My Texas

I was sitting at my second or third favorite watering hole tonight when I heard this song:"Meet My Texas" and it got me to thinking.... Funny thing, I think I think so darn deep when I do my thinking after a couple ice cold Lone Stars and some Eight Ball. I got to to thinking about my Texas and just thought I'd pop some random thoughts down and see where it goes... here goes..

• Tyler Roses
• Lone Star Beer and Bob Wills' Music
• Pheasants flushing in a milo field
• Buddy Holly
• Willie on every juke box
• Abilene sunrises
• Sunset over Palo Duro Canyon
• Robert Earl Keen
• Waltzing Across Texas
• Ben Hogan
• Ton Landry grimacing on the sideline
• Earl Campbell draggin half the opposing defense across the goal line
• The "Hail Mary"
• Aaron Watson singing about Ernest Tubb
• The smell of BBQ driving thu Llano or Mason (Brisket,German Sausage and of course, cabrito)
• The Colonial
• GW biking with our "Wounded Warriors"
• Rodeos and the dances after
• Sittin on any corner with the spit and whittlers
• Cowdogs on tool boxes ( do not ever attempt to pet or touch truck)
• A Panhandle Blue Norther
• Any afternoon at Gruene Hall
• Toobin
• High School Football
• Openin Day
• Adjustin a Waterdog's attitude with a tree stump on Lake Fork
• A West Texas Sandstorm taking the paint off your truck
• Canton
• Second Monday
• Texas vs OU
• Girls from Lubbock being mistaken for sunburned when actually exfoliated by wind
• Homecoming Queens and rodeo Princesses
• Luby's after Church
• Chicken Fried Steak
• Chicken Strip dinner at DQ

My list could run on forever, but am really interested in your Texas which really is... Our Texas

The Unfairness of Fairness

  I been lissenin' and readin' about all the 1%'ers whinin' and cryin' about how unfair it is they have so much debt  from school loans and feel the fair thing to do is have the government  forgive their debt.
"Scuse me but have I been hearin' right? they want the government to pay? I guess when they were taking all those college course like Basket Weaving 101 and Primitive Art Appreciation and running a 200k+ debt, they forgot to learn one simple thing...WE ARE THE GOVERNMENT!!  They get a free ride and my taxes go up! How the heck is that fair.?

  I think the politically bandied about term "Fairness" is the ultimate in  paradoxes. Think about it, the more you try to be fair to one person, the harder some other person  gets screwed(pardon my French).
Cases in point here:

• Kids' Sports: Team A works hard during practice. They play hard in games and win championship. Team B just kinda goes thu season, just kinda playin' at the game. They get a trophy too. Fair? I don't think so. To be fair though, Team A did get a lesson in why perform if some schmuck can get the same for doing less?
• A family works hard, saves and buys a home. They buy what they can afford,  then work and scrimp to pay it off. Another family buys a home assuming a massive debt hoping the market will go up and cover it. Market goes south and they are underwater. President says it's unfair that it happened. Says Gonna bail you out! Okay how fair is that? One family sacrifices and keeps theirs, the other gets a bailout and the government passes it onto people already struggling by raising their taxes all in the name of fairness.
• A student works hard, studies, saves and applies to a good college. Admissions says sorry, we have to admit someone who is less qualified because they have to be fair by letting in more minorities. Fair? You decide.
• A president decides that health care in this country is unfair. So he wheels ,deals, threatens and cajoles and to force a massive boondoggle of a  bill through both Houses of  Congress. Result: Health care costs go up care goes down and fewer people can afford insurance. Add this in, waivers are given to people and unions that supported his election. Hmmmm, how fair is that? Add this to it, he won't be subject to the plan even though it's mockingly called "Obamacare".

 I know we all like to think that life should be fair and in a perfect world it might be; but the world ain't perfect and neither are the people who inhabit it. Best we can hope for is to treat folks as we'd like to be treated ourselves. To want anything more than that might be considered unfair.

It's in the hands of the Supremes!

 Can it be happening? Is Obamacare about to die the slow strangulating death the the president had hoped would happen to our freedom?

 The Court is reviewing the Bill now and should reach a consensus in the very near future. Hopefully at the very least, it will kill the mandate, which is the head of the snake. It's what will feed the beast and without it, it will die a slow starving death. Even though we most likely hear the decision till mid June at the earliest, it will be the most opportune time for it to happen.

