Texting and the short arm of the law.

“ Bystanders look at the Chevy Cavalier that collided with a stopped Colbert County school bus on U.S. 72 near Barton. Samantha Jo Stewart, 20, who was living at a house at Rose Trail, was killed on impact, officials said. She was pronounced dead at the scene by Colbert County Coroner Carlton Utley. Utley said Stewart died from head and spinal trauma. Her vehicle was crushed under the back of the school bus.” (Times Daily Feb 10 2010)

Apologies to the Times Daily for sampling their stories and pictures. But it occurs to me that if the ban on texting had passed in the first days of the senate session instead of a few self interested lawyers trying to bend the law to make a buck Ms Stewart might still be alive. There is no proof and only unsubstantiated rumor that Sam was texting when she hit the back of that school bus less than a mile from my house. Hit it at a full 65 miles per hour without any sign of hitting the brakes. It is rude to speak ill of the dead. But the facts are that the senate was deadlocked on the bill, and if she was texting or reading a text she was engaged in a completely legal activity.

You may, as my gentle reader, disagree. You may say there are already laws on the books about distracted driving. You may say the law in unenforceable. On all counts you would be correct. As correct as you would be to make the same points regarding the seat belt law. However there is another point. That point is that texting is still very much legal, as is putting on makeup, eating, smoking, and just rubbernecking around. If the behavior, the specific behavior, were illegal then the highway safety offices could develop an information campaign to warn drivers of the danger. I think we should begin a campaign of highway safety laws to begin to address the ever growing number of senseless highway fatalities. Currently there is no provision to make an information campaign for an activity that is legal albeit improper and dangerous. A simple one page law making it illegal to send a text while driving is all that is required to set the record straight and indicate to the rest of the world that Alabama is on the right page.

Teach your toddler how to blow the horn.

There has been an overlooked and unintended side effect of modern automotive engineering. Car windows that roll down by hand and little side vents that can be left open to keep the heat to a modest hundred degrees in the Alabama sun went out of style with dial telephones. And the side effect has been deadly

When I started writing this little piece yesterday eighteen children had died in cars from hyperthermia this summer. When this morning's news required a revision to nineteen. Sadly that is probably only half the number that will die before the end of August. The average number per year is 37.

Texas is the worst offender. It is hot. It is big. And well, it is Texas. But per capita Alabama loses far too many children to heat in cars. More per capita than Texas. A Google search for "Child left in hot car" returns eleven million results. Child left in car at strip club gets thirty thousand. The local news reported a Birmingham man, Jamie Capps, who left his two year old boy inside the car at "Wesley's Boobie Trap" lounge while temperatures soared to one hundred-four. The child did not die but there are no reports of what the mother did to Mr Capps upon his release from jail.

Of course it is not just places people shouldn't be. And it is not always men. A number of people, men and women have run in for a minute to get a haircut or pick up a few things at the grocery store, run into a friend or run into trouble and before they can get back a half hour has passes.

Children don't have the heat reserves of adults. Typically a full grown adult that can live four hours in sweltering heat that will kill a child in twenty minutes. But the problem is not just stupid parents and caretakers. The cars themselves are also the problem. Seat belts, child restraints, electric windows and door locks, child proof exit doors. and my personal aggravation, that little computer lady who locks all the doors except the drivers side when you get out. There should be no reason that a car is designed so that the back doors won't open from the inside if the car is turned off. A local child in Russellville Alabama died when he got in the car and couldn't get out. We outlawed refrigerators that did that. Building codes require that you be able to exit in a fire. Maybe we should outlaw death trap cars too.

It might annoy the dickens out of you but I think it might bee a good idea to teach your toddler how to blow the horn.

Support BP!

There appears to be a growing contingent of people who think we can help the oil spill efforts by supporting BP, "Buy their gas" they say so they will have money to pay for the cleanup. We could take this logic a little farther down the road and just make donations to the Hayward Yacht Club.

Bobby Pitre a Larose, La. resident said. "Man, that ain't right. None of us can even go out fishing, and he's at the yacht races," "I wish we could get a day off from the oil, too."

As you might have guessed I have a somewhat contrary idea to helping BP out of this mess. Hayward said today that BP has spent 2.2 Billion on the cleanup but the states say that the coast residents have only seen 100 million. That sounds like a lot but 100 million is less than five percent of BP's numbers. One person I talked to asked: " Where do I file for my lost vacation time? where do I file for the lost turtles and birds? Where do I file for my pain and suffering for the pearly white beaches that are lost to me for more years than I have left to live?"

