This is a quote from G. K. Chesterton’s The Everlasting Man – it deals with the war between the Romans and the Carthaginians. While most histories of that conflict deal with the military or political aspects, the reality is that the conflict – like all the real and vital conflicts – was based upon views of the world informed by different religious beliefs. Why did Rome beat Carthage, even though at one point Carthage had clearly beaten Rome?

Why do men entertain this queer idea that what is sordid must always overthrow what is magnanimous; that there is some dim connection between brains and brutality, or that it does not matter if a man is dull so long as he is also mean? Why do they vaguely think of all chivalry as sentiment and all sentiment as weakness? They do it because they are, like all men, primarily inspired by religion. For them, as for all men the first fact is their notion of the nature of things; their idea about what world they are living in. And it is their faith that the only ultimate thing is fear and therefore that the very heart of the world is evil. They believe that death is stronger than life, and therefore dead things must be stronger than living things; whether those dead things are gold and iron and machinery or rocks and rivers and forces of nature. It may sound fanciful to say that men we meet at tea tables or talk to at garden-parties are secretly worshippers of Baal or Moloch. But this sort of commercial mind has its own cosmic vision and it is the vision of Carthage. It has in it the brutal blunder that was the ruin of Carthage. The Punic power fell, because there is in this materialism a mad indifference to real thought. By disbelieving in the soul, it comes to disbelieving in the mind. Being too practical to be moral it denies what every practical soldier calls the morale of an army. It fancies that money will fight when men will no longer fight. So it was with the Punic merchant princes. Their religion was a religion of despair, even when their practical fortunes were hopeful. How could they understand that the Romans could hope even when their fortunes were hope less? Their religion was a religion of force and fear; how could they understand that men can still despise fear even when they submit to force? Their philosophy of the world had weariness in its very heart; above all they were weary of warfare; how should they understand those who still wage war even when they are weary of it? In a word, how should they understand the mind of Man, who had so long bowed down before mindless things, money and brute force and gods who had the hearts of beasts? They awoke suddenly to the news that the embers they had disdained too much even to tread out were again breaking everywhere into flames; that Hasdrubal was defeated that Hannibal was outnumbered, that Scipio had carried the war into Spain; that he had carried it into Africa. Before the very gates of the golden city Hannibal fought his last fight for it and lost; and Carthage fell as nothing has fallen since Satan. The name of the New City remains only as a name. There is no stone of it left upon the sand.

We are engaged in a deep and abiding struggle today. Our world is divided – our very nation is divided – between those who worship Death and those who worship Life. Our opponents probably don’t even realize it – their knowledge of history, as of all relevant facts, is scanty – but they are the modern version of the worshippers of Moloch. What matters to them is material things – to have enough for themselves; to be master of everyone else’s; to preserve and protect things even at the cost of human life…this is what our opponents are about.

While their hatred of us is palpable, the most important impression you get when you think about them is their befuddlement. They don’t really understand us, at all. Light can perceive the heart of darkness, but the darkness cannot understand the light. The most exact statement of their view was Obama’s offhand comment about his opponents being people who bitterly cling to the Bible and guns…to, that is, Truth and the means to defend it. Obama was mystified about how anyone could be like that. After all, much more important is seeing to the division of things, and ensuring things are protected from human action.

One side or the other will prevail. If they do, then only the active agency of God could save humanity. Already around the world they have had extreme triumphs…and select people are able to pile up things at an unimaginable rate, while also being given authority to divide up all things; meanwhile, their war on life – their war on humanity – proceeds apace and population commences its decline. People who are worshippers of things will have little time for the hope and effort of children. On the other hand, if we win, then we will have saved and revived our civilization. Naturally, just for a time. If today’s Molochs are beaten, we can be sure of it that another batch will arise…until the End, that is how it will be.

And I do believe we will win. You can calculate things out to a nicety, but you can’t ever work in to your equations what a determined person will do, even if the efforts appears quite hopeless. Because we live and want to live and hold life to be infinitely more valuable than lifelessness, we are able to think and dream…and act like real men and women. Death may take us, but it shall not triumph over us: Life will endure, and come in to its full inheritance at the proper time and season.

Form Patterico:

You might remember the other day I pointed out how the UN predicted 50 million climate refugees by 2010, a prediction that came up laughably short of the mark by only around 50 million. Well, if you go to that post and click on the link to the UN page making that claim… something funny happens…

If you click on the link, you can see a screen shot of what happens – “Page not found: (error 404)”. But, as Patterico notes, there is such a thing as “Google cache”, so the original is still available – and now will be, forever, because enterprising New Media types have preserved it. And it does show the claim that there would be 50 million global warming refugees by 2010.

