Taking a Break
April 15, 2012
Hello everyone,
I am taking a break from blogging, at least for the foreseeable future. The demands of work and other “real life” concerns are proving to be quite time-consuming. In addition, I am working on a new novel, and such a project soon becomes a relentless master.
AWOL will remain on line, but new comments will not be accepted.
Thank you all for your participation. I hope you have benefited from reading this blog.
Wishing you the best in your various endeavors,
Gary
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An “Axis Mundi” of Our Own
April 12, 2012
As I watched the spectacle of Florida prosecutor Angela Corey announcing the arrest of George Zimmerman for murder, I was overcome with a sinking feeling. A Stalinist show-trial is taking shape, one that will effectively communicate the wholesale surrender of the once-mighty American justice system to the cult of Diversity and Black Power.
On another, deeper level, my angst was caused by a terrible frustration that there is nowhere to turn. By “nowhere,” I mean not only the countervailing forces themselves, but also the coherence of these forces. In addition to being weak and disorganized, they are diffused. The people and ideas that can bring sanity to our society, that could at some future moment preserve and even enhance Western civilization, suffer from lack of a center.
There is no place to which one can go, and declare therein that this is the spot of absolute immersion, the citadel, the capital. In days gone by, that center might have been Paris, or London, or New York, with their monumental temples of culture and intellect. These places, alas, have been transformed into enemy strongholds, with hardly a square foot escaping the plague.
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The New Constantinople
April 5, 2012
One of the more fascinating works of history is Edward Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, written in the eighteenth century. Reading it today, in our situation of advanced decay, one cannot help but notice the parallels between the collapse of what is perhaps the most accomplished civilization of all time—the Greco-Roman—and that of our own, the Western European. At certain points in the book, the similarity is so striking as to be downright eerie.
The political and economic reach of the Roman empire, and the depth and breadth of its culture, ensured that the decline was a long, drawn-out process. This process accelerated over time, finally bursting its seams during and after the reign of the emperor Constantine (306 – 337 AD).
One aspect that should interest us is the acceptance, and even promotion, of “barbarians”; that is, people originating from outside the realm of Roman culture. Barbarians were recruited to fill the ranks of the Roman legions. This helped undermine the hoary tradition of the citizen-army. Over time, it threatened the security of the empire. Says Gibbon:
The introduction of Barbarians into the Roman armies became every day more universal, more necessary, and more fatal … As they freely mingled with the subjects of the empire, they gradually learned to despise their manners and to imitate their arts … The Barbarian soldiers who displayed any military talents were advanced, without exception, to the most important commands; and the names of the tribunes, of the counts and dukes, and of the generals themselves, betray a foreign origin, which they no longer condescended to disguise.
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Michelle Knows Best, episode 35: “Trayvon, My Poor Trayvon”
[Note: Below is the thirty-fifth episode of the TV series Michelle Knows Best. For background information, read this post. For other episodes, scroll down or click the "Michelle Knows Best" link in the sidebar. Enjoy...]
March 29, 2012
We join the First Couple in the Oval Office. Barack is seated behind the presidential desk, feet up. Michelle is sitting on the sofa, her arm clutching the shoulders of Trayvon Martin’s mother, who is sobbing and mumbling a stream of incomprehensible words.
MICHELLE
I’m so sorry about everything that has happened to you. If it’s any consolation, know that America feels your pain. The injustice is so outrageous that even some of our usual enemies are sending their condolences.
BARACK
And not only America. I received a call from David Cameron, the prime minister of Britain. He is appalled that Diversity has been dealt such a severe blow. The same thing has been happening in Europe, he told me, with all the racism there. David is on his way to Washington, as we speak.
MICHELLE
You didn’t tell me he’s coming, Barry.
BARACK
Sorry, dear, I forgot.
MICHELLE
[with pout] Seems like you’re forgetting a lot of things lately. Like what you said to the Russians—I had to read about it in the New York Times. I told you not to give them anything on missile defense until we see some people of color in that administration. I swear, every last guy in that government is white.
BARACK
Well, dear, you see …
There’s a knock at the door.
