Reading the headlines today, I flashed back to reading the sections on “Honesty” in William Bennett’s Book of Virtues. It was on the window sill drying, having been flooded in the boss’ basement, and I was attracted and subsequently drawn in by the word “truth” on one of the open pages. One story told about how mouths were invented to communicate truth, and either the same one or another mentioned the Houyhnhnms, an entirely rational breed that saw no advantage to uttering “the thing which is not.” One of the Houyhnhnms saved the hero in Gulliver’s Travels (Mr. Travels) from suffocating in poo.
And so today I will dedicate some space to Senator Bob Rucho (R-Mecklenburg), as a Houyhnhnm award, for using his mouth to illustrate a slice of reality.
“Most incentives don’t deliver,” he said. But he said key lawmakers have agreed that the state would “invest $100 million or $200 million or $300 million” on a major project because the return on the investment could be there.
