The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

A hot topic in our community right now is the city's interest in selling some water to a metroplex city (hereafter known as MC). Our city has the water rights to a fairly large reservoir, and they have been negotiating a water study with MC with the possibility of selling to them.

As of this writing, there is no proposal to sell water -- the city only entered into an agreement with MC whereby MC would provide the bulk of the funding for a study on the feasibility of selling. Yet every Bubba in town is downright panicky and screaming, "Our water is gold, you'll drain the lake, all you are interested in is the money!"

Most of the letters to the editor, and even a newspaper reporter in one article, have referred to selling our water rights. That is incorrect. The city is not considering selling water rights -- they are considering selling water. Big difference!

One lady said, " . . .the city is wanting to sell our water to MC only for the possibility of putting money into their pockets." Well, duh! Of course the city wants to sell the water for money! What other reason would there be to sell it? I bet this lady, if she works, goes to work only for the possibility of putting money into her pocket. Does she really think that the professionals who have come up with this idea don't know as much as she does about the capacity of the lake and whether this is a feasible option? Does she really think they sat around the table and said, "We don't care if we have no water in ten years -- let's get the money!" And all the Bubbas seem to think the money is going into someone's personal pocketbook. The city needs that money for infrastructure. The reservoir can be running over (as it currently is), but if the city doesn't have an adequate delivery system, all that "liquid gold" out there isn't going to be worth spit.

This lady further questions why the council should be allowed to "make decisions for us." That's the way the system works, Honey! It's a form of what this country set up more than 200 years ago. It's called representative government. You elect a representative, and if you don't like the decisions he makes, you elect another one the next time around. Methinks you show your ignorance a tad! She bemoans the fact that the citizens who live close to the lake moved there because of the lake, and "if the lake goes away, will they go away?" Number 1, the citizens who live close to the lake aren't citizens of the city, so they really have no say in the matter. Number 2, who said the lake was going away? As I understand the proposal, if the city agrees to sell water, the contract will include caps and drought provisions.

There was one Bubba who wrote in. He lived out in the county and was upset that county citizens haven't been included in the decision making process since the county water system buys water from the city. He's calling his lawyer! That's real logical. Say this Bubba has a pecan tree in his yard, and his neighbor buys 10 pounds of pecans from him every year. Bubba decides he wants to cut down his tree. But his neighbor says, "I'm calling my lawyer, because I buy pecans off that tree, and I should have some say in what happens to it." Bubba might think a little differently on the issue then!

One guy said he went out in his boat and "measured" the depth of the lake. I'm sure that was real accurate. Another calculated how much per gallon the city would receive for the water. He must be either Einstein or clairvoyant or both, because there has been no decision made on how much MC would be allowed to buy and at what price.

And the city officials and professional consultants who spent years in education and who do these types of studies for a living aren't adequate to bring a recommendation. Oh no! We have a Citizen Task Force appointed consisting of housewives, bakers, diaper producers, soup makers, etc. Aside from the one engineer and a retired utilities director on the committee, these people aren't qualified to make any kind of decision about selling water!

At any rate, all the city proposed was a study, and you would think MC had already sucked up every drop of water out there. These people need to get a grip and maybe read the story of "Chicken Little" again!

Well looky there -- there's ol' Billy Bob!

Have you noticed how political candidates always seem to spot someone they know in the crowd at their rallies no matter what little Podunk town they happen to be in?

I challenge you to find one piece of news footage from these events where the candidate's face doesn't, at some point, light up with recognition and he points into the crowd and waves like he's just found his long-lost brother. Do you really believe Barack and Hillary know someone in every town they visit? Do you think they really even know where they are half the time? I guess they do this to try to project the image of "Hey, I'm one of you -- why I see old Billy Bob over there."

Wouldn't it be fun on an interview show to bring up one of those newsreels and say, "Senator Clinton, this is footage from your visit to Bug Tussle, could you tell us who you saw here when you pointed and waved?" I know -- I bet it was one of the comrades who faced sniper fire with her on her trip to Bosnia!

OW, OW, OW, OW, OW!!!!

Mandi Hamlin, 37, is mad at the TSA, and she wants them to apologize! She was preparing to board a flight from Lubbock to Dallas. When the security agent scanned her body with the hand wand, it went off as it passed Ms. Hamlin's chest. It seems Ms. Hamlin has a nipple ring.

