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Canned Ideas: Heat & Spew, PDQNovember 11, 2009 The Boston Globe e-newsletter arrived in my inbox. I clicked on the op-ed piece by Barney Frank, "A Comprehensive Solution to Combustible Markets." It was OK, but not great. OTOH, I didn't expect the kind of commentary I expect from, say, Paul Krugman. Even the cooler members of Congress are deeply entangled in the corporate capitalism that crashed the banking system. It's not so much that they aren't free to bite the hands that write checks for campaign coffers, though this is true too: most of us think two, three, and four times before we say anything that might really piss our employers off. The real trouble is that when you're that enmeshed in something, the chances are excellent that you can't see it from the outside. Not "won't" -- can't. Barney's op-ed was OK but not anything I'd call to anyone else's attention. I'm including the link because so many of the readers' comments were so jaw-dropping, head-shaking ridiculous. So they loathe Barney Frank and think he's an embarrassment to the House, the Commonwealth, and the 4th Congressional District. Fine: that's their opinion and they're entitled to it. But many of them also think he helped cause the financial system meltdown and consequent economic mess we're in, or that he could singlehandedly have avoided it. This is so mind-frazzlingly stupid that I can hardly believe they'd say it in a public forum, even hiding behind a pseudonym. I mean, I've got a few stupid convictions that have put down roots in my head, and I nurse a few loathings that are way, way out of proportion to anything the loathed individual ever did, but I don't spew them around the World Wide Web. The laws against littering apply; I try to dispose of my trash responsibly. Barney Frank was a minority member of the House Financial Services Committee when the Republicans controlled both the White House and the Congress, and "bipartisan" was a dirty word. "Regulation" had been a dirty word since the beginning of the Reagan administration. To hold Barney Frank responsible for the mess we're in is to announce to the world that you're clueless about how U.S. government works, and how it's worked for the last three decades, and its nasty symbiotic relationship with mega-corporations that have more power than it does and few compunctions about pulling rank. I'm guessing that most of these people voted for George W. Bush at least once and would have done so a third time if the Constitution had given them the option. "Guilt turns to hostility," as I'm fond of saying; in this case blaming Barney is easier than questioning the policies of the guy you voted for. Eat out of a can long enough and you'll not only forget how to cook, you'll forget what real food tastes like. Get your ideas out of a can and you'll forget how to think. Sorry, but I think this is a greater threat to the Republic than al-Qaeda, or terrorism in general, or even the representative from the 4th Massachusetts Congressional District. Who should I call? The Department of Homeland Security?
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