BECAUSE
By Now It's Obvious
Fairy tales have been coming to mind ever since we elected someone with zero managerial experience to the highest executive position in the world. Whitney in Wonderland was almost the title of these thoughts, until I realized the tales were going far beyond Lewis Carroll and into the real oldies and goodies -- like Grimm Fairy Tales. But no -- they are GRIM Fairy Tales.
The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party
After our year-long national debate about health care reform, I felt we had ended up no better off than little lost Alice. We were all exhausted from chasing after the White Rabbit, only to find ourselves at the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party trying to reason with irrationality itself. I am not an anarchist, but I don’t like year-round spending by career politicians. I most especially don’t like politicians voting on bills they haven’t read. In my view, if they don’t read it, we don’t need it (or them).
Deep in the Dark Woods
I did the math on the incomprehensible amount of a trillion dollars and found that it is the equivalent of a one million dollars per day, every day, for 3,000 years. Taxation won’t fix that, nor will printing money. Almost everyone understands that there are limits on what you can squeeze out of people through taxes; ordinary people also understand that over-printing greenbacks either creates inflation -- or Monopoly money. I picture future generations bent over at the waist from the tax burdens they will be carrying; I also picture them loading up truck beds with suitcases full of cash just to buy a loaf of bread.
The Mean Queen
No wonder I felt like Alice in Wonderland wandering around in a land of complete nonsense, wondering what on earth was going on. It certainly did look a lot like the maze in which Alice found herself, the maze that was owned and controlled by one incredibly mean and volatile, big fat Queen of Hearts.
The Queen of Hearts -- what a perfect name for any one who considers his/herself highly compassionate and principled -- who believes that America should be regarded (by the rest of world) The Great Good Guy. Yet this same queen bellows in fury when America does something truly principled (such as toppling Saddam Hussein). “Off with their heads!” shouts The Queen for that -- or for admittedly intolerable abuses at Abu Ghraib. She doesn’t seem to mind (or even barely notice) the barbarian beheadings when they were shown all over television. Oops, right, I forgot: she’s the one hollering, “Off with their heads!” Beheadings are probably okay with her.
House of Cards
In the world of The Mean Queen, the game is all about outcomes. That’s why her cards, agile at shuffling and arranging into “a stacked deck” -- are now running all over the garden painting the white roses red. White roses are still roses, but the Queen prefers red, so the cards are frantically creating the desired illusion, knowing they are temporary cover-ups for the real truth. The “house of cards” is also adept at totally ignoring Her Majesty’s cheating. The hedgehog cooperates by rolling himself into the shape of a ball and awaiting the whack from the Queen’s mallet; once whacked, he then steers himself directly through every wicket as though she had actually played well. No amount of hedging, however, can conceal that she is a cheat or the fact that her court, when fully arrayed, is really just a house of cards.
The Caterpillar
- Our so-called “representatives” not reading legislation before they vote? A very merry un-birthday to us!
- Spending money we don’t have (or printing it) ? As the opium-puffing Caterpillar would say, “Whoooo R uuuuuuuuu?
Other Grim Tales
Unfortunately, I am not Alice in Wonderland, and this is not a dream. It is real. It is happening. Yet so few seem to see that Liberty is linked to Limited Government. It makes me feel like the child in The Emperor’s New Clothes. I have often felt like that kid, who was trying to point out that the emperor may have paid for new duds but he was not, in fact, wearing a single stitch. These days I feel disbelief as I see things that just don’t bother other people very much. A trillion dollars on our kids’ backs -- are you kidding me? But no -- instead, here comes another trillion, carried by educated people with fancy degrees who would never run their own households this way. It is Nero multiplied by scores of people I know and love, who for some reason absolutely cannot see that “Rome” is aflame and burning bright.
Humpty Dumpty All Over Again
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king’s horses
And all the king’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty together again.
The Goose That Laid The Golden Egg
Meantime, I remembered one more “grim” tale about a goose that lays golden egg gets killed by the greedy man. Fundamental reform of the golden goose definitely did transform the situation, but it did not remove the foolishness of man. Foolish, foolish man! Now we have one dead goose and very few golden eggs.
Newsflash: They Built The Ship Titantic
The whole scenario reminds me of the “unsinkable” ship Titanic, which sank despite the assurances given by mere men. Reportedly, the hired band gathered on the deck as the ship went down. They played Nearer My God To Thee over and over again until there was not a strain left above the water. Maybe it’s time someone started playing that song.
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