Mortgage...

... The term comes from the Old French "dead pledge," (Wikipedia)

The vote on the Big Bank Bailout Bill failed. Surprising, a little bit. After all, back in classical times, even the galley slaves started bailing when the Trireme started to take on water. And, like them, I remind you, we are all chained to the oars!
Still, as some of the more (ahem)Republican of Republicans have proposed, the gov't. can fund the bailout the same way it has been funding the rest of it's expenditures: With a Tax Cut. That's worked pretty well so far now, hasn't it?
Something that seems to have gone unnoticed - like What The Dog Did In The Night - is that passing these bundled "Mortgage Based Securities" around the table does nothing to help anybody (except the Wizards of Wall Street, of course). If you, chained to the oars as you are, have a mortgage you can't afford, after this deal is done, you still won't be able to afford it! Changing ownership of the securities changes nothing about the mortgages themselves. If the Banks are "recapitalized", do we any of us believe they will return to the lending policies that saddled them with a lot of crappy non-performing loans? Re-financing the same property with the same lending terms does approximately... umm... lessee here... OH! Nothing! Plus, the new new new Oversight Authority (whatever it turns out to be), won't permit those sloppy lending practices again. Sorry, One To A Customer, and you've had yours already.
If the value of the property is less than the value of the mortgage, Somebody has to take a loss. Currently, and I predict for the forseeable future, that will be YOU.
Give the banks all the money they can find room to store; they still aren't going to give any of it to you. Too Bad!

What If They...

Just take the money and run...
So to speak. Here we are: I (the Wall Street financial wizard) sell You (the Taxpayer) my crappy near-worthless bad financial instruments (like Mortgage Backed Securities and assorted other inventive devices), and,

I take the money and, cat chasing it's tail fashion, use the money you gave me to buy the Treasury Notes you have to sell to get the money to buy my crap? I wind up with a small interest income, and you end up with the management of some truly mysterious and impossible-to-value Instruments of Mass Destruction, as Warren Buffett characterizes them.
Of course, If I put my windfall bailout money into those bonds, the money still won't be available for lending to umm, borrowers. Which is sort of the stated purpose of the whole drill. It's also intended, of course, to Restore Confidence in the market. Confidence, you know, the stock-in-trade of the Con Man. I must admit, I've never really understood the purpose of confidence among the Wizards of Finance; those who lay claim to a deep and abiding understanding of the Basic Principles of the Marketplace. Confidence seems more like believing in the accuracy of my SWAG - you know, my Scientific Wild-Assed-Guess.
So... No Idea if this will/would/could happen. But the Stock Market - which, as we know, is Always Right - seems unimpressed, at least in the early going. Actually, a market isn't mentate (real word?); it's the financial wizards who price things for the market that seem to not want to bid things up. Perhaps under the guidance of their SWAG.

Future Tense

Some Things Never Arrive - Or so it seems.

Culled from the news online today:
1.) "The Baby Boomers are set to start retiring shortly." Now, this has been written over and over again, for at least since we stopped panicking about the Y2K disaster. If the baby boomers are ever to start retiring, please, let it be now! That way, maybe the new entrants into the job market (presuming such still exists - a job market, I mean) will have at least a few open positions to apply for.

2.) "The economy appears to be headed for a recession." Again, we're headed for it, but we never seem to arrive. It's like the question about how the arrow can ever reach the target, when it has first to travel 1/2 the distance, and then 1/2 the remaining distance, etc. Thus, it is clear, we can Never Reach A Recession, since we always have to get half way to one, and then ...

3.) "We have to reduce our Carbon Emissions, or we'll cause an irreversable climate catastrophe." Not yet, but soon. We really have to start thinking about maybe soon, we (well, You) need to start reducing your "Carbon Footprint". Or, maybe, reducing the Rate Of Increase of your carbon emissions. Someday... Someday... Maybe... Soon, perhaps.

