Saturday, May 11, 2013

An Eminently Level-Headed Virginian

One of Tamerlan Tsarnaev's new neighbors:
Della Coleman, 75, lives a few doors down from the cemetery in a gray trailer. She was entertained by the sight of TV trucks parading down her normally quiet street all day, but she was not the least bit concerned that a bombing suspect was buried near her home.
“Don’t bother me at all,” she said. “I guess it would bother some people ’cause of what he did.”

Coleman, a retired hospital aide who grew up nearby, said the owners of the cemetery had been good neighbors. “The people are good to me,” she said. “That’s their place. They can do what they want.”

Labels:

Starving the Beast

Forget the votes to repeal Obama Care, the real power is the power of the purse, which is an exclusive Congressional authority.  Republicans control enough of Congress to make sure that nothing is spent to make a the Affordable Care Act a success.  This can't be good.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has gone, hat in hand, to health industry officials, asking them to make large financial donations to help with the effort to implement President Obama’s landmark health-care law, two people familiar with the outreach said.
Her unusual fundraising push comes after Congress repeatedly rejected the Obama administration’s requests for additional funds to set up the Affordable Care Act, leaving HHS to implement the president’s signature legislative accomplishment on what officials have described as a shoestring budget.
The bathtub is always full. 

Labels: ,

Tuesday, May 07, 2013

Neighbors

Last night was not the first time I heard the music.  Every now and then I would hear what sounded like someone practicing violin but the sound was too sporadic to get a fix on its source.  I knew only that it was from a neighbor's house behind me.  And it's been a while so I'd forgotten about the music until I head it again last night.  This time, though I spotted them--at least two violinists and maybe a cellist--on the deck of the house behind me.  I couldn't get a clear look through the foliage but it was definitely a group playing music.  A bit later others joined in with guitar and banjo (so I guess the violins were fiddles by now).

Imagine that--people on their deck playing music on a beautiful spring evening.   I felt happy just being in the same neighborhood.

Labels: