Iran, the Darth Vader of our Time

I have been getting some views on the post I did on the arrival of the 3rd Aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf. I realize now that I had oversimplified the situation. While I was quite accurate that Obama would be willing to agree to an Israeli strike if he was behind in the polls to shake things up, I failed to understand that the only way that Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, would attack before the election would be to hurt Obama—he supports Romney. So an equally plausible scenario is that he will attack if Romney is behind in the polls. It would be Romney’s October Surprise, not Obama’s. 

In any event, the drumbeats of war just keep getting louder as Israel prepares to attack. Even though Obama does not want an attack before the election, I doubt he would do anything to stop it. A war with Israel is not on his political plate. 

Yahoo News is even on script:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Sunday that Iran was just six to seven months away from being able to build a nuclear bomb, adding urgency to his demand that President Barack Obama set a clear “red line” for Tehran in what could deepen the worst U.S.-Israeli rift in decades.

Iran will be attacked. The only question is when. 

I doubt that Iran is any more evil than other countries, who could, on short notice, have nuclear weapons built. These countries include Germany, Turkey, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and no doubt other countries. Israel has 250 nuclear weapons. It seems to me that Israel is more likely to use their weapons than Iran is. Israel could easily turn the entire Arab Middle East into a parking lot. 2 or 3 bombs could take out Egypt, plus one on their dam on the Nile. 4 or 5 for Saudi Arabia, with a couple tossed into Mecca and Medina for good measure. Syria would be an easy target as well.  Israel would have over 200 bombs left. It would be madness to attack them. 

Maybe Iran is a modern Darth Vader who would ignore the consequences to themselves, but I doubt that they wish to commit national suicide. Iran has no plans to build a nuclear weapon. They may want to be in a position to be able to build one on short notice. I would want that if I were them. 

If you perceive this as anti-Israel, you would be mistaken. The problem is the governments around the world that think they can act immorally and not have it eventually come back to haunt them. 

Let me paraphrase what Paul said in Galatians: “God is not mocked, what a government sows, that they shall also reap.”

Creepy National Review Cover

There is considerable buzz about a National Review cover that has an eerie similarity to old communist posters. No, it was not done on purpose. They did not deliberately copy the Soviet poster, they copied the style from the whole period. It is just that good propaganda techniques are good propaganda techniques, and they can be used by anyone. (Pam Dewey, the beloved editor here at the prophecy podcast, thinks the Soviet poster was used as a template by the artist.) 

In fact, a movie I just saw about advertising, Branded, shows a display in Moscow where various luminaries wrote to Lenin about his marketing skills, and, according to the movie, Lenin’s marketing guys were in great demand in the West. There is something evocative about these old Soviet posters, and they were a reoccuring prop in the movie. While the founder of modern marketing is more correctly viewed as Sigmund Freud’s nephew Edward Bernays, it seems likely that Lenin was also present at modern marketing’s birth. I talk about Edward Bernays in a previous post. 

In the movie, the power of advertising causes us as consumers to psychically empower the brands as monsters that feed off our energies, like the old Star Trek episode, "Day of the Dove."  In this episode of Star Trek the alien feeds off negative emotions. 

One interesting aspect is the obvious fact that fast food providers want us to be fat, as that means more sales. So the fast food industry gets together in the movie and tries to change the culture so that fat is cool. 

Only Our Hero Can See The Brand Monsters From The IdWhile I cannot recommend that you pay $10 to go see it in the theaters…it is not doing well—at the 7 PM show there were just 4 of us in the audience…I can recommend that you wait and rent it on Netflix. Just close your eyes when the sex scene in the car occurs. I suppose such scenes are now mandatory in modern cinema. 

(In an odd coincidence the climactic scene in the movie, a reenactment of the ancient Hebrew ceremony of the Red Heifer, takes place just outside of Tver, Russia, the city where I met my wife. I am very familiar with the area.) 

To my eyes the National Review cover seems almost comical. Regardless of whom you vote for, or don’t vote for, do not be deceived by the propaganda of this election cycle. Whatever you do, do not feed the monsters of the Id that the movie Branded portrayed. If you believe the propaganda, you become a slave to it—which was of course, the whole point of the movie. 

American Fascist

I remember watching Hedges making the rounds to promote this book, American Fascist, a few years ago.  If the previous Hedges video I shared annoyed you two weeks ago, this one will infuriate you. It greatly annoyed me. I still think that watching things with which you disagree is an important step to understand what is going on. 

But he does make an interesting point. Looking at a lot of Republicans, with their combination of bellicose war views and overt pseudo-piety, I have to agree with Sinclair Lewis: 

 ”When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.” 

From my perspective we are already there, look at the Patriot Act, but the fascism may become overt rather than hidden. 