Mid June won't be enough time for the Dems to do adequate damage control and seein' how this is about all he can brag about,  there isn't gonna be much for the Anointed One to campaign on and he will have to resort to  payoffs, smears, half truths and outright lies.

 On the other hand, if Romney wins the nomination, he won't have to defend his Romney Care as it will become a non issue and will allow him to focus on the economy, jobs and foreign policy mistakes Obama has made.

This is going to be the best shot we have of killing this abomination of a law. The longer it remains on the books, it will be like crabgrass in a lawn; spreading and choking the life out of it. If the Court rules for the bill, I honestly don't think the economy will be able to sustain the burden and will collapse under the added weight.  I don't think this will factor into their decision, but anything that might tip scales towards freedom is something worth praying for.

One final note here, y'all remember back during one of his speeches where he took the Supremes to task over a ruling he didn't agree with and basically trashed them on National TV? All I can say is,"paybacks can be a b***h!"

Romney and the Conservatives

 I know, I know, Mitt Romney is saying he's a solid Conservative. But stickin' your boots in the oven won't make them biscuits any more than saddlin' a mule will make it a Thoroughbred.

This may seem early in the primaries to make this prediction, but I think he's going to pull it off. Let's be open and up front about this. Santorum and Newt are winning in the states that are so red that they are going into the Republican column regardless of who gets the nomination. Mitt is winning in the swing states which are vital in defeating Obama in November.

 So here is what I think Mitt needs to do to get the base of the party behind him:

• First off,  he's going to have to pick a strong conservative for his running mate. My suggestion would be one from the one of the states in play such as Marc Rubio or even Rick Santorum. They would add to his bona fides and might even bring those states back to  the Red Column.
• He's going to have to crush Obama in the debates. He will have to have to present a very clear contrast between himself and the "Anointed One".
• He will promise to open up ANWR and the Gulf to drilling along with agreeing to let the Keystone XL Pipeline come down from Canada to Texas.
• Kill Obamacare
• He's going to have to listen to the Social Conservatives and the Fiscal Conservatives when creating his platform. If he wins, he will have a majority in the House and hopefully, in the Senate. More than likely, he will be picking one, maybe two Justices for the Supreme Court. He will have to stand tall against the threat of a fillibuster and hold out for Contitutionalist Justices.
• He will have to get the endorsement of the NRA.
• He will have to simplify his message about his 58(?) Point Plan.

  Now the fly in the buttermilk here, is that he's going to have to do all this and still win over a majority of the Independents from the Obama camp. If Mitt is the right man for the job, I think he will do it. Presisdent Regan did it, so let's see what Mitt can do if he gets the chance. He may not be my first choice for president, but Obama is definitely my last choice!
 

May We Always Remember

 One of the commanders was an alleged swindler and fraud. The other had abandoned his family and had left behind a pile of unpaid debts. And yet another was a politician who had been voted out of office for taking an unpopular stand against a very popular president and had also left his family behind. Sounds like some of our present day leaders don't it? But the men I'm describing are James(Jim) Bowie, William Travis, and David(Davy) Crockett.

The troops  they led were men who had left their homes wives and families to take a stand for freedom and were willing to fight and even die for what they believed in. They weren't professional soldiers or even a well trained militia. They were men who had  heard the siren call of freedom and had taken up their rifles and possibles bags and had stepped across a line in the sand. Most weren't even natives but men who had left a life, be it good or bad, to come to a country where a man was only limited by himself.  Nearly every state in the in the US was represented. Some weren't even Americans. They came from countries such as England, Ireland, Germany, and Mexico. They had names such as Garza,Bourne,Blazeby, Hawkins, Lightfoot...... They were for the most part farmers while some had a profession, But for the most part, they were all strong men in a tough country.

 They never lost their faith and hope, either in themselves or the ideal they were fighting for in a broken down, crumbling, abandoned mission just on the outskirts of San Antonio de Bexar.  Numerous dispatches had gone seeking reinforcements but only a few had responded. Once resigned to their fate, these men exacted a high price for their lives. They fought gallantly against overwhelming odds, opposed by a well trained, determined force. The final battle of the thirteen day siege was over quickly and all the defenders had either been killed in battle or executed after being captured.

