THE MOUNTAIN OBSERVER ON-LINE              

                       ISSUES, PEOPLE, OBJECTS & POLICIES- CLOSE UP                           

                               "The power to tax involves the power to destroy"     Chief Justice John Marshall

                             Vol. 07                                                    Issue 01                                  Start JAN 01, 2007

UPDATED WHEN I TAKE A NOTION.       WHERE THE AIR IS THIN, THE NIGHT SKY IS FULL OF STARS, AND THE HUNTING AND FISHING ARE GOOD.   A FREEWHEELING CONSERVATIVE RESOURCE DEDICATED TO THE DEFENSE OF FREEDOM, THE NEXT GENERATION, THE WAY THINGS OUGHT TO BE, AND THE REVERSAL OF THE ENTIRE PROGRESSIVE PROJECT.     TO UNDERSTAND THIS WEBSITE, IT IS NECESSARY THAT YOU ARE ABLE TO READ AND TO THINK.                        

J. E. Sohmer   Jefferson, CO  flyover country.

Serious Considerations: 

03/28/07  On Dinesh D'Souza.  The man has written a lot of good stuff, however in the opinion of the Mountain Observer, he can, on occasion, go off in strange directions.   For example, since the 2006 elections, he, along with other east coast based "Conservatives", have shown too much enthusiasm for embracing potential candidates for the 2008 presidential run who themselves are not really Conservative, but who seem eager to mis-represent themselves in this regard.  They are typical Republican hacks, not Conservatives.   Sorry, Dinesh, but Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, and Mitt Romney are not Conservative.  Let us not redefine the word.  Now on election day it is quite possible that the best the American people can consider is another Republican hack, but meanwhile, let's not misappropriate the term Conservative.  Is it possible that you, yourself, actually fall into this category, along, perhaps, with much of the National Review crowd?   Now the most disturbing effort on your part so far has to do with this strange analysis that the American Left is somehow in conscious and direct cahoots with the IslamicFascists of the world against western liberal (in the originalist sense) democracy.   Surely the Mountain Observer has made very plain that IslamicFascism feeds on Western cultural decay, and that within the West, Conservatives are as much equally at "war" with Secular Materialism as we really are at war  with IslamicFascism.  But to consider that IslamicFascists and Western Material Secularists, including the American Left, are in common coordinated cahoots against western liberal (in the originalist sense) democracy smacks of a conspiracy theory worthy of Howard Dean.  The reality of the situation is that these two human subspecies are running off in opposite directions from each other, equally a threat to what's left of western liberal (in the originalist sense) democracy and Judeo Christian culture.  We are challenged on two fronts, and while certainly there is an "Axis of Evil" aka IslamicFascism, it does not include the Western Left.  What we have with the

Western Left are secularists so self consumed and marinated in marxism that they long ago simply melted into self hating useful idiots, with the French, as usual, leading the way.   So let's not go kooky; leave that to the Left, which these days is supremely practiced in the arts of delusion.  Dinesh, perhaps in certain respects I misunderstand what you are trying to say, but my trouble is that I fear not.  As for who genuine Conservatives should be pushing for President in 2008, it's early, however, among the electable, I think Fred Thompson may be the right guy.  Why aren't national "conservative" figures picking up on this?   JES

Current Reading Recommendations:      

THE CHINA FANTASY: HOW OUR LEADERS EXPLAIN AWAY CHINESE REPRESSION

JAMES MANN                                                                                                                                 

 VIKING                                                                                127 PGS                                                 $19.95

 ILLIBERAL JUSTICE: JOHN RAWLS VS. THE AMERICAN POLITICAL TRADITION

 DAVID LEWIS SCHAEFER                    

 UNIV OF MISSOURI                                                            368 PGS                                                 $24.95

THE CONSERVATIVE INTELLECTUAL MOVEMENT IN AMERICA SINCE 1945

GEORGE H. NASH                                                                                                                         

ISI                                                                                         656 PGS                                                 $25.00

Serious Considerations: 

03/25/07  Keeping track of Hillary Rodham: http://hillaryspot.nationalreview.com/

03/25/07  Politicians alleging themselves to be Catholic while voting in support of pro-abortion measures, need to be reminded that even Pontius Pilot, washing his hands of Jesus Christ after finding Him not guilty, never had the nerve to take Communion.   We know you fellows are heavily distracted by personal political interests of the moment, but you really need to think this over.  Going toward 2008, who are you?    JES

03/24/07  On global warming, and the politics thereof.  Desperate for a signature issue to justify and sustain an increasing political and religious control over our lives, Democrats and their ilk about the globe are seizing on global warming as their new avenue for government growth so as to order us about.  Causing panic among school kids is only another symptom of the psychopaths running loose among us.  Now the fact of the matter is that we can have a discussion about all this based on actual science, or we can submit to a good old fashioned tent revival meeting based on fear and panic with the more particular objective of grabbing political power; to hell with the facts.

