The-Asterisk

For those of you without a Netflix account, shame on you! That means that you likely have never watched House of Cards . Kevin Spacey's exquisitely played character, Francis J. Underwood, is the protagonist of this series, now in its third season. Caution: Spoiler Alert. Plot twists ahead. To call Frank Underwood "ambitious" would be like calling Donald Trump "an achiever." Underwood grew up poor in rural Gafney, South Carolina, went to college at The Sentinal (Citadel, anyone?), then ended up running for Congress in South Carolina's 5th District after marrying Claire, a young, well-to-do college girl from suburban Dallas. In Season 1 he was the House Majority (Democrat) Whip. Denied his promised Secretary of State position after helping with the election of President Garrett Walker, and feeling double-crossed, he and Claire went on a conniving and scheming (and somewhat murderous) tear in Washington DC. In Season 2, as a classic manipulator and pul...

I saw a recent article in the Wall Street Journal about the 2010 graduates. Today, the Letters to the Editor had several lamentations about this perennial subject and it got me thinking... Back when we were rolling out of the caves and becoming the Homo Sapiens that we are today, each and every person had to be an independent player. Sure, there was the tribe, but if you wandered far out of camp you were on your own. Even as recently as 100 years ago, society was a thin neglegee compared to the oppressive woolen Snuggee it is today. Without rapid communications and transportation, unless you were smack in the middle of a town or city, you had to take care of yourself. There was no one to call to come and bail you out of your situation. Was it tough? You bet. Would I want to live back then? Not so much. Then we got comfortable after World War II. Plenty of jobs, GI Bill, education galore, big companies, big pensions, big unions, credit cards, cell phones, safety net, Medicare, Social S...