2009-08 GEORGETOWN

Senator George McGovern is on TV with a “public service” announcement condemning Cardcheck legislation, the odious attempt to remove the secret ballot from union organizing campaigns. The effort by arguably the nation’s most liberal politician and unabashed union supporter has sent shivers through the progressive community. And it got me to thinking about courage.

Like heroism, the appellation of courage has been grossly misapplied of late. Nancy Pelosi has been labeled courageous by progressives; likewise Limbaugh by right wing zealots. Balderdash! Leading a pack of sheep does not require courage.

Courage springs from agonizing and often painful decisions that can bring condemnation, vilification, or ostracism, not to mention risk to personal safety. Arlan Spector and Maine’s two Senators displayed courage by breaking with their party and voting for the Stimulus. You don’t have to agree with such decisions to recognize the courage involved in pursuing the unpopular. Folks quick to so label their favorite savants should spend a bit more time consulting Webster…..

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I am occasionally asked why I am a conservative (the unspoken thought from liberals being that “your knuckles don’t appear to drag the ground and your IQ doesn’t appear to rest in the low double digits, so how on earth can you claim the appellation). I have actually had liberal acquaintances express disbelief at how an apparently intelligent soul could embrace the unthinkable. The steel-trap closed mind at work.

Let me count the ways!

One inescapable rationale that springs immediately to mind is my skepticism of Big Government, honed during a decade of federal employment and another as a federal contractor.

There are myriad examples of government ineptitude, perhaps none more stark than the Securities and Exchange Commission. I know “they don’t have enough money” (the perennial progressive plaint – where spending cures all ills), nor “enough staff,” but as early as 1998, serious professionals warned of the Madoff ponzi scheme, handing the feds a clear cut case on a silver platter as it were, but our government was too busy rounding up taxi drivers who bought 100 Microsoft options based on “insider information,” i.e. something they heard a passenger say on the journey from JFK to Wall St.

Crowing press releases flow like Guinness on St. Paddy’s Day. “Look at us, look how we are protecting the investing public.” Right! And note that while it is now fashionable to lump all financial executives into a single “thieves and blaggards” category, not a single SEC bureaucrat has been singled out.

Then come the AIG bonuses. Someone (!) inserted language in the Stimulus legislation authorizing the payments (interesting when bedfellows fall out, and pointing fingers grow as Pinocchio’s nose). Then rather than admit a mistake, Congress rushed to pass a clearly unconstitutional remedy (I learned about ex-post facto laws in 7th grade Civics.) Our President courageously accepted responsibility, but in the next breath (as he will forevermore) claimed it really wasn’t his fault because all planetary evil was created in the decade before his arrival. “Je suis coupable, mais c’est pas ma faute.”

And now as the size of government is poised to expand by 25%, we are destined to be treated to more of the same. I can’t wait. Government everywhere is the poster child for the absence of individual responsibility – the cloak of invisibility that permits limitless culpability sans accountability. “Je suis coupable..."

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I received an e-mail the other day offering me a “complimentary colon cleanse.” It’s not the first time that someone has offered to resurface that section of my anatomy, but never via the Internet. And I thought the nadir arrived the day I received simultaneous solicitations for breast enhancement and reduction of same. Just when you thought it was safe to leave the house…

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In 1919 Robert Goddard published his theories of rocket flight which postulated that man (and woman) might one day reach the moon. The treatise was ridiculed in a New York Times editorial that sniffed "Dr. Goddard seems to lack the knowledge of physics that is ladled out daily in high schools." Despite this unambiguous condemnation from the editorial geniuses of Manhattan, NASA named its legendary flight center in Goddard’s honor. Our self-proclaimed “paper of record” does seem to have a knack…

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I have never before had the opportunity to take advantage of spring skiing. I love the warmth but not the ice nor spring break crowds, where it seems the overwhelming majority are first-timers wooed to intermediate slopes that seem virtually flat from below and precipitous from above. When time on the lift is equally divided between riding and sitting motionless, it’s time to hit the pub.

And just when I thought I had sufficiently suppressed the voices, they have resurfaced with strains of “Natasha,” “Sonny” (Bono), and “Michael” (Kennedy). When I began the sport, only professional racers donned “brain buckets,” and not all of them. Perhaps it’s time…

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Just as Craigslist presented me with a plethora of short term accommodation options (Las Cruces, NM was a leading candidate), I have been informed that the long-time summer tenant scheduled to displace me come May will be a no-show this year, affording the possibility of extending my current lodging. Decisions, decisions. But on my walk today up Guanella Pass, a cerulean sky and dazzling sunlight reflecting off a thousand vertical foot of crag, seemed to be inviting me to stay on a bit. And because the Red Ram will, for the moment dodge foreclosure by operating in bankruptcy, Killians will continue to flow at Happy Hour. Another compelling reason.

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Just as the Adventure was resigned to morphing into spring, the “high country” is poised to receive perhaps the heaviest snow of the season. Dancing with Mother Nature is always a treat…
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