Questions

Dec. 26, 2010

Questions
Ah, yes, a new year. Time for noisemakers and funny hats and
predictions and resolutions.
Predictions for 2011 are just downright foolish. Nobody seems to have
a clue. Even corporations big and small are playing wait-and-see,
delaying expansion and hiring plans and stockpiling cash. At least the
big corporations have been stockpiling cash.
Resolutions generally last until about the second week of January when
we head for a second helping of pie or the first cigarette.
What we do have in abundance as we welcome a new year is questions.
I’ve been stockpiling them in lieu of cash. Some were headed into a
column but ran out of steam, others never deserved to be a column and
still others are just questions for which there is no real answer.
But they’re starting to clutter my already confused thoughts so here
they are:

• Are there really people out there who believe the economy and the
country would be better off had we allowed General Motors, Chrysler,
AIG and Wall Street firms to fail? Another 4-5 million unemployed and
a complete collapse of the financial markets would be an improvement?
• What the hell is wrong with the family in charge in North Korea? Can
anyone be that loony without having a real mental illness?
• If Congress becomes gridlocked, will that be a bad thing or an improvement?
• Why do some people still believe a continued dependence on
oil/coal/natural gas is a better option than trying to develop some
wind energy?
• Does any of Michigan’s lottery money ever make it to the public schools?
• How in the world do the European Union countries expect to resolve
their debt issues when they’ve all borrowed money from each other?
• What is the advantage of having Michigan judges directly elected?
How can it be a good thing for our State Supreme Court to be
completely politicized?
• Why do Traverse City Light and Power and other electricity providers
advertise? We have no choice as to who supplies our power so why are
they spending the money on television commercials?
• Will Dennard Robinson ever play a game for the University of
Michigan in which he does not commit a turnover?
• Will President Obama ever start defending himself as vigorously as
his opponents attack him?
• Do we think it’s a good idea that Governor-elect Rick Snyder is
hiring staffers from the Engler Administration?
• Why haven’t our politicians solved the invading Asian carp issue
yet? Are they going to keep dithering until one of the damned things
leaps up and whacks them in the head?
• Shouldn’t we be paying more attention to the men and women fighting
and dying in Iraq and Afghanistan? And regardless of the budget
nightmare, shouldn’t we be pouring billions more into the Veteran’s
Administration to help out the tens of thousands returning from war
damaged physically and emotionally?
• Is it really necessary for some elementary schools to have a police
officer on duty? Really?
• Are we still looking for Osama bin Laden?
• Do the newly elected Republicans seriously think they can undo
everything that’s happened the last two years in Congress and start
over? Where do they think they’ll get 60 votes in the Senate?
• Why did we so willingly give up our rights under the Fourth
Amendment simply because of a lunatic who failed in his attempt to
bring down a plane by blowing up his shoe and a second failed attempt
by a different lunatic to blow up his underpants?
• How do we know, given the short period of time they’ve been in use,
that the radiation emitted by new scanners in airports is safe? Has
any other long-term radiation exposure been deemed safe? Ever?
• Do insurance companies hire schizophrenics to write their massive
letters explaining tiny little changes? Does it take six pages to
say, “You’re going to get a new card. Destroy the old one. There are
no changes in your costs or coverage.”?
• Remember when we had real leaders in Congress?
• Has anything the creepy WikiLeaks guy exposed been more harmful to
the country than the attempts to subvert the First Amendment and stop
him?
• Have you noticed that the precious “principles” of the loudest
voices on both the left and the right rarely coincide with what the
rest of us believe or what’s best for the country?
• Why in the world does an Army private have access to all those
diplomatic cables and how the hell did he get them out of the
building? This is what passes for “security” in the age of terrorism?
• Are there still people out there who take Sarah Palin seriously as a
presidential candidate?
• Why would anybody want to watch a movie on a two-inch screen on
their cell phone?
• When did compromise become a bad thing and a dirty word?
•Are we going to have a happy new year? I hope you do.