When disaster strikes who do we protect? When Pompeii was destroyed people huddled together and died. When the Titanic sank, some brave souls helped others to safety, but mothers put their arms out to their own children, a husband reached to reassure his own wife. When we fled our home last year ahead of a killer tornado, we sat together in a storm shelter. When disaster strikes we instinctively reach to save those we know best, our beloved family and friends.

When this country began to feel the tremblings of an economic earthquake, who did the Congress reach out to protect? Big business interests. We would hear the media quote Congress members as saying that they always listen to their constituents, and that consumer spending made up over two-thirds of the economic activity of this nation. So when individual consumers began to lose that ability to spend money did Congress rush to the side of the tax-paying voter and offer aid and comfort? No, they passed new legislation that made declaring personal bankruptcy more difficult and humiliating to obtain. When families were leaving their only home with no idea of where they would spend that night or any other, or even have a legal address anymore, was Congress quick to extend lines of credit to the working-class citizen? No, they began offering to the banks and lending companies that had repossessed the private property multi-billion dollar packages of aid.

It seems to me that the "nearest and dearest" to Congress is the financial industry. I don't think they know the tax-payers, the citizens, the voter.

We give them positions and funding and like a very young child they simply see us as providers. Most parents know that a critically important lesson that children must learn to survive is the power of "Please" and "Thank you." The true power of these phrases properly applied is to acknowledge the provider of all that you possess. A baby simply cries and reaches out, and the parent is enchanted. But as a person grows up, they must learn to request what is wanted in a way that is respectful if they wish to continue to receive. Anyone can grab something away, but you will probably one get to do it one time.

Right now it feels like Congress is desperately grabbing anything from anybody standing near enough to wrap up, coddle and protect their baby: Finance. Notice the outrage over the A.I.G. bonuses. Anger at individual tax-paying employed citizens, no anger at the corporate entity. The corporation must be protected by Congress at all costs, human lives are expendable. The taxpayers funds Congress and all its games. It is easy to get angry at the large financial corporations, but who created them? Actually the answer is Congress. Who wrote the laws that allowed less-than-transparent business practices? Who passed legislation that required the banks to write loans to people who were not qualified for the level of lending? Who can point fingers at others better that a first-grader? Who reinstated the mark-to-market rule?

The weirdest thing about trying to figure out what Congress is doing, is the totally schizophrenic feel to everything about them.

Deep into Hayek's "The Road to Serfdom." It causes me to stop and think that many authors from the first half of the twentieth century felt the need to clearly define the terms they used in non-fiction works. Working through Chapter 3 and he is still clarifying what the terms used to mean, what some other people have used them to mean, and what he means when he uses them for the rest of the book. Extreme hot button words like "liberal" "socialism" and "planning" become sharp and clear when viewed from these three points of view. Lewis and Huxley share this trait. If you read these authors carefully, you must form an opinion on what they say. But I am afraid that some people cannot "learn" a new definition of a word. To imagine that someone else means something different when they pronounce that set of sounds is impossible for them. I have seen it on the faces of students who were not mentally ready for the challenge of the work in front of them. I believe they could learn it if they could be roused from the mental slumber that their environment has lulled them to.

Roman Bread and Circuses.

The weather is slowing improving. After the ice storm, of course, *anything* would feel better!
The gardens are starting to return to life and the lilac's buds are showing. And the cats are spring-crazy.

The workload is going well. But I wonder about what people don't seem to care if I see. Some of the files on units I have worked on, are at least of questionable taste. Some might be illegal. Can I collect hazardous duty pay for finding out things that I absolutely do not want to know about a customer? Will insurance pay for brain-bleach?

Probably not.

I am going to try to tie all my online points of presence onto my main website. Stuff like flickr, facebook and even blogger just sort of grow and get weedy. I think this will be much better.