Ms. Hamlin wanted to just show the jewelry to a female agent behind a privacy screen, but the order was that the jewelry would have to be removed. Ms. Hamlin was able to remove a bar-shaped piercing, but she informed the TSA officer that she would have to have pliers to remove a ring. The TSA obliged her with a pair of pliers, and she was able to remove the ring.

Ms. Hamlin says she heard snickering as she took out the ring. She was scanned again and allowed to board the plane, she says, even though she still had a belly button ring. (I assume the belly button ring did not cause the scanner to go off.) Does this woman enjoy pain? Wonder how many other piercings she has? Ms. Hamlin wants an apology from TSA. Her attorney says, "After nipple rings are inserted, the skin can often heal around the piercing, and the rings can be extremely difficult and painful to remove." NO JOKE! As far as the snickering, when you do something stupid, you have to expect to endure a little humiliation!

The TSA says that if an alarm does sound "until that is resolved, we're not going to let them go through the checkpoint, no matter what they're wearing or where they're wearing it." So Ms. Hamlin, save yourself some pain and embarrassment -- wear your rings on your fingers like normal people do!

Can you say, "Greedy Pigs"?

This past Leap Day, CashTomato.com decided to do a promotional giveaway in Manhattan. Costumed workers were to hand out envelopes of cash and other items at 2:29 p.m. -- nothing was worth more than $29.

As the appointed time approached, the crowd of people began to shout, "Give me my money!" and general mayhem ensued. People grabbed money from the CashTomato reps, trampling others to wrest the prize packages away from them.

Anabel DeJesus, one of the prize-seekers, said, "Before I knew it, I was on the floor" and under a pile of people. "It's not worth it," she said. What a profound statement!

What has this world come to that people will risk life and limb and trample their neighbors for $29? A spokesman for CashTomato said, "It turned out to be a lot of aggressive people." I disagree -- it turned out to be a bunch of greedy animals!

How dumb does she think we are?

Hillary Clinton says she "misspoke" when she said last week, "I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base."

She was speaking of a trip to Bosnia she made in 1996 while she was First Lady. She only realized she "misspoke" when the media dug up news footage of the event where Hillary and her entourage, smiling and quite calm, were seen shaking hands and posing for pictures.

I had not heard Hillary's tall tale until they started showing the 1996 film on the news. But if I had heard it, I would have known immediately the story was a fabrication.

1) Do you really think the Secret Service would have allowed her plane to land "under sniper fire"?
2) If they had allowed her plane to land, do you think they would have allowed her to disembark and dodge bullets to her car?
3) If they had allowed her plane to land, and allowed her to dodge bullets to her car, do you think CNN, Fox, MSNBC, and all the other media wouldn't have had 24-hour coverage of the First Lady of the United States being fired upon?

Remember when she told a reporter she was named for Sir Edmund Hillary? And how she had to backtrack on that when someone in the media said, "Wait a minute. Something doesn't add up. Sir Edmund Hillary reached the summit of Everest in 1953 and Hillary was born in 1947." How dumb does she think we are? But then again, there are 25,993,202 people out there who have voted for either her or Barack. Maybe we really are that dumb!

Are you the pot or the kettle?

There was a letter to the editor in The Dallas Morning News from Anna Chandler of Lancaster. She says that when she went to vote late in the evening in the recent primary, the parking lot of her polling place was gridlocked. She circled the lot three times and still couldn't park her car, so she was unable to get to the poll by 7 p.m. when voting closed.

"I don't see why poor logistical planning should negate my right to vote," she bemoans.

Well, let's analyze her situation:

1) All predictions were for a very high voter turnout.
2) Early voting went on for at least a week or two prior to the actual election day.
3) Voting by mail is available for those who cannot make it to the polls.
4) Polls opened at 7 a.m. on election day.
5) She must have arrived at the poll no earlier than 6:45 p.m. if she had time to circle the parking lot only three times before the poll closed.

Yes, Ms. Chandler is correct -- she is guilty of very poor logistical planning! Ms. Chandler didn't say whether she was voting in the Democratic or Republican primary, but I'd bet my next paycheck that she's a Democrat. Only Democrats whine when the government doesn't hand them everything on a silver platter and say, "There, there," when they're victims of their own stupidity. Maybe she can get a law passed requiring valet service at the polls for the poor, downtrodden, who suffer parking discrimination.

Come worship at our happy hour . . .

