BLOWING UP THE OUT-HOUSE

Syria is a sad civil war that has had some bizarre twists lately.  Most recently Mr. Putin intervened to "save" his man Assad from an American bombing that, while much discussed, appeared unlikely to happen.

"Syria is a Humanitarian Disaster"

We announced last year that if Assad used chemical weapons it would be a game changer.  Parenthetically, why we thought this was a "game changer" is still unclear.  Assad was killing lots of people before using chemical weapons.  Presumably the dead were unhappy with their murder even when it wasn't due to chemical weapons.  See this poignant "comic."   Then we caught Assad using chemical weapons to kill lots of people.  Then we were stuck with defining "game changer," which we mulled over in public for a good bit, to no effect.

The arguments for using military force were that (1) we have to stop Assad from using chemical weapons and (2) we have to show the Iranians we mean business, because they keep trying to build a nuclear bomb. Assad had a front row seat as we wrecked Iraq and Afghanistan.  Assad knows we can bomb him; he just didn't think we would.  Turns out he was right.

I don't think throwing a few Cruise missiles into some dusty town-hall in Syria will convince Assad to stop bombing his own population.  Neither will it convince Iran that we are ready to destroy them to keep them from building nukes.  Bombing Syria would just kill a lot of poor people who don't have the wherewithal to get out of the way.

The lead up to Syria amounted to shouting through a bull-horn that we were about to throw a stick of dynamite into an out-house, the idea being that the neighbors will hear that you have dynamite and maybe quit playing Metallica at 3 a.m.

Burning Out-House

Problem is the neighbors already knew you had dynamite.  They just don't believe you are going to blow up the outhouse, because you are going to get $h!# all over the place, most especially on yourself.  Throwing dynamite into an out-house is a dumb idea.  Not bombing Syria was the correct decision.

Making a lengthy public demonstration about bombing Syria was dumb.  Being called on a bluff was unhelpful.

I do not think we lost credibility with the decision not to bomb.  I don't think anyone took us too seriously to begin with. Our internal problems are news all over the world.  For the last several years the president has not been able to get his own party in Congress to vote for his budgets, never mind Republicans, who so don't like his budget ideas they keep trying to shut the government down. Right now we cannot keep our government open, never mind take effective military action.  We are not fooling anyone.

Certainly not Assad.  Certainly not  Iran.  Certainly not Putin.

Mr. Putin Feeling Fine.

Talk about "losing" credibility is idle.  We've already lost it.

 

CELEBRITY NEWS!

I just got done glancing through a couple of popular magazines that cover celebrities.  Call them "WEEPLE." Some celebrity news from the pages of WEEPLE:

• Two voluptuous sisters are both disappointed in their wealthy but disinterested male consorts, one a basketball player, the other a rapper.  One of sisters, with a new baby, is having trouble with her weight.

Volptuous sister and disinterested consort.

• One 20-year old starlet has been exposing herself in public lately.  She is apparently crushed over a boy-friend who recently left her, and she has decided that public lasciviousness is the way to get over her heartbreak.

Working through issues.

• A not-so-famous former TV star has announced that, at age 50, he is ready to meet "Mrs. Right," get married and have children.

• The 18-year old half-sister of an alcoholic, drug-addicted and criminal 20-something starlet has just had extensive plastic surgery to look more like her troubled, beautiful half-sister.  Their father has ditched both of their mothers.

I want to be like my sister.

• A TV star wore a dress so low-cut that one of her breasts popped out unexpectedly during a formal event.

• A 50-year old movie star was angered to meet her 35-year old ex-husband, accompanied by his new 30-year old girlfriend, at a Kabbalah function.  She introduced him to Kabbalah.

People wonder why I follow Christ. I think from now on I will start by having them read WEEPLE.  That should explain it.

WEEPLE expresses a deep truth about human beings - we are sad and have a hard time fulfilling our needs. I think we read WEEPLE because it makes us feel good, since we are not THAT messed up, but what's with that?   I know my heart.  If I had the money and the lack of boundaries that money brings, I could easily be on the cover of WEEPLE.

Easily.

I thank God for my lack of money and good looks.

ARAB SPROING

Some time ago Eternal Optimist commented on a nasty op-ed article in the NY Times in which the author lacerated Israel for casting aspersions on Egypt's democratic aspirations, and generally ranted that Israel needs to make peace.  Read the comment here.

This was before Morsi's ham-handed grab for totalitarian power in Egypt.  Which mushroomed into a military coup. Perhaps the op-ed writer is less outraged over Israel's cynicism about the new, and now newly toppled, Egyptian government.

The Israelis seem to have gotten things about right, and the Times op-ed writer about perfectly wrong.  The Arab Spring turned into the Arab Sprang.  It is now the Arab Putsch and headed toward the Arab Train Wreck.  Let's call it the "Arab Sproing," since "sproing" is the sound your car makes when that metal thingie that holds everything together breaks and flies past your ear, just before the engine throws a rod.

