Two Big Mistakes

George Bush and Adolf Hitler have at least one thing in common- two big empire-ending mistakes. Really dumb ones.

In Hitler's case, it was the idea that Germany needed to invade the grain-producing plains of Poland. Being a moron, Hitler did not realize that the strongest economy in Europe did not need to invade Poland, they could simply buy the grain. Hitler learned nothing from finding that this initial mistake had resulted in war with England; he repeated the mistake two years later in invading Russia and, thus, sealing his doom.

George Bush's mistake was in going to war for oil, in the decade that the world begins to transition off oil. "The stone age did not end because they ran out of stones, and the oil age won't end because we run out of oil." Like Napoleon, the Bush mistake is so thoroughly intermixed with pure larceny that it becomes at times difficult to determine to what extent he's wrong, and to what extent a gangster, but, either way, it's wrong. At the bottom line being a gangster is no smarter than being a moron. Hitler and Bush were and are both.

What Goes On Here?

Now the US is backing Maliki, the Iranian cats-paw in Iraq.

Be afraid, very afraid. Not because the Bushies are improbably Machiavellian and moronic in the same reality, but because Democratic Senators really don't get it. They don't understand that Maliki is the Iranian choice for Iraq, and they concede that they think the "surge" has worked.

These are men and women with staffs, libraries, sources of information, and the influence to get more of all those things if they need them. The average guy with an internet connection can form a better opinion about what's happening in Iraq than our Senators. That can't be a good thing, in any dimension.

Can't Make This Up Department

So Bill Gates wants to improve education by introducing competition and the "magic of the marketplace".

That's right- that Bill Gates. The guy who achieved a monopoly position in the software market and has used his financial clout to pre-load a substandard Windows on every computer sold for the past fifteen years.

But this time things will be different, he swears. He's a philanthropist, not a businessman in this role, and when it comes to decisions that affect somebody else's life, he's all in favor of competition.

'Twas ever thus.