2011 Year in Review

Happy New Year to all!

Geopolitically speaking, 2011 felt like a tough year in so many ways. But when you have an Occupier in the Oval Office, how can the daily news cycle not be full of anguish for those who love America?

When I think of the year’s biggest story, it had to be Prince William’s marriage to Kate Middleton. Of course I am joking, but read below and you’ll see why.

In fact, for me the two big stories of 2011 were (1) Barack Obama running into the brick wall of the Republican House again and again as newly elected Republicans did exactly what they were elected to do (stop him from hurting the country further) and (2) Greek socialists nearly destroying the European Union, the EURO, and the world economy for a second time.

2011: The Republican House of Representatives Does Its Duty and Saves America

Certain things are so clear, even to the Liberal mind, that they are beyond debate. The 2010 mid-term election landslide in favor of Republicans, who took over the House leadership from Nancy Pelosi and crew, was an undisputed indictment of Barack Obama’s first two years in office and even Liberals acknowledged it as such. Voters had been terrorized by the Manchurian Impostor, who had just railroaded socialized medicine through Congress, played golf through the worst environmental disaster in American history, given tax-payer-funded bailouts to Wall Street crooks, passed a sham financial industry “reform” that reformed nothing, ignored the unemployed, pursued Hugo Chavez-like looting of the middle class, and pushed federal debt levels past 100% of GDP, and so they took away his House majority as punishment and as a shield against further destruction by him.

True to their mandate, Republicans in 2011 repeatedly thwarted mr. Obama’s socialist America-hating agenda, and oh how he squealed. Now he is running for re-election on a platform of “blame Congress” for the country’s ills, conveniently forgetting that for two full years of his occupation he enjoyed majority Democratic control in both houses. He also conveniently forgets that the Republican House was elected for one grand purpose: to oppose him. If he thinks America is now upset that Republicans refuse to work with him, he is in for a rude awakening (which I look forward to). But he is too smart for that: his blame-Congress strategy exists for a more obvious reason, which is that he needs to be able to blame somebody — anybody — for the destruction he has caused rather than allow anyone to entertain the truth of the matter, which is that he and he alone has pushed America from a ditch into a deep ravine and onto the precipice of the great abyss.

So let us rejoice in the steadfast Republican opposition, for I truly believe that in 100 years it will be seen as the moment when America remembered itself and threw off the false hope of a charlatan who hates everything we love.

2011: Greek Socialists Discover Atlas Shrugged and Promptly Seek to Loot the Rest of the World

We all go about our daily lives as if another 2008 global meltdown won’t happen for at least another 80 years. And yet, the Greek crisis, in which Greece lied its way into the EU currency regime (surely one of the great geo-political lies of all time) and promptly became insolvent on the backs of its European neighbors, has the potential to plunge the world into another round of global darkness.

If Margaret Thatcher was the “Iron Lady”, then surely Angela Merkel must be the “Titanium Lady” for how she has navigated between the Scylla and Charybdis of hungry and slothful Greek mouths on one side and hard-working Germans who are properly outraged over being asked (forced?) to rescue them on the other. This woman is clearly made of some strong stuff, and if that rag, that piece of garbage, Time magazine, had even a shred of credibility it would have named her “Person of the Year” for what she has had to endure, and for the weight of consequences that she carries on her shoulders.

I won’t elaborate any more for now on the Greek crisis other than to ask this question of Liberals the world over: has the Greek crisis taught you the insanity of your utopian fantasies? The sheer destruction that your dreams inflict on the human world? Do you finally get it?

I think I know the answer.

Most Popular Posts on This Blog

My top posts in 2011 (using ‘number of views’ as a barometer) were:

1. Royal Wedding Invitation
2. Genius In Action: Jonathan Rhys Meyers as King Henry VIII
3. Hugh Hefner, Living Legend
4. Caramanica on Lopez, Too Funny
5. Tom Brady’s Quiz Show Gold

Also of interest is the top five search terms that lead people to my blog:

1. king henry viii
2. royal wedding invitation
3. michelle obama
4. playboy logo
5. royal wedding

This is predominantly a political blog, and yet the lists above prove for the second year in a row that today’s culture, which is to say the period in history that shall later become known as the Pax Americani (before the world’s powers destroyed each other in WWIII), loves entertainment and celebrity more than any other subject. Such social animals we are! While Barack Obama destroys the United States and accelerates the arrival of 1,000 years of darkness, web traffickers are looking for…Jennifer Lopez!…the Royal Couple!…Hugh Hefner and his rabbit logo!…King Henry VIII!…Michelle Obama’s latest fashion!