My recommendation goes along these lines.

We seem to have a perfectly competent General who is currently unemployed, has experience in disasters, and has this little machine called the UNITED STATES MILITARY at his disposal.
Send Hayward to Afghanistan and put a plain talking experienced general in charge of closing that hole in the ground. It would be appropriate punishment for McChrystal and Hayward.


But again who am I? Maybe just sending a donation to BP is the answer. Or if you like just mail a check to me for my pain and suffering.

That makes more sense to me than buying BP gas.

Looking for a few good jobs?

There are few jobs in this area because our leaders have done nothing to attract industry while Mississippi has given bond money to investors. Our senator has awarded money to cheerleader camps and presented senior centers with pool tables and found construction projects for a favored few while the real needs of our district revolve around full-employment.

In Vina, l.6 million of our tax dollars has gone into an empty building. The paper labeled it a “Spec” building. Some folks will think this means “specification.” But no, the word is short for “Speculation” which is what goes on with Wall Street. The building is intended to gather scraps and crumbs from the Toyota plant in Blue Springs, Mississippi. To use the Vina building, potential suppliers have to drive 60 miles over narrow roads through Fulton and Golden and other points west. 1.6 million dollars in tax abatements might have gotten us the Toyota plant in Vina in the first place.

In addition, a severance tax is paid on gravel, sand, and coal mined in District Six. That money was originally intended to repair roads torn up by trucks hauling material mined here. In fact, the money lay in Certificates of Deposit to hold until election time to be handed out to various interests in the name of bringing home the bacon. Well, the bacon came from the pig that used to live in your barn four years ago.

Oil Spills and Disasters

Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson Education

"The following list includes major oil spills since 1967. The circumstances surrounding the spill, amount of oil spilled, and the attendant environmental damage is also given."

1967

March 18, Cornwall, Eng.: Torrey Canyon ran aground, spilling 38 million gallons of crude oil off the Scilly Islands.

1976

Dec. 15, Buzzards Bay, Mass.: Argo Merchant ran aground and broke apart southeast of Nantucket Island, spilling its entire cargo of 7.7 million gallons of fuel oil.

1977

April, North Sea: blowout of well in Ekofisk oil field leaked 81 million gallons.

1978

March 16, off Portsall, France: wrecked supertanker Amoco Cadiz spilled 68 million gallons, causing widespread environmental damage over 100 mi of Brittany coast.

1979

June 3, Gulf of Mexico: exploratory oil well Ixtoc 1 blew out, spilling an estimated 140 million gallons of crude oil into the open sea. Although it is one of the largest known oil spills, it had a low environmental impact.

July 19, Tobago: the Atlantic Empress and the Aegean Captain collided, spilling 46 million gallons of crude. While being towed, the Atlantic Empress spilled an additional 41 million gallons off Barbados on Aug. 2.

1980

March 30, Stavanger, Norway: floating hotel in North Sea collapsed, killing 123 oil workers.

1983

Feb. 4, Persian Gulf, Iran: Nowruz Field platform spilled 80 million gallons of oil.

Aug. 6, Cape Town, South Africa: the Spanish tanker Castillo de Bellver caught fire, spilling 78 million gallons of oil off the coast.

1988

July 6, North Sea off Scotland: 166 workers killed in explosion and fire on Occidental Petroleum's Piper Alpha rig in North Sea; 64 survivors. It is the world's worst offshore oil disaster.

Nov. 10, Saint John's, Newfoundland: Odyssey spilled 43 million gallons of oil.

1989

March 24, Prince William Sound, Alaska: tanker Exxon Valdez hit an undersea reef and spilled 10 million–plus gallons of oil into the water, causing the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

Dec. 19, off Las Palmas, the Canary Islands: explosion in Iranian supertanker, the Kharg-5, caused 19 million gallons of crude oil to spill into Atlantic Ocean about 400 mi north of Las Palmas, forming a 100-square-mile oil slick.

1990

June 8, off Galveston, Tex.: Mega Borg released 5.1 million gallons of oil some 60 nautical miles south-southeast of Galveston as a result of an explosion and subsequent fire in the pump room.

1991

Jan. 23–27, southern Kuwait: during the Persian Gulf War, Iraq deliberately released 240–460 million gallons of crude oil into the Persian Gulf from tankers 10 mi off Kuwait. Spill had little military significance. On Jan. 27, U.S. warplanes bombed pipe systems to stop the flow of oil.

