Given more time to confirm my sources, I woulda also included these wanton acts

* Every Halloween he heats up pennies on his griddle and gives them to Trick Or Treaters
* He cuts the express line on Senior Day at the Piggly Wiggly - claims “Author’s Privelige”
* He pinched a baby just to see if he could make it cry
* He shot a man once just for snoring - no wait that was
John Wesley Harding - and Gearino, when were you planning on returning my TIME LIFE books on Outlaws of the Old West anyway?
* that’s another thing, he doesn’t return stuff he borrows

I keep hearing that lack of credit is what’s fueling our economic decline. I also heard somebody say that you can’t save the banking system without saving banks. I don’t think you can save the banks without relieving them of their troubled loans.

Like it or lump it, that’s who’s first in line to get the cash infusion - at least they’re ahead of you and me.

“We need an industrial-strength enema to break this log-jam, and we need it now. ”

We need to let the system work it out. Foreclosure works very well.

My stocks that I purchased last year are now worth less than I paid for them. I am underwater. Anyone think I should be bailed out?

Ken
Dallas

We can argue about who’s most to blame, but that seems like quibbling over who poked a whole in the raft we’re both floating in. Does it really matter right now? We both drown if we don’t figure a way to plug it - and soon. So get on the stick Gearino! I’m a middling swimmer and I got a lot to live for.

And what about the TARP money? If Mr. Bostic’s bank took it (as many did) and did not apply it as intented (as many didn’t), then that’s an obscenity.

A year ago, hell, six months ago, Mr. Bostic’s story is the stuff of human interest only. Maybe you include him in your prayers, or utter a silent “There but for the Grace of God go I”; or condemn him as just another irresponsible wretch who now must suffer the consequences of his sloth and mendacity.

But today, Mr. Bostic’s is but one of millions of distressed loans clogging our nation’s credit colon like so much government cheese. We need an industrial-strength enema to break this log-jam, and we need it now.

Or to use John’s analogy: When we see the alligator eat the baby antelope, why does he want to blame the lion, which only happened to be near the watering hole at the time?

My frustration with this kind of reporting is that the country has a whale of a task ahead of it. Righting the economy is a job that should be undertaken with good information in hand. Instead, the proceedings are driven by stereotype and hysteria (which John has put on ample display here).

John did me a favor, though: He reinforced my point. Did the bank in question here take TARP money? I don’t know. That’s something else the news article didn’t tell me.

Tell me, was the beleaguered bank you speak of the beneficiary of TARP funds perhaps? If so, I wonder what they did with that windfall? I’m pretty sure I can eliminate APPLY FUNDS TO TROUBLED ASSETS off the list of their possible choices.

Hey, Uncle Sam didn’t explicitly tell them they had to apply Troubled Assets Relief funds to their own troubled assets. That’s just shrewd business practice on their part. That’s what makes America great.

Here’s Mr. Bostic, a guy who owns a small business. He supports himself, his family and provides employment to a dozen of his fellow citizens. He’s victimized by a medical procedure gone terribly awry and your reaction is “Why didn’t he negotiate more favorable terms for his new mortgage?” “Why isn’t he reaping the benefits of a huge malpractice settlement?” “What kind of crappy health insurance did this bozo have, anyway?” “Why pick on the poor bank?”

God Almighty, Gearino. Are the powerful and well-connected ALWAYS victims in your world? Duke Lacrosse, Big Oil and now banks.

Banks for chrissakes. The nemesis of widows and orphans and the purveyors of profligate and double-secret service charges that nickel-and-dime their customers into madness and near insolvency.

When you watch Animal Planet, do you feel sorry for the alligator that eats the baby antelope? “Poor guy. I bet those hooves are hard to digest. He’s gonna have one helluva case of indigestion.”

And no doubt your scorn for the bad judgment and obvioius character flaws of the devoured yearling are well-placed. “Frequenting a watering hole filled with gators? How imprudent is that? Serves the little critter right.”

You are a smug and hard-hearted man.