Is Barak Obama Megalomaniacal?

Based on the President's recent, presumptuous, sacking of 30-year veteran GM'er Rick Wagoner, his instantaneous accession to the position of Wagoner's de facto replacement and his grand and gracious promise that the government (that would be you, gentlereader) will back all GM warranties, I began to wonder whether he is, in a word, megalomaniacal. Since I had a headache and didn't want to think that one through, I let it drop.

Enter Messrs. Grayson and Himes, whose backsides occupy seats in the House of Representatives. While I was tossing down ibuprofen and cradling my broken brain, they were busy, and I mean lucubrating. The spawn of their perfervid efforts is H.R. 1664, a remarkable and adventurous attempt to anoint President Obama's homunculus sock-puppet, Timothy "Tax-Cheat" Geithner, as de facto and de jure CFO of every American financial institution that has dined - or even supped - at the public bailout trough. But I ought not to steal the thunder rightfully and lawfully belonging to Grayson and Himes:

"No financial institution that has received or receives a capital investment under this title, or with respect to the Federal National Mortgage Association, the Federal Home Loan Montage Corporation, or a Federal home loan bank, under the amendments made by section 1117 of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, may, while that capital investment remains outstanding, make a compensation payment to any executive or employee under any pre-existing compensation arrangement, or enter into a new compensation payment arrangement, if such compensation payment or compensation payment arrangement--
‘(A) provides for compensation that is unreasonable or excessive, as defined in standards established by the Secretary [of Treasury] in accordance with paragraph 2[.]"

Now here's where the fun begins. Paragraph 2 states, "STANDARDS- Not later than 30 days after the date of enactment of this subsection, the Secretary shall establish the following:
‘(A) UNREASONABLE AND EXCESSIVE COMPENSATION STANDARDS- Standards that define ‘unreasonable or excessive’ for purposes of subparagraph (1)(A)." (Italics added.)

Putting aside the problematic task of asking someone unable to spell "F-o-r-m-1-0-4-0" to define with sufficient precision and clarity such loose concepts as "unreasonable" and "excessive," the sweeping majesty of H.R. 1664's displacement of private compensation decisions from pertinent individual CEO's, managers and supervisors to Obama's hand-picked (albeit unvetted), impertinent government marionette is breathtaking.

And horrific.

This scenario is the kind God intended when he gave us the term, "slippery slope," though, candidly, the intrinsic lubrication represented in the "slippery" half is hardly necessary when Congressional blowhards ply their trade in the direction of a dainty and diminutive coxcomb of a Treasury Secretary who's been running in that direction since his confirmation. This is the kind of perpendicular power-grabbing plummet from which there is no safe escape.

So, despite the federal government's over-hyped Paperwork Reduction Act, be prepared to fill out, in triplicate, federal form 77329-x-44937(b)(1)(A), asking Tiny Tim's exalted permission next time your 12 year-old asks for a raise in his allowance.

And now, with my headache much worse, I return to my original question, "Is Obama megalomaniacal?" Megalomania, I am told, is "a delusional mental disorder that is marked by feelings of personal omnipotence and grandeur." Relying solely on the evidence presented above, I believe a reasonable judge or juror could easily conclude that Obama demonstrates "feelings of omnipotence and grandeur." Whether or not it is in the present case a "delusional mental disorder" is a question for another day, another blog and another bottle of ibuprofen.

BTC

If anything, I am BTC - behind the curve. Here were are, March 29, 2009 and I, in my 793rd year, am only now blogging (gerund of the noun "blog," i.e. "Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer ; also : the contents of such a site.") I am listening to "Pine Country" by bluegrass musicians Robin and Linda Williams, a line of which goes, "I've got an itch that I've gotta scratch." I suppose that is as good an explanation as any why I have chosen this moment virtually to venture into the vast blogosphere.

Three cheers then to blogging in general, which today is the ultimate democracy: anyone with access to the Internet thereby has plenary sovereignty whereby he may write whatever he fancies and publish it without being pestered by pesky niceties like literacy, intelligence, wisdom or even (as in the instant case) something interesting to say. The cyberportal is universal and one size fits all, even those unfit to enter.

But I ought not to bite the hand that is reaching out to my illusions of relevance while gently massaging my mediocrity. So I won't. Anymore that is. At least not for the present.

To quote the fictitious Tiny Tim (no, not the one who was (mis)married on the Tonight Show): "God bless us, every one!"