April 11, Genoa, Italy: Haven spilled 42 million gallons of oil in Genoa port.

May 28, Angola: ABT Summer exploded and leaked 15–78 million gallons of oil off the coast of Angola. It's not clear how much sank or burned.

1992

March 2, Fergana Valley, Uzbekistan: 88 million gallons of oil spilled from an oil well.

1993

Aug. 10, Tampa Bay, Fla.: three ships collided, the barge Bouchard B155, the freighter Balsa 37, and the barge Ocean 255. The Bouchard spilled an estimated 336,000 gallons of No. 6 fuel oil into Tampa Bay.

1994

Sept. 8, Russia: dam built to contain oil burst and spilled oil into Kolva River tributary. U.S. Energy Department estimated spill at 2 million barrels. Russian state-owned oil company claimed spill was only 102,000 barrels.

1996

Feb. 15, off Welsh coast: supertanker Sea Empress ran aground at port of Milford Haven, Wales, spewed out 70,000 tons of crude oil, and created a 25-mile slick.

1999

Dec. 12, French Atlantic coast: Maltese-registered tanker Erika broke apart and sank off Britanny, spilling 3 million gallons of heavy oil into the sea.

2000

Jan. 18, off Rio de Janeiro: ruptured pipeline owned by government oil company, Petrobras, spewed 343,200 gallons of heavy oil into Guanabara Bay.

Nov. 28, Mississippi River south of New Orleans: oil tanker Westchester lost power and ran aground near Port Sulphur, La., dumping 567,000 gallons of crude oil into lower Mississippi. Spill was largest in U.S. waters since Exxon Valdez disaster in March 1989.

2002

Nov. 13, Spain: Prestige suffered a damaged hull and was towed to sea and sank. Much of the 20 million gallons of oil remains underwater.

2003

July 28, Pakistan: The Tasman Spirit, a tanker, ran aground near the Karachi port, and eventually cracked into two pieces. One of its four oil tanks burst open, leaking 28,000 tons of crude oil into the sea.

2004

Dec. 7, Unalaska, Aleutian Islands, Alaska: A major storm pushed the M/V Selendang Ayu up onto a rocky shore, breaking it in two. 337,000 gallons of oil were released, most of which was driven onto the shoreline of Makushin and Skan Bays.

2005

Aug.-Sept., New Orleans, Louisiana: The Coast Guard estimated that more than 7 million gallons of oil were spilled during Hurricane Katrina from various sources, including pipelines, storage tanks and industrial plants.

2006

June 19, Calcasieu River, Louisiana: An estimated 71,000 barrels of waste oil were released from a tank at the CITGO Refinery on the Calcasieu River during a violent rain storm.

July 15, Beirut, Lebanon: The Israeli navy bombs the Jieh coast power station, and between three million and ten million gallons of oil leaks into the sea, affecting nearly 100 miles of coastline. A coastal blockade, a result of the war, greatly hampers outside clean-up efforts.

August 11th, Guimaras island, The Philippines: A tanker carrying 530,000 gallons of oil sinks off the coast of the Philippines, putting the country's fishing and tourism industries at great risk. The ship sinks in deep water, making it virtually unrecoverable, and it continues to emit oil into the ocean as other nations are called in to assist in the massive clean-up effort.

2007

December 7, South Korea: Oil spill causes environmental disaster, destroying beaches, coating birds and oysters with oil, and driving away tourists with its stench. The Hebei Spirit collides with a steel wire connecting a tug boat and barge five miles off South Korea's west coast, spilling 2.8 million gallons of crude oil. Seven thousand people are trying to clean up 12 miles of oil-coated coast.

2008

July 25, New Orleans, Louisiana: A 61-foot barge, carrying 419,000 gallons of heavy fuel, collides with a 600-foot tanker ship in the Mississippi River near New Orleans. Hundreds of thousands of gallons of fuel leak from the barge, causing a halt to all river traffic while cleanup efforts commence to limit the environmental fallout on local wildlife.

2009

March 11, Queensland, Australia: During Cyclone Hamish, unsecured cargo aboard the container ship MV Pacific Adventurer came loose on deck and caused the release of 52,000 gallons of heavy fuel and 620 tons of ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer, into the Coral Sea. About 60 km of the Sunshine Coast was covered in oil, prompting the closure of half the area's beaches.