 We have honored these fallen heroes by naming counties and cities after them so their names will forever be remembered in our great state. Let us ask God to grant them eternal peace and Salvation.

Let us also remember them by standing tall and stepping across a new line in the sand to stand united against another oppressive leader who wants to strip us of our God-given rights and freedom. The battle won't be won with bullets and cannon shot, but at the ballot box. But, the battle will be just as fierce. And, as we all know from history, Freedom isn't free!

One final note here; the commander of the Texas Army that defeated Santa Anna was  a man known to have frequently tipped a jug or two. He had also resigned under a cloud of rumors and disgrace as Governor of the  State of Tennessee after his wife left him. His name? Sam Houston.

Remember The Alamo!!

God Bless Texas!

Things I'll Never Understand

As I've gone thru life, I've always like to slow down and just ponder. Not sure how the stuff pops into head, but once it get's in there, I try to work it out to where it makes sense to me. But, there are a few things and more happening ever day that just  make no sense and I don't think I'll ever understand them, such as:

• A dog will stick his head out a truck window when you're going down the highway and just enjoy the crap out of it, but if you blow in that same dog's face; it'll flap its head and maybe even snarl some.
• Why some women who are "pro-choice" can't understand why there mothers aren't (My guess is they didn't pay attention in Health Class).
•  Okay, a double ponder here. How some people can be ''pro-choice'' and ''anti-death penalty is beyond me. It's okay to kill an unborn child, but wrong to execute a convicted killer?  I mean they worry about a murderer's possible innocence while never thinking about the innocence of a baby?
• How you can pack 50 head of cattle in a 10x10 foot five strand barb wire pen and not one of them will  get cut, yet toss a six inch piece of the same wire in the middle of a pasture and a horse will cut himself to pieces on it?
• How you can be against something you helped to implement?
• When did it become okay not to have losers anymore?
• Why is the food that is so unhealthy,  taste so good?
• Why is kiddie soccer even considered a sport?
• How does three cans of beer turn into a six pack's worth of pee?
• Why a young person today that graduates from college with a bachelor's degree in philosophy or ancient art forms thinks they are going to land a job that pays 100k a year?
• Why women think denim causes instant weight gain on their posterior?
• Why Obama apologizes to our enemies who hate us and want to destroy us, yet craps down the well of our friends?(I cleaned that up a little)
• Why some people think it would be too hard to round up the illegals in this country? Well, we could start in the jails, and go to the addresses they used to get a driver's licence for a start.
• How in the world did we let Obama become President?
• Lastly, How can anybody in their right mind vote for him again?

A Man and His Deck

  Have you ever wondered about the special relationship between a man and his deck?  Have you ever noticed how men like to talk and compare the decks with each other and how some men are embarrassed by the size of their deck? There's a lot that can be said about a man and his deck. To me, I think it should be an  ''extension'' of himself.   It should ''project out'' letting the shape be prominent.

   Now here's a question for yall, should it  be elevated to qualify as a deck? The reason I ask is because I have a concrete deck.  And when I was in the navy and on board  ship, I had a steel deck. Now I know a lot of men have prefer their deck made of wood, and there's nothing wrong with getting some wood, but you have to admit concrete is harder and will last longer under repeated use. It is also impervious to disease and we all know what can happen to a deck if it gets infected with something. Concrete can also handle the wet better. Sometimes you, have to cover your wood deck with something in order to protect  it.

  Another question that comes to mind is size. How big should a man's deck be? Is size all that important? I think if a man is happy with his deck and it gets the job done of entertaining properly, then he has nothing to worry about. And if you do happen to suffer from ''deck envy'', you can always add on to it pretty easily, right? To me, the perfect size would be large enough to entertain on(nothing worse than not having enough deck for people) yet of a size you can easily maintain by proper cleaning and preservation.

  My final question is now the foliage around the deck. How much does a man need around his deck? I guess it depends on what the man prefers. Some men seen to like it fairly bushy while others prefer the well trimmed manicured look. To each man's deck, his choice to make I say.

 Lastly,  a deck is a personal thing with a man. Although primarily used for entertaining, there's something to be said just sitting alone outside, a man with his deck............