Things I think I think

I don't remember who used to start their PG columns with the line "Things I think I think." Perhaps it was the great Phil Musick or the late great Tom Hritz, but today I borrow the "Things I think I think" introduction for a couple of things (I think).

1) For the seventh year in a row, the state had missed its deadline to pass its budget. What a life those state legislators live! If you and I miss our deadlines, we get yelled at or worse. In Harrisburg, there is a general shrugging.

I suggest that a law be passed requiring that they lose 5 percent of their salary and benefits with each day past the budget deadline. That would concentrate their minds. But who would pass such a sensible law? Aye, and there's the rub.

2) Bernie Madoff, master fraudster, was sentenced to 150 years in prison earlier this week. (Who says there is no good news in the paper?)

He will be very, very old when that is done - and that's my only problem. There's no truth in advertising here. While the rich are different from you and I, they don't live 150 years.

If the aim is to reassure the public he will never see the light of day, why not just sentence him to imprisonment "for the term of his natural life." Yeah, and while they are at it, force him to watch the Shopping Channel or a Public Television fund drive for every last day.

I know, I know, it would be cruel and unusual punishment.

 

Posted Jul 01 2009, 11:55 AM by Reg Henry
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Comments

little_minx wrote re: Things I think I think
on Wed, Jul 1 2009 1:10 PM

"While the rich are different from you and I..."

Ouch!

little_minx wrote re: Things I think I think
on Wed, Jul 1 2009 1:18 PM

Something else I think:

Gov. Mark Sanford is trying to humiliate his wife publicly with his revelations of infidelity in order to manipulate HER into filing for divorce, so then HE can act like the wounded party who was (supposedly) trying to save the marriage by falling back in love with her.  Talk about passive-aggressiveness, with a huge serving of narcissism on the side!

John Lease wrote re: Things I think I think
on Wed, Jul 1 2009 1:31 PM

Reg, I think that I think that if I stole 65 billion dollars, I'd have invested in a small island nation where I could comfortably spend my days sipping drinks poolside.

I also know that I know that stealing a billion would be more than enough to tide me over.  The real rub is the guy was almost assuredly already a millionaire before he started stealing!  I guess I'm not ambitious enough for that type of theft.  I feel guilty if I bring home a pencil from work by mistake.

ciejai wrote re: Things I think I think
on Wed, Jul 1 2009 2:13 PM

Little Minx, I felt sorry for that dude Sanford for about thirty seconds.  How trite, tawdry and thoroughly predictable!  My parents took me to Florida when I was fifteen and I promptly fell in love with the bronze god who was the son of the innkeeper.  It took me about three weeks to get over it.  Sanford appears to have the mentality of lovesick teen.  When he stated publicly that he was trying to fall in love with his wife again,  I'll bet her reaction was "Don't bother,  buddy!"

little_minx wrote re: Things I think I think
on Wed, Jul 1 2009 4:02 PM

ciejai, I agree with you.  I just suspect that Mark is trying to position himself as somehow a victim in all this, which he flagrantly is not.

Did you catch today's "Fresh Air" interview on NPR with author Jeff Sharlet re his book "The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power"? www.npr.org/.../story.php

The blurb states in part, "The group also has an alleged connection to a house in Washington, D.C. known as C Street, which serves as a prayer house and residence for politicians like Governor Mark Sanford, Senator John Ensign and Senator Tom Coburn."  BTW, another resident at the house is our area's very own Rep. Mike Doyle (hope the P-G investigates this).  "The Family" sounds sort of like a cult to me, if the author's description is anything to go on.

little_minx wrote re: Things I think I think
on Wed, Jul 1 2009 4:25 PM

Try this link:

http://www.npr.org/

templates/story/

story.php?storyId=106115324

Infinonymous wrote re: Things I think I think
on Thu, Jul 2 2009 7:41 PM

It was Phil Musick.  An artist at the Lettera or the Selectric.  

I propose the P-G offer Phil a blog, starting tomorrow.

Only because it is getting a bit late tonight.

little_minx wrote re: Things I think I think
on Fri, Jul 3 2009 8:00 AM

Infinonymous, I recall that Musick was caught plagiarizing -- which, in the world of professional writing, is a major sin.