Surveying the damage

My DI women's bracket for one thing. I don't as a rule pick many upsets, but I invariably succumb to temptation and pick one or two. Well, of course there were upsets this weekend. But none that did me any good. For instance, I picked Virginia (5) over Green Bay (12). Green Bay pulled off the upset yesterday. Not the end of the world, since no doubt that one caught more than a few by surprise. But my problems were made worse by my picking Lehigh (13) to upset Iowa St. (4). Didn't happen. Thus I'm completely out of tomorrow night's matchup between Green Bay and Iowa St.

So much for my bracket, my little lonely trifles.

Unless you are reading this blog for the first time, you know that I hold politicians (and our increasingly servile citizenry, who seem incapable of thinking or acting on their own to solve problems) in fairly low esteem; not that political shenanigans aren't sometimes amusing to watch. But the year-long health-care debate that (perhaps) ended with a vote last night takes the cake. Too much even for me.

Astonishing were the lies and corruption so clearly on display; worse still, the impudence with which it was all done (Ways to Become a Banana Republic 101). What further damage will come from this latest round of lies and irresponsible promises remains to be seen. But maybe, just maybe, after having had an unfiltered whiff of the miasma in Washington, people will not be quite as gullible from now on. Politics is about power, and it's played best by megalomaniacs. End of story. Remember that the next time you hear a politician saying that he or she is "fighting for you."

Congress consists of one third, more or less, scoundrels; two thirds, more or less, idiots; and three thirds, more or less, poltroons.
—H.L. Mencken