Welcome...

...to you and to me as well, for joining the community of folks who feel that what they have to say is important, witty, and/or entertaining enough to take up space on the Internet. But I figure, with only a modicum of conceit, that if my high-school-age daughters and their friends can do the same on Xanga, that I should be able to contribute something more weighty to the world of discourse. Time will tell.

A few quotes will give a snapshot of me, for those of you who may be interested:

- "...what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" (Micah 6:8)
- "Baseball is boring only to boring people." (Prof. Richard Brockhaus)
- "Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!" (Bluto Blutarski)
- "Don't you feel like desperadoes under the eaves?" (the late, great Warren Zevon)

Well, OK, I don't know what the third one has to do with anything, but it is a classic movie moment.

But on to content. I'll start with a thought I had this morning. (NOTE: if you're a fan of the Bush Administration, please move along...there is nothing for you to see or enjoy here, largely because their thoughts, words, and actions are so maddeningly contradictory to quote #1 above.) With all due respect to the tragic losses suffered by those families of 9/11 victims, why is it our administration saw fit to reward them with settlements in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars, while widows/widowers of our brave soldiers (regardless of the validity of the "war" they're fighting) get a figuative pat on the head and a check for $12 grand? And those lucky enough to survive Hurricane Katrina after days of governmental neglect get a $2K debit card? Just asking...

And this news item, gleaned from today's Philadelphia Inquirer: while many Gulf Coast residents waited out the storm and its aftermath in their attics, with relatives, or in squalid shelters with minimal supplies, the Tulane University football team was housed comfortably at a Doubletree Hotel outside of Dallas. Hopefully, I'm not the only one asking why, if the University is closed, it's business as usual for the athletic department? Do you suppose Tulane is providing the same level of support for its choral music groups, for instance? Where are the priorities?