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Headlines From the Year 2020 (no. 31)
March 22, 2012
This is the thirty-first installment in a continuing series. Here is what life will be like in the year 2020 if our civilization continues to go AWOL:
- Kansas broadcaster arrested for misogyny after airing episode of Father Knows Best
- EU labels as hate crime the use of masculine pronouns and adjectives to refer to the general case
- Feds find exit from immigration maze: Government agencies now tasked with preventing illegal emigration
- New York Times: New research proves that by 2050, the entire galaxy will be uninhabitable due to anthropogenic climate change
- UN moves its climate change offices to 5-star resort in Abu Dhabi
- NASA declares “mission accomplished”; agency staff now majority Muslim
- Secretary of Education Michelle Obama boasts that only one-third of U.S. schoolchildren can identify Thomas Jefferson
- “No Child Left Behind” program expanded to include undergraduate and graduate students
- Obamacare deduction from wages passes 40 percent mark
- Supreme Court approves Obamacare coverage of genital transplants for women
- ACLU represents Nigerian group claiming to be the indigenous inhabitants of Iceland; lawsuit seeks $1 trillion in reparations
- Most of Detroit, St. Louis, Cleveland, and twenty other cities to be razed and bulldozed; residents will be resettled in “overprivileged” neighborhoods around the country
- Republican leadership: We outmaneuvered President Pelosi, forcing her to reduce the deficit to $100 trillion by 2030
- California defaults on all obligations despite having raised top income tax rate to over 80 percent
- IRS form 1040 to be replaced by form 2040, “U.S. Individual Declaration of Excessive Wealth”
- Hundreds killed last month from collapsing bridges; Congress responds by apportioning more money for new urban light-rail projects
- Hugo Chavez arrives in Los Angeles; appointed mayor-for-life by city council
- George Clooney sworn in as secretary-general of the UN; vows “to eliminate the last traces of American influence, and that’ll make the world a totally awesome place”
Would you care to add your own headlines?
[Note: To see earlier installments of “Headlines from the Year 2020," scroll down or click the All Fiction link on the sidebar (located under Orwellian Snapshots).]
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Shrinking the Outside
March 15, 2012
One of the hallmarks of a totalitarian regime is that the “outside” ceases to exist. In every sphere of life, one is restricted to the places, procedures, and ideology ordained by the Party. There is no escape, no alternative, no other frame of reference. In the most severe instance, the average person cannot even imagine the existence of a world beyond these physical and spiritual boundaries.
As to be expected, the impulse to destroy the domain of the outside underlies the modus operandi of the Obama regime. One of the clearest examples is the drive to eliminate the independent functioning of the states. During nearly all of American history, a discontented individual or community could pack their bags and move to another state; or, in the original version, to the frontier. Different flavors of life were available for the taking.
Distinctions between the various states, and the power to inaugurate new ones that clash with the reigning neo-Marxist ideology, have been substantially eroded under the rule of the Kenyan. One only need recall the vigorous effort by the Justice Department to crush the legislation passed by certain states, such as Arizona, aimed at protecting the citizenry from the scourge of illegal aliens. Meanwhile, the federal judiciary gleefully nullifies all sorts of non-conformist state laws; a longstanding practice, to be sure, but one that has received a significant boost of energy from our current overlords.
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Rights and Wrongs
March 8, 2012
It seems that every other day, somewhere in our civilization gone AWOL, a new “right” is created. The latest contestant in the you-can’t-make-this-up sweepstakes is a “woman’s right to contraception.” Not the right to use it, but the right to have someone else provide it, and free of charge. Anyone who refuses to pay, be the reason religious or otherwise, is of course a misogynistic racist Bible-thumping redneck, or whatever.
I thought it would be useful to prepare ourselves for the next wave of rights. They apparently can be invented out of thin air, so we must be ready for anything. Below is what we can expect to see in the near future, assuming that the process of decay continues unabated.
Let us expand upon the sacrosanct and limitless realm of “women’s health.” In addition to the right to free treatment for any need or desire connected with the human body, we can expect to see more rights linked to emotional well-being. For example, the right to be taken out to dinner at least twice per week (or more, if a physician signs off on the need). This right must be fulfilled by husbands, boyfriends, sons, brothers, etc.; in short, anyone related to the woman in question. The price ceiling of the meal is computed based on a percentage of the donor’s income; say, 20 percent on a weekly basis.
Penalties for non-compliance will be severe, and include having one’s photo displayed on the scofflaw page of your local newspaper (the one normally reserved for DWI offenders).
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Longing for Some Good Old Marxism (reprint)
February 29, 2012
[NOTE: The following is a reprint of a post that appeared originally in September 2007.]
Lately I’ve had some nostalgia for some good old Marxism. I’m talking about the days when Leftists spoke directly and to the point: violent overthrow of the capitalist system and all its institutions. No beating around the bush; they told you to your face that they would take away everything you own and destroy your government (to be replaced by heaven on earth).
Today, one has to wade through countless layers of verbiage to get to the point. Instead of the pocket-sized Communist Manifesto, we are confronted with hundreds of pages of the EU Constitution.
