That's Good

A last bit of reporting for 2008 -- Mr. Chief Justice Roberts is stating that the pay of court justices is not keeping pace with inflation!

Congratulations Mr. Roberts! Welcome to the Real World. I hope this situation continues, and that you acquire a new, more egalitarian perspective with this experience! The policies you have supported have helped bring about this state of affairs. Ever heard of making your bed and then lying in it?

If not, I hope the demonstration makes it more understandable. Be sure to thank your colleagues for their support in making the world more difficult to live in -- and especially, thank the man who appointed you.

Different.

It is the season when people celebrate. My actual family where I live is down to one person. My chosen family is also very small. And most of all, none of us want a lot of THINGS anymore.

Today I read an article on personal giving, and I have really joined the ranks of those who just help people around them who need something. It isn't that I have a lot of money. It's that people around me sometimes hit a wall and just cannot cope, while I have enough spare change to make their situations better.

I no longer have a job that brings in excess income -- but I have a job that will not disappear, and that counts for a lot. So it is only right to share some of that good fortune with those who have a hard time.

Another Modest Proposal

How about if the members of the Senate work for the same wage as auto workers -- or whatever they set as a fair wage for auto workers? After all, auto workers actually *do* something -- create a product that must then be sold so that they can stay employed.

The Senate doesn't do anything half so chancy -- so why should they get more pay?

A Very Strange Idea

Here it is -- how do you make things right to a Guantanamo prisoner who is found innocent? If someone innocent is Moslem, here is a suggestion.

How about this: a ticket to Mecca, white clothing, three weeks of per diem, and a ticket to whatever place they call home -- from Mecca.

Why not give those declared innocent the hajj? It might make up respectfully for what they have been through.

Homeland Insanity

This morning on the radio I heard that Homeland Security had decided to put their bioweapons research in Manhattan, KS. Unfortunately, a lot of the weapons are meant to kill plants and animals. And so they are putting this THING in the middle of the US heartland and breadbasket,

They are devastatingly naive about security and experiments. Many labs have released things into the world that they did not mean to -- or something they were growing cross-pollinated into the world -- I cannot imagine that the works of this facility will be error free.

The old labs were on Plum Island, where the prevailing winds took problems out over the ocean. That sure beats having the prevailing winds take problems to Chicago or St. Louis.

Can the people who decided this be overridden? Better pray.