Back on the beat

The loathsome Village Voice — that's Manhattan's Greenwich Village, epicenter of chic rebellion — has a "news blog" headlined "Obama Reaches Out to Middle East, Proving his Allegiance to Islam."

Nudge. Wink. That's irony, the fuel the Establishment counterculture runs on; they sell it in 55-gallon drums in Downtown. You get it, heh heh. Just because His Worship Obama is "reaching out" to, among others, Hamas — psycho killer, qu'est-ce que c'est? — all those pitchfork holders in flyover country imagine that he is showing allegiance to Islam. Well, what do you expect from a batch of snake handling swamp dwellers? My No-God, the things we East Coast sophisticates have to put up with.

The writer leads off:

George Mitchell has actually achieved something as a peace-maker, helping to effect the Good Friday Agreement that virtually ended decades of strife in Northern Ireland, so maybe he can knock some sense into the heads of those crazy Hatfields and McCoys over in the Middle East, to which President Obama has dispatched Mitchell as a special envoy.

Right, well, peace in Northern Ireland came the way Village Voicers believe peace should arrive, through surrender. Essentially, the IRA mob, whose subtle means of argument included setting off bombs in pubs to blow arms and legs off shopgirls, got pretty much what they wanted. Nowadays, the British government intends to offer $16,800 "reconciliation" payments to the families of IRA terrorists — "including paramilitaries killed by their own bombs."

Peace, it's wonderful.

So George Mitchell is back on the beat in the Middle East, where the Palestinians and Israelis are a feudin' and a fightin', just a rumble between a couple of overheated clans. Why can't they simmer down? After all, Israel is just a patch of poor soil no bigger than a Home Depot parking lot, whose survival is of little interest, especially to its own politicians.

One of Mitchell's tasks, says the President, is to "ensure that Palestinians in Gaza are able to get the basic necessities they need."

That would be explosives, rockets and launchers?

President Obama also struck a conciliatory tone in an interview with Arab TV network Al-Arabiya, admitting that "all too often the United States starts by dictating" rather than listening to people in the region.

Yes, by Jove, that's a new tone — a U.S. president, who's hardly had time to wipe his feet on the mat before entering the White House, apologizing to an Arab network for his country dictating — dictating? It's time we shucked our arrogant ways and started listening to the products of Arabia's madrassas, you know, kill those who insult the Prophet and all.

"Naturally rightbloggers are enraged." My No-God, the things we East Coast sophisticates have to put up with.

California, the paper state

California taxpayers who are owed a refund on their state tax payments will get an IOU instead. California, the paper state.

Years of blow-the-dough projects, welfare for illegals, and anti-business regulation have left the once-Golden State broke and knocking at Washington's back door asking for handouts. California, the pauper state.

My question is this: If it's legal for California to delay repaying its residents their own money that they unwillingly lent the state, can residents who owe taxes and are down on their luck send IOUs instead of payment?

That would be poetic justice.

Worst of breed

Mom's disappointed she failed to break the world record,
but promises,"Just wait till next time --
they're cheaper (for me) by the dozen."

"As more details of the mother who gave birth to octuplets come to light, ethicists are debating the moral quandaries involved," the CNN story says. "The woman had six other children before the set of eight, which were only the second set of octuplets recorded in the U.S."

In certain European countries, particularly Italy and Germany, the limit on the number of embryos allowed to be implanted at once is three, said Robert George, professor at Princeton University and member of the U.S. President's Council on Bioethics. George advocated following those countries' examples so that similar situations don't arise and put the lives of mother and fetuses at risk. ...

The woman's mother told the Los Angeles Times that doctors gave the woman the option of selectively reducing the number of embryos, and she refused. As to a "correct" decision at this stage, experts are split. George said that, based on the information available, his personal ethical decision would probably support the woman's choice to carry all the babies to term. ...

The nanny who works with the octuplets' siblings said Friday that the woman "adores her babies" and is "a perfect mom."

A perfect mom. This woman already had six children. She is not married. She "didn't want to get married," her grandmother says. She is unemployed. According to CBS News, she "filed for bankruptcy and abandoned her home less than two years ago."

Yolanda Garcia, 49, of Whittier, said she helped care for Nadya Suleman's [the perfect mom's] autistic son three years ago. "From what I could tell back then, she was pretty happy with herself, saying she liked having kids and she wanted 12 kids in all," Garcia told the Long Beach Press-Telegram.

