Posted on 11/19/2008 7:38:53 PM PST by Dick Bachert
As you've probably noticed by now, the twenty-first century has gotten off to a rocky start. In 2001, on September 11, we were attacked. And now our country's financial system is collapsing. This makes for two "unimaginable" events within a decade.
How could 19 hijackers succeed against the world's greatest military power? And how could history's strongest and most productive economy seize up virtually overnight? Of course, there are complicated and highly technical explanations for each of these disasters. Some books have already been written about the causes of 9-11, and others are sure to come along in the years and decades ahead. No doubt publishers are already signing contracts for books about how today's financial meltdown happened.
But if you put both "unimaginable" events together, you'll see something that the experts won't ever see -- or won't say out loud because it sounds too simplistic and unsophisticated. Let me use an analogy to illuminate the common thread - what liberals would call the "root cause" -- that runs through both these "unimaginable" events:
Most of us fly from time to time, and the airplanes that carry us around the country, and the world, are marvelous pieces of equipment. Today's jetliners are the products of centuries of science, technology, business acumen and financial prowess. They are big, powerful -- and remarkably safe; the back-up systems have back-up systems.
The Pilots Pay Attention
These jetliners are also complicated pieces of equipment, which is why the pilots who fly them are not only technically competent but intellectually capable of concentrating on doing their jobs well. These pilots aren't sitting in the cockpit working on The New York Times crossword puzzle, or playing music on their iPods, or fooling around with the flight attendants. They are paying absolute, total attention to bringing their plane and its passengers safely to their destinations. If they see the plane drifting just one degree off course, or if they see the oil pressure in an engine dropping even slightly, they deal swiftly and effectively with this very minor problem before it becomes a major problem -- or perhaps a problem too big to resolve without catastrophe. It's hard work, and this is why pilots are exhausted even after an uneventful flight.
A modern country is like a jetliner. It's the product of centuries of human development, and it's a marvelous piece of equipment. In a sense, even the back-up systems have back-up systems. But a modern country is also a very complicated piece of equipment. Managing it successfully -- in other words, bringing its citizens safely into the future -- takes both technical competence and, perhaps even more important, intense concentration. You've got to spot little problems quickly, then deal with them effectively before they become too big to deal with.
Read the U.S. constitution, and you'll see that our country's "cockpit" isn't the White House; it's Congress. It's the Congress, not the President, which controls the money by raising taxes and enacting the federal budget. It's the Congress that makes our laws and oversees the executive departments and agencies that implement these laws and write the regulations that support them.
My fellow Americans: We've been putting clowns in the cockpit.
I don't mean this to be rude -- and I certainly don't mean this to be partisan -- but isn't it obvious that most of the people we've elected to the House and Senate haven't got the technical knowledge and the intellectual firepower to guide our country safely through the turbulent skies? And isn't it obvious that most of these preening buffoons spend nearly all their time lining their own pockets, showboating, raising money for their re-elections or running for higher offices -- in short, concentrating their energies and attention on everything except doing the jobs for which we've elected them?
Of course there are exceptions in both political parties. Every so often, you're watching some television news talk show and suddenly there's a member of Congress on camera you've never heard of before who actually knows what he or she is talking about. But the blond news anchorette with teeth like Chiclets keeps interrupting -- and by the time your spouse comes running into the room to see what you're shouting about the interview is over even before you've gotten the House or Senate member's name. And chances are you'll never see this splendid lawmaker on television again. There just aren't enough of these talented and dedicated lawmakers in Congress to get the job done.
We've let this go on for too long, and now we're in a real jam: Our economy is teetering on the edge of a cliff, we're in the midst of a war -- and we're relying on the people who got us into these unimaginable disasters to get us out of them. Fat chance.
A New Kind of Congress
We need to re-think the role of Congress, and fast. Given the inherent complexity of our country, and the world's political turbulence, we've got to start electing a different kind of person to the House and Senate. Whether we prefer candidates who are Republicans, Democrats, liberals, conservatives, independents, libertarians, or who subscribe to any other party or philosophy, we've got to be sure that these individuals have the competence to cope with the issues that confront us, and the willingness to concentrate their total attention on doing the job. And if this leaves them with insufficient time for enriching themselves, or for raising a re-election war chest, or planning campaigns for higher office -- so be it. Candidates who don't want the job under these conditions shouldn't be running for them. And those who already have these jobs and don't like the new criteria should get out of the way -- or he shoved out of the way by us -- to make room for better men and women. Our lives and our fortunes -- literally, in both cases -- depend on getting this right.
I used to be in the intelligence business, and when we sent our projections to the President we always told him whether we were "uncertain" or "reasonably certain" or "highly confident" that whatever we were projecting actually would happen. For the first time in my life, I'm going to make a political projection in which I have total, 100-percent confidence:
If we keep putting clowns in the cockpit, at some time down the road -- two years from now, or five years, or in a decade -- there's going to be a third "unimaginable" event.
