The Fog of Politics

We in Chelm have a great deal of sympathy for poor Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenfeld, who said he fought in Vietnam but turned out to be a bit confused about the facts of his own life, like his fellow Connecticut resident Walter Mitty. Closer to home for us, it's like the time Pinya the Philosopher got carried away with his own speculations and went around telling everybody he had met the Czar and discussed Talmud with him. "Nicky is of the opinion," quoth Pinya, "that it is not sufficient to eat an olive's weight of matzah at Passover, as Our Sages say. You must eat a prune's weight instead."
"But," I said to the Czar, "surely that would upset our stomachs even more than an olive's weight?"
"Ah," said our wise and noble king, "but prunes loosen what the matzah tightens, is it not so?"
Notwithstanding the glorious wisdom of this idea, our friendly neighborhood Cossack, Ivan the Terribly Smelly, came on the scene at that moment and endeavored to relieve Pinya of his hallucination by beating him to within an inch of his life. We hope similarly harsh corrective measures are not required for Mr. Blumenthal.