Sleepless in Midland

Grave Desecrations

So now the Obama Admin has given the msm the okay to photograph the caskets of fallen soldiers, provided their families give their OK. This is an old issue, and it has been clear to most that the motivation to photograph caskets would not be to honor the deceased but to serve a political purpose.

Blackfive nails it:

However, not one of my fallen brothers, and not any of my friends in the war zones now, would ever want their death to be used by the media, their families, or anyone else that might reduce their sacrifice or the effort to win the war.

Will the wishes of the fallen soldier him/herself be honored? Civilians are encouraged to execute advance directives for end of life issues, and presumably members of the military have the opportunity to do the same. Maybe the question of casket photos should be a part of that process.

Farm subsidy lobbyists get in gear after Obama's speech

The other day we addressed the one item in Obama's recent speech that actually sounded good, and that was when he said he wanted to trim some of the agribusiness subsidies. See Barack Obama, putting a face to the phrase "just words" for a quote and a link to the speech transcript.

Farm lobbyists seem to have taken it seriously, and It didn't take long for them to get in gear. There's an article in today's Wall Street Journal titled Lobbyists Line Up to Torpedo Speech Proposals which tells us that lobbyists are mobilizing to convince Congress to resist any cuts in subsidies to which their industry clients think they are entitled. And about the agribusiness, there's this:

The agriculture lobby quickly recoiled Wednesday against President Obama's vow to "end direct payments to large agribusinesses that don't need them," though industry leaders and farm-state legislators weren't sure which government payments they'll have to defend.

"We were surprised President Obama included farm payments in his speech," said Bob Stallman, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation. "But it is Congress where the rubber meets the road."

I was surprised, too. Mr. Obama seems intent on spending taxpayers' money, so why pick this particular pork project to cut in order to fund other pork projects? Rewarding some, punishing others, those are the perks of power, I suppose.

An industry stays on the government dole long enough and they start to look at it as a right, and they'll fight to keep that spigot open. When they get enough Representatives in their pocket they become a force of power, and agribusiness has a lot of power. It will be interesting to see if Mr. Obama has the backbone to stand up to them, but at least as to Congress, so far Mr. Obama's backbone has been pretty well hidden.

If it comes to a head, our own District 11 Representative Mike Conaway might get caught in the middle. He's a strong supporter of the subsidies for agribusiness, but he embraced fiscal conservatism after the 2008 election. See Let's give Congressman Mike Conaway a warm welcome to fiscal conservatism.

There's a growing frustration among the taxpayers right now, and it will be interesting to see whether Mr. Conaway sides with taxpayers or tax takers. Or maybe the Democrats will do the dirty work, and he can just sit back, watch, and try to keep a foot in both camps.

An Obama market rally -- DJIA down only 80 points!

So Barack Obama makes a speech telling Congress how he will fix the economy, and the next day the Dow Jones Industrial Average drops only 80 points. Given that the DJIA has dropped 2000 points since the election, a mere 80 point drop is a stock market rally.

Investors sure have been voting with their key strokes, and they are telling the world that they have no confidence in Mr. Obama's goal to manipulate the economy with his central planning efforts. It's almost as if they've read the history books and know that governments serve the economy best by simply getting out of the way.

Do they serve meals in the poor house?

Barack Obama, putting a face to the phrase "just words"

Yeah, I caught a few moments of Obama's speech last night. One thing that jumped out was how different he is from the last president. George W. Bush meant what he said. You didn't have to parse his words; you didn't have to wonder exactly what he said. With Obama you never know. It was just words.

One thing he said did strike a chord, though. He said he wanted to cut agricultural subsidies. Great! That's a pork project that should have been phased out long ago. But can we believe him? If it were Obama alone, I would give it a 50/50. But since the House of Representatives would have to go along, I'd give it about a 10% chance of getting anywhere. Besides, it's not as if the money would go to pay off the debt. No, sorry. It would just go to some other pork project.

Instead of getting a dog for a White House pet, Mr. Obama should get one of those pot bellied pigs.

Updated 2/26/09: Here are his exact words about the agriculture subsidies from the transcript:

"In this budget, we will end education programs that don't work and end direct payments to large agribusinesses that don't need them."

