Nude Eel

It's true that I've fallen silent, largely, regarding politics. I tend to do that, I've noticed, after America shames itself. I did it after the '06 repudiation, and I'm doing it now. And the economy isn't really tending to invite my attentions. But let's just pull back the blanket of silence a bit, and allow a few peeps out.

My native state is California. Doesn't really mean anything to me -- just the place that I'm from. Weather's very nice. Diverse topography -- ocean, desert, mountains, forest, snow, all within an hour of each other. But I don't get out much. Politics isn't corrupt here in the bribery sense. But LA has the most incompetent mayor of any large American city. A former gangbanger. Antonio Vivalaraza. Failed the bar exam 4 times. La Raza racististo. Less than zero. As for state politics, it's absolutely dominated by the far, far, hard left. Our Governator just wants to be popular. He thinks that saying something makes it so. He complains about ideologies -- that's the reason there's no Cali budget. They're laying off 20,000 state workers, now. One school district is closing Fridays. Towns are laying off cops. No tax refund will be forthcoming. The money is gone.

Why?

The far, far, hard left is in control. And all they know how to do is spend. What were the conservatives doing? Talking, I suppose, and making deals, the way they do, that have no provisions for enforcement. That's the problem with the 16 billion tax hike they want in Sacramento. They'll just piss it away, and figure they can raise taxes even higher next year. What's gonna stop them? Ideologues? Ha. Ha.

This is the reason there should be a property-ownership requirement for voting. Owners build the city, then it gets flooded with rabble, who vote themselves benefits for nothing. Simplistic? Of course. But also the pattern. The proof is LA, which used to be a pretty good city. Now it's Tiajuana. I'm just waiting for the kidnappings to start. Surprising they haven't yet. The difference must be that in the US there is the death penalty. Once in a very very great while, but it seems to be enough. The gangsters don't mind gunning each other and us down in the streets, but they don't want the government to do it. I guess the funerals wouldn't have enough flowers.

And then there's the USA. We just elected a man who is totally unprepared for the job. Most important public job in the world, and we elected a backbencher from a very corrupt state assembly. He gives a great prepared speech. Have you heard him say anything great when the crowd isn't in the scores of thousands? No? No one has. It doesn't happen. In itself that's no big deal. Reality doesn't meet perception? Quelle surprise! Or not. The greatest speech he's given recently was a two-word sentence. "I won." You know, the New New Deal. Hope. Change. A new way of doing government. Transparency.

Well, we've done that sort of thing before, elected the unprepared. Is this any different? The Great Depression -- by which I do not mean our current situation -- was overseen by FDR. How was he qualified? Well, he'd had a lot of government experience, but that's not it. He was qualified because he could give an eloquent speech. Sound familiar? The general conservative position is that FDR prolonged the Depression by about three times. Who can say. We'll see, eh? Since what's past is prologue, and the American electorate, in it's wisdom, has chosen to repeat the solution. Y'see, with two we can start to see a trend.

But here's what I was thinking tonight. America has, at long last, sold its soul. By abandoning, finally, it's most basic principles. Thrift? Not when you've been living on credit. Liberty? Try spanking your child in public. Life? Only for murderers. Babies need not apply. So my question is, at what point does loyalty become destructive? What did a good German do in Nazi Germany? Loyalty? To what? That's not us, of course, but the question is valid. When is it too late, so that steadfastness amounts merely to going down with the ship?

The dilemma, alas, is that this is what the America-haters have already done. No loyalty. Their hatred for Bush was an all-consuming cause -- and no matter if it's a chicken-egg thing, of hating America first. The point was hate. Is that to be my fate? Disgust at the betrayal, the sell-out, the sodomizing of Liberty and the butchering of Duty? -- so that my love runs cold? Am I to be like them? Do I vacillate? To me it is an unclean thing.

So I am, largely, silent. It is my hope that sanity will somehow prevail. But I have had hope before, in dire circumstances, and it was empty. I used to be fearless. I would confront any wrong-doing, because I was innocent and self-confident. Now, alas, I don't even dare make jokes. They might after all be taken the wrong way. Then where will I be? Betrayed and attacked and beset by enemies who would see me destroyed. You think I'm kidding? It's happened before. So I'm afraid, it seems. Virtue, for all that God and other odd creatures may admire it, has no reward and it is no protection at all. The relevance of all this is that America, too, is losing, finally, in a really clear and undeniable way, her virtue. What happens when you love a whore? My faith in the wisdom and the profoundly good character of the American people is wavering. At a time like this we've made the choices we've made. Only God can save us.

We can be crushed. As for redemption, that's in the hands of God. It only follows repentance. And repentance requires, usually, being crushed. That's why I'm not talking about politics too much nowadays. I don't feel hope, and change is a meaningless word, without modifiers.

Today I heard the 911 tape of the woman calling to say her pet chimp had torn off her friends face. "He's torn off her face! You have to shoot him!" I really really wish I hadn't heard that.

And I heard, again, that there is such a thing as redemption. But we are not redeemed from the consequences of our actions. Forgiveness is as ambiguous a concept as "change." So take a look at the last picture here, and read the second-to-last paragraph here, and then tell me what your conclusions are about the concept of forgiveness.

We hope for forgiveness. If we deserve it, it isn't owed.


J