Monday Morning Musings

Since it is almost noon here in Texas, maybe I should title this, Monday Afternoon Musings. Sorry I'm late. Life keeps interfering.

One nice thing to interfere has been ongoing enthusiasm for the Winnsboro history book that I wrote with our local historian. Here I am with Bill Jones at a recent signing event. I was so thrilled to get this book done for Bill. Everybody in town kept saying we needed to get a book published with all the historical facts that he has stored in his memory banks, and then Arcadia Publishing contacted me wanting an Images of America - Winnsboro book. Talk about something that was meant to be.

Today I am a guest on Yolanda Renee's blog, Defending the Pen. If you have a moment to hop over, you can find out which of my kids I love the most. :-) This is a terrific blog and Yolanda is generous in supporting her fellow authors.

On another note, deliberations for sentencing Nidal Hasan began today, and yesterday a Dallas morning news columnist posed an interesting question on the issue, "What's worse than death?" The columnist suggests that maybe life in solitary confinement  in prison would be a worse punishment for a man who welcomes death because he would be a martyr and a hero to fellow jihadists overseas. Not to mention depriving him of the 70 virgins that are supposed to be part of his eternal reward.  

Proponents of the death penalty say Hasan deserves to die for his crimes, but I agree with the columnist.  Hasan, who was wounded in the shoot-out at Fort Hood, is paralyzed from the chest down, and a greater punishment would be for him to spend many more long years suffering.

In an article in The Dallas Morning News, Dave Lieberman reported about a Texas resident who recently noted a Medicare over-payment that was double what the actual bill was. When she reported that she was told by a medicate representative that it is now standard payment for some services, and the system automatically pays that amount, no matter what the billing amount is. When the woman asked why each bill is not paid according to the billing amount, she was told that this is the system that is in place and it all balances out in the long run. Some submitted bills are higher than the standard payment amount, so that cancels the over-payments.

Oh, really? And we wonder why Medicare is in trouble.A charter school in Houston is a little more than red-faced after it was revealed that administrators misused $5.3 million in federal funds for trips to Las Vegas and New York and cruises. The two top administrators also received salaries of $440,000 while enjoying all those trips and the perks that came with the trips.

This type of misappropriation is too common in school districts across our country, and the trickle-down effect is always a direct negative impact on students and teachers. We can't pay teachers a decent wage for the work they do. Parents are having to purchase more and more supplies for their children, as schools can no longer provide them. Just the other day I was asked at the grocery store if I would like to buy a box of tissues to be donated to the local school.

Now to end on a lighter note, here are a couple of jokes I found on Jokes and Humor for Kids. I thought they would tickle the childish funny bone in all of us.

Question: Why are ghosts bad liars?
Answer: Because you can see right through them

Question: What dog can jump higher than a building?

Answer: Any dog, buildings can't jump!

Friday's Odds and Ends

For a little over a week I've been a bit preoccupied with medical issues affecting my family, but I have kept up with the trial of Maj. Nidal Hasan, the Army psychiatrist charged with massacring soldiers at Fort Hood, the army base in Texas. He is being tried in a military court, and the panel of 13 senior officers received the case on Thursday, with deliberations to resume today.

Photo Credit - Brigitte Woosley via AP

Hasan is charged with 13 counts of murder and 32 counts of attempted murder in the November 5, 2009, shooting rampage at a deployment processing center where prosecutors say he targeted soldiers he was set to deploy with to Afghanistan. During the trial, the prosecution said that the evidence shows that Hasan believed he had a jihad duty to kill as many soldiers as possible. If Hasan is convicted of two or more counts of premeditated murder, he faces a possible death sentence in the penalty phase.

In the meantime, Hasan continues to draw his full military salary. While so many of us think that is so wrong, and certainly an insult to the families of his victims, there is a reason why pay is not suspended immediately after someone in the military is charged with a crime. On Outlook.com, Kate Andrews had an interesting article about that issue. It is well worth a read.

NOTE: The jury found Hasan guilty late this afternoon, and sentencing deliberations begin on Monday.

In less serious news, a man in Minnesota had his license taken away for driving too slowly and he won't be able to get it back. Gary Constans, 59, was stopped by police several times between 2008 and 2012, when his license was taken away. Constans said in court his Ford Ranger has a "sweet spot" for gas mileage at 48 mph. He plans to continue trying to get his license back. "I just thank the Lord I'm retired from all my jobs, and I thank the Lord I don't have a wife, because could you see her yelling at me?" Constans said.

I'm guessing the folks stuck behind him did a bit of yelling, too.

Now for some fun from the comics. This one is from Heart of the City by Mark Tatulli.

Heart is walking down the street with her side-kick, Dean. She says, "Someday when I'm rich and famous, I'll have somebody to do all my cleaning. I'll have somebody to do my shopping, pay my bills, wash my clothes, drive my car, AND feed my cat."

Dean asks, "So what will you do?"

"Apparently walking around L.A. with a water bottle and complaining about the paparazzi is THE job to have today."

Friday's Odds and Ends

The image of that terrorist standing on the London street and justifying his atrocious attack on the English soldier is hard to shake. I guess that was the first time I saw such hate and such mis-guided religious fervor in real life. I have purposely not watched the many videos uploaded on the Internet over the years by terrorists. I simply do not want to hear what they have to say.

This time, however, the terrorist was on the evening news shouting that he had a right to hack that poor man to death because British soldiers are killing Muslim women and children in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Kudos to Ingrid Loyau-Kennett, a cub scout leader and mother of two, who got off a bus and tried to reason with the attackers after she tried to help the victim lying on the street. According to a report on Fox News news, the woman kept talking to the two attackers before police arrived at the scene.  When one of the attackers told her that they wanted to start a war in London, she responded: "It is only you versus many people. You are going to lose."

Speaking of terrorists, I did not know that the man arrested in the Fort Hood shooting spree, Major Nidal Hasan, continues to be paid his salary and has earned more than $278,000 since the shooting in 2009 that resulted in 13 deaths and 32 injuries. I probably should not label him a terrorist because, according to a story in The Lookout, that is a designation that the federal government has not assigned him and the reason he can collect his salary, while the victims and families of victims struggle to pay medical and other bills. Because the government called the shooting an act of workplace violence and not an act of combat or terror, those injured don't receive additional pay or Purple Hearts.


Not only is that an insult, it is a blatant example of injustice and skewed thinking. How could anyone justify the situation?

This has nothing to do with the subject matter. Just thought you would like to see something pretty.

 On a lighter note, here is a cartoon from Baby Blues:  Dad and Hammie are walking down the street. Dad says, "Hammie, you have to learn to pay attention to your school work so you can get a good education. Otherwise you could end up digging ditches."

Hammie says, "Ditches? What kind of ditches? He twirls around. "Big ones? With a bulldozer? Tunnels, too?"

Dad says, "I think you're missing the point."
  

Literary Lesson:  "I guess we're all hunting, like everybody else, for a way the diligent and sensible can rise to the top and the lazy and quarrelsome can sink to the bottom. But it ain't easy to find." Editor Webb in Thornton Wilder's play Our Town. Written in 1938, but still applicable today.