Lots of wiggle room there. I guess I heard what I wanted to hear -- yeah, I know, join the crowd. And the House, if it hasn't already, will ignore it anyway.

More cartoon fun

This is loads of fun, you should try it. Here's another homemade cartoon, this one titled Obamas Redecorate the White House.

GoAnimate.com: Obamas redecorate the White House

I hope you like it. Create your own at GoAnimate.com.

(Actually, this is a recycled joke. Here's the original.)

Sunday Diversions -- OldJewsTellingJokes.com

One of the old "Seinfeld" episode had Jerry ticked-off because a fellow he knew wanted to convert to Judaism just for the jokes. This is a nondenominational blog -- you can practice any religion you choose. But for some jokes that might have inspired that guy's willingness to convert, check out OldJewsTellingJokes.com.

Caution. Many not be safe for work, like this one, for example:

Via Linkfilter.net.

Defensive Combat -- fists, feet, knives -- a pro fighter teaches police

Anything goes in this kind of fighting, at least that's the way it appears to this outsider looking in. The Mixed Martial Arts genre looks like old fashioned "street fighting" gussied up, legitimized and televised. Now it's an all out cage fight with few rules. Well, they aren't supposed to kick in the groin, hit the back of the head, bite, or continue fighting after the horn honks. That's right, no bell in this game, it's a horn.

Fans are familiar with it, and TV viewers may have stumbled upon it while channel suffering and wondered if anyone survives such a match.

Paul Buentello is a professional in the sport, and he is in town to teach a few classes. Media were invited to watch the classes he conducted for some officers of the Midland Police Department, and I schlepped in to watch, too, and snap a bunch of photos.

They hit, they kicked, and they swung at each other with rubber knives.

Officers Mollie Porter and Brad Barnes were there. You may remember them from Police Academy -- training defensive moves last August. It was a great experience watching fast, coordinated, muscular people practice techniques few of us would have occasion to see.

Mr. Buentello is an impressive fellow. He really didn't look that big in the videos I watched before going to that training session, but I suppose when heavyweights hang out with other heavyweights, no one looks big by comparison. But don't be fooled. He's tall, strong and affable, and he looks like he would be comfortable in just about any situation.

Mr. Buentello grew up in Amarillo but now lives in Austin. He was in Midland for the police training session, and the local fight club advertised a separate training session with him scheduled for today. When he leaves town he'll be headed to Amarillo to visit his mom.

It's a tough business, the fight game. It's takes a certain quality of character to even want to do this for a living. They get paid a fight fee just for showing up, and a win earns a bonus. (Not sure what kind of medical plan might be available for participants.) But it's clear you've got to be strong, quick and agile to expect a pay check in this industry.

Here are a few links: Mr. Buentello has his own website; here's his Wikipedia page; and here he is on Youtube. There's a page about him at Sherdog, and here's the newspaper article about him from the other day about his training session with the MPD.

I took almost 700 photos, but eight is probably the logical limit for any one post. It was a job picking those eight, but there they are. And needless to say, don't pick a fight with anyone you see in those photos.

Bush and Obama compared in one sentence -- the cartoon

This is too cool. Did you ever want to make your own cartoon but couldn't draw? This site does it all. It's GoAnimate, and the site lets you make your own short flash cartoon. Select your characters, select your scene, write the dialog, and the rest is easy.

Here's one I did in just a few minutes called Bush and Obama Compared in one sentence.  Spoiler alert -- If all you want is that one sentence then click on the JPG on the right.

I hope you Like it.

Bush and Obama compared, in one sentence:


Create your own at GoAnimate.com.

Fast times at Dobson High

Obama wows 'em.

There was a small anti-Obama demonstration in Mesa, AZ, yesterday, but let's not read too much into that. Obama wowed 'em at Dobson High. It was broadcast on C-Span last night, and it was rock star territory.

"Thank you. [cheering.] Thank you. [cheering.] Thank you. [cheering.] Are you exited? [cheering.] ..."

It was the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show. The rock star reception is only going to encourage him. And given that he seems married to the concept that tax revenue is his to give away, that's not a good sign.

