Interesting Item by Pam Geller

[MIKEMCKEE]

Thought provoking Dissertation
by Pam Geller

I am a student of history. Professionally, I have written 15 books in six
languages, and have studied history all my life. I think there is something
monumentally large afoot, and I do not believe it is just a banking crisis,
or a mortgage crisis, or a credit crisis. Yes, these exist but they are
merely single facets on a very large gemstone that is only now coming into a
sharper focus.

Something of historic proportions is happening. I can sense it because I
know how it feels, smells, what it looks like, and how people react to it.
Yes, a perfect storm may be brewing, but there is something happening within
our country that has been evolving for about 10 - 15 years. The pace has
dramatically quickened in the past two.

We demand and then codified into law the requirement that our banks make
massive loans to people whom we know could never pay back? Why? We learned
recently that the Federal Reserve, which has little or no real oversight by
anyone, has "loaned" two trillion dollars (that is $2,000,000,000,000) over
the past few months, but will not tell us to whom or why or disclose the
terms. That is our money. Yours and mine. And that is three times the $700B
we all argued about so strenuously just this past September.

Who has this money? Why do they have it? Why are the terms unavailable to
us? Who asked for it? Who authorized it? I thought this was a government of
"We the People," who loaned our powers to our elected leaders. Apparently
not.

We have spent two or more decades intentionally de-industrializing our
economy. Why?

We have intentionally dumbed down our schools, ignored our history, and no
longer teach our founding documents, why we are exceptional, and why we are
worth preserving. Students by and large cannot write, think critically,
read, or articulate. Parents are not revolting, teachers are not picketing,
school boards continue to back mediocrity. Why?

We have now established the precedent of protesting every close election
(now violently in California over a proposition that is so controversial
that it wants marriage to remain between one man and one woman. Did you ever
think such a thing possible just a decade ago?). We have corrupted our
sacred political process by allowing unelected judges to write laws that
radically change our way of life, and then mainstream Marxist groups like
ACORN and others to turn our voting system into a banana republic. To what
purpose?

Now our mortgage industry is collapsing, housing prices are in free fall,
major industries are failing, our banking system is on the verge of
collapse, Social Security is nearly bankrupt, as is Medicare and our entire
government. Our education system is worse than a joke (I teach college and
know precisely what I am talking about.) The list is staggering in its
length, breadth, and depth. It is potentially 1929 x 10. And we are at war
with an enemy we cannot name for fear of offending people of the same
religion who cannot wait to slit the throats of your children if they have
the opportunity to do so.

And now we have elected a man no one knows anything about, who has never run
so much as a Dairy Queen, let alone a town as big as Wasilla , Alaska . All
of his associations and alliances are with real radicals in their chosen
fields of employment, and everything we learn about him, drip by drip, is
unsettling if not d ownright scary (Surely you have heard him speak about
his idea to create and fund a mandatory civilian defense force stronger than
our military for use inside our borders? No? Oh, of course. The media would
never play that for you over and over and then demand he answer it.. Sarah
Palin's pregnant daughter and $150,000 wardrobe is more important.)

Mr. Obama's winning platform can be boiled down to one word: Change. Why?

I have never been so afraid for my country and for my children as I am now.
This man campaigned on bringing people together, something he has never,
ever done in his professional life. In my assessment, Obama will divide us
along philosophical lines, push us apart, and then try to realign the pieces
into a new and different power structure. Change is indeed coming. And when
it comes, you will never see the same nation again.

And that is only the beginning.

I thought I would never be able to experience what the ordinary, moral
German felt in the mid-1930s. In those times, the savior was a former
smooth-talking rabble-rouser from the streets, about whom the average German
knew next to nothing. What they did know was that he was associated with
groups that shouted, shoved, and pushed around people with whom they
disagreed; he edged his way onto the political stage through great oratory
and promises. Economic times were tough, people were losing jobs, and he was
a great speaker. And he smiled and waved a lot. And people, even newspapers,
were afraid to speak out for fear that his "brown shirts" would bully them
into submission.

And then he was duly elected to office, with a full-throttled economic
crisis at hand [the Great Depression]. Slowly but surely he seized the
controls of government power, department by department, person by person,
bureaucracy by bureaucracy. The kids joined a Youth Movement in his name,
where they were taught what to think. How did he get the people on his side?
He did it promising jobs to the jobless, money to the moneyless, and goodies
for the military-industrial complex. He did it by indoctrinating the
children, advocating gun control, health care for all, better wages, better
jobs, and promising to re-instill pride once again in the country, across
Europe , and across the world.

