Twenty Questions

Those of us old enough to remember the old quiz show "Twenty Questions" (animal, vegetable or mineral?) probably are anxious for a 21st century successor. For the rest of you, the new version, as delineated below, should start an exciting trend (??) Answers of course are not provided.

1. Is anyone surprised that the GOP is totally devoid of constructive ideas on how to fix the economy other than the tired mantra of cutting taxes and not spending?
2. Isn't this the same group whose plan for financing the Iraq war was to, you guessed it, cut taxes thus significantly contributing to our current deficit?
3. Is it becoming a sort of perverse "badge of honor" to have your ethnic group be victimized by your own kind in a Ponzi scheme?
4. How else to explain what has befallen Jews (Bernie Madoff, Arthur Nadel), Bible Belt Christians (Allan Stanford) plus assorted Haitian Americans, Polish Americans, etc. and just about anyone you can think of except Hopi Indians and Kazakhstani/Americans (maybe Borat)?
5. Was anyone shocked that our national priorities are so screwed up that by far the highest paid Connecticut state employee at $1.2 mil. is the UConn basketball coach Jim Calhoun who recently displayed an arrogance about such compensation worthy of any (former) Wall Street banker?
6. Does anyone care that insurance (former) behemoth AIG has needed the largest single Treasury bailout since they "insured" all of the exotic (now toxic) financial instruments such as credit default swaps without setting aside any loss reserves?
7. Were any regulators home while AIG and a myriad of others were causing irreparable harm to our economy?
8. When did celebrities (Hollywood, athletes, etc.)start to have an entourage or posse of hangers on to do everything, good or bad, for the exalted ones, such as cousins buying banned drugs?
9. Why do such celebrities have to be held up as role models for our children despite the well documented foibles and worse of many of them?
10. Why can't the real role models be doctors, teachers, firefighters, scientists and the like?
11. Was Kate Winslet sincere when she announced that henceforth she will keep her clothes on for her movie roles?
12. Is TNB the only one upset by such announcement?
13. Will Mickey Rourke fade back into oblivion?
14. Will Joan Rivers overcome her 32 facial operations and beat out the other D-List participants on Donald Trump's new Celebrity Apprentice?
15. Will the Donald overcome the stigma of his latest casino bankruptcy filing?
16. Will Minnesota's senatorial election (Al Franken vs. Norm Coleman) ever be settled?
17. When will Roland Burris' brief career as Senator from Illinois end?
18. Who will Roland's successor be?
19. Will such person be male, female, white, black or Hispanic or all of the above?
20. Whatever happened to Rod Blagojevich?