Well, here we are.  Inauguration week .. coronation week .. call it what you will, just know that we're going to have a presidential inauguration tomorrow such as nothing you've ever seen before. It's rather tough to put everything I have running through what I use for a brain into one cohesive writing ....  So let's just go the random thought routine for now:

The Routine Transference of Power

This is perhaps the most impressive thing about a presidential inauguration.  To this extent at least, our Constitution works.  We're the most powerful nation in the world and every four years we change leaders (eight years at a minimum).  We do so peacefully and with the full input and participation of the people.  None of that nonsense that's going on in Russia; no Hugo Chavez here trying to become president for life.  It's too bad our Constitution - the 10^th Amendment, for instance - doesn't work this well in other areas.

The Cost of the Inauguration

Couldn't care less.  Look, when we're talking about a one trillion dollar deficit, what is 150 million dollars?  OK .. since you asked, I'll tell you:  $1.5 million dollar is to a Trillion as one cent is to $6,666.  Does that put it into perspective for you?  Most of this inauguration money comes from private donations - security is paid for by the taxpayers, and that is as it should be.

I recognize that this is a historical event - but it is the hypocrisy of the media in covering the event.  Bush spent $50 million four years ago, now Obama is spending three times that much.  Four years ago the media portrayed Bush's spending as a travesty and extravagance during wartime.  Now?  Silence.  Surprised?  You shouldn't be.  

The Voters Who Put Him There

I'm not saying anything about Obama and his intellect here.  We're talking voters.  One of the things that distresses me about this election is the ample amount of evidence we have that the voters who gave the victory to Obama are - in a word - ignorant.  Not to assuage some of you literalists out there; I know that not ALL of the people who voted for Obama are ignorant, but the label surely holds true for the majority of them.  There have been quite a few surveys and polls done since the election, and the results are pretty much the same.  The people who voted for McCain had a higher knowledge and understanding of American government than did the people who voted for Obama.

Who can forget those interview you heard from Don Imus?  His people went out on the streets and interviewed Obama supporters in Harlem.  They would ask some Obama supporters if they thought Sarah Palin was the right choice to be Obama's running mate.  Not one pointed out that Palin was tied to McCain, not Obama.  Imus' henchmen asked these hapless, ignorant voters if they were supporting Obama because he's anti-abortion. They answered yes.  They asked these supporters if they were supporting Obama because he wanted to stay in Iraq until victory was accomplished.  Oh yeah ...that's why we're voting for him.

Then we had that wonderful spectacle of Obama voters coming out of a polling place to be interviewed after casting their ballots.  These people all thought that the Republicans were in control of the congress, and none of them could tell you who Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid was. 

Sorry to say it, but a huge hunk - perhaps the majority - of Obama voters put about much thought and intelligence into their votes this year as an addict does into the purity of their next hit.  Teenagers spend more time thinking about their choices of zit crème than most of these voters did thinking about who should lead our country for the next four years. 

Our founding fathers understood that everyone is not intellectually qualified to cast a vote.  That's why there is no guarantee of a right to vote in the Constitution.  This may be our first election where the dumbest half of our population selected the president.  How can that be good?  We need to get some of the uniformed ignoranuses away from ballot boxes. 

Understanding the Celebration

There is one group of voters and celebrants out there who's joy I can understand and appreciate; and I'm talking about black voters.

First ... let me make a point about "black" vs. "African American."  I'm not one of those out there who slavishly fell in line when Jesse "The Sloganmaster" Jackson decided that from henceforth all blacks shall be referred to as "African-American."  Political correctness run amok.  Most blacks in this country have about as much in common with African natives as I have with Finnish yak herders.  I just flat-out don't like hyphenated-Americanism.  I'm not European-American, I'm an American ... and so is our next president.  I'll just be damned if I'm going to call the President of the United States an "African-American" President.

