I agree with the irony of what Keillor says here as well. There is, in our generational rooting about the barnyard, the same old gap in understanding of those who are not just like us.

My dad and my grandfather and dad were grocers. Italian grocers with little stores that served the immediate needs of the locals before supermarkets. Things were pretty black and white to them. They fed the people; the people paid them.

Amidst baskets of locally produced potatoes and squash lined up in front of the store was a mindset of hard work as meaning in itself. The potatoes still had soil on them, the squash sometimes too. It was evidence of hard work.

There was no hope about the future only the truth of now. No Dow to worry about as these men did not invest a single dollar of their savings in anything speculative. "You have to save it to have it...so save your money" They put their money in passbook accounts, CD's and envelopes hidden around the house.

They did good, not speculating about the market or thinking about their ship coming in. The ship they were riding on was good. And they saved their money without ever thinking about doubling it's value or losing it in a run on the money. They saved it, like the farmers picked the potatoes and squash, one piece at a time.

I should have not have been so surprised when in the seventies they did not understand my desire to run off and play music for a living and to be so esoteric that I could not understand myself. They couldn't understand.

So, as Garrison seemingly rails away, he knows what I know. for me, it is how my youngest has no concept of anything beyond hope.."going to be rich one day!"

Well these damned young people just don't know hard work like me. I'm not rich and will never have a shot at it. but I do know hard work and I do know of the shaky Dow.

My future, which my dad (who still has more money than he'll ever need at 81) is tied to the Dow. As I keep pressing maturity of self and securities out further and further hoping to make sense of it...well, I never know what to make of these damned kids and their lack of effort.

I keep thinking I will retire early on what little I have left from my raided pension and paltry 401K. It's OK, I will still play music on weekends to make ends meet...still looking for hope. Damn.

I didn't follow the Bonds thing until recently. But if what I hear is true, I would say baseball and Bonds supporters should feel some shame in accepting his entrance into a club that was built without performance enhancing drugs.

IF it is true that he won't be tested....can that really happen? ...then we are a sad lot not looking ro reqward achievement but to feed our own twisted need for gratification via Bonds.

I hope it isn't so,but if it is it is a far greater threat to baseball than Pete Rose ever could be.

I feel the real point is being missed in the sub-prime panic that is hitting the market. It isn't the sub-prime lending, it is what led to such large numbers of people becoming sub-prime candidates it is too much credit.

As I see it the individual has a credit bucket to use. We,as a nation selling things to consume can produce far more product than real wages can pay for on a daily basis.The solution for the consumer and the producer? Consumer credit, lots of it...more than one can withstand.

The means of production requires vast spedning,we slowly fill our credit buckets to the point where we cannot pay our debts properly. Now add the need for the housing industry to get their fair share of growth (thus stabalizing the country...or so it would seem)and sub-prime lending arrives.

All those alreaedy at the brink are then tossed over the cliff at some point when they can't meet their payments,and there is no turning back from this. Extreme debt, once created is real and devastating.

Don't forget to add solid credit risks are defaulting in record numbers too. Why, the lure of our consumer driven way of life. "I can get more." So solid borrowers borrow too much and get burned as well. We've tipped the entire marketplace with too much credit and not enough savings for purchases.

We've only seen the beginning of where this is headed. We are talking about the synmptom, not the disease when we focus on the default rate.

....is good!

This already very sick organization is now coming clean that people and God are not their prime goals in care-taking and teaching.

No god can accept anything less than justice for the crimes of so many against our children.

Are the Catholic leaders whining because they fear frivolous claims or have they simply done the math by looking at what has been on the books for years?

Frankly, they should get what they deserve. Keeping your pants on solves the problem, oh holy ones.