Click this link to watch it. The transcript scrolls along on the side to aid in this learning opportunity as he tells us about his plan to relieve mortgagors. And don't miss the very end as he exits the stage amid shouts of "We love you!" 

These kids will be voting in 2010 and 2012.

The stimulus package -- it's not a bitter pill, it's a suppository

My crystal ball has gone cloudy. This stimulus package could actually help the economy in some small way, but unfortunately, it will be years before we get an assessment, and we may never get an accurate and unbiased assessment.

But the debt load! Even GOP bashing Obama supporters are taking time out to express some unease about the debt. example: "I get queasy myself thinking of all the debt we’re piling on ... ." Uh, who wouldn't?

I've been scanning the bill looking for some outrageous pork, but it looks like the money is mainly going to existing government programs, i.e., more bureaucracy, including $80,000,000 to the IRS just to implement a tax credit for health insurance premiums. Seems like a lot of money for a new 1040 schedule.

But let's look at something that didn't make the cut. There has been talk for years about how our nuclear defense is getting rusty. Well, apparently the Senate put a provision in the package for a billion dollars for the Nuclear Security Admin. But the conference committee jerked it out. For the curious here's what Conference Report said:

ATOMIC ENERGY DEFENSE ACTIVITIES
NATIONAL NUCLEAR SECURITY ADMINISTRATION
WEAPONS ACTIVITIES
The conference agreement does not provide $1,000,000,000 for the National Nuclear Security Administration, Weapons Activities, as proposed by the Senate. The House bill contained no similar provision.

Conference Report. Or click for PDF.

So was that pork or a necessary expense? As someone once said, deterrence is making your enemy afraid to attack. A strong nuclear defense was once a deterrent, but it isn't if our enemies know we don't plan to use it. Hopefully, our leaders, with their smooth talking skills, will have as easy a time triumphing over our country's enemies as they were over their domestic political opponents.

In the meantime, our government needs some serious debt counseling -- a Dave Ramsey on steroids.  "We wanna be debt free!"

More amazing sidewalk art

A couple of years ago we admired the photos of Julian Beever's amazing sidewalk art work -- see previously on these pages for links.

Here's another artist using the same principle, Edgar Mueller, who painted Ice Age in Dun Laoghaire, Ireland, in August of 2008.

See more photos of it here. And watch him do it on Youtube.

Via Neatorama.

Holy Hero Factory, Batman!

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's, it's ... YOU!

Deep down inside, you know who you are -- a super hero waiting for that opportunity. A caped crusader? A crime fighting super hero? Able to leap tall buildings with a single bound? Truth, justice, the American way. It's all in there just waiting to get out.

Release the crime fighting super hero in you!

Or start from scratch and build your own super hero at HeroFactory. [Via The Breda Fallacy.]

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Shifting gears, if you wondered what your ancestors looked like, I mean your ancestors from waaaaaaay back there, like a half million to 3.7 millions of years, click Devolve Me, upload a photo of yourself, and watch it devolve. (So easy a cave man could do it.)

 

Who ratted out A-Rod?

Sports Illustrated broke the story about Alex Rodriguez's alleged performance enhancing drug use in 2003. Since then fans, opinion pages, and even President Obama have weighed in on it. Say what you will about that, it was Rodriguez's secret until someone ratted him out. Sports Illustrated cited "sources."

SI said that the tests took place in 2003 of 1,198 players to satisfy an agreement between MLB and the union to help determine whether to impose mandatory random drug testing. According to SI the tests were supposed to be anonymous, however the players were asked to sign their names next to a number corresponding to their urine samples. Then in 2004 the Feds raided the lab and seized the test results.

So who leaked Mr. Rodriguez's results to the press? Allen Barra of the Wall Street Journal says this:

No one can be sure why A-Rod's was the only name mentioned, but as baseball's most highly paid and publicized player, and the only player to be publicly linked with Madonna, outing him would have generated the most publicity.

As to who did it and why, there's a very short list of candidates, says [former head of players union] Mr. Miller. "MLB, the union and the federal investigators all have the information, and if the first two had anything to gain by revealing a name on the list, I can't imagine what that would be."

So Mr. Miller is pinning it on the Feds and makes a good point in questioning what the MLB or the union would have to gain.

