Weekend Rerun!

I am still under the weather, so today I am gonna post some stuff that's been posted before, but it's certainly worth a second read, if you've already looked it over. For our newer visitors, it'll be a great opportunity to catch up on the material they have not had the chance to read yet. At any rate, you'll be exposed to rantings of a madman the award-winning (my Mom awarded me a Dinky Button) literature that makes you queasy you've come to expect from yours truly, so set your expectations real low and you won't be disappointed. It's a win-win deal.

• The Law West of the Pecos- The heartwarming tale of a man who basically ruled a portion of West Texas from the Court's bench. Justice Roy Bean style went like this: a guy was accused of killing a Chinese man. Judge Bean studied on it for a bit, then proclaimed the defendant not guilty. The Judge said, and I'm paraphrasing here, "it's certainly against the law to kill a man, but the law says nothing about killing a Chinaman. Case dismissed." Read the post and click on he links and you'll find more tear-inducing tales of the Law West of the Pecos.
• Forged of a Hotter Fire- I have posted 288 times on this blog so far, and this is in my Top 3 Favorite Posts. In the story, click the link to read a great essay from Coach Bum Phillips on what it means to be a Texan. I think our non-Texan friends will enjoy it and gain a little insight as to why Texans are so fiercely proud of our heritage. God bless Texas.
• Country Music Month Wrap Up- This was posted about a week and a half ago, but it's still worth re-reading or just clicking on the links to the music of BOCEPHUS!!!

That's a pretty good day's reading right there. Sit back, crack open a beer for breakfast and hit the "Bocephus" post, crank up the music and read the other two posts while you jam. That's the way people "forged of a hotter fire" do it.  

Plus One: An Encore Presentation

I am beset with the "Dreaded Double Dose of Diseasery" today. My arthritis is in full tilt boogie mode and I think I am getting the flu. I don't think I could write down to my usual low standards, so I am gonna re-post some of the stuff from the past that, if you read it, lowered your IQ by at least ten points. Hell, it's Friday, so I'm fairly certain you plan on slackin' off anyway, so this is your chance to not only slack off at work, but lower your IQ at the same time! Hey, I'm here to serve. You'll thank me later, if you are still able to perform a cognitive skill, like talking. Actually it'll be more like mumbling, but don't blame me, you chose to read this crap award-winning prose.Therefore, for your IQ-lowering pleasure, I present to you this steaming pile some stuff read by goofballs in 47 states, the District of Columbia and 44 other countries around the world, an encore presentation of some our most reviled popular posts.

• All the News That's Not Fit to Print- This is the touching story of some cops befriending a scantily clad young woman and let her play with their AK-47. I'm wiping a tear from my eye as I type this. I just love a tale of friendship, camaraderie and law enforcement reaching out to a scantily clad young bimbo.
• A Texas Primer- I posted this about six weeks ago and will probably post again in the future. This blog is gaining new readers every single day from all over the world. As a matter of fact, when I signed on this morning to check my email, I noticed that the newest country to njoin us is Puerto Rico. Bienvenidos, amigos! Many of our overseas readers may not be familiar  with a lot of things about Texas and the primer I link to in the post is  good place to start learning about the Lone Star State. Even Native Texans, like me, can learn something new about our home.
• Shotgun Willie- This was one of most popular posts in October. The reason why can be found in two words: Willie Nelson. 
• Miss Me Yet- This is a story about the 43rd President of the United States. It shows that love him or loathe him, he is a good man and this story is just one example why. Worth the read.

 Those stories should keep you away from doing your job for a while today. If it doesn't you've a choice to make. You can work or you can look through the blog archives and fine a lot more brain cell killing of brilliant writing and commentary. If you are really bored, you can scroll down on any page you read to the "Flag Counter", click on it and see where in the world our readers are. Now get after it! You've got slacking to do!

Texas Tidbits: The Father of Texas

Four and a half months ago when I first started this blog, I wrote a Plus One post about Virginia. I saluted Virginia for some of the great Americans that were born there who went on to do great things for our country. On that day, I left out a man who was a native son of Virginia, and today I could slap a knot on my own head so tall I'd have to tiptoe to scratch it. The man's name? Stephen Fuller Austin. The Father of Texas. I am a dumbass.

I was going to post this yesterday because it was the anniversary of SFA's birth. But the Republican Tsunami was a pretty big deal so I wrote about that instead.

