Why Not?

Uncle Henry Paulson sold Congress a bill of goods that he must have $700 billion to buy troubled mortgages. He trotted out The Little Moron of Pennsylvania Avenue [LMPA] to tell the country if Uncle Henry didn't get the dough our world would come to and end in less than a week. Congress ponied up. After LMPA dutifully signed the bill Uncle Henry changed his mind and decided instead to buy stock in banks. This accomplished nothing at all for anyone except the shareholders of these failing institutions many of whom are likely on a first name basis with Uncle Hank.Then along came the big insurance companies with hands upturned. Having given busted and fraud-filled AIG more than $100 billion Paulson felt obliged to help these Westchesterites as well.

Meanwhile the banks still won't make loans, thousands of families are foreclosed on, and countless small businesses from home builders to small manufacturers go under. Now come GM and Chrysler asking dear Uncle for $10 billion so they can continue to operate in the red. Ford can't be far behind. To add insult to our injury, Ole Uncle Henry gives his insolvent, mismanaged banks the OK to use your money and mine to make dividend payments to well-off shareholders.

Barack Obama is a Marxist. He intends to take money from hardworking middle Americans and redistribute it to those who, for whatever reason, have less. I am not sure I can argue this is more troubling than than taking money from hardworking middle Americans and redistributing it to the friends of Uncle Henry.

To Live Contra Mundum

I have learned that to live contra mundum is hard. In fact, it is no way to live at all.

The Founders of our nation lived contra mundum. They believed the comparatively gentle tyranny of George III so egregious they preferred the possibility of dying. I am glad they did. Nevertheless, I wonder how many Revolutionary widows and orphans found the liberty won worth the cost. There are costs and losses more hateful than one's death. In the middle of the 19th century, my ancestors held their right to political autonomy so dear they seceded from the United States. Living contra mundum in this way cost the states of The Confederacy a quarter million dead and the utter devastation of their country.

In my formative years, I lived contra mundum for the thrill and convenience of it. It was fun and required little effort. It came as naturally to me as breathing. My lifestyle likely stole years from my parents and if not it condemned them to months and months of late nights spent in fear and heartache. It crippled my left leg and left me an emotional adolescent even unto this day. I squandered a bright mind on easy course work, doing it my way, thus preempting my future wife and children the secure and stable life they so rightly and richly deserved.

Soon after entering the business world, I developed a reputation for fearlessness. My penchant for ignoring conventional wisdom was proving beneficial. Attacking projects others thought impossibly difficult returned me several fortunes that I wasted with bravado. I began to fancy myself a paladin of lost or difficult causes, invincible. Success redoubled this hubris and I got more daring still, virtually demanding the world mount a charge and take me down. It didn't have to. It just stood still and fired while I, like Picketts Brigade threw myself against it.

When a young bounty hunter drew down on The Outlaw Josey Wales in the film of the same name, Wales replied, "Dyin’s a hard way to make a livin boy". The boy died. To live contra mundum is to court a similar fate. Bounty hunters and outlaws lead solitary lives. Solitary men may live contra mundum with a certain nobility. Not so normal men for when the carnage of recklessness is shed on innocent wives, children, parents and friends there is no honor only the shameful indulgence of lazy and rebellious character.

To live contra mundum is hard. To live in the wake of one living contra mundum is piteously hard. In fact, it is no way to live at all.

America The Dim

Barack Obama is on the cusp of being elected the first black President of the United States. If he does ride to victory on November 4 it will be on the backs of the willfully ignorant, the biologically silly and the poor. According to Zogby International the post-racial candidate is capturing 70% of voters earning less than $35,000 and has a 14 point lead among independents and women.

Independents, those flinty individualists who vote the “man” rather than the party are the most puzzling of this triumvirate. Disadvantaged neither by nature or man these fiercely stupid voters believe there to be a difference between their man and his party. Since John McCain is the very embodiment of the maverick and Barack the ultimate “party man”, it stretches credulity that a majority of these dopes could support the Prairie Marxist. But such is the nature of the Independent who is too timid to choose sides and too proud to admit it.