Of course it's all nonsense. We do reach end points all the time. A point at which the status quo can't be maintained. If the Baby Boomers don't start retiring soon, they'll all be dead before they even get out the door of their workplace. If we're never going to reach that Recession, how can we ever reach the Recovery that is supposed to follow it? If we never get around to reducing our Carbon Emissions, forget about the idea of a climate disaster; what about the time when there isn't enough coal/oil/tar/corn/palm/bio-Whatever to go around? How many Iraqs can we invade? And how well has that worked for us? How big a war are we willing to participate in to maintain our overdrafting of limited resources? Actually, as I pointed out here..., the limiting factor isn't oil, or food even; it's that widely ignored, largely disrespected, constantly abused resource; Water Yes, H2O is the thing we're going to be fighting over in a few decades. As Mark Twain, that great American visionary once said, "... Whiskey's for drinking; Water's for fighting." And who are we, to argue with a man of such clear vision? Might be a good idea to lay in a supply of Evian, next time you're at the market.
Sometimes, after all, the soon-to-occur-event actually occurs!

My Take...

Drawish. The Candidates were both well-catechized. Like well-directed actors, they "Hit Their Marks and Said Their Lines". They went through the bullet-chart of the programmed talking points pretty much like they were on autopilot - in spite of Moderator Jim Lehrer's invitation to go off script and actually respond to each other's statements. Candidate Obama made a few half-hearted attempts to do that, but all it amounted to was that he faced Candidate McCain and said "you" instead of facing the Moderator and saying "him". Not exciting stuff. For some stretches you could pretty much predict what was gonna be said; didn't take a lot of attention. They knew the questions - even if they didn't know what the Moderator was going to say. They were clearly masters of the two-minute drill. It would have taken a pretty off-the-wall question to even make for a difficult segue. It would have been kind of interesting though. This was supposed to be about foreign affairs. What about a question about something like: What's going to be the effect of the new economic power of Brazil? What do you think will happen with the new power structure in Zimbabwe? What do you think is likely to happen regarding the loss of clout of Barisan Nasional in Malaysia?
Lots of things to talk about - not just the old standbys.
My own personal favorite moment: When Candidate McCain couldn't get his mouth around "Ahmadjinedad". Who among us could? Instead of sluffing past it, he rassled it until he came close enough (for government work, anyway). The same sort of thing I, and probably most people, have to deal with from time to time. Good work, John!
Finally, something important: "Actions Have Consequences". I'd like the many voters who cast their ballot (many of them two times!) for the current President to consider the consequence. Not that we have this administration and it's disastrous consequences to deal with. That's pretty much a share-the-blame situation. No - it's rather that now, and for the rest of your life, you get to Own Your Vote. Please, dear voter, reflect on the reasons you cast your ballot as you did, and think about what's real, what's important. Don't just go with The Guy Who Makes Me Feel Comfortable. Don't just go with the one with the simplest easiest-to-understand answers.
Thanks

I'll Take a Few Days

Off... And solve this

crisis

Or... Maybe it's not really a crisis. Maybe it's only a few "whiners" who don't understand that the economy is fundamentally sound. Maybe that's the problem. Anyway, it's time to “set politics aside,” head back to D.C., and make sure the good people of America get all the protection they deserve: Fire some of the greedy evildoers, give a few hundred billion to my friends. That should do the trick. Oh, and duck out on a debate I can't deal with right now!

Amazing how fast Candidate McCain can evolve when the real world trashes the flimsy construct of his own personal reality.

Don't Move...

Or The Sheriff Gets It!

Not unlike what Wall Street Financial Wizards are saying today. Along with some of the Government Overseers of those guys. It pretty much amounts to being held up at the point of a gun, only the gun is pointed at the robbers, who threaten to crash their business, and take you down with it. I think what needs asking, though I do not expect to hear it in these Wizard Photo-Op Hearings, is: If the mortgagee is going to be thrown overboard, what point is there in giving all this (taxpayer) money to the mortgagor? As others have been pointing out, only to be drowned out by the aforementioned wizards, IF the distressed mortgages had been propped up by means of government intervention to begin with, THEN the holders of these multiply-derived-and-uncertainly-valued would have some true asset value backing their investments. It could still be done like that. Seven hundred billion dollars is still a lot of money, even these days. The only thing is, we'd still be out the bailout money already handed out.
Cleavon Little's ploy in the still hilarious Blazing saddles worked for him - I'm willing to bet it'll work for Wall Street Financiers as well. Once the Politicians get their photo-ops on video.

