I disagree with the 10/25/08 Los Angeles Times' editorial, 'Don't blame the victims.' The CRA, the Community Reinvestment Act, ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and those who irresponsibly used and abused the ideology that created them are certainly not the victims of what turned affordable housing into economic chaos. Surely, broken finger pointing cannot mask social, political and economic distortions caused by all of the above alleged victims, which are, in fact, the suspects of the failures of good intentions. Good intentions?

Indeed, coupled with the unending government growth stimulated by the New Deal and the Great Society, so-called progressives worked their unabated regressive intrusions into a toxic brew, which invited greed, infected the free market, and was bound to explode in the face of the economy, affecting the real victims -- hapless home buyers, ignorant speculators, and the entire mortgage/financial industry. Worse, innocent investors, the full range of retirement accounts and funds, and insurance companies have been added to the growing list succumbing to the disease. Which, will of course, be charged to enormous public debt and beleaguered taxpayers.

Attempts to avert and gloss-over the roots of the problem does little to prevent the nightmare from turning into a domestic and global economic horror show. Nothing will be resolved until and unless it is understood that socialism and free market capitalism simply can't work together in the long term of expected freedom and prosperity. Unfortunately, we won't learn that until the expected results of the 2008 presidential and congressional elections teach us. Hopefully, not the grave and bitter lessons from the past -- lest we reap whatever we sowed -- for generations. That the unintended consequences were, in fact, intended... leaving us with the inevitable decision of whether or not to save ourselves and our freedom.