THE BEAT POST

Please call or write your Representatives and ask why a citizen can't donate the marble to replace the Monument and save the taxpayers a couple million dollars? This is really outrageous!!

Warning! If You Read This, You'll Get Mad

Here are the facts:
--The marble Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery is cracked
and must be replaced, a decision that was reached 18 years ago.
--The cost of replacement is a staggering $2.2 million, plus an additional
$170,000 to conduct the required competitive bidding process.
--An American citizen offered to purchase the marble and donate it to the
government. The offer was accepted. (He has the letter from an Army major
general to prove it.)
--A five-year search for just the right piece of snow-white marble resulted
in a cut from the same Yule Quarry where the original gold-veined marble for
the Tomb of the Unknowns was mined nearly 80 years ago.
--The replacement piece is unflawed and looks exactly like the original.
--The U.S. government refuses to accept it because it's being donated.

Reason.com reporter Radley Balko writes about the mind-boggling,
head-scratching situation. The man who is trying so hard to donate the
marble is a retired car dealer from Glenwood Springs, Colorado named John
Haines. The room-sized slab of marble he had specially cut for the Tomb of
the Unknowns has been ready since 2003, sitting outside the Yule Quarry.
Haines has paid for it in full--$31,000--and has made arrangements for its
transport to Arlington, Virginia in a flag-decorated flatbed truck at no
cost to the government. And herein lies the problem. Government officials
say they cannot accept a free donation; instead, they must pursue a pricey
bidding and specification process. "It's not doable. A citizen can't just
give us any piece of marble and say, 'This is what we'll use to replace the
tomb,'" Thurman Higginbotham, deputy superintendent of Arlington, told
Reason.com. To which Haines responded, "I understand how the government
works. But there comes a point when you just say 'to hell with it.'"

Meanwhile, the Department of the Army presented to Congress a 34-page report
outlining all the possible ways the Tomb of the Unknowns could be
repaired--all but one that, is. There was no mention of Haines' generous and
patriotic offer. Reason.com has a great idea! Haines should use the marble
to construct a monument to government waste.

go here to read story and comment http://reason.com/blog/show/128709.html

Think About This One!!!

It is short but very interesting!

A car company can move its factories to Mexico and claim it's a free market.
A toy company can out source to a Chinese subcontractor and claim it's a free market.
A shoe company can produce its shoes in south east Asia and claim it's a free market.
A major bank can incorporate in Bermuda to avoid taxes and claim it's a free market.
We can buy HP Printers made in Mexico . We can buy shirts made in Bangladesh. We can purchase almost anything we want from 20 different countries.
BUT, heaven help the senior citizens who dare to buy their
prescription drugs from Canadian or Mexican pharmacy. That's called
un-American! And you think the pharmaceutical companies don't have a powerful lobby? Think again!

Forward this to every person you know over age 50. It is an interesting thought. Maybe this is an issue that should come up in the next election!

Forget the 50, send it to everyone. We're all in this boat
together! Even if you aren't in this boat now, you're standing on the pier.

Three contractors are bidding to fix a broken fence at the White House in DC; one from New Jersey, another from Tennessee and the third, Florida. They go with a White House official to examine the fence.
The Florida contractor takes out a tape measure and does some measuring, then works some figures with a pencil. "Well," he says, "I figure the job will the job will run about $900: $400 for materials, $400 for my crew and $100 profit for me."
The Tennessee contractor also does some measuring and figuring, then says, "I can do this job for $700: $300 for materials, $300 for my crew and $100 profit for me."
The New Jersey contractor doesn't measure or figure, but leans over to the White House official and whispers, "$2,700" The official, incredulous, says, "You didn't even measure like the other guys! How did you come up with such a high figure?"
The New Jersey contractor whispers back, "$1000 for me, $1000 for you, and we hire the guy from Tennessee to fix the fence."
"Done!", replies the government official.
And that friends, is how it all works ! I think its the same in Canada.

Three strangers strike up a conversation in the passenger lounge in Bozeman, Montana, while waiting for their respective flights...

One is an American Indian passing through from Lame Deer, another is a Cowboy on his way to Billings for a livestock show and the third passenger is a fundamentalist Arab student, newly arrived at Montana State University from the Middle East.

Their discussion drifts to their diverse cultures. Soon, the two Westerners learn that the Arab is a devout, radical Muslim and the conversation falls into an uneasy lull.

The cowboy leans back in his chair, crosses his boots on a magazine table, tips his big sweat-stained hat forward over his face, and lights a cigarette. The wind outside is blowing tumbleweeds around, and the old windsock is flapping; but still no plane comes.

