Blood Stripes

For those of you that are interested in the war in Iraq, there is a new book published that is a great read. David Danelo, a Marine Corp captain who served in Iraq, has written a book about the real life perspective of the NCO 's serving inIraq. Five Marine NCO's were chronicled to show their history and veiwpoints during their tour(s).

"Blood Stripes" does not try to promote a political judgment of the war. It is just about how these guys dealt with it.

Right and Wrong

An article by Steve Blow in the Dallas Morning News about the 80-year old lady in Garland got me worked up again about right and wrong. Evidently, the city of Garland sewer main stopped up and flooded this lady's home with sewage. Garland admits it is their fault.
The rest of the story is that the city will not pay for her damage because of some loophole concerning the municipalities liability. State Farm will not pay on her insurance for some other fine print detail. In the strictest sense of the law she probably is not entitled to compansation. However, somebody needs to step up and do what's right. This is regardless of the fine print.

Her house is ruined, and it is the fault of of the City of Garland. I for one would be happy to pay twice my pro rata share of the cost if enough other taxpayers would do their share.

Integrity and resolve

A quote by Mark Davis in the the Dallas Morning News today really hits the target about politicians. In his weekly article he discusses logic and principles specifically concerning stem cell research. His quote "....firm resolve often withers in public office...".

That epitomizes the status of our political system.

Somebody Else Does Not Always Take Care Of It

The Dallas Morning News "discovers" that the DISD has 1200 credit cards issued that charged $20 million last year, and a huge portion is for obviously personal or non-school use. One person charged almost $400,000 without keeping receipts or remembering the "purposes". The evening news reports FEMA spent untold millions on 2000 laptops that could not be found, a distillery to brew beer for the Coast Guard, search dog booties that were unuseable, and the list goes on. All this is in addition to the $2000 toilet seats and many other examples of gross misuse of our tax dollars.

All this happens on a daily basis, and politicians still ask us to trust them to run our country.
Unfortunately, I do not know how to fix it.