We went to church yesterday, Easter Sunday. Easter used to be one of my favorite holidays. I loved going to church to listen to the glorious Resurrection story, hear the inspiring music, see the beautiful Easter lilies, and wear my new clothes and hat. It seems, though, that Easter has lost its meaning. Oh, I don't mean that the Resurrection story still isn't the most miraculous story in the Bible, or that the flowers still aren't as pretty, but the music and the worship are certainly different.

How sad it was for me when the choir sang a very nice Easter number and received a standing ovation as if this were high entertainment instead of a worshipful moment. How sad it was for me when we sang some ditty about "Celebrate Jesus, Celebrate" accompanied by hand clapping and general gyration and repeated umpteen times. How sad it was for me when "I Serve a Risen Saviour" was played on a steel guitar and drums instead of the grand pipe organ.

When I was a child, we entered the sanctuary (not the worship center, or as one church I know terms it "the wc") in a reverent manner. The organist or pianist would be playing softly, and children were admonished to get their drinks and their bathroom trips over with before the service began. We usually started our services with "The Doxology," and there was nothing like that to prepare you for worship. Our hymns were sung from the hymnal with real music, not from Power Point words flashed on a screen covering the stained glass window of Jesus. We never had the problem of the wrong words being on the screen because the projectionist couldn't keep up with the grandstanding music minister -- all the words were right in front of us. We knew whether to sing a quarter note, half note, or whole note, because the notation was right there in our hands. We sang songs with meaning -- "Oh, to grace, Lord, like a debtor, daily I'm constrained to be. Let Thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to Thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it; prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, Lord, take and seal it, seal it for Thy courts above." Now we sing, "Yes, Lord, yes, Lord, yes, yes, Lord. Yes, Lord, yes Lord, yes, yes, Lord. Yes, Lord, yes Lord, yes, yes, Lord. Amen!" over and over and over again. (Mr. Essie May calls these 7-11's -- 7 words sung 11 times.) And I hear that the pastor at our local First United Methodist Church is lobbying to have the pipe organ removed and have it replaced with an electronic keyboard.

Those who espouse "church lite" as I call it, usually give two reasons:

1) The worship is all about God, not us.
2) We have to change our worship style to bring in the younger people.

Aren't those directly contradictory? If we change our worship style to attract more people, then it's not all about God, is it? It's about what appeals to the flesh. We can attract a whole bunch of people if we set up a bar and have a "Happy Hour Service," but I somehow think God wouldn't feel particularly honored by that.

I long for the days when church was different than anything else, when you went for worship instead of entertainment, when people still reverenced God's name and His buildings. I guess the whole point of this is that nowadays I feel more like I've been to a barn dance than church on Sundays!

No whites need apply

In yesterday's newspaper:

NEW ORLEANS -- U.S. District Judge Ivan Lemelle says even though the Tangipahoe Parish School Board did not discriminate when it hired Mark Vining, a white man, as Amite High School head football coach, they must replace him with the black applicant, Alden Foster, whom they didn't hire.

The judge says there was nothing inherently wrong in the decision to hire Coach Vining over Coach Foster, but the district just doesn't have enough black coaches. So until the district reaches a ratio of at least 40 black coaches to 60 white coaches, no whites need apply. Doesn't matter if a black person knows a volleyball from a football, he still gets the job over any white applicant.

Hey, Judge Lemelle, you ever heard of the Civil Rights Act of 1964? Here's a direct quote:

It shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer - (1) to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual's race, color, religion, sex, or national origin

Is Mark Vining being replaced for any reason other than his skin color? Aren't you ordering that coaches be hired on the basis of their skin color? Aren't you violating the very act you purport to be enforcing?

Maybe we need to make a rule for judges -- "No idiots need apply."

Don't cramp my style, Man!

Two stories about two different children in The Dallas Morning News..

Story Number 1
PARMA, Ohio -- Bryan Ruda, a 6-year-old kindergarten student has been suspended from the Parma Community School for a violation of the school district rules. He has a spiked mohawk haircut. His mother, Michelle Barile, says she'll remove him from the school rather than abide by the rules.

Story Number 2
TULSA, Oklahoma -- Montoya Harris, age 14, was arrested for stabbing to death Sydney Dailey, age 13. The Dailey girl was stabbed 9 times, including once in the heart. The dispute was over a boy.

Is there any connection to these two stories? I think there is. Bryan's mother is teaching him from a young age that he shouldn't let anybody "cramp his style." Right now, it's just a haircut. Montoya has obviously also been taught that she shouldn't let anybody "cramp her style." Except the rule she's breaking has taken a life. Much greater consequences, but the same attitude.

