The Way We Are, No. 4

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Rulers who neither see, nor feel, nor know,
But leech-like to their fainting country cling
—Shelley

I have finally reconciled myself to the sad truth that I will probably never get to sleep in the Lincoln Bedroom.  I’ll probably never get to sit next to Ruth Bader Ginsburg at dinner, shake hands with Rush Limbaugh, or tour Uganda either.  At advancing age one has to make some sacrifices.

The educrats in my State are bragging about the latest advance in learning: a high percentage of pupils use computers.

 

Apparently a deadly epidemic of “toxic paper” has struck our banks.  Of course, nobody is at fault for getting sick.  Like some people are just picked out by chance to get AIDS.

 

Over 50 people died tragically in a flood in Indonesia recently.  The media blamed it on the breaking of a 100-year-old dam built by bad Dutch colonialists.  Think about the ethics and logic of that complaint.

 

In California the name of Abraham Lincoln Elementary School has been changed to Malcolm X Elementary School.  Ah! What serendipity!

 

Do you ever feel that you are not doing enough to make illegal immigrants feel welcome?

 

I recently saw a film clip in which the former War Minister Rumsfeld denounced the Arab press for telling “lie, after, lie, after lie” and “pounding people day after day with false information” about Iraq.  However, Rumsfeld avowed, “truth will eventually come through.”  I had a flash about what is wrong with our ruling class: These people have no shame.

 

Note to Obama voters: If it seems to be too good to be true . . .

 

Democratic capitalism: a system in which politicians subsidise bankers, stockbrokers, and corporate moguls.

 

I have quoted here before the observation of the poet Edgar Lee Masters that American public life is pervaded by self-deception.  Case in point: The first American Negro president is not an American Negro.

 

Another example: Dysfunction in the black population in Northern cities is universally blamed on the South—despite  the fact that the farther away in time and space from the South the phenomenon is, the worse it is.

 

Another example: The complete denial of the tremendous death and destruction inflicted on Southern civilians, black and white, by the U.S. government during and after the war of 1861-65.

 

Political patronage always trumps political philosophy and political ethics.  It’s as simple as that.

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