Ruth Calvo

It happens that my home is at a far end of Tornado Alley, and this week we have already had two hailstorms, with the sirens blowing. The tornado itself went around me, but others haven’t been so fortunate. While I do donate to the Red Cross and make substantial food and office/work clothes donations to the nearby Crisis Center, I’m not exactly on the Patron level anywhere.

Long, long ago and far, far away there were Ethics Committees in both houses of our legislative branch, empowered to keep members from violating basic canons of decency and disgracing the body called Congress.

In case that sentence sounds altogether outdated and quaint, it does seem that when the Ethics Committee in the House of Representatives was dismembered (pun intended), it turned loose standards by which the so-called representatives of the country were able to dishonor their offices and the country. The Ethics Committee did its work, and caused the end of the career of Tom DeLay after his misadventures with Jack Abramoff’s lobbying payoffs. That was its own end, as well.

Okay, it’s my own fault. Watching the panel of Meet the Press is diving into the deep end of inanity, but I did it anyway. Even for the Meetheads, this one was outstanding. Bobo has the answer to the violent tragedy of Tucson.

It’s sinfulness.

When our most irresponsible political right wing proponents speak out calling for taking back America, they are speaking to a varied contingent. One similarity all those listeners have, though, is the ability to purchase and carry firearms never intended for public safety.

One of the favorite choices of the wingnuts for actual legislation has always been ‘tort reform’. It was their hue and cry to get out of making health care productive for most citizens, even though it is not an area subject to federal legislation.

In Texas where there has been extensive tort reform, conditions have been created that are ideal for incompetence and outright fraud. One area that has seen a true disaster is in emergency room care. Under conditions that may include extreme stress, mistakes can occur but the patient maimed for life cannot count on any compensation for those mistakes.

It’s long been understood among the traveling public that Mexico is problematic. Police corruption and endemic kidnapping long were reasons to stay away from sites that were off the beaten path. Now, with the gang warfare that plagues our southern border, those trying to make a living by farming also are leaving.

Against all predictions, the world’s nations met in conference on the climate and accepted the reality that a desperate situation demands rational action. It’s absolutely riveting that an agreement has been hammered out in recognition of our world’s deteriorating situation, despite all the past disagreements among nations.

Sometimes it’s comedic to try carrying on a dialogue with the talking heads. This morning I was listening with fascination as WaPo economics fiction writer insisted that the consumer is responsible for the debacle in our economy, and if we don’t go shopping, unemployment will go up.

There is a particularly egregious sheen to the shilling of education that the for-profit institutions exercise.  When it cheats the educational system out of badly-needed funding while taking advantage of potential workers, it is a crime.

When the public trust is lost, the basis for our system as a whole is destroyed. Without trust in a lawful and valid financial system, the public will not take the necessary step of investing.