Obama is Naked

We all remember the story of the con artists that pretended to be haute couture clothing designers. The con was that only the most enlightened could see the clothes. One by one the Emperor’s courtiers pretended to see the magnificent clothes. They could not admit they were unenlightened. "Yes," the Emperor finally said, "The clothes are beautiful."

As the emperor took a stroll through his city, no one would admit that the emperor was naked. It was only when a little child declared, "That man has no clothes," that the people laughed.

In my daughter's iPad version the con artists were rewarded for teaching the Emperor a lesson—telling truth to the powerful I suppose. We know what their punishment would be in the real world.

Obama has no clothes. The only reason we think he does is that we can’t admit the possibility our own leader could be naked. No not for a moment. Do not misunderstand. Bush was naked too. They all are. Pick your favorite president. For me it would be Calvin Coolidge. He was naked too.

This was why God did not want Israel to have a king. We will idolize the leader, it is inevitable. But how will that king treat us? I Sam 8 tells us: 

^7-9 God answered Samuel, "Go ahead and do what they're asking. They are not rejecting you. They've rejected me as their King. From the day I brought them out of Egypt until this very day they've been behaving like this, leaving me for other gods. And now they're doing it to you. So let them have their own way. But warn them of what they're in for. Tell them the way kings operate, just what they're likely to get from a king."

 ^10-18 So Samuel told them, delivered God's warning to the people who were asking him to give them a king. He said, "This is the way the kind of king you're talking about operates. He'll take your sons and make soldiers of them—chariotry, cavalry, infantry, regimented in battalions and squadrons. He'll put some to forced labor on his farms, plowing and harvesting, and others to making either weapons of war or chariots in which he can ride in luxury. He'll put your daughters to work as beauticians and waitresses and cooks. He'll conscript your best fields, vineyards, and orchards and hand them over to his special friends. He'll tax your harvests and vintage to support his extensive bureaucracy. Your prize workers and best animals he'll take for his own use. He'll lay a tax on your flocks and you'll end up no better than slaves. The day will come when you will cry in desperation because of this king you so much want for yourselves. But don't expect God to answer."

 ^19-20 But the people wouldn't listen to Samuel. "No!" they said. "We will have a king to rule us! Then we'll be just like all the other nations. Our king will rule us and lead us and fight our battles."

Oh, for those good old days when the "king" only took 10%!

I thought about these things after watching the following video. I thought at first that it was too hard on us drones. But on reconsideration, it may be too kind. 

Why do bad things ultimately happen to a nation?  Why is America headed for a crisis? Why do we allow our leaders to do the evil that they do?

All we have to do to stop them is laugh.

Ensign Flandry

I have always been a reader of Science Fiction. One of the series I read in my youth was by Poul Anderson, the Ensign Flandry series. Here is how Wikipedia describes it:

The illegitimate son of a minor nobleman, Flandry rises to considerable power within the decadent Empire by his own wits, and enjoys all the pleasures his position society gives him. Still he is painfully conscious of the impending fall of the Terran Empire and the subsequent "Long Night" of a galactic Dark Age. His career is dedicated to holding it off for as long as possible. In time, he passes the mantle to his daughter Diana, who is also illegitimate.

Flandry is willing to disregard conventional morality and use his foes' tactics against them. He can cheerfully deceive, seduce, and blackmail; grimly and regretfully, he mind-probes his son into a vegetable in A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows, and in that same book, bombards Aycharaych's homeworld of Chereion into radioactive ruin to punish Aycharaych for his part in fostering trouble in the marches of the empire.

The idea is that since you can't beat them, the only option is to join them. The way to beat corruption is to become corrupt yourself. Am I the only one who wonders about the effectiveness of this? 

We watch our TV, eat our junk food, vote for one of the two prescribed candidates, and watch our porn on cable TV. "One more drink, bartender, please." We enjoy our decadence to the full, even as we rail against our situation. We, as a group, have caused our situation. As the cartoon character Pogo once said, "We have met the enemy and he is us." 

The only way to defeat evil is not to become evil yourself. It is much easier to drift downstream with the crowd. The roar of the approaching waterfall is just the wind. No need to worry. You ask your seat mate in the boat, "How about them Cowboys?" The fact that you must talk louder and louder to drown out the roar as the boat gets nearer to the falls is not a fit subject for civilized people. 

Get out of the boat. 

Rev 18 (The Message) tells us:

Get out, my people, as fast as you can, 

      so you don't get mixed up in her sins, 
      so you don't get caught in her doom.

Are you ready? Can you hear the roar of the waterfall as our community boat nears its doom? 

Do Not Feed the Beast

There is a lot of buzz about rich people paying more in taxes. Warren Buffet begged to pay more in taxes, as if he could not just write a check to the government if he wanted—it is even tax deductible. He complained that his "secretary" paid more as a percentage than he did. A little calculation led to the conclusion that this was true only if she made more than $250,000 a year. Buffet's executive assistant makes a salary, most of Buffet's income is in the form of dividends and capital gains. There is a natural difference between the two. Without factoring in inflation, a high marginal tax rate for capital gains can result in an actual loss once inflation is factored in.