The Only Discernable Difference

Between A

And a

Wall Street Master of Finance

appears to be a

Harvard MBA

I thought it used to be an article of faith among the unbridled capitalists that "The Market Is Always Right".
I was wrong it seems. It's still an article of faith. Or maybe just a talking point. Just today, this very day, on Bloomberg teevee, Jim O'Neill, an Economist (you know, a practitioner of The Dismal Science) for the financial stalwart formerly known as Goldman Sachs repeated the mantra. Right there, on teevee! To a live talking head! "Of course, the Market is always right.", he said. Not nearly as right as it's going to be when his former boss at Goldman Sachs, now Treasury Sec'y. Henry Paulson starts shoveling some of that 700 Billion taxpayer dollars out the front door of the Treasury! Maybe Economist O'Neill is hoping to get a job offer. By looking As Sound As A Dollar.
I used to think the Military-Industrial Complex was good at milking the cash cow. But the Financial-Investment Complex has shown them to be pikers (relatively speaking).

Interesting

Isn't it? Seemingly, in spite of the massive illogic required, a large number of people, adults, one would have thought, *Homo Sapiens "The Ape That Thinks"*, or, perhaps doesn't think, believe that Candidate Obama is:
1.) A Liberal,
2.) A Muslim, and,
3.) A Fundamentalist.

"The Push to ‘Otherize’ Obama"

Remarkable! Here we have a man who, it is believed, simultaneously believes in the equality of women and the subservience of women. How this can be - and how his wife can be permitted to appear in public without her Burqa - is an exercise which I, having better things to do, will leave to you, Dear Reader.

Shell Game

President Bush, on Friday, told the country "I decided to act and act boldly.” - or rather, "We're going to come up with a plan" - to save the economy. This is a good thing to hear from the leader of the Party of Fiscal Responsibility. This following some earlier statements by the leaders of the government branch of the financial system, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Security & Exchange Commission head Christopher Cox (yes, John McCain's scapegoat guy). The stock market soared as punters rushed to buy cheapo financial equities. Yes, now that the Taxpayer will apparently be buying the bad debt from the banks that made the loans (and banked the loan fees), Investors can return to business as usual. And firmly tell the US Government to quit trying to crush us with all that burdensome regulation. Indeed, there are those who are already complaining about the Bailout. Lost in the chaotic scramble: The Taxpayers and the Investors are the same people!
Not to worry though - we can finance the potentially Trillion Dollar government intervention by cutting taxes!

Culled

Or, Copied, rather, from the Anchorage Daily News: It's a lot of prose about a woman who seems to generate strong feelings in everyone who knows her, and among those who don't know her, as well. My evaluation (based on almost no knowledge): She's a very average politician who will get much better as she improves her ability to obfuscate. Ex: "I don't know squat about Russia (my addition), but I know which direction it is from Anchorage." Quite the non sequitur, don't you think?
My thanks to all the "contributors"

***

What's an Alaska accent anyway? The Chicago Tribune politics blog, The Swamp, examined Sarah Palin's accent and talked to experts about it.

Fans and foes alike describe it with colorful phrases, such as "a little Minnesota, a little Valley Girl," "an interesting mix of Minnesota, and Mississippi" and "bush-like," as in Native American accents heard in Alaska's bush or remote areas. Many commentators wonder if Palin's voice reflects a true "Alaskan accent."

"She's a good example of the Northern speech with a Western influence," said William Labov, a University of Pennsylvania linguistics professor, pointing to several examples, such as Palin's dropping of "g's" from word endings and pronunciation of "terrorist" as two syllables instead of three.

***

Here are local bloggers and their reactions to Troopergate andn the Palin phenomena:

> Sen. Lyda Green speaks out on KUDO (Celtic Diva)

I'm paraphrasing here, but these are the main ideas I remember:

The McCain-Palin campaign's takeover, speaking for Alaska's government, is a states' rights issue.

The McCain-Palin campaign's stonewalling of a bipartisan legislative investigation is creating a constitutional crisis within our state.

Sen. Green is very, very grieved.

