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.