Individual Betrayals and Societal Decay

In my essay on Our State of Decay, a good portion of it revolved around my criticism of "conservative" talk show hosts. That element reignited more than one discussion I've had with friends over the years. I fear its resolve is a long way off, but pray it's not.

One of these was with a very old friend in Texas. He accused me (again) of being "a conservative purist." He said a lot of things including putting words in my mouth I hadn't uttered.

Most unsettling was his completely ignoring my point about incrementalism and those who use it to erode the pillars of our society.

He accused me of being more upset with those who claim to be conservatives than those who I fully disagree with. He can't seem to grasp the concept that his worst enemies are the ones who seek to hide their intentions. It is as if nobody who claims to be conservative and talks likes a conservative most of the time could ever be a traitor to him and what he holds dear. The idea of betrayal is totally lost on him.

The most remarkable thing about my friend is that he had been the victim of betrayal at least two times: one was personal and the other professional.

Those were instances where I have good reason to believe he was quite principled and the other parties simply took advantage. Really rotten.

This same man can't see reason in my warning that politicians and celebrities who claim to be conservative need to be held to standards and we should share our judgment of their performance and warn others of their treachery.

Maybe this is an abject lesson as to why there is good reason to behave honorably with our neighbors on an individual basis and also to discourage others who behave dishonorably through reproof. When people are constantly being victimized like my friend, maybe only a little bit here and there, it becomes far easier for them to tolerate BIG betrayals at a distance -- such as on the national stage.

Using my friend's attitude as an example, each person who becomes inured to being a victim (indoctrinated to repetitive injuries) is ready to accept such betrayals. They are more likely than you to accept erosion of our country and individual rights. And they have a vote.

Want to protect your society? Protect your neighbor from yourself.

Moving Right On

Does anyone remember when MOVEON.ORG was founded?

IIRC, it was during Bubba's Monica Lewinsky scandal.

Well, taking a hint from this George Soros funded communist organization (hey, is GS funded and communist redundant yet?), our media and politicians just keep on moving on.

One lie after another, one scandal after another, one brazen power trip after another. Who in their right mind still believes we live in society governed by the people?

We really are being ruled by the ruthless who only claim to speak for a variety of interests groups. Any individual member who shouts out "Hold on buster -- you don't speak for me!" is dealt with by ignoring them. When ignoring them doesn't work, laughing at them. When laughing at them doesn't work, criminal proceedings ensue.

These are clearly not politicians in the democratic sense that they feel their interest lie with securing votes. Whatever it is they are, they are not democratic. They are moving right along imposing on us all whatever visions their financiers are telling them to impose.

Anyone who still believes that communism ever was anything than a wolf-in-sheep-clothing movement has not paid attention to its long history of death dealing to the common man. And now the Reds have moved on to calling themselves Green, and the word communist is almost never heard uttered outside of history books and on this blog.

Our rulers have indeed been moving right along.

Needy World

From out of the blue,
Strike he who's least true.
Should need be.
Scar too me,
You knew few view clues.

Tribes: Decay Resistant

I am recommending the following series of five 5 minute lectures



about tribes in Afghanistan. I expect that you will find that Steven Pressfield's enthusiasm for his subject makes it a very enjoyable to listen to in addition to it's worth in dispelling any effete notions you may have.

Being buried among a series of tiny url links in a rather long post by Papa Ray at Belmont Club, I fear many club members never saw it. I will emphasize this there.

The title of this thread relates it in part to my post yesterday about Western decay. But don't get me wrong: I am not suggesting a return to tribalism as an antidote to our decline.

What I am suggesting is that the tribes may outlast us if we don't begin to renew our appreciation for the fundamentals that permitted the West to advance as it has.

Our State of Decay...

Our state of decay is indicated to a great extent by what we are willing to put up with.

I get into arguments, sometimes heated, sometimes seemingly so (friends like to bare teeth at each other simply to stay in practice) over how bad our decay has progressed.

For instance, abandoning known leaders who have proven their principled stands (because the buzz is "he's good but he can't win") in favor of the less than qualified and the less trustworthy. You wind up voting for people for whom you have been relentlessly told: "because they can win." It all sort of runs afoul of the maxim "God helps those who help themselves."

When you vote against the guy you trust for the guy they want, and usually that is because of their money and influence is behind their guy, the chances are very good that you've fallen for the longest running confidence racket in existence; God has nothing to do with it.

So, I am directing this question of our state of decay at those who claim to be more faithful than I.

If you lack faith that your principles are worth defending in the relatively few times you are faced such a choice, what can you say in your defense when you appear before Him for judgment?

Well, I have one excuse in your favor. There is our news media. It is so bought that it allows into its ranks only true believers (e.g., Matthews and Olbermann) while spitting out any who it let in back when it was pretending to be fair (e.g., Stossel). The media, which really earned my label Sinister, is a constantly dissembling, disingenuous, outright lying partisan.

Worse. It is worse than any political party in a system where it (being labeled the "Fourth Estate") is supposed to ride rein on politics!

