This Cox firing thing is a complete red herring. The SEC is charged with reviewing securities fraud and requiring transparency in public corporations. That has very little to do with the current mess. Nobody is saying that is what happened here. In the heyday of the dot com boom and with Enron and Worldcom there were clearly cases of companies cooking the books and manipulating stock prices for their own gain.

The current crash is fueled by improper lending practices and a real estate bubble. The big banks are responsible here, as well as millions of private citizens who borrowed more than they could afford on the prayer that they could flip their houses for a profit if payments went too high. This has nothing to do with the purview of the SEC. If anyone is responsible, it would be the Treasury Department or the Federal Reserve, both of whom had the clout to step in and stop these practices early.

McCain's attack on Cox is particularly craven. If he wants to blame a big name, he should consider the Secretary of the Treasury or former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan. But no Republican has the guts to denounce the sainted Alan Greenspan.

The last thing, and I mean the very last thing, we need right now is a convenient scapegoat. This market crash has exposed several structural weaknesses in our economy, including addiction to oil and our propensity to borrow our way out of any economic pinch.

Blaming this on the SEC is like blaming global warming on Big Oil. It accomplishes nothing, and fails to address the underlying fault: America's eyes are too big for its stomach.

...because I knew the lunatics would come out of the woodwork. And I was not disappointed.

How do I know vaccines don't cause autism? I guess I don't, but then I also can't prove the Apollo program wasn't a hoax. I can't prove HIV wasn't invented by a CIA scientist. Or that the Pope isn't behind global warming.

Think about it for a moment. There isn't bedrock proof that vaccines don't cause health problems, but why does it have to be vaccines? Maybe cell phone towers cause autism. Or elevated C02 levels. Or the heavy metals used to manufacture the computer on your desk.

These are all possibilities. They are just as likely as vaccines to have done it -- after all, C02 levels and consumer electronics and heavy use of radio frequency channels all started around the time autism began to spike. So did the use of plastic. None of them have been disproved as causes of autism. Does that mean you are going to throw away your cell phone and your computer? If you believe autism is caused by vaccines, then you should. Because somebody said it could be true. I said it could be true.

Or you could get a brain and decide you are not going to ignore the preponderance of scientific evidence just because there is a scintilla of doubt. You can! It works! Use your cell phone! Use your computer! Wait until you have reasonable proof before you jump off that cliff!

Get a life!

On Friday, I plan to buy the entire stock market for a dollar. On Monday, Congress will bail it out. Next Tuesday, they'll be carving my face into Mt. Rushmore.

On a more somber note, I agree with the other writers who say we should not expect too much. Congress didn't stand up to Bush on Iraq, on FISA, on the budget, on subpoenas, or on the impeachment issue. Why would they stand up to him now?

Minor correction: The article says the future of capitalism will be decided this week. That is incorrect, sir. The future of AMERICAN capitalism will be decided this week. Capitalism is doing just fine, thanks -- in China. And that's where the world financial capital could be in about a month.

I'm no expert in this area, but I have been told that electric cars last for ever and ever. Electric motors are off when the car is still, which means no wear and tear for idling. Driving 20 miles in bumper to bumper commuter traffic causes only slightly more wear than 20 miles of highway driving. Also, since electric engines do not idle the transmission linkage is very simple. Which means no more transmission repairs.

The Volt will have a small gas engine that requires upkeep, but this is a car that could go 50,000 miles or more without servicing. Not so for the Prius, which is a conventional car in terms of gear linkage.

If the Volt is built right, it could last 20-30 years. That, of course, assumes GM will overcome the quality issues that have plagued it in the past.

I also might add that the differential cost between electricity and gas will probably increase with no end in sight. This will be especially true if electric companies turn to more solar, wind, and nuclear in the future.