Credit, Debit, or Cash Only

Gomenasai. A sometime necessity is revisit my blog postings after they’ve been online an hour or three. Typically, as now, they are written before sunup, with a mind that coffee has not yet unclouded. Yesterday’s blog post had to be revamped.

Viva! Watching the Pope on his South America trip. A true Jesuit, ever since he was first vested in white and, instead of getting in the pontifical limo to be chauffeured imperially to dinner, got on the bus and took his old seat with the other cardinals, he has been my man. He lives in a simple room, shunning the papal palace, and he picks up babies. If Popes had been like Jorge Mario Bergoglio over the past two thousand years, there would be no need for both Roman and Anglican and I could be as Catholic as the Pope.  

Stupidity. Arizona has a Stupid Driver Law. When authorities put up danger barriers warning drivers not to drive through floodwaters and drivers are so stupid as to drive through anyway and get swept away and have to be rescued, they are fined. Are we so stupid we can’t have the same law for folks who ignore the double red flags and go in the Gulf anyway and have to be rescued from drowning? Stupid Swimmer Law. If you drown, no charge. If authorities rescue you, you are honored with a free ride in a police car: go to jail, go straight to jail, do not pass Go, do not collect $200. Upon arrival at the jail a 24/7 magistrate greets you with a choice: $10,000 fine or 180 days in the lockup. VISA, Discover, MasterCard, American Express. Credit, Debit, Cash only. No personal checks.

Redux. Leadership of both parties in Congress are rethinking NSA surveillance programs. This is solely due to the revelations of Edward Snowden, who begins to look like a national hero instead of an international criminal, in which case it would make no sense to arrest, prosecute and imprison a man who instigated major reform. But the law will require it anyway, ratifying Mr. Bumble yet one more time again: the law's an ass - an idiot. We already knew that.    

TW