Barrel Strength

The Dark Lord is a friend to Barrelstrengthians, and I have taken the liberty of posting some of his thoughts here.

I made a comment some weeks ago, that nobody picked up on, that I think that Israel has from now to the Inauguration of the Hussein (BHO) regime on Jan 20th, next year, to deal with the Iran question.  After that, support from America will dwindle and soften.  Israelis are playing for keeps and cannot afford to wait and see if Iran “really” wants to wipe them off the map.  They live in the real world, the ugly world, of Islamic tyrants and nutbars.  As the only free country in the Middle East, surrounded as they are by an ocean of poverty, ignorance and repression, one wonders how long they can wait.  Or should wait?  Since I made that comment, events in Israel itself have made this option more difficult with the collapse of the governing coalition.  Elections will be held, but not until well into the New Year.  These events make their postion even less secure.

I am sure that they are not fooled by any offers of support from Europe–after all, look what Europe did to them the last time they were in trouble.  Just a thought.

On another topic, raised by Dalwhinnie, “does the US need a British-style Conservative Party?”–one would think, looking at the parlous state of the British Conservatives, that that would be the last thing they need.  The Republican Party has taken a hit, but not as big a hit as had been touted by the Democrat media.  Frum’s article in the Post today was not bad.  But now the rebuilding work begins.

The Republicans have all sorts in their ranks, from the Nelson Rockefeller types to the Sarah Palin types.  (And yes, I do like her–lots.)  These must be united again. (I particularly admired Sarah’s ability to take, and to counter, the spite and vitriol from the Leftist media.  Now that the media’s boy is heading to the White House, perhaps there will be no need for press conferences, just a monthly grovel before the idol….)

Other Republicans that need to be heeded are the Ron Paul types.  A re-examination of how government must be built from the Constitution itself should be one of the coming tasks for the Republican Party.  I am reminded of the 1964 election when Barry Goldwater ran: “In your heart, you know he’s right” was the campaign slogan.  And he was.  Four years later, the LBJ administration and the “Great Society” was a shambles; America was losing the war in Vietnam; and LBJ was so unpopular he would not even run for re-election.

Anyway, the BHO win is not nearly as big as appears at first sight.  In fact, at first sight it still doesn’t seem that big.  It has all the assets required for media titillation of the irrelevant.  It will keep the talk shows endlessly jabbering for weeks.  However, when geopolitics asserts itself, we’ll see how the cookie crumbles.

As far as the Great White North is concerned, I can’t wait until Hussein “re-opens” NAFTA.  Imagine the squeals from the unions and the NDP and, of course, the Liberals!  “Er, Hi Canada, we just thought we’d get rid of that ole auto pact thing and a coupla other things….”  Time then for some schadenfreude fellahs.

I don’t want to wander too far off track right now, so I’ll complete this little missive with the thought that “Change” is probably the most vapid campaign slogan of all time.  Perhaps the Democrats could be reminded of the words of a great British Prime Minister: “Oh Christ, what do we do now?”

Dark Lord