Let me be blunt: When we cast our ballots last November, we surrendered our nation to our enemies. Lest Spencer asks, these are the jihadis, the radical leftists, nihilists, and anarchists in our midst, all those who collectively cannot stand the thought of a buoyant, relatively free and successful nation existing in stark contrast to most of the world’s failed and oppressive regimes. On the other hand, we may have simply cast a vote for incompetence (as an increasing number of observers now suggest).

It doesn’t really matter which demons anyone chooses to name. The train has been long in coming and, truth be told, we’ve arrived. Three or four consecutive days of gains on the stock markets, does not negate the fact that we’re sinking in a quagmire of debt and corruption which cannot fail to result in decades of servitude - not to any identifiable ideal, but - to the whims of a cadre of gangsters (or incompetents) on whom we must now rely for our right to exist.

It’s an old and all too familiar story about ‘idle hands’, one that omits the part about the sweat and sacrifices that made the idle hands possible in the first place. Ours has been a failure to recognize that all things come at a cost. The final chapter doesn’t even acknowledge ‘betrayal’, and that is when we know that our bridges have been torched; that our return is blocked.

In Albert Camus’ novel, ‘The Stranger’, the last sentence reads, “For everything to be consummated, for me to feel less alone, I had only to wish that there be a large crowd of spectators the day of my execution and that they greet me with cries of hate.” The story is that of a man who unwittingly commits a crime. He is then tried, convicted and sentenced to death. Camus cleverly casts his protagonist as a person without the ability to discern right from wrong; safety from danger, love from lust. He approaches every situation in the manner of a child and dispenses with it in the most expeditious way. This novel, though first published in 1942, is almost a precise allegory for the relationship between the America and those seeking its destruction today. In a larger sense, Camus demands accountability for the crime of indifference. Though not explicitly stated, Meursault, the protagonist of ‘The Stranger’, cannot expect there to be a sizable crowd at his execution, for he is nobody, and quite undeserving of hatred or of any emotion.

Yeh, that's the trouble with decorum. I, for one, would love to see some spitfire and passion and maybe even fistfights. Yeh, jump over and go after each other.

All this "My good friend" and "My esteemed colleague" just doesn't compare to "Listen here, you SOB" or "You're a damn liar!"

Now, that would impress... give us some hot blooded throw down, instead.

After all, this is a crisis!!!

Why has Barack Obama so abruptly jilted Cassandra for Rosy Scenario? Simple -- Obama wants desperately to raise taxes -- yes, Virginia, even for the middle and working class -- a policy difficult to defend in the midst of a major recession. But since our economically illiterate President has no clue how to restore the economy, Obama has apparently decided to simply declare the formerly "worst economic crisis since the Great Depression," if not over, then not such a terrible thing after all that will soon be cured by respectable rates of economic growth that willl magically pop up out of the ground perhaps as early as the end of 2009. Thus has the Messiah miraculously made our former (i.e., two weeks ago) economic wasteland a fertile valley for taxing and spending at record levels, and anyone who objects is an infidel or, perhaps, a recession coward (cf. Eric Holder) worthy of his un-funny sarcastic humor. We await the MSM's usual impassioned wails that "the President is out of touch" with the suffering American people who are continuing to lose their jobs, houses, and general wealth at a rapid pace. No doubt, we await such criticism in vain.

I have a different take on it. Not just Obama, but starting with Bush and Paulson and Bernanke, the government wished to acquire a stake in the banks, auto companies, and pharmaceutical companies, but wished to do it at fire-sale prices. So they first engineered or at least encouraged the bubble (Bernanke's unduly low interest rates in 2006-7), then helped the bubble to break, then told everyone that the world would end if TARP I wasn't passed, and have encouraged panic and abject pessimism until the market was cheap enough for them to buy in. Having evidently acquired a sufficient market share for now, they want their investments to rise, and are now giving glowing and encouraging reports. Buy cheap, sell dear. Pharmaceuticals still need to tank a bit more before the nationalization of that industry occurs - I predict mid to late 2009. By the way, there's one thing I haven't figured out yet about the banks - Did Vikram Pandit lie about how bad things were until just last week, or did he lie last week when they reported a two-month profit? Has to be one or the other.