“They who are without sin should heave the first stones.” The Man probably doesn’t mind your taking liberties with His language since the message is accurate. Only He may take issue with your belief that, of all the Godly lessons, this one needs a fat asterisk. You see, if you take His admonition at face value, you must avoid the blame game at all costs. Well, with all due respect, you’re not buying it. Especially now. The foundations of this exquisitely conceived nation have suffered serious fractures. Somebody’s to blame for the financial meltdown and the rush to Socialism. Identifying the culprits should be easy. Then we need to collect a mountain of stones and throw the hell out of them. Here’s a plan: strip away the guiltless and what’s left over are the guilty. Ingenious, no? The guiltless fall into a huge camp. These are the individuals who sustain themselves and/or their families. They prepare themselves to do something productive. They always work and live within their means. They incur productive debt only for essential goals and always manage that debt. They shun unproductive debt like the plague. They repudiate drugs. Along the way, they build nest eggs, pay taxes, cheat no one, ask for nothing and patriotically support their communities and country. Routinely, they are depicted as nerds, prudes or puritans. Routinely, they are square, un-cool. Hollywood despises and ridicules this dull group. Naturally it would. The guilty are everyone else. They are members of the Instant Gratification Society who never admit it. They care more about appearances than substance. They happily go on the hook for Caribbean cruises but bitterly resent the cost of health insurance. Millions of these respectable citizens engage in the use of recreational drugs that support the multi-billion dollar trafficking trade that in turn ruins millions of lives. They have their electronic toys, slick wheels, lattes, fancy digs and fancier duds; and they owe for most of it. They, more than anyone else, are responsible for a nation saddled by debt. Yes, they were lured by easy credit, bewitching ads and the envy of all things cool; but nobody forced them to slop at the trough. But if consumers deserve a few years of hardship for their guilt, most of our Senators and Representatives, current and past, deserve nothing less than a firing squad. They had it in their power to abide by the Constitution and prohibit the Federal Government’s interference with the banking business in the name of social engineering. Presidents may promote dumb ideas but the greatest fault begins and ends with Congressional malfeasance. Typically, ignorant Americans by the millions blame the banks and big business because some businessmen are crooks. They happen to be just like some of the crooks in churches, charitable organizations and city halls. But ignorant, spoiled Americans have to hate someone; so with Hollywood’s and CNN’s help they blame the captains of industry and other “fat cats” who are more responsible than anyone for this country’s great achievements, standard of living and philanthropic triumphs. Surely, everyone knows the fat cats could never be so incredibly successful and wealthy unless they were crooks, right? So let’s blame the very people who create the jobs. That makes a lot of sense, Martha. Don’t blame the politicians because all of us know they are selfless public servants who earn every dime of their meager salaries, pitifully small kickbacks and lifetime retirement packages. We have laws to protect the people from crooks in the streets and crooks in ivory towers, but we have no laws to protect us from the parasites in Congress and paid bureaucrats who suck up and squander American taxes to meddle where they rightly have no jurisdiction. In the end, of course, millions of brainless Americans continue to put the same charlatans back in office. And like teenaged zombies at a rock concert, we swoon at the unctuous, evangelical rhetoric of a new demagogue who feeds on our fears and ask us to behave like good little sheep. Well, things could be worse. If Jim Jones were the candidate, we would need an oil tanker full of cyanide. It’s definitely time to find a smooth, flat river rock.