At this point I need apologize to the very real set of reasonable women in America which includes both my two daughters and my bride. That said the silliness of the distaff franchise is well evidenced in the last four presidential elections. In 1992 and 1996 women voted overwhelmingly for the misogynist, Bill Clinton, in 2000 for Al Gore, in 2004 for John Kerry and presently for Barack Obama. There is not even one thread of reason connecting this crowd of whore-mongers, cretins and dissemblers which might explain why a group of reasonable people [save the poor] would choose one of them much less each of them. Thus it must be that female American voters as a group are not reasonable people. This however is not of them-selves but by a cruel trick of nature. They are to be excused.

Though as a rule uneducated and dense the poor are here the most rational of voters. They have a real, genuinely American reason to elect Obama. He promises to give them money. Not credits, debits, deductions, offsets or swaps but real money, checks drawn on the Treasury of The United States. These yeomen have retained that spark of American greatness which will permit at least some small hope in the long dark night to come. The lunch-bucketeers understand clearly it is better that Uncle Sam take from others and give to them than vice-versa.

There is a truth here, not a great truth, but a truth nonetheless. By hook or by crook, one may still obtain the American dream, provided one is neither “tetched” by nature nor educated beyond intelligence. If college tuitions can be kept sufficiently high, the nation may yet have a chance.

Don't Blame McCain

I have been following presidential election campaigns for nearly 50 years and have seen some bad candidates. Michael Dukakis was a doofus, McGovern hopeless and Bob Dole bumbling. But none at anytime approach the ineptitude of the stumble-bum John McCain.

McCain is about to lose to a fuzzy-faced, neophyte with an Islamic name, who lacks only the card being a card carrying communist. McCain is losing to a man whose political career began in the living room of a murderous ‘60’s terrorist and who as a member of Trinity Christian Church sat through 20 years of the rantings of a Marxist, racist, anti-Semitic, hate filled and hateful preacher. Have I mentioned he’s black? My dog could beat Barack Obama and she has only 3 feet and is dead!!

The first ham-fisted move McCain made was to anger his base in the Republican Party by announcing he would sign the Kyoto agreements on global climate change. Then he abandoned his very nature to fight a gentler, kinder campaign against one who learned the trade in Chicago’s Democratic machine. Fearing being labeled a racist, McCain refuses to even mention Rev. Jeremiah Wright much less make him a ubiquitous figure in prime time. He has only just now begun to attack Obama as a proto socialist. And while on the economic front only Borat could have bungled the Great Big Bank Bailout worse than the GOP standard bearer. Having seized the high ground by suspending his campaign “until a bill is passed” McCain instead weasel walked right out of Washington job unfinished to participate in the most mundane debate in history. While McCain was in Washington on the on The GBBB, Obama was in Hawaii being filmed body surfing. The Nero fiddled while Rome burned analogy is criminally obvious – but have you seen the Black Kahuna in a McCain attack ad? Not a chance.

I could go on forever but space and time prohibit. Suffice it to say that if America is to avoid a powder less Marxist revolution it won’t be John McCain’s fault.

Time of The Season 16

Not to be out done by The Little Moron of Pennsylvania Avenue in distributing taxpayer dough, John Mcain proposes the government buy - at face value - all delinquent mortgages and reduce the balances and interest rates for the homeowners. By bailing out both banks and home owners The Little Corporal has double trumped both Congress and the President.

Attention Homeowners: Immediately suspend your mortgage payments. Not paying may earn you big bucks!

Damn the speculators. According to Barack Obama it's greedy speculators who have screwed up the housing industry. First oil now housing, I hope they stay away from rhubarb futures.

