The Republican Party of Texas is buying books – lotsa books. That is problematic because apparently there are no book stores in Texas.  They had to go all the way to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to buy books.

They are giving those books away to “party supporters.”

Alfredo over at the Dairy Queen spent some time with us this morning wondering whose book they’re buying.  We figured that Dan Crenshaw and Ted Cruz both had books out long enough to be in the $2 range.  But, please don’t forget that Texas Ted, Vol. II is still on a bookshelf somewhere because we know that Amazon will sell it to you.  Vol. II wraps up those loose ends about the Kennedy Assassination that were left dangling in Vol. I.

If we hear whose books they bought, we’ll let you know.  Meanwhile, let your imagination go wild.

Admittedly, this is more of a message for my friends and family that find themselves on the other side of this thing. So, those of you that are regulars around here can excuse my ranting for the time being. I just have to vent.

I’ve grown to understand that gun culture is going to be a thing. I’ll never condone it but I understand it exists. I’ll never understand the point of view that someone can bring a gun into a situation, openly carry it, wave it around, and then claim self-defense when something bad happens. I’m not a lawyer or a legal scholar, so I’ll just have to argue that from a purely logical/philosophical point of view.

So, the legal justifications for what happened in Wisconsin are what they are. I wasn’t in the court room. I don’t know what the full slate of evidence looked like. Maybe the jury had no other choice given what was presented to them. What I will never get is the beating of the chests after the fact.

If you are justifying the deaths of two people based on mistakes they made previously in their life then you are a despicable human being. No one deserves to die like that. It doesn’t matter what they had previously done. The kid couldn’t have known their criminal history and didn’t even know if they had looted, rioted, or burned anything down. Even if they had they didn’t deserve to die anymore than this kid.

How anyone can be happy about anyone losing their life and then call themselves pro life is beyond me. That road is a bottomless pit of human depravity. It is the last bastions of any kind of tenous hold on a smidgeon of moral authority. Whether anyone thinks this kid is legally responsible, he is morally responsible. We are responsible for everything we do in this world.

I’m told he wants to become a nurse. My sincerest hope is that he can make the most of this opportunity he doesn’t deserve. Maybe, just maybe he can save enough people to come somewhat close to making up for the two lives he took. I’m not sure how that is even possible, but I don’t wish anything bad or nefarious happen to him. This isn’t about him anymore. It’s about the rest of us and whether we can gain some perspective of things. I’m really trying hard to do it right now.

For the past ever-how-many months I have achingly suffered from writer’s block.  I have jobs that require me to type 750 – 900 words in a row that more or less connect to each other and – on top of that – have a theme.  I simply don’t understand why they send me a paycheck except for the fact that my writing has agony written all over it and they feel bad about that.

Nobody is more aware of this than my family.  Hence, my child-in-law sent me this message done in a fancy meme:

Holy damn cow. Sprinkle the holy water! I have been raised from the dead. Okay, maybe not dead, but certainly raised from the lethargic, so just sprinkle the glitter.

Within an hour of receiving that, I had outlines for three short stories, including one involving a love triangle between a veterinarian, a reporter, and the Luling Watermelon Queen, a feature story on never letting an expensive balconette bra interfere with your life, chapters 1, 8, and last chapter of a pretty good semi-sexually graphic cozy mystery, and a couple of long overdue thank you notes.

So, this is to thank my child-in-law. Buff, I’m not saying this because you’re my only child-in-law, but you are the best child-in-law ever.  I know the change won’t happen overnight but thank you for showing me the sidewalk. I think I can get to the corner now.

For those of you semi-addicted to the Alex Jones case like I am, I have something fun for you.  The lead attorney in the Texas Sandy Hook case did an interview with two guys who have a podcast.  They have a relatively small but devoted fan base.  This is the attorney’s second appearance on their podcast because they are fun and he enjoys explaining Texas law to them and their audience.

You can hear it right here.  The show runs 2 and half hours but the attorney is only on for an hour.  You can skip to 8 and half minutes for the beginning because that’s when Mark Bankston comes on.  The reason I’m sharing it here is that it’s directed toward non-attorneys.  However, it’s also directed at a much younger audience than we are so that’ll explain the language.

You might want to save it for a rainy day when you can’t put the crops out or sell World Book Encyclopedias door to door. Enjoy.

