Musings of a Liberal Texan

Capital Gains Coupled with my lack of business finesse, my lack of drive in the arena of finance has always perplexed me. And made me feel a little out of the loop, in so far as societal priorities are concerned. During the period of .coms, I felt, for probably the first time in my life, a feeling of missing something. Was I missing something? Everyone was jumping into the stock market and making beaucoups cash. I even went so far as to contact my little brother. But I didn’t jump in. It’s not some fiscal wisdom, but frankly an absolute and total lack of interest. I do not care about money. There. I said it. Usually this is uttered from the mouths of the super-rich because, when you have it, you can act like you don’t care about it. That doesn’t apply here…….even slightly. This is also a lofty statement made by an upper middle class citizen who has never experienced life without cash, and therefore can dismiss its importance. Again. Inapplicable. I have been without. Perhaps it’s becau...

Uh...yeah! That's racist! I went to workout today. The place has just opened up and I can ride my bike to it, which is a rarity to say the least. I went and did my obligatory fat burn for thirty minutes. I decided to tour the place since I had never been in, go and check it out, if you will. So I'm wandering around the empty locker room, checking out the steam room (like I need that here - just step outside), the showers (no curtains...hmmm), lockers etc. and this older woman walks up to me. How do you like it here? She says. Oh, I like it so far. Pause. Good design, all the right machines. I say. Yes. Well I like the water aerobics. I used to go to 24 hour fitness but with all the Asians in the pool over there........ scrrrrreeeeeeeeech. I stop short and look at her. She looks at me. Not to be racist or anything. She says looking at me with that "solidarity" look so many white people give. Oh, but that is racist. Believe me, that's racist. I say. We departed comp...

No Samaritans Need Apply If there has ever been a more stark example of Biblical stories coming to life I don’t know if I’ve been around long enough to see it. We all know the story of the good Samaritan….if not here goes. One day a lawyer came to Jesus and asked, "What should I do to get to heaven?" Jesus answered, "What does the law say?" "You should love the Lord with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself," the lawyer replied. "That's right," Jesus said. "If you do all of that, you will be able to get to heaven." But the lawyer, thinking he could ask Jesus a question that could not be answered, asked, "But who is my neighbor?" Jesus answered him by telling this story: One day, a man who was traveling from a far away city, suddenly met up with a group of thieves. The thieves took everything he had, and then they beat him up and left him l...

How it all Vegan I want you to close your eyes. Ok. Never mind. That won’t work, because then you can’t read what to do next. Hmmm. Alright. I want you to think, focus on your own personal perception of farming. Not corn or rice or wheat. But meat. So maybe that entails “ranching”? What does your perception hold? Is it green pastures, salt licks, free roaming animals – cows, sheep, pigs, chickens, turkeys? Does it entail a family waking at dawn or before to care for the animals, milk the cows, grab the eggs? When you look at your steak or ribs or drumstick is that what you see? The thing is, as little as twenty years ago, that was probably the case. Families, land, animals in semi-natural habitats. That was part of the picture of the meat & dairy industry. Now is a different time. What you are falling for now is a marketing strategy. The cows writing those billboards to “eat mor chikn” are experiencing much more natural surroundings than the ones being used for our consumption. If ...

Justice is Blind…..to Justice You know, I try to keep this blog devoted to general concerns - animal rights, social awareness, political truthfulness...not a personal confessional. Egads! How nauseatingly self-serving. But sometimes, there are things that come from beyond left field that knock you on your ass and make you think “that really didn’t just happen….did it?” I am divorced. I will not bore you with the details of my marriage’s demise. We were not well suited for each other at all . I believe that opposites attract, but when someone is so different from you on every fundamental issue, you realize that the image projected was not indicative of the person beneath. Divorce is a horrible, gut wrenching experience that I will, thankfully, never have to revisit again. Having children and going through a divorce is the most devastating experience, next to losing a child, that anyone will have to go through. It was bitter. It was painful. It was laced with false allegations and decep...

Staggering Swaggering Sooooo. Are you as sick to death of all this machismo BS as I am? It’s one thing to be tough. It’s another thing to be a bully. Bullies do what this administration and its supporters are doing. Anyone who voices dissent, and is heard, is batted down – perhaps not with fists at first, but with false accusations, misquotes and defamation. Their concerns are minimized and dismissed. The eight second sound bite theory is a constant. Slap and dash is a continuous approach to anyone voicing legitimate queries into illegal acts. Attacking the messenger is always effective. The thing is, people don’t want to deal with this sort of stuff. It’s so…well, messy. I finally understand how entire German villages could go on with their daily lives while concentration camps existed within walking distance. The villagers were given official answers to their questions – what is that place? Detention camp . Oh dear! Who is being detained? Enemies of our beloved country . Oh my! That’...

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL! AND TO ALL (you loser poor people) A CHILLED NIGHT! from the New York Times: One of the shabbiest shell games of the year was played out in the closing hours of Congress in its now-you-see-it, now-you-don't offering of some badly needed winter heating aid to the nation's working poor. The climactic moment occurred when Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska, huckstering his most treasured goal, tried to sell oil drilling in his state's pristine wildlife preserve by promising it would help finance a long list of shoppers' bonuses for his colleagues: extra money for flu vaccine, hurricane reconstruction, first-responder radios and - if you vote yes right away - $2 billion in extra heating aid for the poor this cold winter. Mr. Stevens's cunning warning was that all those extras would die on the vine unless Alaska drilling was approved. His cynical flimflammery was deservedly rebuffed as enough opponents stood firm against the oil drilling. And soon enou...

