A few years ago a guy by the name of Bill Clinton gave me many opportunities to use when I was writing a weekly column. Now I get another golden oportunity to use the Austin and Texas road budgets, wow!
The Austin city council has apparently never heard of a balanced budget, so they subscribe to the tax and spend school of thought and if that's not enough of squandering the publics money they have to pump in Cap Metro and a few more "toll roads" to round up the meld.
There's hardly a day goes by that someting happens to make me think of ways I can better serve my readers. It may be of a political nature, or public health issues or something that puts a burr under my saddle. There is an old saw that goes like this; an aged Frenchman was asked on his 85th birthday if he had any regrets, and after careful fhought, he replied, "there are so many women and so little time".
This is the type of dillemma that faces me when I have to make a selection of subject material for my musings.
This is one of those blog entrys that I am really proud to offer.
For a lot of reasons,all good, I recommend that you copy these down and post them where you and your family can quickly find them.
This is a Texas service and it doesn't cosy you anything but your time. I'll supply them here and follow up with some comments.
The phone # is 211 repeat 211
The web site is so important!, http://www.211texas.org/
Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
What is 2-1-1 Texas and how does it work?
I am blessed, I have a camera that lets me take pictures and email them to my friends, I have a camera that lets me take pictures and print them from the negtives or make slides for my projector. I have a machine that answers my phone, and a phone I can carry around when I'm in the yard. I have a computer that lets me comminicate with fellow computer owners or businesses.
Organ and tissue donation is often thought to be the height of altruism. This may be. However the organizations that collect, process and distribute human tissues for transplant and research are far less than altruistic. These organizations are given valuable human tisses that are then sold for cold hard cash. They may call it a "distribution fee" or a "reimbursement fee" but it is in fact the quid pro quo exchange of money for human tissues and organs. The Orange County Register has a good investigative story on the topic.
This is one of those times that I write about something that combines sadness with anger at stupid greed. I am extremely saddened at the recent loss of the coal miners and their rescuers, and my heart and prayers go out to their families and friends.
My anger is aimed in two directions, one is the greed of the mine owners who are using basiclly the same techonology that the earliest miners used; "Dig a cave and dig out the minerals."
It does not take a rocket scientist mentality to use a computer and come up with a far safer and better method of mining than is now practiced.
I am never ceased to be amazed at the Austin City government.
A perfect example of my mazement is featured on todays (Sunday) edition of the Statesman's Front page, Section B, headlined "Fee for repaving may grow".
Now at first glance, that, within itself, is nothing to get the populace's shorts in a bind, but reading the accompying article should give them pause to wonder.
Lets talk product competition. I still remember Bridgstone tires. I, of more recent times, remember pet food that killed or maimed our family pets. I still watch carefully the ingredients used in my toothpaste and other drugs sold over the counter. I have great grandchildren and I use caution when purchasing anything that could possible hurt them or cause death or illness for these little ones.
I will not purchase fresh fish at the market or fresh vegetables who's source is not known to me. This is just common sense.
A few days ago I posted a blog to the effect that "My Head Hurts" having to do with the complete fiscal irresponsibility of our present federal government.
I tried to point out the inequities is the fiscal approach used by these bureaucrats in the handling of your and my tax dollars. I thought I'd let this soak in for awhile but I got slam dunked by Rep. Jim Oberstar (D) Minn, who among his other titles is Chairman of the House Transportation Committee.
Heres the sickening story. This is bureaucratic "tax and spend" fiscal thought process at it's very best.
Whats wrong with this picture?
Why are we building a 562 million dollar Embassy on 104 acres in Irag at a cost of 1.2 bllion a year to operate. When people in Bagdad live in squalor and in the USA Southern Oregon there is not enough money for our libraries to open
The War in Iraq Costs to date ( 05/08/07)
$449,470,914,297 thats 449.5 billion
More than 70,000 bridges across the country are rated structurally deficient like the span that collapsed in Minneapolis, and engineers estimate repairing them all would take at least a generation and cost more than $188 billion.