Zacchaeus Was a Wee Little Man

We should not allow our familiarity with a Bible story, especially one sung in Sunday School, to lead us to overlook the message the story gives us. Did you sing this song as a child? I still hear it on occasion as we drive with Stacy in the car. 

What does the story tell us? 

Luke 19

Zacchaeus

My daughter chose this picture! ^1-4Then Jesus entered and walked through Jericho. There was a man there, his name Zacchaeus, the head tax man and quite rich. He wanted desperately to see Jesus, but the crowd was in his way—he was a short man and couldn't see over the crowd. So he ran on ahead and climbed up in a sycamore tree so he could see Jesus when he came by.

 ^5-7When Jesus got to the tree, he looked up and said, "Zacchaeus, hurry down. Today is my day to be a guest in your home." Zacchaeus scrambled out of the tree, hardly believing his good luck, delighted to take Jesus home with him. Everyone who saw the incident was indignant and grumped, "What business does he have getting cozy with this crook?"

 ⁸Zacchaeus just stood there, a little stunned. He stammered apologetically, "Master, I give away half my income to the poor—and if I'm caught cheating, I pay four times the damages."

 ^9-10Jesus said, "Today is salvation day in this home! Here he is: Zacchaeus, son of Abraham! For the Son of Man came to find and restore the lost." 

I mentioned yesterday what a tax collector did at that time. 

The Romans did not want to be bothered with collecting taxes from subject peoples. So they would sell the right to collect taxes to locals. The locals would bid on this right to collect taxes from their own people. Then they would collect from the people. As you might imagine, this profession was not well received. 

This was why the crowd grumbled. No doubt there was also an element of envy. But Zacchaeus was honest, he did not collect more money in taxes from the people than was required. There was a strong incentive for a tax collector to collect more than was required because he got to keep it. Zacchaeus knew what the law said about stealing—paying 4 times back was the standard penalty. He never had to pay that penalty because he was honest. 

He also was generous with his giving to the poor. 

This leads me in several directions. First, I am reminded that Biden and Romney have a little different concept of charitable giving. Both are in the 1% most wealthy based on income. Biden gives 1.6%; Romney gave 16%. Huckabee at the convention got this a little confused. He confused Biden with Obama. Obama gives about 6% a year. I am reluctant to mention the amount I give based on the principle that Jesus mentioned that with regards to giving—to not to let the right hand know what the left hand is doing. But I feel it is needed for the narrative I am building. I gave almost 10% last year. Last year was the worst year I have ever had since graduating college. How much is appropriate to give in your situation? You know best, but somehow I doubt it is 1.6%.  

She must be French.It seems to me that in one way of looking at it the most righteous people must live in France. France's government consumes 50% of the output of the French people. So the average Frenchman must pay almost that much in taxes. Are they as righteous as Zacchaeus? The new tax rate if you earn over 1 million euros will soon be 75%. I suppose this goes to the "poor," and a righteous man needs to give everything to the government to redistribute. It seems to me that since our various governments are the representatives of Babylon the Great, one should avoid paying taxes as much as possible, as long as it is legal. 

My conclusion to the matter is the same as the founder of the Methodist Church—John Wesley. "Earn all you can; save all you can; give all you can." This is biblical. 

Kollective Klown Kar

I am sure most of my readers have been to the circus. Most of us no doubt have fond memories of it. My son Daniel does not—he was deathly afraid of the clowns. My daughter Stacy, on the other hand, had a favorite toy—Bozo the clown, or as she called it in the proper Russian way, Boza. 

The clowns were always my favorite part of the circus. Often they would all come into one of the three rings in a car, which immediately broke, spilling clowns everywhere. The antics of the clowns, often against each other, always brought a laugh from the audience. 

But there is an analogy I want to draw with our modern political system and the arrival of the clowns in the circus. Obamzo and Romzo are fighting to become the head clown. Each struggling to take control of the steering wheel of our kollective klown kar. Neither is above a good eye poke, a swift kick to the posterior, or some sort of crude practical joke. No doubt each will point out that the other is wearing clown makeup. We can sit in the audience and wryly observe their antics as they pummel each other. It will get even more amusing as the election approaches and the loser realizes he will lose and becomes ever more frantic and unintentionally funny. I can hardly wait for the inevitable klown kar krash. Hilarity will ensue. (Or Hilary will ensue in 4 years.)

This is actually a image from an app for your favorite iThing. You can have Romney and Obama fight it out on your iPad. But wait, my analogy just failed, as all analogies eventually do. We are not in the audience, drinking our cokes and eating our popcorn, observing the antics from a safe distance. We are in the klown kar with Obamzo and Romzo. This is not good.  

We cannot look at the coming klown kar krash in a detached way. We will be impacted by the crash. I suggest you buckle your seat belt, and pray, most definitely pray. Get ready for the crash.

Even though I am trapped in the klown kar, I will not put on the clown makeup, sorry. 

Nuts, I just looked…klown kars do not have seat belts.