Personal responsibility: It's not for everyone.

Personally, I think it's high time for all those welfare cases to pull themselves up and take responsibility for their situations. The rest of us are just plain tired of constantly subsidizing them, and looking after them, and financially bailing them out time after time after they've made irresponsible economic decisions. It's called "accountability," and it's damned time that those people learned that we're not going to be there to rescue them every time they suffer the consequences of their own greed and stupidity and ... and ... um ...

[U.S.] Fed bends rules to help two big banks

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- In a clear sign that the credit crunch is still affecting the nation's largest financial institutions, the Federal Reserve agreed this week to bend key banking regulations to help out Citigroup (Charts, Fortune 500) and Bank of America (Charts, Fortune 500), according to documents posted Friday on the Fed's web site.

The Aug. 20 letters from the Fed to Citigroup and Bank of America state that the Fed, which regulates large parts of the U.S. financial system, has agreed to exempt both banks from rules that effectively limit the amount of lending that their federally-insured banks can do with their brokerage affiliates. The exemption, which is temporary, means, for example, that Citigroup's Citibank entity can substantially increase funding to Citigroup Global Markets, its brokerage subsidiary. Citigroup and Bank of America requested the exemptions, according to the letters, to provide liquidity to those holding mortgage loans, mortgage-backed securities, and other securities.

Well, OK, maybe just this once. But that's it. Next time, you're on your own. And we mean it this time. Really.