Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?

I work for a Japanese company.  In America (Detroit area) but it's a Japanese firm.  And one of the things I've learned about the Japanese from working there is that is you ask them ANYTHING or ask them FOR ANYTHING, the will ALWAYS ask you, "Why?"

Now, in the West, "Why?" is a very confrontational question.  Every time I hear "Why?" my minds follows it up with "...the hell do need [or need to know] that?!" I don't know if everyone feels that strongly about it, but I think you'll agree that if you ask me a simple, strait forward question and I answer why "Why?" it kind of puts you on the defensive, no? (Truth be told, in my experience, it really pisses most people off!)

Well... Anyway, they don't do it to be difficult pricks. (Although there's no shortage of people that seem to think that they do! LOL)  They do it because they genuinely want to give you the best possible, most complete answer / information the first time so you will not be misled, and they will not waste your time. (And possibly so you won't come back and bother them again! LOL) And really, although it takes some getting used to when you hear it every. fucking. time, it's really not a bad philosophy. Really? When you think about it, it's almost always the PERFECT question to ask!

Now I mention that, because as part of my work (as an engineer) we often have to solve problems.  And one of the Japanese methods (which I'm sure has been adopted  in the west in some places or companies as well) of problem solving is called the FIVE WHY'S.  It is believed that to get to the real root cause of any problem, you have to ask "Why?" at least FIVE TIMES.

Now... Take, for example: The Mortgage Meltdown of 2008.  (Although extremely racist, this exercise is a lot more fun if you read the following questions with a Japanese accent.) (And, yes, I know that I'm going to hell for that.)

WHY did the economy tank?

   (1) A lot of people were losing money on mortgage backed securities and the real estate bubble.

WHY were so many affected? (Or Why a was there bubble?)

   (2) A lot of bad and risky loans were being written by the banks.

WHY were the banks writing these loans?

   (3) They were making money from them. They were a huge source of revenue.

WHY were they making money off of them? (That's more of a HOW question, but it still works.)

   (4) The were combining them with other loans into securities and were able to break up and sell the resulting product at a higher rate than it was truly worth.

WHY were they able to sell them as more than they were worth?

   (5) Because the Bond Ratings Agencies were giving them AAA / Investment grade ratings even though they were hard too value, and no one knew what was really IN them.

Now...

Did you notice how I was able to go five layers deep without any real politics or opinion or partisan judgement coming into play? Of course, I can't go any farther without interjecting my own political "bias" (notice the "quotes" - I know that's just the bias of reality!) interfering with the analysis.  But there you go: Five "why's" got us down to a pretty good route cause, with statements that (1) Even the most blatant partisan could not really argue the veracity of (though some of the dumber ones will try) and (2) has no judgement, no liberal-this or progressive-that necessary to reach this route cause.  The mortgage meltdown happened because the ratings agencies inflated the grades of and overvalued these inherently risky assets. (If you're buying something and you don't know what it's worth or even what it really is? THAT'S RISKY. PERIOD!)

So I found it interesting, and I had to kick myself for not thinking of this myself the other day in my downgrade post, to read MMFA's take on the U.S. downgrade:

Attention Media: S&P Lacks Credibility

And it hit me like a thunderbolt!  Of course! These are the same clowns who basically, single handedly tanked the U.S. economy, into a deep recession that, while it ended, at leats officially, we are still reeling from the effects of, and are now heading into another one... THANKS TO THE VERY SAME PEOPLE!  They ruined Bush (not that he needed much help) and now they're ruining Obama (again, not that he needs much help!)

And yet the reaction by the Conservative media is all over the map!

CNN's Erickson Giddy About Downgrade Of U.S. Credit Rating

(what a rooting for failure scumbag!)

After Cheering Default, Bolling Laments Potential Effects Of Downgrade

Make up your fucking mind, you "Party of Personal Responsibility" HYPOCRITE!

Limbaugh Accuses Obama Of Orchestrating Decline Of America

Ok... I have to stop here, because this is just bat-shit fucking psychotic on multiple levels.  First of all... "Yeah... because nothing gets a President re-elected like a really shitty economy, huh Rush?" And second of all, in the plane of prime material reality, on the planet EARTH, there is not one scrap of evidence to suggest that this was orchestrated by ANYONE other than CONGRESSIONAL REPUBLICANS simply because they knew their Corporate Media would the the "right" story / Right's story and people would blame Obama. Not that they'd really needed the propaganda machine here anyway: Blaming the President for a shitty economy is practically the American Past time!

Nostradumbass Uses Downgrade To Claim Vindication Of His Conspiracy Theories

Well, whoopdie-do for your crystal ball, Glenn!  The Republicans have been trying to prevent recovery and orchestrate a full blown collapse since Obama took office!  The only risk you were taking in that bet was whether or not they would succeed!  (And we've know they would for some time, because Obama has all the spine of an invertebrate!)  Of course... given you infinite wisdom into these matters... why are you consistently wrong on who RESPONSIBLE for it? Who's REALLY destroying this country, Glenn?!  And what REALLY caused it Glenn?  What POLICIES? (I'll give you a hint: The start with "Aw" and rhyme with "Posterity.")

Yeesh. 

Yeah, it was a good "Media Matters Day" for me.  On my lunch break, of course. ;)

I also finished Chapter 11 (ironically, LOL) of Utopia today over lunch as well.  That puts me two Chapters ahead of what's posted so far, I just need to figure out how far to space out posting them. In any case, it's days like today that are my inspiration for writing it. Listening to these liars is one thing - makes me throw up in my mouth a little - but knowing how many glassy-eyed, brain-dead zombies there out there LISTENING to these frauds, and BELIEVING them...  It just drives me fucking crazy.  And Edward serves as an indulgence of those feeligns.  Days like today make writing that - especially knowing what's to come - really, really fun.

Evil, yes. (And if you don't see it yet, you will.)

But F-U-N!