In Inmates Are About to Take Charge

Over the past decade, a lot of unscrupulous people in the financial world took more and more chances -- and riskier and riskier chances -- with depositors’ money. That led us into a near melt-down of the entire economy. And while they were doing that, the people at the top of the pile added multi-million dollar bonuses to their multi-million dollar salaries.

We can and should condemn them. But the harsh reality is that people running businesses in this country will push the envelope as far as they can in the name of profit … for themselves and, if it’s a public company, for their stockholders. That’s just the way it is. It’s our system.

And if they discover they can get away with six inches, they’ll see if they can stretch it to a foot. If they get away with a foot, they’ll keep it up … until someone in authority makes them stop. That, too, is our system. Or at least it has been.

Now we have Ron Paul about to take over an important House committee that has jurisdiction over the Federal Reserve. And he says we don’t need to regulate the banks.

Ron Paul is a libertarian ideologue and an arrogant fool.

The people who believe him are just fools.
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Doing Their Best to Create a Successful Disaster

The far-right crazies like Minnesota Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann and Glenn Beck of Fox 'News' think the 2010 Census is an insidious plot and are urging people not to comply by refusing to fill out most of the information asked for on the census forms.

Bachmann has warned people not to report the number of family members in the household because she’s afraid the government will use that information to round people up and throw them into concentration camps. (Yes, she really did … and you’re right: she’s completely batty.)

Of course, the Census is used by the federal government – and state and local governments, too – to determine how much funding should go to towns and cities and counties and states. Or how many police are needed. Or if a new fire station is warranted. So the people who believe Bachmann or Beck and do as they ask could end up short-changing their own communities. But there’s another wonderful irony to this lunacy because information gathered by the Census is also used to determine if the population of a district has grown enough to warrant an additional state senator or member of Congress.

And, since these loonies are invariably Republicans (with an occasional Libertarian thrown in), guess which political party stands to lose out if any significant number of people do what these ding-bats are asking!

Right! And if that isn’t justice, I don’t know what is.