Fear and Flying

I can’t afford to buy a ticket to ride on an airplane, so I don’t feel the frustrations of airline travelers in the post-9/11 age. However, from what I am hearing, I think this outrage over the TSA’s new hyper-intrusive body-scanning and pat-down procedures just may be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. For years I have been astonished by the absence of good old-fashioned righteous indignation over the loss of our rights and dignity that is a uniquely American trait. This time, however, I am quite optimistic regarding the mood of my fellow countrymen as they seethe over what is possibly the most egregious invasion of privacy free people have ever experienced. I can sense that they are finally preparing to take action.

Put down your musket, tough guy--I don’t mean that kind of action. I mean the kind of action where people start actually thinking about what it truly means to have certain inalienable rights which cannot be violated, and if they are, the violator should expect one hell of a fight. If the atrocities the TSA is committing against law-abiding citizens do not merit an infraction of our Constitutionally-protected right against unlawful searches, I don’t know what does.

The first course of action is to demand that all Congressmen and federal officials (outside of the President and Veep, of course) use commercial air travel instead of private jets. They’ll put legislation together in a heartbeat to put the brakes on Janet Napolitano’s abuses. If they refuse to fly with us commoners, or if they agree to do so but they don’t seem to mind the searches, then the next step is to boycott the airlines. They couldn’t have been any more thrilled to hear about the scanners and pat-downs than we were, but they haven’t yet put up a sufficient fight to protect their customers. After half of the traveling public starts going Greyhound, they will.

A libertarian radio commentator said today that he believes the TSA may bow down to public pressure soon and the intrusive procedures will stop. He fears, however, that the next terrorist attack will then be blamed on those who opposed the searches and even more brutal government policies will follow. I have nothing to object to in this statement, as I indeed believe that our current government is looking for any opportunity to clamp down on our rights. The response to that, however, would be the same as it is to the first problem: Do...not...let...the...government...violate...your...rights. Have I made myself clear?

I wouldn’t even worry about the next terrorist attack; they have already won. The Underwear Bomber and his cronies knew exactly what they were doing. They just as easily could have hidden a bomb in his shirt pocket, but they wanted more: They wanted to make life as miserable as possible for all of us, which is the real goal of terrorism. After the event, an astute security expert said that even though no one was killed, the ‘failed’ Underwear bomber was actually “85% successful.” Why stop at killing a hundred-or-so Americans when you can do that and at the same time make sure everyone else has to submit to dignity-robbing searches? That is how terrorists win. Let's ensure that they lose.

Life Imitating Art: Obama and the ‘V’ TV Series

I haven’t religiously followed a television series since Kung Fu: The Legend Continues went off the air more than a decade ago. Many good shows have come and gone since then, I am sure, but none of them focused on the intricacies of roundhouse kicking so I didn’t waste my time. I should have paid better attention, because the ‘V’ mini-series is so poignant, if not terribly entertaining, that every American who understands what the Obama administration is doing should watch it with a note pad in hand.

‘V’, the TV show, not the letter of the alphabet, might as well have been named ‘O’. The remake of the 80’s sci-fi series presents viewers with a reality so strikingly similar to Obama-era America that one wonders if the show’s writers saw this coming. For those who are not up to speed, the plotline of ‘V’ is simple: alien lizards dressed up as humans (Visitors, or simply, ‘V’, led by their commander Anna) surround the Earth, claim to be peaceful, and promise to enhance the lives of Earthlings with their advanced technology. The price for all this bliss? Oh, nothing, really. Just the complete surrender of all sovereingty and the total acceptance of alien domination by all humans.

Obama supporters couldn’t snatch up a deal like that fast enough. But those of us with functioning brains would be just a tad bit skeptical. On the show, humans divide along these lines with all the fear and self-doubt Americans feel over the questions posed by Obama’s promises to replace what is left of our freedom with the specious security offered by totalitarian rule.

The photogenic but devious Anna is such a delicious metaphor for Obama, and the show leaves no doubt that she is every bit as malicious as the President and anyone who trusts her is a fool. However, it’s not easy to stand up to the peer pressure and public sentiment that comes with opposing a popular regime which enjoys absurdly favorable media coverage. At least on the show, Scott Wolf’s character is a reputable reporter who participates in the shenanigan until he realizes what the aliens are up to. Oh, if only somebody in the American media would examine the writings of Elena Kagan or Cass Sunstein--they might have the same epiphany!

The protagonists on ‘V’ are obviously the leaders of the resistance, known as the ‘Fifth Column’, an allegory for the Tea Party movement. They are denounced as ‘terrorists’, and considered a ‘threat to peace’, although they are not the instigators of violence. They are accused of lying and spreading calumnies despite the fact that it is they who know the truth. Hmm? Oh, I was describing the Fifth Column, not the Tea Party. Or was I?

My favorite reference to Obama is Anna’s secret million-man (lizard) army being grown in a giant incubator. Her plan was to deploy them as soon as they were hatched, in the same way Obama is currently building a “civilian army” (as promised in a July 2008 campaign speech) to do his bidding. Unfortunately for Anna, her army was destroyed by the resistance before it had a chance to do any damage. Let’s hope we can short-circuit Obama’s plans before he can cause any more devastation to our Constitution and our country.

