0569 - Off

So we’ve been in the middle of what is called the “Debate” Season, and there’s a lot of guff being shoveled around. We’d like to explain that on Anguilla, the phrase is “Off Island” when you aren’t here. In Debate Season, the danger the candidates see is being “Off Message”. Our Staff is clear that we alone have been On Message since the ill-fated and mis-managed invasion of Iraq. We pointed out early and often that the unrestricted UN inspectors, chasing tips from U.S. “Intelligence’, had found absolutely no Weapons of Mass Destruction, and little else except vulgar Saddam palaces. Now, the final report is in, and the conclusive finding is that there were no WMDs at all, and no capacity to make them, either. One fascinating detail in the final report is the explanation why Saddam was so given to concealments when he had nothing to conceal. The answer is, he was much more concerned with frightening Iran than he was with the U.S. – remember the long, bloody, Iraq-Iran war? [The U.S. was on the Iraq side.]

As we have said before, there is still a substantial percentage (the less intelligent part) of American voters who still believe that Saddam was part of the attack on 9/11. What we believe is that every country deserves its government. Anguilla deserves its Water Department. Iraq deserved Saddam, and the U.S. will deserve more Cheney, Wolfy, Rummy and their cheerleader if they continue to accept the constant “Message” that invading Iraq was part of the “War on Terror”. It wasn’t, but that doesn’t keep those who conducted the Big Botch in Iraq from staying “On Message”. Believe this stuff at your peril. [Note: next week we promise bipartisan denouncing of guff.]

Another scary note this week was the decision of Sirius, the satellite radio broadcaster, to offer some hundreds of millions of dollars for the privilege of broadcasting a noted pottymouth radio jock named Howard Stern. Our Revered Investment Guru has warned all Students to avoid a company so stupid. Frankly, we are not worried by the thought of being corrupted by any four-letter words or female boobs, but vulgar is vulgar. Maybe the Stern gang thinks Saddam bombed the twin towers?

If you need something real to worry about, in substantially all countries with a Social Security system, the arithmetic is catching up with the ability to pay. The new drugs do work, you know, and people are living longer. If your pension was calculated years back on the premise that you would live just a few years after 65, now that the life span is lengthening, the pension system is rapidly becoming insolvent, in Europe and in the U.S. What’s more, all the new medical procedures are hugely expensive. It’s obvious something has to be done, but you can be sure nothing will be done during this U.S. election, and the chances of facing facts haven’t been any greater in Italy, France, Germany or anywhere else. So worry. That’s the new OO diet – worry about deficits and insolvency, and get thin without phony diet pills.

If you need more to worry yourself thin, there was the sudden British decision to close down one of the only two big makers of flu shots, leaving us about 50 million shots short. Now isn’t that interesting politically in the U.S.? The current administration prevents re-importation of drugs from abroad (even if made in the U.S.) because they might be dangerous – or so they say. Well, about 99% of all flu shots came from either Britain or France. What’s that prove?

Next time: Evasions [OO #570]

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