Mr. Allen Barra's article was titled For A-Rod, Placebos Might've Worked Better and he goes on to say that the particular drugs A-Rod was supposed to have used apparently didn't really help in the years he was supposed to have used them, adding:

Mr. Rodriguez has admitted using Primobolan and testosterone from 2001 to 2003; no penalty was attached to the use of such substances before the Basic Agreement between the players and Major League Baseball went into effect in 2004. Primobolan is not a prescription drug, and legal penalties for its use range from minimal to nonexistent; testosterone is a legal prescription drug.

He says they were legal, or if illegal, the penalties were minimal at the time, and they probably didn't affect his ability to hit a ball. So maybe that's why someone outed him. They had an ax to grind, he wouldn't go to jail, so that was the only way they could hurt him.

Anyway, it seems that nothing is secret anymore, even military secrets get reported now as breaking news. As for A-Rod, next time he's asked to take an anonymous test he should sign with a pseudonym and use a wizzinator to cover all bases, so to speak.

A belated happy birthday to Charlie Darwin

Yesterday, 2/12/09, would have been the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin had he been fit enough to survive that long. He didn't, but his theory sure has.

There's a raging debate going on between those who think God plopped our ancestors down on Earth just as we are today and whether we and all other living things evolved through the millennia by natural selection. Actually, there's an obvious compromise. We don't know how life began, and any theory one believes about it has to be taken on faith. But there's overwhelming evidence that life, once begun, has evolved from that point.

So let's put the debate aside and focus on natural selection, something we can actually watch happen. Without a doubt, the average person is taller than the average person was a few centuries or even decades ago, and the average height is continually going skyward. How did that come about? Some account for it by saying that the human diet has gotten healthier over the years. Maybe, but there's room for some skepticism about that. Our ancestors grew their own food, and the "organic food" movement certainly implies that the old fashioned garden grown produce is healthier than the industry farm produce available at the supermarket. Furthermore, if we are eating so healthily, then why do they tell us we are in an obesity epidemic?

Natural selection has to have played a part. Few deny that short guys are often if not universally shunned as mates. But you've probably seen women of child bearing age ogle tall guys. Happens all the time. You have witnessed natural selection with your very own eyes.

How high can humans grow? The sky's the limit.

Updated 2/16/09: If you wondered what your ancestors looked like, I mean your ancestors from waaaaaaay back there, like a half million to 3.7 millions of years, click on Devolve Me, upload a photo of yourself, and watch it devolve. (So easy a cave man could do it.)

Art in the Park

The non-profit group called Arts Assembly of Midland has really given us some nice art to admire as we walk around Windlands Park. These photos were taken just after sunup the other morning.

CORRECTION (added 2/13/09): The sign for this sculpture is incorrect. It identifies a previous exhibit which this one replaced. The item you see above is Passion in a Bud Vase 2008, in stainless steel and etched pigment, 7’x 12’ by Jim LaPaso, Kyle, Texas

CORRECTION (added 2/13/09): The sign for this sculpture is incorrect. It identifies a previous exhibit which this one replaced. The item you see above is, Spy Hopping, 1996, Stainless Steel, 66" x 96" x 36" by Willie Ray Parish, El Paso , Texas. What is Spy Hopping? Here's an explanation, via PDF.

The sculpture is abstract. It is not a whale, but is about surfacing sea mammals. Parish did a number of sculptures in the '90s derived from the various shapes that appear above the water line when sea mammals surface. The idea was to try to draw attention to the environmental damages to the earth and particularly the oceans. This particular one is similar to the "spy hopping" move that some whales regularly make. They get vertical in the water, sticking their heads above the water line, presumably to see what is happening. Willie Ray Parish is the Sculpture Professor at the University of Texas at El Paso and founder and Director of the Border Art Residency.

The sculptures are rotating art pieces, and the Arts Assembly insures them and pays a fee for their use. There are two more on the way: Super Happy Chicken by Carter Ernst and Weathering the Storm by Paul Kittelson. However, their arrival has been delayed by an injury accident on the highway in route to the Midland. Here's hoping for a speedy recovery.

Rotating exhibits are an ideal way to enjoy big art like this. After they've been in place for a while we gets used to them, and just about the time we begin to ignore them, WHOA, what's that? A new one appears like magic.

