Mixed Feelings!

The Roger Clemens trial has begun. On the one hand I’d like to see the arrogant asshole locked up. On the other, it’s a continuing waste of scarce resources by prosecutors trying to nail a ‘name’ defendant on minor charges – a la Barry Bonds.

The charges against Strauss-Kahn are not minor. He probably deserves to be tried, convicted and sent to jail. But he’ll probably skate because his accuser has credibility issues. Even though her past history isn’t directly relevant to the matter at hand, I know from personal experience in the jury box that unless she is believable the jury won’t buy her story. Too bad.

Both the NFL and the NBA are locked out. They say it’s the billionaire owners against the millionaire players – so why should anyone care what happens? I don’t care whether the next season goes into the toilet or not. But a lot of people – the fans who have made these guys rich – do care, so for them it would be unfortunate if no agreement is reached.

Our relationship with Pakistan is a shotgun marriage. It would be satisfying to cut our losses, stop our aid, and tell them to fuck off. Satisfying, but not smart. I’d like us to be out of Afghanistan, and if we leave we don’t need help from the Paks to fight that war. But those guys are still sitting on a pile of nuclear weapons. To turn our back on that reality would be a dangerous strategy.

A few politicians who don’t have their heads stuck up their partisan asses know that they have to act to save this country from an economic disaster. I hope there are enough in this camp to deal with the crisis at hand. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that revenues need to go up and expenses need to go down. Both need to happen. So while I’d enjoy the satisfaction of seeing the ideologues on both sides go down in flames and sink in the muck of their stupidity, given the consequences for the rest of us it’s probably too high a price to pay.