Energy Independence??

Sounds like people are starting to come to their senses...in 1999, I could remember seventy cents a gallon gas...now it's hovering around four dollars...an almost sixfold increase in a decade. President Bush signed an order ending to the ban on offshore drilling...I'm only hoping that Congress will follow suit and allow for drilling for the relief in our pockets and the small businessmen that run the gas stations.

Public Safety??

I know, I know, people are grumbling of a corrupt police force and pointing fingers at Mayor Ballard. Now, Mayor Ballard took office in January, and took control of the police force shortly thereafter. When it comes to the recent rash of police improprieties and homicides, I'm of the turn the other cheek mode. Mayor Ballard is a decent man trying to pick up the pieces left by the Peterson administration, and every naysayer is looking for an excuse to give him heartburn.

Personally, I think Mayor Ballard has done a good job given the circumstances, and look forward to the first budget HE submits before I go Chicken Little on him. No blaming Peterson or Sheriff Anderson, that's just unfair and out of line. However...if he starts cutting public safety in the name of a pet project, then the gloves are off.

I Deserve It…

I heard of some of the rumblings of those hit hardest by the flooding in southwest-central Indiana. They got "only" $1,000 or $2,000 from a charitable trust run by their employer. The thought they "deserved" more was appalling to me. If I were in that situation, I wouldn't be saying give me money because I "deserve" it. I'd be saying, "OK, I'm up a creek (no pun intended), now what can I do to get out of the situation?"

What needs to come into focus is the mentality of some that look to Big Brother for everything, financial support, housing, medical assistance, etc. Now as a Libertarian, I despise most of those concepts. However, as a human being, I get that sometimes government should help those that can't help themselves for a short term. Nothing more than a year, or else the helpless individual starts to become addicted to the taxpayers' dime.

The moral of the story here is when people get used to the morphine of government money, the withdrawals can be painful.

Careful What You Wish for…

The Star is reporting that several drug cases are going out the window because of the arrests of two Narcotics officers gone bad. Proof that throwing more money at the problem only grows the problem, it doesn't solve it…now if we can only get on that whole property tax and health care situation…