Keeper of the Clown Bell

So I'm clicking around the Internet and reading some opinion and editorials when I came across something that really floored me - I mean it shocked my conscience. Many is the time that I've read Thomas Friedman with frustration as he builds what seem to be a series of well form arguments only to be capped off with a completely illogical conclusion or "solution" to the problem he just defined. In short, I have always thought of Freidman as a schmaltzy and, in an almost innocent way, earnest idiot. That was then, this is now. "There is only one thing worse than one-party autocracy, and that is one-party democracy, which is what we have in America today." Not wicked enough for you? How about this? "One-party autocracy certainly has its drawbacks. But when it is led by a reasonably enlightened group of people, as China is today, it can also have great advantages. That one party can just impose the politically difficult but critically important polici

Forget all the campaign slogans about Hope and "a new direction for our country" and get ready for the same old crap . 0 seems to think the only way out of our current crisis - or any other crisis for that matter - is something called GOVERNMENT. But why, with all of the experience of the human race would anyone believe that this fantasy Government, as opposed to the real one located at Federal, State, City and local municipalities scattered across the nation, would ever materialize to solve our problems. There is a little book for business leadership called ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN - Bernie Madoff should have read it. But there should be another book called ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW ABOUT POLITICS I LEARNED IN HIGH SCHOOL. Here are some of the things I learned. The nerds who ran for student body president, VP, Secretary, etc. grow up to run for government jobs - if they can't get elected they work on the staff of elected officials,