2010

Jan. 23, Port Arthur, Texas: The oil tanker Eagle Otome and a barge collide in the Sabine-Neches Waterway, causing the release of about 462,000 gallons of crude oil. Environmental damage was minimal as about 46,000 gallons were recovered and 175,000 gallons were dispersed or evaporated, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

April 24, Gulf of Mexico: The Deepwater Horizon, a semi-submersible drilling rig, sank on April 22, after an April 20th explosion on the vessel. Eleven people died in the blast. When the rig sank, the riser—the 5,000-foot-long pipe that connects the wellhead to the rig—became detached and began leaking oil. In addition, U.S. Coast Guard investigators discovered a leak in the wellhead itself. As much as 60,000 barrels of oil per day were leaking into the water, threatening wildlife along the Louisiana Coast. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano declared it a "spill of national significance." BP (British Petroleum), which leased the Deepwater Horizon, is responsible for the cleanup, but the U.S. Navy supplied the company with resources to help contain the slick. Oil reached the Louisiana shore on April 30, affected about 125 miles of coast. By early June, oil had also reached Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi. It is the largest oil spill in U.S. history.

Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

More on the Community College System

Some years ago several Alabama legislators questioned whether or not the state school board possessed the competence to govern the two-year system. True the college system seems to present a considerable challenge to the already burdened K-12 system suggesting some need for a separate regulatory body.

I remain unconvinced. I am sure, however, that the Alabama College System needs to decide if we are to be the last two years of high school or the first two years of college. We have for too many years tried to be both.

If the college system is to be all things to all people. If the original mission of the two-year college system is "To provide the first two years of college education to underserved rural populations" and later merged with " To retrain and re-create careers for our citizens and lifelong educational opportunities", then a number of conditions must be met.

First, We must have realistic assessment of the need for skilled technical workers. This requires only one simple common sense question: " What sorts of employment will be available in the future for this specific training?" Field of dreams thinking on this matter has some merit but it is somewhat unfair to put thousands of students through the considerable time and expense of a technical program knowing that one in ten will have employment in that field. It is unfair to the taxpayer as well, since this investment of state money will be forced to find a place in another state.

Second, We must align more closely with senior institutions. The Alabama State Board of Education, or whoever is actually in charge of the college system, could make the simple switch from "duty days" to "contact hours". This change would allow colleges to set calendars to closely resemble those schools chosen by our transfer students. Much progress has been made in coordinating our academic offerings with the senior institutions. Much remains to be done.

Third, We must improve our relationship with the high schools. We should have more than loose talk about articulation. With the students as well as the instructors. If the college system is to remain part of K-14 then remediation should take place in cooperation with the high schools. If we are to be one and two in the six year college system we need separate regulation and a complete overhaul of the academic catalog. Although there is some debate over the certifiable time needed to complete a "two year" technical program that has non-transfer exit points other states seem to have little trouble making the adjustment.

In short we need to provide for the seamless transfer of our students to the upper level institutions and/or seamless transfer to the world of work in order to become a truly effective institution.

I caught a certain amount of flack from NPR about using an undergound nuclear explosive to seal this well. But the datum are well documented. At the depths we are talking about , a mile or so down a "relief well" a properly placed charge would seal the well and collapse the pipe to the reservoir.

www.cddc.vt.edu/host/atomic/images/enw77b25.gif


You might also be interested in :
http://www.livescience.com/technology/russia-nuke-gulf-oil-well-100512.html

Enough Already!

Right now it appears that Alabamians pay more toward debt than they do toward taxes, And God knows we pay enough taxes. Many pay more toward consumer debt than they do for food.

The US Congress passed legislation in the past session limiting some of the fees that bank card users can charge the users but the banks immediately put their lawyers to work to find legal ways to raise other fees. A good friend of mine had a Bank card some years ago and the card charged a $35 late fee if the payment wasn't received by the tenth of the month. They posted all payments on the 11th. The result of course, was if you had a bank card with that institution you paid $35 a month for the privilege.

In another case the lady opened a debit card account with a $500 maximum overdraft and received a first months bill of $1155. The limit was $500 but each overdraft charge was $39 more. To me this is fraudulent charges. It is criminal. It is like someone stealing your credit card and charging on it. Current law, passed in the last session of Congress says that you cannot be charged overdraft fees for bank cards unless you ask for it. So you will never again be charged $40 for an Egg McMuffin. Maybe. If you read all the fine print you signed.