Finally, the American Indian clears his throat and softly he speaks, 'At one time here... my people were many... but sadly, now we are few.'

The Muslim student raises an eyebrow and leans forward,

'Once my people were few,' he sneers, 'and now we are many. Why do you suppose that is?'

The cowboy removes his cigarette from his mouth and from the darkness beneath his Stetson says in a smooth drawl . . ...

'I reckon that's 'cause we ain't played Cowboys and Muslims yet,

But I do believe it's a-comin'.'

Go figure - Stella Awards

It's time again for the annual "Stella Awards"! For those unfamiliar with these

awards,they are named after 81-year-old Stella Liebeck who spilled hot

coffee on herself and successfully sued the McDonald's in New Mexico

where she purchased the coffee. You remember, she took the lid off the

coffee and put it between her knees while she was driving. Who would

ever think one could get burned doing that, right?

That's right; these are awards for the most outlandish lawsuits and

verdicts in the U.S. You know, the kinds of cases that make you scratch

your head. So keep your head scratcher handy.
Here are the Stella's for the past year:

7TH PLACE:
Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas was awarded $80,000 by

a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a

toddler who was running inside a furniture store.

The store owners were understandably surprised by
the verdict, considering the running toddler
was her own son.

6TH PLACE:
Carl Truman, 19, of Los Angeles, California won $74,000

plus medical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand
with a Honda Accord. Truman apparently didn't notice there

was someone at the wheel of the car when he
was trying to steal his neighbor's hubcaps.
Go ahead, grab your head scratcher!!!!

5TH PLACE:
Terrence Dickson, of Bristol, Pennsylvania,who was

leaving a house he had just burglarized by way of the

garage. Unfortunately for Dickson, the automatic garage

door opener malfunctioned and he could not get the garage
door to open. Worse, he couldn't re-enter the house because

the door connecting the garage to the house locked
when Dickson pulled it shut. Forced to sit for eight,

count 'em, EIGHT, days on a case of Pepsi and a large bag

of dry dog food, he sued the homeowner's insurance company
claiming undue mental Anguish.
Amazingly, the jury said the insurance company must pay

Dickson $500,000 for his anguish. We should all have
this kind of anguish.

Keep scratching. There are more...

4TH PLACE:

Jerry Williams, of Little Rock , Arkansas ,
garnered 4th Place in the Stella's when he was awarded

$14,500 plus medical expenses after being
bitten on the butt by his next door neighbor's beagle - even

though the beagle was on a chain in its owner's fenced
yard. Williams did not get as much as he asked for because

the jury believed the beagle might have been
provoked at the time of the butt bite because
Williams had climbed over the fence into the yard and

repeatedly shot the dog with a pellet gun.

Grrrrr ... Scratch, scratch.

3 RD PLACE:
Amber Carson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania
because a jury ordered a Philadelphia restaurant

to pay her $113,500 after she slipped on a spilled
soft drink and broke her tailbone. The reason
the soft drink was on the floor: Ms. Carson had thrown

it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during
an argument. What ever happened to people
being responsible for their own actions?

Scratch, scratch, scratch. Hang in there;
there are only two more
Stellas to go...

2ND PLACE:
Kara Walton, of Claymont, Delaware sued the

owner of a night club in a nearby city because

she fell from the bathroom window to the floor,
knocking out her two front teeth. Even though Ms. Walton

was trying to sneak through the ladies room window

to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge, the jury said

the night club had to pay her $12,000....oh, yeah, plus

dental expenses.

Go figure.

1ST PLACE:

(May I have a fanfare played on 50 kazoos please)
This year's runaway First Place Stella Award winner

was Mrs. Merv Grazinski, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma,

who purchased a new 32-foot Winnebago motor home.

On her first trip home, from an OU football game,
having driven on to the freeway, she set the
cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the driver's seat

to go to the back of the Winnebago to make
herself a sandwich. Not surprisingly, the
motor home left the freeway,crashed and overturned.

Also not surprisingly, Mrs. Grazinski sued
Winnebago for not putting in the owner's
manual that she couldn't actually leave the driver's seat

while the cruise control was set. The Oklahoma jury
awarded her, are you sitting down, $1,750,000
PLUS a new motor home.

Winnebago actually changed their manuals as a
result of this suit, just in case Mrs. Grazinski has any relatives

who might also buy a motor home.

Are we, as a society, getting more stupid...?

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Activated 0ctober 2004