Obama will eliminate income taxes for millions and cut them for millions more. He will also fix Social Security, pay every American's doctor and drugstore bills and give poor people the world over a living stipend. Now I know why made that trip to Europe last spring. He needs the tax base.

A Very Sad Story

When I sat down to compose this article I was angry. Having heard David Gergen declare incipient racism the only possible thing that could elect John McCain and then James Carville all but threaten widespread race riots should Barack Obama lose, I wanted to call on white voters to behave exactly as expected by these cynics and vote en block against Obama. Not because Obama is black but in answer to this sort of extortion and intimidation by the left. But as I began to write, a different story emerged, a very sad story.

Americans are a generous loving people willing to go to great lengths to live in harmony with one another. We despise lies and injustice. We extol fair play. Our ancient Christian heritage, notwithstanding the blubbering of the neo-atheist, has led us for the most part to love our neighbors and to seek his well being. It is also the foundation of white guilt. Americans are ashamed of racism and we hate it. Real racism, the mean spirited kind that seeks to hurt and the cynical, self serving kind that seeks to use race as a means to quite different ends. This is the kind of racism that is becoming an important part of this election campaign.

Because Americans hate racism and want an end to identity politics, we are anxious to elect a black president. We want to take this ultimate step in proving ourselves to be the greatest people the earth has ever known. We are tired of the constant sound of discontent running in the background of virtually every issue. We are tired of being barred from honestly discussing our feelings and attitudes - a condition perfecting race as the impossible problem. We want this to go away so bad we are willing to suspend intelligence and risk catastrophe to make it so. Enter Barack Obama.

The more I see of him the more I like Barack Obama. I despise everything he stands for politically but I like him. I am convinced that he is a gentle and sincere family man and that he actually believes the policies of Marx and Lenin will – despite 100 years of proof to the contrary – create a better society. I believe he wants badly to be the first President of The United States of African descent. And why shouldn't he? I also feel very sad for him.

Barack Obama has never lived outside the shadow of Marxist teachers, mentors and handlers. Hard left Democrats having lost the last two elections to a lightweight son of privilege have seen in Obama a way to tap the longing within white America for a St. George to slay the dragon of racial politics. Presented as such Obama it is believed, can lead Democrats not just into The Oval Office but to unassailable majorities in Congress. Past associations having gainsaid his being “post-racial” the success of this plan hinges now on portraying the candidate as black but not very black; authentic but not threatening.

Obama is not in any way racially threatening. Articulate, handsome, likable and cool under fire he might be called the Jackie Robinson of presidential politics. If that were the end of the story, Obama breaking the presidential color barrier just for the rightness of the cause there should be no sadness, for his foes, win or lose. But that is not the case. The Maoist left, dominated by white elites seeks to use Obama not to advance the cause of race relations or even of African Americans but to achieve its own ends in power. In this purpose the left makes of Barack Hussein Obama, not a Jackie Robinson but its own Uncle Tom and that is very, very sad.

In The Long Run IV [Don't Try This at Home]

"In the long run I believe this economy will be all right"
--President George W. Bush, October 6, 2008

Taxpayers to IRS, April 15, 2009

"In the long run I believe the economy will be all right and I will be able to pay. Call me then"
BG, Texas

"My entire compensation package this past year has gone to make the mortgage payments on my home. I am terribly sorry and I take full responsibility."
JM, Ohio

"Go ahead and have Hank Paulson sign over my bailout check to you guys. Save the postage"
GFF, California

"I am too big to fail. Please send me $700 billion"
BI, Kentucky

"The money is gone. I don't believe assigning blame will solve anything"
JR, NC

"I had laid aside the entire amount of my 2009 tax bill plus a $100,000 patriotic bump in a lock box at The Left Bank of The Mississippi. Unfortunately late last night a Mr. Kashkari transferred all of it to some guy named Paulson in Washington"
BDB, TN

"Barney Frank called me just today and advised that since I made my annual contribution to the Barney Frank Re-Election Fund I would be exempt this year."
CB, Boston


