Worth Reading:The Corruption of Washington

"Explusion of the Money Changers from the Temple"
Giotto Di Bondone, 1304

I often find The New Republic even left of my very left-wing politics, but I must say this article today really is worth reading, carefully, slowly and perhaps more than once.

If a picture tells a thousand words, a figure tells as much as a million--a million reasons why corruption has escalated in the Capitol.

It is so easy to be lolled into thinking good is being done when talking to a lobbyist and I know as I acted in that capacity for one single week in 1992.

It is also so easy to be persuaded that as a lobbyist you are doing God's work.

In the end, when money changes hands, the temple does fall.

The Inaugural Poet Slammed at TNR

While I didn't think Elizabeth Alexander's poem sterling, I certainly didn't find all these harsh comments for it either.

Sometimes, and this was one of those days, I chose to not allow a misspoken word, a failed hairstyle, or a poem disturb my sense of pleasure to see a new administration in the White House.

And occasionally I think too much thinking, something I suffer from myself, ruins the feeling of living.