Power and a side of crazy

George Will hits a home run with this line, today. One of my heroes, Mark McGwire, would be proud.

Faux contrition: Obama blames the public

"Obama's leitmotif is: Washington is disappointing, Washington is annoying, Washington is dysfunctional, Washington is corrupt, verily Washington is toxic -- yet Washington should conscript a substantially larger share of GDP, and Washington should exercise vast new controls over health care, energy, K-12 education, etc. Talk about a divided brain."

It is the matching insanity of the progressive agenda to the parallel incoherence of the neoconservative effort to liberate the world only to dominate it.

Bottom-line: We distrust power as much as everyone else does. Except when we wield it. In which case, why won't everyone get out of our way?

This is the heart of the matter for both the left and the right and almost every person who has ever come across any portion of power. And the reason why the Baron de Montesquieu, James Madison, Lord Acton and all the rest warned us about power and those who wield it.

Because, usually, they can't be trusted. Not any more than anyone else. Which is exactly why they should wield as little power as possible. And why our job should be to check their attempts to assert otherwise.

No matter how thick the bullshit gets.

Thanks Ms. Taggart

Rest in peace, Mr. Salinger. May you finally find some.

'Catcher in the Rye' author J.D. Salinger dies

Gotta love this sidenote.

"'The Catcher in the Rye' became both required and restricted reading, periodically banned by a school board or challenged by parents worried by its frank language and the irresistible chip on Holden's shoulder.

'I'm aware that a number of my friends will be saddened, or shocked, or shocked-saddened, over some of the chapters of `The Catcher in the Rye.' Some of my best friends are children. In fact, all of my best friends are children," Salinger wrote in 1955, in a short note for "20th Century Authors.'

'It's almost unbearable to me to realize that my book will be kept on a shelf out of their reach,' he added."

Any book that's restricted reading has got to be good. Any book that goes from restricted to required is a sign of a people that don't know what they think about anything of any great importance. Certainly about great literature, which, even when I'm feeling lazy, I know is more important than most.

I read Catcher in the Rye on my dinner breaks working at Pizza Hut my junior year of high school, I believe. One of the great reading experiences, any kind of experience, of my life.

Thanks, Ms. Taggart. For introducing me to some of the great loves of my life. And for everything, really.

And thank you, Mr. Salinger. For the interesting ride.