“The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose” (Ecclesiastes 1:5). This verse, made famous in many ways more by Ernest Hemingway in The Sun Also Rises than modern-day Biblical readers, is roughly apt for today’s financial crisis.

Ultimately, time–and nothing else–will solve this problem; but at the risk of contradicting this very statement–I must agree with President Obama’s assessment in his February 24th speech to Congress:

“I reject the view that says our problems will simply take care of themselves; that says government has no role in laying the foundation for our common prosperity.”

Here Obama is rightly taking a jab at the Conservative POV which lauds free-market autonomy as the only viable methodology of our long-term economic condition. True conservatism essentially promotes the notion that the government should not interfere with natural economic conditions; that supply and demand and unadulterated competition will, in the end, produce the best and most enduring endeavors of our lifetime.

In some ways, this holds true over the very long-term. But lives are ruined in the process. If free markets are allowed to reign without some sensibility from a deliberately guided force, generations suffer.

Obama continues:

“For history tells a different story. History reminds us that at every moment of economic upheaval and transformation, this nation has responded with bold action and big ideas. In the midst of civil war, we laid railroad tracks from one coast to another that spurred commerce and industry. From the turmoil of the Industrial Revolution came a system of public high schools that prepared our citizens for a new age. In the wake of war and depression, the GI Bill sent a generation to college and created the largest middle class in history. And a twilight struggle for freedom led to a nation of highways, an American on the moon, and an explosion of technology that still shapes our world. In each case, government didn’t supplant private enterprise; it catalyzed private enterprise. It created the conditions for thousands of entrepreneurs and new businesses to adapt and to thrive.”

This, in my opinion, was the most brilliant portion of Obama’s speech in addressing the dangers of unadulterated and unfiltered conservative fiscal thought. When government deregulates business and does not allocate some measure of oversight to banking institutions and mega corporations, it results in jet-toating CEOs asking for handouts and $350 billion dollars being swallowed whole by banks who, first of all, take care of their own.

I’m not toting pure Liberalism either; I prefer a rational analysis and practical approach to all fiscal issues. But in fell swoop, Obama intelligently and formidably promulgates the Liberal notion of positive government interference.

Government as the catalyst of private enterprise. It’s a quaint picture of Optomistic-Liberalism marrying Practical-Conservatism.

What seems like a contradictory account of Government Liberalism converging with Capitalist Business, is actually a formidable explanation of a limited, but powerful, role of the federal government in providing a measure of much needed safety and oversight in the sometimes frail and unpredictable behemoth that is, today, the U.S. and World economy.

The sun will rise … it will set … and return again to the place from which it first arose.

Have you have you ever noticed how people who never played a down of football say things like “we won a hard fought game last Saturday?” If that bothers an athlete can your imagine how  I feel when I hear someone railing about “our sons” in Iraq or Afghanistan? My first response is always the same: “And what is your son’s name and where is he serving?”

Unlike those armchair quarterbacks of geopolitics my youngest son is currently about 5 miles from the Pakistani border with the 10th Mountain Division. His job is dangerous and has taken him half a world away from his wife, four year old daughter, and 10 month old son. Three years ago he was commanding convoys in Iraq and risking his life nearly every day. Now he is back in a foreign environment following the orders of his Commander in Chief.

Regardless of one’s particular political viewpoint I would recommend what my son used to tell his mom when he was in Middle School. Before you open your mouth about “our sons” it would be wise to take a chill pill. War is an ugly thing that we relegate to our young men and women to handle while we sit in the stands grumbling about how we would do it.

Hopefully, we will learn the lessons of Viet Nam and treat these young men and women differently as they return home. In the coming days I will post a couple of parables based on those I have known personally that have actually been in the game. Until then, try cheering for them and perhaps even patting one that has returned on the back with a “thanks.”

Children (well, high schoolers) listened to Def Leppard and Metallica while the Christian Right dubbed it “devil-music”; Ferris Bueller eluded convicted sex offender Jeffrey Jones (the principal) while Molly Ringwald and Emilio Esteviz captured our hearts and youthful lust for independence in The Breakfast Club.

Yes, we are discoursing on the Pre-HOA era of our lackluster youth.

Life was good here on earth (at least in the Western half just this side of the Prime Meridian).

Although Homeowners Associations did not actually gain much traction in the Land of the Free until 1964, most middle class communities lived at peace with one another all the through the 70s, 80s, and perhaps early 90s, without the astute and sage assistance of HOA board members (or as the natives call them in their mother-tongue: meddling fascist bastards).

I remember growing up in an appropriately landscaped neighborhood in the slightly wealthy suburb of Encino, California. At 16, my girlfriend was a slightly younger beautiful JAP–no, not a girl of Japanese descent, but a prominent Jewish American Princess who happened to be a cheerleader no less), and we all lived at peace with one another–Jews, Gentiles, and the like.

Sure, every now and again we might drive by a pink house that was blue the day yonder, or someone might leave the trash out an extra night; but so what? We were happy.

Americans did not yet know that in about a decade their duly elected representatives would be training their future nemesis, a small group known as, quote, “The Taliban”, to fend off the Russian invasion of a small landlocked country called the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (oh, with the aid of great American allies, Saudi Arabia and the Pakastani secret service). But that’s neither here nor now.

The point is, all great empires are built upon the shoulders of great men and women who came before them; our great and honored HOAs owe their incendiary success to such great leaders as Stalin and Gladys Kravitz from Bewitched.