Blogging here has been very light of late. Both in volume and in content. The repeated updates of my progress in the Volvo Virtual Ocean Race are meaningless to just about anyone but myself. Though in truth the same can probably be said with equal accuracy about any more serious posts as well.

I have not turned away from the world, from politics, from ideas. I just have not been able to get a firm grip on everything that is happening. The Terrorist barbarism in India certainly has not made it any easier.

My problem is that at heart I am an optimist. I have a bad habit of hiding that optimism under a veneer of cynicism and sarcasm, but it is there. Pointing out the things that I see are wrong doesn't mean I don't believe they can and will be better.

It is, however, becoming increasingly difficult to be an optimist at heart and not let the veneers overwhelm the core.

A majority of the voting public are thrilled with the outcome of the Presidential election. Their guy won. I am not particularly enthused about the prospect of an Obama Presidency. I do not think the man has any principles to speak of and his impulse to pragmatic answers is always going to be come from the far left. I don't think surrounding himself with recycled Clinton and Bush people is going make the situation any better.

The positive side is that a far left President and and Democrat controlled Congress with a possibly filibuster-proof Senate will provide an excellent foil. The contrast for liberty based on rational ideas will certainly be strong over the next few years. That contrast can be used to good advantage.

The economy sucks. What the federal government is doing about it sucks. Both are inevitably going to get worse.

The idiots in the Executive Branch managed to panic the idiots in the Legislative Branch into giving them carte blanche to spend $700 Billion Dollars. The Executive sold the Legislature on the idea that buying up all the toxic assets, that their regulation lead to, would open up the credit markets once again and everything would be rosy. Then they decided to just buy equity in financial institutions. Classic bait and switch. So now we have government owning Captial. Some of which they coerced the banks into selling even if they didn't want to.

So naturally any company that's in trouble - which is probably a lot of them right now - is thinking bail out. Lead by the Big Three Autofailures who came to Washington with their hand out begging for alms. The upside of this is that Congress may have learned a lesson after being duped by the Executive. They asked the beggars what they planned to do with the money and how they were going to use it to save themselves. They wanted details and the poor downtrodden CEO's had none. So they sent them packing.

No one in charge seems to have the slightest idea what they are doing.

On the bright side, when duct tape and bandaids will no longer support the house of cards created by federal manipulation of the financial system, the chance will be there to put it right while we pick up the pieces. And it may take a collapse of the current system to get there, but if the defenders of freedom and capitalism keep fighting, progress can be made out of the rubble.

The War against Islamic Terrorism is going well. Iraq is a clear victory. Afghanisgtan is improving. Predator drones are having a significant impact on al Qaeda hiding on the Packistan Afghan border. The leaders of Islamic Terror supporting regimes - namely Saudi Arabia, Iran and Pakistan - can't be too happy looking at the map these days. Their vision of a Global or even regional Caliphate is being thwarted.

The recent Islamic Barbarism in India reminds us that while we have acheived some success, the enemy is still out there. The enemy is still willing to commit acts of barbarism to advance their politacal/religious objectives. But it is clear that if the world has the will to fight back, the Islamic Terrorists cannot win. It remains to be seen if the new President has the will to continue to lead that fight.

I read a column or blog post somewhere - and I have read so many I don't remember where or who or I would link it - suggesting that the attacks in India may have originaly been planned for before the US election in an effort to influence their outcome. I don't think that is the case. I think the attack was probably planned to happen between the election and the inauguration of the next president. It was planed for a time when Presiential authority was in limbo. The terrorists knew that there was little Bush could do in response because he lacks the political power to make anything happen. The president elect is powerless.

Strike while the enemy is weak.

The bright side is that with every act of Islamic Barbarism more of the world see them for what they are and sees the conflict for what it is. I don't know what sort of leadership Obama will offer in the war against Islamic Terrorism, if any. I do not know if there is a leader on the world stage who can rally the world to stand against the barbarians the way George Bush has done. But I do know that there are people in the world who will not give up on their freedom and who will continue the fight.

Out of the Dark Ages came the Renaisance. Out of the Carter Years came the Reagan years. Out of the Clinton years came the Bush years.

I am optomistic about what we can do as a response to the Obama years. Never forget that the best weapon against bad ideas is better ideas. In the end, no matter the difficulty along the way, better ideas will win out.

Posted by: Stephen Macklin at 03:00 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment