YOU SCRATCH MY BACK, I'LL SCRATCH YOUR EYES OUT

Now isn’t that a wonderful image? Is that gratitude or what? It might not be the traditional idea of gratitude, but I think at times it is far too close to the truth. Wish it was otherwise.

With some people it is truly amazing how you can help them and instead of it making them happy or grateful they get addicted to the help. So when you are done they don’t say thank you, they say, “more, more, more!”

What is incredible is how they never see anything strange in this approach. Nor do they in any way understand why you would get upset with them or lack a desire to help again if they take such a position.

Okay none of that is surprising or new is it? And I bet you are probably thinking to yourself, “I give up on such creeps and don’t bother.”

To which I say, “good for you!” I just wish that was my choice in all situations. But it isn’t because I am a politician.

I believe Abraham Lincoln is credited with saying, “You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.” How does that apply to this posting? Basically I think it means that you simply can expect to provide anything that is universal in its worth.

Wouldn’t it be great if it was otherwise? But it isn’t. So in my situation where sucking up, lying, bribing and stealing are about as statesmanlike as I get then I have to accept satisfying people is sort of like playing Russian Roulette with a fully loaded weapon. You might as well blow your brains out to expect it will improve anything.

So my approach then is screw it. Well in terms of emotionally. The rest becomes a simple joy of making sure I don’t piss away valuable effort pretending that I care when I know it will just produce heartache.

It is a sad song, one that doesn’t necessarily inspire joy or happiness. However there is joy in that Mudville of frowns even if you as the Mighty Casey did strike out in a conniving plot. How it happens is by being a prophet.

Yes that is right. I get my thrills essentially by sitting down and predicting who will be an ungrateful creep and who won’t. When I’m successful I pat myself on the back and rejoice that I didn’t get shafted in the process.

On the other hand if I screw up and misread some person is would be grateful, well I guess for me OOPS works. Oh I am sorry to some degree, but not enough to try and worry about it. Which comes to my version of the great President’s comment about fooling the people. Rash’s version, “You can fool anyone at least once with the right kind of lie. And if you fail, you’re okay as long as somebody else gets the blame!” Okay it ain’t Lincoln quality. But what do you want from a Mayor like me?