The Emperor Wills It

On 27 January 41 AD, the Roman emperor Caligula was assassinated by his Praetorian Guard as he walked in the passageway between his palace and the Area Palatina. Reigning less than four years, Caligula was a sadistic, insane degenerate, once ordering the Senate to declare him a living god and he even considered appointing his favorite horse, Incitatus, a consul of Rome: His word, however, perverse, was law.





In 1980, Leonid Brezhnev was General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party. He collected American luxury cars and vacationed in a private resort on the Black Sea while the life expectancy of the average Russian was less than 63 years and 32% of all deaths were related to alcohol abuse. Paraphrasing George Orwell, Comrade Brezhnev was more equal than others, hypocrisy be damned.





Here in America, His Serene Loftiness Barack Obama, President of the United States and emperor of all he surveys, announced stringent new ethics rules for his administration forbidding the employment of lobbyists then granted himself an exception 24 hours later. After announcing that he had closely consulted with former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich as to his successor in the Senate, he then denied such consultations. While campaigning last year, he bitterly criticized President Bush's deficit spending, then demanded (and signed) a $787 billion stimulus package, approved $1 trillion in new spending for US banks, and submitted a $3.5 trillion Federal budget for FY 2010 which includes a $1.75 trillion deficit by itself. Beyond this, he convened a "Fiscal Responsibility Summit" at the White House on 23 February during which he scolded state governors on the spendthrift culture of American politics. Do as I say, decrees the President, not as I do.

Common sense would label this behavior as bald-faced hypocrisy and in Mr. Obama's case, common sense is supported by empirical facts as the following figures from the Dow Jones Industrial Average attest:

20 January 2008: 11,971.19
04 November 2008 (Election Day): 9625.28
05 November 2008 (day after Election Day): 9139.27
20 January 2009 (Inauguration Day): 7949.09
02 March 2009: 6763.29



The stock market fell 2346 points between 20 January and 04 November 2008 as the economy sagged beneath the weight of massive home mortgage defaults and $820 billion worth of stimulus and bailouts under President Bush's leadership. Yet in response to Barack Obama's election, greeted by the Left and the legacy media with messianic fervor, the DJIA fell another 486 points, then fell another 1190 points by Inauguration Day 2009 and another 1186 points by 02 March, such that the market has declined 2862.09 points or 29.7% between Election Day and the present. That America's premier stock market would fall more than twice as fast in response to Mr. Obama's leadership than it did under Mr. Bush would seem a convincing indictment of his socialist policies, but if his apologists were to complain that his responsibility only began on 20 January, that would still account for a loss of 1186 points or 14.9% of its value since he assumed office, clearly an indication that the free market rejects his big government, tax-and-spend agenda. But is empirical evidence enough to dissuade Mr. Obama from his destructive approach?

History, as I illustrated above, would say no. Demagogues, dictators and egomaniacs cannot face reality when it conflicts with their personal vision. They want to impose their will anytime, on anyone, anywhere, regardless of circumstances or consequences. They seek to validate themselves as powerful, historic, legendary figures capable of epic achievements, bending humanity and nature itself to their will, and Mr. Obama is one of them. His lies, distortions and soaring hypocrisy are to be disregarded: As he spends more money than all the other nations on earth combined, he harangues defense contractors about wasting taxpayer dollars. He promised as a candidate that he would review the budget "line-by-line" to eliminate pork barrel projects but now promises to sign a $410 billion onmibus spending bill with 9000 earmarks, claiming that this is simply "last year's business." He blares his intention to revive the staggering economy while demanding Congressional approval of a cap-in-trade policy that would strangle job creation and growth, without batting an eye. He assays to save an economy drowning in liquidity by drowning it in liquidity, in short, he wants to force the laws of commerce to his will when they have defied every like effort in human history. (Remember Comrade Brezhnev? Mao Tse-Tung? Fidel Castro, anyone?) Arrogant is simply insufficient to describe him.

On 21 April 1945, Adolf Hitler ordered General Felix Steiner of the Waffen SS to attack Russian forces threatening Berlin. Since General Steiner's command existed only on paper, he decided that it would be foolish to try to execute Der Fuhrer's order and the Russian advance went unchecked, but the following day when Hitler learned that a nonexistent unit failed to attack a real Soviet force ten times its size, he flew into a maniacal rage. This is the essence of megalomania, that stark reality can be overcome simply by one's desire: Imperator mos is - the emperor wills it. But as Hitler learned to his cost, will alone often is not enough...take heed, Mr. Obama, take heed.







Source: http://www.google.com/finance?q=INDEXDJX:.DJI







Source: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/feb/22/obamas-spending-plan/







Source: http://www.usnews.com/blogs/capital-commerce/2008/2/14/obamas-trillion-dollar-spending-plan.html







Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/02/23/politics/100days/main4821499.shtml







Source: http://globalis.gvu.unu.edu/indicator_detail.cfm?Country=RU&IndicatorID=116







Obama, 23 February 2009 Fiscal Responsibility Summit: "We cannot simply spend as we please and defer the consequences."