The Smell of Politics

In The Smell of Politics: The Good, the Bad and the Odorous, Curtice Mang examines what he considers good, bad and downright stinky political systems. Also, how even good political systems can get smelly if the execution is poor – all done with a heavy dose of satire. On liberalism Modern liberalism has nothing to do with classical liberalism. Rather it is a frat party with the beer and strippers paid for with dad’s 401k withdrawal. On socialism Socialism is the salary cap in the NFL and teams with 8-8 records making the playoffs. In fact, the only thing that socialism excels at is mediocrity. Socialism breeds mediocrity; in fact, it’s a requirement. On Marxism There are bad ideas (calamari on a stick), colossally bad ideas (government loan guarantees to Solyndra), and then there is Marxism. If socialism is the political system of the mediocre, Marxism is the political system for morons. On Greece Greece is broke. The banks have no money, businesses have no money. Nobody, in fact, has any money. But they do have debt, lots of it. Soon Greece will be holding a national car wash to raise money; it will be held in Albania. They are hoping a lot of Germans show up. On the 2012 election I went to bed on election night believing we had already heard all of the bad news for the week. Not so, apparently. The following day, we learned that a life-size Justin Bieber doll had reached the market. I’m not even sure the real Justin Bieber is life-size.