> Burning bridges in Alaska (Shannyn Moore)

They were visible and in full force at the McCain-Palin press conference yesterday. Alaskans don't roll that way. People get cranky, even nasty at times, over politics and what they think is best for the state. Alaska lawmakers are sitting in federal prison for selling their votes, and it wasn't this nasty. The McCain-Palin ticket has become a poster child for partisan politics on steroids. On No. 5, the day after this election, the shrapnel of this campaign will be strewn across Alaska. It's going to take Dr. Phil and a few Barry White albums to get the healing started.

> Palin running scared: Flip-flops on Troopergate (Kodiak Konfidential)

> Palin throws Alaskans under the bus (Mudflats)

This is not going over well in Alaska. I'll use my usual caveat that there are lots of Alaskans who happily subscribe to the "Sarah right or wrong" mentality and will continue to do so. However, the progressive take on this whole latest mess is only slightly short of taking torches and pitchforks and surrounding the attorney general's office, demanding an end to the stonewalling. I've watched Alaskan progressives that I personally know go from saying, "Wow! I can't believe I voted for a Republican!" to, "She's doing OK. I don't agree with everything, but I don't regret my vote" to being so furiously seething angry they just can't say anything.

This means that there's a shift, and shifts tend to bring along all people to a certain degree. If there's one way to tick off Alaskans it's by bringing in "outsiders" to try to control state affairs. Imagine if you will how a small independent nation would feel being invaded by the superpower next door. It's like that.

> Rep. Les Gara on Troopergate (Huffington Post)

Over the next few days McCain's folks will try to get local legislators to step in line, out of party loyalty, and reverse their vote to investigate Troopergate. But many local Republicans, like Senate president Lyda Green, have so far refused to play those politics. Stay for more from McCain's campaign for "Change." They've tried to change the truth. They've succeeded at changing Gov. Palin's promise to comply with this investigation. Let's see what they'll change next.

> Sarah, stop the slander (Alaska Real)

I honestly am just so frustrated with what Gov. Palin has been doing and saying, I cannot write what I was going to write. What she is attempting to do with Walt Monegan - shift the blame and public disgust to him rather than be "open" and "welcome the investigation" as she has repeatedly promised in the past - is just beyond disgust to me.

> Sen. Lisa Murkowski on Palin (Wall Street Journal Opinion)

"We were trying to make headlines for 50 years in Alaska, since we became a state," she joked. "What it took was Sarah Palin. . . . I've called her the Sarah phenomenon." Ms. Murkowski, however, does grant the governor her reputation as an agent of change: "She didn't care who she ticked off. I've told my colleagues, 'Don't underestimate this woman.' . . . She's not afraid to challenge. It may be bold. It may be crazy."

Ms. Murkowski says nonetheless a certain amount of hype has tinged press accounts of Mrs. Palin's rise. "There was a need to clean things up" in Alaska, she says. But Gov. Palin came into office when a federal criminal investigation of local lawmakers was already under way. "She rode that wave."

> Ivan Moore: Is what you see what you get? (Anchorage Press)

Was the prior reality the real reality? Or is this one? Or are they both? Is the act of observation - the very, very intense observation on the national stage-a fundamental reason for the changes we're seeing? Bottom line, has the level of observation that is par for the course now, the mainstream media, the tabloids, the Internet press, the blogs and the public all acting in concert, gotten us to the point where we can't observe reality in our presidential and vice presidential candidates? Are we eternally doomed to being unable to truly know who these people are?

> Wasilla residents speak out on Palin (Alaska Journal of Commerce)

As mayor of Wasilla from October 1996 to October 2002, Palin presided over a budget that rose from $7.6 million to $13.6 million. Wasilla City Council member Dianne Woodworth, an accountant in private practice, said Palin was not conservative with the city budget.

"The true test of a leader is when there is not a lot of money and you have to work across the aisle," Woodworth said. "Likewise, when she was mayor of Wasilla, we were in a time of prosperity. I've never seen her pushed when a lot of resources weren't there."

> Halcro on Talis Colberg (Halcro.com)

From conducting a pre-investigation investigation, to recusing himself due to a conflict to reinserting himself right back into the middle to getting on a plane for a vacation in the middle of one of the biggest legal controversies the attornery general's office has handled in recent history, Colberg more and more appears out of his league.

