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Still kicking, hanging onto the cliff, working on the weekend, remembering those “Night Moves”

Here comes the weekend. Woo hoo! I have to work eight hours tomorrow, but I’m not complaining. I have decided to share some of the reading I found on a couple of items of interest. Rather than my take on something — we know what that’s worth — maybe someone will learn something they didn’t know from this. Then again, maybe not.

Also, I am painstakingly not writing my opinion because I might eventually write a freelance piece for some publication that is somewhat related to the issue. I am talking about the NFL commissioner floating the idea that the football kickoff should cease because studies show the kickoff is where most injuries occur during that task. One side issue which is related to this story is the lawsuits which were filed on the NFL by more than 3,900 plaintiffs over the neuro-cognative damage from serial concussions sustained in playing football . Roger Goodell, NFL Commissioner, proposed that the kickoff go the way of leather helmets. Instead, a team would get the ball on the 30-yard-line with a 4th down and 15-yard situation. The team could either punt or take its chances on making 15 yards or more for the 1st down. Opinions? Yeah, I have opinions. What about them? But I will keep this one to myself.

Finally, if we haven’t had enough talk of “going over the cliff” now stories are circulating how air travel may be affected if we indeed are flung off that cliff. The FAA would have less flight controllers, the program that props up some little airports would end so some smaller airports might have to shut down, as well as TSA screeners perhaps having to go. (I bet Rep. Gohmert would like that.) In the run, air travel would be much more costly, and this could all add to another recession.

On that cheery little note, I bid you a farewell for the weekend. Yeah, buddy! I saw them at the “Super Bowl of Rock and Roll” on June 12, 1982, with my friend Suzie, her sister and some friend of a friend. Loverboy appeared on that hot Dallas day in the Cotton Bowl with (Louisiana) Le Roux, Ozzy Osborne and Foreigner. That was the second time I saw Foreigner. I caught them back in ’77 at the City Park Stadium in New Orleans with some four of my Navy buddies. Also at that concert, in something like June 1977 was Bob Seger, Louisiana Le Roux (must of been Deja Roux in Dallas) and Fleetwood Mac. The latter group’s single “Dreams” from their Rumours album was No. 1 on the Billboard Singles chart that same month. Seger’s “Night Moves” reached No. 4 after its release in October 1976. So needless to say Fleetwood Mac and Seger were extremely hot when I saw them in New Orleans. I also got to experience my only foreign rock concert later that year in 1977 when Fleetwood Mac played in Auckland, New Zealand. Just reliving some good times, man!

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Lufkin VA back open and bed bug-less, delivered here in a wave of HST nostalgia

Some good news for veterans who use the Lufkin (Texas) VA clinic just appeared on my mojo wire. Actually, it came by e-mail which sometimes seems to bring mojo of one sort of another. Hunter S. Thompson actually used the term “mojo wire” in his classic “Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72.” My estimation of who knows Hunter S. and who is reading this blog is not imaginable. So Thompson, whose style of work as a writer was called “gonzo journalism,” was probably the first gonzo journalist. All of those young writers — Me? Guilty — whose instinct was to fight the “system” emulated Thompson. In the end, only Hunter S. was Hunter S. His ashes shot from a cannon on a 153-foot tower shaped in a double-thumbed fist holding a peyote button, and all. Forgive me, I was cast adrift on a wave of nostalgia.

Perhaps it isn’t appropriate to make a blog post about a VA clinic reopening with references to a drug-addled maniac. But Hunter was an Air Force veteran, where he began his writing career as a sports reporter. I think that means something or other here.

My point is that a news release from the Department of Veterans Affairs came to me this afternoon announcing the Charles Wilson — of “Charlie Wilson’s War” or “Good Time Charlie Wilson” fame — VA Clinic in Lufkin is reopening after a good debugging.

 ” … a veteran came in to the clinic seeking medical assistance for a rash, the press release said. Clinic staff found bed bugs on his clothing and wheelchair. While the patient refused help and left, the staff immediately took action.”

The clinic reopened today after exterminators “extensively fumigated the building” and found no more bed bugs.

This dispatch raises several questions. One is, why did the patient refuse help? Was it because they planned to fumigate him? A Wikipedia article on bed bugs said the insects were a big problem on U.S. military bases during World War II.

Initially, the problem was solved by fumigation, using Zyklon Discoids that released hydrogen cyanide gas, a rather dangerous procedure. Eventually, DDT was found as a “safe” alternative, said the Wikipedia article.

I am not insinuating that the VA would use the WWII method on the bed bug-ridden vet who sought treatment and touched off warning bells. Some vets just don’t have the patience one needs at times to travel the road to VA assistance. “It’s socialized medicine,” said a VA employee awhile back. And so it is. But it is all many of us veterans have.