Thanks to Danny Holeva, Executive Director at the Arts Assembly of Midland, for the corrections.  And thanks to everyone at Arts Assembly of Midland for bringing this fabulous art to the Tall City!

Haka War Dance - New Zealand

Rugby players probably know it -- the New Zealand All Blacks have been using it to intimidate their opponents.  It's an impressive dance, and if you haven't seen it demonstrated in a while check out this video.

The government of New Zealand has been battling native tribe members for years over property rights, and a settlement has been reached which, among other things, acknowledges Maori ownership of the Haka dance.

So does that mean we would have to pay somebody a royalty if we did it ourselves? No, according to this article. So have at it.  You first.

Via Linkfilter.

Added later: No, I've never been to New Zealand and have only seen it in the movies. Movie goers who haven't already seen these movies might check out Once Were Warriors, a 1994 movie about a family of Maori warrior descendants. And there's Whale Rider which was much more widely distributed and is infinitely more uplifting.

He reached for his money and shot himself in the leg -- citizens with guns, let's all be safe now, hear?

I don't intend to dwell on every accidental discharge, but this latest accident in Colorado popped up right on the front webpage of MyWestTexas.com in the "weird news" category. ColoradoDaily.com tells us how it happened as well as the make, model and caliber of the handgun in this guy's pocket. More:

A man visiting his family at Exempla Good Samaritan Medical Center accidentally shot himself in the leg at the hospital cafeteria around 12:30 p.m. Tuesday. No one else was injured. ...

Steve M. Tapp, 59, of Thornton, accidentally pulled the trigger on his .32-caliber semi-automatic Kel-Tel pistol in his right front pants pocket as he stood in a line at the cafeteria, officials said.

Here's what the Kel-Tec website says about the gun:

The P-32 is mainly intended for plainclothes police officers as a secondary weapon, or for concealed carry by licensed citizens. The small grip size and light trigger pull make the P-32 ideal for female shooters. [Emphasis mine.]

They forget to mention that it has no manual safety. A light trigger pull and no manual safety is a dangerous enough, but to stash it in a pocket where he would be groping for money seems like an accident waiting to happen. For just a few dollars more he could have bought a little Taurus Millennium Pro with a manual safety. Oh well, maybe next time.

With more and more citizens taking advantage of their civil rights and arming themselves there seem to be more and more accidents. And with many in our government likely to be looking for excuses to clamp down on gun owners let's not give them one.

Richard Holbrooke and the dangerous handgun

Years ago Richard Holbrooke was on Terry Gross's NPR show trying to sell his latest book, and he said something in that interview that has stuck with me all these years.

Mr. Holbrooke has held numerous government jobs. There are bios at PBS and wikipedia, for starters, where you can read about Mr. Holbrooke having worked on the John Kerry and Hillary Clinton presidential campaigns. And most recently he's been tagged by President Obama to be a special adviser on Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Back to the Terry Gross interview. Ms. Gross steered the conversation to his activities during the Vietnam war as a Foreign Service Officer. Ms. Gross seemed to be asking questions for which he had ready answers, and one of them concerned whether he carried a weapon in Vietnam. He chuckled and said yes, a handgun, and he almost shot his foot off. Whoa!

Did that really happen? At the time I suspected that he may have made up that story to cement his Democrat bona fides. But I really don't know. The military issue handgun at that time was the Colt M1911A1 .45 caliber ACP. And it has more safety features than you can shake a stick at. There's a manual safety, there's a grip safety, and there's a half-cock safety. The only way to fire one is to release the manual safety, cock it fully with the thumb, depress the grip safety, and pull the trigger.

Here's a Youtube video in which limalife explains the features, and it's a nice review even if you already know all about the 1911. And here's an animation showing a similar gun going through its motions.

So did Richard Holbrooke accidentally discharge a handgun and almost shoot his foot off? All I can find through Google about it is this republication of a 5/10/1999 article by Dorothy Rabinowitz about a "Frontline" show containing this paragraph:

While [Leighton] Snuffy Smith was dealing with bombing runs and debriefers, Richard Holbrooke was learning to avoid handling weapons; shortly after his arrival in Vietnam, he had been given a .45. When the gun went off in his jeep (he had forgotten to put the safety on) and almost shot his foot off, he came to the doubtless wise conclusion that he should give the gun back.

