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Gifts for all occasions in the Galleria! The "What is the Deal?" Deal-of-the-Week: March 20, 2005 Sickness in America By Jan A. Larson I am literally sick. I am sick to my stomach about what is happening in America today. A glance at the morning headlines - you pick the morning - should make a lot of Americans sick. Alas, I don't think very many give a damn anymore. All many Americans think about is how big their next big screen television should be, how desperate the "Desperate Housewives" will become and which ED treatment to use. Nothing makes me sicker than the way Michael Schiavo and his accomplice in crime, Florida judge George Greer, have managed to sentence an innocent woman, Terri Schiavo, to death. I just hope they think of her every time they sit down to a hot meal and when they go to sleep at night. I am sick of Michael Jackson, but not as sick as Michael Jackson. I am sick of Ted Kennedy, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, et al and the "leadership" the Democrats demonstrate in Washington. I have yet to hear any constructive solutions to any problem from any of them. They, along with plenty of others in Congress as well, don't give a damn about anything but keeping themselves in office. I am sick of Scott Peterson. More specifically, I am sick of hearing about Scott Peterson. At least he will get what's coming to him, although he will be an old man before it happens. Until that day, however, he is old news and I don't want to hear about him anymore. Ditto for Martha Stewart. I am sick of hearing from far too many people under the age of 25 for whom 33 percent of their vocabulary consists of the word "like." "I was, like, like this and then she went, like that and then, like, he was all like, you know, like she was, only like, worse." I am sickened and appalled, but not surprised, that steroids has sullied the game of baseball. I've yet to recover (and never will) from the strike of 1994, but yet always held to the illusion that baseball represented all that was good in America. Now, it is clear, as it probably should have been for a long time, that baseball represents nothing more than what is wrong in America; that even some who are worshiped as heroes will cheat to win. The solution? Instead of three strikes and you're out, let's make it two strikes and you're out. For the first positive test, a one season suspension. For the second positive - your baseball playing days are over. I am sick and tired of the amazingly complex, utterly incomprehensible and astoundingly unfair U. S. tax code. With thousands a pages of regulations and loopholes, breaks for some but not others and with the virtual impossibility of achieving broad compliance assured, no one in their right mind would ever concoct such an indecipherable morass if starting from scratch. It is time to start over from scratch with the Fair Tax. I am sick of hearing, year after year, that American high school students can't compete with students from other developed nations in math and science, but at the same time hearing from teachers groups that the solution is more money. It isn't. The solution is school choice for parents and accountability for teachers and administrators. If schools had to compete for students and teachers had to perform or lose their jobs, then we would see results. I am tired of activists, pundits and politicians that take stupid positions on any number of issues that aren't grounded in sound economic principles. Examples - Social Security, minimum wage, outsourcing, taxing the "rich," taxing corporations, etc. (Of course, you can't really blame many activists, pundits and politicians if they don't understand mathematics - they probably didn't learn much math in public school.) I am sick of unelected and unaccountable judges. I am sick of people streaming across our borders unimpeded. How many more 9/11's will it take before the welcome mat is taken in? I am sick of Americans who don't like America. If you don't like it - leave it. We've got plenty of people crossing the borders to take your place. Go to France or someplace like that where you can mingle with other people that don't like America. You'll feel more comfortable and your blood pressure will come down. I am sick of the pro-choice people defending a woman's "right to choose." Every woman already has the right to choose. That choice is made when her last article of clothing hits the floor, if you know what I mean. I could go on, but I need to take a pill. -- Send feedback to the author. The "What is the Deal?" column will appears weekly on the Pie of Knowledge website. Guest submissions are welcome and encouraged. To submit an article to "What is the Deal?" click here. To subscribe to the "What is the Deal?" mailing list and receive early notification when a new column is available, click here. 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