Egypt

The Times is the voice of Colonel Klink on public policy.  Study the Times on any public policy issue, and you will at least know what not to do.  Whenever you are about to listen to the Times, remember that it bought the Boston Globe for about 1 billion and just sold it for 73 million.  That's a loss of about 900 million dollars. Careful there.

Colonel Klink: Dependably Wrong

At least the Times has a great sports section.  (That is irony, for anyone who has not read the Times Sports Section: "Proletarians View A-Rod as Tragic Victim of Capitalism").

Egyptians voted in droves for the Muslim Brotherhood, whose rhetoric on the Jews is Hitler's.  No wonder Israel was less than enthused about the Arab Sproing.  However the Arab Sproing works out for the Egyptians, it looked like a continued cold winter for Israel, surrounded by people who forthrightly declare their urgent need to kill all the Jews.  I'm sure that Egypt's military is not favorably inclined toward Israel, but they appear to be less eager to actively kill Israelis than are the Muslim Brothers.

So by Israel's lights maybe this is an improvement.

Having dealt with genocidal fascists in Europe, during the 1930s and 1940s, the Israelis are understandably suspicious of such folk.  That's why they formed the state of Israel, saying "never again."  I cannot imagine any constructive dialogue with Hamas, which controls Gaza, or a government in Egypt that is dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood.  The only question that Muslim fascists in Palestine and Egypt want to discuss with Israel is how quickly Israel can wind up its affairs and disappear.  And by disappear they mean "die."

So here's to more snotty pieces in the Times, which keep us both entertained and oriented, in a negative kind of way. And here's to Israel: 65 years of democratic success in a sea of fascist Muslim failure.

"DISCHANGEFULNESS"

Eternal Optimist was feeling forlorn, long ago, toward the beginning of Mr. Obama's first term:

Now, I am quite willing – and even eager – for someone to point me toward an example where sustained deficit spending worked out well.

See, this is where things get scary, because I can’t think of any. So help me out here. Maybe someone knows an example where this worked. Or maybe even if there is no good example, you can help me understand how buying up toxic mortgages, and nationalizing banks and the health care industry are going to allow us to pay off the piles of debt we are racking up. Even if it is just a theory. Because for the life of me I can’t even figure out a theory, much less recite an example, of how it works.

So let me know if you have some great examples of chronic deficit spending success stories. I could use the encouragement.

I haven't had any response on this one.  Anyone got any encouraging stories yet?  It's been 5 years.  Greece?  Portugal?  Spain?  Illinois?  California?

Detroit?

Detroit: Suffering From Poor Self Esteem

I heard Cleveland has a great new marketing slogan, "We're Not Detroit!"  Watch the video here.

Cleveland: 'Murcan for "Schadenfreude"

The idea seems to be that America is different.  Somehow we are immune to all that.  Just like the junk bond bubble in the 80s, the tech bubble in the late 90s, and the housing bubble in the mid-00s.  Just like economists told us the debt-propelled stock bubble in the late 1920s was "different," and could go on indefinitely.
 
I have a new investment strategy.  Whenever economists and politicians begin telling you how this particular debt-propelled binge is different, and can go on indefinitely, begin selling whatever is currently blowing up. Because the reason they are saying this is that they have run out of other explanations, and people are getting nervous, since the situation doesn't make sense.

Here is a new word for our current condition: dischangefulness: the state of depriving yourself of change for the better.

FACEBOOK OPTIMIST

Bowing to the inevitable reality that Facebook interconnects one-sixth of humanity, Eternal Optimist has opened a (very conservative) Facebook page.  Obviously he was not able to accomplish this on his own.  Rather, a talented consultant of tender years helped him negotiate the intricacies of opening a new account.

How lovely that the young are willing to share their wisdom with the old!  It makes me optimistic.

I am also optimistic that after years and years of economic and political turmoil, America will eventually sober up and realize that it cannot fund entitlements and government programs forever via the issuance of debt.  It appears right now America is of two minds on the subject, and this is likely to go on for a long time.

Fiscal Cliff

Facts, however, will intrude at some point. 

Anyone not a union president acknowledges that our entitlement programs are on the road to bankruptcy and have to be reformed.  Anyone not a union president has to be uneasy at 1 billion a year in annual deficits, funded by endless debt issued by the Federal Reserve and Treasury.

 Union president's position on fiscal prudence.

I am sure Mr. Obama recognizes both truths.  He is not overly concerned, since he is confident that he can successfully blame Republicans for tax increases and spending cuts that he agreed to a few years ago. 
 
Mr. Obama's plan to fix entitlement deficits: ignore them and they will go away.

Mr. Obama's plan to fix current annual deficits: ignore them and they will go away.

Mr. Obama's plan, as I understand it: if we tax rich people and keep issuing lots of debt, somewhere along the line we will have an economic recovery based on wind and solar power and everything will fix itself. 

