And we are all stupid sometimes. We get stupid when we aren't the expert for a topic. Plain and simple. And how many people are experts in Law? Experts in Politics? Finance? Computer repair? Garment Manufacture?

The thing is, who do you complain to when your expert doesn't do the work you expect them to? What if the lawyer doesn't get the case right, the doctor slips and tears and organ? Who do you complain to when the building contractor uses substandard materials or illegal workers? Who do you complain to when you are sold something that isn't what you were told it was?

The big issue is we have been collectively stupid about finance, and we're paying the price for it. Brokers, Bankers, Consumers, which group's responsibility was it to know what they were getting into? All of them. It was all their responsibility. The bankers should offer programs that they're willing to take the risk on. Brokers should deal with the deals that are most likely to go through, and home-buyers should know what they can and cannot finance.

What I DON'T hear people saying are the stories from those three groups acting responsibly, toward their neighbor. You don't hear stories of banks talking to brokers about the products they're offering, you aren't hearing stories of the brokers that went the extra mile to make sure their customers were getting deals they could afford, or that the programs they were pushing were being advertised correctly. And we certainly aren't hearing anything about the home owners that educated others about finances and what's affordable.

We do hear stories about self-righteous people that made the right decision for themselves, the people that talk about how they set up nice mortgages for themselves. The flip side is how many of these self-righteous tried to help others in their situation? How many brokers told clients they couldn't afford something? How many banks verified the information that the broker got for them, and then consulted with the homeowner so they knew what they were getting into?

I guess what I am saying is I am reading a lot of finger pointing and people saying they didn't do anything wrong, when a lot of them could be saying they didn't do anything right.

... to make note of someone using the system for something that it was not meant for? For calling out abuses while children seem to suffer for it?

Well then, we need more heartless writers. I do not begrudge the officer that is told to step aside because of an injury received, just like I find it hard to imagine that Mr. Keillor would begrudge the life that a service person devotes to our military. In FACT, Mr. Keillor says nothing against the person that HAS served with dignity.

If someone has not served with dignity, and feels they need to defend themselves to a column that aims itself at those that do not need society's kindness, that sounds more like someone with a guilty conscious, not Mr. Keillor somehow being a blowhard. Mr. Keillor calls out police and railroad pensions, not military pensions, nor medical pensions, or government worker pensions. "Ask what you can do for your country" isn't all about the nation. I look in the cube next to me and I see our country. I look at the apartments in my complex, and I see the country. Everywhere around you people are hurting from the economy, and we're defending people that abuse a system that's there to catch us when we hurt ourselves in the name of helping?

The only problem with socialism is humanity. There will always be the individuals that do not want the rest of us to succeed. They see us as the suckers. They see us as the rubes. They see us as the marks that play by the rules, and they believe it is their right to take advantage of the system. They argue that we would too, given the opportunity, while only assuaging their own, insignificant, feelings of guilt.

So it is with Rush. He's taking advantage of the disaffected to make money off their misery. OF COURSE Rush wants President Obama to fail. If President Obama succeeds, the masses that listen to Rush will be better off, he'll lose credibility, and have to live like the people that used to listen to his show. Rush is only there to tell the arch-conservative that, despite reality's view to the contrary, their views are still relevant and worthy of discussion.