This will not be funny.  This is perfectly serious.

I did not stay glued to the television set throughout the Trayvon Martin investigation and trial.  But, I saw enough of it to draw some very strong conclusions.

Let me correct a misconception that’s all over Facebook today:  stand your ground was not an issue in this case.  That was not the defense.  The defense was simple self-defense.

The second solution suggested was to do away with self-defense.  A slight overreaction, don’t ya think?  Actually, nine times out of ten it is women and minorities who are helped by self defense laws.  Ask Bubba – he’ll tell you about at least 20 cases he’s defended on self defense — all of the minorities.

The third was to blame the jury.  (Heavy sigh.)  Great, now all you’re doing is discouraging good people from serving on juries for fear of being targeted as wrong-doers.

I have a few suggestions.

First of all, we have to pay juries better to allow minorities to participate.  In my county, the $24 jurors are paid can be extremely damaging to people who don’t get paid if they don’t work.  So, they don’t show up when summoned for jury duty, knowing nothing will happen to them if they don’t.  Why would the District Attorney’s office go hunt them down when the last thing a District Attorney wants – as least in my county – is minorities on jury panels.

But now comes the part you don’t want to hear.  If the Trayvon Martin case had a competent district attorney, a judge who at least seem to pay attention, and a police department who didn’t make up their minds before all the evidence was available, the outcome might have been different.

Surely I wasn’t the only person who noticed that the only minority in that courtroom was the victim and every damn person in that county is to blame for that.

It is like pulling teeth to get people to vote in non-Presidential years, when judges, DAs and sheriffs are elected.   Barack Obama can change the world, but who your local sheriff is will most certainly change your life.

I live in a majority minority county yet we elected a man to be sheriff who called the President of the United States of America, “that clown in Washington.”  Every single judge we have is white, old, and Republican with the exception of one, who is female.  Our District Attorney, also white, old and Republican, could not try his way out of a paper bag.

Elections have consequences.

Please do not vote just the top of your ballot.  Find out something about the candidates who decide if your child is safe walking home from the store with Skittles and ice tea.  They are all our children.  And until we can protect them, the job is not done.

One other small thing. George Zimmerman’s brother said that George will spend the rest of his life looking over his shoulder.  Yeah, well, so will every black kid in America.  I figure that’s even so quit whining.

Okay, sermon over.

I am away from the computer, but go ahead and react.

But, there are two images that stand out this morning.

This fine specimen of Texas manhood standing in front of the south entrance of the Capitol.

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Best we can figure, he was trying to get laid.

And this perfect, glorious, amazing image of the march from the Capitol to the park for speeches.

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You know how I don’t cuss because it upsets Momma?  You know how I say Sumbitch only about three times a year?

Well, sumbitch, sumbitch, sumbitch, sumbitch.  Sum uva bitch, sumbitch.

Today at the Texas House hearings on the bill that will practically outlaw a woman’s constitutional right to abortion, they aren’t afraid of Wendy Davis’ filibuster skills.  No, siree.

Now they are terrified, mortified, and frightened of tampons.

Tampons.  Tamfreekin’pons.

State troopers are confiscating tampons, maxi pads and other potential projectiles from those who are entering the Texas capitol to watch the debate and vote on a controversial anti-abortion bill. Guns, however, which are typically permitted in the state capitol, are still being allowed.

And do you want to know why tampons and sanitary pads are being confiscated from female purses prior to women being allowed into the gallery?

Officers clarified that the list of items not permitted in the gallery was not new and that the confiscations were an effort to maintain the “rules of decorum.”

I have been in the Senate gallery many times and never once did I see sanitary napkins removed from anyone’s purse.

But it gets worse.

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Wait a minute.  Wait a minute.  Wait a damn minute.  You can take a handgun in the Senate gallery but not a dangerous projectile like a sanitary napkin?

How about ball point pens?  Nail clippers?  Perfume bottles?  Crap, there are 50 things in a woman’s purse heavier and more dangerous than a tampon.  No, make that 60 because I forgot about the Nook and the pliers in my purse.

Here’s my opinion:  this was done for only one reason – an attempt to humiliate women and to remind them that they are different.

They should have guns, not menstrual cycles.

UPDATED:  Democratic Senator Kirk Watson stood with Texas Women by contacting the senate’s sergeant-at-arms after hearing about the “ridiculous” prohibition.

The TDS Troopers then got orders to allow tampons and sanitary napkins on the floor of the Texas Senate.

I love Senator Watson and I suspect he had to do this because this was man thing with the DPS.

One more thing:  some sources are saying that the original order was made to preserve the “decorum” of the Texas Senate.  Holy crap – they backdated time stamps and lied on government documents during the last session.  The Texas Senate, under Republican leadership, has developed all the decorum of a two bit whorehouse.

Best Tweet so Far:

Okay, I’m the the car with a cell phone posting which ain’t easy but George Zimmerman’s lawyer just said that no matter what the jury’s verdict, his “client’s life will never be the same.”

Dude, neither will Trayvon Martin’s.

Plus, if Zimmerman walks, he’ll be hired by Fox News next week as their legal / self-defense expert.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott wants to share the Lord’s day.

Attorney General Greg Abbott is tipping his hand ever so slightly about his San Antonio appearance Sunday, with his campaign rebranding it from a meet-and-greet to a “major announcement.”

Abbott widely is expected to announce for governor in the wake of Gov. Rick Perry’s decision not to seek re-election, and he’s the odds-on favorite.

His campaign just revealed a day ago that Abbott has raised nearly another $5 million.

Well, he’s going to announce that he can fill Rick Perry’s boots.  And he probably can.  My dog Truman could fill Rick Perry’s boots, too, but with something that smells better than Abbott.

Rick Perry was a doofus.  Greg Abbott scares the crap outta me.  He’s meaner than a hurricane with two eyes.

These were his political signs before there even was a Tea Party.

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He’s just a shiver looking for a spine to run up.