Parents need to stop backing their children when they violate school dress codes or other seemingly arbitrary rules. The lesson learned is much more valuable than the child's right to "express himself."

There is hope, though.

Story Number 3
In the same edition of the newspaper containing the story of Montoya and Sydney, there was a letter to the editor from Richardson 8th-grader Amy Chyao. Amy came in second in the regional spelling bee last week (she has won the competition twice before). She thanked all those who helped her, congratulated the winner, and offered her help to all the other young spellers who want to participate. I didn't see a single grammatical mistake, and of course, everything was spelled correctly! Her gracious attitude was refreshing and had the ring of sincerity.

Lucky for this year's winner, Amy hasn't been taught that she should not allow anyone else to "cramp her style."

Inquiring minds want to know.

Saw in the local newspaper this week where the pastor of the local First Baptist Church resigned -- this just a few weeks after the Minister of Music resigned in disgrace and upon the heels of the Youth Minister resigning. Anybody know the whole story of what's going on over there? In the newspaper article, the pastor received glowing praise from the Associate Pastor of the church who deemed him during his eight-year tenure to have "been a positive influence not only to the First Baptist family, but the entire community."



A friend who goes there tells me that when this pastor came, the church was running 950-1000 in Sunday School. She says they are now lucky to have 550, and many Sundays the attendance dips below 500. Let's see, being on the generous side we could say attendance has dropped by 400 since he came. Does that sound like he's been a positive influence to you?



I have seen this pastor on their local television broadcast several times, and I've never been impressed. He pretends he's reading from his Bible, but when the camera angles just right, you can see he has his sermon typed out and taped in there. And it always seems to be the same sermon. I don't know, maybe they just do a lot of reruns. I also heard he forgot to show up at a wedding he was to officiate one time. The bride and groom had to scurry around and find a justice of the peace. I've heard of the bride being stranded at the altar by the groom before, but not by the preacher!



Baptist churches not being bound by the hierarchy of other denominations, I'm just really curious as to why the congregation didn't move him out long ago. Looks to me like the only positive thing he did for that church was to resign!

Do you look and act like a politician?

New New York Governor David Paterson was sworn in to replace Eliot Spitzer who likes prostitutes. Shortly after he took office, Paterson and his wife held a press conference to reveal that they had each had extra-marital affairs. Paterson said, "Politicians are just reflections of the people we represent."



Lord, I hope not!!!

Glug, Glug . . .

Just turned on my news this morning, and the first thing I saw was a video report on a couple being rescued from high water. We've had massive amounts of rain in Texas over the last 24 hours, and lots of flash flooding.

This particular couple drove their SUV around a high water barricade, and it seems they were surprised when they became stranded in -- guess what? -- high water! The video shows them being pulled from the roof of the vehicle.

I don't advocate letting these idiots drown, but I do advocate the city sending them one whopper of a bill for their stupidity. The "the rules don't apply to me" attitude is arrogant, selfish, and dangerous. Did they think the city put that barricade there just to inconvenience them? Did they think their SUV was better than everybody else's? Did they not care that they endangered the lives of their rescuers needlessly? Did they not realize that they pulled those rescuers away from people who really needed them? Did they not hear the almost constant news warnings, "Don't drive into high water -- 6" can float a car away"?

I don't guess there's a one of us who doesn't do something stupid on occasion, but there is no excuse for the stupidity of driving around railroad or high water barriers. If these idiots don't pay with their lives, they should certainly have to pay with their bank accounts!

The right of the people . . .

The Supreme Court and the 2nd Amendment are in the news today as a challenge to Washington D.C.'s gun ban is being reviewed. Jami Floyd of Tru TV says, "Guns are responsible for 81% of the homicides in this country."

First of all, I will agree with her contention that the 2nd Amendment is in the context of a well-armed militia. But where did the militia come from in early America? It was made up of the farmer, the craftsman, the merchant, the lawyer, the doctor, the baker, the tavern keeper -- all those NON-MILITARY citizens. So that they might be prepared to defend their rights, their country, and themselves at a moment's notice, and to prevent the government from doing what it's trying to do now (take away our guns), the founding fathers wisely included "the right of the PEOPLE to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." They knew that the government that is successful in disarming its citizens can also be successful in oppressing them.

Second, where gun bans have been instituted, they have been dismal failures in deterring crime. Washington D.C. has one of the highest, if not the highest, murder rates in the country. Why? Because only the criminals have guns. I heard a comment today that if we had these gun bans in place, then the school shootings would be prevented. Come again? How illogical can anyone be? Someone intent on murder (which happens to be illegal) is not going to scrap his plan because he doesn't want to break a gun law.

