An Old Man's Prediction

This is interesting. It is a prediction by Robert Paul Wolff on his blog. First he muses about the role of old men sitting around the fire to pass on folk wisdom. Sadly, the cold glare of a computer screen must substitute for the camaraderie of yesteryear. Here's his wisdom:

... trying to puzzle out the political ambitions and intentions of Sarah Palin. Would she run for the Republican presidential nomination? Did she even want to be president? One of my sons ... went on to suggest ... the answer to my questions. Palin has held three significant positions in her life: mayor of Alaska, Chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Commission, and Governor of Alaska. She walked away from the second and third, each time because she saw an opportunity to maximize her fame and personal wealth. She clearly had no interest in actually being Governor of Alaska, nor is there the slightest indication that she wanted actually to be, or even had any idea what was involved in being, Vice-President of the United States. Since most people do most tings the way they do most other things, she will almost certainly run for the nomination, because that is the best way to remain famous and to develop new money-making opportunities without working for them. But should she have early successes in the 2012 primaries, as well she may, she will find some way, before the nomination process is complete, to drop out of the race, presenting herself as a victim of all manner of plots and prejudices. Indeed, even if she secures the nomination, it is a virtual certainty that she will quit the race before she is defeated on election day. That this will cause chaos in the Republican Party will be of no concern to her, for at no time in her entire career has she ever exhibited the slightest loyalty to anyone or anything beyond her own immediate interest.

...

Character is destiny, as Heraclitus observed some while ago, and character does not change.

I'm ever hopeful that the Republican party can find a way to self-destruct. So I'm more than willing to believe the above. If only it would come to pass!

Here's another bit of gray-haired sagacity which he passes on in another post:

As the seventeenth century passed grimly into the eighteenth, I can imagine that there were enlightened spirits in Ireland, England, and Scotland who cast an unillusioned eye on the world around them and said to themselves, "Thank God for Jonathan Swift, who keeps me sane." I feel much the same way about THE ONION, the satirical on-line faux newspaper whose reportage, even in these awful times, manages to find ways to skewer the insanities of the right.

If you feel wise beyond your years, you might try reading the whole post to see if you can sort the Onion satirical headlines from the real-but-insane headlines.