"She told me that all of her kids were through in vitro, and I said 'Gosh, how can you afford that and go to school at the same time?"' she added. "And she said it's because she got paid for it."

So-called ethicists may be debating the "moral quandaries" of this situation, but I expect they are politically correct liberals who wouldn't dream of speaking out loud about the real moral issue, which isn't a quandary at all.

The real issue is why an obviously emotionally ill woman who is probably also dead stupid, and is in no way capable of supporting a family on her own, should be assisted by the medical establishment to produce yet another litter to be nurtured and raised at public expense.

While many of her fellow citizens are being turfed out of their jobs and homes, society is paying this woman to go on spewing out babies via implanted embryos.

I don't expect Miz Suleman to consider the social implications of her fetus fetish, but I would like to imagine that responsible members of the medical, legislative, and media professions (if there are any remaining responsible practitioners in the last field) might show some concern. But apparently that's too much to expect in Oprahfied America, where everything comes down to "feelings" and "caring," regardless of wider consequences.

So, three cheers for Nadya Suleman, today's perfect mom.

UPDATE 2/1

The Times (London) says:

THE single mother of octuplets born in California last week is seeking $2m (£1.37m) from media interviews and commercial sponsorship to help pay the cost of raising the children.

Nadya Suleman, 33, plans a career as a television childcare expert after it emerged last week that she already had six children before giving birth on Monday. She now has 14 below the age of eight. Although still confined to an LA hospital bed, she intends to talk to two influential television hosts this week — media mogul Oprah Winfrey, and Diane Sawyer, who presents Good Morning America.

Her family has told agents she needs cash from deals such as nappy [U.S. = diaper] sponsorship — she will get through 250 a week in the next few months — and the agents will gauge public reaction to her story.

Miz Suleman -- and contrary to my earlier phrase, "her fellow citizens," it is not clear whether she is a U.S. citizen, or among our booming population of invited refugees, or even in the country legally -- describes herself as a “professional student” living off education grants and parental money.

Angela Suleman said her daughter was advised to terminate some of the embryos in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy for the sake of her health, but she refused because she did not know how to make such a life-or-death decision.

I'm loving it, honestly. I'll take my laughs where I can get them. This country is beyond parody, if not hope. A ne'er-do-well sponger and "professional student," who didn't know how to make a "life-or-death decision" about her own pregnancy of alien embryos, plans a career as a television childcare expert. And the media are only too happy to make her into an instant celebrity, if not expert.

Mexico: At war with us, at war with itself

You may be used to the idea by now, if it's possible to get used to such things, of Mexico playing the United States for a sucker by sending its frustrated, angry, and hopeless excess population over the border to form a rapidly growing underclass whose remittances help prop up Mexico's wretched economy; and that it violates U.S. sovereignty and encourages dreams of reconquista.

But worse -- far worse -- could be coming as Mexico continues its descent into an anarcho-gangster state. Mexico has always been a square-wheeled country, with an extreme social class divide between its large mestizo population and its mainly Spanish-descended ruling class, its typically Latin flexibility concerning the rule of law, and its culture of bribery and corruption.

How many revolutions has it had? I've lost count, but it doesn't matter, because none have brought any lasting good. To some extent, in the past, its dysfunctional government and economy have been softened at the local level by a relatively benign climate, social and family networks, an easygoing way of life -- many Mexicans who don't wear uniforms are friendly and gracious -- and, in recent years, a modest economic boom based on natural resources, especially oil.

But the place looks to be coming seriously unwound, in ways that Americans may find it hard to grasp. They'd better start looking at the truth, for their own self-protection.

Here's some truth.

Kidnapping is a growth industry. But that's only a subdivision of the criminality, combined with the blood-soaked rivalry of drug gangs, that is turning the country into a North American Lebanon or Balkans.

According to Stratfor (requires registration), "Violence related to the drug trade is rampant in Mexico, where gunmen are every bit as brutal as the death squads in Iraq." But nobody, gangster or civilian, is safe. The list of events for six days, Stratfor reports, includes:

Jan. 19 A police officer in Tijuana, Baja California state, was wounded when he was shot multiple times by gunmen traveling in a vehicle with California license plates. At least 16 organized crime-related homicides were reported in Chihuahua state, including the fatal shooting of a police commander outside Ciudad Juarez.

