When I was the mother of young children I tried to always make sure that if there were contingencies or consequences or parameters to a privilege that the children knew these before they accepted whatever it was.

And so, if they wanted the car, they knew that the car had to be returned by a certain time, or that seat belts were required for all passengers or that nine people could not safely ride in the vehicle.

When they were given an allowance, they knew ahead of time that lunches and music lessons had to be paid for out of that allowance. Those were the parameters.

These things were laid out ahead of time so there were no surprises and all parties knew what the expectations were.

It wasn't that the children were unintelligent, it just made good sense to reinforce the rules.

Imagine my outrage (no, it is not too strong a word) when banks were given billions of dollars in federal (read: taxpayer) money and used it for bonuses, retreats, renovation and decorating of offices.

As irresponsible and stupid as that is I wonder at the ignorance of any body that would give this kind of money to anyone without stipulations about how it was to be used. Surely the politicians did not think the banks would use the money responsibly. They had not up to this point which is why they were in trouble. I am not sure who I am more upset with, the bankers or the politicians.

One good thing.

Attorneys are looking pretty honorable to me in comparison.

And that's what I'm thinking about.