Profound failure of intellect.

To read the following and then contemplate the great political capital that is being expended to rectify the non-problem that is the American health care system is to know that we have entered the realm of high comedy and national tragedy.

How else to view any public official posturing in the media cloud who blithely embraces or ignores destructive health care system changes (as well as cap and tax legislation, corporate tax rates that are the second highest in the world, and restrictions on energy development) but as a delusional figure incapable of fulfilling his or her most basic obligation to protect and defend the nation? Is it not possible for them to grasp that even the United States is not forever insulated from political, economic, and military catastrophe?

It’s not a great stretch to believe that Barack Obama’s background, associates, and life’s choices instilled in him a deep rooted hostility to the United States at worst or an utter indifference to its fortunes at best. Notwithstanding this, is every Democrat in the Congress -- and Olympia Snowe -- so in thrall to Obama and shortsighted partisan objectives that he or she won’t stop this train wreck now and demand a reordering of national priorities?

Spooked by the out-of-control deficit spending of the American government, the world has been growing gravely concerned about the viability of the US dollar. The reason is not difficult to see. America’s immense and growing national debt is about to top $12 trillion. Coupled with unfunded entitlement obligations, America’s indebtedness is – even by conservative estimates – more than $66 trillion.

Saddled with a debt burden whose size exceeds the world’s total yearly economic output, the world is increasingly coming to the realization that the United States will not be able to make good on its obligations. Instead, it is widely expected that America will inflate its currency in order to lighten its debt load. . . . It means that the . . . international community has ceased to believe that the United States can responsibly manage its debt and its currency.

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The price of gold received another upward push when – in another sign of America’s fiscal difficulties – the Congressional Budget Office announced that the deficit reached $1.4 trillion for the fiscal year that ended on September 30. This is more than three times the previous record of $459 billion set by George W. Bush in 2008. At nearly 10 percent of GDP this is the largest deficit when expressed as a portion of the overall economy in more than sixty years. The number, however, is distorted downward . . . .

Fighter pilots in training sometimes make practice bomb runs and tragically fail to pull up after releasing a bomb. Instead they are mesmerized by its descent and follow the bomb into the ground.

From all appearances our political leaders are mimicking that behavior with their hands on the joystick of our national fortunes.

"Dollar Trouble." By Vasco Kohlmayer, FrontPageMagazine. com, 10/14/09 (emphasis added). Mr. Kohlmayer cites a source for the report of secret meetings to “hammer out the new monetary framework” which source one commenter says is well known to rely on hearsay. This directly contradicts Mr. Kohlmayer who, nonetheless, also cites other indicators of the source’s reliability. Be that as it may, the gist of this post is unaffected by any dispute as to that journalist’s reliability. His report only goes to what is or might be one of the results of U.S. irresponsibility. This post is about that irresponsibility.