Michael Brown just shut up!

Former FEMA director Michael Brown stuck an elephant's foot in his mouth today. He claimed in front of a congressional oversite hearing that the biggest mistake he made was not realizing that the Louisiana officials were "disfunctional" earlier. Here is a person clearly unfit for the post, who probably was given this position as a favor, showing America just how smart he really is. He lays the blame at everyone's feet but his own. The President must also take some heat for his hiring. The Federal Emergency Management Agency should not have an ex-Arabian horse dealer running things, especially post September eleventh. The Congress should look deep and hard at all layers of bureacracy to detect frauds in office prior to the loss of thousands of innocent lives.

Eight dollars a gallon gas?

It seems strange that hurricanes have been striking the gulf coast for decades but the price of fuel never seemed to fluctuate. Many experts claim that for gasoline to sustain $3 dollars a gallon that a barrel of oil would have to top $100 dollars. My wife filled up a few days after Katrina at 3.499 at the I80 on ramp in Grand Island, Nebraska. Is this simply price gouging? Fuel prices are likely to keep climbing for years to come. This commodity is in very high demand all over the world. It also remains one of the few commodities in America that has seen little inflation over the past two decades. When I learned to drive twenty years ago gas was rarely less than a dollar a gallon, and until recent events in the Middle East the price had remained fairly constant. One can't say the same thing about the housing market over the same period!!!!!

Is 50 old enough to be Chief Justice?

When I heard of the nomination of Judge John G. Roberts Jr. for the Supreme Court I thought he was too young for a lifetime appointment. When the Constitution was written people did not live into their eighties but on rare occasions. Now President Bush has nominated Roberts for Chief Justice. This is very disturbing to me. How can a person of so few years possibly be qualified for such an important position? Roberts claimed today to "not have an agenda." The problem is we don't know very much about this person. He has only been a judge for a few years. Heck he has only been a lawyer since the Reagan administration. I think a constitutional amendment may be in order making a minimum age limit for the court. Traditional retirement age seems appropriate; a lifetime of experience would seem to be an invaluable resource for a position in government so vital to the American way of government.

distrusting mechanics

As you may know I am a mechanic. I have never really understood the dynamics between mechanic and customer. We seem to have extremes, on one side they look at a mechanic as a know all see all, who at a meer glance can solve all the worlds problems (and their machines :), and on the other they question everything. Maybe they heard a horror story of profound deceit. Maybe they were sucessful changing their oil once and think they should be able to fix anything. The been their done that attitude. Either way it's hard to please these customers....I'll just take solace in the fact their machine runs good as new (and their check cleared the bank!!!)