A Few Brief Observations

So much of the Constitution has, in effect, been nullified by Congress future copies  would more truthfully reflect its current interpretation were they redacted by blackening out their obsolete passages.  Thumbing through such a copy would give the reader a realistic picture of what we have lost and what we have left to defend.

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 Whether it’s a matter of preventing drugs from Mexico entering the US, guns from the US equipping Mexican gangs, or migrants from crossing the Rio Grande, our efforts at border control have not been particularly successful.  All of which makes me wonder if we will be any more successful keeping Mexican gang violence from spilling over into our cities.  Border towns like Laredo are already experiencing trouble.  Unless we legalize drug use (hopefully in coordination with Mexican policy) it’s a safe bet that the situation will get steadily worse.

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 Since it is clear that the current administration and its loyal partisans in the legislature have incurred debts that cannot possibly be repaid, it is incumbent upon the owners of the property-that is to say, we citizens-to foreclose on the public buildings they occupy and evict the deadbeats.

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 In his promotion of medical reform, the President referred time and time again to the thirty-two million people who would be added to the roles of the insured.  Knowing his dedication for accuracy, he would, I am sure, restate the number as 31,999, 999 in order to take into account my being bumped from Medicare’s physician coverage.  Finding the paperwork required to run a traditional practice too onerous and Medicare’s allowances too inadequate, my doctor has converted his office to a concierge plan.

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 One can hardly read a financial article these days without encountering the author’s emphasis on the importance of “confidence” on the part of investors, hedge fund managers, mutual fund operations, etc.  The trouble is that the more fervently faith in confidence is advanced, the more I find myself equating it to faith in the hereafter.

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 President Obama has repeatedly resorted to a metaphor equating our faltering economy to a car that’s been driven into a ditch by the Republicans and is now, thanks to the strenuous efforts of his administration, being gradually hauled out.  Sadly, at time of this writing, the metaphor seems a little off the mark.  Statistics suggest that a closer analogy might be that, having inherited an economy in difficulty up to its hubcaps, the Democrats’ furious digging has succeeded in burying it up to its roof with only the tip of its antenna identifying its whereabouts.

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 Having long reveled in pessimism regarding the world’s outlook, I was dismayed to find my basic assumptions methodically demolished, one-by-one, by a recent book, “The Rational Optimist,” by Matt Ridley.  The book is very readable, crammed with factual examples, and an eye opener.  Doomsdayers, willing to undergo its conversion, are advised to keep a glass of scotch within reach of their reading chairs for baptismal purposes.