Musings of a Liberal Texan

It's crazy really. You work to get something accomplished, it finally comes to pass, you turn your back to work on another problem, and the first thing gets undone. It's maddening. Kind of like the whole seal hunt thing. We all saw that horrific footage in the...what was it? 80's? There was a massive outcry, international pressure, and it ends. Next thing you know, the neighbors to the north (you know, the ones that we don't talk about fencing off at the border) are bashing in little baby seal heads to the tune of over 300,000. As we get more informed, more educated, this kind of stuff is supposed to peter out. PETER ALREADY! Iceland Defies World Ban with Return to Whaling by Michael McCarthy Iceland has decided to resume commercial whaling, in defiance of the 20-year-old international whaling moratorium. The country joins Norway in openly hunting the great whales for profit. In recent years it has been killing a small number of animals annually but saying it was huntin...

Shockingly, slush and hannity, tag team blowhards that they are, stayed pretty close as far as topics go…for the short period of time that I could listen in today. Mush referred to me, that is “liberals” or “democrats” as the enemy. I am now the enemy. One sentence later he said that the democratic party was the terrorist party. Interesting approach. But I have to say, yawn, a little old. He kept going on and on about how the left is full of hate, venomous lies and despicable acts of anti-security, anti-American propaganda. All the while the image just kept coming up in my head of this fat drug addict sitting behind his microphone spitting while hysterically waving his arms and turning multiple shades of magenta. Caused a bit of a giggle, have to say. He couldn’t understand how conservatives could actually justify “punishing” their congress-people, their president by handing everything over to the dems. Makes no sense. Then he said that the dems are being ignored. What about all their ...

PLEASE NOTE - WARNING!! Yesterday, my son was offered, by his pediatrician, a "flu shot". We were stunned to find out that it is made from CHICKEN EMBRYOS. This is the standard issue flu vaccination this year.

Foleygate captured our society's attention for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, judging from the popularity of the "To Catch a Predator" series on Dateline - this stuff is gold. People are drawn like proverbial moths to this sort of sordid activity. It is why the grocery store shelves are overflowing with glossy, gossipy covers. It sells. Secondly, it is easy to understand. There are no complicated flowcharts to navigate through, there are no secret dealings or covert operations that violate this statute or that code. And finally, it is like a poster child. You know the ones I'm talking about - a little adorable child in a wheelchair that encapsulates the disease from which the child suffers. With his brave little face. Foley resigned, and normally, that would have made it go away. But Foley is the poster child for what is wrong with the "moral" party, the "law and order" party. While visiting scathing criticisms to those that succumb to ...

Get The Facts - For Yourself For all our technological advances, for all the think tanks and brainiacs the combustion engine is STILL the best we can do? Click on the video to the left about the electric car. The dealers are the ones keeping us addicted. Had enough? Check out the facts. Global warming pollution is on the rise, gasoline prices are going back up, and our elected officials are looking to open pristine wilderness areas for oil drilling. These are all symptoms of a failed energy strategy. The United States has only three percent of the world's oil supply, but demands 25 percent. Ignoring this fact is having profound negative consequences on America’s national security, consumer costs of energy, and the environment. ExxonMobil is a chief architect and supporter of this failed energy policy. Check out the fact sheets, reports, and links below for more information. Some documents require an Adobe Reader to view. Download the free Acrobat Reader . ExxonMobil is making recor...

The Story of Britches Read this story. Watch the video labeled “Britches..Rescued”. Honestly, it is inspiring. Don't be afraid, the other videos are worse than this. These guys – ALF – are considered the number one domestic terrorist threat in our country today. Look at the way they pick up the animals. There is tenderness, kindness in their handling of these guys. Now, I want you to think about what a terrorist is. I consider this to be someone who uses fear of violence, fear of harm to get what they want. The label seems misapplied to me. It seems to me that someone who is willing to go in and rescue defenseless, tortured animal is in no way, shape, or form a terrorist. Who have they terrorized? Who have they caused to be fearful? I applaud these guys. I see people moved beyond what most of us would consider doing. Walking around with leaflets and signs, boycotting certain entities, speaking out against cruelty is one thing – going in, under cover of darkness to release little an...

