raz, i think we are in agreement on almost everything, and you have reinforced my original post and my second post defending my original position.

now for a little clarity, everyone is to blame for the crisis, u.s. citizens, congress, s.e.c., the fed, congress, pres. bush, henry paulson, fdic, moody's, S&P, fitch, unregulated mortgage originating companies, congress, home builders, local gov't and many more. but loan defaults are part of the banks accounting and under normal circumstances the rate of defaults can be absorbed.

to give an example of CA effecting the rest of the country, just look at cigarette smoking and second hand smoke killing 50k+ a year. (for the record i don't smoke nor does anyone in my family) in the late 1990's a report was issued by the FDA investigating cigarette smoking and it's relationship with cancer. two years later a follow up report was issued where in one line of one paragraph of a 30+ page report, the author commented that second hand smoke COULD be the cause of 1/10 of 1% of the deaths caused by smoking. that one line in a report changed the nation. at the time 500k+ people were dying from cancer so that could mean 5k people died each year from second hand smoke. this number grew each year until it reached the 50-70K number because 5k was not enough to change laws. second hand smoke was the reason to eliminate smoking on airplanes, than gov't building, than public building. than state wide and now it is nationwide. in some areas i think you cannot smoke outside your house because the smoke might drift into the neighbors yard, instantly killing the entire family. so if 50k people died each year that would mean that 10% of smoking related death was from second hand smoke not .1% originally posted.

now most people will say this false reporting of a gov't document and creation of misleading data benefited everyone, but i say the real threat with activist and their causes is once activated they don't de-activate. the anti smoking groups are now organized, well funded and looking for a new cause. maybe the next cause they come after will be a cause you care about. maybe even the addictive and anti-social world of MMORPG.

so flame on- it's 4am here, i got a full pot of coffee and staying up until we elect either the black guy or the old white guy.