It has been granted access and privileges not available to ordinary citizens. And what do we find it doing most?  Exploiting its access with license. It uses its luxury of time and repetition to convince large bodies of our fellow Americans that the ends they endorse justify all sorts of means. And they win recruits to steal votes and engage in many other anti-democratic activities of which they are guilty of promoting with a wink. Media is our primary area of indoctrination outside of teaching colleges, and it remains primary in convincing teachers to stay indoctrinated after they become part of the edu-bureaucracy.

But, if you consider yourself a conservative, there are even worse people -- if you will allow me to call them that -- than those who are known sinister media-types. These are the likes of Michael Medved who never lets up on the idea of winning elections at all costs. Medved cut his teeth as a Leftist. If that isn't bad enough, he was a Leftist who engaged in agit-prop during the Viet Nam war.

Well, IMO, he's still doing it. No matter his protestations and books to the contrary, and his smarmy attacks on all those who justifiably worry about those in our institutions who have betrayed our nation and continue to do so, he is the quintessential wolf in sheep's clothing. He is the type who King Saul refused to believe existed at the cost of his crown and the continued existence of his country.

The aim of Med-type-heads is to shake the resolve of conservatives to stand by their principle. He and a few other influence peddlers very strongly helped bring about the dismal conditions governing in California. Somewhere in our future, the truth of what I am asserting will come out. But will it be too late for our nation? It needn't be.

This man and those like him are paid to broadcast for the conservative cause. He is relentless in his campaign to convince conservative voters and donors that their primary political interests lay not in promoting their principles, but in winning elections. Ronald Reagan proved, in the face of immense opposition, that speaking as a conservative actually sways minds and wins elections. He was clearly a firm believer that God helped him because he helped himself.

When your society and its institutions have been thoroughly decimated, will you feel comfortable with your defense that it all happened incrementally?

"What could I have done? That happened despite my party (with it's nominal conservative facade) winning periodically."

At that future meeting, will you say "I never dreamed my great country would meet its demise due to my giving up to sinister forces only a little bit at a time rather than checking to see what it was I was really giving in to"?

Are you going to tell your Judge that you never looked at where you made errors in the past?

Or are you going to say "Yes, I did realize that I'd made mistakes. But, alas, it was too late to correct them."

If it's this last one, you are sure to hear "So, you did realize you made mistakes."

What then what can you say when asked the logical follow-up:

"Didn't it occur to you to ask for forgiveness? Didn't it occur to you to promise never to travel down that path again?"

I shudder for the faithful who have to answer those last two questions. I know a few who will not be able to contain a sneer. That will be -- literally -- all He wrote darlings.

We are witnessing decay of the soul because of decay of the souls.

State-Shopping

Independent radio talkshow host Michael Savage is playing with the idea of running for the U.S. Senate in 2010.

He considers his home state of California to be ill-advised because the libs would leave no stone unturned to re-elect Barbara Boxer despite her otherwise unlikely chances.

Although he hasn't stated it yet, he's looking for a red state that isn't afraid of having every other part of the country hating it for electing him. LMAO.

Since he's planning on running as a Republican in a primary against another Republican, he's gotta figure out a way to win despite widespread GOP opposition.  That would especially be true after he wins the pubbie nomination.

Oh. and is there another talkshow host who wouldn't be out to frag him?

Fifth Columnists in Action: 1

Judge tosses out most evidence on Gitmo detainee

Who expected something else?

The aim of AG Holder and President Obama is clearly something other than protecting Americans. Seriously.

(hat tip to Just A Grunt at JammieWearingFool)

For What Your Vote's Worth

Do you recall reading here Congress is Rigging the Vote yesterday?

You may want to hear it from the Wall Street Journal's John Fund instead of little old me. The first 2 plus minutes of this clip will tell you about Congress' next stab at brazenness of which I've been warning for some time, but with more authority.

As I asked yesterday: What will you do?

To Be Fundamentally Serious

Trying to be fundamentally serious (the life you save may be your own), one of the things I have been trying to convey here is that our Left has been handicapping for the terrorists.

I’m pretty sure most of you are getting the same impression. What Rickl might call “the thinking of the Left” — that’s what needs to be defeated NOW. That is needed whether or not the Left will (surely?) reappear later in another form as Teresita asserts.

What I’d like to find is the precise turn of phrase that can be shouted from afar at Western officials so that they cannot mistake that

1. we know what they have been doing and
2. we want them to STOP.

This is not golf where we there is a need to make the game more even so that it is more enjoyable for all who play.

You Western governments have not been given power to handicap our anti-terrorist forces so that the terrorists chances IMPROVE.
You have been given power to protect us, not to “entertain” us.

Stop wasting our resources and endangering our lives and start profiling. Janet Napolitano was prepared to profile returning vets, but not Muslims. One might get the impression that among Muslims hide her agents while our vets are her enemy.

Congress is Rigging the Vote

What will you do when Congress rams through federal control of voting? They'll do it like they have done with healthcare so far. They will claim they're doing it for some Leftist "altruistic" purpose, but it will be to protect themselves from our displeasure over everything they have done over the last 15-18 months.

What will you do? Better to have started planning last year, but now is better than later. They are not going to come after you unless you try to prevent their implementation of the theft of your vote, which is your only real voice in how government operates. IOW, they'll have rigged it so you have to come to them to prevent them. They make the rules, and they're daring you to violate the rules they make.