Foreign Film Musings I have always enjoyed documentaries. I find them so fascinating. Movies based on true stories always get me, too. Recently, I have become very interested in foreign films. Not the brooding, dark French kind of foreign films with surreal images flashed across the screen, where everyone talks in what appears to be code, wears trench coats, smokes and it’s all in black and white. Rather, I have been looking through the “best foreign films” categories on the internet, including on Netflix, and have rented two that have made me realize a couple of things. The first was Water. A Hindu film about a seven year old widow…yes, widow that must follow Hindu tradition and go live in a widow’s home for the rest of her life in 1938 India. It was a fabulous film. The second was Tsotsi (which means “thug” in Afrikaan/South African language). This film was incredible. I asked my husband and two sons if they wanted to watch with me. I got the blank – don’t want to hurt your feelings ...

Tempting Faith What I dig about the Christian religion is Jesus. I guess because he went and shook up the establishment, called out the religious elite, and spoke one on one with the masses. He didn't need a mega-church. He spoke of the foundation of the faith. Unfortunately, as humans we run the risk of mixing our own wants, desires, wishes in with the fundamental principles of Christianity and it all goes horribly wrong. We are not meant to be perfect. But we are meant to be humble. We are meant to be service oriented. We are meant to put others ahead of ourselves. Below is a commentary about a new book. It's extremely interesting... When President Bush touched on Iraq at his news conference this morning, he may have been revealing more than he knew. BUSH: The stakes couldn't be any higher, as I said earlier, in the world in which we live. There are extreme elements that use religion to achieve objectives. He was talking about religious extremists in Iraq. But an hour l...

Factoidal Musings That Stinks Nitrate Pollution Groundwater is frequently contaminated by factory farm pollution, generally in the form of nitrates. Nitrate pollution, which can cause serious human health problems, seeps out of manure lagoons and into community sources of drinking water. About 13% of the domestic drinking-water wells in the Midwest contain unsafe levels of nitrates. > Read More There are many ways that groundwater, in particular, may be contaminated with nitrates from factory farms including: lagoon seepages, lagoon spills or leaks and the misapplication of manure onto the land. > Read More In 2001, the EPA forced five hog factory farms to supply bottled water for local residents because activities at the farms had contaminated the local drinking-water. > Read More In some instances, groundwater below fields that were sprayed with liquid manure was five times greater than levels which would be safe for humans. > Read More Half of the lagoons tested ...

A relevant message from 45 years ago that bears repeating. Military-Industrial Complex Speech, Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961 Public Papers of the Presidents, Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1960, p. 1035- 1040 My fellow Americans: Three days from now, after half a century in the service of our country, I shall lay down the responsibilities of office as, in traditional and solemn ceremony, the authority of the Presidency is vested in my successor. This evening I come to you with a message of leave-taking and farewell, and to share a few final thoughts with you, my countrymen. Like every other citizen, I wish the new President, and all who will labor with him, Godspeed. I pray that the coming years will be blessed with peace and prosperity for all. Our people expect their President and the Congress to find essential agreement on issues of great moment, the wise resolution of which will better shape the future of the Nation. My own relations with the Congress, which began on a remote and tenuous basis...

Foleygate My opinion on this is as follows. I don't care how old these pages were. I don't care if Foley ever touched anyone. Obviously, taken out of context this might seem innocent and nonthreatening. But within the true context, it is anything but. This is a guy with power. This is a guy that is in charge. I wonder what would have happened to a principal that was told five years, two years, six months, two weeks prior to information going public that a PE instructor was being sexually suggestive, inappropriate, "overly friendly" with students. I wonder what the board and the parents would expect if they found out that the principal had sat on this information. The point of this is that this man was in a position of authority. Everyone knew and no one did anything. Do we wait until the guy is on top of some fifteen year old page in a broom closet to do something? The fact that people knew, the fact that pages spoke amongst themselves about steering clear of this guy...

