If this doesn’t make you want to fly to Washington and smack your Congresscritter up side the head, nothing ever will. The Democrat-led Congress just gave itself an extra $93,000 in petty cash to spend.   But it’s okay because “it’s for spending on their constituents.”

Can I get in on this deal?  Can I just call up my (useless) Rep. and ask for some money and he’ll send some over?  You know, to help a constituent?   Is there some kind of form to fill out?

Never mind the record deficits. Never mind that ordinary Americans are struggling to pay their bills. Our Congress thinks it is far more important to be able to dole out perks to itself.  Imagine how much they would have given themselves if their approval rating got out of single digits.

Bunch of *bleeeeep*ers.

It has been awhile since we have written, partly because of the holidays, and partly because there is so much happening in such a short time, it is hard to keep up with the news. Of course, most of the time is taken to sort out the rhetoric from fact. That is the direction almost all of the the media has taken for several years. Doomsayers no matter what. But that goes without saying, you see it everyday. No matter what solution is that is provided, someone HAS to announce the doomsday effect the solution will have. And the politicians are doing the same.

I read several stories that sort of prove my point. One actually said the same thing, just a little more simpler. Part of the article states, “The financial system is still obviously under extreme pressure. It’s not hard to paint a dark picture. Global investors could panic and stop buying the bonds we issue and send interest rates higher. Oil prices could spike again for whatever reason. It’s not hard at all to be pessimistic.” Yup, and everyone is on THAT bandwagon.

With all of the possibilities and end results of President-elect Obama’s plans, it appears media and other various organizations have time to “analyze” what went wrong. Example: “To be sure, housing counselors acknowledge that some borrowers only have themselves to blame. They clearly got in over their heads and many knowingly took out risky loans. But they also say that mortgage brokers and lenders took advantage of the elderly, immigrants and the unsophisticated.”

Well, so now the elderly, immigrants and unsophisticated are at fault. Hmmm. In the same article, it mentions that one out of every four mortgage holders owe more than their property is worth. 13 million, I think they said. So that many people were taken advantage of?

Well, being in one of those minorities, (elderly), I take exception to this. Especially since in about 5 years, we, the elderly, will be the majority if all accounts are correct.

It seems to me that there is another matter that almost everyone has ignored. The lack of control. By the banks, the government, and the people themselves.

Loan officers made loans they KNEW would not hold up if anything happened, which it did. The housing market crashed and values dropped. But they were too busy making money TODAY. Ever run into a Loan officer who said, “No, I’m sorry, you don’t qualify?” And the banks were not the only ones.

The government has never had any real control over the financial markets. Otherwise, how would Mr. Madoff manage to run his scheme for years? How did Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac run their operations so sloppy? How did the SEC manage to not see all of the warning signs?

And as far as people, I think most figured, “if the bank says I can do this, so be it”. It does not matter what has been pounded into people’s heads for years. Do not get a mortgage that will exceed 30% of your disposable income. The mortgage is the most important purchase you will do in your life. Etc.

No, there is no one group of people who are responsible. There were a lot of groups not acting responsible. I think that started with Ex-president Clinton, when the government decided to stop holding to a higher level of ethics. And it has escalated since. For example, one of the news articles mentions a nominee who “forgot” to pay his taxes to the tune of $34,000. No matter what the reason, I would have wound up with a lien on my home and constant calls about where the money was. For this guy - “it was just a hiccup”, according to the alleged “leader” in Congress.

Before any of this is fixed, or can be, the government and the Congress needs to raise the level of ethics that they face and act by and stop condoning all of the little “hiccups”. There has been too many recognized and ignored. Convicted of 7 felony counts and still allowed to sit in Congress? That is to me, obscene.

General society will not turn things around until the government does - only then will the investors, bankers, government employees, etc. start being concerned and held responsible for their own actions. Then it will start rolling downhill and the general way of thinking will change. Then perhaps we can handle the billions of dollars going out in a responsible manner and end up with some good results.

Until then, I want to opt out.

Last October, 88-year-old Ohio resident Edna Jester decided she had enough of her neighbor’s children leaving toys on her property, so she refused to return a $15 football that landed in her yard. She ended up arrested for petty theft:

An elderly woman faces charges in a dispute with a neighbor over a football.

Police were called to the home of Edna Jester, 88, on Myrtle Avenue on Thursday, Oct. 16, around 6:30 p.m. Her neighbor, Paul Tanis, 40, told police his football landed in Jester’s yard. Tanis said Jester took the $15 football and refused to give it back.

Police asked Jester several times to return the football or face arrest. Jester told police she would not return the ball under any circumstances. Police then charged Jester with petty theft.

Let me get this straight, the parents are peeved over their poor little one’s losses of a few freaking footballs? And instead of telling their son that he needs to take some responsibility for his actions (he’s 14), they call the cops on her?  The old woman had made her concerns known and the parents ignored them. She acted to teach the children that throwing toys into her yard meant losing the toys. It seems the only alternative that the neighbors will accept is for the old woman to fetch the toys on demand or give the delinquents free run of her property.

Neighbors said there were two sides to the story and the prosecutor may have agreed since the case was later dropped. Now Edna has sued her neighbors:

“An 89-year-old Cincinnati area woman famously arrested for holding on to a neighbor kid’s football is now suing the boy’s parents. The lawsuit filed by Edna Jester’s attorney in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court claims she has suffered emotional distress because the next-door family’s footballs and other playthings keep landing in her yard.”

The neighbors, Paul and Kelly Tanis, say they have 5 kids and can’t afford a lawyer. But Mr. and Mrs. Tanis had no worries about the lawyer fees their 88-year-old neighbor might incur.  Boo-hoo-hoo.  Sorry, no sympathy from me.

My mom occasionally had problems keeping us five kids in perfect control, but such things did not happen to our toys. If we “lost” them in such a fashion, we went and begged for permission to get them, or to have them returned, and if we didn’t get them back, we had to do extra chores to earn the money to buy new ones.  We learned to avoid throwing things over fences…