Friday, September 13, 2013

Are You Syria-ous?


Vladimir Putin, according to global accounts, is a brutal, calculating former KGB thug, make that Colonel Thug, probably responsible for far more deaths than one can count on a centipede's fingers.  It's generally accepted that he's gone so far as to kill his enemies, even Russia's own agents of betrayal, with polonium hidden via an Atomic Number 84 Lunch Special of the day.  In Russia, he currently has no shortage of enemies and critics, many of whom end up in notorious Russian prisons simply for not showing the love.  Remember the teenage female rock band which dared to dis' Vlad?  Whilst Miley Cyrus swings nude on a ball and chain for a video, these teens face a ball and chain, prison-vintage, for many years to come, with hard labor -- and we're not talking childbirth labor.

Vlad?  Hmm.  Well, he's not actually Vlad the Impaler (no fangs, Dracula), nor is he exactly  Grigori Efimovich Rasputin, the Siberian "mad monk," though when you take away the "Ras" you still get Putin, so maybe by name alone there's a little of Czar Nicholas II's religious advisor in his DNA after all.  A rose by any other name. . .
 
Still, he loves his country, clearly.  And he leads -- in his own way.  Some so-called leaders don't quite love their countries so much, and they don't really know much about leadership.  They're more about fundamental transformation.  Oh, silly me, but this is about Putin, isn't it?

Yet -- Here's a strange, as the late news commentator Paul Harvey might say.  The New York Times printed a letter from Putin this week, a very well-written letter which brilliantly humiliated both Obama and the United States -- and the crowds went wild!  Well, not the political class, but "just plain folks" sure saw something of interest in Putin's words.  A murderous thug!

Why?  Why were Americans from coast to coast hypnotized with brazen statements Putin and/or his own PR folks concocted to condemn U.S. efforts in the Middle East and elsewhere?  I think there's a simple answer:  Unlike the increasingly diminutive fraud acting the role of president in the United States, Putin sounded, well, presidential.  He didn't communicate in the meaningless platitudes we are consistently fed by Mr. Obama and his pathetic minions, no, instead Putin expressed himself clearly and without clutter.  He communicated.  Good for Putin -- and a tragedy for my country.

Russia stepped right into the Syrian crisis with resolve, made Secretary Kerry look as useful as a stopped clock, and simultaneously made hay out of chemical weapons and a fool out of Obama, whose reputation domestically and internationally is now so weak and probably irretrievable that his every appearance before the TV cameras will seem equivalent to a puppet show.  This should not be a surprise, however.  The fraud in the White House simply had to be found out eventually.  Obama is obviously not the smartest man in the world, maybe just one of the most arrogantly incompetent.  He gets away with things because the media and his friends in Congress, Hollywood, academia and parts of the corporate world let him.  But the worm is, we suspect, turning.  In the words of the street, some folks are wising up.

So, the New York Times gave us a letter from Putin, strategically adept at humiliating and pissing off a nonetheless surprisingly grateful nation, while Obama honored us with. . .a speech (yawn. . .) telling us everything we already suspected he would say.  Flapdoodle and stuff.  Mere seconds elapsed before his explanation about Syria was almost supplanted by the mention that children had died because of chemical weapons.

Mr. President, as always it's a shame that children died and it's a shame that anybody dies in a war, and it's a shame that there is war at all.  Bu'cha know, a lot of Americans would like to know --  when do you intend to go on national TV and blame the swine of radical Islam for killing a little American boy when bombs exploded in Boston a few months ago?  Sorry about Syria, but when are you going to do something about our porous borders and all the killers making their way inside the U.S. to murder -- our children -- and us as enemies within?

I, for one, am g.d. sick and tired of having some politician or TV mouthpiece throw a dead child in my face or name a law after one every time they want something accomplished.  The art and success of playing on society's emotions through such devious means tends to apply shackles to the future.

The unions say jump and Obama asks how high would they like:  Apparently, when the union bosses stood solidly behind passage and implementation of the Affordable Care Act with their good Democrat buddies, they neglected to realize their members would become entwined in all the same spider webs intended for non-union Americans -- and now they're screaming like chickens at the slaughter.  No problem -- the Administration quickly jumped on this one like flies on. . .well, you know.  Obama & Co. instantly rushed into action and suggested various concessions for union members -- just union members -- if the upper echelon would simply be good and shut up.  "Obamacare" deserves nothing less than defunding and repeal, and readers here would do well to remember what their congressional members did come election time.  The Republicans aren't any better than the Dems (which voted 100 percent for the bill with no Repub support whatsoever), because it came to light that Eric Cantor is writing House bills that both allow Republicans to defund Obamacare -- and then, in a separate bill, allow the Senate full authorization to fund the stupid thing, thus allowing congressional members to tell their constituents, well, I voted against funding (before they voted for funding!).  To borrow from George Orwell, in America all men and women are created equal -- except some men and women are created more equal than others, when it comes to "Obamacare."

Voyager I leaves our universe at last and scientists calculate that it could reach the next star system in 40,000 years.  I hope Voyager continues to transmit signals to earth so the cockroach-tapeworm people descended from humans by then can know what's up "out there."  Who knows, maybe Captain James T. Flatworm of the parasitic Starship Cestode will be cruising the galaxy by then.

I've rarely heard or seen so many promotions for motion pictures as I have for "The Family" the past few days.  I have no interest in seeing it, but I would like only to observe that, generally, the more a movie is advertised, the worse it is.  Just ask the critics (the ones who aren't paid off to say nice words).  You'll have to be the judge.

The Tesla Automobile Co. has made headlines in recent days because they're going full speed ahead on the electric car -- the critter that requires recharging stations all over the country.  Same old problem, though -- while all the "green" folk herald this up-and-coming technology, there's still a requirement to produce energy the old-fashioned way because when you plug in the car the juice still comes from conventional means.  Complicating reality -- Obama and his vicious EPA just announced new, harshly stringent requirements for coal-fired energy plants.  Combine that with his original promise to make coal plant licenses so expensive and regulation-burdened to acquire that they'll go out of business and -- voila!  We get what we get.  I don't know about the electric car (I must be a moron, because I think something else will replace it in the future), but anybody can see what's coming with electric bills for home and industry once a major source of American energy (coal) is beaten to death by government regs.  Hmm, who was it who said  energy prices must "necessarily skyrocket?"  Oh yeah, now I remember. . .