Apparently he has repeated the story whether or not it actually happened. Maybe one of the skills of a diplomat is to make up cutesy stories to endear his audience to him. Or maybe it really did happen. It would take some serious carelessness to accomplish that given all the safety features. But then we're talking about a career Democrat diplomat here, so anything is possible. We can only wish him luck in his new job as adviser to Mr. Obama.

Added later: Quotes --
Osama bin Laden: "People see a strong horse and a weak horse -- they like the strong horse."
Richard Holbrooke: "I almost shot my foot off."

It happened last summer

He had been drinking -- five beers if you're counting -- but he said he wasn't drunk. The party host showed him a handgun then put it up.  But he wanted to show it to another guest, Stephan Kirk, so he retrieved it. The gun went off, and Ms. Kirk, single mom, age 22, fell dead.

It happened on June 22, 2008, in Snyder, Texas, and Jordan Matthew Ortegon was subsequently indicted and charged with manslaughter by the Scurry County D.A. And Mr. Ortegon and the gun owner, Roland Wayne Duke, were sued in civil court by Ms. Kirk's mom, Barbara Richards, and Jarrod Tanner as the next friend of Ms. Kirk's two year old son. If Ms. Kirk's MySpace page is still up you can see the son's photos there. (Previously at this website see Woman Killed by bullet from handgun in Snyder.)

So what happened that night last summer? Here's what we can learn from the court documents. The handgun was a Swiss made Sphinx 380 double action semiautomatic with a manual safety. "Double action" means that a trigger pull cocks the hammer for each shot, so a person could snap an unloaded gun over and over without manually cocking the hammer.

A "Notice of Oral Statements Made by Defendant" was filed by the D.A. in the criminal case on 9/10/08.  (Click for PDF.)  And it contained the following summation of statements allegedly made by Mr. Ortegon about the incident:

1. On or about June 22, 2008, Defendant said the shooting was an accident. He said that he had the gun in his hands when it went off and shot Stephan. He said that he pulled the slide back to show Stephan that the gun was empty. He said that there was no magazine in the gun. He said the slide slipped and he heard a slight bang. He said that he saw Stephan lying on the living room floor. He said that they were in the living room. He said that Travis Stroud saw what happened. He asked for a cigarette. ...

16. On or about June 22, 2009, Defendant said he clicked the gun five times, that it wasn't loaded, and that he didn't understand why it went off. He said the clip wasn't in the gun. He said he was showing the gun to Stephan. He said that as long as the clip isn't in the gun and the safety is on there is no reason to be afraid and that's when the gun went off.

17. On or about June 22, 2009, Defendant said that the clip was empty and there were no rounds in the chamber. ...

The civil file contained a "Reply to Interrogatories" from the co-defendant, Roland Wayne Duke. Click for PDF.  And it contained this:

I Wayne Duke showede Jordan my .380 pistol that was in my bedroom put up. Before I gave Jordan the pistol I pulled clip outand put it in my pocket. Then I pulled the slide back and locked it so Jordan could see that the gun was unloaded. I give Jordan the gun, waved it around, and dry fired it a few times. He then pulled the slide back and locked it then give the gun back to me. After recieving the gun back I unlocked the slide so it would not pick up a shell. I put the clip back into the gun then put the gun away back into my bedroom. Jordans mother and I walked outside on the front porch. We were outside for 3 to 5 minutes and we heard the gun go off. When coming back into the house we seen Stephan Kirk in my living room floor. I called 911 then started giving C.P.R. to Stephan unitill the police officer arrived. The police officer and I continued C.P.R. untill E.M.S. arrived While Jordans mother and were outside Jordan went back into my bedroom and got the pistol with me not knowing it. I never give him permission to go into my bedroom.

A real tragedy, and it could have been so easily prevented by remembering and practicing the gun safety rules. Note these two in particular: Assume all guns are always loaded. And never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy. There's double coverage there, but if both fail then disaster strikes.

The criminal case ended last November with a plea bargain by which Mr. Ortegon was fined and placed on probation. A settlement was reached in the civil suit pending the judge's approval at a hearing scheduled on February 26.

