On the Contrary

Bits and pieces is just some random thoughts about some of the events we are seeing swirl around us and that might give us some perspective and insight into our world and our perception of it.  To Wit:

• Bernie Madoff and his Ponzi scheme should have been no surprise to anyone.  Recently on PBS Masterpiece Theater they ran a wonderful production of Dickens’, Little Dorrit, which he wrote in 1855.  One of the pivotal characters was Mr. Merdle, who everyone paid homage to as the great and wise investor who made money out of thin air.  Of course his and all his investor’s houses came tumbling down when they discovered he was running a Ponzi scheme, paying off old investors with new investors investments.  So with the history of this type of unscrupulous behavior so well chronicled in our literature, why were we surprised when what seemed too good to be true, turned out to be too good to be true?  Maybe because most people don’t read anymore.
• The other night on the season finale of House, in one scene a doctor is in the operating room performing a critical and delicate surgery and the other doctor starts talking to him about his personal life and his problems.  This kind of behavior is reflected in many of our TV dramas, NCIS comes immediately to mind.  In the real world, it is becoming apparent that the commuter airline that crashed near Buffalo last winter was caused by pilot error and part of the problem may have been pilot distraction as the pilots were chit chatting during a critical phase of the flight.  Now some might say this is why women should not be in the cockpit as though men don’t do this.  But I would say this is a much more prevalent problem and it is simply a lack of professionalism and self-discipline.  I thought  television mistakenly portrayed this kind of chit-chat as some kind of steely eyed professionalism that allows you to multitask during critical times.  But as real life is showing us, real expertise as a professional is to be totally focused on your task during critical phases of it.
• Charley Crist, Republican Governor of Florida has announced that he will run for the Florida Senate Seat.  In announcing his bid he said, “The challenges we face are national issues.  We have to understand that, and I want to serve where I can serve the people of my state the very best.” Gee, is that a Republican recognizing that the role the federal government plays is extremely important and instead of “states rights”, most problems will have to be solved on a national level?  Could this be a shift in the Republican dogma of small government?  I doubt it, just a shift to suit a personal agenda, a.k.a. Arlene Specter.
• Liz Cheney was on the airways trying to defend her father again.  I actually felt sorry for her.  She loves her Dad and is blinded by that love.  Not so much different than anybody else’s daughter.  But in this case she came up against Eugene Washington of the Washington Post, who is unafraid to challenge circular and sordid logic.  Liz was saying that we did not do torture because we had legal memo’s that said it wasn’t torture.  Eugene pointed out that if you follow this logic then any country can get lawyers to justify anything and there is no law.  Poor Liz thinks these memos justified her Dad’s behavior when the reality is he went lawyer and memo shopping to get them to justify what he wanted to do anyway.  The fact that these memo’s are now being totally discredited as legal justifications just doesn’t penetrate her wanting to defend her Dad.  Somebody take these people off the air and put them out of our misery.
• Miss California has given an impassioned speech about her right to have her own views and not be attacked for them.  But that wasn’t why she was at risk of losing her crown.  She did pose semi-nude (I am taking this on faith because I am not allowed to Google her pictures on penalty of death) and starting work with political action groups against gays, which clearly was a violation of her contract.  In addition, she seems to think her right to speak her mind should not be criticized by others who want to exercise their right to speak their minds. She seems a bit schizophrenic to me and a great recruit for the Republican Party.   Then of course we have Donald Trump forgiving all sins.  No surprise here, but if she were unattractive or only mildly attractive, do you suppose he would have cut her the same slack?  If you are a woman watching this travesty, doesn’t it tell you everything you want to know about sexism?

Just another day where stop making sense is now a life style.