Shamelessness is apparently in style. Lately I've found myself reading the paper and watching cable news shows with mouth agape and mind boggled.

Did he really say that? With a straight face? Are they putting us on? They are, aren't they? Right?

Such questions lead to real frustration, and if you're not careful, the audacity of all this public shamelessness can be immobilizing.

If you have a normal conscience, see, you feel disoriented when your expectations of how public figures ought to behave are regularly thwarted. You start to wonder, Am I the one out of touch with reality? Is it me, or is it them?

In my struggle to handle this constant assault from the powers-that-be, I have drawn inspiration from a power-that-was.

From former state Rep. Frank LaGrotta, in fact. This may come as a surprise, since Harrisburg is a cesspool of shamelessness, but who says our legislators can't also be people of humor and imagination?

Of course, too much imagination can lead them astray, as when Mr. LaGrotta pleaded guilty last year to putting two "ghost" employees on his payroll. But I like to think he's atoning for that wrong by laying out for laymen just how corrupt the Harrisburg system is.

The Ellwood City Democrat has a new blog, "Politics As (NOT) Usual." He recently held forth on the Legislature's lavish per diems (it's worse than you think) and revealed the witty ditty a former colleague used to sing every morning at roll call. It's set to the tune of "Maria" from "West Side Story."

Per diem,
I just got another per diem
For coming to the Floor
And doing nothing more
All day...

It's genius! Defusing your potential guilt at soaking the taxpayers by making fun of yourself for doing so -- now that's sophisticated.

But why let the shameless have all the fun? Hoping that two songs do make a right, I propose a new version -- for House members still collecting per diems during the unconscionable budget impasse that's put so many unpaid state employees in crisis.

No budget
We've no work to do but we'll fudge it
We're fattening our stash
While staffers have no cash
For food ...

Once you indulge your inner lyricist, you'll find it cathartic. You'll look at news stories in a whole new way!

Take the nonstop hilarity coming from Mylan Inc., for instance. Last year when Heather Bresch, daughter of West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin, was promoted to chief operating officer, a routine inquiry from the Post-Gazette led to revelations that Ms. Bresch had not earned the M.B.A. she claimed. Scandal and multiple resignations at West Virginia University ensued.

Last week brought word that the FDA is investigating Mylan, the world's third-largest generic drug manufacturer, for violations of quality-control procedures -- and that Ms. Bresch, a former public relations executive, was moving up from COO to president.

For its collective ignorance of the word "propriety," I like to imagine Mylan's entire management team joining hands to sing:

We're shameless,
She faked her degree, but no diff'rence
Although those pesky feds
Are checking out our meds,
She's boss!

In Washington, President Barack Obama sat down for a beer Thursday with Henry Louis Gates Jr. and police Sgt. James Crowley. Post-summit, Dr. Gates was still hoping that his run-in with the law would teach white Americans something about the evils of racial profiling, even though the facts demonstrate that racial profiling had nothing to do with the Harvard scholar's arrest -- unless it was his profiling of the white cop.

I'm shameless
I don't need ID 'cause I'm famous
My speaking fees are tops
For slandering good cops -
Now, cheers!

Mr. Obama can get back to rescuing Americans from the high cost of health care by shattering his already-record budget deficits:

A bunion!
The fee to remove it -- 2 million!
State subsidies are grand --
They'll bring healing to our land
For free!