Stalk a mile in their shoes -- Sci-Fi from the creatures point of view

Apparently it was an ad campaign for the Sci Fi channel. See more at I Believe in Adv.

Via Neatorama.

Phones smuggled into prison -- uh, do you know where that phone has been?

It came to light recently that some Texas prison inmates were letting their fingers do the walking and reaching out to touch someone with smuggled cell phones. In response, Governor Perry has designated certain emergency items for the Texas Legislature to consider in the 2009 term including one targeting prison contraband smuggling, specifically:

Legislation to appropriate funds to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for the purchase and use of screening and detection devices for contraband and personnel, as well as comprehensive security equipment.

The Austin American Statesman says the amount requested is $66 million. So what might those security devices look like? Here's a clue. In Britain, Bottom scanners to be introduced in prisons:

Prisoners will have to sit on the chairs, called Body Orifice Security Scanners (Boss), which bleep if they have a phone hidden inside them.

"Just sittin' on the Boss, boss."

Dude Where's My Glock? (Part 2)

The other day we noticed that ad in the Midland Reporter-Telegram Lost and Found section about a lost Glock handgun and wondered what the back story was. See Dude Where's My Glock (Part 1). A commenter speculated that it might belong to a Sheriff's Deputy. Close, but not quite. It belonged to a Sheriff's Department "Basic Reserve Volunteer."

Here's the short version: Driver puts handgun bag on top of car, gets in, drives off. Buh bye handgun.

And here's the long version from the case report, paraphrased somewhat:

7. Date and time offense occurred:
01-11-09 @ 1030 hours ...

18. SYNOPSIS:
On the above date and time, [the responding deputy] was dispatched to the above location in reference to a lost firearm. Upon my Arrival I contact the complainant [named]. [He] advised that on this date at or around 1030 Hours he was leaving his residence to go to church when he placed a Brown nylon zip up bag containing a Glock 22 on top of his vehicle. [He] stated the bag contained a GLOCK 22, spare magazine and a small mag light. [He] told me he drove to [the church]. Once at this location he realized he had left the firearm on top of the vehicle. [He] stated he back tracked his way home looking for the firearm. [He] thinks that it may have fallen off of his vehicles soon as he backed out of his drive way. [He] thinks someone stopped and picked it up. [He] further stated when he could not locate the firearm he contacted dispatch to have an on duty Deputy come to his residence to take a report.

I requested dispatch notify the chain of command on this incident, which they did. I have also completed a stolen firearm entry form and printed to the records division. I contacted records division and they stated they would enter the firearm as a lost firearm into NCIC/TCIC. No further information at this time.

You can download the case report PDF if you want to see it yourself.

I've redacted the man's name, and I really don't want to make fun of the poor guy. But let's face it, this is cartoon territory. Problem is we don't know whether to laugh or cry. Tell ya what, let's put this behind us, learn from it, and make a new safety rule:

The only thing that belongs on top of a vehicle is a super sized soft drink.

That way we can all yuk it up when it goes flying down the road.

In the meantime, if the MCSO records division followed through and entered the information into the NCIC/TCIC database then the serial number is in the system. And if the gun doesn't get turned in but turns up in someone's possession in the future it could cause a big problem.

Would you buy into a religion with Bart Simpson making the sale?

Nancy Cartwright has been the voice of Bart Simpson on "The Simpsons" for the duration of that wonderful TV show. And from time to time we get wind of a movement by the voice actors to get more money for their work on the show. They always get it though, because the producers couldn't find any replacements.

So what does a wealthy voice actor do with all that money? In Nancy Cartwright's case, she gave away a whole boatload to the church of Scientology. According to the Daily Dish, it was $10,000,000. And it was tax deductible! Heaven only know what they will do with that money, try to recruit more donors, maybe.

So recently she was robo-calling about a Scientology event called the "Flag World Tour Event" on January 31 in Hollywood. (Missed it. Darn.) You can listen to the call at Village Voice or on go directly to Youtube.

"Hey, what's happening man, this is Bart Simpson. Hu hu ha ha ha! Just kidding, don't hang up. This is Nancy Cartwright... ."