Indeed, my faux Royal Wedding Invitation lured over 10,000 unsuspecting views. I should say that by “faux” I mean that I filled in a few lines in the otherwise authentic (actual) invitation:

It fills me with glee to imagine that some of those who clicked through a search engine to my blog and copied the invitation failed to see right away that mr. Obama was pilloried by the sasoc right in the center of it… Of course the beauty of the whole thing is that the Manchurian in fact WAS snubbed by the the British Royal family by not having been invited. The Occupier-in-Chief actually suffered this humiliation, and such incidences of justice are nothing short of divine.

A final thought on this top post: it keeps me very humble, because although I enjoy writing and think I’m pretty good with words, it had a grand total of only eight of them, and not even in sentence form.

Coming in second place was the still-successful and still widely-viewed “Genius in Action” essay on Jonathan Rhys Meyers and The Tudors, which was my number one post of 2010. I wrote about the popularity of this essay in my 2010 Year in Review and I won’t repeat it here other than to say that King Henry VIII without doubt has a firm grip on the human imagination all these hundreds of years later.

Coming in third was a short essay I wrote about Hugh Hefner, in which I labeled him a living legend (could anyone argue with that?). People looking for the rabbit logo are even more numerous than those who are looking to read about the man himself, though since he created the logo, are they not one in the same? And I will confess right now that one of my earliest memories of childhood was of discovering my father’s collection of the magazines, stacked in the crawl space in the basement of our home, tied in stacks of six with twine that proved no match for a six-year old with scissors…thanks Dad!

Coming in fourth was my essay on Jennifer Lopez, which itself was in reaction to a light critique offered by media commentator Jon Caramanica. I appreciated Jon’s honest assessment of the superficiality of Lopez’s career success, and offered my own feeling that she was at her best early in her career when she played a smoldering super-vixen opposite “Communist Asshole” Sean Penn (see You Go Girl) in the under-rated movie U-Turn. I find it interesting that she still commands quite a bit of attention despite having kept a rather low profile in recent years, and I say good for her.

Bringing up the rear was a follow-on essay to another 2010 post that stayed strong in 2011. In Tom Brady’s Quiz Show Gold, I affirmed Mr. Brady’s status as the Charles Van Doren of our time — a monumental cheater who scammed the public into believing in a talent that was not wholly his own. The essay was a follow up to the much-viewed Has Tom Brad Seen Quiz Show? and you can read my comments about it here. The actual Charles Van Doren still captivates people (I see it in the search terms), and I am more than happy to channel that interest towards his modern-day equivalent.

Favorite Graphics

I enjoy messing with graphics, and here are a few of my favorite images that were made in support of some of my writings.

Before concluding, I must acknowledge the great ally and supporter of this blog, Basharr, aka Angry Bert, aka a person whom I’ve never met and yet feel a bond with, and whom I have dubbed the Supreme Allied Commander of Commenting on this blog given his ever-present responses to nearly every essay I write. When I began Mastersen’s Musings, I read the advice of an experienced blogger who said that he craved comments more than generating high traffic. This seemed counter-intuitive to me at the time, but I have come to appreciate what he meant. For it is through the comments that one knows one is making a connection with readers, and this is far more rewarding than seeing 1,000 views that failed to generate even one comment (was the essay lousy? etc.).  So thank you to all who have offered me their thoughts, and especially to Basharr for single-handedly banishing the void.

And so as we enter 2012, we know we have one mission: to defeat Barack Obama, not just in November, but on his entire America-hating agenda as he pursues maximum destruction before his four-year occupation is finally ended.

But we will have fun along the way, share a laugh or two, and keep our faith in our lives and in this, the greatest nation to ever grace the face of the earth.

Godspeed to all, and to all the grace to experience the wonder in every moment.