The problem with the efficieny of hierarchy is that those assigned to dictate can become dictators. They supplant their person with the role that they occupy at the top of the hierarchy and they believe that they really are the boss, instead of filling the role of boss to the best of their ability. When they are given limitless leash, they believe that they're gods, as the pharoahs did, or chosen by God, as the kings of Europe, the Pope, Sarah Palin, and John McCain did and do. Note that Palin and McCain have both told us that they talk to God regularly, seeking to do His will, through warfare and draining the Earth. They confuse their power with their person and just never you mind that Sarah Palin and John McCain soil their underwear, for they psychologically distance themselves from their mortality (Jesus loves me best, so I'll live forever! I'm immortal!!), thus distancing themselves from humility (I occupy the Oval Office and I'm just another rider on the bus and when I choose poorly, people suffer. People die.). We need to stop this God-damn talking about God. The are Biblical mandates to have a quiet relationship with God, if one believes. Goebbels correctly noted that repetition is sufficient for belief. When people repeat that they're talking to God, like the pharoahs, they will come to believe that God is talking to them, thus another question for John McCain:

When you talk to God, does he answer? If so, what does his voice sound like? Yours? Orson Wells? That guy who does voiceovers for the NFL?

It's my guess that God sounds like Betsy Boop, for if He exists, he obviously has a sense of humor.

When you talk to God, does he answer? If so, what does his voice sound like? Yours? Orson Wells? That guy who does voiceovers for the NFL?*

Does God want you to be the president? If so, how do you differ from the French kings who were "chosen by God" to rule?

Will you rule in God's name as the leader of "a Christian nation"? If so, how are you different than the Pope, who also "rules in God's name"?

Do you believe that you will live forever? If so, are you then immortal? Will that immortality affect your decisions, making you more reckless with life, since you can't die?

As an immortal, how do you differ from the pharoahs, who also believed that they would live forever?

* It's my guess that God sounds like Betsy Boop, for if He exists, he obviously has a sense of humor.

"Bigguns, I'm only smalluns in contrast with you, the American arbiter of what I should be and I eagerly await your instructions on being a true daughter of Hibernia."

I knew you'd rebut that way, but since you're asking for direction, follow this directive: quit retelling that you're Irish.

Porcinely yours,

Bigguns

Sweet of you to be a character witness and your sweetness is no surprise.

I want someone smarter, savvier, more patient and prudent. And I certainly don't want a racist who calls Eskimos "Arctic Arabs."

Thanks, Mike.

...have millions socked away for the coming depression. Banks are failing. The feds can only save so many, due to borrow and spend Republicans. And as more people lose their homes and more banks fail and Republicans substitute drilling for innovation and energy independence, those who voted for Bush and McSame better have millions squirreled away or a taste for cat food.

Roe versus Wade will never be repealed. It's the leash that Karl Rove and company use to lead you to the voting booth. You vote Republican, which green lights torture, endless war, and more tax cuts for the rich, all in the name of Jesus.

Not only are they too swaddled, but they don't create. No rich person built their mansion. No rich person engineered their sports car. No rich person painted the paintings that hang in their hallways. They are our culture's parasites, taking the best of what we, the working class, create. The working class isn't well named. For those who actually make something, whether it's a car or a building or perhaps even corn, we're the creative class. A rich person might fund a mansion, but that rich person hire a creative architect, hires a creative decorator, hires creative landscapers, and hires creative carpenters. That rich person's hands are as soft as a leech, and as hungry, blind and dumb. I can't care about such a person and as Ms. Havrilesky notes, it's a pity that television producers want us to care.

Rich people, as a substitute for creation, hoard the products of the creative/working class. If those products come with backstory, as does the art of Vincent Van Gogh, that's even better and just never you mind that Van Gogh didn't paint the rich and didn't hope that they would buy his paintings. What was different and often unremarked about Van Gogh was that he didn't seek the patronage of rich people. They weren't his people. What is tragic about Van Gogh is that the rich have claimed him and tussle for his paintings. Ignorant assholes.

And for those of you who accuse Ms. Havrilesky of reverse snobbery, she pilloried the consumptive class, those who consume and create nothing. Sure, there are rich people who give rather than consume, but in practice and affectation, they aren't rich. And, yes, Ms. Havrilesky didn't write cutely this week and whereas I enjoy her cleverness, I adore her taking a stand against profligate consumption.

But what about the gays? And the fetuses? And the ragheads? And the commies? And the liberals? Kill, kill, kill! Except the fetuses, of course! We'll wait to see if they're gay or liberals.

Killers for Christ