This is like asking "Are liberals guilty of ..." when somebody who was once in jail kills somebody because they weren't locked up for life. If anybody is responsible for his fear, it is the NRA which is supported by conservatives and moderates and even a few liberals who believe their nonsense about the threats to gun ownership in America. It is the people in Congress - both Republican and Democrat - who feed those fears in order to get elected (does anybody else remember Obama's position on gun control - for, and then against when it started to cost him votes). But it is primarily the result of a paranoid idiot who lost his temper.

Not everything is political. Really. We are feeding a civil war in this nation, and it's time that somebody started focusing on those who are causing the problems instead of simply reducing the nation into "us" and "them".

I can see that you're working very hard to find a balance in which you can love your family while being the person you are, not the person they want you to be. That's tough. But please don't lie to yourself in the process. Find things to like about "Rusty", because it would be rude to reject him at Christmas, but don't try to tell yourself that what he says doesn't matter. More than any other single person, this man has led to political anger and divisions between the right and the left. He has hurt families by encouraging people to reject loved ones for trivial political reasons. He has hurt the nation by encouraging his supporters to vote for people who do not represent their interests. If he actually doesn't believe what he is saying, then it's even worse - he's done all of this to make money, not to actually promote his personal views. That's vile. He's vile. But you don't have to love everybody in your family in order to recognize that it would hurt people you DO love to reject them outright. He's not a mass murderer. You can be polite to him. But don't lie to yourself about him, please.

It's not a matter of Krugman being right about Bush. A lot of people were right about him. It was HOW he was right - he made rational arguments against Bush's policies, helping people to understand why Bush was wrong. This was at a time when most columnists were either worshipping Bush or ranting at him irrationally.

As for Enron... I fail to see how a person who advised Enron on economic matters should be expected to have insider knowledge about their accounting crimes. Nobody knew about what they were doing until it exploded.

He's been a sane voice in the political wilderness for years. He seems to be able to rise above partisanship and cut right to the heart of economic, and often political, issues. He will criticize whoever is in power if he thinks they are wrong, and he has the knowledge (and the credentials) to do it in a way that convinces people to question their own preconceived ideas. When people start raving about great depressions or the end of the U.S. as we know it, I remind myself that Krugman hasn't given up yet. I trust him to tell me when he see's that things are beyond redemption. It's nice to have somebody to really trust.

My Canadian immigrant husband was shocked to learn about the concept of "at will" employment. In Canada, especially in Quebec, companies actually have to provide a reason to rid themselves of a person. If they lay somebody off and hire another person for the same job within 6 months then they are subject to a lawsuit. It can actually be difficult to even get rid of a bad employee. But at least people are protected from employers who simply don't care about employees. In California, I know that I could be laid off tomorrow with no reason given even though I've worked at the same company over a decade. It has happened before with people who had been there nearly as long. I will have no recourse. If they choose, they could easily find an excuse to fire me and avoid paying increased unemployment. We are all aware of this, and end up living in fear.

We fear "socialism" so much in our society that we aren't going to fix this problem, either. Even in difficult times, with 10% unemployment, the media are focuses, as you pointed out, on the corporations suffering, as if they actually have emotions. Newsflash: the majority of businesses "hurting" in this economy are led by people whose only suffering will involve not being able to go buy a $2,000,000 house instead of a $1,000,000 house. The people who are suffering are almost universally the poor and middle class (who are increasingly becoming like the poor). Employers have also got a perfect excuse to not give raises, thus effectively cutting our pay as inflation eats away at it.