On the Death and Rebirth of Communism

Today, December 23, 2009, is the 20th anniversary of the official opening of the Brandenburg Gate. For you Millennial kids, that was the perennially locked passageway through the Berlin Wall--the infamous symbol of the Iron Curtain separating East and West Germany. Back in November we saw how much this event bothered President Obama, and how many backflips he had to do to try and avoid giving President Reagan his due, but that’s not what really concerns me now.

What I haven’t heard anyone in the news media pick up on yet is the elucidation the Berlin Wall gave on the debate between Communism and Freedom. I recall that Ayn Rand mentioned in one of her essays the value the two Germanys had as a literal test country. She explained how in a nation of the same people and same culture, with the only major difference being political structure, West Germany thrived while the old GDR (that’s East Germany, for you Millennium babies) was stifled into third-world status. Who would be stupid enough to ever again suggest that statism would lead to productivity and bliss?

I’ll tell you who’s stupid enough: we are. Congress is preparing to pull off this healthcare stunt tomorrow--on Christmas Eve, no less--which will drive us even farther down the road to serfdom than Obama has already taken us. I’m not about to get into a discussion of healthcare policy or any of the other country-devouring tactics Obama and the Congress have already used. My point is simply this: We are approaching, and possibly by tomorrow night will have reached, the threshold of what Reagan warned about in his farewell address. Why? Because we don’t have the old Soviet empire--the Communist’s North Star--to steer us away from the same kinds of mistakes which built it. There is nothing anywhere in the world today which can clearly illustrate the fallacy of socialism the way the Berlin Wall did, by contrasting the stable, peaceful, advanced West Germany with the miserable, starving East Germany. Because of the naïvete and historical illiteracy of the American people, we are now doomed to repeat the mistakes the Brits made after WWII, the Russians made after WWI, and--yes--the Germans made in between. I hope I don’t have to tell you how that turned out.

Meltdown: the End of the Climate Change Hoax

Okay, so now that someone has finally been able to conclusively expose the perpetrators responsible for the global warming hoax by releasing their unredacted e-mails, we can all relax, right? The politicians would never try to circumvent all logic and real science by doing something drastic at Copenhagen after the lid has been blown off their scandal, would they? Not so fast. I’ll reiterate what I discovered in the global warming report I did in college a couple of years back.*

The bottom line is that if you think we’re safe now just because the science has been proven fraudulent, keep in mind that global warming never had anything to do with science. This whole circus started in the late 1980s as Communism was fizzling out, and the Marxists soon found that scientific alarmism, however preposterous, could be more effective at enslaving naïve Western democracies than outdated Leninist agitprop. That’s all we need to know. None of the IPCC’s assessment reports is worth the paper it’s printed on, and I’ve got the proof. Check it out if you like.

As for this week’s shindig at Copenhagen, I still anticipate some kind of treaty or agreement to further weaken what is left of American industry, thereby strengthening Obama’s hand and speed-rushing us into the era of One World Government. Remember that every sector of the economy that falters under excessive regulation is going to end up being owned, not ‘bailed out’, I mean totally owned by Obama. In a short while, we will debate the merits of socialism from prison or underground bunkers while all of our nation’s private wealth has already been gobbled up under the guise of “not allowing critical sectors of the economy to fail.” George Bush had already secured the banks and financial houses for his successor, and if Obama plays his cards right a climate change agreement should guarantee his theft of at least two more crucial sectors: energy and transportation.

Lastly, do not put your faith in democracy; the government doesn’t require our approval. Just because the entire informed electorate are against them, that will not stop the political hacks from doing whatever the hell they want at this climate summit. After all, less than 35% of Americans wanted socialized healthcare; will that stop them from ramming it down our throats?

*The full text of that paper is still available in this blogsite’s Technical Supplemental: www.americathefinaldaysts.blogspot.com.

How to make the people accept, nay, DESIRE socialism

The only thing which surprises me about the socialist transformation of my country is the lack of any kind of resistance to it from the educated class who should know better. Here’s a little story: I have a college-educated family member who recently found himself unemployed. This individual had always been a liberal but lately he supports the Marxist policies of the president even more, and I suspected that his dire economic circumstances had something to do with it. Since I am someone who knows that socialism only destroys jobs and lowers wages, I couldn’t figure out why he bought into the president’s Red propaganda. After thinking about a visit I had with him the other day, I believe I have the answer.

“Duh!” was what finally popped into my head. “Of course the radicals in the current administration want as many Americans out of work as possible,” I thought. “Think of how much easier it will be to make people permanently dependent on government!”

I have good reason to believe that President Obama is purposefully increasing the unemployment rate to create an army of desperate, easily controllable people like my relative in the above story. Folks with full bellies are not so eager to become slaves; they have the strength to resist totalitarianism. If the history of the 20th century has taught us anything, it is that a starving populace will bow down to virtually any type of dictator who promises food. With every percentage increase in the unemployment rate, disasters like socialized healthcare, massive taxes, forced unionization, and anything else the tyrants desire creep that much closer because hungry people will swallow anything, even the kind of garbage we are being fed by this administration.