Climate change is a constant in the history of the earth.   The biggest single factor is activity on the surface of the sun, subject to control only by AlGore.   Changes to our many climates are continuous, and the proximate causes complex.  Is the earth, as a whole, currently getting warmer?  Perhaps; perhaps not.   Contrary to the screaming psychopaths running loose among us, among relevant scientists the jury is still out, and in any event, "poll taking" is not how science works.

I am not about to review all the details of that discussion here.   Let us just stipulate for the moment, for the sake of discussion, that there is currently a warming trend, specifics to be determined.  The next question is to what extent human activity might be causing, or at least contributing to the warming trend.  This is where all the computer modeling really gets messy.   While it is difficult, on a strictly logical basis, to argue that when I start up my pickup truck I am not contributing to "global warming", it is much more difficult for me to imagine side by side with the macro forces of nature that the impact of my turning that key is measurable.  And so it is also with millions of people all turning their keys every day.   It takes enormous self centeredness and hubris to believe that all of mankind combined could have any kind of significant impact compared to the overall forces of nature.  Incidentally, I am told that the glaciers on Mars are melting as well.  In any event, I see no evidence that "science" has pinned this matter down one way or the other.  Sorry folks, but what we are hearing about here is a simple old fashioned attempt to grab power, a twenty first century version of the old medicine man selling swill off the back of his wagon.   All this is a symptom of the attempted execution of Christianity in the western world and the new religious substitution of Gaia, or whatever.    G.K Chesterton once observed that "Once men believe in nothing, they will believe in anything".  JES

03/24/07  Again the Chinese are wooing the Russians for Siberian oil.  Russian and Chinese foot dragging in the United Nations on really tough trade sanctions against Iran are running up against a wall as Iran's complicity in sabotaging Iraq become more widely exposed.  The pieces of the puzzle are as follows: The American "surge" in Iraq is showing signs of results, and in Congress, Democrats are stumbling in their efforts to sabotage the war effort.  The renewed credibility of American determination suggests the real possibility of a collision with Iran, not only over the issue of Iranian nuclear weapons ambition, buy also over Iranian hegemonic ambition in Iraq and the entire gulf state region.  The United States has pushed very hard in the Security Council for some really tough economic sanctions against Iran, and both the Russians and the Chinese have stood in the way.  Russia historically has had an interest in trade access to the south, many times frustrated.  The Chinese are rather desperate for oil to power their exploding economy; they have very little of their own.  While the Mountain Observer is generally skeptical concerning the effectiveness of trade sanctions and boycotts, in this situation with Iran the fact of the matter is that they are very vulnerable to some real damage if a genuine and tough boycott was applied and enforced.  Even so, boycotts have a limited lifespan of effectiveness; witness the post Gulf War experience with the boycott against Saddam's Iraq.   The appeal to our side (Democrats excluding themselves) to a tough boycott against Iran is that it might have sufficient short term effectiveness to force an internal political correction to the power of the mullahs and the policy ambitions of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad against many of his scared neighbors.  The Iranian economy today is on shaky legs, and ordinary Iranians are politically very restless. The Mountain Observer remains skeptical that all this diplomatic maneuvering will produce effective results, but at the same time recognizes the political need to run the trap line.  And I would suggest that both the Russians and the Chinese recognize that we are closing in on the end of that trapline, even if American Democrats don't.  If the Russians and the Chinese don't begin to cooperate more closely with the American efforts to utilize the boycott route, then the United States is really left with no options whatsoever but to confront the Iranians directly militarily, with negative implications both for the supply of Chinese oil and a spectrum of Russian (Putin) national priorities.  Thanks to Mitch McConnell, we may yet be able to stall off the desire of Democrats to run and hide under a pillow.  JES

03/16/07  I am off the trucks.  I am home to stay, here in Jefferson, Park County, Colorado, USA.  Over the last 16 years I have seen the USA to the extent of probably some 1.75 million miles, all 48 contiguous states; a priceless experience.   I have met the American people, face to face, an experience frequently gratifying however too often disturbing.  Originalist Americans have a tussle before them.  God help the USA.  JES

