If perception is reality, too many of us are living in the land of OZ. As long as perception is reality, why concern ourselves with the deceptive wizard behind the curtain? Why bother with the unpleasant mental discipline required for perceiving reality? Create a perception and persuade others it is true. Children do that to each other all the time.

That’s how Obama got elected. Obama is the opiate of the people. But he’s cool. It’s all good. It tells you more about us than Obama.

A healthy skepticism towards every new president is wise. At least Obama isn’t a cowboy from out of the old wild west. He’s a laid back beach bum from Hawaii. It is wise to hold presidents, and Congress and the Senate, and all cabinet nominees, to the same standard.

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If Obama’s treasury appointee, Tim Geithner, had been a republican, his confirmation would have taken forever, due to serious ethical concerns. Instead, Obama wants us to “make sacrifices” so his economic genius who “forgot” to pay $35,000 in taxes, can fix the economy. Reports are that Geithner wrote off his son’s summer camp as a business expense. He said it was an “honest mistake”. His appointment will probably be confirmed in typical, Washington D.C. old school, good-old-boy fashion. Some change.

Honor among thieves is the fulcrum upon which capitalism, and all worldly power, teeters in precarious balance. The delinquents are in charge of Juvenile Hall.

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The handling of the economic crisis shows a complete lack of imagination on the part of government. The 9/11 Commission warned us about that. We are trying to fix capitalism by giving nearly a trillion dollars, or more, to the same people who caused the problem.

If the new administration had any imagination, and was serious about change, they would give all that bailout money directly to we the people, as long as they are just giving money away. We can squander the money just as easily as they can. The money would end up back in the hands of banks and corporations anyway. Money trickles up as well as down.

There are roughly 320 million people in the US. It would have been cheaper to send each American citizen a few million dollars. Problem solved. Even ten million dollars for every citizen would be small change compared to what is being thrown willy nilly at the problem. But Noooo. That would be change we can believe in.

We could spend and save more, and pay off mortgages, houses and credit card debt. That is what Obama’s campaign promised for us, right? Yet, he has signed no executive order to send you any real big money. But he got your vote. We are gullible, aren’t we?

But some people are dancing in the streets, taunting racial pride and condemning “white lies,” happy to be rid of big bad George Bush’s network, which has been replaced with Obama’s network.

A few days after Obama took office, suspected American missile attacks hit al-Qaeda strongholds in Pakistan, killing more non-combatants. If these attacks were done by America, they had to be authorized by Obama, you know, that messianic angel who chastised the U.S. military for randomly dropping bombs on innocent civilians.

Anytime human beings claim they can solve all the worlds complex social, moral, economic and cultural problems, look out.

The legendary British rock group, The Who, said it best when they sang, “Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss”. The sameness is in the fact that both Obama and Bush are human. Regardless of policy differences, one can screw up just as easily as the other. Go ga-ga over any president and you might not even know he’s screwing up until it’s too late.