The Father of Texas**

Stephen Fuller Austin was born in Virginia on November 3, 1793. By age twenty one, Austin was a lawyer and a member of the First Circuit Court. During this time, Austin's father, Moses, received an empresarial grant that allowed him to take 300 Americans into Texas. Moses then was traveling back to Missouri when he was attacked and soon contracted pneumonia and died in June, 1821. Upon his death, Moses Austin left his empresarial grant to Stephen. I was a bit surprised to learn that Stephen was, at first, reluctant to carry out his father's dream of colonizing Texas. However, a letter from Ma Austin changed Stephen's mind about it. And thus began the journey of the man who would be the Father of Texas.

During his attempt to bring Americans to Texas, Austin wore a path out to Mexico while dealing with the new Mexican government (Mexico had just won its independence from Spain). The rules regarding his land grant seemed to change by the minute. Undeterred, Austin finally got that mess settled and in late 1825, he brought  300 Americans to Texas. This was the first step in Stephen F. Austin being recognized as The Father of Texas. There's some detailed information on the trials and tribulations Austin had to overcome to colonize Texas with American settlers here.

In 1836, when Texas had won its independence from Mexico, Austin threw his name into the hat to be a candidate for the Presidency of the new Republic of Texas. He was the odds on favorite to win the election, but someone else had eyes on that prize. His name was Sam Houston. After his victory at San Jacinto establishing Texas' new status as a sovereign country, Houston won the election in a landslide. Upon taking on his role as President of Texas, Houston named Austin as his Secretary of State, a post he held for only two months. Stephen F. Austin contracted what he thought was a bad cold, but it was actually pneumonia. He died on December 27, 1836. Austin's last words were, "The Independence of Texas is recognized! Don't you see it in the papers!". After learning of Austin's death, President Sam Houston issued this statement, "The Father of Texas is no more. The first pioneer of the wilderness has departed." Austin is gone, Mr. President, but he will for eternity be known as The Father of Texas and his name will be revered by Texans forevermore.

**Image from sonofthesouth.net

Maine Minutiae : Dems Sing the Blues as Maine Turns Red

Gov.-elect LePage**

I know that you've already absorbed what happened in the elections held yesterday throughout the Nation. But you may not know what happened to some of the "out of the way places" like the state in which I now live - Maine. Those of us up here in the top right hand corner of the United States underwent some sweeping changes in our neck of the woods, too. For the first time since 1962, Republicans are the majority party in both houses of the state legislature and have a Republican Governor in the Blaine House (The Gov's official residence while in office) to work with. The outgoing Governor, Democrat John Baldacci, was term limited out and his Republican successor Paul LePage will be heading the state government for the next four years. Baldacci is a real nice man, but he was/is a wishy washy Liberal as a Governor, which why I am very excited to see what Governor-elect LePage brings to the table. LePage, one of eighteen children, has a powerful life story that has seen him go from a homeless 11 year old (yes, really) to the highest elected office in the State of Maine. Currently the next Guv is the Mayor of Waterville, a town of about 16,000 twenty miles or so north of my living room on I-95 and he is also the General Manager of Marden's (a cross between Big Lot and Dollar General). LePage's awe inspiring life story can be found here. If this man is as good for the state of Maine as he was to the citizens of Waterville as their Mayor, I look forward with great anticipation to the revival of the state economy and a more business-friendly atmosphere for entrepreneurs. This state is loaded with fine people with good ideas and with the LePage administration leading the way, our future looks so bright we gotta wear shades.

Mainely Red**

When I first started typing this article, I was gonna lean on the Democrats and Liberals pretty hard, but as I started telling you a snippet of the life of Paul LePage, I found it way more productive to tell you what we see in our future in Maine with LePage leading the way, than to blast the dumbasses who've had their hands on the throats of Mainers for almost a half century. The Dems/Libs will do something stupid soon enough then I'll unload on them. But until then, I'll just listen to them sing the blues because at long last, Maine has turned red.