03/13/07   On shutting down Liberals, Democrats and the entire Progressive agenda.  In addition to an enhanced repeal of the 16th Amendment (Go to Original Mission Statement), next on the list should be the unqualified repeal of the 1965 Higher Education Act and all subsequent attachments.   Watch the rats run for cover.  JES

03/13/07  The fatal flaw in the ideology of modern Liberalism is the complete absence of a central unifying political theory or principles around which they can all unite.  The closest they can come is that all problems are to be solved through and by the government, which also can provide the funds to do so at the point of a gun.  The central unifying political theory ends there; questions as to what the problems are, and what the solutions might be, fragment in thousands of directions according to the interests and agendas of specific constituencies and individuals.  In the absence of any actual central unifying political theory or principles, action is accomplished by the creation of a case by case consensus based on the raw political power of the coalition of the moment, always subject to change.

So it is that the Democrat majorities in both House of Congress are flailing away on the issue of Iraq.  The consequences, whatever specifically evolves, cannot be a positive for American national interests.  Should you be puzzling over how Liberals feel (they don't generally think), reflect upon this.  General David Petraeus: carry on.  JES

03/12/07  Add ex-Senator, Fred Thompson, R-TN, to the list of Mountain Observer qualified 2008 presidential candidates.  An impressive idea I had forgotten about.  Go to ELECTIONS 2008.   JES

Wall Street & Main St:  

03/11/07  It's been awhile since I've made any comments about the economy.  Officially, and by traditional yardsticks, the economy looks strong and the Federal Reserve remains concerned about inflation.  However, again I need to go back to an old concern of the Mountain Observer: overspending of dollars that do not exist (fiat paper and electronic "money") in both the public and private sectors.  Here on this mountain top we have long predicted that sooner or later this would all blow up in our faces.  When the so-called dot com bubble burst at the end of the 90's, as I predicted it would, a lot of folks got smacked down hard, only to follow again with a new wave of speculation in various real estate markets.  It is my sense that this house of cards may soon tumble too, with consequences far more devastating.  I need to find the time to write on this in more detail.  JES

Serious Considerations: 

03/10/07   Should Scooter Libby be pardoned?  Of course, and I would think that before the end of Bush's presidency that will have happened, if the court system itself has not already corrected the carnage of what can only be described as a political show trial.  In recent years, out of control prosecutors, and prosecutions, have become all too fashionable.  As for Dick Cheney, in a more sensible time he would be our next President, and ought to be.  That, of course, is not in the cards.  America, it seems, is too awash in self hatred, white guilt and narcisstic self loathing to think sensibly about much of anything these days.  The future price in blood and treasure will be enormous.  I pray for my grandsons.  JES

03/06/07  Hillary Rodham.  It is a common pattern for politically astute persons in their early years to have wandered around the political spectrum, including the Mountain Observer.  However, most of us sooner or later grow up.  Many Conservatives, including the Mountain Observer, have abundant reason to believe that Hillary never has, and is dangerous.  Marxism in its many forms is like cancer.  Go to http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17388372/from/ET/ 

02/27/07  As the Mountain Observer has pointed out many times previously, the Peoples Republic of China (Communist China) is no doubt taking great delight in the fact that we are distracted in the Middle East.  As the American Left swaggers with delight in their attempts to cause our defeat in Iraq, China launches a test of an anti satellite weapon, successfully destroying an obsolete satellite, otherwise useless.  The mainstream press, and their Democrat sponsors, hardly appear to recognize the implications for our own national security.  Would it make any difference if they knew that China is also hard at work developing the technical means to shower us with the radiation necessary to shut down every computer and microchip in the United States?  Folks, we are talking about your car and your cell phone, in addition to Hollywood private jets and our anti missile technology, etc., etc. This is not a computer game.  JES

02/26/07   As we have consistently argued in the past, the presence or absence of WMD's in Saddam's Iraq was always a phony issue, and it was an original error on the part of the Administration to have ever allowed the issue to be framed as it was as a justification to go to war.  The history of WMD in Saddam's Iraq, and its use, was well documented; the status of the situation at the time of our invasion irrelevant.  What was relevant was the broader orientation of the regime in its associations and support of the pan IslamicFascist movement, considerable, well documented and clearly threatening to all except those who wear rose colored glasses.   As for the WMD issue specifically, an explanation remains to be made for clear evidence of Russian support and complicity in what appears to have been a removal program conducted in February 2003, just prior to our invasion.  What might have been removed, perhaps to Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, consistently under Syrian control?   The Russians have never been publicly called on this, possibly for security reasons unclear at this time.  Other resources within Iraq itself remain unexplored, or unrevealed for security reasons.