Back to Jami Floyd -- I say we arrest all these guns "responsible" for these murders. But we must protect their rights -- they have a right to a trial by a jury of their piers (see earlier post "Fishermen: Beware"). I can see some of the jury now -- a Colt revolver; a Smith and Wesson; a Winchester rifle; and the foreman is a .44 Magnum.

When a statement is analyzed, faulty logic is brought to light -- those guns are not responsible for anything. It's the criminals who hold them who are the responsible parties. And a person stabbed to death is just as dead as the one who was shot!

How to create a genius . . .

When Hillary Clinton was in Austin drumming up votes recently, she was asked how families can better prepare their children (doesn't say prepare for what). At any rate, she "stressed that talking with children helps them develop brain cells."

I don't know about you, but I think that's about the most inane statement I've ever heard. On the surface, it sounds like a very scientific, educated statement. But what does it really say? Yes, a parent teaches his children by talking to them, but it's the substance that counts. A parent could talk all day about Daffy Duck and I doubt the child would have a vast influx of brain cells. On the other hand, a parent could talk quantum physics all day to a 3-year-old, and I'm quite sure that child wouldn't be even one cell richer. The example of a parent's actions means a whole lot more than their words. A child has to watch a parent exhibit strength of character, a strong work ethic, and a loving attitude day after day to develop his own integrity.

On the other hand, if Hillary's right, I don't think her parents must have talked to her much!

Fishermen: Beware!

A quick post today -- I just read this on another blog, and it struck me as tremendously funny:

a better solution to the problem is for the staff to write their own code of ethics with the patients in mind, and living up to them. A board of pier review to address the complaints and or reports.

A board of "pier" review? If I am ever charged with a crime, hope I get a jury of my piers.

Do you think the "Board of pier review" looks anything like the WAMU bankers' pen?

And how about that pesky pier pressure all the teenagers suffer?

I ain't Tammy Wynette . . .

Jacquielynn Floyd, a writer for The Dallas Morning News, speculated in her column yesterday about why betrayed wives stand with their husbands for the husbands' public apologies. She lists a whole string of such incidents from Bill Clinton to Eliot Spitzer.



I've thought about this quite a bit. Recently, the minister of music at one of our local churches stood behind the pulpit to admit (some say without remorse) his adulterous affair. His wife stood with him. Actions speak louder than words, and what these actions say is that the husband is still a sorry, unrepentant, good-for-nothing. If he had any character at all, he would say to his wife, "I've put you through more than any woman should be asked to bear. I will not allow you to stand there in the spotlight to be humiliated even further. I got into this mess by myself, and I'll take the consequences by myself." Of course, taking the consequences by himself is impossible, but if he was any kind of a man, he would at least make what gestures he could.



Mr. Essie May is a fine man of unquestioned integrity. I don't believe he would ever betray me; but he knows that if he did, I might forgive him, but I wouldn't be standing up there with him to partake of his shame.

You say tomato, I say tomahto . . .

A few common word misusages I've seen recently in the news.

1) amount/number - amount is used for something you can't count individually; number is used for something that can be counted individually.

"It required a large amount of sand to make the number of marbles in that bag."

2) accept/except - accept is to take something offered by another; except is something left out.

"I accept your job offer, except for the part where I work for nothing."

3) corroborate/cooperate - corroborate is to bolster the testimony of another; cooperate is to work with another to accomplish a goal.

"The witness corroborated the policeman's account that the prisoner was not cooperating with him."


4) their/there/they're - their is a possessive pronoun; there means "over yonder"; they're is a contraction for "they are."

"They're pointing over there where their car is."


5) your/you're - your is a possessive pronoun; you're is a contraction for "you are."

"You're sure your dog didn't chase my cat?"

How did a professional journalist make it through journalism school without knowing these basics?

And then I heard this mispronunciation by a news anchor on Dallas' Channel 8:

She was reporting on pharmaceuticals found in the drinking water. She said they included "a-nal-a-jesics." It took me a minute, but I figured it out ---- analgesics.

Ommmm ..... my gosh!

Remember the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and transcendental meditation -- sitting Indian style and going "Ommmmmm"? Think all that stuff was pretty kooky? Did you know you gave the maharishi's followers $8 million in 2002 to "study natural healing modalities, including transcendental meditation"?



