The one good thing about all the wet weather we have been receiving is — leaky roofs will get fixed. 

It has been sort of a standing joke that some contractors fix leaks by placing drip pans above the ceiling tile.  This approach will work for a while as a little amount of water coming in will eventually evaporate, so all appears well.  Of course, then comes some really bad storms and the water is too heavy for the ceiling grid, and everything falls to the floor.

During my early childhood one of the rights of passage for boys in the family was being old enough to be allowed to climb on the roof of my grandparent’s farm house with a tar bucket to patch holes in the roof.  My older cousin, Eldon, seemed pleased that I was finally of age so as to get all that tar mess on me rather than him.  I was too naïve to know this wasn’t a plum job, but I just wanted to see the view from the roof top.  I loved going to that farm.  It had very basic electric lighting, no running water, no TV, heated by a coal oil stove, and had a privy out back.

Imagine my surprise when reading that the Homeland Security secretary, Janet Napolitano, has ordered all the illegal immigrants to be removed from jail and detention centers to be relocated to nicer facilities.  She is going to “convert hotels to detain noncriminal immigrants."

Wake up Janet. Aren’t these folks here illegally in the first place?  What seems to be the problem?  They weren’t getting the Spanish language version of Price is Right on the "jail cell" flat panel TV?  Maybe room service forgot the extra fluffy bath robes?  What have we become?

But on a brighter side, the country was able to apprehend that terroristic-acting six-year-old boy who brought a Cub Scout folding fork and spoon to school.  By golly, we would have sent the kid to reform school if it had not been for those nasty bloggers reporting the story.  “Zero tolerance” for a six-year-old but complete openness to people coming here illegally through leaky borders? In fact, we make it impossible for our law enforcement officers to enforce that law.

So how is all this going to affect me and my money?  Our politicians pass a bunch of feel-good laws which end up hurting everyone in the end.  Currently the new rules on mortgage lending will end up making it almost impossible for people to finance a fix-up or low-priced home with or without a bad roof.  The rules cost the lender too much and also contain too many trip wires to navigate.  Politicians have never put Johnny, the bad-boy mortgage broker, in the corner with a dunce hat.  They just penalize the whole class for that one bad apple because it’s easier and because they're as dumb as the dunce. 

We have a new internet gambling regulation, Reg. GG.  I thing it stands for Greed and Gullible.  It has the intent of stopping only the commercial side of internet gambling.  Guess what? Gaming sites just moved operations offshore to places like the Isle of Man to bypass the law.  If our government were the least bit serious about stopping this activity, they could just forbid any electronic transactions to a gambling site.  But then again, we have that lottery problem in every state and people really like watching the poker world series and so on. 

Gambling is a huge problem on and off the internet.  Kids here in Kansas can’t wait to turn eighteen because even though they can’t drink legally, the Oklahoma casinos are inviting them with open arms and free play money!  And to think Congress is worried about college-age students receiving credit cards, but not about high school kids going to casinos.  Give me a break. Is it just a coincidence that Harry Reid is from Nevada, the gaming capital of the world? 

Major investment banking operations are moving.  In London, the leak is so bad since the government has raised taxes, they don’t know what to do. Switzerland is more than happy to accommodate the banks.  Once they are gone, I wonder how much money that high tax rate will generate. 

In New York and Michigan companies are moving for the same reason. They're not sticking around Kansas, either. Rather than address the fact, these states have too high taxes and too high spending, they just cry to Uncle Sam and we just send them more of our freshly printed stimulus money.  I hope the feds are using soy ink.

You can’t fix leaks long term with drip pans. The ceiling will fall down. Sooner or later you are going to need to climb up on the roof and patch the holes.  

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Kansas Liberty columnist Bill Wyckoff is president of Labette Bank, a community bank with locations throughout southeast Kansas, and an occasional contributor to the Wall Street Journal and Fox Business News. He lives on a farm outside Altamont, Kan. A graduate of Kansas State University with an MBA from Southern Illinois University, he enjoys collecting antique John Deere tractors and driving his hemi orange Dodge Challenger. Email bwyckoff@labettebank.com

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