Tehachapi News

It’s all but official the “Big One” is going to hit SoCal within 30 years. My having been at the epicenter of three major earthquakes I know there is little to be done when they hit but hope you come through alive and wonder if California may become the new “Atlantis” under the Pacific Ocean and the deserts beachfront property? As it is, those of us here in the Kern River Valley know it won’t take a big one to cause the Isabella Dam to break wiping out the town of Isabella and giving a large portion of Bakersfield a good soaking, which makes it a little difficult for those living immediately below the dam here to enjoy real peace of mind about the situation.

But on the political Richter Scale this is still registering a big one: “And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations." This is not even a well-crafted lie!

If you break it you bought it applies to the lying Mr. Obama ever as much as it does to the lying Ms. Clinton; and Lou Dobbs and quite a few others have done yeoman’s work in pointing out Americans are not anti-immigrant but are anti-illegal alien. I have to wonder if Obama would class those of us incensed at what is happing in Texas and elsewhere with perverts “marrying” young children in “spiritual” ceremonies as an excuse for raping children at taxpayer expense through welfare as having antipathy to people who aren’t like us?

Obama following Jimmy Carter’s lead purposely refuses the distinction of illegal aliens, aided by political correctness that would magically transform all illegal aliens into “immigrants” despite the legal definition of such. Americans are not anti-trade as Obama falsely accuses us but we want a level playing field, not the one our “leaders” like Clinton and Bush have foisted off on us and Obama would doubtless continue to encourage.

Nothing has happened to change my mind since I first pointed out neither Clinton nor Obama are electable; quite the contrary. As things stand, McCain is bound to win by default and we can only hope his choice of a running mate will reassure us. It was so improbable a woman would be electable, especially in these perilous times, and especially Ms. Clinton, I have to wonder what gods were implored, incense burned and entrails examined to ever plant such a cockamamie idea in the minds with money behind such a disaster? The same can be said about Mr. Obama, but he was toast immediately his relationship to Jeremiah Wright was exposed and the MSM had to furiously start reorganizing from their groupie mentality toward their “darling.” But then none of us familiar with the way the universities operate is surprised Bill Ayers found a home there, or that the MSM would paint Obama as a political “messiah.”

Pat Buchanan: “It was said behind closed doors to the chablis-and-brie set of San Francisco, in response to a question as to why he was not doing better in that benighted and barbarous land they call Pennsylvania. Like Dr. Schweitzer, home from Africa to address the Royal Society on the customs of the upper Zambezi, Barack described Pennsylvanians in their native habitats of Atloona, Alquippa, Johnstown and McKeesport. ‘You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and ... the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.’ This is the pitch-perfect Hollywood-Harvard stereotype of the white working class, the caricature of the urban ethnic -- as seen from the San Francisco point of view. As Linus clung to his security blanket, Barack is saying, out-state Pennsylvanians, bitter at the world that has passed them by, cling to their Bibles and guns and naturally revert to ancestral bigotries against ‘people who aren't like them’ -- blacks, gays and immigrants…”

No amount of attempting to “explain” his remarks will save Obama any more than Bill’s attempts to “explain” the lies of his wife. Thoreau as with Jesus quite rightly pointed out only the truth serves well, and We the People are suffering from the lies of politicians and others in authority on every hand. It has been my misfortune to know some pathological liars, those that lie when the truth would serve them better; and in too many cases politicians fall into this category. But it isn’t just politicians given to lying that pose a risk; liars are also found in academia and the sciences, as I have often pointed out.

April 15, 2008. Gauging a Collider’s Odds of Creating a Black Hole. By Dennis Overbye: In Walker Percy’s “Love in the Ruins,” the protagonist, a doctor and an inventor, recites what he calls the scientist’s prayer. It goes like this: “Lord, grant that my work increase knowledge and help other men. Failing that, Lord, grant that it will not lead to man’s destruction. Failing that, Lord, grant that my article in Brain be published before the destruction takes place.” Today we require more than prayers that a scientific experiment will not lead to the end of the world. We demand hard-headed calculations. But whom can we trust to do them? That question has been raised by the impending startup of the Large Hadron Collider. It starts smashing protons together this summer at the European Center for Nuclear Research, or CERN, outside Geneva, in hopes of grabbing a piece of the primordial fire, forces and particles that may have existed a trillionth of a second after the Big Bang. Critics have contended that the machine could produce a black hole that could eat the Earth or something equally catastrophic. To most physicists, this fear is more science fiction than science fact. At a recent open house weekend, 73,000 visitors, without pitchforks or torches, toured the collider without incident. Nevertheless, some experts say too much hype and not enough candor on the part of scientists about the promises and perils of what they do could boomerang into a public relations disaster for science, opening the door for charlatans and demagogues…

Those interested in the subject of CERN and the LHC and have kept track are aware the dangers being suggested are miniscule, “but not zero.” However, the language Overbye uses in his essay cannot but remind me of that being used by supporters of Obama. They would have those of us resenting his elitism as ignorant peasants from the scene in “Frankenstein” bearing pitchforks and torches storming the castle, failing to recognize “too much hype and not enough candor” is what We the People actually resent!

In his essay Overbye writes concerning the LHC: “One popular option to determine acceptable risk is to demand that the chance of a man-made disaster be kept below the chance of a natural disaster like being obliterated by an asteroid. Astronomers estimate that chance as one in 50 million in any given year.” Considering the odds against winning the lottery, people continue to buy tickets with the mentality “Someone has to win, why not me?” and “If you don’t play you can’t win.” But when it comes to politics We the People should be given better odds of picking a winner than what is being offered.

As a writer, a lover of literature and language I appreciate prose; but when hype and a lack of candor attempts to pass as “prose,” especially by those whose egos have given them the mistaken impression they know how to write, I take vehement exception! Like Sam Clemens I appreciate a well-crafted lie, but sophomoric attempts to cast lies as prose whether spoken or written is something I very much resent! Even though we are not being offered a winning ticket or even odds better than an asteroid strike or winning the lottery I can’t help wishing there was at least a better crop of truly gifted liars to choose from.