How did they get your money? From the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. And the $8 million is not all -- they seem to turn up quite often on the NIH grant list. The maharishi is not the only one getting money from this $29 billion a year agency -- you might be interested in looking at some of their other grantees at their website (http://www.nih.gov/). When everyone seems to be so concerned about violating church and state, how can we possibly justify giving money to this cult? Here are a few excerpts from the Maharishi Vedic City website:



Welcome to Maharishi Vedic City, Iowa, USA incorporated on July 21, 2001, as a model of ideal city life. The name “Vedic” comes from the Sanskrit word “Veda,” which means “knowledge.” The name “Maharishi” is in honor of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi who is renowned throughout the world for bringing to light in a scientific, systematic manner the complete Vedic science of consciousness. This includes 40 approaches to promote life supported by total Natural Law and enhance the quality of every aspect of life.




Every building is designed according to Maharishi Sthapatya VedaSM design, to promote health, happiness, and good fortune. Each building faces east and has a central silent space called a Brahmasthan and a golden roof ornament called a kalash.


Recognizing that the solution to all problems is proper education-education that develops the total brain potential and cosmic creative intelligence of every student-the City adopted an ordinance on January 28, 2004, to establish Maharishi Vedic University to provide a public university, colleges, and primary and secondary schools for the city's residents. The City and the surrounding area is also home to pioneering Consciousness-Based universities and schools including Maharishi University of Management, Maharishi School of the Age of Enlightenment, Maharishi Open University, Maharishi Spiritual University, and Ideal Girls School.


The City has adopted as its constitution the Constitution of the Universe, which administers the infinite diversity of the universe with perfect order.


The ideal currency of the City is the Raam-the development currency of the Global Country of World Peace.



Founded to become a “lighthouse of peace” for America and the world. The City is working to establish a permanent group of peace-creating experts whose daily practice of Maharishi’s Transcendental Meditation™ and Yogic Flying techniques will promote coherent national and world consciousness and thereby prevent any negativity from arising in America or in the family of nations.



I looked up yogic flying techniques -- that's levitation, folks! They actually think they can levitate their bodies just by thinking about it. Doesn't get any kookier than that in my book! The solution to all problems is education? Sounds like brainwashing to me. They have their own currency? I know the dollar is dropping in value, but I don't like the thought of being paid in Raams. They've adopted the constitution of the universe? Guess James Madison and the other founding fathers aren't good enough for them.



You know, if the government would quit wasting money on crap like this, we could all get a much bigger tax rebate!

Even the Democrats agree they're incompetent!

It seems our own county Democratic party had a few problems with their caucuses. According to Mary Madewell, the county chairman violated rules by neglecting to post the time, date, place, and purpose of the precinct conventions at the courthouse. The Republican chair took care of his responsibilities. The Democratic chair also failed to include in the precinct packets the number of delegates allotted to the precinct. As Mrs. Madewall rightly asks, "How else are the precincts to know?" It seems there weren't quite enough sign-in sheets for our Democratic friends, either. All in all, Mrs. Madewell was quite critical of the way things were handled in Lamar County, even to the point of calling for the county chair's resignation. She even admits that "confusion ran rampant in many of the state's precincts" -- and she's a dyed in the wool Democrat!

Somebody oughta' be praying!

EMORY, Texas - A 16-year-old girl, her boyfriend, and two other friends plan and carry out the brutal murders of the girl's mother and two young brothers. Her father is attacked as well, but he survives the five bullets they shot into his body and the fire they set to his house.

HOUSTON, Texas - A 17-year-old fatally bludgeoned a pregnant woman with a baseball bat in an altercation over a minor fender-bender accident.

MEMPHIS, Tennessee - A convicted killer recently released from prison killed his brother during an argument then killed the five people who witnessed it. Two of those killed were children. He critically wounded three other children who, so far, have survived.

CHAPEL HILL, North Carolina - Eve Carson, a 22-year-old student at the University of North Carolina, was found dead on a street about a mile from campus. She had been shot several times. The Chapel Hill police chief says it appears she was the victim of a random crime.

AUBURN, Alabama - An Auburn University freshman was found shot on the side of an off-campus road, and her car was found burning in a campus parking lot last Tuesday.

ORLANDO, Florida - A mother was videotaped spraying her 2-year-old daughter with a high pressure hose in a carwash. She said the child was having a temper tantrum.

