Scott Adams for President

I subscribe to Scott Adams' blog feed, and his posts are usually amusing to some degree or another.  What may surprise you, though, is how often there's a nugget or two in one of his blog posts that can actually make you stop and think.  Today's post, for instance, was intriguing in much the same way that an unidentified odor is intriguing.  Like the odor, I'll be thinking about this for a while.

Scott thinks he can solve all of our problems.  I think he might be right.  (sniff...)

Here's the plan: Scott turns our national problems into a reality show.  Panels compete to solve the problems, judges zilch the William Hung solutions, and we vote on the rest.

Crazy?  Crazy like a fox, if you ask me.

Software people should be able to appreciate the opacity problem with today's legislative system.  Wayyyy too much stuff is happening in smoke-filled rooms to have any hope of a good outcome.  Like open-source software, I think there's goodness to be had in opening the legislative process.  Let's go ahead and look into the sausage factory.  And no, I'm not talking about CNBC.

It's pretty easy to lash out against something like this on the principle that it just can't possibly be right.  You might not be able to put your finger on the problem right away, but it just can't be right.  After all, the panels aren't elected, the judges aren't elected, and how would you police voter fraud?

But here's where the stink wafts into the room again.

Despite these flaws, I think I'd trust this system more than I'd trust Congressmen making backroom deals with lobbyists, while political contributions are rewarded with pork barrel spending and all sorts of palms are getting greased, none of which belong to me.

At this point, you might be oddly excited that Adams has found a better form of government, or you might be despondent over the fact that our government is so deeply fractured that a whacked idea like this can even elicit a moment's consideration.

Me?  I've got to go find a can of Lysol or something.  This smell is making me nuts.