Off the Chain My excellent friend, Lori, loaned several documentaries to me recently. One of them, Off the Chain, is especially appropriate now as the Animal Fighting Prohibition Enforcement Act is part of the bill that was sent back to the house for further discussion and banter. You know that dog in the Little Rascals? The one with the circle around his eye? That's a pit bull. I had no idea. I had no idea, before this film, that this particular breed has a brilliant history saving the lives of people and aiding their masters even if it meant their own demise. These are fiercely loyal and committed animals. But as some humans have inherent to their very existence a need to twist the nature of things into something horrible and destructive, these animals are now banned in many areas through, of course, no fault of their own. The film was graphic with a couple of idiot “experts” claiming to love their dogs and to being devoted to them, all the while destroying the ones that do not ...

Isn't it odd That Cheney can make it back from halfway around the world to break a tie in the senate essentially devastating student loans, welfare work requirements for state funding, child support enforcement and medicaid co-payments for the poorest people in this country, and Bush can't come off vaca inside the US while hundreds of the citizens he is leading are drowning next door. Impressive. The most shameful thing of all about this latest attempt at budget cuts is that not one cent is going towards bringing down the deficit. No no no. It will offset the impending tax cuts for whom, you ask? Surely you know the answer to this by now. Oh, that's right, you don't live in the same area as me. Where the number of hummers has doubled in the past year, SUV sales are UP , and luxury items, well you can't keep them in stock! To the wealthiest people in America. Golly, they pay so much! Giv'em a break, y'all! Now real quick for some good news.... The Washington ...

I Spy With My Little Eye Something Beginning wiiiitttthhhh – Illegal I just want to make sure that everyone understands this, because it is significant, and with the way information is doled out to us, sometimes things get lost. On December 17th, Saturday, bush said that he had ordered the National Security Agency to conduct an electronic eavesdropping program in the US without first obtaining warrants. Now on the surface, the immediate response of the average citizen would be surprise, but then justification – “well, you know, Madge, they have to listen in on suspected terrorists! That’s the only way to keep us safe.” Bush blasted senators, both Democrats and Republicans, who voted on Friday to block the reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act, which expanded the president's power to conduct surveillance, with warrants , in the aftermath of the Sept. 11. He said the Senate's action "endangers the lives of our citizens," and added that "the terrorist threat to ou...

You tell me. Seriously. Is the resemblance uncanny?

Political Grumblings It’s frustrating. It’s infuriatingly frustrating when one is trying to make a point, to shine a light on an issue, to be overwhelmed with grandstanding, slap-n-dash tactics and wildly false, inflammatory responses. It seems to be the way of the neocon – when confronted with a legitimate concern to bring out the artillery and fire relentlessly at the subject, not only drowning out any conversation in regards to a matter on the table but attempting to decimate the target as a bonus. I think of Richard Clark. This guy was a major player in several administrations, suffering from inexplicable exasperation by the way the bushies were dealing with terror concerns,so he went public. I remember one person, who shall remain nameless…because I can’t remember who it was……in a dark, menacing tone gravely revealing that Mr. Clark (they always say mister before they lob the grenade) was, well, a tad bit loopy. Crazy. Insane. Lo-co. That’s why, we had to let him go. Sad really. W...

And now for something completely different.... I am a liberal, vegan, animal rights activist, environmentalist in the land of Oz, followers of the Bushizzard of the same name. It dawned on me today as I pulled into an intersection with yet another well maintained beautifully ornamented median behind and between SUVs holding one adult driving with a cell phone with a kid in the back and a "W" on the back window that this must be very similar to how black people feel. I guess this line of thinking was prompted by one lone black woman walking into a pony league (baseball for early teens) meeting amongst a roomful of white men. She seemed to know some, as they did her, but it flashed in my mind that it must never get easy. It must never get easy or comfortable to be surrounded by people who's lives and beliefs are absolutely opposite to you. No matter how hard you try to show that you are "normal" or that you fit right in, you don't. Everything might be going al...

Oils Fair in Bush's "Mer-ica" Oil companies posted amazing profits in the 3rd and 4th quarters of 2005. The largest, ExxonMobil, saw a 75 percent increase in profit from the same time last year, earning a staggering $9.92 billion during the 3rd quarter, the single largest quarterly haul in history . Shell was right behind them, with $9.03 billion (up 68 percent), ConocoPhillips reported an 89 percent increase with $3.8 billion, and BP reported $4.87 billion (up 34 percent). 75% increase in profits.....seventy five....sixty eight....eighty nine. Swirl that around your palate like a fine wine you can't afford. Hey but, the prices have come down, right? That's something to be thankful for...isn't it? Now....when did those prices start mysteriously declining.....AHA! Oh Yeah! Around the time the CEOs of the aforementioned oil comps were brought before the congressional committee to find out what the heck was going on! Interesting coincidence. But really, what do ...

Thought of the Week....or day if I come with something else tomorrow. Power like uranium should be dispensed in microscopic quantities and monitored constantly.

This is What A Brain Sounds like on Prescription Drugs. Any Questions? (from Media Matters) On November 29, nationally syndicated radio host Rush Limbaugh read an Associated Press report about the apparent kidnapping of four Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) activists by an Iraqi insurgent group. Limbaugh announced that "part of me likes this." He explained: "Well, here's why I like it. I like any time a bunch of leftist feel-good hand-wringers are shown reality." After suggesting that the story "could all be BS ... could all be a stunt," Limbaugh said, "We'll take it face value at first." Addressing the kidnapped CPT activists, Limbaugh said, "[Y]ou've met the bad guys, and you tried your technique on them, and now you're blindfolded in a room with guns pointed at you and knives at your throat. I don't like that." He then added, "But any time a bunch of people that walk around with the head in the sand practic...