Plucked from the relative obscurity of drawing up wills in Palmer to managing one of the biggest legal staffs in the state, Colberg's latest actions show he is certainly not ready for prime time.

Crazy Politics

No no, not in the United States!
In Thailand, where former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has an arrest warrant out for him as a fleeing felon, at the same time his brother-in-law Somchai Wongsawat is being put forward as the new PM. A part of the corruption charge against the former PM is that he evaded taxes by gifting the PM nominee with shares in Shin Corp., which became worth billions (of Baht) when the company was sold to Temasek Holdings a few years ago.
It goes like this in the Land of Smiles:
SHINAWATRA TRIAL
Ratchada verdicts likely today
The Supreme Court's Criminal Division for Holders of Political Positions may deliver its verdicts on the Ratchadapisek land deal today despite the absence of the defendants, former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his wife Khunying Potjaman. Lead prosecutor Nanthasak Poolsuk said the court is scheduled to hand down the verdict about 10am.
POLITICS
Somchai secures backing, set to be PM
Deputy leader of the People Power party (PPP) Somchai Wongsawat is poised to become prime minister after securing backing from a rebel faction and the five coalition partners yesterday. Boonchong Wongtrairat, a member of the rebel faction associated with Newin Chidchob, said all 73 MPs in the faction have agreed to comply with the party's resolution to nominate Mr Somchai for the post of prime minister. (Bangkok Post, 17 Sept.)
All this probably, as IHT says, makes little difference, as the next Thai Government is unlikely to be more than a placeholder.

Why

Bother?
To fiddle with Interest Rates, when there's NO MONEY to lend? This looks a lot like either fighting the wrong war (something this administration knows something about), or like bailing the boat with a sieve. The net effect? You're screwed (again)!
Go Fed!

Speaking of Pigs...

Why not go Whole Hog, so to speak. Here's a real doll! Yes, in Seattle they really know how to turn pigs into works of art. Maybe it's the weather. Maybe they think pigs are more fun than Bull - S. Ahead of its time, however; this particular pig was sighted in downtown way back in 2001.

Just For Fun

Here's a quick and diverting "numberology game". It's way more fun than trying to calculate the current value of your 401-K.

Test Your Numeric Intuition

Two Things

To Remember:
1.) Government is the problem; Business is the solution. Government bureaucrats are fumbling idiots and can't manage anything. They're totally inefficient. Private business is driven to efficiency by the Profit Motive and therefore always takes the correct course.
2.) Don't you wish the (fumbling idiots) in the Federal Government would Privatize Social Security, so that your hard-earned dollars could be invested in the Stock Market? Perhaps in Lehman Brothers? Or is the money you've lost recently in your 401K enough of a reminder why 1. (above) is pretty much a fairy tale?
Realistically speaking, most people aren't very smart; aren't very good at what they do. Most people are, in fact, average. That's what average means, after all. So, whether it's a government fumblebum or a private enterprise fumblebum, it's still a good idea to know enough Latin to understand Caveat Emptor.
3.) (OK, so i fibbed about how many things!) Don't forget to vote for the Party of Fiscal Responsibility this November. They've handled things So Well these last 8 years.

Is She Ready?

Let's put this question out to pasture. Or shoot it. Put us out of it's misery, at any rate. Is Sarah Palin or Joe Biden or John McCain or Barack Obama "ready" to be President of the United States? Who knows?!
I believe I can say this with great confidence: Any of the above is as ready for the job as George W. Bush was on January 21 2002. As ready as he is today, in fact, after seven and 1/2 years in the job! The likelihood that any individual, even if chosen at random, would muck up the government of the country as massively and consistently as the current occupant of the White House is so remote it would probably be a major indication that Armageddon is, in fact, fast approaching. As a considerable portion of the fans of the current president belive. Why they're his fans in fact.
So lets quit asking this (unanswerable) question, stop feeding the RNC their favorite straight line. Start asking Real Questions, like, umm, "CERN recently started up it's new high powered LHC, hoping to eventually recreate, in micro, the conditions of the Universe immediately following the Big Bang. What do you think of the possibility this holds for new discoveries in Cosmology?" I realize this is a pretty open ended question. It would sure invite more interesting replies than asking about those wonderful Tax Cuts that we all, of course, favor.