Back then, the totalitarian vision was brought to you by the Communist International. The Party led the charge; lines of authority were clear. Again, direct and to the point. Now, the leadership is diffused and much more difficult to pin down. This provides endless opportunities for vagueness, and for denial of true goals.
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The Sobbing Kenyan
February 23, 2012
Who among us has not been flabbergasted by the fact that half the country still supports our infamous president? We scratch our heads in disbelief, thinking, what will it take to bring sobriety to the populace.
All the more infuriating as we know that Hussein must be booted out in the next election if the U.S. is to have any chance of an orderly recovery. Granted, in our present condition of advanced rot it will take much more than a replacement of elected officials to stem and reverse the tide. But after another four years of Hopenchange, we’ll be so far underwater that the tide won’t matter. We need the breathing room afforded by the flushing of Marxists from government.
Do not expect the percentages to change anytime soon. The Obamunists enjoy an automatic 30-40 percent voting bloc. To the extent that they implement their plans, and America comes to resemble the USSR, they succeed in energizing—not alienating—their base. This fact is one of the hardest to swallow in our increasingly bizarre society.
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Michelle Knows Best, episode 34: “A Single Name”
[Note: Below is the thirty-fourth episode of the TV series Michelle Knows Best. For background information, read this post. For other episodes, scroll down or click the "Michelle Knows Best" link in the sidebar. Enjoy...]
February 16, 2012
Barack and Michelle have summoned the brain trust to a three-day retreat at the presidential residence in Martha’s Vineyard. Present are economists, businessmen, politicians, academics, members of the clergy, educators, and more. Numerous issues are on the agenda; issues that will determine the fate of the nation. We join the participants in the dining hall for the final session of the conference.
BARACK
[clanks his glass with a spoon] Thank you for attending this important event. All of the lectures and workshops have led us to this one critical point: To choose, once and for all, a single name for the enemies of progress. Too many terms are being used out there, and Americans are getting confused. We must help them imagine all the dangers, and all in one moment. They will better comprehend the force that is preventing the new, progressive world from seeing the light of day. A world where everything is fair, and greed has been eliminated. [applause from the crowd] … By the way, is everyone happy with the meal? We couldn’t get that high-grade sushi flown in quickly enough from Japan, so we told the chefs to dip into our reserve of filet mignon and caviar.
AL GORE
May I assume that the caviar is river-caught and not farmed?
BARACK
Absolutely. And it was harvested in special nets that catch the caviars without endangering dolphins and whales.
Michelle loudly clears her throat.
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An Armed Citizenry
February 9, 2012
Nothing riles a leftist more than the right to keep and bear arms. The slapstick performance of Eric “My People” Holder and his Justice Department in the Fast and Furious scandal amply testifies to this fact. The gun-running fiasco is only the latest in a succession of hysterical initiatives on the part of the Democrats aimed at neutralizing the Second Amendment to the Constitution.
Why such hostility from the socialist wing of the polity? I can think of several reasons:
Pretext for ignoring the causes of crime. The familiar shrieking and wailing that “guns cause crime” helps to submerge any serious discussion of the issue. In this regard, anti-gun activism serves the same purpose as blaming crime on poverty. In both cases, correlation (gun present at crime; criminal is poor) is mistaken for cause. The real culprits, such as society’s loss of moral compass, or the pernicious effects of the victim/entitlement culture, can be conveniently ignored. This makes it easier for lawmakers to merrily concoct their next wallet-emptying Liberal social program, educators to promote the “self-esteem” of their pupils, and judges to hamstring normal law enforcement, without worrying about the effects of their actions.
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The Endless Incarnations of the Magic Negro
February 2, 2012
What remains of genteel urban life in America is currently being sabotaged by gangs of feral “ghetto youth” on the rampage. This in itself is not spectacular news; similar outbreaks appear with some regularity throughout the world. The difference is in the complicity of certain government agencies and the establishment press.
The more widespread the violence, the more intense the propaganda. News of most incidents is suppressed on a national level; whatever slips through the filter is sanitized. Blatant anti-white pogroms are described in the most innocuous terms, usually as the misadventures of wayward little children.
Equally egregious is the incessant campaign to portray the black population as stable, intelligent, successful folk who are “just like you and me.” Television commercials have become a stage for this ideological circus, a form of brainwashing that makes Goebbels look like an amateur. The same goes for cinema. Red Tails is only the latest in a long line of hallucinatory films that foist upon us the image of the Magic Negro.
