Etched in My Memory

            The tawdry spectacle is over.

            Sounds of the disgusting battle in Washington over the debt ceiling have been muted. But for me, three things are etched in my memory.

            1. Corporate jets. They became the prime symbol on the banner under which President Obama waged his class warfare against the rich. Yet, the president never once mentioned the biggest and most expensive corporate jet of them all: Air Force One. His private conveyance to speeches, rallies, and fund raisers all over the country costs the American taxpayer hundreds of thousands of dollars each time he pulls it out of the hangar. And let's not forget the trip to New York to attend a Broadway show with the First Lady, or her vacations to Mexico, Spain, and South Africa. The royal couple's hypocrisy knows no bounds.

            2. Life on the planet. Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi famously said that failing to solve our debt ceiling crisis would end life on the planet as we know it. Has there ever been a more wild-eyed exaggeration than this?  Is the sense of self-importance more bloated anywhere than in the halls of Congress? Al Gore is right about global warming. It is indeed being caused by mankind. Not the burning of fossil fuels, though. It's the hot air spouting from our capital.

            3. Terrorists. One statement in the heat of battle was even more astounding to me than Pelosi's apocalypse. And that was Vice-President Biden calling the tea partiers terrorists. Imagine the man one heartbeat away from the presidency equating American citizens who want to control spending in Washington with the madmen who bombed us on 9/11 and who dress their children in explosive vests and send them off on suicide missions. Is there a more morbid symptom of the depravity of our leaders than this?

            Yes, the sights and sounds of the battle have faded. But let us not forget.