A Good Idea

I saw a meme yesterday that I thought was sort of brilliant. Not because of the meme itself, which was one the the standard ones, the pensive dinosaur, but because of the actual text, which said “Why do we keep forcing our politicians to take oaths, instead of signing binding contracts.” I read that and thought by golly, that is a crackerjack idea.
Then I thought about it a little more and realized that it probably wouldn’t make any difference, unless it was a really well written contract, and there was a will on the part of somebody within the government to enforce those contracts, which there is not. Then, of course, there is the ‘discouraging people from taking the job’ factor, because if you realize that going to jail might be a consequence of taking a bribe, a lot fewer people are going to want to run for congress, because outside of the money, and the fame (an ex-congressman can usually walk right into a TV job, where they can be a paid spouter of nonsense for life, or make money on a book, or by giving speeches), and the perks, hoo-boy, such a lot of perks. But, that would probably be a good thing.
On balance, I’d be for it.
What I think is even more important is that government be made completely transparent. All of these fucker’s offices should be wired, and their finances audited like crazy, in an ongoing fashion, and they should be followed around by drone paparazzi wherever they go. “State security” is a bullshit excuse. The secrecy is just so they can continue to steal money.
Forget about Hollywood. If an actor or actress I like has some sleazy side habits, I don’t really feel the need to know about it. Who’s sleeping with who is none of my business. Transfer some of that attention to Washington.