Another friend, who is monied, asked “What do banks charge for loans?” he was completely innocent in the question since he did not engage in the practice of borrowed money. I said eight to twelve percent in most cases. He was outraged. Not at the twelve percent charges, but at the two percent he was earning on his certificates of deposit. And he is right. If a bank pays two they should be able to loan the money at four. If the borrowers are willing to pay eight then the depositors should be able to earn six. This is actually the way it was when I was a lad.

At that time the bank was owned by a local person or persons who had a vested interest in the community (pun intended). Now “The Bank” is part of a “Too big to Fail” Conglomerate.

Not unlike your hospitals, thirty percent has to go to the home office for the shareholders. At two percent a thirty percent gross is one hundred percent of the profit. For a local franchised bank to be profitable there must be a five percent difference between the cost of money and the cost of lending. So if they pay three they have to charge eight. Simple. But it also means that your money goes outside the state if you deal with the big banks. And when it's gone it's gone.

What do I recommend? Deal with local banks! Even if it seems a better deal to go with the conglomerate. (That and elect someone who really cares about high interest charges because they actually owe money.) I personally recommend the Credit Unions, Especially for credit cards, with some caveat because not all credit unions are created equal. I owe money to a local land cooperative and although I pay seven percent on my loans they pay a dividend equal to one about months payment on average. Last year the effective interest rate on my loan was probably closer to six percent. Their deposits pay four.

It has become increasingly fashionable to criticize the possibility of our state government raising taxes and I may be the worst offender. But working toward financial stability for the people of the state, working to help our local banks keep our money in our state is just as important to our survival. In the long term this contributes to lower taxes. My friends are right when they point out that our banks are a greater threat to our liberty than taxes – or from foreign enemies.

Other states, including Arkansas have placed caps on credit card interest with much success. One hundred seventy years ago President Andrew Jackson and his followers rebelled against a banking system that threatened to enslave Americans in an endless cycle of debt. Reviewing the situation today I see that little has changed. But we possess the possibility of making significant changes for the future of our children by simply enacting laws limiting the actual interest rates and charges by our State charted banks. If the big banks don't like it let them go gouge the citizens of a different state.

Alabama, The beach with tanning oil built right in.

A more or less (perhaps less) accurate rendition of the recent behind closed door sessions on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill between Chairman of the Senate select Committee on gulf water affairs, Arizona Senator Jon Kyl, And Tony Hayward Chairman of British Petroleum.

Chairman Kyl: Good morning all, we will begin this morning by introducing everyone. I am the chairman of the Senate select committed investigating the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster and our guest today is the chairman of British Petroleum Tony Lyde Hayward.

Tony: Thank you sir.

Chairman: Now Mr. Hayward,

“What did you not know and when did you not know it?”.

Hayward: Well Mr. Chairman, that is a broad question. In fact it seems to be two questions. Could I ask you to be a little more specific.

Chairman Kyl; Well then I suppose it would be alright and in the spirit of the hearings to separate it into its component parts.

Hayward: OK then , I don’t know lots of stuff. In fact there are books full of stuff I don’t know.

Chairman Kyl: But under the constraints of the forgone terms of this senate hearing , that being the Deepwater Horizon disaster you are financially required to fix, About that issue, What did you not know.

Hayward: Well then, If we limit it that way I suppose what I didn’t know must also include the timeline for when I did not know it.

Chairman Kyl: OK then, what did you not know and when did you not know it regarding the deep water horizon oil disaster?

Hayward: We refer to it as a “spill”.

Chairman: OK. Disastrous spill then. Can we agree on that?

Hayward: Well chairman, We at British Petroleum we began to value ignorance early in the second quarter of 2002. After Exxon reported a record 20 billion dollar profit in the first quarter of 2002 on the heels of the 9.11 disaster. We suddenly became aware that ignorance of the pain and suffering of the American people was money in the bank. BP just expanded the concept.

Chair: So ignorance is company policy?

Hayward: Yessir.. In fact shortly after that incident BP took the proactive step of replacing all our engineers with knuckleboom operators from the log yard.

Chair: So we have established that you didn’t know a lot and you didn’t know it early. Can we narrow a few specifics. Specifics such as when did you not know the blowout preventer would not work, and when did you become aware that throwing words like Junk shot and Top Kill at the well did little to stop the flow.

Well we didn’t know that quite early. I might make a point of fact that it was "Top Kyl" in your honor sir. The press misrepresented my quote. Many of the knuckleboom operators have never worked water past their ankles before and the pressure at that depth can be quite challenging to people who never learned how to swim. But in Arizona you must have experience with that kind of thing.