I re-visit these points as we move forward on the issue of Iran, and what to do about it.  Actually, what to do about Iran, to this Observer, is pretty obvious.  The problem here is the public relations problem of dealing with a domestic American opposition to our own national security interests.  Stay tuned.  JES

 Current Reading Recommendations:      

CRY HAVOC: THE GREAT AMERICAN BRING-DOWN AND HOW IT HAPPENED                               

 RALPH De TOLEDANO                                                                                                                  

 ANTHEM                                                                        254 PGS                                                 $18.00

WHITE GUILT: HOW BLACKS AND WHITES TOGETHER DESTROYED THE PROMISE OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS ERA

SHELBY STEELE                                                                                                                              

HARPERCOLLINS                                                                 192 PGS                                                 $24.95

Serious Considerations: 

02/21/07  Comments concerning the 2008 Presidential elections.  What's wrong with Rudy. Go to 2008, an expanded vision.  JES

02/17/07  Pretending that only their favored constituents notice, a Democrat House of Representatives, joined by a handful of gutless Republicans, pass a "nonbinding" resolution against the "surge" of troop deployments to Iraq.  However, of course, the resolution is binding in the sense that our enemies are watching and taking inspiration, and those in Iraq, and the Middle East generally, who have supported us learn again that American resolve is not to be trusted.  So as a sequel to the outcome of the November elections, the American people, through their elected representatives, have virtually guaranteed defeat in Iraq, invited expanded terrorism directly upon us, propelled re-examination of the foreign policies of others worldwide premised on non-existent American resolve, and virtually guaranteed a world war, point future, with Iran as the flash point.  The Senate is likely to add to the disaster later today.  If belief that the President is so in error as to justify undercutting the troops, then the principled response should have been to defund the enterprise and get out now, but the cowards on the Left want no responsibility for the consequences militarily, politically, or morally.  What else could one expect of those who are intellectually and morally bankrupt.  As the refugees begin to stream, and the deaths and tortures accelerate, we on the Right will remember where responsibility really lies.  The fact of the matter is, and always has been, that the original decision to invade was correct, and in spite of the considerable government bungling that has occurred since, the enterprise was, and still is, winnable.  But this will not happen: Americans have become self-serving cowards.  Our real problem is not Shiites and Sunnis.  It is Iran, and it is the moral corruption of America.  Drunk with the personal chase for dollars and personal comfort, an obvious consequence of decades of immersion in Material Secularism, Americans, as this is written, are consumed with the intrigue of the death of a 39 year old bimbo who herself was a statement for everything wrong with our culture.  The values that informed the American Founding seem to have slid beneath the surface, and our entire political and social culture is complicit.   The only point in continuing the website is that at some point, a future generation will be rocked by reality, and begin to re-think the disgusting performance of their parents that caused the mess.  The process of correction will not be pretty. 

It is possible to make the case that our problem is that the French affliction, after centuries, has finally overwhelmed us.  I quote Jean Jacques Rousseau, arguably the father of all that has gone wrong in the western world since:  "Let us begin by setting aside all the facts, because they do not affect the question".  And so it has gone since.   JES

  Current Reading Recommendations:    

EARTHLY POWERS: THE CLASH OF RELIGION AND POLITICS IN EUROPE FROM THE FRENCH REVOLUTION TO THE GREAT WAR

 MICHAEL BURLEIGH      

 HARPER COLLINS                                                               544 PGS                                                 $29.95

 EXPLORING REALITY: THE INTERTWINING OF SCIENCE AND RELIGION

 JOHN POLKINGHORNE                                                                                                                       

 YALE UNIV                                                                   208 PGS                                                 $24.00

 POWER, FAITH, AND FANTASY: AMERICA IN THE MIDDLE EAST: 1776 TO THE PRESENT

 MICHAEL B. OREN                                                                                                                               

 NORTON                                                           778 PGS                                                 $35.00

Serious Considerations:   

