In 1885 in his “Hand-Book of Proverbs,” H.G. Bohn included, “An idle brain is the devil’s workshop.” Maybe so, but I doubt he put my idle thoughts into my brain. I think it’s an attempt to block discouraging thoughts of the war and the economy. Here are a few of my idle thoughts.

n Just as most of us expected, anti-American Americans are saying the Fort Hood killer may have been under great mental stress because of his pending deployment to Afghanistan. And what’s more, they say he can’t get a fair trial and the punishment will be too harsh in a military court. Well, I hope they think he should be at least be given a good talking to by the base commandant.

n In a world of bad news, I was reflecting that LaGrange football teams always provide cause for cheering. Unfortunately this has not been true of Bulldogs. The Georgia fanatics at the Idle Hour Pub must cry in their beer most Saturdays. Maybe they should switch their allegiance to Georgia Tech; they’re having a terrific season. When I was a boy living near Boston, I rooted for only three teams: Boston College, Harvard and a team a thousand miles away; it was Georgia Tech. I loved the line “I’m a rambling wreck from Georgia Tech, but a helluva engineer!” Now B.C. and Harvard are irrelevant, but Georgia Tech is still worth rooting for. And what do you think – as good neighbors can we find it in our hearts to be happy about Alabama?

n When Wall Street players like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet declared the recession is over, I wondered what the reaction was of the millions of unemployed Americans. Obama said he was going to create jobs and Congress gave him billions to do it, but there’s little to show for it. In the Great Depression, FDR quickly put millions to work in the CCC and WPA. The CCC restored millions of acres of devastated farmland, planted more than 2 billion trees to stop the erosion caused by “cut and burn” lumber companies, and built 200 state and national parks. The WPA legacy is all around us. It is the source of thousands of post office buildings, schools, bridges that span many of our rivers, sewer lines and paved roads across the country. Obama talked about taking these kinds of actions, but as on so many matters, he talks but never acts.

n Driving home from the mall I’m always reminded that redesigning the Davis Road-Hogansville Road intersection has done much to relieve the interminable backups at peak traffic times. However, there’s still a problem where the Waugh Road extension of Davis meets New Franklin. From 5 to 6 p.m., the stop sign results in a long line of cars unable to get onto New Franklin because of the non-stop traffic on the four-lane highway. It cries for a traffic light. Perhaps with a timer that activates the light for just that critical hour in the evening.

n Since Obama gave several billion to General Motors, we are now giving more billions to bailout GMAC, the company’s financing organization. Do you believe taxpayers will ever see a dime of repayment? GM will continue to drain government funds for as long as it is allowed to stay in business. Remember, just a few months ago the health-care bill in Congress was stirring great debate, but it has been dragging on so long it has become boring. If one finally emerges it won’t be much, maybe Congress should forget the whole thing. Did you read that economists and the White House are wringing their hands because Americans aren’t spending enough of their money to jump-start the economy? I wonder if it could have anything to do with so many having no jobs, and even more worrying about keeping theirs.

n Andrea Lovejoy is retiring as editor of LaGrange Daily News, but she’ll still write those wonderful columns. Thinking about reading, how about that great new library at LaGrange College. I’m sure if you contact library director Professor Loren Pinkerman he’ll show you around. And I’m looking forward to December; LaGrange will be filled with music and dance. The Lafayette Ballet will be performing “The Nutcracker,” and at the Explorations in Antiquity Center the LaGrange Symphony Orchestra’s Christmas Choir will be performing. The Symphony Orchestra will have its annual Christmas concert, and much more will be happening to put us in the mood for the holidays.

n So now we’re going to bring the four terrorists, one of them the mastermind, who are responsible for the slaughter of 2,819 Americans at the World Trade Center to the United States for trial in a civilian court. It appears almost everyone except the ultra-liberals think it’s a terrible idea, that Obama was balmy when he made the decision. Worldwide TV coverage will be a recruiting tool for al-Qaeda and could bring fellow terrorists to New York to bomb the courthouse. Now they’re worrying if they can find 12 Americans for the jury who believe the five terrorists might be innocent. They must be kidding!

Now I’m thinking it’s not possible to have an idle brain with only happy thoughts.