Outrage seems to be all the rage just now, so OK, I'll chime in. Here are a few things, ranked by their respective outrageousness, that I find upsetting.
No. 2: The AIG bonuses.
It's not so much that they're paying out huge bonuses after accepting billions in bailout funds from taxpayers. It's that they're paying out huge bonuses to the guys who, you know, nearly destroyed the world's economy. Screwing over millions of formerly hard-working people ought to be its own reward.
No. 3: Congressional grandstanding over the AIG bonuses.
Mitch McConnell is pretending to be upset that worthless financiers are taking home millions of dollars seemingly swindled from hardworking Americans. In every previous election, this has been McConnell's platform and campaign mantra. It's what he stands for.
It's no good to spend your whole political career as a loyal toady of the Sheriff of Nottingham and then try to pretend you're upset when the Sheriff steals from the poor to give to the rich.
No. 4: The reporting on the AIG bonuses.
NPR's reporter this morning told us that, since the government in effect owns a controlling interest in AIG, it couldn't tax the bonuses because that would amount to "the government just taxing itself."
All very annoying. Outrageous even. But all far behind the leader, the runaway No. 1 smash with a bullet.
No. 1: This guy.
Pope Bareback XVI didn't really kick off his tour of Ground Zero of the global AIDS epidemic by denouncing the use condoms, did he?
To those brothers and sisters in Africa who had to hear such a thing, I can only say this, borrowing the King James Version's euphemistic translation of St. Paul: "I would they were even cut off which trouble you."
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In