Today, I learned, albeit a little late, of just how much the federal government wants to get involved in our lives. On April 15, 2008, Congressman Peter DeFazio, a Democrat from Oregon (I’ll get around to using the more conventional “D-OR” eventually,) introduced the Halting Airplane Noise to Give Us Peace Act or HANG UP Act. It was cosponsored by 24 other representatives and reported by committee, The Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, on July 31, 2008. WHAT??? Who are these people representing? According to the congressman, 63% of those responding to a poll sponsored by The Association of Flight Attendants do not want to see the ban on cell phone use in aircraft lifted. What are the actual numbers of the poll? The argument is that cell phone use will disrupt the comfort of an entire cabin. OK, maybe. What about the screaming babies? I can’t think of anyone who can stand that. Can we legislate that until a child is of an age where they won’t cry or throw a fit, they can’t be allowed on the aircraft? What about the obnoxiously chatty couple next to you? What if I don’t want to deal with the flickering lights during the movie? No movies? Why don’t we just make a law that says once you enter the aircraft, you sit down, shut up and only speak when a flight attendant speaks to you?! Let’s go another direction. What about cell phone conversations in restaurants or movie theaters? I know there is most likely an overwhelming majority of people that this bothers. The fact is you can’t outlaw poor manners. We can politely ask someone who is being inconsiderate to please stop, can’t we? Or do we need the government to come in and do everything for us? Representative John Mica, R-FL (there, I did it) said it best, “You are trying to legislate courtesy, folks, and that just doesn’t work.” Thankfully this atrocity was never voted on.

Now for some really good news: I’m happy to report that the people in Oregon, Indiana, California, Minnesota, Arkansas, Hawaii, Colorado, New Jersey, Texas, Washington, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Illinois, and North Carolina have absolutely no problems.

And so it goes….  The American people are outraged about what has happened to our economy and how it happened.  The Congress is NOW also outraged.  The Administration is outraged.  It reminds me of a line from The Hudsucker Proxy, “Norville, you let me down. You let Mrs. Eisenhower down. You let the American people down.”  Just substitute Wall Street or US Government for Norville depending on who you want to blame.  Who is to blame?  There really is plenty to go around.  Time released its “25 People to Blame for the Financial Crisis”, so they have their ideas.  Here are mine starting from the top:

1. The people.  Everyone seems to be looking for a way to get rich without any effort.  “Let’s buy a house today, sell it a year later and make $50k.”  That’s quite a turnaround.  I saw that in action when I bought my house in Maryland in 2003.  The woman selling it lived in it less that 18 months and wanted to make a $50k profit, even though it was obvious she put nothing into the home.  At least do SOMETHING to improve the residence.  The houses I viewed prior to that were pathetic, but the owners wanted an amount that in previous years would have been not only unreasonable, but unthinkable.  Realtors wouldn’t have even shown those places, let alone look at me with a straight face expecting me to even think about buying.  What happened to working for your living?  An economy can’t be founded on house flipping and loans based on probable equity.  I don’t think our parents and grandparents who weathered the Great Depression and The Second World War really had this spoiled mentality in mind when they tried to protect us from deprivation.

2.  The Government.  Notice that I didn’t say The Administration.  Massachusetts Democrat Congressman Barney Frank, Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, would like everyone to believe him when he says that “The private sector got us into this mess.”  However, he continued to argue against the Bush Administration about the financial health of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  Well, we know now how healthy they really were.  But the Bush Administration could have done things as well.  It’s not like they wanted the housing bubble to end.  My guess is they might have put the brakes on a bit, but certainly not ended it.  How often did they make public speeches arguing for more regulation?  No, they needed the economy to just keep going so the people wouldn’t focus on Iraq.  You can’t have failed International AND Domestic policies.

3.  The Street.  They are what brought the economy to a screeching halt.  But they are only the instrument.  The government allowed them to do it.  Does anyone really consider Wall Street to be a philanthropic entity?  C’mon!!!  We look at the executives, CEO’s and other financial giants with awe and wish we were in their shoes.  We’re TRYING to get to where they are.  There are great men on Wall Street who are charitable and not thinking only of themselves…just not that many.  The capitalist engine runs on greed.  In fact, without greed, you probably can’t truly have capitalism.  Some government regulation is necessary as is individual responsibility for personal finances. 