So it is with such things – all of it, from first to last, lies; all designed to stampede us in to doing something we otherwise wouldn’t. The proof it right here – here in the year of 2011 we are already supposed to be deep in to global warming disaster. We’re already supposed to have coastal flooding. We’re already supposed to have tens of millions of displaced persons. But, guess what?, human CO2 emissions have continued to rise and not only are we not seeing the predicted disasters, we’re also not seeing any recent global warming.

It was, is and always will be a fraud.

Could be – Jay Cost goes over Obama’s budget speech, notes that it has zero appeal to both center and right, and concludes that Obama is trying to nail down liberal support. Now, why would he need to do that when he’s still polling pretty strongly among the left? Because he may be worried that a bit more weakness in his polling will start to generate doubts about his 2012 electability – here is Cost on it:

…What Obama cannot suffer is a drop in support among Democrats or Democratic-leaning independents. That’s how he could fall from the mid-40s into the high-30s. And that makes a huge psychological difference – like the price of oil going above $100. A president in the mid-40s is still in the game vis-à-vis the next election. A president in the 30s is flailing, in deep trouble, and appears headed for defeat. That’s a perception Team Obama just cannot tolerate. A big part of their electoral strategy is to make him seem invincible. Why else would an incumbent president need a billion dollars? What is that going to buy him? You could spend a billion dollars trying to convince me that the sun rises in the west, but I can assure you it wouldn’t work. Similarly, you could spend a billion trying to convince millions of former supporters that Obama’s done a good job, but if they think he stinks, your money will have been wasted. A campaign based on, “Who ya gonna believe…me or your lyin’ eyes?” will not be a very effective one. No, the billion is all about generating the perception of invincibility. It’s all about astroturfing a seemingly inexorable Obama bandwagon, which was a core component of his 2008 primary and general election strategies. And that perception would shatter if he sinks into the 30s. That’s George H. W. Bush and Jimmy Carter territory. That’s no good…

And, of course, both Bush and Carter ultimately faced primary challengers. A lot of people consider Obama unbeatable – on what grounds I really can’t imagine; perhaps its just what they thought of Carter. Carter, too, was considered a towering, unbeatable figure…mostly because those who make such public judgments had been wowed by him in 1976 and the last thing any “expert” will do is admit that he was a bone head about something. So it is with Obama – all the dunderheads who fell for him in 2008 simply don’t to admit that anyone would likely do a better job than Obama. Only a bit past two years in his term and Obama is already a strong contender for worst President, ever.

But while a lot of the fools of 2008 are still keeping up their faith, Obama and his team have to be disturbed. After all, the 2010 results weren’t just a loss – they were a crushing, unheard of defeat. For crying out loud, they went from a 60-seat super-majority in the Senate to 53 seats, and are almost certain to lose the Senate in 2012. At the State level, the loss was even worse – in fact, a lot worse. And then the left couldn’t even engineer a victory in a off-off-year State election in blue Wisconsin. The image of Obama might still shine brightly in the MSM and among the Beltway crowd…but he’s a faded quantity elsewhere. The final nail in the political coffin would be a primary challenger. Not that Obama wouldn’t win the nomination (it would be literal millions to one against anyone taking it away from him), but that such an event would probably doom him for sure in November, 2012. Obama is burnishing his image among the left and pledging to raise buckets of cash to scare off anyone who might start to think the Democrats would be better off without Obama.

There is, indeed, justice in this world – from Reuters:

A Pennsylvania jury on Thursday found former high-ranking United Nations official Scott Ritter guilty in an Internet underage sex sting.

Prosecutors accused Ritter, 49, of Delmar, New York, a suburb of Albany, of engaging in a lurid web chat with a person portrayed as a 15-year-old girl. That person was actually a detective for the Barrett Township Police Department in Pennsylvania…

Ritter, you might recall, was the UN weapons inspector who went from anti-Saddam hawk to pro-Saddam dove – in my view, because he was bought; though this conviction indicates that, just perhaps, Saddam got something on him and that would explain his sudden switch. Always be wary of those who turn on a dime – a slow shift from position to position may reflect an honest re-assessment of previously held views; a radical departure is, well, curious and doesn’t happen too often. Those who lauded Ritter because he was a useful club to belabor Bush with should have been more cautious.