**Photos from bangordaileynews.com**

Plus One: Election Leaves Liberals Seeing Red

Where did all the blue go? bwahahahahaha

Well, well, well, what have we here? The map of the USA looks like it's been painted firetruck red, with a touch of blue or purple here and there. That fact brings me to this question: Hey, you Liberals! How does all that Conservative ass taste today, you bunch of peckerwoods? bwahahahahahahaha  I hate to be sore winner...no I don't. For the last six years, Liberals have called Conservatives everything but children of God. The Left's treatment of Conservative women like Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachman and the O'donnell lady from Delaware has been dispicable to say the least. If you don't agree with them or if you just don't like them, state that fact and move on. There's no need to to try to destroy these women with vitriol and flat out lies about them and their children, for God's sake. Now that the shoe's on the other foot, and Liberalism has been shown to be the ideas of idiots and roundly rebuffed by the voters of the US, will the Conservatives try to destroy the lives of Leftist idiots like Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid? No. Because the grown ups have the upper hand now, and they'll be too busy trying to undo the mess that Obambi, Ms. Granny McBotox, Dingy Harry and the rest of those America-hating inbreds have forced on this country through less than scrupulous means against the will of the overwhelming majority of the American people. Oh, they're still gonna bitch and moan about an unfair election, the disenfranchisement of certain ethnic groups or Florida in 2000. That's the way pussies and Liberals operate. They never lose, something's always taken from them. And it's always a Conservative white guy that does it. These Socialist asswipes are the ones who call a slowdown in the growth of something, like entitlement programs, a "cut", even though more money is being spent on said entitlement. When Liberals don't get their way, not only is it someone else's fault, they threaten to hold their collective breath till they are "blue" in the face. (Libs, blue, I made a funny). Just wait until the next Congress convenes and the evil, abortion-hating, white guy Republicans introduce a bill to de-fund, or repeal altogether, ObamaCare. I'm telling you now so you'll be ready, clean all the old programs off your DVR so you'll have lots of space to record the hilarity for posterity. There promises to be temper tantrums of Biblical proportions from the knuckleheads on the Left.

When we woke up this morning, Liberalism had been exposed as the class warfare, government control sham that it is. When we woke up this morning, we woke up to real hope and change. The kind of hope and change that will utilize the exceptionalism that is America and its people, to take this country forward back to its rightful place as the best nation in the history of the World. When we woke up this morning, America was battered, but not beaten by the full frontal assault on her by those who wish she were more like Europe.When we woke up this morning, America herself had breathed a sigh of relief that the constraints placed on her over the last four years, especially the last two, had been removed and she could once again breathe the fresh air of freedom and liberty. When we woke up this morning, the sun shone a little bit brighter as it brought a new day to America.

Texas Tidbits: Special Edition! Texas Tweeties by Bob Zeller

Miss April

Several weeks ago on Texas Tidbits, I did a post on The Concho City  of San Angelo. The reason I chose San Angelo as a topic for Texas Tidbits is simple. As you know, my Dad was a trucker for over 40 years and I was thinking of some of those "far away places" he used to drive to, and I remembered San Angelo as a city he delivered to many times. So, I did a post on San Angelo. Long story short: a guy named Bob Zeller emailed me and thanked me for doing that post on his town... San Angelo. If I recall correctly, he eluded to the fact that places like San Angelo were kind of forgotten locales. Since then Bob and I have exchanged emails and blog comments on an almost daily basis and let me tell you it has raised the level of the crowd I hang out with exponentially. Bob's a funky old dude with a gift for photography and an itch for birding. And he does a magnificent job of combining the two. You can see much of Bob's work on his web site Texas Tweeties.

Bob recently took his gift and his itch and put together a calendar for 2011 featuring some amazing  photos of some of our fine feathered friends that have made their way through San Angelo over the past several months. Mr. Zeller was nice enough to send me one of his calendars and it has some outstanding photos in it, one for each month. I showed it to my little girls, ages 3 and 8, and they loved it. We have a bird feeder behind our apartment and it's kind of a game we play when the various birds here in Maine pay us a visit every day. The 3 year old, Bailey, knows what a blue jay is and the sound they make so when she saw the blue jay on the calendar, it was a laugh riot. Anyway, like I said, Bob sent me a copy of his calendar and it's not one of those calendars made out of what feels like Charmin, this mamma jamma is made of some very sturdy paper. It would make a great gift for someone and it certainly would be a nice addition to your office or any room in your home. (mine's going on the wall in my home office or a my wife calls it, "your side of the bedroom".)

I'd love to see Bob sell a few thousand of these calendars, but if it was something that looked like crayon drawings on toilet paper, I would not waste my time, blog space and bandwidth writing about it.I highly recommend it without reservation. And NO I ain't makin' a penny off Bob by promoting his calendar. I'm writing about it because I have seen it, held it and I love it. End of story. Another reason I mention this calendar is that I now consider Bob Zeller my friend. He's a good man with an affinity for taking pictures like few people can. Did I mention that Bob recently turned 76 years young?