Thankfully, Mr. Obama has been predicting economic recovery since 2008.  At some point, I suppose, he will be right, although whether that point arrives in the next 4 years I am not sure.

Mr. Obama's Plan.

In the meantime, Eternal Optimist is confident that we could trim the budget, begin fixing entitlement funding, and not cause an economic catastrophe.  Mr. Obama, and 52% of America, disagree.  So we won't do it anytime soon.  Simple as that. 

[Caveat: at this point, since I have disagreed with Mr. Obama, I will have been called an elitist, a racist, a fascist and possibly a warmonger.  This is a verbal tic that passes for debate among some of my Obamaista friends.  I am none of the above.]

The Republicans must feel like they are negotiating with the Palestinians, whose idea of good faith is to demand that you submit to genocide and then blame you for unreasonably breaking off negotiations.
All of this was easily predictable.  The Obama Administration is just Chicago machine politics writ large.  The Machine is good at winning elections, but bad at governing.  To study our fate as a nation, study the City of Chicago and State of Illinois.

Ugh.

FAMILY OF DESTINATION

L'Ultima Cena (daVinci)

The Bible is a family history. Genesis is the story of Adam and his family.  The Old Testament is the story of Abraham's family; the New Testament, of Jesus' family.  Jesus spent the night before he died with his brothers, at the supper table.  He was not working late at the office.

Jesus came as a "brother" to Israel - in the Aramaic of the day, he was part of their family, a relation.  The word "brother" was used for all male kin, not just the sons of your mother or father.  Jesus is the hope of his family.  He is the answer to our family of origin problems. 

"The Head of Christ" - Rembrandt

In the Book of Matthew we begin with Jesus' Hebrew genealogy.  In the book of Luke the genealogy of Jesus is extended back to Adam.  Jesus is kin to each of us, our "brother," and his love and justice extend to all mankind.  We are his family.  We are not mere numbers, we are not "strangers" to him.  He expresses his care for us as his deeply loved brothers, mothers and sisters. 

Our hearts are comforted by knowing that He loves us with the unconditional love, mingled with absolute honesty, that is the very best that good families offer.  It is no accident that a society who denies Jesus, who denies God, becomes uprooted, bleak, despairing, and suicidal.  We have lost our family.  We have lost the bedrock of love and acceptance that we were meant to have.

The Wedding Feast at Cana - Jan Vermeyen (d. 1559)

Jesus was accused of spending too much time at weddings and feasts, eating and drinking.  He spent a lot of time with family and friends, being happy together.  Jesus had this to say about his family:

“Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother.”

He did not exclude or deny his biological family by this statement.  Rather, He included in his family "whoever does the will of my heavenly Father."  We see this most especially at the cross, when he joined John and Mary together as son and mother.

Remember that when Jesus speaks, it is not just an assertion of fact.  Jesus' words are acts of power.  By His word all was created.  When he says we are his family if we do the will of God, it is not just "as if," or figurative, language.  We are by His word made His family.

The Holy Family With the Little Bird - Bartolome Esteben Murillo (c1650)

Christmas is the day we begin again our worship of Jesus, who came to us as a new-born baby, to show us a new life.  We are all welcome to participate in his new and perfect life, because He loves us.  We are His sisters and brothers.

We all have our "family of origin" issues, as the psychologists tell us.  Jesus is the healing of our family of origin issues.  He is our "family of destination."  And our destination is a wedding banquet.

 Banquet of the Lamb

Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year! 

PERHAPS

Explain to me again, in simple words,

How we find ourselves, this Advent season,

weeping (once again) for children murdered 

by a young man run amok at a school?

The words and images come ceaselessly

With ads for jello, gum, Depends and cars.

The slaughter of innocents moves product.

We sure do talk a lot, to no effect.

How long until we see the substance, not

The accidents of motive, time and place,

Of opportunity, intent and act?

Maybe we could confess our ignorance?

So quick to question God, so slow to ask

Ourselves (in whom we trust, to whom we pray) - 

What have we wrought?  Why are we so broken?

Maybe we could murmur a contrite prayer?

Ah me, this glist'ning shunt, greased with the fat

dripping from the human sacrifices

We offer every day, every hour - 

Our children for our self-absorbed desires.

On we slide, a bloated, gassy torso,

Pus leaking from a dozen rotting wounds.

On we slide, a circus freak in lipstick,

Wedged in a coffin filled with our own waste.

We gorge on lust, pride, greed, and irony

And expect our children to find meaning.

We adulterate, abort and divorce

And wonder at their madness and despair.

"Ye wander, witless, in your wilderness

Refusing drink from the water of life.

Ye deaf, blind, dumb, ye lame, ye sore smitten -

Drink yet from the river of life and live."

Perhaps it is true we need a savior?
Perhaps we cannot find our way alone?
Perhaps in these tears we could kneel and pray
To the poor baby born on Christmas Day? 

"The Christ Child Asleep" - Bernardino Luini (d. 1532)