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Tonight I ate at a popular national restaurant– never mind which one, but it rhymes with “Fracker Carol”– and in the adjoining store, I noticed that there were Hallowe’en objects mixed in with all of the normal year-round fare.

That was all right, but here we are just getting October well under way, and they’ve already rolled out their Christmas merchandise, and it’s already starting to shoulder its way in among the other seasonal merchandise.

Needless to say, *that* juxtaposition is *not* graceful. Not at all.

I am fraught with the image of the three Wise Men delivering their gifts of gold, myrrh, and Frankenstein.

Following the lead of our Democrat canvassers, as they used to say in Chicago in the Good Old Days, “Election time is here– vote early, vote often!”

Shots from the 2008 Southeastern USA are up on the site. Hey, only 8 days out this time. ;)

The lighting at this show was excellent, and I think the shots reflect that.

I had taken the “new” motorcycle (it’s a 1995 BMW R100 airhead that I absolutely love) down for its first real road trip and so was a little jounced around by the time I arrived.

But the show went well, and I managed to take care of all my other chores while I was down there too– even managed to take in most of the Gators giving LSU all they could handle, and on a 42 inch plasma screen too. All in all, a good trip.

Next up: the first annual Greater Gainesville, and can it be possible that the lighting here was even better than the Southeastern? All this and my first take on Bibble Pro. Stay tuned.

You have to give Barack Obama mad props for courage. He’s jumping in *way* over his head, without a road map or prior art for guidance. He can’t possibly be ignorant of this fact.

The only problem is that America in its current state might not be able to survive someone’s experiment in personal growth.

A friend of mine noted recently that he despised the “professional politicians” running amok in our system today.

I countered that an actual professional politician would be an incredibly good idea, but I’ve never seen one.

He asked for clarification, which I’m sure you would like to hear as well, gentle soul that you are.

We spend endless hours asking our candidates what they believe on hundreds of topics. A professional politician would ask in return, “What does it matter? As a professional, my job is to communicate with my constituents and find out how *they* want me to vote. If they ask me to vote in a way I personally find reprehensible, it’s my job to hold my nose, cast the vote as they told me, and then resign in protest.”

A professional politician would also craft bills with clearly-stated objectives and metrics for success, as well as a plan to roll back the law if it didn’t meet those metrics. In other words, the bill would contain language such as, “This bill is designed to reduce gun crime. If, in the span of two years after this bill’s enactment, the rate of gun-related crime has not been reduced by at least 20 percent, this law shall become null and void, unless continuation is approved by a simple majority in a public referendum.”

I’ve said for years that if programmers wrote programs the way our lawmakers write laws, we’d still be poking the guts of ENIAC with the tip of a cigar and saying, “Lookit all them wires in there!”

Yes, a political system full of actual professional politicians would be a great idea, but I don’t see it happening any time soon. It would require attributes such as “integrity” to be restored to importance.

My friend noted that his definition of “professional politician” referred to the lowbrows we now have in office, who are beholden to special interests and are more concerened with getting reelected or increasing their party influence than they are interested in representing their constituents.

I told him he had the term “professional politician” confused with the term “carpetbagger” and he seemed okay with that.

_We join now Blankenship T. Wingspan, President of the United States, in the Oval Office. Feet on the desk, he gnaws a cigar._

[zeppo] The Chairman of the Federal Reserve is here to give his report, sir.

[groucho] Send him in, send him in.

_Harpo enters and sets up a graph on an easel. The graph contains an arrow pointing steadily upwards._

[groucho] Now that looks like wonderful news! That’s great!

_Harpo frowns, shakes his head; turns the graph 90 degrees to the right, so that the arrow now points down off the graph, starts tapping it and whistling_

[groucho] I liked it better the other way. This is depressing. Or depression. I can’t recall which.

_Harpo pulls out a shiny silver balloon, heaves it out the window. We hear a “thud”_

[groucho] What was that all about?

[chico] He’s a say the economy, she’s a drop like a lead balloon.

_Harpo pulls a full ice bucket from his overcoat_

[chico] He’s a say the manufacturing sector, she’s as cold as ice.

_Harpo pulls out a bubble ring and blows some bubbles, then starts poking them_

[chico] He’s a say the housing bubble, she’s a go POP!

[groucho] All right, all right, I get the picture.

[zeppo] This calls for drastic action, Sir!

[chico] At’sa right, Boss! What choo gonna do?

[groucho] Not to worry, men, not to worry. My predecessor left an economic stimulus package right here in this office, for just such an emergency.

[chico] Really? Where at?

[groucho] Right here in this desk drawer.

_Show drawer as it is opened, revealing a roll of duct tape, a bent Slinky, a 3 cent stamp, and a dozen or so paper clips_

[groucho] Well I guess he made a monkey out of me. [looking at camera] And I’m in good company, obviously.

_Chico frantically slaps abacus beads back and forth_

[chico] Not to worry, boss! We still gotta the good will of the American taxpayer!

_Harpo nods enthusiastic agreement_

[groucho] How’s that again?

[chico] ‘Ey, Boss, it’sa easy. All we gotta do is saddle about-a six thousand dollars’ worth of extra debt to each taxpayer, and *they’ll* bail us out! We’re-a fixa the problem!

_A flaming spear sails through the open window and embeds itself on the far wall_

[groucho] What was *that*??

_Harpo pulls a note from the spear, hands it to Chico_

[chico] It’s-a sign, “From-a the American Taxpayer”.

[groucho] Well, no one’s giving *me* the shaft. Boys, I think we’re in the wrong line of work.

_turns bag inside out to reveal the name, “Otto Q. Klumpett, Patent Medicines”, packs a few things in, and stalks out the door_

Just as an aside, I *really* miss the forum on Shelley’s site where I could let these lads out to play more often.

It’s not surprising that our “leaders” are having difficulty finding concensus on what the media has labeled the “$700 Billion Bailout”.

There’s no right way to do the wrong thing.

However you look at it, greed and stupidity should not, must be rewarded. If it is, the funding may restore some semblance of stability, but it will last only until the stampede to the next get-rich-quick bubble.

What does this mean?

For starters, that means no CEO compensation for failed companies, full stop. That means any Realtors found to have been tweaking up housing costs by influencing appraisers must be brought up on charges. That means politicians who encouraged this debacle via runaway deregulation pay the price for doing so. That means anyone who chose to invest in houses to “flip” takes the loss.

You can probably think of more.

Those who *should* be rewarded? Those who paid their mortgages on time. Those who didn’t overcommit their resources. And those forced into debt by circumstances beyond their control should not be punished.

If people *are* punished for behaving responsibly, then they won’t do it. The breadth of consequence of this coming to pass are too great to describe here, but it means the end of the American way of life.

Trust is the cornerstone of any society. We’ve allowed it to erode with the willing cooperation of our “leaders”. Now those entities we’ve erroneously trusted are tottering on the brink.

This erosion of trust has to change, right here. Our leaders must re-earn the trust of the nation and the world, by showing that there are severe consequences for irresponsible behavior.

That means making the hard decisions and carrying them out, to show that they themselves are not exempt from responsibility, even if it costs them their political careers.

Should we fail in this, we may not be *able* to salvage the next crisis.