He did it with a compliant media - Did you know that? And he did this all in
the name of justice and .. . . change. And the people surely got what they
voted for. (Look it up if you think I am exaggerating.) Read your history
books. Many people objected in 1933 and were shouted down, called names,
laughed at, and made fun of. When Winston Churchill pointed out the obvious
in the late 1930s while seated in the House of Lords in England (he was not
yet Prime Minister), he was booed into his seat and called a crazy
troublemaker. He was right, though .

Don 't forget that Germany was the most educated, cultured country in Europe
. It was full of music, art, museums, hospitals, laboratories, and
universities. And in less than six years - a shorter time span than just two
terms of the U. S. presidency - it was rounding up its own citizens, killing
others, abrogating its laws, turning children against parents, and neighbors
against neighbors. All with the best of intentions, of course. The road to
Hell is paved with them.

As a practical thinker, one not overly prone to emotional decisions, I have
a choice: I can either believe what the objective pieces of evidence tell me
(even if they make me cringe with disgust); I can believe what history is
shouting to me from across the chasm of seven decades; or I can hope I am
wrong, close my eyes, have another latte and ignore what is transpiring
around me.

Some people scoff at me; others laugh or think I am foolish, naive, or both.
Perhaps I am. But I have never been afraid to look people in the eye and
tell them exactly what I believe - and why I believe it. I pray I am wrong.
But, I do not think I am.

About the author via Google...

Pamela "Atlas" Geller began her publishing career at The New York Daily News
and subsequently took over operation of The New York Observer as Associate
Publisher. She left The Observer after the birth of her fourth child but
remained involved in various projects including American Associates, Ben
Gurion University and being Senior Vice-President Strategic Planning and
Performance Evaluation at The Brandeis School . "http://www.brandeis.edu/" \nhttp://www.brandeis.edu/>

After 9/11, Atlas had the veil of oblivion violently lifted from her
consciousness and immersed herself in the education and understanding of
geopolitics, Islam, terror, foreign affairs and imminent threats the
mainstream media and the government wouldn't cover or discuss.

Her website, AtlasShrugged.com \nhttp://atlasshrugged.com/> , winner of the "Best New Blog" 2005 Jewish and
Israeli Blog Award and finalist in the 2005 Weblog Awards, is a
counter-terrorism site fighting the great fight, changing the world one word
at a time. Leading authorities are regularly interviewed. She routinely
confers with leading scholars on the Middle East, Islam, Eurabia , China and
Russia . The objective of her website is to cover related but little
reported events of great import. She provides an unblinking, glaring
examination of global affairs.

[WouldaShoulda]

I have no idea how great bridges are built or how we manage to conquer the seas and space; or not manage to kill one another over food.

I'm just grateful we have, and we don't!!

[MMR]

Thanks for sharing. She said EXACTLY what I've been thinking and feeling over the past months.

Obama scares me witless. I've lost "friends" because I questioned and didn't "embrace Hope".

We are in for a rough time.

[craigimass]

Uh, right....
Germany WAS one of the most cultured countries in the history of the world - and who took it over....

THUGS.
Largely uneducated THUGS and BULLIES were the great revolution that was the Nazi movements.

The intelligent and cultured people, including the Jews (a LOT of the intelligentsia, doctors, phyicists (Einstein, etc.) were run off.

She is simply twisting history to fit her outlook.

She is obviously a wing nut.

For any educated person to point to being the mayor of Wasilla as qualification for ANYTHING (my wife was head of a larger town, and admits she is not qualified for anything like that)......is ridiculous.

So, without negating her point by point, here is why I agree with her....

We are on the verge of having the bullies and thugs have greater influence than they even did before. Just like in Germany, those thugs look down in education, culture and science. They do like guns and power and authoritarian figures.

Mind you, I am speaking in generalities, but keep in mind that Germany was certainly not destroyed by the teachers, the peacemakers, the cultured, etc.

It was the same uneducated thugs, brownshirts, that we are seeing come out of the wood work now. Each of us should look deeply into ourselves and determine what kind of a world or future we want for our children - one where the bullies, thugs, guns and idealogues rule - or one where education, culture and advancement (otherwise known as a progressive agenda) is valued.

You choose.....

[camaraderie]

There ya have it ladies and gentlemen...the liberal progressives are the smart ones..they deserve to rule over the Cro-magnons that vote for the republican thugs. Don't bother speaking up or voting...they know better and will take care of things for you. Go back to Ameican Idol and ESPN...they'll let you know when everything is fixed.

[craigimass]

Ah, in Germany, you are 100%. The cultured people were chased out. Oh, there were some smart ones still there, to build weapons for the thugs, etc.

