This whole Trent Lott episode has brought so many ugly things about American political life to the surface, that I have trouble believing in the basic fairness of the system. I used to think that people who percolate up to higher offices tend to have at least their belief systems right. Argh! Lott simply happened to be in the eye of the storm. He certainly isn't alone in his beliefs and neither is the triumph of politics over ethics as infrequent as we would like to believe.

I do think that the world continues to get better for the vast majority of people. Dartung has some cheerful news in his weblog. But Good eventually triumphing over evil is just so much crap that we are given as children.

Happy holidays.

PS: In case you saw the unedited version of this post earlier: Yes, I abridged the post. I'll take another stab at the financial regulation stuff later.