Cheer

There’s no point in trying to explain evil. There’s no making sense of homicide at the hands of an assumed loved one. Our collective grief for Missy Barto is amplified by the fact she did nothing to provoke her fate. There is nothing she could have done to justify an indefensible, evil act.

What gets obscured in a community’s grief is the response to tragic evil. There was the rapid and professional work of law enforcement to stitch together the account of a homicide and attempts to conceal it, leading to the timely arrests of an accused murderer and three accomplices, the recovery of evidence and the corroboration of telephone and other digital records. Police and the district attorney have already laid the foundation for an airtight prosecution. We’re all grateful for their swift work.

Then there’s the generosity of community — people like the owners of Miller’s Quality Meats of Butler, where Missy Barto had been employed.

Miller’s had a cookout benefit to raise money for Barto’s funeral expenses. It wasn’t fancy, just grilled hot dogs and Italian sausages. The response was stunning. The proceeds exceeded $5,000.

“We would like to extend a special ‘Thank You!’ to everyone who joined us in the celebration of Missy’s life during our cookout,” the store said in an e-mail on Thursday. “We enjoyed hearing all of the stories that people were willing to share with us about how much they enjoyed supporting Miller’s Quality Meats because of her role in our small business.”

That’s the best response to senseless evil. Maybe it’s the only one that can win.

Jeer

Here is yet more evidence of the oxymoronic quality of the term “military intelligence.” It would be funnier if it hadn’t happened at taxpayer expense.

The Pentagon spent up to $28 million more than it had to on camouflage uniforms for the Afghan National Army, mainly to satisfy the fashion whims of one Afghan official, an American government official said on Wednesday.

The Pentagon had to pay millions for the right to used the camouflage pattern because it’s owned by Canadian company, said John F. Sopko, the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction. The story was reported in the New York Times.

But wait, it gets sillier. The camo pattern replicates lush forest. But Afghanistan is desert, and the Defense Department already owns dozens of desert-appropriate patterns it could have used free, Sopko said.

“They picked the pattern based on a fashion preference, not by experts, but by the minister of defense,” Sopko said. “That was a dumb decision.”

It’s not the only dumb decision, either.

“We have too many contracts like this in Afghanistan,” Sopko continued, “where people make stupid decisions, and people are not held accountable and the taxpayer pays.”

Jeer

“Your tax dollar goes to Washington and your tax dollar comes home,” conservative pundit William F. Buckley Jr. used to say, “and all it has to show for the trip is a wild night on the town.”

The same thing applies to your state tax dollars’ trip to Harrisburg and back — that is, the few dollars that find their way home.

Here’s a painful example, gleaned from the draft budget for the fiscal year that beings next week. The budget cuts $50 million for public school transportation. Local districts — meaning local taxpayers — will be expected to cover the shortfall.

According to the state’s own estimates, Butler schools will lose $289,000, which is almost 5 percent of the district’s transportation budget. Seneca Valley is looking at a loss of $328,390; South Butler, $160,405; Moniteau, $142,824; Mars, $70,731.

These are crippling losses that will adversely hit rural districts with sparse populations and longer bus routes.

We have to assume that state lawmakers are aware of what they’re doing. They are deflecting tax increases onto local school boards and municipalities — who have even less recourse to pay than the state does. It’s only fair and fitting that the local taxpayers are made aware of what the legislators are up to.