Michaele and Tareq Salahi, the reality show wannabes accused of crashing a White House state dinner, have set me thinking in strange ways, which will come as no surprise to my regular readers.

They have underscored for me the unfairness of life. How come they got to hobnob with the elite when we the people stayed home and watched the telly? You can easily blame lax White House security but another factor had to be in play for the situation to be exploited and it was this: These two have more brass than a brass-monkey factory.

This is the way of the world. We the decorous ones, the polite and unassuming, the followers of the rules, just get to stay home while the likes of Michaele and Tareq go out and have a swell time.

We can wish this unfairness away. We can hope that a great freeze will come and unman the products of brass-monkey factories but justice doesn't occur in such convenient ways. It may be that they have already suffered their worst punishment - to have met Vice President Joe Biden, putting their ears at risk of post-bashing syndrome.

Unfortunately, the real unfairness is that Michaele and Tareq have what it takes to succeed in this world. They have gumption, enterprise, get-up-and-go, egos like blimps and apparently no sense of manners (although they insist they were invited).

The whole system of life is rigged in their favor. There are Michaeles and Tareqs everywhere in every field, doing very nicely, thank you.

Those of us who were taught to be respectful and not be pushy have as our reward many quiet and unexciting moments in which to watch others frantically climb to fame and fortune, because they had the get-up-and-go - whereas we had the sit-down-and-stay.

Not that I am bitter. I like to sit down and stay and I don't seek fame. I want my dog to be able to come up and wag his tail at me without first getting an appointment through my agent.

But still the unfairness lingers - and I am not talking about allegedly crashing a state dinner.

In my reckoning, it is what is at the heart of much of the current unhappiness in the country. We have an idea of what life should be like and in most respects it is a fantasy. Worse yet, it has lately been revealed as a fantasy.

Those tea-bag protesters who have been railing against the unfairness of it all may be a little confused - well, not just a little - but their bellows are genuine enough.

They have come to regard the free enterprise system as some sort of moral enterprise, instead of the dog-eat-dog contest it really is (not my dog, he stays home and wags his tail). They have been taught that if you work hard, obey the laws, salute the flag, everything will be sweet. No, it won't.

Where was the sweetness when the public's money was used to bail out financial institutions and then stimulate industries led by executives whose giant salaries had pre-stimulated their egos?

And you know the most galling part? The creeping realization, perhaps even to the most obtuse tea-bag protester, that this spending was absolutely necessary to save the whole system from complete ruin. It turns out that the economy isn't a moral machine delivered by the hand of the Almighty but just another pump that has to be primed (with our money).

Hurrah for us! And if you don't like it, you can vote the rascals out. Yes, this is a democracy and you have a choice of which special interests you prefer to rule your representatives.

You can vote for the party that mocks decent values and is cozy with religious zealots or you can vote for the party that mocks decent values and attracts people who prefer a secular outlook.

In other words, you can vote with the audacity of hope for change you believe in or you can believe with amnesia in the status quo you hope won't change. Either way, you will be left up a murky creek and the only question is whether you will still have a paddle.

Yes, I know the saying: Life is unfair, deal with it. While this is usually said by people happy about the unfairness, I agree with the basic idea - but I reckon trying to make life fair is the best way to deal with it.

Perhaps we could start modestly with a social climber alarm at the White House, which might have thwarted Michaele and Tareq Salahi and their undignified pursuit of dignitaries.

Reg Henry is a columnist for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.