Herbert E. Meyer served during the Reagan Administration as Special Assistant to the Director of Central Intelligence and Vice Chairman of the CIA's National Intelligence Council. He is host and producer of The Siege of Western Civilization and author of How to Analyze Information.
Please heed his words -- before it's too late.
Except for Air France.
I can't post the pictures; I don't want to get banned.
>How could 19 hijackers succeed against the world’s greatest military power? And how could history’s strongest and most productive economy seize up virtually overnight?<
Corrupt and incompetent leadership.
Send in the clowns. Don’t bother, they’re here.
“And how could history’s strongest and most productive economy seize up virtually overnight?”
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Political correctness and racism run amok.
Good article. 2010 will be every bit as important as 2012.
I agree, I’d say that quotas and the dumbing-down of education to the lowest common denominator (and the substitution of indoctrination for real education) played some part. And that that “education” teaches students to see America as immoral and not worth defending.
Bush is the capt of the Titanic which he feel asleep at the wheel.
Ping to read thoroughly.
We’re probably going to have a CORONATION in January for a REAL clown who won an office the Founders never imagined would morph into what it has become.
Fascinating election day interviews with TYPICAL Obama voters (link below). (Warning: DO NOT VIEW IF YOU HAVE A WEAK STOMACH!)
By way of explaining how we got to this sad state, I gave the TV program “Boston Legal” one more shot this week and am now POSITIVE that I’ll never watch it — or anything else with which David E. Kelley is connected. While it did have occasional lapses into common sense (the Shatner hold-up sequence was one of them), it is nothing more than socialist propaganda masquerading as entertainment.
Under the category of “Would that mine enemy had written a book,” I MAY check in periodically just to see how much further they can slide. But NOT around mealtimes.
Most of the regular characters share at least one trait with their hero, Barack Obama: His malignant narcissism. While it may be amusing in them, it is a very dangerous characteristic in a president as time shall surely reveal.
In the last episode, Shore admitted that only 40% of voters in this country know that we have 3 branches of government and probably fewer than that know anything of the issues or candidates’ backgrounds.
At the end of the show, Shore and Shirley disclose how emotional they were the night Obama was elected while blissfully disregarding the level of ignorance of the voters who put him in office.
THAT ignorance level was transcended only by their own, that of the idiots who produce this crap — and those who partake of it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mm1KOBMg1Y8
They SAY it has, isn't it odd, that within a couple of weeks, Goldman Sachs, Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac, AIG, GM, Ford, Lehman Bros, Washington Mutual, Wachovia, we can now through in Detroit and Phoenix too et al etc etc, all had problems?
One would think there would be one or two competent management teams around, but no all at one time everyone goes belly up within two weeks of each other, and as was mentioned today, fly their jets to DC with a tin cup in hand.
Corrupt and incompetent DEMOCRAT leadership.
Fixed it.
I agree - unfortunately the masses as evidenced even tonight during my class after work, state the usual talking points such as - after looking over the growth stats throughout history - the democratic administrations have had the most growth in the economy. I would like to also see was the majority of congress was during those administrations??? and then they have BDS stating that nothing can be as bad as this past 8 yrs. Memories are real short for people these days - it has only been during the last year that this economic crisis as hit and guess who’s been in congress?? But you can’t tell anybody that - they hate facts!
Herbert (author),
Please watch closely as Obama downsizes the military and downsizes the intel services in order to get $ to pay for his social experimentation. (shades of the Klintoons)
Then, when the islamonuts attack a weakened America again and we have to struggle to respond, you’ll have your answer, won’t you?
” ..fly their jets to DC with a tin cup in hand.”
I guess you’d prefer that, with the future of thousands, perhaps millions at stake, you’d rather they wait for two hours in a couple of airports to make connections, unable to act on some crisis requiring immediate attention. Smart on your part, yeah, real smart. Oh, and make them sit in a middle seat in the back of the plane, will that do ya?
I was referring more to the ridiculous idea that “everyone is entitled to home ownership”, and that the government should provide insane financial concessions to those unwilling to make the requiste sacrifices.
Also, I am a Fannie Mae stockholder, and Franklin Raines message in the annual report literally dripped with racism: basically FNMA existed to give irresponsible blacks an easy path to home ownership.
Captain Smith was asleep in his cabin. It was 1st Officer Murdoch who ran the ship in to the iceberg.
Just like the DemocRATZ ran our economy into the ground in spite of danger warnings from the Republicans. Pelosi, Reid, Frank, Dodd. Go look over there.
Forwarded to all my pilot friends
Thanks now that is a good way to start Friday.
But remember, for years FReepers held Phil Gramm up as an example of the perfect fiscal conservative. We have put more than our share of clowns in office, too, often for no better reason than we liked some strongly worded statement they once made on a social issue that we agreed with, never paying any attention after that to how the clown was voting or what his real allegiances were.
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