I look at it this way:  If your computer crashes and you lose ALL of your work, do you blame the computer?  The manufacturer of the system?  Yourself?  My first reaction is always to curse the computer.  Then I curse the company that made it.  However, there are any number of DIVERSE ways to mitigate the loss if that happens.  The best way is to regularly back up your work.  For things that you truly can’t afford to lose, they can be backed up to multiple locations.  You will lose some things to be sure, just not everything.  You could have done better research of the manufacturer of your system.  If they had a bad track record, you could have bought a different system.  If enough people do that, then the company will REFORM how it builds computers.  (Of course, they were having a sale you just HAD to buy it.)  This is obviously oversimplified, and the crisis has many sides.  However, we need to start expecting less of others and more of ourselves.  Hold the politicians accountable.  Don’t look to them to save you from yourself, but force them to act in the best interest of the nation as a whole and do your part.  Don’t be lazy!  The internet is a great tool to research your representative, senator and president.  VOTE!!!  And not just in the national elections.  We need to start bringing action to the local level.  Stop looking to the market to make you rich overnight.  It happens, just not that often.  You most likely have as much of a chance playing the lottery.  The challenge?  Put down the remote control (or game control) and step away from the TV.  Now get out there and get active!

Alabama, USA - 10 dead.  Winnenden, Germany - 17 dead.  Two days, two murder sprees.  I’m particularly moved this morning by the recent killings because I used to walk The Boys in the fields and forests near Winnenden.  And so, I’m simply going to enter a poem by Michael Shepherd:

A grief ago

‘There is no grief
which time does not lessen
or soften’ -
so said Cicero, a man so often right;
a Stoic, those for whom
all life presents a lesson
to be learned from,
and then, to move on from..

But I wonder about all this:
is grief ever lessened or softened?
Is it not, perhaps, overlaid
in our so various ways?

For some, grief framed and falsified
to ease that grief;

For some, like hyacinths and crocus bulbs,
left in a dark cupboard in the autumn of our grief
to respond to time, and
become at last
themselves?

gently, gently, the covers pulled
over the loving bed,
the true, the pure, the lovely painful grief,
the memory deep cherished,
gently, gently, folded
into the cupboards of the heart

there to be known, without the door disturbed
until the time – ‘a grief ago’ as Dylan wrote -
the cupboard opened only for love’s sake
without grief…:
those carefully folded memories
brought out and loved
and lived a while…

not grief, not grief…but
the pure memory of grief

and behold,
life.

I love WordPress.  I haven’t explored it in depth enough to be  an expert.  I’m not sure I’ve ever explored anything enough to be considered an expert.  It seems that with a little work, you can really be creative with a blog.  My chiropractor in Maryland uses WordPress for his website rather than using more complicated web authoring software.  The one thing that does bother me at this point though is I seem to be upgrading every time I turn around.  It’s free.  It’s not difficult.  It’s not time consuming.  It’s not even really necessary.  But I do it anyway.   Time to upgrade….

This isn’t your grandparent’s (or great-grandparent’s) depression.  That’s right!  I said the “D” word.  I think, short of political cowardice, the government is going to have to call this what it is.  Of course, they won’t do that yet.  It seems these things are easier to determine after they have been going on for some time.  It took nearly a year, and the crash of Wall Street in October, to force the governments of the major economies to spit out the dreaded “R” word.  Now, depending on the organization, there are a couple of definitions for a recession.  Not so for a depression.  Ever since the Mother of all Depressions, The Great Depression, no politician has used the term.  We had a few before then though.  The Long Depression of 1873 to 1879 was The Great Depression until the 1930’s.  Is it possible that we have avoided them since then?  Learned our lessons?  Doubtful.  I think politicians just fear public retribution if a catastrophe of that magnitude occurs on their watch.  Murray N. Rothbard referred to the 81 – 83 recession as a depression in his Introduction to the Fourth Edition of his book, America’s Great Depression.  Could it have been?  I’m no economist, so I don’t know.  I have read articles where some of today’s economists are stepping up and saying that we are now in a depression.  The comparison’s to the two are striking.  In fact, and again, I’m no expert, the largest difference I’ve been able to find, is that their are protections in place to protect people from losing their savings and governments are jumping into action to keep the banks afloat, unlike the Hoover Administration.  But are those measures going to prevent a depression, or just minimize the length of time we’re in it.  I guess we’ll have to wait and see.