Jan. 20 Police in Santa Isabel, Chihuahua state, found the bodies of six unidentified individuals with gunshot wounds. Authorities believe the victims were killed elsewhere. Police in Nogales, Sonora state, found three underground tunnels under construction, which were believed to be intended for use by drug traffickers. Three severed heads were found inside a cooler in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua state. A decapitated body was found a short distance away. Authorities believe one of the heads may belong to a police officer who had been kidnapped several days before. A police officer in Loreto, Zacatecas state, died when he was shot multiple times in a firefight with a group of gunmen. The husband of the mayor of Tiquicheo, Michoacan state, was wounded when he was shot at least 12 times by a group of gunmen.

Jan. 21 The mayor of Huehuetla, Hidalgo state, confirmed that he had fired all of the town’s 25 police officers. It is unclear why he fired the officers. A textile salesman in Moroleon, Guanajuato state, was shot to death when he resisted an apparent kidnapping attempt.

Jan. 22 Authorities in Durango, Durango state, reported the death of one man and his 3-year-old son during a grenade attack on their home.

Jan. 23 The well-known owner of a supermarket chain was killed when he was shot once in the chest in Tijuana, Baja California state, in what authorities described as an attempted carjacking. A federal agent died in Oaxaca, Oaxaca state, when he was shot multiple times by gunmen in a truck and on a motorcycle. At least 17 people were killed over a 24-hour period in Chihuahua state, including eight in the state capital Chihuahua.

Jan. 25 Mexican army forces arrived in Villanueva, Zacatecas state, and disarmed the city’s approximately 50 police officers as they assumed public safety authority in the town. The military deployment appears to have been prompted by a series of protests in the city by residents expressing concern over an increase in kidnappings in the area.

Another Stratfor article says:

There comes a moment when the imbalance in resources reverses the relationship between government and cartels. Government officials, seeing the futility of resistance, effectively become tools of the cartels. Since there are multiple cartels, the area of competition ceases to be solely the border towns, shifting to the corridors of power in Mexico City. Government officials begin giving their primary loyalty not to the government but to one of the cartels. The government thus becomes both an arena for competition among the cartels and an instrument used by one cartel against another. That is the prescription for what is called a “failed state” — a state that no longer can function as a state. …

It is important to point out that we are not speaking here of corruption, which exists in all governments everywhere. Instead, we are talking about a systematic breakdown of the state, in which government is not simply influenced by criminals, but becomes an instrument of criminals — either simply an arena for battling among groups or under the control of a particular group. The state no longer can carry out its primary function of imposing peace, and it becomes helpless, or itself a direct perpetrator of crime.

Meanwhile, the country's economic crutch, oil, is collapsing.

Aside from humanitarian reasons, should we care? Of course. All this isn't happening on the moon, or on the other side of the globe. It's next door, along a 2,000-mile border that, as far as three U.S. presidents (counting Obama) have been concerned, is no barrier to migration from the south. If you think the Mexican Invasion is a bother now -- and, of course, it is -- try to imagine what it will be like in a few years if Mexico fully enters into a death spiral.

What to do? The political left in the U.S., as well as much of the business establishment, will demand that we (a) buy off trouble by sending foreign aid, and (b) take in tens of millions of Mexican refugees on top of the bumper crop of illegals and anchor-baby families already here.

(A) is impossible. Money can repair damage from an earthquake or provide temporary relief from a disaster; it can't create a functional society where one does not exist because the local history, political structure, and values aren't there. Mexico needs a revolution, not necessarily a violent one, but a top-to-bottom remake. There is no other way. Aid money will just find its way into the pockets of one crook or another.

(B) would be incredibly stupid, a form of U.S. suicide. There would be no end to it. We would simply inherit Mexico's devastation, become Mexico for practical purposes. Mexico is a diseased organism. We have no miracle drug to inject into it. Sometimes diseases can be overcome through the body's own defenses and self-healing system, and we can wish our neighbor well and encourage it to find its way to health. But infectious diseases have to be quarantined.

We need to defend our border, one of the limited number of powers the Constitution specifically assigns to the federal government. Unfortunately, we have a federal government that asserts its power in all sorts of areas that are none of its business, while ignoring this clear responsibility. It needs to be reminded. We need to do the reminding.

Fearless

Matisse

This is the newest member of your blogger's family, back when he joined the household several months ago at the tender age of about six weeks.