What will you do?

See update!

"I Just Can't Understand..."

Thus ends a post at Belmont Club by commenter 42. vb:

Our enemies [Islamists] use our perceived weakness and degradation as a recruiting tool, and our elites sharpen their blades for them. I just can't understand how so many supposedly smart people can be so ignorant of basic psychology. [emphasis added]

Those who follow my line of thinking already can understand. I know the problems remain,

1. how much dare you agree with me openly, and 
2. how do we get others to take a "no more nonsense" approach with those who've risen to power?

---------------------
Well, as I had just finished writing the above words, Wretchard posted again.
Wretchard, who is not as convinced as I am about the Western death cults having gained  hegemony, provided us an answer -- right on time! 43. wretchard:
 

Just as I predicted in the comments above, the UK Government has resolutely decided to be open to banning an Islamist march through the funerary route of British dead from Afghanistan. The Daily Mail reports:

Alan Johnson will support any request to ban a provocative march by Islamic extremists through Wootton Bassett, the town renowned for honouring Britain’s war dead.

The Home Secretary reacted yesterday to mounting public anger at hate preacher Anjem Choudary’s plan to stage the stunt.

Gordon Brown had earlier declared that he was ‘completely disgusted’ at the ‘abhorrent’ protest proposed by the firebrand cleric.

The politicians found their backbone when the population told them to look for it or else. The lesson here is real simple. If the leaders won’t lead from the front, they’ll from the rear. The real heroes here are the organizers who got together 250,000 Facebook signatures to give Gordon Brown his Come to Jesus Moment.

Organize, organize, organize. With organization comes confidence. With organization comes daring and boldness. People lose their fear. Do you know who’s feeling his gizzard churning right now? Anjem Choudary of Islam4UK.

He thought he could terrify people with his bristly beard and trash talk. Well he could terrify the politicians for sure. But once the public got mobilized the tables were turned. This needs to happen all over. Then you’ll see the Muslim ladies who’ve been beaten by their husbands, the girls threatened with honor killings, the teachers who’ve been intimidated by the radicals come forward. Haltingly, blubberingly. But never mind. It’s like that scene with Walter Pigeon from “How Green Was My Valley”. Walk, child, walk.

The role of the security forces is to keep the armed opposition in check. To provide the security screen for the really killing blow: the struggle of the mind. If we can free our intelligensia of the dead tyranny of Leftist ostracism and Islamist fear, who knows what they might blurt out.

What I've highlighted in yellow, my friends, tells you what you can do and why you must do it. Those at the top can have backbone infused in them from the courageousness of those below. Live it.

The Right Has Difficulties

Despite all the idiocy on the Left, the Right has difficulties making headway because radio spectrum occupying consortiums like Salem Radio give prominent time slots to notoriously slow talkshow hosts.

This morning I heard Dennis Prager say (my summary)

"I hadn't made the connection before that the Left both wants welfare states and smaller populations. That's contradictory! You can't maintain a welfare state without a growing population."

Because he is a popular advocate of conservative values, especially Judeo-Christian morality despite his personal failings (counter-intuitively non-hypocritical), I don't like slamming the guy.

Given his panicky support of TARP, this is not the first time Mr. Prager has permitted his total incompetency with regard to anything that requires some arithmetic skills (let alone simple math concepts like compound interest) get in the way of him speaking on a financial subject.

More and more the blogosphere is necessary to set the record straight or to challenge "conservative" talkshow hosts before their wider access to listeners, and thus easier ability to influence, can cause damage. The Right cannot counter the Left when those who control the airwaves may have an unknown agenda that may not match the individuals they pretend to serve. By no means is Dennis Prager the worst host Salem employs, but he frequently leaves me disappointed if not temporarily demoralized. What is known as conservative talk radio should never be demoralizing, but it frequently is.

The Most Dangerous Envy of All

Those who claim there is no God will nevertheless covet the worship mankind bestows upon Him.

I suspect their anger becomes greatest when it comes to gratitude. Although gratitude is widely acknowledged as the weakest of emotions, there is no tyrant on Earth, big or small, who does not covet any small symbol of gratitude granted the God they disparage publicly as Your Invisible Friend.

I've observed before the apparently brilliant balance of the Ten Commandments.

• The first Commandment is about wishing to be as close to God as possible: your nearest Neighbor, your surest Source of solace, of happiness.
  
• The last Commandment warns about coveting anything that is your neighbors. 

What surer way to convince your neighbor to distance himself from you than for you to discomfort him by openly coveting what is his? In a way, are you not actively distancing yourself from him? Then extend that thought to those that distance themselves from Him.

And in a larger sense, is happiness what the covetous seeks, or is it the power to deny happiness to another?

When I say there are men who deny God exists, but nevertheless make war on this God that does not exist, what I'm seeing are men who would do battle with a concept outside of their knowledge simply for the purpose of denying to Him (just in case He exists) the happiness He wishes for His Creation.

Be ready to battle anti-theists and their sponsors, for they are determined to destroy any who stand by Him or defend those who do.