Yes Tina, we did all go mad. We sit here bemoaning the daily assault of news as it scrolls past with those unprecedented numbers tick tocking along, I have been saying (to myself only) look in the mirror! My friends don't want to be reminded of the foolish mistakes they have made with their money or their votes, so I remain discreet. Bushrule famously led us to "go shopping" for America. Republican Senators union busting, wars without end, Wall Street liars poker, credit default swaps, foreign oil binge drinking, constitution ignoring, science defying, marriage denying, sex decrying, Madness. I am horrified that this is how Bushrule has ended, but not surprised. I am awestruck at the monumental enormity of the steaming heap of a country left to us after W. Mission Accomplished, W. I saw the 60 minutes piece you referred too, and I also fumbled my glass when the acupuncturist said she was too busy to pay attention to the details. Personal responsibility is a lost virtue, apparently. Perhaps I shall start a blog with all my parent's clich�s as a reminder to all of us ..... waste not want not being the first on the list.

Those were five simple words, not six. See, you're right, even our most basic approach to numbers is wacked.

More. More. More. It has been a crazed decade, indeed.

I think that we were (are? Is it over?) stuff-mad. It seems that everyone I know is drowning in a sea of stuff.

Is this a substitute for time? If you have time, you have the ability to think, dream, feel, all essential to being really alive.
Is it possible to rediscover time?

I would argue this country has been off track for quite some time. It's gotten worse in the past 30 years while people fell for the illusion we could have it all and not pay. We hated taxes. We loved our credit cards. We bullied the entire world without a thought. To blame the corruption greed and general lack of morality that accompanied the actions of the very rich, their political party, president and government on something in the stars or an arbitrary calendar reminds me of the line from Julius Caesar,

"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
but in ourselves..." --From Julius Caesar (I, ii, 140-141)

it all bush's fault. our loss of community. but, as billy boy rises to flap his wings and mouth worldwide, i freeze thinking his antics pushed us off a parsed precipice towards the hell that welcomes us.

I'm sorry to see people and foundations lose copious amounts of money, but I'm also happy this is happening. Our world is way too complex. What happened to the simple, good life?

The Bush dynasty was morally bankrupt long before W. was installed by Cheney's Supreme Court hunting buddy.

We should never have seen an Iraqi reporter throwing shoes at Bush, because an American judge should have thrown the book at Bush first.

The financial and economic chaos of today is a complicated weed whose main feeding root was predatory lending. The realities of this are simple to comprehend yet we do not advance towards outlawing usury. The voluminous small print in many contracts is often concocted by lawyers for the lenders with an intent if not to baffle then to deceive. How close is the analogy of pushers and addicts to predatory lenders and idiot borrowers? Close enough, I suspect.

Some percentage of any population will have personality disorders; when one has worked its magic in a manner involving money, the fault remains with the personality disorder, not with money. That is to say, let's not condemn the normal and healthy motivation for profit simply because one or more disordered minds have not received adequate mental health assistance.

I am not inclined to talk about what "we" did wrong during the Bush presidency, as I called Nancy Pelosi's office countless times to state that I favored holding Bush accountable . .. through impeachment and removal from office . . .. for his war crimes.

The Y2K panic is the perfect analogy. How much of this wealth was real and how much of it was nothing but squiggles on a computer screen? The (Buddhist?) notion that all this world is an illusion becomes more solid every day.

For years and years, the wealthy and their minions have defined what is art, what is worthwhile, what is genuine. To them all, I say: "Welcome to my world. The complaint line forms at the rear."

Some of us have had enough of this "Sympathy for the Devil" nonsense (when Mick Jagger sings "Who killed the Kennedys--well, after all, it was you and me.") Well, it was not you and me. A select group of criminals has done this to us. We are not part of the "we" mentioned here. In fact, in a more ordered or at least more rational society, the carts heading toward the guillotines would be rolling right now.

Before this latest round of mega-financial disasters, there was the garden-variety problem of people overextending via credit cards and home equity loans. Tina asks "did we all go mad." 1) We didn't "all" go mad. As one who has lived within our means while watching others "live the good life," I'm prettyPO'ed about all these revelations and feel that I have been stolen from. 2) This latest round shows that even millionaires are apparently not immune to influence of crass commercialism spearheaded by Madison Avenue.

It's never enough, is it? Greedy investors enable the con men. Can't say I'm heartbroken.

When Madoff say's that he alone, not his brother, or sons, is completely reponsible for this "Ponsi scheme, did he have that same sly smile. He should have. No one, and I mean no one, is going to believe this fairly tale.

When religion and the moral standards it embodies are bullied from the public square by the secular state, it's a natter of time before the fallout spreads to the foundations of society. Look at your own country, the land of empty churches, which is even farther along the road to collapse. With you leading the way, I expect hand-wringing over the future to become ultra-chic.

Madoff and others like him who have extorted money from unsuspecting people, are examples of the sociopathic/psychopathic personality. They are narcissists who think only of fulfilling their own needs regardless of the damage it inflicts upon others. In fact, they are incapable of understanding the feelings and needs of others. They are charming, confident, and immediately like-able, hence their ability to draw others into their schemes.

There's no loss of time to think, we have too much time to think in the 24-7 world.
Ironically we've become psychologically paralyzed by too much thinking, too many choices so we just keep accumulating stuff. Does one wear the black shoes with one buckle or the black shoes with two buckles or the black shoes with laces or the black shoes with the single strap ... as the head slowly begins to explode. How many black shoes is enough? Does one buy the cell phone contract with free weekends, free Saturdays, half price Sundays, unlimited weekdays, internet, text messaging so we can over think in butchered short hand ... as the head slowly begins to explode. Maybe indigenous people in isolated parts of the world get it Less choices. Less is more.