Article. .I, Section. 2.

of the United States Constitution states (regarding apportionment of representation, taxes, etc.): "...shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons..."

Clarence Thomas says:
Constitution forbids racial preference

Now, for those who missed the reference, "three fifths of all other Persons" refers to Slaves. In theory, I suppose, someone could be a slave and not be black, but practically speaking, "slave" at that time meant "negro slave". That sure sounds to me like Racial Preference was very much encoded in the Constitution! Perhaps Mr. Justice Thomas missed that part of the class on Constitutional Law. Of course, then there's the part about "Article. XV. [Proposed 1869; Ratified 1870] Section. 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude."
Here's a college course textbook on The History of African Americans in the West that really has nothing to do with any of this, but I think it's really cool information!
Mr. Justice Thomas also says he's "ashamed" to have been given a degree from Yale Law School! Apparently, he felt just too condescended to as an Equal Opportunity Admittee. I wonder if Yale is also ashamed to have given him his degree. If not, they oughtta be!

Mutually Contradictory (Part III)

Then there's the matter of Profit! As a former famous Governor of Minnesota put it recently; "With the economy collapsing, we can't afford to have a Democrat in the White House. We have to have someone from the party of fiscal responsibility." (Jesse "The Body" Ventura, Commenting on the Larry King Show)
The graphic, culled from the New York Times business section, only goes back to 1948. Thinking back a few more years, we can as well Compare/Contrast the Republicans Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover with their successor FDR. Thus, for the last eighty years, people at every income level saw greater income growth during Democrat administrations than under Republican administrations. Basically, this is within the living memory of almost all Americans. I haven't bothered to try to find a chart detailing the growth of the National Debt. We all know that the preponderance of the debt is thanks to the "fiscally responsible" policies of three icons of Republican Orthodoxy: Ronald Reagan, George Herbert Walker Bush, and son George W. Bush. Why, then, is there this persistent illusion that Republicans are the "Party of Fiscal Responsibility"?
I offer the following as a possible excuse: While people get richer faster under Democrats, their Tax Bills go down faster (if they're rich, that is) under Republicans. Or so it appears. As some have said, the ultimate goal appears to be to "Privatize the Profit - Socialize the Debt". Which has certainly been the case with the deft handling of the rolling crisis of the deflating housing bubble. Or, as here: On Capitol Hill, lawmakers were less focused on the implications of taking over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac than on casting blame for the rapidly rising deficit.

Disclosure:I lost my last house in the last (tech) bubble, so I no longer have a dog in this particular fight.
Thank God!

Mutually Contradictory (Part II)

Matters of Sex aside, there's also the article of faith (AHHH, Faith) that tells us that Government is a hopeless mope when it comes to efficient management (a belief the current administration has certainly done nothing to dispel), but Business (AHHH, Business) is always an efficient mechanism. That's why Socialized Medicine which, as we "know" is advocated by those eltitist Democrats is evil. Nationalizing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, on the other hand, and bailing out other failing financial businesses, is somehow, someway, something that the otherwise-useless-government can reasonably do.
Mutually Contradictory beliefs? Surely. But still, in the one case, the government wants to Tax Me! While, in the other case, the government is going to Pay Off My Debts! The Cost-To-Me makes all the difference, doesn't it?
I think this is what Candidate Palin was referring to when she mentioned helping the "Taxpayers Of Alaska". Actually, Alaska has no taxpayers. In Alaska, as I mentioned Here:, the state pays the residents. I think what the good Governor was saying is that she got the Legislature to impose a Windfall Profits Tax on the Oil Companies, and then added that money to the annual payoff to the residents. It helped no end that the Federal Government continued to send money to Alaska in the form of the soon-to-be-repudiated Earmarks

The Chiefest

Characteristic of the American Voter appears to be the ability (not an uncommon ability, I suppose) to reach mutually contradictory conclusions simultaneously.

