Monday Morning Musings

ACK! How could it happen. Just two days into the new year and already I have forgotten that I was going to be more organized this year. I did clear some things off my desk by adding address's to my holiday card labels. I had these envelopes for two weeks or more waiting for me to get this chore done. But did I really need to do that before taking care of any other business - like updating the blog?

First things, first, Maryann......

The editorial page of The Dallas Morning News yesterday had a few memorable quotes from 2011, and I thought a few were worth mentioning here.

"I think the people who are protesting break into two groups.... and you can tell which group is which. The people who are decent, responsible citizens pick up after themselves. The people who are just out there as activists trash the place and walk off and are proud of having trashed it." Newt Gingrich talking about the Occupy Wall Street Movement.

It's not just on Wall Street. Driving down my county road the other day, I saw three places where people obviously stopped their vehicles and dumped a pile of trash out. Did they even stop to wonder who would pick it up? They could at least have made it easier by putting it all in a bag first. Geesh!


"The next election is 14 months away and the people who sent us here... don't have the luxury of waiting 14 months."  President Obama speaking about the Jobs Bill.

That goes for every piece of pending legislation that our country needs. Stop making it about politics and power and the next election. Make it about the people. And stop going on national television to support your position and saying it is about the people unless you really mean it. As Leslie Stahl pointed out in and interview with Republican Majority Leader, Eric Cantor, 91 percent of us have no confidence in Congress and don't trust what is being said. Congress has an approval rating of only 9%. When asked about the perception people have that government is just playing games, this was Cantor's response, "Cantor: There's not.. there's no games. What we're trying to do is trying to do what's good for this country."

Right. And I'm the Queen of England. No, wait, that's Elizabeth. Sorry, Liz.

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Today is the last day of the special promotional offer from my publisher for The Wisdom of Ages, a short story collection free for Kindle.

Three stories; four  men whose lives take unexpected turns. Meet Samson who wonders what is down that country road that draws people so. Should he get in that old truck and go see? Mel and Rube have been having dinner at the Leavenworth Grill every Wednesday for years. One day the menu changes and so does life for Mel. Tom would give anything for his life to change. Can he beat back the effects of a crippling stroke by sheer force of determination? Growing old is not for the faint of heart.

Monday Morning Musings

The Romance Studio is having a Thanksgiving Party, with lots of prizes, a Nook and free books. Lots of authors participating and I am sharing my pumpkin pie recipe. 

Today I'm over at the Blood Red Pencil with a post about thankfulness. Hop over if you have a moment and let me know what you are thankful for.


An update from last Monday's musings. The Stock Act bill first introduced by Brian Baird and Congresswoman Louise Slaughter which would make it illegal for members of Congress to trade stocks on non-public information and require them to report their stock trades every 90 days instead of once a year has gained momentum. It was reported on Sixty Minutes last night that the bill now  has 25 sponsors and is scheduled to go to the Senate floor.

A study for MIT states that "the environmental record of shale gas wells is for the most part a good one." In one of his columns, David Brooks interpreted that to mean the the risks of fracking can be managed if there are reasonable regulations and if the "general public has a balanced and realistic sense of the costs and benefits."

So, according to Brooks, all we need  to do to ensure that fracking is safe and environmentally okay is to buy into all the PR from companies doing the fracking as well as those who benefit from selling the gas. While we are at it, we should ignore the fact that the downside of the fracking method of extracting gas from shale is still being investigated.

People in Texas and Oklahoma, where a lot of the gas is being extracted, have been experiencing earthquakes at increasing rates, and there is a link between the drilling method and this increase. Even the companies doing the drilling admit it.  That report is from a company in the UK, and here in the States it appears that people are ignoring the dangers. A recent ruling in West Virginia allows fracking in and around one of the major cities in that state.

An article on PlanetSave.com, not only shows the connection between fracking and earthquakes, it has an alarming report that the recent quake in Oklahoma occurred on the proposed path of the XL Pipeline.

These are serious issues and energy companies and car companies need to be moving us away from our dependence on oil and gas as swiftly as possible. Instead of playing chicken with our safety and our planet, we need to put our best efforts into finding alternatives to fossil fuels.

And consumers need to do their part, too. Car pool. Consolidate shopping and errands and try not to drive every day unless you absolutely have to. Keep thermostats low in winter and high in the summer.

What are you doing to save on energy?

Monday Morning Musings

Watching Sixty Minutes last night, I was dismayed when viewing Steve Kroft's report on how members of Congress have used insider information to make huge profits on the stock market. For the report, Kroft interviewed Peter Schweizer, a fellow at the Hoover Institution, who wrote a book about soft corruption in Washington with a team of eight student researchers. In doing the research for "Throw Them All Out"  the team reviewed financial disclosure records and discovered that members of Congress were using information they gained in committees to buy and sell stock.

As an example Schweizer said, "If you are a member of Congress and you sit on the defense committee, you are free to trade defense stock as much as you want to if you're on the Senate banking committee you can trade bank stock as much as you want and that regularly goes on-- in-- in all these committees."

As we well know, anyone else who uses insider information for personal gain is subject to prosecution under SEC regulations, but the SEC apparently does not have the authority to investigate the reports of insider trading among members of Congress.

In the interview, Kroft asked Schweizer why the SEC can't look into it, and Schweizer answered, "It's really the way the rules have been defined. And the people who make the rules are the political class in Washington. And they've conveniently written them in such a way that they don't apply to themselves."
 
According to the report, the practice is perfectly legal, but it is time for the law to change. The problem is the change has to come from within Congress, since law begins there. Attempts to introduce legislation to stop this practice has hit brick walls.

Brian Baird, a former congressman from Washington state who served six terms in the house before retiring last year, spent a great deal of time trying to affect a change and establish rules governing insider trading among members of Congress. In 2004, Baird and Congresswoman Louise Slaughter introduced the Stock Act which would make it illegal for members of Congress to trade stocks on non-public information and require them to report their stock trades every 90 days instead of once a year.

The bill got very little support. Only six other members came on board to co-sponsor the bill, and when there was a congressional hearing on the Stock Act, almost no one showed up. And why is that not a huge surprise? The majority in Congress is more focused on what is good for them, or for the party, than what is good for the country at large.

I agree with Schweizer, throw them all out.

Ranting Again

Okay, I thought I could maybe go a whole week or so without a rant, but a story on Sixty Minutes this evening got to me.

The story was about an oncology clinic in Las Vegas that was closed because of the tough economic times. The hospital CEO was interviewed and she said that the state budget is decimated because of the loss of tax revenue from gaming and construction, and the hospital lost millions of medicare funding.

That wasn't what was so upsetting. What was difficult to watch was the interviews with patients who were no longer going to be able to receive chemotherapy. They all said that without treatment they will die.

The people featured in this story have no insurance. Many of them have lost their jobs and therefore their health coverage. Yet, they do not qualify for some kinds of social assistance since they are not among the poorest of the poor. So they are out there in some terrible medical limbo with no hope in sight.

I'm not faulting the hospital for having to make this tough decision, but I do wonder if that hospital CEO and other administrators have taken a pay cut to help balance their budget. And what else have they done to streamline costs before taking this drastic step? Like any other business, there is so much administrative waste in a large hospital, that a couple of million dollars could be found so a few more people don't have to die.