My big sister Barbara in happier times.

1954- May 11, 2007
Rest in the loving arms of the Lord.

May was a tough month.
As a boomer, I’ve long believed that there is a song for every occasion. Here are two.

Mary Chapin Carpenter: My Heaven

Nothing shatters nothing breaks

Nothing hurts and nothing aches

We got ourselves one helluva place

in my heaven.

No one's lost and no one's missing

No more partings just hugs and kissing

And all these stars are just for wishing, in my heaven.

There's neighbors, thieves and long lost lovers

villains, poets, kings and mothers

Up here we forgive each other, in my heaven.
For every soul that's down there waiting,holding on, still hesitating

We say a prayer of levitating, in my heaven.
You can look back on your life and lot

But it can't matter what you're not

By the time you're here, we're all we've got

In my heaven.

And Lyle Lovett: Last of the Family Reserve:
When I saw the ambulance screaming down Main Street
I didn’t give it a thought
It was my uncle Eugene
He died on October the second, nineteen eighty one

And there are more I remember
And more I could mention
Than I could ever write in a song
But I feel them watching
And I see them laughing
And I hear them singing along

And we’re all gonna be here forever
So mama don’t you make such a stir
Just put down that camera
And come on and join up
The last of the family reserve

Jim Moran and earmark reform

My Congressman, Jim Moran, was asked at a District meeting earlier this spring if he would support earmark reform in the new Congress. He replied that he was proud of the funds he brings to northern Virginia.
Apparently not that proud. Via Winds of Change comes a report that Anderson Cooper had his interns ask all the members of Congress to list their earmarks.

Moran declined.

An arrest in Hit

Michael Yon reports on the Coaliton arrest of Iraqi police general Ibrahim Hamid Jaza in Hit. Yon's report, like everything he writes, is a great story.
All I can add is that I have met LTC Crissman; I worked for several years with his father Cris, a retired Army engineer. LTC Crissman's actions on duty are amazing; but knowing the family, not surprising.
As Yon puts it, "you don't abuse people."

Thaks Doug, for all that you and your men and women do.