Can't find it

I keep looking up and down in that document that created the federal government, and I can't find the part about nationalization of the banking industry, or any other industry for that matter.

"Stop throwing the Constitution in my face," Bush screamed back. "It's just a goddamned piece of paper!"

I don't mean to pick on Bush; he's only one of thousands of "public servants" with that attitude. It's just that few have summed up our rulers' mindset so succinctly.

B.W.'s Book Report: Little Brother

I couldn't put down Cory Doctorow's Little Brother to save my soul. I have been tinkering with a collection of thoughts called Refuse to Be Afraid, and it turns out that Doctorow has already taken most of those thoughts and converted them into a page-turning thriller of a glimpse into our possible near-term future.

Four geeky 17-year-old friends are playing an intriguing Wi-Fi game when a horrendous terrorist incident goes off in San Francisco. Our main hero ends up spending some time in a dark custody that opens his eyes to the ways fear has converted many of our countrymen and -women into a form of terrorist themselves. He finds himself engaging in activity that could land him back in custody, but freedom has become more important than his personal safety and security.

This is An Important Book, but it's also beaucoup entertaining. As I said at the outset, I couldn't put it down. I knew I wanted to get up before dawn this morning to write, but I had to finish reading the book first, which brought me close to midnight. It was time well spent.

This one goes on my short list of essential reading. If you want to see where the US of A is heading — if we're not there already — read this book. Now, if not sooner.

Ignorance in action

Widely quoted from Justice John Paul Stevens' dissent in the U.S. Supreme Court's District of Columbia v. Heller decision: The court majority "would have us believe that over 200 years ago, the Framers made a choice to limit the tools available to elected officials wishing to regulate civilian uses of weapons." Evidence of that choice is "nowhere to be found," Stevens wrote, presumably with a straight face.

WTF is the Bill of Rights, if it isn't a list limiting the tools available to elected officials wishing to infringe on individual rights?

It's long past time for the ball to be taken from Stevens' hands.

'Yep,' or something like that

It was a long journey. I remember talking with a friend along the way on the side of a big, sandy hill. It was a sunny day. He was for resolving it violently, and I argued that would not do.

Then I was in a meeting room, with tables set up on a faded solid-wood floor. People were sitting at the tables, back to the wall, facing the center of the room, and I was walking back and forth in front of them, stopping to talk to one old friend in particular. (Come to think of it, the room reminded me of the small rural town hall where I have been known to vote during waking hours.)

Then, in the corner of the room, I picked up a piece of parchment with writing on it, and my emotions began to well. Through the haze of the dream and my emotion, all I could see were the three big words at the top of the page: "We the People ..." I walked swiftly back to my friend and set the parchment down in front of him.

"This is it," I said with a huge smile. "This is what we worked so hard to achieve." "Yep" (or something like that), he replied, and he bent over to sign the document. I signed, too, and then my emotions got the best of me. I knelt in the middle of the room, overcome with joy, relief and satisfaction. (It was almost, but not quite, as joyful as I felt about 12 years ago when I — a tall, scrawny, unathletic person as a youth who never competed on a football field — vividly dreamed of catching a long bomb for a touchdown.)

I emerged from la-la land and found myself in a warm bed with a small old dog dozing next to me (No, no, she was awake and up; I'm talking about a real dog), leaving myself back there, crying with contentment on the old wooden floor. I decided not to remind my dream self that the spirit of the well-intentioned men who signed that document is endangered in my waking time. It was too good a dream to spoil.

Sex and your tax dollars at work

I suppose this is a better use of tax dollars than buying bombs or giving tax credits to folks who already have millions in their bank accounts. But you do gotta wonder about a federally funded study of why people have sex.

The study from Professor Cindy Meston (pictured) and the Sexual Psychophysiology Laboratory at the University of Texas has been written up this week as discovering that the No. 1 reason men and women have sex is the same for both sexes: "I was attracted to the person." Also in the top 10 on both lists: "I wanted to experience the physical pleasure," "It feels good" and "I wanted to express my love for the person."

Not detailed in the story ("Researchers at the University of Texas spent five years and their own money ....") but available when you click "About Us" on the lab's Web site is where they got "their own money" for a study that showed what anyone with a libido already knows. No surprise here: "Her research is currently being funded by the National Institutes of Health."

The cliche is that men give love to get sex, while women give sex to get love, but Meston says her study shows we're more alike than that. Was that insight worth the investment? Hard to say. But it's another example of how the fruits of your labor belong to a government that will spend it on just about anything, despite a solemn document that limits its powers and priorities.