This sort of fantasy, this Diversity on steroids, has spun completely out of control. The absurdity of it all has prompted me to speculate as to the continuation and enhancement of the Magic Negro (and Magic Muslim) theme. Here’s what we can expect:
—It turns out that General Eisenhower was a coward, even to the point of being afraid of the dark. He cries himself to sleep every night thinking of the terrible things happening to the troops. Luckily, his adjunct, an African-American major who speaks German, French, and twelve other languages, provides the emotional support and much of the brainpower to keep Ike functioning. As a result, America wins World War II.
Adam Sandler plays Eisenhower; Will Smith is the adjunct.
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Orwellian Snapshots (no. 18): “Winston Smith Confronts PC”
[Note: Below is the eighteenth installment of the Orwellian Snapshots series. For other episodes, scroll down or click the "Orwellian Snapshots" link in the sidebar. Enjoy ...]
January 26, 2012
Few would deny that key aspects of George Orwell’s 1984 have become reality in the US, Britain, France, Austria, Canada, and other countries of the former West that have taken the suicidal plunge into the abyss of Never-Ending Equality.
Orwell’s dystopian masterpiece presents a vision of society after the tentacles of Socialism have locked it into a death grip with no hope of escape. A particularly chilling aspect of his vision were the conversations between the book’s protagonist, Winston Smith, and the Party apparatchik O’Brien. These discussions show the corruption and degradation of human relations when decency, honor, tradition, and morality have been cast aside. This is the hallmark of socialist theory and practise.
As a stimulant for his dark musing, Orwell had before him the great totalitarian movements of the early to mid twentieth century. Our own contemporary model for such speculation is the collapse of rational thought into the sewer of Multiculturalism and Diversity—the end of culture as we know it.
Lately I have been pondering a conversation between Winston Smith and O’Brien, were it to take place in our own near-future, say, in the year 2020. Below is a rendition of an encounter between the two men, at the moment when Winston is caught red-handed engaging in a thoughtcrime. They are seated in an interrogation chamber located in the bowels of Homeland Security headquarters in Washington, DC.
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Headlines From the Year 2020 (no. 30)
January 19, 2012
This is the thirtieth installment in a continuing series. Here is what life will be like in the year 2020 if our civilization continues to go AWOL:
- First bisexual president inaugurated; her transgendered partner to be known as the First Human
- Fighter jets removed from USS Nimitz to make room for state-of-the-art maternity ward and nursery
- In exchange for student loan forgiveness, thousands of young women join the Peace Corps “Make an African Man Happy” program
- Chicken and cattle-rights activists unite in campaign to outlaw steak and eggs
- Man arrested in California for murdering rare protected species of cockroach
- New genetically modified monkey has the torso of a baboon, the limbs of a chimpanzee, and the head of Anderson Cooper
- Amazing revelation from the Washington Post: Bill Clinton’s great-grandfather was a chieftain of the Luo, the same tribe as Barack Obama, Sr.
- British parliament declares Shakespeare racist and sexist; references removed from all UK school curricula
- TSA sets up checkpoints at every bank, mall, post office, theater, and restaurant
- Supreme Court: Nuclear device confiscated from Iranian passenger at Kennedy Airport must be returned to owner because of unconstitutional religious profiling
- Pentagon: Memorial Day will now honor fallen combatants “from all sides” of the nation’s wars and man-caused disasters
- NAACP: Whites as high percentage of casualties proves the military is a Jim Crow institution
- Federal Court of Appeals voids entire corpus of Idaho state law due to lack of minority representation in legislature
- IRS prosecutes Santa Claus for gifting property with intent to evade taxation
- Asteroid to strike the East coast in two weeks; analysts expect undocumented Americans and child-abuse victims to be hardest hit
Would you care to add your own headlines?
[Note: To see earlier installments of “Headlines from the Year 2020," scroll down or click the All Fiction link on the sidebar (located under Orwellian Snapshots).]
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The Post-Election Aftermath
January 12, 2012
Even if control of both Congress and the White House pass to the Republican Party in January 2013—and this outcome is far from certain—it might not be time to pop open the champagne. A number of existential issues face the country, challenges that would be daunting if the nation were united and sober, let alone in its current fractured and dumbed-down condition.
An orderly transfer of power from the Obama regime to its successor is by no means assured. Several long weeks separate the election from the inauguration—plenty of time for organized mayhem. And mayhem it will be. The entire victimary establishment, shrieking their jeremiads about evil racist Americans who just rejected the messiah-of-color, rises up as one. Riots break out in the major cities, as the Negro rage carefully nurtured by Holder and his minions explodes in anti-white violence that makes the 1960s look like a picnic.
Initially, state and local authorities utilize the usual tactics: tear gas and other non-lethal methods; calling on all sides for calm; assurances of greater attention to the “systemic” and “structural” causes of poverty; promises of money.
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