IRS to Taxpayers: April 16, 2009

Dear Deadbeats,
How on earth do you expect us to keep our big financial institutions afloat, pay everyones doctor bills and furnish your neighbors a $500,000 home for monthly payments of $99.99 unless you live up to your patriotic duty and pay these taxes? Unfortunately for you we have neither the time nor inclination to wait on you nor are we interested in your excuses, whining and simpering. There is no long run for you. Unless you cough up the cheese inside of the next 30 minutes the entire enterprise will implode leaving us no choice but to foreclose on all your assets not currently held by our house banks and suck the money from your 401's and IRA accounts that we aquired along with our new insurance subsidiaries. I urge you with all the gravity I can manage to call immediately and make arrangements to pay up. We will accept virtually any valuable article in lieu of cash although we are currently somewhat overstocked in size 38 shorts. Jack-booted agents are standing by.
Sincerely,
Neel Kashkari
Senior Accounts VP
Goldmann-Sachs-JP Morgan-United States of America and Company. INC
New York and Washington

PS: Dear CB,
Please accept our sincerest apologies. Your account is paid in full.
JK

In The Long Run III

Wall Street Santa Hank Paulson's new elf is named Kashkari. I swear you can't make this stuff up!

In the seven years it took Lehman Brothers CEO Richard Fuld to run the venerable investment house aground he was paid $350 million. Does Dick think perhaps he was overpaid? Nah, Lehman's compensation committee, according to Fuld, spent " a tremendous amount of time" insuring his pay rate struck a fine balance between his needs and those of the shareholders. Let's see Dick $350m; shareholders and creditors $0. Yeah that's about right. Before a house sub-committee Fuld was remorseful accepting full responsibility for the firm's failure. He didn't offer to return the money. I guess being sorry is enough responsibility for any CEO to bear. I'm sure in the long run Dick will be all right.

The Long Run II

"In the long run this economy will be all right" - GWB.

In the long run the cows will come home, the crocuses will bloom, the swelling will go down and you'll forget the one that broke your heart. In the long run maybe we'll even forget that The Little Moron made Barack Hussein Obama President but I hope not.

The Long Run I

"In the long run I believe this economy will be all right" - George W. Bush, Oct 6, 2008.

In the mean time Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson has put one of his pals from Goldmann-Sachs to work helping hand out the government cheese on Wall Street. I suspect "the long run" will be be over alot sooner for these malignant creeps than the rest of us. Call me a cynic. Call us all screwed.

Render unto Caesar

Christian churches should consider very carefully any challenge to IRS rules prohibiting a political pulpit. The law clearly states that congregations that actively and openly promote particular candidates or parties are subject to forfeit tax exempt status. Each election cycle a few more raise objections to these rules citing infringement on free speech and expression of religion. They are tragically wrong.

Jesus allowed "render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's. . . ." Eccliastical America has made a bargain with Caesar. If The State will forgo it's right to tax the property and income of The Church, The Church will forgo it's prerogative to exhort the flock electorally. It is truly a Faustian bargain.

For a handful of silver The Church has permitted The City of Man to proscribe speech inside the City of God.

Time of The Season no. 16

Within five years someone will write a bestselling book entitled: How The Bush Family Destroyed The Republican Party.

Time of The Season no. 15

"The nation is in a terrible mess and it's your fault" "The nation is not in a terrible mess and it's your fault"

If I were the debate moderator. "Governor Palin you have asserted that Senator Biden voted yes. Senator Biden you have asserted you did not vote yes. One of you is a liar and we are not going forward until we determine which of you it is"

The "greatest financial crisis " in American history has required $700 billion to cover the losses of the big banks and stock crooks and another $150 billion to bribe enough congressional crooks to save the nation.

Is it just me or is Barack Obama's baby choir very very spooky?

At about this time each four years it becomes painfully obvious that Republicans are too stupid to govern properly and Democrats to dishonest.