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"If we have learned from history, it is that we don't learn anything from history."
-- Source obscure
We wonder why our money won't buy what it used to, and blame it on inflation. I think inflation is caused by the fact that too many people make money with out doing anything to earn it. Their money has no sweat equity backing it.
I first thought this when a bunch of local foundations and so called art lovers decided to bid the price up on a painting called "The Swimming Hole".
Never mind the fact that the painting was paid for with over $600 of pennies, nickels and dimes, donated by Fort Worth's school children during the 1940s so that our city would own a "real painting" done by a "famous artist", one museum callously announced they would sell the painting at auction. After much public ire they finally decided to sell it to another local museum for nearly $10,000,000.
Now, if that ain't enough, today's "Fort Worth Star- Telegram" said that Clyde Barrows sister expects to sell his bloody, bullet-ridden shirt for $45,000.
It makes you wonder, which is easier -- making money off other people's work or making it off other people's misery.
"I think that if advanced beings were visiting Earth, we'd know it by their laughter." -- Paige (Foxtrot cartoon character)
Our insurance coverage has been watered down. The insurance we have here in Texas isn't any good if you are traveling in Tennessee. It is just like they want it. It used to be Travelers. No one knows what it is now. It may be changing names as you read this. I bet they have their office sign held up with Velcro so it will be easier to change every six months.
The only good thing to come out of the changes in our health coverage is the mail-in prescription. What do you bet that they operate the mail-in outfit from some state that allows one pharmacist to run the place and hire $5/hour temporaries to fill your prescriptions? And, have you noticed how often your doctor tells you to buy some over the counter medication that is not covered by your insurance?
I can't for the life of me understand why one damn penny of our health dollar should go to an insurance company or to some hospital chain or HMO for a multi-million-dollar bonus for their CEO.
"The implicit social contract that guided us through the 1960's was that if a company was profitable, its workers would do better as well. This is no longer the case.
The people on top are receiving more benefits and better pensions, but the economic expansion has not improved the fortunes of the bottom half of Americans."
-- Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich.
Isn't it strange that our government wrings its hands over the high number of unemployment persons, and then allows the Federal Reserve Board to raise interest rates whenever that Board thinks the number of unemployed people isn't high enough?
A short history of medicine
I have an earache...
2000 B.C. - Here, eat this root.
1000 A.D. - That root is heathen. Here, say this prayer.
1850 A.D. - That prayer is superstition. Here, drink this
potion.
1940 A.D. - That potion is snake oil. Here, swallow this
pill.
1985 A.D. - That pill is ineffective. Here, take this
antibiotic.
2000 A.D. - That antibiotic is artificial. Here, eat this
root.
-- Author Unknown
When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty.
--George Bernard Shaw
"Figures lie and liars figure." -- Samuel Clemmons.
Molly Ivins says: "The argument on capital gains, unearned income, is even more bizarre.
"Two-thirds of the money that comes from the capital gains tax is paid by people who are rich even by Republican standards. Finding them arguing furiously for their right to unearned income is a curious sight indeed. It always reminds me of Henry George's 19th-century proposal for a single tax , on real estate: George argued that because the only reason real estate ever increases in value is because of the community (as the community grows, so do real estate values) all real estate profits properly belong to the community."
Didn't Fort Worth and Hurst use similar arguments to deny a fair market price to property owners in the way of North East Mall expansion and the Texas Motor Speedway.
All of who work or have worked at Ney Yard Shanty can thank Joe Whalen, our Fort Worth superintendent, for having the new road built into the back side of the yard. I think everyone who works there has had at least one flat cause by using the road. It should really increase the time between new shock absorber sets on our vehicles.
One wag claims that this is the first time the road has been improved since the yard was built around the turn of the century.
A former schoolmate on the Carter-Riverside High School Email list, Evyonne Andrews-Eddins, tells us her mother, Leona Jackson was the daughter of Willoughby A. Jackson, Master Mechanic for the Rock Island at Peach Yard. He retired in 1945. He started out as a Machinist Helper in 1914.
Evyonne says that he road a horse he called, "Ole Red" to work from his home on Fariview in Riverside. She has a picture of him on Old Red, holding her as an infant in 1934. She says she remembers going to Peach and watching them turn an engine on the turntable.
Cy is a Locomotive Engineer in Fort Worth.
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