At any rate, the key to getting through life is to attempt to be honest – and try to stay away from temptation. We are so easily caught in webs of deceit, and the person we most often lie to is ourselves. Hopefully, Ritter will learn from this and become a better man – and hopefully all of us will learn to take better care and flee at the first inclination towards sin.

Just can’t resist one more gloat over this:

State Supreme Court Justice David Prosser emerged as the winner Friday over challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg in an election that drew national attention because of the fight over collective bargaining and a vote tallying error in Waukesha County following initial results that showed Kloppenburg leading the race.

A statewide canvass of vote totals of the state’s 72 counties finalized Friday afternoon has Prosser beating Kloppenburg, an assistant attorney general, by 7,316 votes. The final canvass was completed 10 days after the election…

The union sock-puppet can still call for a recount – and a free one, given the margin – but that sort of a vote total is insurmountable. Posser wins, game over, liberals lose. Always a good thing.

From LoHud.com:

A Georgia grandmother who says she sent state Sen. Greg Ball a Curious George monkey with a label saying it was bound for Auschwitz, cheap perfume and an anger-filled, anti-Semitic letter also laid claim Wednesday to mailing a bloody pig’s foot to Rep. Peter King of Long Island.

Jameela Barnette, a radical Muslim blogger, said Wednesday she mailed Ball a box containing the plush monkey pinned with Stars of David and the letter (which addressed Ball as “Dead Man Walking”) because he is “using Muslims to further his career.”

“I sent it to let him know I am extremely displeased for his declaration of war on Muslims, which is what I regard those hearings as,” said Barnette, a medical records consultant…

I’m glad she’s part of the Religion of Peace – I mean, seriously, if she was a member of one of those radical Christian groups, who knows what she might have done? But, she’s a peaceful Moslem who is just mildly piqued at those Republicans who ceaselessly tie radical Moslems to terrorist attacks. I mean, seriously, how much will Moslems have to put up with before this is stopped? Ball had just better watch out, lest he provoke a more vigorous response from this peaceful, loving religion.

Thank goodness for the stimulus, huh?

New claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week, bouncing back above the key 400,000 level, while core producer prices clumbed faster than expected in March, government reports showed on Thursday.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose 27,000 to a seasonally adjusted 412,000, the Labor Department said…

And here’s the real kicker – once again, the previous week’s number for new claims was revised upwards. Even the good news we get really isn’t all that good – while the bad news is really bad.

We still have people out there talking about how the economy is recovering and how its all just going to be fine. People are seriously trying to claim that the massive rise in gasoline and food won’t have an adverse effect on the economy. You start to wonder what universe they’re living in – or if they’re just going along with the con because they don’t know what else to do.

Meanwhile, there is talk that recession will resume later this year – my guess is it will come, and about 6 months from now. Keeping in mind that in a lot of ways, we never really left the old recession behind – much fewer people are now in the work force than there were 25 or so years ago, and if they were back in the labor force, we’d have unemployment at 11%…and that is recession regardless of what the statistics say.

But keep your faith in Obama – and Bernanke. We can always print ourselves in to another couple quarters of growth, or pass another bazillion dollar stimulus bill. Anything to keep the official numbers positive until after election day, 2012, right?

Charlie Cook in National Journal:

Some bright, talented, and highly qualified Republicans are thinking about running for president. Haley Barbour of Mississippi, Mitch Daniels of Indiana, Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, and Mitt Romney of Massachusetts—all current or former governors—are eminently capable. Regardless of whether you like or agree with them, they are worthy of consideration for the Republican nomination.

How demoralizing it must be, then, for them to look at national polling that shows Donald Trump tied for first place for the GOP nomination…

To Cook, as to most serious political observers, Trump is a joke – and a bad joke, at that. And in a very real sense, they are correct. It is absurd for Donald Trump to consider running for President (doubly so as he’s already indicated that if he doesn’t get the GOP nomination he’ll run as an Independent…if he doesn’t back away from that, he won’t score 1% in New Hampshire). But there he is, front and center in the MSM, certainly looking like he plans to run. The joke is becoming reality – and a lot of people don’t know how to deal with it.

The appeal of Donald Trump is that he’s not “one of the boys”; he’s not part of our political class, held in utter contempt by the American people. Make no mistake about it – while people are dismayed by Obama, there is not much faith placed in the Republican party, either. Our politics is rotten – our politicians have taken the greatest nation in human history and turned us in to a weak, blundering giant. This is not the way America is supposed to be. Trump might not be the answer, but neither is politics as usual. Trump is unusual – in the extreme.

