All the Hubris we'll ever need

      It is easy to presume that we know what's up. No one wants to be seen as clueless. So we presuppose certain 'facts' about situations we face. St. Augustine talked in great detail about the nature of knowledge. He stated what seems to be obvious by saying,"We must believe something before we can know anything." And so it is.

                                                             
  That takes me back to the summer of 2000. I was working for an ad agency that had the Republican Presidential ticket as a client. George W. Bush, the Republican nominee, seemed like the type of guy who I would want to avoid if he were a schoolmate or a co-worker. I could see him talking me into doing some type of favor for him. In return, I would get to say, 'Thanks"? He didn't seem like he was a reasonable or responsible person.  If he became President , he would definitely need someone to hold his hand. He was scary in a weird kind of "let me drive, I'm not drunk" kind of way. And this is before I knew of his infamous drinking and driving exploits from the past.  I didn't want to give this guy the keys to anyone's car, let alone mine. So I decided to check out his opponent. I looked across the room and saw Al Gore. Hmmm... this is not looking any better to me. I could choose between two seemingly bored rich kids who felt an obligation to be important in some way. So, just like a spoiled rich kid, they both decided to be President. So I looked at 'Georgie' a second time. That is when I saw Dick Cheney. I started to feel better.
Here was an old guy who was a smooth operator. He had been there, and he had done that. He had nothing left to prove to himself or anyone else. He was successful and articulate. And he believed that government was not to be used except for the most simple and straightforward tasks. My nerves were calmed immediately. The old man won't give W. the keys. We are safe. Relax. Vote Republican.

                                                                       
    And then after 9-11, everything changed. It was if the earth's axis now spun with a little wobble in it's motion . Everyone was going to have to adjust. This wasn't simply a suggestion. It was our new reality. But as with anything new or unfamiliar, there were going to be a few people who needed help getting the hang of things. And, maybe not surprisingly, one of those people was my boy, Dick Cheney.
   I knew he's an old guy with a bad ticker who grew up during the cold war and lived through Watergate. This is who he was, and still is. He was a man who never wore the uniform, but who saw himself as a warrior regardless of that notion's absurdity. This was our gatekeeper. This was my man with the ultimate plan.
   I was with Dick, when in 2002 on 'Meet the Press' he talked about fighting in the shadows. That made sense.Our opponent was on the dark side. We would take the fight to him. Yes, I thought. Send the Sicilian mob or even Tony Soprano himself to wack a few bad guys while they ate linguine in their mother's kitchen. That is the way to go.
  But it was not to be.Instead we said 'they hate our freedom' and sent 150,000 troops to Mesopotamia to let them see what real freedom looks like. And from my perspective, freedom looked like giving the keys to the drunk guy if he promises to do as you say. What surprised me the most was that it appeared Dick Cheney was the one guy in the universe who had never heard of the law of unintended consequences. Bite off a little at a time, is what this law states. Or you may end up chewing off your own backside. I thought old guys with bad hearts knew this already. What I didn't know was that old Dick and his gang were going to save me whether I wanted to be saved or not. The Dark Side and Darth Vader himself was now running the show. Lucky us.