A victory for sanity in the Texas Lege: The special session ends

Hide your grandma and your children, at least when going to the airport in Texas. That’s right. It’s going to be “Grope City.”

That is what Republican Texas lawmakers might have you believe as a so-called “pat-down bill” failed to pass in the state House after a called session of the Legislature ended today. Possible GOP presidential candidate Texas Gov. Rick “Good Hair” Perry had considered the bill to criminalize what Tea Party types see as intrusive “groping” of passengers subject to search in the state’s airports as a priority. However, that anti-federal government proposal and a bill to prevent “Sanctuary Cities” for illegal immigrants – both Perry priorities — died in the Texas House.

“Although I am disappointed lawmakers did not finalize legislation that would have banned sanctuary cities, I commend the Legislature’s work to pass measures that further strengthen our legal system through loser pays lawsuit reform, uphold the integrity of the ballot box by requiring voters to present photo ID at polling places, protect unborn life by requiring an ultrasound before an abortion, strengthen private property rights, and increase penalties for individuals who participate in human trafficking,” Goodhair said in a news release. “And although the airport pat-down bill did not pass, it did initiate a public discussion and some changes in airport security procedures.”

The long-winded Perry statement highlighted what he considered accomplishments during this year’s biennial session and subsequent special session. Not touted by Perry is the damage done by his insistence the state’s nearly $6 billion reserve, or “Rainy Day Fund,” remains in tact while Texas teachers see massive job cuts. In fact, Perry bragged on the healthy fund in New York City while sticking his foot in the water for a presidential run.

“New York City??? Get a rope.” (Quoting an old Pace Picante Sauce commercial here. No need report me to the Secret Service or the Perry Texas DPS Guard Detail.)

Despite the efforts of Perry and the goofballs in the Texas Legislature, at least a bill that might have disrupted air travel and could have put in jeopardy the federal government as well as its efforts to keep the flying public safe went down in flames. Too bad. So sad. Childish yes. Do I give a rat’s rectum? No. I am on vacation.

Just a suggestion

Although I am on vacation, I share this:

My friend Marcy sent me something today from the Internet of the type I had seen but they are always different. These words come entitled under:

To Maintain A Healthy Level Of Insanity

Here are such great suggestions such as

Tell your children over dinner: “Due to the economy, we are going to have to let one of you go.”

Order a diet water whenever you go out to eat, with a serious face.

Five days In advance, tell your friends you can’t attend their party because you have a headache.

and so forth …

My addition:

While walking in the supermarket parking area, pull out a whistle and begin directing traffic.

Vacation. Leave. Whatchamacallit. I call it wahoo!

It’s that time again! No, the new phone books aren’t out. I am on vacation as of now. Well, actually whenever my annual leave actually starts. I like to say that my vacation starts when I leave work. Plus I am going to my old college town, second hometown of Nacogdoches, Texas, this weekend to see some of my long-time friends. I might write while I am off, some, I might not. It’s vacation. Or leave. Or whatchamacallit. So I might just whatchamacallit. Just hide and watch me.

The skies aren’t so scary when the ground is parched

Hey ya'll down there, don't make snow cones from that blue ice!

This is not the sky picture I wanted to show you. Well, I guess it is because I am showing it. I cannot remember where this was taken. Okay, jerk, yes, I know it was taken from an aircraft. Jeez. Leave me alone, will ya?

The truth is I took a couple of shots with my telephone from my office building of the scary-looking/not scary-looking skies this afternoon. Unfortunately, the shot was kind of blurred. I should have bracketed the photo. I had plenty of time. I wasn’t wasting film because I … film, you know, photographic material consisting of a base of celluloid covered with a photographic emulsion; used to make negatives or transparencies.

What sky I was photographing this afternoon was a mass of dark clouds hanging above a clearer horizon. I am not a meteorologist so I don’t know if it was a “wall cloud” of the kind you hear of or see in conjunction with a tornado or severe thunderstorm.

I don’t think our storm this afternoon was severe. The general conditions for a severe thunderstorm, according to NOAA:

“(A) thunderstorm that produces a tornado, winds of at least 58 mph (50 knots), and/or hail at least ¾” in diameter. Structural wind damage may imply the occurrence of a severe thunderstorm. A thunderstorm wind equal to or greater than 40 mph (35 knots) and/or hail of at least ½” is defined as approaching severe.”