Chairman: Lets stick to the Gulf if we can. What is the pressure at the depth of the Deepwater Horizon?

Hayward: Ha-Ha-heee...You said “Stick to the Gulf” that is so funny. - Uhm oh -sorry .

Hayward: Yes, the question, the pressure at that depth. Well sir, imagine a diesel truck loaded with coils of raw steel, about 80,000 pounds of it, and imagine that you were in the road and that truck ran over you.

Chairman: Is that the kind of pressure we are talking about?

Hayward: I really don’t know. But I like the imagery.

Chair: OK… You don’t have any idea what the pressure is at 5000 feet do you?

Hayward: Well one of my engineers said that it would be like hitting your thumb with a hammer.

Chair: Hitting your thumb with a hammer?

Hayward: Yes, about a thousand times.

Chair: A thousand times?

Hayward: All over,

Hayward: Really, Really Hard.

Chair: I see, and when did you not know the volume of crude spilling from the blown out well?

Hayward: I think the true value of our lack of knowledge became apparent when we tried to stop it up with a golf ball.

Chair: Oh yes – the Junk Shot.

Hayward: In fairness to us, It was one of Tiger's magic balls. We thought it would work.

Chair: Let's not go there.

Hayward: Allright, According to our flow estimates and the depth and pressure of the water that well should be sucking in the ocean instead of blowing it out. We thought that ball would act a little like a stopper in the hotel bathtub. But luckily we were wrong.

Chair: Luckily?

Hayward: Sir, all we have is undersea video to work with so it is pretty hard to estimate the actual volume. In short we still don’t know. The fact the golf ball was shot into Argentina gave us some more pressure data to work with. Mucho thanks to those fifth graders in Ohio who pointed out that that thing was blowing like molly cracker.. At least I think that is what they said. But I remind you. I don’t know.

Chair: But independent estimates have it at fifteen times the BP estimate.

Hayward: Well you know, we have to work with the engineers we have. Like I said we just don’t know. Besides, it's the gulf of Mexico for crying out loud. You are acting like the British invaded Washington again…It's not like we dumped it in the Thames or in the Gulf of America.

Chair: Actually I believe the Gulf of Mexico is “The Gulf of the Americas” but I won't beleaguer the point. But I would like to point out that independent estimates have the volume of oil at the equivalent of the Exxon Valdez…Once a week , Every week for 58 days with no end in sight.

Chair: That makes this “spill” bigger than NINE Valdez tankers. - Nine Tankers with no end in sight!

Hayward: Yes that is correct, In so far as you understand it of course. But I remind the chairman that the volume of natural gas dumping out of the deep water well is seventy times the volume of oil.

Chair: Seventy times, My Lord! Is that something you are proud of ??

Hayward: Well we are proud it is not oil, that is for sure.

Chair: So you are telling me that the volume of gas coming out of the well is enough to heat a medium size city for a year ?

Hayward: Yes sir it is, enough to heat a small city anyway. Every four hours. I bet you didn’t know that!

Chair: Well sir, considering the magnitude of this disaster, do you think the procedures you have attempted so far have been worthwhile.

Hayward: Well of course they are. If nothing else the consumption of time has been well worth the effort and cost.

Chair: There is nothing you could have done to close the well earlier?

Hayward: No. The idea of using munitions to close the well was discussed but we don’t have ice drilling equipment.

Chair: Why? (rubbing his forehead) would you need ice drilling equipment?

Hayward: The BP stock price stock advisers said we had to get that relief well started because if we didn’t have that baby permitted before that hole was shut that the entire Gulf of Mexico would freeze over before we got permission to drill again in that spot.

Chair: So you are telling me that the relief well is just a cover to drill another well.

Hayward: Sir! It “IS” a trillion dollar well. And, There are two relief wells permitted. You know America needs the oil!

Chair: I see. So the well has been allowed to dump ten times the oil of the Valdez just so you guys can get a permit to drill another well in the same spot.?

Hayward: Well I would not say that I "knew" that exactly.

Chair: Hayward, What else do you not know ?

Hayward: Maybe that there are rivers of oil flowing under the seabed floor like spider legs from the well site.

But like I said, I don’t know. I don’t know when I will know.

Tell me again, How exactly did we get here?

