"Americans versus Americans - We All Pay"

After receiving more e-mail explaning who is to blame for our economic condition, I feel compeled to respond with my own thoughts about who is paying for our current economic afflictions.   In a nutshell, We are all paying.   Plantiffs and defendants have equal responsibility.   Of course, both parties would disagree with me.   Therefore, I ask the question, "Do we have a government that is by the people, for the people, and of the people?"   Or, asked another way, "Is the Bill of Rights just a pile of hornswoggle?"   "Some people, attorneys, and government agencies have built piles of convoluted hornswoggle whose only purpose is to bamboozle people, veterans, other lawyers, clients, and government agencies." © 2003 Linsley

Given that people are imperfect (The person closest to being perfectly good was hung on a cross.   The person closest to being perfectly evil committed suicide in a bunker in Germany.), no one person and no single party is totally responsible for causing the current economic woes.   I have received several copies of an e-mail that quotes a number for the total governing body that passes our laws.   Who elected them?   We the people did.   Sometime ago Niccolo Machiavelli stated, "Power corrupts."   And, "Absolute power corrupts absolutely."   He forgot to mention that "Good people exist everywhere.   And good people continue to evolve towards ultimate good."   A priest once told me that he did not mind listening to confessions because most people are good.

I have also received copies of e-mails purporting to be factual lists of senators and representatives that have committed crimes while serving in congress.   Again, I must ask, who put them in office?   We the people did.   I have come to the conclusion that one of our greatest flaws centers on the fact that the bad in us wants to drag down the good in ouselves and others to the same miserable level.   Instead we should concentrate on how much alike we are and how good we are and not how different we are and how bad we are.   One solid rule for managers is to hire people with strengths in the areas where current employees are weak instead of berating the hell out of them and trying to train or correct them.   i.e. Concentrate on the employees strengths and good points, not their weaknesses.

On the basis of the above premises, I am growing weary of discrimination e-mails.   Why concentrate on the bad side of discrimination?   Or, weren't you aware that there is also a good side to discrimination?   The good side tells us to discriminate between good and bad food, good and bad people, not just superficial differences.   Again, how much alike we are is far more important than our differences.   I add to good discrimination, the story of a college student who wanted to make sure that his essay was totally read by his Humanities professor.   So he glued pages 18 and 19 together.   When he got his essay back, the paper had a "D+" on it.   He checked pages 18 and 19 and found them still glued together.   The student went to his professor and demanded to know why he had received a "D+" since the professor had, obviously, not read his whole essay.   The professor calmly explained that he didn't need to eat the whole egg to know that it was rotten.

I end this political essay of mine with the following sobering thought.   "Nothing can resist the human will that will stake even its existence on its stated purpose." - Benjamin Disraeli.   e.g.s John Wilkes Boothe, Lee Harvey Oswald, Squeaky Fromm, and John Hinkley.

As I have said in "Dream Ticket for 2008," you are entitled to your opinion and I am entitled to mine.   And I will probably rub everyone the wrong way.   However, if you feel personally attacked by my Voltairean Satire, or ironic humor (peculiar, haha, or otherwise), I apologize in advance for unintended slings and arrows of my own doing, but not the publications of others on my open forum.

Two Lovers

"Hail! Hail! The Gang's All Here" (1917) (What the -Duece- Do We Care) Words by D. A. Esrom. Music by Theodore Morse and Arthur Sullivan. 1. A gang of good fellows are we, (are we,) are we, (are we,) are we, (are we,) With never a worry you see, (you see,) you see, (you see,) you see, (you see,) We laugh and joke, we sing and smoke, And live life merrily; No matter the weather when we get together we have a jubilee. CHORUS 2 times Hail! Hail! the gang's all here, What the _duece_ do we care, What the _duece_ do we care, Hail! Hail! we're full of cheer, What the _duece_ do we care Bill! 2. We love one another we do, (we do,) we do, (we do,) we do, (we do,) With brotherly love and it's true, (it's true,) it's true, (it's true,) it's true, (it's true,) It's one for all, the big and small, It's always me for you; No matter the weather when we get together we drink a toast for two. (CHORUS two times) 3. When out for a good time we go, (we go,) we go, (we go,) we go, (we go,) There nothing we do that is slow, (is slow,) is slow, (is slow,) is slow, (is slow,) Of joy we get our share you bet, The gang will tell you so; No matter the weather when we get together we sing this song you know: (CHORUS two times) When All Night Long a Chap Remains (1882) Words and Music by Gilbert and Sullivan When all night long a chap remains On sentry-go, to chase monotony He exercises of his brains, That is, assuming that he's got any. Though never nurtured in the lap Of luxury, yet I admonish you, I am an intellectual chap, And think of things that would astonish you. I often think it's comical – Fal, lal, la! How Nature always does contrive – Fal, lal, la! That every boy and every gal That’s born into the world alive Is either a little Liberal Or else a little Conservative! Fal, lal, la! When in that House M.P.'S divide, If they’ve a brain and cerebellum, too, They’ve got to leave that brain outside, And vote just as their leaders tell 'em to. But then the prospect of a lot Of dull M. P.’s in close proximity, All thinking for themselves, is what No man can face with equanimity. Then let’s rejoice with loud Fal la – Fal la la! That Nature always does contrive – Fal lal la! That every boy and every gal That’s born into the world alive Is either a little Liberal Or else a little Conservative! Fal lal la!