Glad I could help. But no doubt it was a thunderstorm because I saw lightning and heard thunder and it rained like a cow pissing on a flat rock. Hell of a visual but that’s what I grew up hearing in East Texas. That and “gully washer” and “frog strangler.” It was raining very abundantly, is what I am saying. And that, my friends, is a good thing because as it is written, we are in the middle of a drought right here in River City, with a capital “d” that rhymes with “p” and that stands for “parchedness.” Which, my friends, means dry. I love “(Ya Got) Trouble” from “The Music Man,” if you hadn’t noticed.

Folks really are having trouble in river cities, such as Minot, N.D., where the Souris River is on a rampage and threatening the city. Worse yet, a rising Missouri River is causing Nuclear Regulatory Commission authorities to keep an eye on two nuclear power plants in Nebraska. Water, water everywhere … Or so it seems.

As I said, we here on the Upper Texas Coast are bone dry. The rains we had today and yesterday, particularly today, were nice. That’s why the threatening sky I wasn’t able to get a good shot of wasn’t all that threatening. Yes, it rained, and rained and rained some more. But it hardly made a noticeable dent in the rainfall deficit which now, thanks to the rain the last couple of days, is just less than 20 inches.

Such extreme lack of rainfall and our geographic proximity to the Gulf of Mexico gets a lot of people, myself included, talking foolish, saying things like: “We need a tropical storm to park off the coast for a week.” Of course, tropical storms have a nasty habit of not minding what we mortals try to tell nature. To paraphrase a great Jimmy Buffet song, there is no trying to reason with hurricane season. But the type of rain a tropical gully washer brings is about what we need.

Radical Texas Republicans in bed with al-Quida?

Are Texas Republican bigwigs holding secret meetings in the Chihuahuan Desert with the likes of Ayman al-Zawahri? Perhaps sneaky little Al-Quida runners are stealthily hauling bags of cash to the likes of Republican Texas State Sen. Dan Patrick or Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst. There must be a logical explanation why Republican lawmakers from the Lone Star State and their Gov. Rick “Good Hair Wants the White House” Perry would want to pass legislation that could trigger more 9/11s. When it comes to Republicans in Texas, hell anywhere for that matter, the motive must be money.

I jest, a little bit at least. But Perry has resurrected a previously dead bill he wants passed in the Special Session of the Texas Legislature which would make it a crime for airport security personnel in the state’s airports to “grope” passengers.

The bill failed in the Regular Session. But that was before Perry started believing that he could get elected president. Patrick, who is a Houston right-wing talk show host, is staring at the U.S. Senate seat of retiring Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. So this anti-federal government legislation would certainly provide “red meat” — a term that is so hackneyed that I can’t believe I am using it — for the nutwing base.

Justice Department officials rained on the radical GOP’s crazy parade during the regular legislative session when they told state officials that Texas airports could be shut down if such a law was passed. Apparently Patrick and Perry — meet the Killer Ps — think the feds are bluffing. We’ll see when the closest airport to Houston to fly out of is in Lake Charles, La.

Whether it is a bluff is debatable. But the radicals see such a law as a stepping stone to a big Constitutional battle. But even as backward and anti-American as the Roberts Supreme Court is at the moment, I can’t see the high court passing a bill that would almost guarantee incidents of terrorism.

We don’t have to worry about just shoe bombs and groin bombs and box cutters either. No, al-Quida has apparently decided they like them some National Rifle Association rhetoric, if not the ability to buy guns through the gun shows the mega-lobby supports.

Adam Gadahn, an American spokesman for Al-Quida, said in a video that the U.S. is “awash with easily obtainable firearms.” Gadahn, whose grandfather was a prominent Jewish doctor but Gadahn himself grew up Protestant Christian, said those who are seeking jihad can go to a gun show and purchase fully automatic weapons without a background check and probably minus even an ID card. In other words, Gadahn, who is also on the FBI terrorism list, is giving people ideas.

Gadahn: If this guy asks you to go with to the local gun show, just say "no."

Now the NRA backers say that kind of talk is all wrong, that you can’t just go buy a fully-auto machine gun at your local convention center. You can purchase a semi-auto assault rifle though. You might even buy the works to turn those guns into fully automatic.

Hey, I’m not anti-gun. But I am anti-terrorists-with-guns. Likewise, I am anti-terrorists with bombs, knives, box cutters or whatever in wherever on their body and most certainly on an airplane.

These Republicans who think every Fed is out to get them are doing so with legislation such as the “anti-groping” bill that might potentially, once again, turn big jet airplanes full of passengers into bombs that kill thousands. I have seen and heard of some silly stuff brought up by Republicans over the years. But those folks who came up with and are pushing the anti-groping legislation — yes, that slick Aggie cheerleader with the perfect hair included — are among the silliest sons of bitches in the anals (no, it’s not a misspelling) of Texas history.