Channel Surfing

Nothing on TV last night, so I turned it off and read a Kindle book.

But while channel surfing on my way to making the decision to abandon the tube in favor of the Kindle, this analogy popped into my head.

Two men, let's say John Boehner and Barack Obama, are having dinner in an expensive restaurant.  Boehner suddenly realizes he doesn't have enough money to pay for the dinner and mentions the fact to Obama.  Obama doesn't have enough either, but says "Don't worry, it will work out.  I see Warren Buffet over there at a table in the corner; we'll just get him to cover us".

Boehner is uncomfortable with the idea.  "Aren't you the least bit embarrassed at having to get somebody else to pay for dinner?  I was raised to be responsible for myself".

So a negotiation ensues between the two.  Boehner proposes choosing the cheapest entre on the menu, which he thinks they can almost afford.  Obama insists on ordering the most expensive steak and lobster entre, then getting Warren to pick up the tab.

As the waiter waits impatiently, the negotiation continues until a compromise is reached.  They'll cut the tip from 20 to 15 percent and get Warren to pay the rest of the shortfall.  So the waiter is mad, Boehner is embarrassed, and Obama is clueless.

But Warren agrees to kick in only 5 bucks, leaving the two still short by about 100 dollars.  They order, knowing that when they leave the restaurant they will have a big problem.  They will leave owing the restaurant 100 bucks, that is if the restaurant allows them to leave and doesn't have them arrested or put them to work in the kitchen washing dishes.

That's what the current fiscal debate sounds like to me.

Back to the channel surfing:

Fox News was still on the union thug punching out one of their people.  And the hypocritical press who like to do stories about the racist and violent Tea Party sans evidence completely ignores this story of actual violence.

MSNBC is bewailing the destruction of Labor Unions, claiming it's actually a destruction of the middle class.  Ignoring of course the fact that unions are all but extinct in the private sector anyway.  But that doesn't slow down their characterization of Right to Work laws as complete by and for the corporate fat cats.

On CNN, Piers Morgan's still obsessing over gun control.

Nobody is choosing to present the big picture.  Maybe because it's not sensational enough to talk about budgets and deficits and debt. 

I'd rather watch sports.