To the highest bidder...

By equating "money" with "speech" and "corporations" with "persons," the Supreme Court permanently affixed a For Sale sign to the U.S. Capitol.

R.I.P. Delayed

Another celebrity funeral: transformed by the ghoulish craft of the mortician to appear more vivacious in death than in life, it (no longer "he") lay exposed for hours to the probing gaze of gawking strangers.

Pants on Fire

After vigorous denials ad nauseum, John Edwards has finally admitted paternity. His "love child" is now two years old! I'm reminded of attorney Joseph Welch's stinging rebuke of disgraced Senator Joe McCarthy in 1954: "Have you no shame, sir?"

Dems Disarmed

Take a deep breath, Chicken Little--the sky is not going to fall just because the Democrats lost their supermajority in the Senate. In fact, in today's political milieu, pervaded by partisanship and dominated by powerful (sometimes nefarious) Special Interests, either party with a supermajority in Congress, especially if they also control the White House, should be considered armed and dangerous!

Texas Doc Admonishes President To Fix Culture of Irresponsibility and Dependency

Dear Dr. Jones:
I completely agree with you that individuals on the public dole ought not to be spending their limited resources (our tax dollars) on "luxuries and vices." If you can come up with humane, cost-effective measures to monitor and control each individual's spending habits, I feel certain that President Obama will seriously consider your suggestions. Your contention, however, that eliminating the profligacy of a few Medicaid recipients will cure our nation's health care "difficulties" is naive at best, disingenuous and self-serving at worst.
No rational analyst would suggest, contrary to your implication, that our health care "crisis" is due to a shortage of providers. In fact, the opposite may be true--too many providers creating a perceived "need" for their own services. Let me remind you, Dr. Jones, that physicians, and only physicians, are responsible for the flagrant over-prescribing of drugs, the rampant over-utilization of diagnostic tests and prodedures, the too-frequent unnecessary hospitalizations and surgical operations--and for the myriad resultant untoward effects, including hundreds of thousands of deaths and the squandering of billions of dollars. Yes, there is waste, fraud and abuse in Medicaid, but that amount is a pittance compared to the waste, fraud and abuse in the health care system, itself. We must focus at least as much attention on the behaviors of practitioners as you would have us focus on the behaviors of the indigent and uninsured.

What do you think?

The advantage to being an ideologue is that one is spared the inconvenience of having to think for oneself.

Thank you--whoever you are.

In the early hours of the morning, an anonymous Good Samaritan patrols my street, performing random acts of kindness. A newspaper tossed astray may be moved to a more accessible spot nearer the resident's front door. Today, my own emptied trash barrel was returned from curbside to the end of my driveway. I am moved by this individual's selfless goodwill and wowed by his/her quiet generosity of spirit.

Worth the millions?

Top bankers insist that lavish bonuses are necessary to retain talented employees. Nonsense. Where would all those pricey employees go?

The Book of Records

"Hold the presses and call Mr. Guiness" (I wrote in 1988) "health care costs are shattering all records!" In the crisis of that day, annual U.S. health care expenditures had reached a staggering $544 billion, an onerous 11.4% of GDP. Despite perennial hand-wringing and sporadic half-measures by would-be reformers, health care costs have continued unabated to shatter records ever since. In 2008, our annual expenditure was $2.3 TRILLION, a whopping (and unsustainable) 16.2% of GDP! Will the proposed Bill currently before Congress finally stem the tide? I am convinced it will not, and may actually exacerbate the problem, unless employed as a wedge to introduce further, more meaningful and fundamental reforms. I am not optimistic--I see little evidence of strong, principled leadership that would be required to make the tough (and perhaps unpopular) decisions necessary to finally get the job done.

Clones Among Us

John Malkovich, Terry Bradshaw, Tommy Smothers--separated at birth??!!!

PC Update

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, Nevada) is at the center of a political firestorm. It has been revealed that during the last presidential campaign, he commented that the country was ready for a "light-skinned African-American" who spoke without a "negro dialect." Reid was an ardent Obama supporter, so he obviously had no malicious intent. Whether or not his opinion was factually/historically accurate (judging by the results of the 2008 election, it apparently was), what makes his statement so egregious--so offensive--that he was required to apologize to Mr. Obama? Get a grip, people!

Senator Reid's controversial remarks were not about candidate Obama's race, they were about the American electorate's preferences and prejudices.

"Not Only Is Profiling for Terrorism Racist..."

Is profiling for abortion-clinic bombers racist? (They're always white Christian males!)

If a succession of Black churches (or mosques) were vandalized in Mississippi, would it be "racial profiling" to suspect that the perps would likely be White (and to tailor one's initial investigation accordingly)?

Ditto THIS!

When Rush Limbaugh pontificated that he had received the best medical care in the world and that the American health care system was fine as is, not in need of reform, his remark was so stunningly mistaken that it seemed explainable not by naivete, not by ignorance, not even by brash stupidity, but only by willful deceit.

K.I.S.S.

Creationists often cite Complexity as irrefutable evidence of Intelligent Design. Simplicity would have been more convincing.

Buy-it-or-blow-it-up Diplomacy

In yet another example of reactive foreign policy, the U.S. will now pour $140,000,000 down a Yemini rathole. Predictably, further aid will continue indefinitely, and American taxpayers will never receive a full accounting of how the money is spent.

Coulda, Woulda...Shoulda

Do you glorify a god who could but won't or a god who would but can't?