Forty Two: Friends

One of the many blessings in my life has been the gift of friendship. Somehow, in early adulthood three men came into my life, became friends, and have stayed with me for more than 30 years. The respective backgrounds of the three amigos are diverse, and each of them deserves a separate post. But point of this post is that like any relationship, friendship takes a certain amount of work - mainly communication - to survive. My parents taought me at an early age to write, and this I have continued to do throughout my life. Writing in a relatinoship is like water to a plant. Wihtout it, the plant will wither and die. With it, the frienship will grow and blossom and bear fruit.

Forty One: Term Limits

Readers of this blog (I don't think there has ever been a "reader") will know this writer's penchant for a constitutional amendment to limit the number of terms for U.S. senators and representatives. Until this happens, no meaningful changes in the governance of this country will ever take place. As long as a position in the U.S. Congress is a "career" it is simply impossible for that body to make decisions based on the best interest of the country. The personal and constituent pressure to instead make decisions based on parochial or individual interest is overwhelming. Add to this the inherent selfishness and greed present in some individuals, and the result can be nothing less than disasterous. Witness the present economic debacle.

Forty: Paulson's Pity for FNM, FRE

In an interview this morning with Leesman on CNBC, Paulson said he "felt sorry" for the managements and directors at FNM and FRE. Paulson steadfastly refused to say one critical word about the two entities, and instead blamed the corporate charters approved by Congress decades ago.

Of course there is a nominal case to be made for this "no living person is to blame" argument. But for crying out loud, Hank, don't tell us you feel sorry for a bunch of multi-millionaires who rode the gravey train until the last stop. That was probably about the dumbest political remark of the decade, right up there with "I didn't inhale."

I think this just goes to show that just because a guy works at Goldman Sachs doesn't mean he's all that smart.

Thirty Nine: BO's "Great Humility"

Up until BO's acceptance speech last week, there was a decent chance of many people like me (fiscal conservative, social moderate) consdiering him to be a potential beneficiary of our votes. Then came the three words, "WITH GREAT HUMILITY!" Who in the hell proclaims himself to have "great humility?" Who in the world wrote that line? Isn't procliaming yourself to be humble the antithesis of being humble?

And then there is this disconnect between the qualifications of Palin versus those of Obama. Since when do we compare the Veep's experience directly with the Prez on the other ticket? The Washington, DC and NY press is really exposing itself to be blatantly anti-mainstream in this issue. The editorial comments of talking heads who are nominally suppposed to be "reporters" is disgusting.

Oh well. As Tony Soprano says, "Whatya gonna do?" There is probably not more than 1% of all the politicains in this country who are in office to actually do what's in the best interest of the nation. The other 99% and a like proportion of the press are simply out to what is in their own personal best interst, the country be damned.