Big, Brass Ones...
Back in May of '07, I wrote a poisonous little note here on the relative (de-) merits of one former Senator and ex-Presidential contender named John Edwards (See: John Edwards: The Gift that Keeps on Giving). In that screed, I'd stated, probably for the 1,756th time, that I thought the man was a scumbag and extremely shallow. In my estimation, John Edwards is merely something that keeps a suit from falling to the floor. For all intents and purposes, he might as well be invisible. John Edwards is a liar, a philanderer, a grandstanding-self-interested egomaniac, and worse, a trial attorney. 'Nuff said.

Now, the purpose of that blog was that Edwards, who was busy preaching the endemic and widespread poverty of the blasted American heath (you would have thought this was Uganda or Laos from his rhetoric), was to point out that the man who got $400 haircuts, and who had a $2 mil a year job at a hedge-fund was perhaps not the best advocate for the poor (he certainly had very little in common with them), especially not when he could get people to pay him 55k a pop for a speaking engagement. Which is what really pissed me off, at the time: the University of California (Davis) was paying Edwards 55k to make a speech about poverty -- talk about not being able to see the irony!

Nowadays, Edwards is disgraced, with the revelation of an affair, and the possibility of paternity for an out-of-wedlock birth. His life in American politics, if it wasn't over before (as it should have been) is almost assured now (although most democrats probably consider adultery to be a virtue). But although Edwards may be publicly disgraced, he apparently has no sense of shame, as evidenced by this:

http://www.suntimes.com/news/nation/1134374,CST-NWS-edwards29.article

Nice. You can get 55k a speech for talking about something you obviously know nothing about, and then, after you've embarrassed yourself, disgraced your dying wife, and insulted the intelligence of an entire country by having your life displayed in the National Enquirer, you can now ask for 65K...with a straight face. And Barack Obama says this country lacks opportunity?

I couldn't understand it before, but I do now. I know what drives the die-hard democrats who will continue to defend, and pay, this man for the rest of his life. It is the same dialectic at work that brings 80,000 weepy, mind-numbed robots out to stand and cheer when another con-man can stand in front of them and shout "I will now give you specifics" -- and then not give any. And they love him for it, still.

I have finally understood that there are some people in this country (and their numbers seem to be growing) who don't have any sense....at all. They must all eat paint chips.

It is for this growing class of truly stupid people that we have to gone to extremes: we put instructions for use on a can of soup or bottle of shampoo. We must have a warning label on a can of furniture polish that says "do not spray directly into eyes". Or we have to provide government programs to warn people of the dangers of a crushed-glass-rusty-razor-blade diet. But, it seems that no matter how far you go to protect them from themselves, they still find Hillary Clintons and Barack Obamas to comfort them, and let them know that being a moron is a virtue they regard highly...or a Mansion-living-expensive-haircut-getting-adultery-committing-super-wealthy-lawyer-who-helped-break-the-health-care-system John Edwards' to pay $65,000 an hour to, to say....what, exactly? Do you actually believe that he can actually say anything still worth listening to?