A VA microbiologist/control specialist noted that bed bugs have become a problem again due to increased travel and reduced usage in pesticides, said the press release. DDT? Remember running behind the mosquito trucks in the smoke as a kid?

Bed bugs were pretty commonplace when I was a kid and gradually they were gone and now they are back and they are pissed!

Oh well, if you are a veteran and have been bitten by bed bugs or think you have, here is a good article from a reputable source (The Mayo Clinic.) Make mine with mayo on the side … I’m sorry I don’t know what gets into me. And after reading the Mayo article, if you need help, then get it!

 

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Nitwit East Texas congressman thinks someone cares about his opinion

Once upon a time I lived in what is now the U.S. House of Representatives district held by one Louie Gohmert. Now I can’t claim to be substantially represented by our current but outgoing Republican Congressman Ted Poe. Both Gohmert and Poe are publicity-seeking demagogues whose beds rest in the nuttiest of the nut-wing portion of the GOP. Of the two politicians, Poe is maybe the least abrasive, somewhat tempered perhaps by his years serving as a Houston district judge. Poe was moved to another district through Texas legislative redistricting. Our current district which includes the upper Texas Coast will be held by another Republican, Randy Weber, who will take a redrawn district formerly held by Ron Paul.

Weber had served in the Texas House prior to beating former Democrat U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson in this month’s General Election. Other than Weber being a Republican state lawmaker and winning over a choice I had favored for Congress, I have no knowledge about our new congressman. I have no reason for high hopes with Weber though because it seems every Texas Republican who has been elected to Congress within the last 20 years has been a dud.

This brings me back to Gohmert.The “good” Congressman gained quite a bit of notoriety during the last couple of years because of his spouting ridiculous ideas such as ones that so-called “terror babies” posed a threat to our national security. This stupidity which was a variation on the theme of “anchor babies” — babies born to illegal immigrants and brought to the U.S. to secure legal immigration — but were supposedly babies whose terrorist parents sought a foothold in the country due to the legalities of the 14th Amendment.

The terror baby theory is just one among the rampant absurdities Gohmert has spewed in the national media. Other comments included his opinion that the mass shootings at an Aurora, Colo., movie theater in July 2012 was due to the nation’s lack of Judeo-Christian values and the lack of concealed handguns.

Now, on this very day, a Huffington Post article says Gohmert blasted House leaders for not taking the lead in the “fiscal cliff” debate. The Texas congressman foresees most of the rich Americans moving out of the U.S. if all of the Bush tax cuts are not extended. Why anyone would pay heed to Gohmert, a monumental waste of U.S. congressional space, is beyond me.

These are the type of ignorant rednecks we have representing Texas in Congress. There is no proof to anything that Gohmert says about the tax or any other subject. Perhaps he means that he will leave the U.S. if these tax cuts are not maintained. That would perhaps be the first positive accomplished by Gohmert and his cohorts in their years of government service.

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Top 10 bills to follow in the 2013 Texas Lege reduced by 7

Austin television station KXAN has an interesting Top 10 list of proposed bills to follow in the 2013 Texas legislative session. Some are downright playing-to-the-right-wing-base ignorant. Here are my top five from that list:

1. Drug testing for welfare — There will be no epidemic of poor folks using drugs by the time this bill, filed by GOP Sen. Jane Nelson of Flower Mound, passes than there is now. It’s a “feel-good” elixir for the right wing. It’s demagoguery plain and simple.

2. Ten Commandments in Class — Republican Rep. Dan Flynn of Van wants copies of the Ten Commandments placed in “prominent” places in the classroom. I’ve got nothing against the Ten Commandments, but they violate laws separating church and state. This will wind up in court(s) and cost the taxpayers untold dollars while losing the case.

3. TSA Anti-groping — It could only be a guess but I bet when the Twin Towers et. al. came down on 9/11 probably some of those hollering the loudest for the federal government to stop such a thing from happening were some of our friends on the right. And on the left. We have security now in airports and many think they are too important to be inconvenienced by precautions which often leads to them getting groped in the first place. Yes, it might be random. So what? You don’t have to fly. GOP Rep. David Simpson of Longview tried to pass this last session and Gov. Good Hair had it brought up in Special Session. Jeez, prohibit TSA groping? Can we also prohibit Fox News?

Well, I only got to three that were out-of-the-Solar-System-Stupid. That doesn’t mean the remainder are all winners, or losers for that matter.

–Open Carry — Republican Rep. George Lavender of Texarkana may file a bill similar to one he pushed last time which would allow those holding licenses to carry a concealed handgun to optionally carry the weapon in the open. I’ve often thought that this made more sense than allowing concealed carry only. At least if someone is openly carrying a gun one can see it and do all that is possible to either ignore that person or make sure that you have something twice that person’s firepower. No seriously, I don’t know but the proposal seems to have some good points as well as bad ones. I know a lot of folks who would like guns outlawed. I can see how that would be a good thing in a different world. We are unfortunately stuck with the world we have.

