VIRGINIA 002

Loudoun County, VA is touted as the fastest growing political jurisdiction in the United States. Several California counties dispute this assertion, although it has been alleged that they include in their population count species not certifiably human.

Some months ago in the Loudoun edition of the Washington Post there appeared an article lamenting the woes of a local Hispanic couple, he a trash collector (oops, Sanitary Engineer) –- a worthy but not notoriously highly compensated profession -- she a housecleaner. They had bought a $750,000 single family home and were now unable to make the required payments.

Several thoughts here. I consider myself upper middle class from a 2-wage earner household, kids out of college and relatively debt-free except for those pesky tuition obligations. I would no more think of buying a ¾ million dollar home than I would take a cruise around the world. Though I could afford both, I would simply consider it fiscally irresponsible.

Second, I can hear aloud the anguished cries proclaiming these poor folk must surely have been inveigled into an inappropriate purchase by a Simon Lagreesque lender whose sole intent was to swoop in and reclaim the property when disaster hit. Possibly so, but I am also aware of studies that show many students nowadays have no interest in learning basic math, including those annoying items like percentages and decimal points, integral to the calculation of interest rates and required monthly payments. It seems that while we have a failure to communicate, there is also an unwillingness to learn.

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Conservatives, the few of us left hanging about, are understandably anguished over whether to pour water on the smoldering flames of economic greed. There was a time when free market economics and private enterprise were tied to a social contract mandating responsible commerce with substantial penalties for ignoring the common good. Apparently such laws have been repealed.

But the best argument for action has come from Barack Obama who suggested that one should not ignore the blaze in a neighbor’s home simply because he was irresponsible and left food on the stove or smoked in bed. True enough, but must there not be some punishment for those acting irresponsibly, irrespective of their social status, and why must the poor schlub who plays by the rules always end up sharing disproportionately in the pain?

Reminds me of the frustration of Gulf Coast residents who did the right thing and bought insurance on their real and tangible property. Neighbors who did not received bright, new, pastel-colored double-wide FEMA-supplied manufactured homes rent free for at least two years, while the properly insured were left to fight with insurance companies denying claims left and right on the theory that Katrina was a “flood” and not “wind” event.

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I’m struck by the disparity between elocution and execution. To be well spoken has value certain, but true leadership requires more than rhetoric. Liberals are fond of demanding their government “walk the walk” rather than simply “talk the talk.” That cry has been strangely silent these past months, yet has been resurrected to question the qualifications of a lowly Governor to assume the mantle of highest office. To some, being the CEO of America’s richest state is inadequate preparation for leadership, while voting “present” in the Senate is a sure qualifier.

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And yet amidst the rhetoric swirling about the current economic mess, Senator Obama has been saying things reminiscent of Clintonomics. Where I able to believe these thoughts sincere and not simply campaign oratory, I could easily embrace such a domestic policy.

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There is a significant push in the American media to expose the “human side” of the current Iranian President. And there is much discussion over whether American leaders should have a chatty sit-down, perhaps to elicit some clarification of what was really on Ahmadinejad’s mind when he called Israel a “stinking corpse that we will wipe from the face of the earth.”

Such talk was relatively common in the months leading up to the fifth decade of the twentieth century. It was largely ignored with tragic consequences, so much so that a half-century later we build shrines and museums to honor the victims, and scholars opine as to how the world could have been so unfeeling and insensitive.

Yet Ahmadinejad rises to celebrity status in certain quarters and is treated to cute interviews with the likes of Larry King where he’s asked about his children. I can hear a young Larry now, “Tell me, Dolph, do you and Eva contemplate the patter of little feet around the compound once you sort out this Ayran world domination thing?”

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I have long felt it improbable that there could emerge serious competition to the distasteful gaggle personified by the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Michael Savage. As a conservative I cringe on those rare occasions, usually while driving, when I catch the foul snippets of these raving cretins. I know the Air America crowd and the Daily Kos bloggers regularly try their best, but they just never seem to rise to the level of hate and vitriol that so effortlessly emanates from the right wing radio waves.

But there is a new and formidable challenge on the left from MSNBC, led by Keith Olbermann and his Air America spawn Rachel Maddow. While the despised O‘Rreilly has dissenting views on virtually every program (who, granted, he does not always welcome with grace), I don’t believe I have ever seen on either Olbermann’s Countdown or Maddow’s new Show (which MSNBC runs back-to-back in prime time, and then, just to be sure no one misses the point, re-runs the same two hours immediately following). The “usual suspects” from liberal media are trotted out 5 nights a week, while Olbermann makes unrelenting charges against all things conservative, Republican, and Fox, and his guests nod vigorous approval, like the bobble-heads they so clearly are.

Perhaps the good news is that no one watches, as MSNBC in prime time is dead (long dead) last. But yes, I do watch, clicking on (and then off when the pain becomes unbearable). I am otherwise unable to know what is being hatched on the far far left, unlike the legions who despise all things Fox but never tune in, gaining their knowledge, I gather, through a mystical form of radical accretion available only to sophisticates.

And it might be noted that Olbermann & Co., are simply a response to the ludicrous Limbaughs, but the latter is heard on a rag-tag conglomeration of (mostly) rural radio stations, while MSNBC is a cable entity tied to one of the 3 national networks, whose parent is General Electric, a Fortune 500 giant whose stock has mysteriously been sliced in half over a time period roughly parallel to its hard left turn. Funny the way these things go.

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It has become fashionable in some circles to proclaim “I will never lie to the American people.” (Why do I hear someone in the background saying “I am not a crook?”) A short half century ago the liberal icon FDR proudly acknowledged his penchant for lying to the American people, claiming that in times of peril it was essential to obfuscate in order to confuse and confound the enemy. I don’t hear many Democrats condemning their hero, on the contrary loudly proclaiming that they will never be caught inflagrenti descepto.

…the adventure limps along…