And just because you need to smile today —

As I write this it should be noted that the verdict in the Kyle Rittenhouse case has not been reported. By the time you read this, it likely has already come down. I’m notoriously not a gambling man, but if I were I’d lay down heavy odds that he’s walking home. I’m not a soothsayer here, after all, more than me is saying the same thing.

There have long been arguments about self-defense and it’s one of those discussions where I feel I must be taking crazy pills. At this point, I’m not arguing anymore. There really is no point in it. If someone can’t see the plain truth that is right in front of them then they likely never will. Many of these folks are people we used to count as friends. Some of them are family. It hurts to even think about what they are at this point.

Most of the commentators have been dancing around the shame. Where does it go? If you see the truth then you definitely feel it. When you see such a huge miscarriage of justice it’s hard to feel anything else. Our justice system seems capable of slowly making up for egregious errors in justice. Wrongfully convicted folks can appeal. They can challenge issues of law. They can introduce new evidence that wasn’t introduced before. There have been hundreds of folks that have had their guilty verdict set aside.

These aren’t perfect scenarios. There is no getting back the time lost. Yet, one of the miracles of our justice system is the fact that this avenue is available at all. What really isn’t available is the ability to overcome a rogue judge or an odious jury that is willing to put their thumbs on the scales of justice. Victims don’t get a second bite at that apple. They can’t wipe away an ineffective prosecution team or shoddy police investigation. To date, there is very little recourse for their families or those that care about them. They can’t cry foul when they see that the fix is in.

Shame leads to dark places. It can’t go anywhere and there is little we can do about it. It piles on itself and the weight becomes crippling. We can’t look each other in the eye because we know all too well what is going on. We can call it by name, but the unwoke mob will call it cancel culture and try to minimize the shame. They’ll trivialize it. They’ll poke fun at you for it. They’ll hang it like an albatross around your neck.

When someone like Rittenhouse walks away it eats just a little bit more out of our soul. It feeds that depression that so many of us feel. It stacks on top of the other shameful events that we can’t erase or explain away. It just stays there weighing us all down. Maybe those deniers can’t see it. Maybe they can’t hear it. Maybe they don’t know it’s there. They certainly will feel it at some point and by then it will be too late. By then the weight may crush us all.

There are apparently three kinds of people in this world. There are Star Wars people. There are Star Trek people. There are people that make fun of Star Wars and Star Trek people. In the Next Generation series of Star Trek there was an enemy known as the borg. Not being a huge Star Trek fan, I couldn’t tell you exactly what the borg was or what the point was, but I just remember it spreading like some kind of virus.

They always uttered the same line: “resistance is futile.” I’ve come to imagine a lot of things through that prism these days. We have a local hospital that has taken over an old shopping center and forced those businesses out. It became the hospital borg. In a similar way, Fox News has levied a generational war on behalf of Christmas. Resistance is futile.

Apparently, there is this unspoken and unknown force trying to change everyone into a happy holidays contingent. One could imagine Starbucks being convinced that an unnamed coffee shop were trying to muscle in on their territory or maybe Jack n the Box suddenly threatening McDonald’s. Christmas has about as much of a chance of being overwhelmed in any so-called war.

Instead, you drive through neighborhoods and see Christmas lights go up immediately after Halloween. The local radio station converts over to Christmas music at the same time and blares all Christmas music all the time through the new year. Mariah Carey starts humming her bars once the last firework goes off on the fourth of July.

On the one hand, I’m not sure there is really any harm in it. Is there anything wrong with becoming a member of the borg? On the other hand, I’m also not sure that the season retains its meaning when it begins to encroach on October and completely engulfs Thanksgiving. Resistance is futile.

Fox has nearly perfected the art of playing the victim all the while acting like the quintessential bully. I suppose that’s usually how these things work. Obnoxious people should feel free to shout “Merry Christmas” in the face of those that obviously don’t celebrate it because it is their right. Thus, we somehow ignore one of the meanings of the season by ignoring civility and acting like a jackass.

We have always resisted the temptation of decorating before Thanksgiving. It is the least we can do. However, I have decided that the problem is people like Carey. We need some Thanksgiving songs. Maybe someone can write a little ditty about football, turkey, and stuffing. Anything that could stave off the Christmas borg would be greatly appreciated.