McCain got it right, then got it wrong

A friend just showed me a copy of “The Best and the Brightest” by David Halberstam, 1972, which has a foreward by John McCain. The last couple of paragraphs are utterly wise about why the U.S. lost in Vietnam, but they also apply directly to W’s Iraq misadventure, which McCain facilitated. If only McCain had re-read his own insights before sending Americans off to die in the desert ...

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Devils of their better nature

I continue to sneer at the pathological need by religionists to control everybody in the world. However, the rules they make — and break — do have a benefit: Promise of screaming in Hell forever seems to deter possible bad behavior in some people.

The Reaganites and Bushies deregulated everything in sight, and that freedom from rules let bankers, traders, insurance execs and pretty much the entire population of the U.S. financial sector go greedily wrong.

If somebody had put the fear of God into AIG, would it be such a disaster? Fannie and Freddie? Citi?

The sign of a responsible adult is doing the right thing when nobody is watching. Nobody watched Lehman Brothers. Or Charles Keating so many years ago.

If manmade laws don’t work, eternal damnation might.

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Biting back

Everybody's way too delighted with the video clip of Barney the White House black dog biting that reporter.

The reporter asked Barney's "handler" if he could pet the pooch. Mr. Handler said OK.

However, the reporter did not ask Barney.

Canine rule No. 1: Don't touch without asking the potential touchee.

Woof.

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The greatest sacrifice

What if John McCain's pathetic excuse for a presidential campaign is actually his greatest heroic act?

He knew that the U.S. needs a new direction, which the GOP cannot supply, so he shouldered aside his platoon-mates and threw himself on the Obama grenade.

Country first.

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