Now .. having said that, let's address the overwhelming joy we see in black America over the events of this week.  How could blacks NOT be joyous?  Someone a few months back told me that Barack Obama was black America's greatest achievement.  I disagreed.  I said that black America's greatest achievement was our black men coming back from World War II to a country where they had separate waiting rooms and drinking fountains; where they had to sit in theatre balconies if they could get into the theatre at all; where they could surely spend their money at Woolworth's, but don't try to sit at the lunch counter; where a black soldier couldn't even find a decent motel in which to put his family to bed as he traveled across our country to a new duty station ----- to come home from World War II to experience this oppressive segregation and bias ---- and instead of burning this place to the ground going right back out there and fighting for America in the Korean War.  There's black America's greatest achievement; its forbearance. 

I can fully understand that for the black voter; especially the older black voter, voting for Barack Obama transcends politics or policy.  It's about affirmation.  A sense of finally and fully belonging.  We should all try to appreciate the joy and satisfaction so many of our fellow citizens will get out of this inauguration tomorrow.  It may not turn out all that well for the nation; but it sure doing something to pump of the psyche of our black neighbors.

Celebrity Worshipping Atmosphere

It's Pennsylvania Avenue, running, depending on your perspective, from the Capitol to the White House (or the other way around). It's not a red carpet running from some fleet of limos into a movie palace.  The reality is that here we have a man being sworn in as the 44^th President of the United States who major, perhaps only real accomplishment in his lifetime, has being elected president.  This he did on the basis of good looks, a strong personality, a pleasant voice and eloquence ... eloquence with words written by someone else.  Eloquence, good looks and a rock star persona are not predictors of success in the Oval Office. 

This week, however, celebrity qualities rule while accomplishments and actual ability take the back seat ... and in this atmosphere of manic celebrity worship (something America does quite well) some of the lines you hear from people in the streets are less than inspiring:

• Barack is definitely it.  He's the biggest star here.
• Everybody's here.  Ever celebrity you can think of is here.
• Barack is definitely a rock star. 
• The energy in Washington is out of control.
• Obama has come to deliver us.
• Obama is the biggest star of all.
• Washington is becoming the 'it place'."

This is going to be an orgy of celebrity .. and there's really no way to stop it, so you might as well just sit back in wonder and either enjoy it or be amused by it.  But sooner or later the focus returns to such mundane items as foreign policy, relations between the three branches of government (can you name them?), shepherding America through this economic crisis and trying (we hope) to preserve a modicum of freedom and independence in the process.

There are actually people out there who truly believe that Obama is going to lift the burden of mortgage payments and paying for food from their shoulders.  For them disappointment will come early.  For others disappointment or just flat out alarm will come when they see that growth in the size of government threatens to swamp any vestige of individuality, economic liberty and independence we have left in this country.

Unprescedented Spending

I've gone out of my way to give Obama the benefit of the doubt since his election.  Truth be told, some of his cabinet nominations can give you hope.  Others are alarming.  The idea of getting a socialist to run what has really be little more than an effort to destroy capitalism - the global warming hoax - certainly doesn't sit well if you understand the force for good that is free enterprise.

If I had to make a medium range prediction on the results of Obama's grandiose spending plans I would say that would be inflation ... somewhere in the double digit range. There are investment methods that take advantage of inflation .. and that's where I'll be headed.   

There is simply no realistic way to tax Americans who are working now enough to fund Obama's spending plans.  The bill is going to be waiting for your children and their children.  Will it be a bill they can pay? 

One thing is clear:  Obama and the Democrats have seized on our economic crisis to make good on virtually all of their campaign spending promises.  Whatever Obama promised; whatever powerful Democrats promised by way of government spending programs;, has suddenly become spending that is critical and absolutely necessary if we are to recover from this economic crisis.  The economy has given Obama a blank check.

Something else is clear, and that would be Obama's belief that spending by government is almost always good; while spending by the people is often suspect.  We now have a president and a political party in charge that believes it can do a better job of spending the money that you earn than you can.  We'll see how that works out for us.