In other places also, such as Cambodia (pol pot) and China - what did the THUGS and BULLIES do as soon as they took power?

Well, here in your answer - in China:
"any intellectuals were sent to rural labor camps, and many of those who survived left China shortly after the revolution ended. Many survivors and observers suggest that almost anyone with skills over that of the average person was made the target of political "struggle" in some way. According to most Western observers as well as followers of Deng Xiaoping, this led to almost an entire generation of inadequately educated individuals."

In Cambodia:
"Western-educated intellectuals, educated people in general, people who had contact with Western countries or with Vietnam, disabled people"

So, you can draw your own conclusions....which you appear to have done already. But I would like you to show me any source or proof which shows that Hitlers rise to power was orchestrated by progressives and education intellectuals.

Once again, backwards nation.

It is fine for you to hold any opinion you like, but just flat out admit that you enjoy Thugs and Bullies and dislike education and culture. That's fine...as long as you keep it to movies and books. But don't impose that junk on our country, or even you will be sorry.

[OsmundL]

Originally Posted by MIKEMCKEE

Thought provoking Dissertation
by Pam Geller

When my mother turned 95, things became difficult. 95% blind and all her friends dead, she listened to the news and heard of murders, avalanches and war. She heard politicians. She was frightened, as elderly lonely people can be. I had some difficulty balancing the picture for her: I did in fact feel quite safe walking the streets, my daughter was not on drugs yet, they did not teach Islam in our schools and no, the Neo-Nazis in Germany did not have great support in that population. Mother gave out all the signs of anticipating Armageddon, and all I could do was reassure her that she may in a better place before it caught up with us.

Mother was a shining tower of rationality compared to the fevered, paranoid ramblings of Pam Geller. “Professionally, I have written 15 books in six languages, and have studied history all my life.” After all that, this is the closest she came to analyzing it?

Now, I consider myself eclectic not given to fanaticism, and this is what I do not get: In January, a President left his country in a calamitous state very few had dreamt possible. This is not so much a matter of opinion; the facts roll in each morning as the share market opens. A new administration is some 3 months into the job of finding ways out of this mess, obviously seeking a different direction to the one that so visibly bombed. But who is Pam Geller and friends afraid of? The new broom! Now, I don’t claim to know or even believe that the new guys will get it right, I am not given to believing in promises either. So, the jury is out on that one.

But we have, as I said, been through 8 years that very few of us would choose to repeat. We are worried about the damage done; we are trying to figure out how not to fall into that trap again. We’re pretty sure on that score. Is Pam Geller concerned about that? Apparently not. With the headlights on certain banks and fund managers, her chosen Ayn Rand quote is a call for “pure, uncontrolled, unregulated laissez-faire capitalism.” We want more of that? Meanwhile, the new guy is not so subtly associated with Hitler. Amazing, that the “historian” Pam Geller knows so much about the person who has been at it for 3 months, and so staggering little about the last 8 years. Not that she exaggerates, of course. "It is potentially 1929 x 10" ? - historians sure know to use sober language.

My mother was a sensible person, and only 95% blind.

From the Pam Geller / Ayn Rand site, as referred to:

[tdw]

The Ayn Rand thing really get me.

I remember reading The Fountainhead as a young fella and half way though being absolutely entranced by the ideas but less than thrilled by the quality of the writing......by the end I was having some pretty major doubts about the ideas as well.

Then I read Atlas Shrugged and am quite happy to say that I thought it was a load of old cobblers from start to finish. I binned them both when I finished it.

Than anyone could base their life's philosophy on the writings of an overly simplistic pop philospher who was not even a decent writer beggars belief but stranger things have happened....Pam Geller may well be one of them.

This being in opposition does not sit well with the right does it ?

[artbyjody]

Originally Posted by tdw

The Ayn Rand thing really get me.

I remember reading The Fountainhead as a young fella and half way though being absolutely entranced by the ideas but less than thrilled by the quality of the writing......by the end I was having some pretty major doubts about the ideas as well.

Then I read Atlas Shrugged and am quite happy to say that I thought it was a load of old cobblers from start to finish. I binned them both when I finished it.

Than anyone could base their life's philosophy on the writings of an overly simplistic pop philospher who was not even a decent writer beggars belief but stranger things have happened....Pam Geller may well be one of them.

This being in opposition does not sit well with the right does it ?

Then does it sit well when on the left.. or the middle.. history does provide foundation and the only truth is that history is defined by hindsight.

[craigimass]

Well, I must say - our group here has proven themselves to be clear and independent thinkers....Bravo!