department of Homeland Security responds to the governor’s request by asking for defense support to civil law enforcement. After the Department of Justice states that the conditions in Darlington and surrounding areas meet the conditions necessary to invoke the Insurrection Act, the President invokes it.

Chilling.  Contrary to what you may think, the Army is under the control of liberals, and they are making their plans to deal with what they expect from conservatives.

Read the rest here.

More on Why The Catholic Church will Deserve what it Gets

Regarding the invitation from New York Archbishop Timothy Cardinal Dolan to President Obama to speak at the annual Al Smith Dinner, Matthew at Creative Minority Report writes:

Why is this invitation different than Notre Dame or Georgetown's invitations? You can say that it has nothing to do with politics and that it's a fundraiser for children but didn't Georgetown and Notre Dame say that it wasn't about politics and that it was all about the students?

I've been to two religious freedom rallies with my kids in Philadelphia. I traveled down to Baltimore for the kickoff Mass of The Fortnight for Freedom with Archbishop Lori. And yeah, this ticks me off.

When millions of Catholics who prayed and protested for religious freedom see the pictures that will surely surface from the event with Cardinal Dolan and Obama how will they feel? Pray tell what will that do to the morale of millions of Catholics? What will that do to the pit of their stomachs?

It's just unserious. We can say it's all for a good cause. But its just unserious. Either those 50 million babies count as human beings or they don't. Either marriage is worth fighting for or it's not. Either religious freedom must be preserved or not. To say we're taking a "time out" from politics a few weeks before election day is just unserious. And it says to millions of Catholics that we can take a time out from those important issues to yuck it up.

 President Obama is the enemy of orthodox Christianity.  And, to the extent that the Catholic Church represents orthodox Christianity, President Obama is the enemy of the Catholic Church.  I had thought that Cardinal Dolan had a clue about what was at stake.  Evidently, he hasn't.

Why the Catholic Church Will Deserve What It Gets

Robert Klein Engler writes at American Thinker:

If you want to know what the Catholic bishops are going to do about the contraceptive mandate in Obamacare that went into effect August 1st, then you may first have to know what they are going to do about illegal immigration to the United States from Mexico.This is so because the same theology and Bible that teaches the Catholic Church to oppose contraception also teaches the Church to oppose illegal immigration. In short, the US Bishops can't oppose one without opposing the other.

Nevertheless, reality and politics in the United States have put Church leaders in a situation where they must confront a contradiction: How can they oppose ObamaCare while at the same time filling aging US parishes with illegal Mexicans?

A Fool's Game

a manifesto

Western culture has all but fallen.  Only a few dominos are left, and little stands in the way to prevent their fall.

Our culture has been nearly been defeated not by people who exploited its weaknesses, but by those who abused its strengths:  its generosity, its liberty, its sense of order and justice, its courtesy, its idealism, but most of all its tolerance.  In balance, these things made for the richest, most free, most virtuous society in history.  We fought wars for good causes, we went to the moon in peace, we elevated the highest moral values, we treated each other with respect and goodwill -- not perfectly, never perfectly, but better than any human society had ever done in history.

The America of the future has three classes:  A ruling class, a productive class, and a dependent class.  The ruling class will tax and regulate the productive class in order to give largesse to the dependent class, who will then continue to vote to keep the ruling class in power.  One class is to be hosed for the benefit of the other two.  The election of 2012 is our last chance to forestall this from coming about, and our only hope, God help us, is Mitt Romney and the Republican Party. 

It's really not fair.  If President Obama is re-elected, and particularly if the Republicans fail to decisively take control of Congress, America will be locked into course for at least a generation that no future president will be able to substantially alter.  The relationship between the government and the governed will have been altered.  Government will no longer exist for the people, but the people for the government.  People will no longer be self-reliant, they will be reliant upon the government.  The exceptions will be despised, reviled, and eventually hunted down and eliminated.

But if Obama is not re-elected, or if the GOP takes Congress to such an extreme extent as no one is today predicting, it won't mean that we are saved from that outcome.  It will only mean the the outcome will be, temporarily, less certain.

Our choice is not between good and evil, but between mediocrity and evil.  The good work of the Tea Party remains incomplete.  It must now unseat a president if it hopes to gain time to complete its reform work.  This is a completion that is by no means certain.  In the last 70 years, only three incumbent presidents have been defeated for re-election.

The rules of the game of life in America have changed fundamentally.  Increasingly, those who have tried to play by the rules find that the game is rigged against them.  Advancement, at least by honorable means, is less easy, and much less common, than it used to be.  Advancement by dishonorable means, on the other hand, has been easier and more common.  Costs have risen faster than wages.  Government growth has outstripped population growth.  Interlocking directorships, crony capitalism, liberal redistributionism, conservative apathy, and greed at every level have combined to place the middle class everyman in the sights of a cannon that will blow him away entirely.  His slavery is nearly complete, the last of his shackles has only to be locked.

The re-election of Barack Obama will put the seal on a time of public dependence and government oppression unheard-of in the history of the North American continent.  Government will choose whether a man will be born, when he will die, how he will be educated, and what will be his work.  Government will dictate what he is to believe, how he is to be entertained, and how he will live.  It will be done in the name of "fairness" and "equality", but the result will be neither.

This prediction may seem extreme.  But things in America are far worse under Barack Obama than anyone predicted in 2008.  Did anyone in 2008 predict the outrages, the enormities, the privations we have in fact experienced?  No.  As it is, things in most sectors are worse than most people realize.  Our economy is depressed, our culture degraded, our freedom denigrated, and our military decimated.  Morality has been turned upside down.  Virtue has become a weapon used by the immoral against the virtuous.  Courts, once the guardians of justice, have become our black-robed masters, who ride roughshod over law, and precedent, and justice itself, to rule like feudal lords over legislatures and their constituents alike.  Judges in America now order legislatures to pass laws, wielding power that executives can only dream of.

Our borders are porous, and, lured by tales of streets lined in gold, uncounted millions illegally cross them, a silent invasion that depresses wages, and creates a sullen, exploited underclass beyond the protection of law, at once both perpetrators and victims of crime.

A million or more of our children die each year by abortion, and those who disapprove are sued or legislated into silence, and forced to pay for the procedure through both their taxes and their insurance premiums..  The federal government has declared open war on traditional religious morality, and with the approval of huge swaths of the populace, notably those influenced by the mainstream news and entertainment media, academia, and those seeking benefits from government cronyism.

The much pleaded-for (by liberals, gays, and other minority groups) age of tolerance has been brought to an end as these groups have gained ascendance, and turned upon authentic Christians with a level of bile and vitriol never before seen in modern America, nor, indeed (outside of communist nations) since the days of ancient Rome.  The sole societal institution oriented towards the care of children has been weakened to the point of collapse, and the wrecking ball is poised to destroy it utterly.

The rules of the game have changed, the playing field altered, the goalposts have been moved.  If you are still playing by the old rules, you are playing a fool's game.

With this blog, I will discuss these trends, and how you can address them.