John was born at the end of the civil war while hostilities yet still festered. His father who later became a two term Republican Senator for the State of Georgia was eligible for election only because he had served as a scout for the Union Army in the later part of the great war. Confederates were not welcome in the southern legislatures for many more years.

John and his brother Barto came by rail to Bear Creek through Birmingham and Atlanta just before the turn of the twentieth century. Bear Creek was as far as the railroad pressed into the former Chickasaw territory. His wife Mary and two kids, one a baby in arms named Gussie, followed in a buckboard with a canvas cover . A makeshift covered wagon with all their earthly belongings. A table, a milk pitcher, that presently sits in my entry foyer, and a bundle of hand made quilts. Traveling 400 miles on rutted dirt roads with a only pair of horses, a cow and two kids. The woman had more grit that any man I have ever met.

John the elder was a wealthy man, but John junior had given up his inheritance for Mary, the woman he would marry. John could not approve the younger John with one of the Davis girls, a confederate beneath his esteemed station. Mary's father financed the elopement, provided the horses. John stole the buckboard from his father.

In due time they headed west.

John and his brother left by train a full month before Mary and the kids. Found a small bare wood house, a broken down mule and rented forty acres of good land, half in woods and half in crops, from Mr. Morrow. (Barto headed south, then west, and I am told, planted many a crop along the way.) In time Pop had a sawmill, then a cotton gin and by the time I was born, five gins and ten cotton warehouses. Futures markets made little sense to my grandfather with his third grade education but he knew when cotton sold for less than it cost to make it. Hence the barns to hold the bales until the price went profitable.

One of my greatest regrets happened one day in the back of the gin. Pop picked me up and threw me into a pile of fresh ginned cotton. I cried a big bucket of fake tears. I would give everything today for the feeling of the rush of air by my face and the soft white cotton. But that moment was that moment. Frozen in time it will never be again but it will never be completely forgotten either.

John gave the shiny silver gins and the white bales of cotton and the steaming hot Alabama warehouses to my father, He gave the feed store to uncle William, Money to go west to Cohen, and paid for education and a house for the others. But my father was the baby child. The one who everyone adores. The one that gets what he wanted when he wanted it. Buy a car, wreck a car, buy a car, wreck another. Cars, women, whiskey- and drugs. Within a year the fortune was gone. Our home was sold to Lue Cook to pay our debts and we moved into the one room house in Weekstown.

The next year dad had a plan, the big house once owned by the Garners was for sale. $5000 would get it and 44 acres of land. Emma and Dad would buy it together, Pop would cosign and Dad would get a job and pay for it all. Pop made some calls and convinced a seed buyer who had depended on grandpa for fifty years for his cotton oil supply to hire my father as a millwright for $100 a week. $100 a week of 1960's silver certificates. The job was in Memphis.

By then the drugs had taken a toll. Dad had a festering boil on the right side of his stomach from the injections of morphine that he bought in tiny little toothpaste tubes, the needle screwed on like a plastic bottle cap. Then the poison could be squirted in the fatty tissue and do its dirty deed.

I remember my elation as I sat on the enameled tub in that giant old house. Even as I watched my dad change the bandage on his torpid suicide wound, I was excited about the prospect of so much money. We would be alright. In my mind I knew, but somehow even in my six year old heart, I felt that something was so very wrong for a grown man live on baby food and tiny tubes of something that you stuck in your skin.

My Dad's story ended like those you are welcome to read about in the paper tomorrow, a "heart attack" - usually about thirty six. With apologies to the Temptations "All dad ever left us was a loan. " .

Pop followed a few years later of old age and a broken heart. Died in the style of the Kings of Israel who spent their lives building a kingdom only to have it dismantled by the sins of the favorite son.

In the past two years I have seen four close family members die of drug addiction and forty more addicted. Two of my children invoke the same feeling I had that cool October day. My mind knows they will get better. My heart feels the feeling I felt that day in 1960. My heart feels the truth I felt that day.

The seven counties that I hope to serve after November second lose over one thousand three hundred young mothers and fathers to drug overdose every year. They lose another thirteen thousand to addiction. On average they leave more than two children each as orphans to be raised by the grandparents and the State.

Mississippi has taken measures that have effectively moved the problem across the line. Alabama has become to Mississippi what Mexico is to Arizona.

I hate drugs, I hate drug addiction. It took my father. It took my daughter and her husband. It has my middle boy. It took my little wife's first husband, and her friend, the wife of a friend who happens to be the mayor of a small town in this district, The husband of a counselor at the mental health center. It took the son of a the woman who checks my groceries. It took the daughter of a co-worker. This handiwork of devil knows no class lines. No economic lines. No educational boundaries.

