Earthquake in DC

When the house started to shake and roll, my 90 year old mother went to look outside to see if Hurricane Irene was arriving days ahead of predictions. She lived her entire life in the area affected by the 5.8 magnitude earthquake and had not experienced one before. She had no reference for understanding the rattling of the earth around her.

One of my sisters, who also lives in the D.C. Area, has lived in California for a number of years and she recognized the event correctly and quickly. My sister was able to share a laugh with her over their very different levels of experience and the fact that no real damage was done. 

Is it an Allegory or a Credit Rating?

During the debate about raising the debt ceiling, a group of Tea Party Republicans seemed confident that having the country's credit rating downgraded would not be the catastrophe that many had suggested. Did they see an allegorical path to political advantage? or did they just assume that the White House and Treasury Department had enough employees to handle the flood of phone calls from the Chinese asking when they could expect the next payment. The image of a small army of Chinese call center workers calling the Treasury Secretary every couple of hours should be enough but the real question is what does a credit rating mean?