Sane thoughts about an insane world. By Burt Prelutsky, Friday, January 5, 2007. “When I was a youngster, I had this odd notion that Earth served as a loony bin for the entire galaxy—the place where Martians and Venusians sent their crazies. Now that I’m an oldster, I’m convinced I was right.”

While I freely, even recklessly admit to many religious and political heresies, regarded as such by Christians and both political liberals and conservatives, there is the matter C. S. Lewis made a point of mentioning I recall in my defense. He described the elderly Christian woman who led an exemplary life; but demanded her toast always be “just right.” And if not just right, she would go into a perfect snit about this. Try as we may there is simply no pleasing people all the time, and whether our idols prove to have feet of clay or the chink in shining armor only be that of insisting their toast be just right it all amounts to the same. I’m not perfect and neither are you.

But We the People do have the right and the duty to expect more of our elected leadership than they are delivering. And there needs to be an accounting for things like a Muslim being sworn into elected office using the Koran for the ceremony. Despite the protestations surrounding politicians being sworn in with hands on the Bible evidencing hypocrisy Americans do not have a problem with the ceremonial use of the Bible under such circumstances. However, there is nevertheless an inherent danger in countenancing a Muslim with his Koran doing so, and it is foolish in the extreme to ignore the danger to America such a thing poses. We accept that politicians being sworn into office with hand on Bible is ceremonial only; but it is dangerous in the extreme to believe any Muslim treats the Koran as “simply ceremonial.”

In Fiddler on the Roof, Tevye asks God just how far he can bend from adhering to traditions that keep Jews distinct from others without breaking entirely? It was a legitimate question, and it is a question Americans are going to have to answer.

My own metaphysical view that the Bible may well be correct in calling the earth Satan’s domain; that the Evil One has power over the earth and its inhabitants leading to the prevailing history of evil ever in the ascendancy at least lends itself to a modicum of sensibility. The monsters in human guise such as those preying on women and children being the Devil’s spawn as Jesus describes in opposition to the children of God at least has the merit of making some sense of otherwise seeming lunacy throughout. Whether or not, the fact remains good people do not want or seek power and authority over others, which puts politicians in the Devil’s camp.

In respect to a world in the grip of seeming lunacy Burt went on to say, “I wish John McCain, who uses his own heroic stature as a model P.O.W. to influence America’s policy towards Islamic terrorists, would just shut up on the subject. To suggest that combatants who fight without a flag or a uniform; who wipe their feet on the Geneva Convention; who disguise themselves as women; who hide in mosques and marketplaces; who slice off the heads of their prisoners; and who use children as shields; are entitled to the same safeguards as soldiers is sheer lunacy. In the old days, when the Cold War was at its most frigid, I honestly thought the one thing that could unite the so-called civilized world would be the threat of invasion by evil aliens from outer space. I now realize how naïve I was. One merely has to see how accommodating most nations are towards the very worst elements of Islam to recognize that Neville Chamberlain was simply a man 70 years ahead of his time. These days, when most of Europe and half of America is only too happy to appease the neo-Nazis who heil Allah instead of Hitler, Chamberlain would be in his glory, and, regrettably, without a Churchill anywhere in sight…”

Burt is correct, but neither is there any Churchill here in America that speaks out about Mexicans marching in our streets while flying their flag like Hitler’s Brown Shirts demanding allegiance to Mexico. Sieg Heil Mexico and Mexicans! Then there is the agenda of Sieg Heil ACLU! Something that accommodates everything destructive of standards of morality and America having an identity based on heritage, culture, language, and secure borders. Lunacy!

Another area of seeming lunacy in America has to do with prescription drugs. A dear friend of mine has for a very long time been attempting to call attention to the dangers posed by pharmaceutical industries making essential drugs prohibitively expensive to ordinary working Americans. She wrote me saying, “Ever since I started looking into drug prices, that study has taken me into labyrinthine twists and turns that have nearly made me crazy. I’ve read books, followed up on informative Web sites, written letters to Congress and to the editor, etc., etc. I started looking into drug prices when I knew that at age 65 I would lose my attractive prescription drug insurance that went along with my awfully expensive (but also good) health insurance. What I learned was appalling, and it made Canada very attractive. Now, with the Medicare Prescription Drug Plans, Big Pharma and insurance companies are dying laughing all the way to the bank. And the Democrats, of course, want Medicare to be able to negotiate drug prices for Medicare PDP participants; however, if that happens, dominoes will begin falling. Everything will fall except the prices of drugs. I believe Medicare attempting to negotiate drug prices is like having a three-year-old do it. I guarantee I can do a better job of it. Under that scenario, competition and free trade will be restricted. Also, interestingly, since Wal-Mart and others have gotten so aggressively into the generic drug-selling business, some of the VA-negotiated prices are higher than Wal-Mart’s. I have proof of that. Only free trade and good retail competition can keep the price of drugs down.”

The dictum of “Follow the money” explains much of the seeming lunacy gripping America, of the seeming paralysis of our corrupt government ever doing what is in the best interest of America and Americans. But such seeming lunacy leading to the destruction of America leaves me with the metaphysical conclusion: The Devil has very deep pockets. But like Burt I wouldn’t entirely discount the threat from Mars and Venus; that the earth is the dumping ground for the crazies from elsewhere in the universe and our human species does appear to be taken over by the crazies.

You know, there may be the risk of space aliens invading and our having a President like Jack Nicholson in Mars Attacks! Some uncharitable souls would say we already have such a President. Still, who knows but what Mars and Venus may yet show us some compassion. Seems as likely as our own government doing so. And I’d rather take my chances with Mars and Venus rather than Sieg Heil Allah!