Hi Lee,

I would not want to call my cliients and tell them I raised thier costs ... I'd eat it.

Imagine someone spills milk inthe kitchen, and then sneaks away w/ out cleaning it up cuz they're used to mommy and daddy letting them get away w/ acting like this, then some one of moderate intellegence and conservative values comes along and rather than yell about the spilled milk and spoiled child tries to clean it up. Then a slightly older child, somewhat geeky in nature w/ perhaps repressed guilt and shame over his odd thoughts and urges, sees the moderate person starting to clean up the milk, and the geek starts screaming and threatening the person for trying to clean the milk cuz he'd rather have everyone smell sour milk all week to prove his point that he is better than the spoiled milk spiller, and that everyone shold listen to him.

Where I grew up the individual spilling good milk liberally woudl get his nose rubbed in it. The moderate who cleaned it up rather then whining would have set the example, and the weird kid threatening the moderate would get clouted for disturbing the peace, and everyone in the neighborhood would keep an eye on thier pets when the weird kid slunked by.

I wish Washington DC was run like my old neighborhood on the Southside of Chgo