Fortunately, The Simpsons' producers are trying to distance themselves and the show from this by denying any involvement. But personally, I'd like to get Ned Flanders' take on it. "Hi diddly do, Scientology ain't good for you."

Let's give Congressman Mike Conaway a warm welcome to fiscal conservatism

Texas District 11 Congressman Mike Conaway has become a fiscal conservative now that Republicans have lost majorities in the House and Senate and look forward to four years with a popular Democrat sitting in the White House. What will Republicans do? It looks like they will do the same thing Democrats did when they were in the minority: oppose everything the majority proposes.

What brings this to mind is an item published in the print edition of the Midland Reporter-Telegram Sunday in which Rep. Conaway proclaims that "We cannot speed and borrow our way back to economic prosperity." There he expresses his opposition to the Democrat stimulus bill, and a crucial part of his argument appears at his blog and is worth reading, to wit:

Ronald Reagan once said: “Each generation goes further than the generation preceding it because it stands on the shoulders of that generation. You will have opportunities beyond anything we’ve ever known.” How can I, in good faith, leave the next generation with this giant mess to clean up. We are not only borrowing $825 billion that we do not have now, we are selfishly stripping money away from our children and grandchildren that they should have available to address their issues.

All well and good, but somehow I can't get over the sneaking suspicion that this is merely partisan posturing. Let's put this stimulus bills aside and revisit the recent past. Unfortunately all of that concern about strapping the grand babies with debt was invisible prior to the November '08 election. And some of Mr. Conaway's taxpaying constituents are still smarting over his farm bill which puts millions of taxpayer dollars into the hands of a few wealthy cotton farmers. According to EWG.com people residing within Texas District 11 pocketed $1.47 billion in subsidies in the years 1995-2006.

We're still struggling to understand why Mr. Conaway was so perturbed at President Bush for having the audacity to suggest that perhaps millionaires shouldn't be porking it up in the government trough and how Rep. Conaway cheered the Senate on to override President Bush's veto of that outrageous farm bill.

I wish someone would do the research to help us understand why Mr. Conaway favors that group of corporate welfare recipients so much when surely most of his constituency is on the paying side of the tax equation. Maybe some of that stimulus money could be used to train chauffeur driven conservatives to get by without farm bill welfare.

But enough of this. Let's give him the benefit of the doubt and welcome him to the ranks of the fiscal conservatives.

Super Bowl XLIII snacking tip

A friend offers this helpful Super Bowl snacking tip:

If you find yourself munching on Salmonella peanuts, spit, don't swallow.

OK, thanks.  Good advice.

Business was BOOMING at the gun show this weekend

I've never seen so many cars parked in the Horse Shoe arena parking lot. Even the annual H.E.B. free meal didn't bring together this many people.

It was the Silver Spur gun show, and it certainly brought out the shoppers. One long time gun show vendor said he made more money in the first two hours Saturday as he made in a full weekend at a gun show last year.  Business hasn't been this good since the Brady Bill campaign.

These shoppers weren't the killers and wackos the anti-gun folks might want you to believe. No, they were ordinary flyover country Americans exercising their Constitutional rights and giving our new President Obama a no-confidence vote on his pre-election promises to keep the government's hands off citizens' guns.

We're currently witnessing Mr. Obama's campaign to spend millions on constituents' pet projects in the guise of economic stimulus. And we are basically in the dark about the many promises he may have made to the various factions that supported him. Mr. Obama probably did not draw a lot of votes from gun owners, and he likely feels no obligation to protect them from the Obama supporting anti-gun groups.  We'll see what happens, and in the meantime gun owners aren't taking chances.

There's a bad economic lesson here, too, that hopefully Mr. Obama won't try on other parts of the economy. Create a fear that the government might regulate a popular product out of business, and the customers will flock to it.

If you missed this gun show don't fret,  the next one in Midland is scheduled for April 18 & 19, 2009.

Oh, what did I buy? I bought three ounces of spicy beef jerky made in Gardendale, TX, and a set of U.S. Army camo fatigues with my name on the shirt. Really. It was the only one with a name on it, and the name just happened to be mine -- there it was stitched in all caps. I don't know where I'll wear it, but I had to have it.