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Steven Baesa, 19, fled the scene after his SUV flipped over several times on Interstate 30, killing 19-year-old Jackie Martinez in the 2 a.m. accident. Ms. Martinez was the mother of a 5-week-old son. She was thrown from the vehicle and hit by at least two other cars. A 14-year-old passenger in the SUV brandished a gun and tried to carjack a man who had stopped to help. Baesa has previous convictions for family violence and drug offenses. (I want to know what the unmarried mother of a 5-week-old child was doing out at 2 a.m., but that's another blog.)

AUSTIN, Texas - U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks has ruled that the Round Rock school district may not allow students to vote on having prayers at graduation following votes by seniors at McNeil, Round Rock, and Stony Point High Schools on the issue. (The students wanted the prayers). Thank God we have a judge in office who has prevented such a heinous act. Imagine what this world would be like if we allowed kids to pray in public!

I speak ministerially . . .

Margaret Seltzer wrote a critically acclaimed memoir titled Love and Consequences that told of her life as a foster child and drug runner for the gangs of Los Angeles. Unfortunately for Ms. Seltzer, her sister told on her. She led a privileged childhood living with both her biological parents -- even attended a private school. Riverside Books, the publisher, evidently didn't bother to check up on her story.

That's OK. I know preachers who do basically the same thing all the time. They call it "ministerially speaking." One particular pastor I know copies most of his sermons from the internet. If the author of the sermon he copies says in the sermon, "I was discussing with my wife, Janet, the problems of drug abuse the other day," then lo, and behold, this pastor was " . . . discussing with my wife, Rhonda, the problems of drug abuse the other day." If the author says, "I attended such and such conference last year," then this pastor says, "I attended such and such conference last year."

When the congregation complains about his almost constant "ministerial speaking," he blithely says, "I don't credit everything I write," as if that is a valid defense. That may work here, but when/if he reaches heaven, I don't think God will accept ministerial speaking.

And you want these people in the White House?

Democratic caucuses (or as Rush Limbaugh says, "Cauci") in Texas were quite the joke. Case in point: Sandra Crenshaw, a precinct chairman in Dallas, is accused of sending away hundreds of angry convention-goers and telling them she was taking sign-in documents favoring Barack Obama home to "correct them." She did, indeed, leave the convention with sign-in sheets. Her side of the story is that a mob of Obama supporters who weren't even from Texas tried to hijack the convention. "We had people fainting, people crying. It was just totally chaotic and dangerous," said Ms. Crenshaw.

At any rate, Ms. Crenshaw did not leave the convention alone -- she was followed by about a dozen Obama supporters. Ms. Crenshaw drove to the local police sub-station and banged on the door shouting that she was being chased. The police invited everyone in and called the county Democratic chairman. The police confiscated the sign-in sheets from Ms. Crenshaw, but County Chairman Darlene Ewing says she's not sure she turned them all over.

At the caucus at Florence Middle School in Dallas, an Obama supporter took over and somehow "lost" all of the sign-in sheets for Hillary Clinton. There were also reports of people being left out in the cold, of long waits, of mass confusion.

One caucus that really caught my attention was the one held at a Methodist Church. Next to the church is a cemetery. The two days before the election, North Texas had experienced a lot of rain and snow, so the ground was saturated. People parked in the cemetery, leaving a muddy mess behind. One good Democrat parked on a new grave, leaving a hole about three feet deep. In an effort to "unstick" his vehicle, he pulled out fronds and flowers from a wreath on the grave and put them under his tires.

If these people can't run their own elections any better than this, why in heaven's name would anyone think they'd be any more competent or civil in the White House?

We've come a long way, baby.

"Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country." John Fitzgerald Kennedy.



"I'm going to provide health care for you. I'm going to give you a $3500 tuition tax credit and expand Pell grants for you. I'm going to allocate up to $5 billion in immediate assistance to help you weather the foreclosure crisis. I'm going to give you $1 billion to pay your energy bills." Hillary Clinton.



"Basically ditto." Barack Obama.



The Democrats sure have changed in the last 48 years.

Habla espanol?

I exercised my voting privilege yesterday, and I witnessed an interesting scene in the adjacent booth. A lady sat with her ballot, and a man leaned over her shoulder. It was obvious that he was reading the ballot to her in Spanish. I heard him reading down the slate of sheriff's candidates, then she said in English, "I don't understand." He then rattled off something in Spanish -- though I don't understand Spanish, it was obviously more than just reading the ballot to her.


My number one complaint is that I felt like I was in Mexico City, not the U.S.A. My number two complaint is that if a voter is not intelligent enough to fill in a circle next to the preferred candidate's name, he probably shouldn't be a voter.

