Sometimes You Win, Sometimes You Lose, And Sometimes, It Rains

Those of you who know me know that I am not a hot weather person. While all the sun-worshippers are out cultivating their personal melanoma patches, and while all the BBQ fans are grilling their hearts out, increasing fire danger and adding to global warming, I am in semi-hibernation, curled up as close to the coldest air conditioner vent in the house as I can get. Nevertheless, I come out of my summer doldrums when the occasion warrants. Several things have been bugging me for a week now, so the occasion must warrant.

Thanks to an unsigned unanimous opinion by the Nebraska Supreme Court last week, University of Nebraska Regent David Hergert is now an ex-Regent. [This is an ex-Regent! 'Allo, all you Monty Python fans!--Ed] He was convicted (after having been impeached by the state legislature) of committing fraud to get reelected. He did not file required campaign spending documents on time, he included misinformation in those same documents, and he lied about it all to cover it up after the election. It's only the second time in Nebraska history that an impeached public official has been convicted, and the last one was over 100 years ago, so this is pretty big news.

The Court condemned all of Hergert's actions, and chided him for his internally contradictory defense arguments (he had such a messy desk that things were always late/lost/messed up; he didn't do anything wrong because the Nebraska election laws are written in such a way that no one can be impeached for what he did to GET into office). But it based its decision on the coverup, as what Hergert did in that regard took place after Election Day. Nebraska election laws absolutely covered that situation. The Court stressed how close a thing it was that Hergert could have been found not guilty, however, in an effort to get the Unicameral to rewrite the election laws so that this unseemly scenario would not repeat. Here's hoping the Unicameral gets the message . . . and does something about it.

Of course, the folks out in western Nebraska have condemned the whole thing as naught but a plot by the big, bad, urban eastern parts of the state to pick on them . . . talk about paranoia! I don't think anyone gives a damn that Hergert was from the western part of the state. If a Regent from one of the more easterly districts had done the same things, he, too, would have been impeached and then convicted. Hergert broke the law, people. He deserves what he got (none the less because he was and is an arrogant SOB who tried to cow and bully [now that's an interesting turn of phrase.--Ed.] first the state senators and then the members of the Court into letting him off. He paid a fine to the State Board of Elections in exchange for its promise of no criminal prosecution--before anyone else noticed what was going on--so he thought he was in the clear.

Which might have been the end of it had Hergert and the election commissioners involved the state attorney general before the fact. But the AG was not consulted. And he took umbrage. AG Jon Bruning correctly perceived what Hergert did as an improper attempt to work the system, so he got the Unicameral to vote to impeach Hergert. The rest is history.

Good thing, too. Sometimes, you win.

But sometimes, you lose. The Cubs have been playing execrably this year [toss in a chorus of Tom Petty singing Freefallin'.--Ed.]--until today, that is. Right now, they are beating up on the Mets 9 to 2 in the bottom of the 7th inning. But they aren't getting out of the cellar any time soon. Like maybe for the rest of the 21st century. Worse, the entire National League is in the same boat, given the way the NLers lost the All Star game on Tuesday. The AL was losing in the bottom of the 9th with 2 out and two strikes on the batter . . . one pitch away from victory, the NL wound up giving it away to the AL. Again. This is the 10th time in the last 11 tries that the NL has lost the All Star Game. The only game the NL didn't lose was the game that ended in a tie after all the players on both teams had been used and the game had already gone many extra innings. Thank you, Commissioner Bud Selig. [I hope you can hear my sarcasm here.--Ed.]

Also losing this past fortnight was the public in general, and the defrauded former employees and shareholders of Enron in particular, what with the death by heart attack of former Enron CEO Ken Lay. No one gets to see Lay behind bars. No one gets to see even an iota of justice being served. No one will recoup the immense financial losses Lay's criminal behavior caused. Nor will anyone get the satisfaction of forcing Lay to recognize and admit that what he did was wrong. Even after his conviction, he maintained his innocence. I think he really believed it, too. And that is scary. What's even more scary is that Dubya still called Lay a "good man and a good friend," refusing to recognize the way Lay screwed over Enron's employees and the rest of us to boot. People who claim to be "born again" the way Lay did and who yet do the kinds of things Lay did give true followers of Jesus a bad name. Holy hypocrites like Lay deserve all the Hell they can suffer.

One can but hope that at least one "Lesson Of Enron" is that deregulation of public utilities is NOT a good thing. How people can study American history and not notice that it contains waves of financial scandals and swindles EVERY TIME business-related laws, rules, and regulations are relaxed, is beyond me. But then again, I have always maintained that the people running businesses and trading on the various stock exchanges these days all would have been pirates in the 18th century[and with apologies to Johnny Depp, who isn't that kind of pirate--Ed.], so maybe there's no way to stop them in any event. Sometimes, therefore, you lose.

And sometimes it rains. You can do everything right and still get a bad outcome. Here, I am thinking of this year's Kentucky Derby winner, Barbaro. Shocking enough that he shattered his right hind leg in the opening strides of the Preakness Stakes. Frighteningly hopeful that he seemed to be doing so well after getting a metal bar and 27 pins put in his leg. Devastating when his veterinary surgeon announced this week that Barbaro had developed laminitis in his other hind hoof and that his prognosis was now exceedingly poor.

Nevertheless, when it does rain, it eventually stops. Late yesterday I heard that Barbaro is still eating well, does not seem to be in pain, and is coping amazingly well with the additional cast and other medical procedures undertaken to keep him alive. His owners and his doctors are doing everything right. Their barometer is "how is the horse coping?" As long as he's coping well and seems to be in good spirits, they are going to do everything they can to keep him alive and pain-free. They won't give up until and unless he does. Good for them! Here's hoping that the rain stops, the flowers bloom, and Barbaro heals.

OK, so I'm still a child of the 60s. I still believe [clap for Tinkerbell!--Ed.] that individuals can contribute to changing the world for the better, that it's worth doing so, and that hope is alive. Not an easy belief system to maintain in the face of crushing 21st century angst, but I'm hanging on to it anyway. Where there is no hope, there is no real life. I prefer to live.