You can contact Bob through his blog or bobzeller1 AT aol DOT com. Help a funky old dude out. :)

Plus One: Your Civic Duty

Today is Election Day. From my point of view, this is one of, if not the most important election in the 234 year history of this grand experiment we call the United States. To be up front and open, I want you to know from the get-go that I am a Conservative/Republican, with the emphasis on Conservative.

For the last four years, the Democrats, specifically the Liberals like Pelosi, Frank and Reid, have been in control of Congress. Since that time, they have pulled every legislative trick possible in order to ram through some of the most dangerous legislation this country has ever seen! This is especially true since the 2008 election that brought us Barack  Hussein Obama. The Democrat-controlled Congress has rammed through such socialist policies as "universal" health care, the government bailout of several huge corporations, such as GM and AIG, and that dumbass $1 TRILLION "stimulus" bill against the wishes of a large majority of the American people! I won't go into specifics on each of these disasters as they have argued back and forth and back again. Pelosi, Reid and Company have extended the government's intrusion into our lives like never before in our history. It's extremely scary if you just sit back and think about it. I don't recall the exact figure, but do you realize that you and your children are in debt to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars? And that number is growing by the minute.

I am 54 years old and I have seen the best and worst of this country during my lifetime. I remember the gasoline lines of the '70's, buying on an odd day/even day system and being allowed to purchase a set maximum number of gallons. Gas lines were longer than the restroom lines at Cowboys Stadium on a free beer night. I remember unemployment in double digits and interest rates at 20%! All of those things result of the socialist ideas of another Democrat - Jimmy Carter, the second worst President of my life time. The worst President of my lifetime lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue as we speak.

The assholes in power in Washington, D.C. today have no regard for you or for this country. They are in it for power. They could give a rat's ass about you or me. All they want is to control your life from cradle to grave. Think I'm kidding? What kind of crap is your kid learning in Public (read: Government) School? Tommy has two mommies? Global warming? There are no winners or losers in life? We don't keep score at the kids' soccer game so the losing team won't have their little feewins hurt? As your kid goes to college, guess who he's getting his college loan from? The United States Government. Income taxes, Social Security Taxes, taxes with initials we don't even understand. then come Medicare, ObamaCare which means some bureaucrat with an actuary table deciding for you whether or not it's feasible and cost effective enough to have a kidney transplant or get treatment for your cancer. Do you want that shit? I don't. Let's move on to illegal immigration, shall we? The Democrats want to grant amnesty to 12 MILLION people in this country illegally! They broke the damn law to get here! Thus, they are criminals! After amnesty for the "undocumented worker" (that phrase makes me want to puke) the Liberals in Congress will give the illegals every Government subsidy known to man inorder to keep them on "the reservation" and completely beholden to the Government for their whole lives. And who will these people continue to vote for? yup. Liberals. Hell, these illegals will make more money being on welfare here than they ever had the chance to make in their own country! Why in the hell would they wanna vote for anyone but a Liberal. Here's an analogy for you. If there's a stray puppy in your neighborhood and he looks like he needs a good meal, out of the kindness of your heart, you feed him. The next day the same thing happens and you feed him again. Same for the next day. And the next. And the next. The lesson here is : feed 'em and they come back. That's true for stary puppies and "stray" people. feed 'em and they come back. The Liberals are counting on this. Instead of seeing people eager to come into this country legally and reap its rewards from hard work and attaining citizenship and its attendant rights by following the rules, Liberals just want to heap these rights on the illegal immigrants without any sort of path to becoming a citizen! Feed 'em and they come back.

My point here is that this is YOUR country and as a citizen, you elect people to Congress to work for you, not for themselves! Vote those kinds of bastards out of there, they are screwing you without even giving you a kiss. Take back YOUR country! Get out and vote today! Give an elderly person a ride to the polls. Call you friends and family to remind them to vote. Voting is the Most sacred Right you have in this country, a right mentioned in the Declaration of Independence as unalienable.

It's your country and it's time to take it back.The future of our nation is at stake. If you don't vote, you have no right to bitch about the outcome. So get off your ass and go vote today! It's your Civic Duty.

God Bless you and may God continue to bless the United States of America.