It's no exaggeration to say that having a kitten in the house introduces a new dimension into one's life, even more than living with a grown cat. Perhaps it's like the experience of a new baby; I wouldn't know.

A kitten is a vision of what we imagine we might be like as pure souls, without being weighed down by cares and knowledge of life's dangers. Matisse demonstrates this at almost every moment. He is absolutely without fear. I don't know about the circumstances of his birth and nursing; we acquired him from an animal shelter where there is reason to think he was well taken care of. The first time I held him, tiny thing, he purred.

It's fascinating to watch how he is infinitely curious. Every object, every sound, commands his full attention -- at least, for a moment, till it's on to the next wonder. A person who has been blind from birth, and then gains sight through some advanced modern medical procedure, must look at the world this way. To see a kitten explore its environment is to get an inkling of what it would be like to wake up on the Day of Creation.

Matisse considers every surface a fit landing site for leaping onto, every opening an invitation to crawl inside. Never, it seems, having felt pain or reaping an unpleasant consequence from any act, he cannot imagine that Nature is there for anything other than his interest and enjoyment.

Is it better not to know of all life's potential suffering? Perhaps for a cat, an indoor cat like Matisse, who will always have a sheltered environment and be away from danger if I have anything to say about it. (Indirectly, I like to think keeping Matisse protected indoors is also doing a favor to whatever birds or other animals his instinctive, uncomprehending savagery could victimize.)

Matisse, more recently

But -- assuming it were possible -- would such a life cushioned from all vulnerability, spared from sorrow and hurt, be good for members of our own species? Our fantasies would say yes.

According to Buddhist legend or history (take your pick), the Buddha began life as a prince, growing up carefree, knowing nothing of the ills of flesh and mind. When he did discover human suffering, it so shocked him that he could no longer live as a prince: he chose to undergo privation, danger, and wandering far from safety, for the sole purpose of understanding the meaning of suffering and the way out of it, for the perfection that no other animal than an enlightened human can know.

The Buddha, too, became fearless. Not through ignorance, but through knowledge of Truth.

I think kittens are here to be kittens. And we are here to be Buddhas.

Warning! You are committing excess heat!

Heat crime scene

I've more or less given up adding to Reflecting Light's stockpile of "Britain self-destructs" postings. No more evidence is needed that what Lawrence Auster calls the Dead Island is run by and for loony Marxist-minded control freaks with a sadistic bent, determined to ruin the lives of all remaining non-criminal citizens who retain their full complement of marbles. Once in a while, though, it may be useful to select (more or less randomly) some typical bit of harassment by public service wasps whose mission is to buzz around until the sanity of their victims gives way like a dam in a 100-year flood. This is what the nanny state is all about, and what leftists believe is the highest form of government.

You know, of course, that the U.K.'s miserable inhabitants can be fined if their trash bins are not exactly comme il faut. That has nothing to do with genuine nuisances like littering, mind you, but such offenses as not separating items out correctly. Well, here's a new entry in the Nag the Populace Competition, per the invaluable Daily Mail:

Town hall chiefs are sending out an army heat detector vans to take thermal pictures of homes and then confront owners with evidence that they are wasting energy. Tens of thousands of homes have been photographed at night over the last few months using cameras which reveal where heat is escaping from windows, doors and roofs. Council bosses hope the images will shock householders into plugging up gaps in draughty windows and doors, and persuade them to insulate their homes.

The company behind the taxypayer funded Heatseekers scheme hopes to survey every home in the country in the next few years.

Actually, it's not (yet) a crime in the U.K. for your house to shed heat, but you can be sure of getting a snide notice from the cutely named Heatseekers, and you'll probably go on a list of individualist reactionaries to undergo special scrutiny in the future.

Two or three weeks after the van has passed down a street, householders get a copy of the thermal image and a letter explaining how they could save money on their bills. Some also get a visit from a door to door consultant, giving more advice.

"Consultant"? "Advice"? That's called selling where I come from. So in other words, these local government councils have a palsy-walsy agreement with a private company to go around checking up on people's homes and then hit them for insulation business — with the program funded by taxpayers' money.

This is far from the worst outrage British people have to put up with from their masters at every level of government, from Whitehall down to the bobby on the beat who's always alert to catch any "incitement to racial hatred" (i.e., complaining about the forced ethnic remaking of their country). But it shows just how thoroughly government influence and control seeps into every crevice of people's daily lives. For their own good, of course.