A Mish Mash of Topics

First of all… Way to go Mavs! What a fantastic NBA Finals!  Not a single player on the Mavs had ever won that trophy before, and they all played as if they had been there a million times before.  They never gave up; it was a fantastic series to watch.  Their entire playoff run was just amazing to see.  Now if we can just get the Rockets to get back there again.  


I used to be a LeBron James fan, until he rubbed an entire city’s face in a rotting pile of his overblown ego on national TV when announcing his decision to, “take my talents to South Beach” last summer.  I really appreciated his talent, and I still do, he has amazing abilities.  But, that over-the-top insult to Cleveland and his classlessness was actually nearly topped by his comments after last night’s loss to the Dallas Mavericks,As quoted in Time


“All the people that was rooting on me to fail, at the end of the day, they have to wake up tomorrow and have the same life they had before they woke up today,” he said. “They have the same personal problems they had today. I'm going to continue to live the way I want to live and continue to do the things that I want to do with me and my family and be happy with that.”
“They can get a few days or a few months or whatever the case may be on being happy about not only myself, but the Miami Heat not accomplishing their goal,” James continued. “But they have to get back to the real world at some point.” 

Really LeBron?  It sounds like you think your life a’int all that great right now, either.  By The Way… Your real world is still missing a Larry O’Brien Trophy.  

Staying in Texas:

Anyone ready to join Our Governor of the Unnaturally Wide Shoulders here in Houston on August 6, 2011 for a day of fasting and praying on behalf of our troubled nation?  He is calling on fellow Governors (as long as they have narrower shoulders than he) to join him at what is officially entitled - wait for it: The Response, a Call to Prayer for a Nation in Crisis.  Supposedly, no State money is going into this event, American Family Association is sponsoring it, and they are out of Mississippi.  First of all, if you are visiting our fair city in August, our nation is not what you will be praying, it will be your own soul, because you will be convinced that you have just stepped into the bowels of hell, the heat and humidity around here is that damned oppressive.  Houston in August is not for the faint of heart.  Second, ever heard of a little provision in our Constitution for the separation of Church and State?  I know he said no State money was being used, but surely we are paying the salary of his bodyguards for the event, not to mention all of the sitting Governors he invited.  Third, this little crash diet and kneel event just happens to occur one week before the Iowa Straw Poll.  Of course, we are to believe the timing is purely coincidental.  Now, what with Newty Baby’s staff having fired him as their candidate of choice, they are now free to go back to their old boss, Shoulders.  Fourth, did I mention that this is restricted to Christians only?  Most other national prayer events make it a point to be non-denominational.  This one makes it a point that you will burn in Hell if you do not believe in their way of thinking, which takes me back to points numbers one and three.  Why bring a bunch of Hell and Damnation Christians to a place that feels like Hell on earth in August unless you are trying to make a big National splash with a bunch of Ultra-Conservative voters just like the ones that are about to participate in Iowa’s Straw Poll one week later!

I would be remiss if I do not mention that ridiculous display that was put on for the benefit of Ralph Reed at the so-called Faith and Freedom Conference two weeks ago.  Reed, you may remember was complicit in the Jack Abramoff affair, but somehow he mysteriously was able to avoid prison, much less being charged with anything.  Still the slimy, homophobic, misogynistic, racist (but, he’s a family values Christian, so that makes it alright) has the Republican Presidential hopefuls groveling at his feet seeking his approval for their campaigns.  Like Pavlov’s dogs, they all reflexively ranted about how bad things have become since Obama took office, completely ignoring how bad things had become before he got there thanks to W. 

Santorum – Ranted that President Obama doesn’t believe in American Exceptionalism (I hate when right wing nuts use this term in this manner, as if we are the only country in the world that is entitled to feel special about itself) because he wants to continue on with the social safety net programs of Unemployment Insurance, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.  (He really said that.) He and his ilk want to completely gut Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and everything else they feel gives a leg up to the wrong kind of person.  Our declining education system is what is adversely affecting our exceptionalism.  We used to churn out scientists and engineers by the boatload. Now we are lucky if a college graduate can write a coherent sentence. Many Republicans are completely ignoring our appalling educational system, and they completely lack of desire to fund it, indeed, they want to balance nearly every budget on its back.  So, for now, and until we fix our schools, we are merely mediocre.  It is President Obama, along with some other politicians, teachers, parents, and most of the rest of the advanced societies that see that. They scrapped No Child Left Behind (My Ass) because teaching to the test will never work; even China is beginning to realize this.  President Obama is trying to make America exceptional again by rewarding innovation, not cookie cutting in education, and by getting Early Start Programs back to where they should be before the Republicans took their machete to them.

Bachmann – “I will not rest until we repeal Obamacare!”  I’m surprised she didn’t add in her best Scarlet O’Hara…”As God as my witness.”   There are a few people who turn me into a raving, spitting, foaming-at-the-mouth, fool when I see them, so I try to limit my exposure to them.  Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Dick Armey, and Liz Chaney are among them, and Michelle Bachmann is quickly becoming another. 

Getting back to Texas:

We are in a major budget crisis, and our Legislature is back for a special session to work out special Legislation for our schools, because the ridiculously lopsided Republican majority (you know, the party of fiscal responsibility) couldn’t get it taken care of the first time around.  They also have Sanctuary Cities back on their agenda.  Now in this same super Republican majority our Governor of the Unnaturally Wide Shoulders could not get this stupid Legislation passed the first time, so he is, once again, taking away valuable time and energy from Education funding.  How infuriating!  They also didn’t get gerrymandering, I mean redistricting done in the first session.  So they have that to deal with as well, but no, Shoulders wants them to Legislate our non-existent Sanctuary cities out of existence so he will look better in Iowa August 13^th.  

Often times it is hard to be a Texan, then I remember Ann Richards, Barbara Jordan, Leon Jaworski, or my parents, or just go looking for Senfronia Thompson, Marc Veasey, Rafael Anchia; check this out from The Texas Tribune.   Thank you for getting rid of that horrible Amendment put up by Wayne Christian.  By the way, Wayne, sitting the bench all season probably had nothing to do with discrimination, and everything to do with your lack of basketball skills.  You are dumbfounded as to why your impossibly discriminatory and hateful amendment had to be pulled?  I’m dumbfounded that it took threatening blowing up the entire Education Funding Bill to put enough pressure on you to pull the ludicrous thing.


One last point; thank God our Legislature passed the all important Noodling Bill, now making it legal in the great State of Texas to catch fish with your bare hands.  So many jobs hinged on that piece of Legislation.  We can only hope it is actually signed into law.