Obama's Green Revolution

Well, we haven't drilled for damn bit of new oil. Instead, we're going to "invest" in green jobs for the future--never mind about today and tomorrow. Instead, the all-wise government of Obama has its eye on The Day after Tomorrow. And on the "countless jobs" coming our way.

Thanks to the conceited and concerted policies of inaction of the uber-bourgeoisie of the progressive left, now as the Middle East erupts into chaos, we get to look forward to $4.00-$5.00 gasoline. Drilling for our own oil has been off-limits for quite some time hasn't it?, because we are "addicted to oil". Instead we have been subjected to a program of regulatory hubris--all predicated on the assumption that our well-being as a society depends upon stepping over the past, without a thought for the present or what might follow the present if the comfortable assumptions of the comfortable class failed. --As they are now failing. All predicated upon a rich society growing richer--except that we are not.

I have come to understand the desperation of the Sioux of Minnesota in 1862. While I don't, and never have particularly trusted anything the Federal Government says or does, I know that many people do and many people depend upon the Government. Increasingly. But the actions of my government in the arena of industrial policy, finance and business regulation are beggaring me, just as similar actions beggared the Minnesota Sioux. When, finally after all of the false promises of the government, the Sioux (who had supported themselves from time immemorial) had no food, they came to the store asking for credit so they could feed themselves and their children. "Let them eat grass" was the response.

Knowing how obscenely committed this government is to "going green", and how utterly oblivious they are; when it comes to the point that the middle class cannot afford to gas-up their cars to go to work, (as is rapidly becoming the case for me) because the money is needed for mortgages and food, I'm sure we can all look forward to the government's inspiring message: LET THEM GO GREEN. And they would take that as a measure of their success. Or so I surmise.

LIBERAL AVG

Does nothing ever change? Looking back on the so-called "Golden Age" of the Roman Empire, 50 years after the death of Nero, here is the emperor Hadrianvs Avgvstvs (Hadrian), the second of the adoptive emperors advertising his standard method of mollifying the Roman population to keep them quiet in the face of his foreign and domestic policies. Like Barack Obama, Hadrian toured Europe and visited Egypt, giving speeches and making his presence known. And like Barack Obama, Hadrian used his government to provide cash handouts for his clients and supporters. He issued coins like the one above and similar ones, in their millions, commemorating his every exploit, as if they were tweets, the better to remind the people of his generosity and his patronage.

On the reverse of the coin above, a silver denarius, the emperor is shown sitting on a raised platform behind two officials, one with an abacus, while the other dispenses cash to a citizen who stands, unapologetically before the dais, the folds of his robe open to receive the coins. Under the dais the inscription reads LIBERAL AVG, a commemoration which remains to this day, 1,890 years after the minting of this coin, an easily understood paradigm for political success.

Like Hadrian, Obama is a famous patron of the arts. Like Hadrian, Obama has the the support of the glitterati and the governing elites. Like Hadrian, Obama has forbidden torture.
Like Hadrian, Obama is a fervent (albeit hetero), supporter of gay rights. As Hadrian did, so is Obama in the process of surrendering his predecessor's conquests in Mesopotamia to the Persians. Like Hadrian, Obama has taken the side of the Palestinians against the Jews. In fact, it was under Hadrian that the land formerly known as Judea came to be called Palestine for the very first time. Like Hadrian after his death, Obama has been "deified", despite being still in office. It remains to be seen whether Obama will continue to channel Hadrian, that most benevolent of autocrats, in forming his own version of the frumentarii: loyal followers who, at the the emperor's insistence acted as his personal spies.

Despite being called by some of his critics ignorant of the past, it seems pretty clear that Barack Obama is well on his way to re-enacting almost verbatim, a fairly sophisticated slice of history. Of the ancient and imperial variety.

Playing the Hand That's Dealt You

Overlooked in the overwrought and often simple-minded debate over the nature of the now famous photo-shopped image of Obama as the Joker, is the underlying and essential playing cardness of it all. The Joker is after all, the quintessential wild card in the game. Even 5 of a kind is possible when the Joker is in the deck. Obama as the Joker strikes me as a possible metaphor for devious political shape-shifting or changability, and as such, is a completely legitimate means of graphically expressing a complex idea in a complex arena.

Is the image racist? I don't see it, but I can say that it's entirely irrelevant to the artist's message--that is, to the artist who seized the internet image from the original phot0-shopper and put the text SOCIALISM under Obama's photo-shopped face and turned the image into a political poster. As such the two of them became accidental collaborators in a type of gestalt pattern recognition relay of messages. In the aggregate it strikes me as more of a warning to the voters, not to Barack Obama. What he looks like isn't what he is--He can be anything.

Wikipedia states:

The Joker's use is greatly varied....Often, the joker is a wildcard, and thereby allowed to represent other existing cards. The term "Joker's Wild" originates from this practice, as does the game show of the same name....The Joker can be an extremely beneficial, or an extremely harmful, card.

In the Tarot deck there are different properties associated with the card, where it known as the Fool, and from that it's apparent that the figure of the Joker is an ancient one having varied and subtle cultural meanings over time. Batman's Gotham nemesis was fond of leaving a Joker behind as his calling card. Whatever else may be true, it is clear that when you decide to play with the Joker in the deck, the normal rules will no longer apply. In your hand, the Joker can be what you want. But what happens when the Joker can make you become what he wants?