— Texting while driving. The GOP former House Speaker Tom Craddick of Midland is pushing this bill, which Good Hair vetoed, again. It needs to be not only passed, but signed by our idiot governor.

–Tuition freeze. Dan Branch, the Republican House member from Dallas wants college tuition in state institutions frozen for students for four years from the time they enter school. UT Austin currently freezes tuition for two years. This is to encourage finishing in four years. I think this is a good idea, perhaps with a fifth year available in emergency situations.

–SJR 6 — Casino and slot gambling. Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, and others want a constitutional amendment to let voters decide whether a small number of casinos should be allowed in Texas. Limited numbers of slot and video gambling machines at horse tracks would be allowed as would gambling at the state’s Indian reservations. I have no moral reservations about this, pardon the pun. I wonder if it can pass what with surrounding states and the large gambling interests behind those states.

–The rest — I have no opinion on the other bills listed. You can read them your own-self.

 

 

 

 

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All in the family: It’s good to have a famous name in media

Our celebrity-crazed culture already brings millions upon millions of dollars for being able to play ball or run really fast or even swim really fast. I have no real problem with that. The majority of athletes who rise to the top and get the megabucks generally devote their lives, their souls and even their bodies to their sport. There are entertainers who are, at least in the minds of some, terrific at their art who also may be paid very handsome sums for acting or performing music. It can be a bit murky in many cases as to whether certain movie or small screen stars or recording artists are really worth what they are paid.

Some folks get paid for their name and their name alone, although those who hire them always seem to find some virtue that is worth fortune and acclaim. It is at this point where paying celebs because they are celebs makes me more than uncomfortable.

For years now celebrities’ names have begun showing up on the “best-seller” lists for various books, mostly in the non-fiction genre. There were tell-alls, or some essays concerning the certain passions of the rich and famous, even celebrity fitness and cookbooks. Maybe some of these celebrity-penned works were purchased by publishers for the “authors” writing abilities. More than often that wasn’t the case. The celebrity book, many times these days, are not even written by your famous celebrity. It might be the book was written by your favorite “celebrity ghost writer.” The latter — folks like Mickey Herskowitz come to mind — may have started out the hard way and were later picked by publishers to put a celebrity’s voice into words.

Perhaps it was only a matter of time that jobs — especially those in media — were handed out to famous people or even the kids of the famous. There was understandable grousing when Luke Russert began working for NBC News on TV journalist spots not long after his Dad, the fabulous Tim Russert, died suddenly. Russert, now 27, began working on special spots such as covering youth issues during the 2008 elections. He now pops up everywhere including as a fill-in anchor on shows such as MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports.”

Just maybe young Russert inherited some of his late Dad’s broadcasting chops. Luke did study broadcasting at Boston College and worked as an intern for various networks. He also seems to be a pretty good TV newsman himself though what I have seen him do is fairly limited and of the stuff your better local news reporters do daily. Notice I say, better, not the best.

Now Southern Living, the long-time lifestyle magazine has announced former “First Daughter” Jenna Bush-Hager will be editor-at-large. Bush-Hager is a contributing correspondent on NBC’s “The Today Show.” I have never caught her Today reports. I do remember the then-Jenna Bush sticking her tongue out at a media contingent in which I was included one day at Fort Hood.  That’s was, what, eight years ago when she was still in college? Oh well, she was just young and having fun back then. But heavy on the “eight years ago.”

Bush-Hager will write a Q and A with well-known Southerners and a blog on daily Southern life. I suppose some magazine jobs sound much more gravitas-filled than others. What, if any, other responsibilities she will have I don’t know. I know that as with as many magazine positions I have applied for and received nary a thank-you, one of those had to be “Southern Living.”

Of course, hiring celebrity kids — presidential ones even — is nothing new. Steven Ford starred in a soap opera and has acted for years in the movies. All of the Reagan kids have been in some sort of media gig. After all, it’s really the family business. Chelsea Clinton has had a difficult time treading the line between work as a special correspondent for NBC News and campaigning for various issues

Just maybe there is another motive behind hiring the young celebs. Perhaps these young people will not demand more money, kind of like the ones who now occupy the jobs in media these days. The older guys get the pink slip and the young kids fill the dinosaur’s spot at a reduced salary. I have to think the celeb kid being hired might just make a wee bit, maybe even a good bit, more than the fresh-faced younger person with no famous name.

It’s good to know someone famous. It’s a hell of a lot better to be someone with a famous name.