Scape Goats and How History Repeats Itself

In times of crisis, there are a couple of certainties. One thing to note is that all those wonderful things you learned watching Saturday morning cartoons is wrong. Core values will not necessarily be strengthened, and definitely not at first. People won't necessarily band together to fight a common cause, and we might not ever be better for having gone through it. Not for sometime afterwards, and not permanently.
One thing that you can count on is that rather trying to seek a solution, people will generally look for a scape goat. It's happened many times throughout history. People like to lay blame. It makes them feel better about themselves.
In the case of the current economic crisis, I can blame Capitol Hill for scape goating former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. Mike Shneider, was quoted as saying, "He didn't have to be a cheerleader for imprudence." Are you serious? The man's job was to ensure the longest possible periods of sustainable growth for the economy, and he had to do with Reagan and W. sitting in the White House. I'm no expert, but I think he could've done worse. I find it reprehensible that they would insult this man, when he was looking at the same numbers everyone else was, and yes hindsight is 20/20. Is he perfect. No. He made assumptions. He was wrong. Though, I sincerely doubt he took his job of 40 years lightly.
Now he does shoulder the blame for a good portion of the decisions made, but frankly, I don't see how berating an old man is going to fix the credit crisis, bring companies out of federal protection, and otherwise fix an economy where given the option to take huge risks at other peoples' expense, companies did just that. Now aside from a few Lehman Brothers' execs, I don't see any of those guys spending hours on the Hill answering questions about the stupid moves they made. Hell, up until a while ago, I bet they all thought they were going to be fine. Instead they bring a loyal public servant out of retirement to say, "Look what you did to our economy!"

If only this were the first time. If only this were the first time blame was shunted rather than addressing the root cause of the issue. Everyone does it. The Greeks cast out beggars after natural disasters. The Nazis blamed their economic woes on the Jews.

And according to a sociology professor, this is when the binding together in solidarity happens, when you have someone to blame (Kenneth Westhues, Prof. of Sociology University of Waterloo, published in OHS Canada, Canada's Occupational Health & Safety Magazine, Vol. 18, No. 8, December 2002, pp. 30-36.) ! Hopefully now that we've blamed all our problems on Greenspan, the stock market will finally go back up.

Human nature disgusts me.

The Miracle of Corn Fed Cattle

Corn Fed. Sounds great. A sign of quality. Sounds a whole lot better than "animal bi-product fed" or "pumped full of antibiotics and hormones". Luckily, in our wonderful modern world we can get all 3 and cheap! That's right beef fans. Your cattle is getting fat off 2nd grade government subsidized corn. Grade A American beef is marbled to suit the consumer. That's right you get the great taste of beef full of the fat that makes it extra tasty. What that you say? Fat is bad for you? It's ok. You are what you eat, and the US keeps its cattle healthy with a regular dose of antibiotics. In fact, they are so concerned with quality they give more drugs to their beef than they do to their people. They don't stop there, though. Nope, where would quality be without quantity? Rest assured, each cow is given a bare minimum of space in order to maximize the efficiency of the land. That would just be pointless rhetoric without numbers, though. In 2003, the US meat machine managed to process over 35 million cattle.

Well, if your not convinced, take a look at the competition. Canadian beef outlawed the use of hormones in its cattle. Argentine beef, the so called "best beef in the world", only eats grass. Now how much marbling could you possibly get out of that?