02/07/07  Three years too late, Lt. General David Petraeus replaces General George Casey as the top U.S. military commander in Iraq.  The significance of this is that Lt. General Petraeus wrote the U.S. military manual on counterinsurgency.   He represents a group within the military that has long pushed for a reorientation away from more traditional Army thinking focused on large formations consistent with European Cold War planning.  He has been handed a tough job at this point, and his biggest problem are matters over which he has little control: American public attitudes, an Army starved of sufficient size and strategic focus, not readily corrected as rapidly as may be necessary, and an Iraqi population that has perhaps lost faith in an American ability to establish credible security.  There is no doubt that from May 2003 forward the post war planning and execution was seriously flawed, and that issue comes to rest directly at the feet of President Bush; the failures falling across the responsibilities of several departments and agencies.  Within the bounds of respect for an Administration conducting a war, the Mountain Observer has raised questions all along.  Now the fact of the matter is that General Petraeus might succeed in his mission, and the entire American military establishment has the right to expect the support and respect of all Americans in accomplishing a victory in what history will come to recognize as a critical turning point in western resistance to IslamicFascism.  A failure to succeed will be devastating, in terms of both blood and treasure, for years to come.  It would seem that too many Americans do not yet comprehend the true nature of IslamicFascism, and what we are really up against.  JES         Note: Return to LETTER 07-02  05/01/07

01/22/07   As a Conservative, I have been harshly critical of the Bush administration's domestic policies and agendas.   I must, however, confess to one error of judgment on my part early on, and that concerns my apprehension over the President's nomination of Elaine Chao as Secretary of Labor.  My concern at the time, fearing her intentions and motives coupled with a Bush tendency to be blind to the intentions of his enemies, was her many contacts and associations with the unions and union labor leadership.  Happily, it appears that I was wrong in those concerns.  Elaine's tenure has been hugely successful, and a positive for Conservatives.  My apologies to her and the President.  JES

01/22/07  I have not had much to say lately because, frankly, there is not much going on that makes any sense.  The race is on to destroy the Bush presidency, an extra constitutional impeachment, if you will, a peculiar activity at a time of international peril.   Of course, the President's enemies don't see it that way; they are more traumatized by Judeo-Christian religiosity than IslamicFascism which they don't take seriously.   Western Liberal Secularists suffer from moral blindness because, contrary to what they believe of themselves, they have no moral foundation.  Theirs is a self-serving materialist perspective founded on quicksand.   Our country, and western civilization, are in a lot of trouble.  JES

01/22/07  For the purpose of documentation, go to BUSH 43 2ND TERM NOTES-SPEECHES to find the President's 2007 State of the Union speech.  All predictably political, as these speeches typically are.  With the government deeply divided, the safest result would be that nothing will happen.  JES

 Current Reading Recommendations:      

 BETRAYAL: FRANCE, THE ARABS, AND THE JEWS

 DAVID PRYCE-JONES       

 ENCOUNTER                                                   171 PGS                                                 $23.95

 DIVIDED WE STAND: THE REJECTION OF AMERICAN CULTURE SINCE THE 1960s

 JOHN HARMON McELROY                                                                                                                   

 ROWAN & LITTLEFIELD                                          272 PGS                                                 $26.95

COPPERHEADS: THE RISE AND FALL OF LINCOLN'S OPPONENTS IN THE NORTH

 JENNIFER L. WEBER                                                                                                                           

 OXFORD                                                                    286 PGS                                                 $28.00

Serious Considerations:

01/12/07  President Bush outlines some adjustments in policy and procedure for Iraq on 01/10/07.  For the complete text of his speech, and comments by the Mountain Observer, go to GEO. W. BUSH NEW LOOK AT IRAQ.  The President is finally headed off in the right direction.  In his defense, in the matter of combating IslamicFascism, we should all acknowledge that the nature of the challenge is without precedent in modern times; a learning curve for all has been at hand.  I repeat words from his speech: "And all involved  [with objections or new ideas] have a responsibility to explain how the path they propose would be more likely to succeed."   Whether you agree with the President, or not, overall, or in the details, the fact of the matter is that he is the first Commander-in-Chief to draw a line and stand up to IslamicFascism, decades in ascendancy.  It disturbs our comfort.  I will be more direct about it than he.  If you just think Bush is a liar, or are otherwise unable to say anything intelligent, then just shut up and go sit in the corner.  JES

01/01/07  Politics, internationally and nationally, is in the midst of a vast sea change.  Perhaps this is a good time to begin   PERSONAL NOTES II.    Go there.   This is essentially an administrative move.  However, in addition, changes are going on in my personal life, for the better, and in the world around me, for the worse, that lend a certain logos to this minor reorganization.  I would also call your attention to an upgraded mission statement.  Go to MISSION STATEMENT  12-06    JES

01/01/07  Happy New Year.  Remember, folks, Someone way above us is in charge.  Try your best to listen.  JES

                                                                   God Help America

                                                                    Jim                        

                                                                    American Nationalist Conservative

                                                                    Jefferson, CO 80456