Last week I hosted town hall meetings in Grand Island, Lexington, Kearney and Lincoln, where I outlined my principles for health care reform and heard feedback from Nebraskans on the latest proposals in Congress.

Where’s the leadership?

No wonder the Taliban is celebrating the Fort Hood massacre, which is one more fundamentalist Islamic victory on American soil. It is truly ironic that highly trained military personnel were left exposed to unlimited harm by a lone fanatical gunman.

One of the unfortunate lessons Nebraska lawmakers will carry home from their special budget-cutting session is the inadequacy of personnel information necessary to make solid spending decisions.

When people talk about water conservation in Nebraska, most of the discussion centers on carelessness — the water wasted by errant sprinklers, or stray detergents from car-washing entering waterways. Everyone understands that wasting water is environmentally unethical, but few believe that we could ever run out of water.

It is one thing for a man to dress and leave the house. For a woman, it is quite another. Men like to grab a shirt and britches, pull them on, and then pat themselves on the back for a job well done. There’s no thought given for the latest trends or outfit repeats, and no consideration for fat days and wondering why the dryer shrunk their jeans.

Kudos to Hub Staff Writer Lori Potter for her outstanding column in Friday’s Hub regarding the girlie posters on the walls of a volunteer room at last week’s Gateway Farm Expo.

The more football I watch, the less enamored I’ve become with “wildcats,” pistols and even shotguns. I do like kickoffs that go deep and down the middle, and punts that go out of bounds in the coffin corner.