OZ on the Potomac

The monuments of Washington, DC are beautiful tonight, well lit reminders of what was once the last best hope of the planet. OZ is indeed visually impressive. Yet, OZ is rapidly becoming an empty facade where the streets are paved in worthless greenbacks. The wheels of America's government still turn smoothly, its entitlements, earmarks and various and sundry wars, humming like a fine tooled machine fueled by endless debt. And, the weather is delightful tonight, crisp, clear and cool. It's after midnight and we are safe for at least a few hours, Congress has adjourned for the evening and the Wizard sleeps.

However, the fate of the nation hangs in the balance. Financial markets are in turmoil. Tomorrow Congress will continue to debate the terms and conditions of the "Mother of all Bailouts."

OZ, this mythical bastion of Capitalism and free markets, has become something akin to a National Socialist State. Consider on the one hand the "Storm Troopers" of the Department of Homeland Security using fear to justify tyranny who are a matched pair with thousands of SWAT teams intent on imprisioning more people in both absolute and per capita terms than any other nation on earth in a futile effort to win a "War on Drugs." America has become a police state. Meanwhile, on the other hand, companies deemed "too big to fail" are being taken over by a government and thus insulated from the consequences of their mistakes and their corruption. The "Land of the free and the home of the brave" has become a phantom or a figmant of imaginative spin doctors.

Nobody knows how the masters of our universal debt, America's creditors, will react. If the Asians, Indians, Arabs and Europeans don't approve of the terms of the "Mother of all Bailouts," they could sell their multi trillion dollar currency stash and call their multi trillion dollars in government notes; dumping their assets like so much sand into the fine tuned gearbox of America's debt based Empire and dismantling the "shining city on the hill." Of course the resulting disorder might consume them as well. That consideration might yet preserve the status quo for a time. Where will it all end? Who can know?

Meanwhile those who contend to become the new Wizard stalk the countryside. What to they think? Not much. What do they really say? Even less. They would rather talk about something else; almost anything else. The current financial melt down is beyond their comprehension. One calls for "Change," yet represents the status quo of a generation of failed policies. The other is comitted to the maintainence of Empire and continuation of the never ending war, while confessing he doesn't understand economics. The focus of the race has devolved to identity politics revolving around the race of the Presidential nominee of one party and the sex of the Vice Presidential nominee of the other party. America's media, political elites and the vast majority of American voters really have no clue as to what really matters.

It is said that when Rome burned Nero played the fiddle. One doubts that any of the national candidates who would be the new Wizard have enough musical talent to emulate him. Yet make no mistake, OZ is engulfed in financial flames lit four score and fifteen years by the passage of the Federal Reserve Act in 1913; creating a fiat currency inspired insanity. The consequences of those decisions can't be avoided much longer.

The moral of this story is: Buy precious metals.

Trivial Pursuits

Who cares who John Edwards slept with? Why do I need to know about Dick Cheney's daughter's sexuality?

Somehow Barack Obama's "rock star status" makes a difference one way or the other regarding his qualifications for the Presidency, but not to me. And somehow Paris Hilton's assessment of John McCain is relevant, but I don't get it.

Oh yes, don't forget that Jackson Browne is an expert on nuclear power...right! Bono is a proverbial paragon of virtue and an authority of all manner of public policy issues from AIDS, to hunger as well as economic development in Africa...and I've got this great bridge in Lake Havasu, Arizona I'd like to sell you!

Although I hasten to point out I have no problem with celebrities who have political opinions when put their money where their mouth is and run for office. People like Ronald Reagan, Jesse Ventura and "The" Arnold--whose last name I can't spell and don't want to look up, because you will all know who I mea--are fine by me. For the record, if I had lived in Texas last election I would have supported Kinky Friedman for Govorner. I am still disappionted that he lost.

Here's a news flash for you, Elvis and Princess Di are still dead. Yet every year we have to endure another meaningless retrospective on their lives. Well both Elvis and the Princess have left the planet and I don't need to read about or watch another television special on his excesses at Graceland or whether the Royal Family had her killed. Geez.

My favorite was this past Sunday in the Washington Post when what must have been two full pages in the newspaper were devoted to a meditation on Madonna's observance of her 50th birthday and what that means not only to you and me but also to modern civilization.

And, please...if I ever hear the name Monica Lewinsky again it will be too soon!

In the immortal words of Rhett Butler, "Frankly my dear I don't give a damn!"

And so it goes.