Canada knows how to run a bank...

Canada knows how to run a bank. So says the Washington Times in an article entitled Sound Banking Saved Canada.  Good to see the Great White North showing restraint.  South of the 49th, we thought it would be "kinder, gentler" to allow everyone to be able to afford a home.  The Federal government - not the banks - mandated that banks lend to people who could not afford the traditional down-payment.

The business model they imposed on the banking system could be summed up as:

Let's lend money to high-risk individuals and see if they can pay it back.  

Imagine their surprise when people began to default in record numbers. Senators and congressmen were quick to blame banking executives when it all came down like a house of cards.

The banks are not innocent accomplices however.  They foisted profitable adjustable rate mortgages on unsuspecting families who could not foresee the time bomb that would go off in 3-5 years, wrecking their credit and forcing them back into rentals. Some Utah banks and lending companies have not learned their lessons.  They are still advertising seductive adjustable rate mortgages to create a new crop of victims.  Hopefully the public has come to know better.  For those who have not, expensive lessons lie ahead.

Environ Mental: Remember when toilets used to flush?

I remember, because I am very, very old - no one knows for sure how old I am because I was born so very young - having an outhouse.  The outhouse was located quite a distance from the house. In summer it was important to have the outhouse at a safe distance.  In winter, however, the arrangement was not so convenient. I'm not talking about what they call winter in Oregon.  I'm talking about full-on Canadian "which snowy lump is my car?" winter. 

For most of my life I have grown up with toilets that flush.  However, over the last few years toilet tanks have become smaller and smaller.  This is supposed to help our environment by conserving water.  Many toilet tanks now use less than 3 gallons of water - a far cry from the old wasteful 5-gallon tanks we used to have. In their wisdom, our legislators have made it illegal to use the larger toilet tanks anymore.

The problem is that these toilets don't really flush.  I mean, they do sometimes, but mostly they don't.  You flush once, then you flush again, then you plunge it, flush once more, maybe twice, and voila, 9-12 gallons later you have simulated the flushed toilet experience using your environmentally friendly 3 gallon toilet.

I've tried the math on this several ways, and it just doesn't seem to work out.  But that's because I am not a legislator.  Legislators have a higher logic that allows them to see how toilets that use 9-12 gallons are really better for our country than those old 5-gallon tanks.  Which explains why, of course, they are most qualified to run our healthcare program.