Just thinking…

(1) Having recently watched a few of our “panjandrums” who’d been nominated for various positions in the Obama administration go down in flames for playing a bit fast and loose with their taxes, one begins to wonder just how many of the rest of our elected and appointed officials could stand the heat of a closely run tax audit.

My gut tells me that there’d be more than a few vacancies in D.C. were that to happen. Which, in turn, would be a good start to beginning the cleaning of our national version of the Augean stables.

On a related note, I think that all of the explanations given by these individuals for their “mistakes” should be put on paper and placed on display in the Smithsonian as an example of “twaddle.” Erudite and even ardent twaddle, but twaddle nonetheless.

(2) Good grief. One certain Bishop Richard Williamson, whose excommunication from the Catholic church was recently lifted, said on Swedish television that the Holocaust never happened. As a Catholic, I sincerely hope that Pope Benedict — just before he very pointedly reinstates the excommunication — asks Bishop Williamson if he thinks that places like Treblinka, Buchenwald, Flossenberg, Mauthausen, Auschwitz, and Dachau were resorts of some sort.

(3) I’ve just finished repairing — for the second time in less than a year — our bathtub faucet. To say that it’s a piece of junk (very pricey and with a name brand) would be to cast unwarranted aspersions on respectable junk everywhere.

I remember the bathtub faucet in my parents’ house lasting from the time I began bathing alone until the time I left for college. I’d be willing to bet that it’s still there and that it’s still working. Too bad that, when we decided to move production of such items overseas, we neglected to tell the new manufacturers that such products were expected to have a life span somewhat longer than that of a snow cone on a hot summer’s day.

(4) Now that my wife has converted all of our finances to electronic banking, I note that any purchase we make or bill we pay is almost instantly and correctly deducted from our account. Since we now have the electronic means to do this safely, privately and accurately, one wonders why we’re still having problems tabulating votes in any major election. Conspiracy theorists might argue that there are those amongst us who never want elections to be tamper proof or, heaven forbid, accurate.

(5) In the recent case of the unemployed, unmarried, living-with-her-parents woman who had eight babies to add to the six kids she already has, am I alone in wondering if, once again, taxpayers who’ve played by the rules, lived within their means, saved for a rainy day, put off things until they could afford them, and understood in their bones the meaning of the word “responsibility,” are going to have to foot the bill for yet another individual’s irresponsible actions?

If so, then I’d also wager that many of them would also like to ask (with more than a bit of justification): “Why?”

(6) Given the state of our current economy, it’s nice to see that members of Congress are going to forego their annual pay raise this year. However, should they decide to reinstate it before we’re completely out of this recession, I’d then propose a series of televised prime-time town hall meetings (aired locally in every congressional district) wherein they get to explain their pay raise to the most recently laid off worker in their district.

Be interesting to see who’d have the guts to show up.

(7) “I screwed up.”

I’ll give President Obama credit for saying that because it’s something that should be admitted a lot more frequently in D.C.

Too, if he comes from the “once bitten, twice shy” school of leadership, he should now demand (in language befitting the moment) that his staff pay more attention to the backgrounds of those who might end up as his advisers. In a nation of this size, coming up with hard-working and intelligent people who carry no ethical “baggage” shouldn’t be as hard as it seems to be in D.C.

(8) Ye gads and one-eyed toads. Tainted peanut butter. And the company that produced this stuff allegedly knew about it and still went ahead and shipped the product.

Pitchforks and torches.

I’d get them ready. We may be needing them soon.

Larry Simoneaux lives in Edmonds. Send comments to: larrysim@clearwire.net.