Article Contributed on: 12/11/2008 10:00:04 AM
All this bailout foolishness is just a case of "filling the centerboard well".
What? You never filled the centerboard well?
Small sailboats have a retractable centerboard instead of a keel. The centerboard is raised and lowered in a well, an open slot for the blade-like centerboard in the bottom of the boat. The slot doesn't leak: it has walls extending up above the water line.
So on his or her first day, the beginner is given a bailer and told to "fill the centerboard well" to make the boat go faster. Of course it's a joke, one which teaches an important lesson about boating: water poured down the centerboard well flows to the level of the waterline and makes no difference in the height of the water in the centerboard well.
Congress is filling the centerboard well with bailouts. But it's not dirty bilge water they're pouring down the drain, it's your tax money. Remember the Libertarian Party next election!