Earth's Ecological Debt Crisis: Mankind's 'Borrowing' from Nature Hits New Record by Martin Hickman Today is a bleak day for the environment, the day of the year when mankind over-exploits the world's resources - the day when we start living beyond our ecological means. Evidence is mounting that rapid population growth and rising living standards among the Earth's six billion inhabitants are putting an intolerable strain on nature. For the first time an organisation ­ a British think-tank ­ has sought to pinpoint how quickly man is using the global resources of farming land, forests, fish, air and energy. The new economics foundation has calculated from research by a US academic group, Global Footprint Network, that the day when we use more than our fair share of the Earth ­ when "humanity starts eating the planet" ­ is October 9. In other words, assuming that the world has a certain quantity of natural resources that can sustainably be used up each ye...

IRAQ FOR SALE The privatization of this war is unprecedented. Soldiers talk about having to make runs in empty trucks with empty flatbeds through dangerous and unfriendly terrain because Halliburton was paid by the trip, not the truckload. No war has ever had this level of private corporation involvement. No detainee has ever been subjected to non-military, private contractor interrogations. See this film. If you can't make the free screening, go to the website and buy the film. WHAT: Houston, Texas screening of Iraq for Sale WHEN: Wednesday, October 11 2006 07:30 PM TICKET PRICE: FREE, RSVP required below A large format screen with surround sound in an outdoor environment. http://domystore.com/ HOSTED BY: dan fergus WHERE: Domy Books 1709 WestheimerHouston, Texas 77098 Map & Driving Directions

Recent Deaths in Houston In the Houston area we have had 4 boys die after a "light" workout. Every single release of information has emphasized the term "light". The boys are unable to respond. I am curious if the fact that our air is the filthiest in the nation has anything to do with it. I am curious if the attitude of middle and high school coaches, more focused on their job and the school's stats and not on the individual player, has anything to do with it. My son was ridiculed by the football coach as he struggled with an asthma attack. Sure, winning is cool. Winning is so much more fun than losing, but if any of you have ever watched these coaches at practices, at some point we have to say - at what price?

I know a lot of you probably already know this, being the savvy politico watchers that you are, but just in case. When people who release news items don't want a whole lot of attention paid to their story, they release it late Friday....much like the article below. Remember the administration's denial of any knowledge of or communication with Abramoff? Abra-who? Turns out that might not be (I can already hear the gasping!) true. An aide to Rove...former employee of Abramoff, resigned on Friday due to her ties with her former employer. Rove aide resigns in fallout over Abramoff report By Steve HollandFri Oct 6, 5:01 PM ET An aide to top White House political adviser Karl Rove resigned in the fallout over a congressional report showing many White House contacts with ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a spokeswoman said on Friday. Last week's report by the U.S. House of Representatives Government Reform Committee said Rove aide Susan Ralston had passed inside White House information t...

The Reality of Darfur Anderson Cooper There are some things you see, some things you hear that simply are unspeakable. In a hospital in the eastern Congo city of Goma, we met a little girl. She never said a word to us, she could barely look us in the eyes. When she did, her eyes told the story."She never says anything to men," one of the hospital counselors explained, and then she told us why.The little girl was raped. Gang-raped. It was allegedly done by soldiers engaged in a complicated regional war that has claimed millions of lives. The war officially ended in 2003, but outbreaks of violence and rape continue. The girl is now five years old. She was raped when she was three. I wish I could tell you this was an extraordinary event. I wish I could tell you she was the only child attacked. The hospital was full of rape victims, and the doctor had seen other small children victimized. Because the rapes are so violent, women often develop fistulas -- ruptures in their vaginas ...