Case In Point:

Levi Johnston and Bristol Palin

Had SEX outside of marriage! We're Proud Of Them

John Edwards and Reille Hunter

Had SEX outside of marriage! That's Disgusting!

Have to remember, however, that the Edwards/Hunter assignation didn't involve either a bastard or a proposed wedding. Very different circumstances, indeed!
I guess when you come right down to it, The Sin Of Fornication is only conditionally a mortal one.

The Spouses Of The...

Vice Presidential Candidates -

Jill Biden and Todd Palin

Appear to have become Critical Players in the Race For The White House. The idiocy of such an occurrence is obvious; but still, there are those who will give in to the need to get some ink: Ken Heineman - interviewed by Carolyn Lochhead Or, maybe it's just Carolyn desperately trying to find something to fill her allotted space in the Chron.
It's for certain now at any rate that any substantive reason for selecting a president, or a senator, or indeed any public servant has been replaced by the Absolutely Totally Nonsensical desire to know all about the nominee's Personal Story. This isn't really new: Julius Caesar got himself captured by Pirates to burnish his Curriculum Vitae as an aid to his future in politics. Heck, even before then, Pisistratus The Tyrant indulged in some high profile adventures. With a Goddess, no less!
So, this kind of thing has been going on for a while. But now, to this utterly reductio ad adsurdum of making a claim (possibly a valid one, dammit) that the husband of the assistant to the ... is a Player in the campaigning. See, now, this is why John Kerry isn't the president today. He mulishly continued to talk about governance and all that stuff. He let other people "define" him in terms of his Personal Story. If he'd spent as much time letting people know how he'd found his Personal Saviour in Vietnam as one of today's candidates is doing, perhaps he'd have attracted some of those unevolved voters who want a president (or a Vice-Presidential-Spouse) they can have over for a beer and mooseburger backyard barbecue.
For me; I await the Vice-Presidential-Spouses-Debate. Moderated by Martha Stewart if we have the usual luck in these matters.

I'm Sorry

But the conflating (is that a word?) of these headlines just Got My Attention:
White House: "Palin daughter pregnancy is 'private' matter..."
"Father to join Palin family at convention..." (Drudge Report, Sept. 4)
So, which is it to be? Leave 'em alone? Put 'em on display?
I notice nobody has considered even muttering anything about Gasp! Statutory Rape, which appears to have been the case here, depending on the state of the state of Alaska's legal system.
There's something else, and maybe it's the most interesting lesson to learn from this media frenzy. No, not about how the media dives into a frenzied state; we know how predictable that is.
No, what I'm talking about is this interesting dissonance between the support of Candidate Palin for her daughter (admirable) and her support of Abstinence Only programs in schools, knowing full well that they Do Not Work, as here we see. Apparently, abstinence only works if you are, in fact, abstinent! Not surprising, really. There are even sociologist's studies showing, statistically, that AO programs Do Not Work! Just like the storied Just Say No programs do not work. Not surprising, really; one wonders why people have to do a study to show that young people don't do what old people tell them to do! In all of recorded history (including the living memory of old people today), young people who have been told not to have sex; use drugs; smoke; drink... have immediately gone forth and ignored these prohibitions. It's pretty much a given, in fact, that this is what will happen. What I'm seeming to learn from all this, subject to arguments to the contrary, is that there are some who will deliver what to them seems pretty much like the be-all/end-all of moral injucntions without really caring what the result is. There are, in fact, two results. Hint: one of them is Not that the injunction will be followed. The visible results are these:
1: I, who issued the ukase, have Done My Part; if my order is ignored (a given), I am personally blameless - I reserve the right to say I-Told-You_so.
2: My friends (cronys, that is) will be given government funding to present these unfollowed unobeyed unremarked programs. This is, I believe, the Key Point to all this.
Somehow, what used to be known as "Laissez-Faire Capitalism" has been changed into a welfare program for business buddies. In a truly wierd transformation, society is now set up to regulate private behavior, but never, never, no never to regulate public (business) behavior. I can choose the business partner I want, no matter how corrupt or immoral, no matter that the choice has potentially Monstrous Impacts on others; but I cannot chose the personal partner I want, no matter that the choice has absolutely No Impact on others. This is all backwards, to my way of thinking.