A few nights ago I watched the open-mike section in the Bellevue City Hall meeting on the local government channel. Back in Columbus we had this too and I always remember the people griping about random local stuff. In Bellevue we gripe about random national stuff. There was a woman attacking the Bear Stearns collapse, the Fed monetary policy and especially printing out money to increase liquidity, and predicting we’d hit hyperinflation not seen since the Weimar Republic (1920’s Germany). Not the “Fix the pothole in front of my house” speech!

They she told the local Bellevue mayor and city council that they needed to come up with a plan to deal with it. It made me chuckle to think that tiny Bellevue could save the world or even itself if the US turned into pre-Hitler Germany. And I was happy since I predicted right away that there would be a “Weimar Republic” someplace in the speech and that a few seconds before it came I sensed it was about to come.

Also in the news, The History Channel has dropped “The” and “Channel” and is just “History.” I like the title; “History” is not just more succinct, it has the feel of boldness to it. Too bad the quality of the channel doesn’t match the name. I remember when they used to be the World-War II obsessed “Hitler Channel” - the Weimar Republic woman of Bellevue must’ve liked it! Now they have guys driving trucks in Alaska cussing at each other, something about guys cutting down trees, and the article said even more crap is on the way. I mostly read history anyway, but it saddens me that kids that aren’t reading it and could potentially be turned onto it are now going to be turned onto trucking and logging and cussing.

Perhaps instead of dropping “The” and “Channel” from its title, The History Channel should’ve kept those and lost the “History” bit. “The Channel” seems to be where it’s going.