Too many people make too much money on the drug trade for it to end. The Lawyers make too much defending the addicts. The drug stores make too much money selling the dope. The counselors and defenders make too much from the drug courts. Everybody has a piece of the pie.

When I look at Mary on the left hand, working a wagon across Georgia,and contrast it on the right hand, with the mothers on meth and crack today, I can't help but wonder why there is no grit except in an exceptional few. I can't help but wonder who will raise the next generation when the grandparents with the tiny bits of remaining grit pass away?

Prayer in Alabama Schools?

I recall the Wednesday afternoons when the stores were closed so owners would have time to get ready for church. I believe that the sacrificed soldiers souls ache for a time when the school children heard a morning blessing before they started their day. I believe that hometown America was what they believed they died for. A belief have allowed to slip away by not allowing equal time for the Creator in the classroom. Freedom of religion was never intended to be freedom from religion.

The idea of a central government mandating a particular kind of religion was the reason our country was founded in the first place. Hence the first amendment which says that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion". Which is oft repeated by judges upholding challenges to a time of meditation and prayer in schools. These judges don't read far enough. The next line states "..or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." Which is further clarified in the 14th amendment to expressly state that the same government which is prohibited from establishing a religious exercise is also expressly prohibited from preventing it.

Even in state buildings and institutions.

Many of the restrictions regarding meditation time in the public schools were enacted when the court was 5-4. Today it is 4-5 and I believe the time is right for a state to come forward with a law even more important than Roe-Wade.

I believe that I am the person who can write an amendment to our State Constitution which can withstand a Supreme Court review. I believe it can make a difference. There are books of research showing that daily time of meditation cures the spiritual ills of the individual and the society.

I promise, that given the chance, I will offer a constitutional amendment allowing a time for prayer in the public schools. I believe I can write a law to require a time of prayer and meditation in the mornings for our students who so desire.

And with your help I will dare the US Supreme Court to make me take it down.

If this makes any sense at all to you remember me in November and share this article with a friend.

A Memorial Day Prayer.

Today I find myself browsing the recesses of the mind of my youth.

Wandering into Isom's department store on Saturday afternoon as a young boy, watching intently as Mr. Isom carefully checks and remarks the prices from his shoe catalog.

Many of those shoes had one, two, even three lower prices marked through. All replaced as new annual catalogs arrived with Mr. Isom carefully peering at the replacement prices over those black rimmed glasses that seemed to do nothing. Peering between the glasses and the ever present black felt hat. Near or far he always seemed to be looking over, rather than through those glasses.

On this particular day I recall how he he looked up, with a salesman's smile, as two young men who could have easily passed for James Dean and Dennis Hopper walked through the store. They lowered their own dark glasses and peered around as intently as Mr. Isom had been reviewing his price list. They were looking at the air, the door, the thin curtain that hid the three by three foot dressing room.

As I rested my hands on a very slightly yellowed, albeit brand new shirt I noticed a thin brown uniform slip silently through the open front door.

Duck-walking behind the counter Deputy Stewart shushed me when I began to open my mouth.

Drawing his long-nosed 38 revolver from the crisp polished holster, the quite snap of the hammer strap on the black holster sounded like thunder to me in that store but in reality there was no noise at all except the huge pole fan that served nothing but to blow the sweltering Alabama air.

"STOP IN THE NAME OF THE LAW!" he shouted.

Deputy stood braced like the outriggers of an A-frame barn, Legs so far apart that he was scarcely taller than I, arms locked, drawing a bead on the two as they bolted for the faded red curtain that divided the public area from the stock room and back door to freedom. Stewart, stood erect, re-holstered the side arm, threw his head to one side popping the bones in his neck. This time the sound was drowned beneath the sound of the big fan blades whipping the morning air.

"Police business son" - he said to my wondering eyes. And returned to the waiting Green '57 Plymouth Cruiser with the single red bubble gum dome. Only Broughton Isom dared venture into the dark back room of the long, thin, store to see if they might still be there.

That my friend and gentle reader, Is the way of life we must morn this Memorial Day weekend. Our soldiers gave their life to protect America the Beautiful, One Nation, Under God, With Liberty and Justice for all. And to protect with a little wink and a grin for both the law and the lawless who offended a deputy this day by outrunning his six cylinder green Plymouth with the three speed on the column.