POST SCRIPTS

The ink hasn't even dried on the headlines for CEO's back-dating their stock options so they would be [guaranteed] maximum profits and now this?

It's really disturbing to see how many people, trusted with so much, and given so much, have such low moral standards!

Where have we gone wrong? It's not like Fannie Mae folks cooked the books to save the company from ruin or protect investors...I could at least rationalize that transgression, even if I didn't agree with it. But, that had nothing to do with what happened here. This was pure, unadulterated, greed, completely absent any other alturistic motives!

There are crimes of theft and there are crimes of theft that breech the public trust and undermine the confidence of American government, and the two theft crimes must be viewed completely different. People who "breech the public trust" ought to pay a price 10 times that of an ordinary crook because of how it hurts our country.

I wonder if we shouldn't teach "character" in school?

Character could be worked in there somewhere, i.e., given the choice between teaching, oh..., say, intermediate algerbra or character, I would say we stand a better chance of using "character" than intermediate algerbraic formulas as adults, but I'm not picking on algerbra, I'm just saying, when it comes to preparing kids to have good life skills, character is really important. Obviously, character should be taught at home, but just as obvious, too many parents are falling down on the job or corruption wouldn't be so rampant!

When it comes to corruption in government, I wonder if it could be our [electoral system] that lends itself to filtering out the honest candidates/politicians and breeding corruption by too much temptation? It takes a lot of money to get elected to a federal office and that high cost prevents a lot of good people from participating because they are not rich or they are not connected and willing to make deals.

Once elected, politicians always have their hand out to raise even more campaign money to insure their continued employment. Has this whole money raising process devolved into way too much temptation and not enough focus on job performance and high moral standards? It seems that way to me!

If we have too many corrupt people in high office. The people I know in the state legislature tell me [fund raising] is job one. You never stop raising money your whole political career. This money raising is going full bore even while creating and passing laws and making political appointments..that can't be good.

If my dot connecting is right, then it stands to reason that political appointments will be made based on self serving, hidden reasons and the corruption goes deeper than we could ever imagine.

I really think it's time we look for some solutions to the corruption, from tougher penalties to the way these guys raise money in elections. We can do better...we have too!

Jack, I think you hit the nail on the head when you mentioned character. The problems of corruption will always be with us as long as temptation is with us. Character enables human beings to resist temptation. Greed doesn't even play a roll until we say yes and open that first door. I think character must be taught in every classroom at every level (human beings are slow learners!) but also in every neighborhood and workplace and organization. We must, as a society, raise our standards. We also need to teach our kids to think. This is one reason I embrace the conservative movement. Check out my post tomorrow it's shaping up as another "twilight zone moment" for the two of us.