I don’t think Donald Trump will win the GOP nomination. And I don’t think he’ll run as an Independent – because he seems to passionately want Obama out of office and an Independent run by Trump might be the only way Obama can possibly secure a second term (of course, Trump’s ego might get in the way, here, but in Trump I sense a strong worry about America as his motivation). If, however, Trump does win the GOP nomination then it will be because he manages to put forth a series of goals which speak to American aspirations. In other words, if Trump presents a plan the American people can get behind, and no one else does, then he might rise to the stars.

I said some time ago that no one can say for sure what will happen in 2012. We are in a revolutionary political period here. Someone might come out of nowhere and win the whole ball of wax. I was thinking along the lines of someone like Cain, but Trump could do it, too. Don’t hold to old, tired notions of what can and cannot happen. Keep an open mind. Be flexible. A Ruling Class is dying and no one can say what will replace it – only that it is sure to be replaced. Trump has his place in our debates – and an honorable place, too. Don’t consider him a joke – consider him as he is; oppose him or support him because you think or don’t think he’ll make a good President…but don’t write him off, or allow the Ruling Class to tell you what you should think about him – or anyone else in the race.

And Senator Paul congratulates them – from NRO’s The Corner:

Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.) tells National Review Online that he supports the 59 House Republicans who broke with leadership and opposed the Boehner-White House spending deal this afternoon. “Are we really cutting anything? What have we cut?” he asks. “The people back home want to know whether we are spending more money this year than last year. I try to look at it in those terms. And I think the people are with us.”…

It is always hard to buck the leadership and so those House Republicans who did stand firm on principal should be encouraged and defended. I’m not one of those who think that the deal was a loss for us – on balance, it was a victory. But more than who won or lost, the most important thing about it is that it shows the Democrats will not go to the mat and have a shut down. Therein lies our strongest weapon and our leverage to get genuine budget cuts – if the GOP leadership realizes it and has the courage to act upon it.

Right now, Big Government liberals have their backs to the wall – the nation is bankrupt, the people are not interested in new spending programs, tax hikes won’t help anyone win an election. Class warfare rhetoric wears thin and Obama is increasingly being tuned out by the American people. As 2012 comes in, Democrats face defeat – and their risk is that what could be a standard political defeat turns in to an electoral wipe out they’ll be a generation recovering from. This is especially the case if the economy slides back in to recession – doubly so if the GOP also finds a first class candidate to oppose Obama. Democrats have this quandary – keep their liberal base satisfied with government spending while also not alienating the center which wants spending cut. This is a circle I don’t think they can square.

And because of that, we hold all the cards – we are the party out of power (our control of the House doesn’t make us “in power”; it is whomever holds the White House who is “in power”); we are the people with a historical identification with low taxes, spending cuts and free market economics; we are a party filled with new members and vibrant, grass-roots organizations. We are not defending a dying status quo – we are the revolution; the breath of fresh air. At least, all this is true if we act as though it is…if we timidly hope to thread the electoral needle just to win in 2012 for the sake of winning, we’ll be resigning most of our advantages. We have to fight, and fight hard, for the real change Americans want.

A dying Ruling Class is defending it’s crumbling bastions; a revolutionary army awaits leadership…what will come in 2012? I don’t really know – I’ve never in my life seen a man and a party more vulnerable to crushing defeat than Barack Obama and the Democrat party. But even the most vulnerable survive if they are not attacked, or not attacked with sufficient sense and vigor. Time will tell if we seized our opportunities.

Noted by Mish:

Greek and Portuguese Euro-based sovereign debt yields hit new highs today with the Greek 10-Year sovereign bond yield topping 13% for the first time in the history of the Euro…

The Portuguese yield is at 9% – and if you go in to it further, you’ll see that investors believe there is a much higher chance of government default in Europe than a corporate default. The European Union is a financial house of cards, just waiting to collapse.

In case you’re wondering, “why should we care?”; the answer is that if the Euro collapses, it takes the global economy down with it – the three pillars of the global economy, right now, are the United States, the European Union and China…all three have massive, structural problems and no easy way out. China’s economy is overheating and various bubbles are already starting to pop (though given that the Chinese government can shoot you if you let the economic cat out of the bag, there is still the ability to believe that things are ok there); the United States economy labors under a mountain of debt and an absurd tax and regulatory regime which positively discourages wealth creation; Europe also has the mountain of debt and in addition to that the beginnings of a massive demographic decline.

This will get very ugly before it gets better.