My number three complaint deals with the questions I was asked in the voting process. There were two tables in the polling place -- one with two large signs saying "Republican Primary," and one with two large signs saying "Democratic Primary." I walked to the Republican table and presented my voter registration card. The election official said, "Do you wish to vote Republican?" Now, I could have been ugly and said, "No, I want to vote Democratic, so that's why I came to the table with the Republican label." But I politely said, "Yes." Then she said, "You know there are no sheriff candidates on this ballot?" (Our county had no Republicans running). I said, "Yes, I am an informed voter." Then she said, "You'd be surprised how many names we've had to erase today, because they wanted to vote for sheriff." Again, if a voter is not informed enough to know what the primary system is about, he probably shouldn't be a voter.

There were a couple of propositions on the Republican ballot. One dealt with increasing enforcement of immigration laws by better securing our borders. I voted "Si."


And we wonder why our country is in the mess it's in! And it could get worse -- my fear is that we are about to jump from the frying pan into the Obama or Clinton fire!

Can they say that on TV?

Today is election day in Texas and a few other states. Maybe phone calls will slow down for awhile until the November general election draws a little closer and the candidates feel they have the right to start harassing us again. I read this snippet in an old edition of Reader's Digest and thought it quite appropriate for today's blog:

A newscaster interrupted scheduled programming to announce the outcome of a political election. "More on candidates at 10 p.m.," he said. My ten-year-old granddaughter, Ashley, looked at me in disbelief and said, "I didn't know they could call politicians 'morons' on national television!"

Let them eat cake.

I stopped by the grocery store the other day to pick up a few things I needed to cook supper. Having only four or five items, I made my way to the express lane. There was a lady in front of me checking out. She had ten to twelve candy bars -- Snickers, 3 Musketeers, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups -- about $7 worth. How did she pay? With her trusty old Lone Star card, of course. For those of you who don't live in Texas, that's food stamps.

I agree that those experiencing financial problems through no fault of their own should be helped with necessities. But there obviously needs to be a limit. I buy candy bars only occasionally and then just one at time -- first, because they're fattening and have little if any nutritional value; and second, because they cost too much. This woman was spending my money for junk, and I resent that.

What's the solution? Limit food stamps to fresh produce; canned or frozen fruits and vegetables (excluding frozen dinners, desserts, and other convenience foods -- if I peel and slice my own french fries, so can they); meat, fish, and poultry; dried beans, peas, cereal, and rice; baking supplies such as sugar, flour, baking powder, spices, soda (excluding cake, brownie and cookie mixes); dairy (excluding ice cream); bread, saltine crackers, and buns (excluding sweet rolls); and jams, jellies, and syrups.

The purpose of food stamps is to insure that a poor family's nutritional needs are met. The above list is more than sufficient. I'm tired of paying for carbonated beverages, chips, cookies, tv dinners, candy and other unnecessary, expensive items that I never get to taste!

And another thing while I'm on the subject. I don't know if this provision is still in effect or not, but at one time, those with Lone Star cards could withdraw up to $20 in cash. What an absurdity! Just enough for a little marijuana, booze, a little crack cocaine, some cigarettes, whatever -- our government is here to serve you!

I believe the vast majority of those drawing food stamps are well able to work -- they just like it better living on taxpayer support. So if you want candy and cokes, GET A JOB!

I support him, but darned if I know why!

Actual dialogue from the telephone call I just received:

Me: Hello.

Caller: (background noise)

Me: Hell0.

Caller: Hello, I'm Julie and I'm calling on behalf of the Service Employees Union and . .

Me: What's the Service Employees Union?

Caller: It's a union of service employees and we're . . .

Me: What kind of service employees?

Caller: And we're supporting Barack . . .

Me: What kind of service employees?

Caller: Well, uh . . .

Me: Like waiters and waitresses, or mechanics, or . .

Caller: Well, I don't really know, but we're supporting Barack Oba . . .

Me: Well, if you don't know who you're calling for, how do you know they're supporting Barack Obama?

Caller: I'm supporting Barack Obama.

Me: Oh, so why are you supporting Barack Obama?

Caller: Uh, I really don't have time to get into that right now.

Me: You're calling to ask for my vote, but you don't have time to explain to me why?

Caller: Thank you for your time, this call was paid for by SEU . . .

Me: Paid for by who?

Caller: (Click)

And that is about all the substance there is to Barack Obama!