Some Bidenly Observations

Biden thinks it's patriotic to pay high taxes. I'm getting that right, right? It hardly seems possible. How emblematic. And he said it as if he thought he were stating something both profound and obvious. The man has a knack. So, we buy our patriotism. And with our wealth, we excuse ourselves from any other sort of sacrifice. Sort of like the days when rich boys could buy their way out of the draft. You know, in the heydays of the Democrat Party, when there was slavery for which they fought a war in defense of. Oh no, do not believe that they don't like war. It's just wars that don't promise to ruin the country that they don't like. Neener neener.

It's too obvious -- it's bidenly obvious in fact -- but I'll say it anyway, unnecessarily, bidenly even. Charity is a virtue. Taxation is a burden. Free enterprise promotes freedom. Increased government limits opportunity. Patriotism is not action only, although it requires action. It also requires love. We may tithe hilariously, but we don't pay the IRS with that same joyful spirit. Here's why: government is for protecting borders, paving the roads, promoting the general welfare, ensuring a certain standard of justice. Government is about cleaning out septic tanks. The dirty job that has to be done, and has no virtue save meeting necessity. There is no special honor in not failing your duty.

Government should not try to do more than God would do: He knows when the sparrow falls, but he leaves it to its fate. So with government -- it is not a Samaritan, in the rescuing business. That's what friends are for, and churches, and family, and kind strangers, and community organizations.

You might say that the skill set of community organizers isn't really that of government officials. But you might be stretching the point. It's not the skills that are at issue, but the roles.

Which brings us to the bailout. Sort of offensive, to the conservative mindset. If individuals have to make it on their own, why should fatcats and their megacorps get a free ride at the trough? To mix a metaphor. This is where pragmatism has to come in. When the effect is big enough, it becomes a matter of the general welfare. General welfare. Some things are indeed too big to fail. The difference between a stubbed toe and an amputation. Fair? A schoolyard concept. Justice and fairness are two different things.

The solution isn't to let the banks fail. The general welfare would not be promoted by this. But we do crave justice, so the accounts must be studied, with an eye to root out and punish, severely, corruption. We'd like to punish the incompetence and the deliberate exploitation of loopholes, but that's not a matter of law, and so not the place of government.

Power and stewardship go hand in hand. We are witnessing the disastrous results when this bidenly obvious fact is ignored. That's what real patriotism is. Not paying taxes, but making sure the taxes that are paid are not wasted. It is not property, but waste that is theft.

Anything else going on? The Left's ongoing incontinence over Sarah. It's almost cholera. But like cholera, it will prove fatal to them, left untreated. The Desiccated Party, of Reid, and Palosi, and Biden, and that new guy, the young one. You will have heard more about Yahoogate than I -- the Dem operative who couldn't achieve full release because Sarah's email didn't have anything erotic enough in it. Pictures of her family, yet. Yucky old family. Whose husband drives a snowmobile, fer cripe's sake?!?! It's simply uncivilized -- bitter and clinging, s'what I say. And I really want to know if she thinks there were dinosaurs 4000 years ago. Cuz she'll have da codes! Like some super spy, maybe Jason Bourne or somebody cool like that, like in a bad Disney movie.

I am confident that McCain will win. I have no doubt about it, at this point. I don't think the final outcome will even be close. This is a very good thing, for all that McCain is not our first choice. Consider him a caretaker. In dire contrast to an Obama administration. If I use the term boy, you won't take it as racist, will you? Imagine Obama trying to deal with this banking crisis. Whereas McCain tried to deal with it three years ago. Imagine Obama surprised one bright blue morning by something on a par with but not an actual Nine Eleven. Something new. Whereas McCain has not just seen hell, he's been in it -- and walked out. Oh yeah, for all that McCain is not our first choice, he and Guilliani are the only Republicans who could have won, and the consequences of a Republican loss, given the alternative of Obama, would have been calamitous. We need to be thankful even for the blessings we think are compromises.

Biden? He's a keeper. There's gossip on talk radio that they'll dump him for Hillary, but they won't. It would be a too transparent ploy, and a blaring admission that Obama's first executive decision was a disaster. It was a disaster, but it's one where admitting it would be even worse than fixing it. How droll.

This too is obvious, of course, bidenly so. But we learn by hearing, over and over. So it's a good thing that Biden is so bidenic. His constant reminders of the modern liberal ethos will raise McCain to the presidency. And after him, Sarah. In hard times like these, such good news is welcome. So thank you, Sen. Biden, and also all you lefty hackers and Hollowwood prettyboy playactors. You have reminded us through your many antics of the difference between black and white: it's not about race, it's about clarity and honor and patriotism, and their opposites.


J