Buffet also completely ignores the taxes his company pays. The reason for the lower rate for dividends is to avoid paying taxes twice on the same income. Buffet pays more than 40% of a good percentage of his income if this is factored in. The corporate tax rate is among  the highest in the world. But if Buffet really wanted to pay more in taxes you think he would just pay the back taxes his company, Berkshire Hathaway, owes. It may be as much as a billion dollars.  

Stephen King recently joined the chorus to pay more in taxes. In an article of profanity-filled Ad Hominum attacks, Stephen King begged for more taxes. I will not quote him as it is difficult to find a section that I wish to repeat. I would call for a boycott of his books if I actually read any. 

If we did tax 100% of all income above $250,000, it would not balance the budget. Of course it would raise no money the second year. If one really wants to raise money sustainably, you have to tax the middle class. This is why the Bush tax cuts should and probably will expire next year. Even the "apocalyptic" Ryan budget only reinstates about 1/2 of the cuts. Obama proposes that 3/4 of the cuts be maintained. The truth is we need all this money. Tax the rich more? Sure. Tax the middle class, tax the poor, tax everyone…we have no choice.

Pretty, but very hungryBut even if taxes are raised, it will not be enough. The Beast is ravenous. It needs money to pay for the probable coming war on Iran. (I will be blogging on this tomorrow.) The Beast needs money to kill people overseas. (I will blog about this next Wednesday.)

I urge everyone not to feed the Beast any more than is required. A hungry beast is dangerous, so be sure to pay all required taxes, but as Judge Learned Hand (what a great name for a judge) said, there is no obligation not to structure one's life to minimize taxes.

I cannot follow my next piece of advice, as I live on a rock at 6700 ft., but if you can, grow your own food. Keep your expenditures low and get out of debt (this I can do, and am doing.)

Do not feed the Beast.

Coming Apart

Coming Apart is the name of Charles Murray's new book. In it he describes the coming underclass. To avoid any racial overtones, the book focuses on non-Hispanic whites. If the current trends continue, we are doomed. While the black and Hispanic subcultures are further along this path than the Anglo Saxon culture, the direction is not good. There is not much one person can do, but one person can keep themselves from these kind of mistakes. 

“We enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought”

I like this quote enough that I have placed it along side my motto on the right side of the blog:

For the greatest enemy of truth is very often not the lie — deliberate, contrived and dishonest — but the myth — persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. Too often we hold fast to the clichés of our forebears. We subject all facts to a prefabricated set of interpretations. We enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.

- John F. Kennedy, Yale University commencement address (June 11, 1962)

It seems only fair to apply this principle to the death of the one who said it. In that vein I read an interesting article about the JFK assignation assassination. 

I must be careful as the article fits in with my internal filters. I may blog about the CIA's Northwood project, and the Bay of Pigs incident,  which may have caused the Cuban missile crisis.  But this quote really jumped off the page:

E. Howard Hunt, the infamous CIA agent who overthrew the government of Guatemala and worked in the CIA’s anti-Castro Cuban operations, and who later achieved infamy as one of the Watergate burglars, had his deathbed confession revealed by his son in 2007. In his confession, E. Howard Hunt revealed that it was the CIA and Lyndon Banes Johnson who were behind the assassination, and that he, himself, was involved.

Here is a Wired article on the subject of Hunt's confession.

Click here to listen to a clip of the actual audio file of Hunt's death bed confession.  

I have heard or read nothing in Andrew Marshal's article, or anywhere else, to indicate a conspiracy of Jewish Satanist Bankers. But that does not mean there are not various conspiracies. There may be. But I am not convinced of any "uber" conspiracy. If you really want to go deep, deep into the weeds, you can read more about Hunt's death bed confession by buying his son's book. I see no reason to go there. 

There are many possiblities. 

1. Hunt lied. (The fact that his son is making money for his confession supports this.)

2. Hunt really was involved. 

3. Hunt lied, but there was still a murder plot, but Hunt was not involved. 

I remain unconvinced by these kinds of things. Hunt telling the truth seems to me to be the least likely option. 

Let’s say that Kennedy was assassinated by Jewish Satanist Bankers. What can you or I do about it? Nothing, absolutely nothing. Your best option is to keep a low profile and separate yourself from Babylon as much as possible. This is the exact strategy I suggest. Reading all these weird books, and ultimately becoming weird yourself, is a waste of time. 

I do have a personal connection to Kennedy. The house I live in was built by an heir to the Hyatt Hotel fortune. He was afraid of assassins so he built a secret bedroom only accessible from a secret passageway. (He was eventually murdered they say, so he may not have been paranoid.) The rumor is that Kennedy clandestinely met Marilyn Monroe in that bedroom—now my bedroom. I may be sleeping in the same bed they slept in. 

Yuck.