O.J. Simpson was sentenced today to at least nine years in prison -- and I couldn't care less.I stopped caring when I was eleven, as I skipped out of the Rose Bowl after my beloved Buckeyes whipped his USC Trojans for the national championship. Everything that's happened since that moment is just another celebrity ego run amok.
I hold Fred Goldman, father of Ron Goldman, of whose murder Mr. Simpson was acquitted 13 years ago today, in equally low regard. Mr. Goldman and his family, whose grief and bitterness might be forgivable, have managed to elevate vindictive drooling to an art form.
Whether or not Mr. Simpson is "where he belongs" is, by now, entirely beside the point -- he is where he is. Honestly, I'm far less interested in his incarceration than in the prompt and permanent disappearance of the obsessive Goldmans.
And now the news.
Today the Detroit Free Press published a blunt opinion piece entitled, "A Message to Washington: Invest in America." It begins:
"You don't want an economic disaster on your hands. Not when you could have prevented it. And not in times that are already the worst in a generation."To no one's surprise, the newspaper is rooting for the home team, wagging its editorial finger at Congress and demanding that American taxpayers bail out the "big three" automakers -- or else:
Beyond colorful language and assurances that it'd be painful if one or more of the foundering automakers failed, the Detroit Free Press makes a poor case for a bailout, which Mark Zandi of Moody's estimates would cost as much as $125 billion."You don't want all this blood on your hands. No one could."
"You can help them. And if you don't, make no mistake: There will be bleeding throughout the land."
(By the way, please don't call it an investment and, for cryin' out loud, don't call it a bridge loan. The only borrowing going on here is the mortgaging of our children's future.)
No bailout? Of course it'd hurt. The effects would be wide, deep and excruciating, making the current crisis seem like a relative hangnail.A bailout would dull the pain, certainly, and if we believe that our government should be a fiscal pharmacist, doling out economic OxyContin, then sure, a bailout is the right prescription.
But it's not a cure. It won't heal an American auto industry that's seriously injured, perhaps even mortally wounded.
We're in the mess we're in, economically and otherwise, largely because we repeatedly avoid correct-but-painful solutions. Our nation needs fixing more than it needs another fix, and these auto companies, however iconic, must be allowed to fail.
Yes, it'll hurt. But as Chris Spielman, one of my favorite Buckeyes, is fond of saying,
"Don't tell me about the pain -- just show me the baby."For us, "the baby" is what's on the other side of our agonizing commitment to making the right choices -- now. Our future depends on it.
