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Musings by Marilou:A Softie at Heart

The newest addition to our menagerie of animals is lucky that I watched “Marley and Me” this weekend. Now Nola doesn’t look quite so bad. It’s not that our adopted German Shepherd is necessarily “bad," she is just into everything. Nola seems to think that anything within her reach is fair game. Who would have thought a dog would eat a stick of butter or a dish of guacamole? My ham, cheese, sour cream, and cream cheese bread drip was gone in a nanosecond and she has stolen more chocolate chip cookies than I can count.

Wright's Words:We’re Getting Slighted

Brace yourselves folks, the head of the Texas Senate is about to take things out on West Texas constituents. All because one area lawmaker -- who happens to represent Gaines County as part of his massive district -- didn’t offer his support toward him in the recent election campaign. Last week, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick -- as part of the 86th Texas Legislative process -- handed out his committee assignments last week for this current session.

Thinking Out Loud:The Worst a Man Can Get

Holy cow. I do believe that the government shutdown talk actually managed to get upstaged this week by a razor-makin’ company that asked me to step away from my personal grooming habits long enough to quit being such a dirtbag. Thank you Gillette. Leave it to corporate America’s social justice warriors to remind me of everything my Daddy taught me about how to treat women. As though I was hearing it for the first time. But aren’t y`all supposed to be all about charging me too much money to get the stubble off my face?

Analysis: Property Taxes are High, Don’t Expect the Leg to Change That

Restrain, reform, rein in, restrict and limit are not synonyms for the word Texas property taxpayers crave: cut. This is an alert: Your property taxes will not be falling, in spite of all the talk about easing property taxes that is emanating from the Texas Capitol. State lawmakers can’t make property tax rates come down. They’ve tried. It didn’t make rates come down. And even trying is expensive: It would cost the state just under $2.5 billion to replace a dime’s worth of local school property taxes; that is, to lower the property tax rate by ten cents.

Thinking Out Loud: The Worst a Man Can Get

Holy cow. I do believe that the government shutdown talk actually managed to get upstaged this week by a razor-makin' company that asked me to step away from my personal grooming habits long enough to quit being such a dirtbag. Thank you Gillette. 

Leave it to corporate America's social justice warriors to remind me of everything my Daddy taught me about how to treat women.  As though I was hearing it for the first time.

But aren't y`all supposed to be all about charging me too much money to get the stubble off my face?

Musings by Marilou:Loving Your Enemy

“Yes, it is love that will save our world and our civilization, love even for your enemies.”

-Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day (MLK Day), set for Jan. 21, is an American federal holiday marking the birthday of Dr. King. It is observed on the third Monday of January each year, which is around King’s birthday, Jan. 15. It is not only a time when the country remembers the works of the pastor and activist but also celebrates his accomplishments in the civil rights movement.

Analysis: Big Things Can Happen in Texas Without Court Orders, Sometimes

The Republican era in Texas government got its real start 40 years ago this week, when Bill Clements became the first GOP governor of the state since Reconstruction. He wasn’t the first modern Republican in statewide office — that was John Tower, elected to the U.S. Senate in 1961. But Clements was the trailblazer for the party that now dominates state government, holding all of the elected statewide offices. It took two decades for the GOP’s candidates to gain full control of the executive branch, but they swept those elections in 1998 and never looked back.

Thinking Out Loud: A Fix for the Wall Problem?

In the body politic of a nation, I can't imagine anything more symbolic of the partisan divide than a major disagreement over a wall. The walls, after all, are being built and strengthened every day, whether they're Trumpian or Pelosian. For those of us who have stopped thinking for ourselves, which side of those walls you stand on depends upon whose tribe you're in. What seems to be lost in the discussion, as we dispense with our natural instincts and turn over the debate to self-serving politicians, are the opinions of those who get up every day and go to work on the border.

Thinking Out Loud: A Fix for the Wall Problem?

In the body politic of a nation, I can't imagine anything more symbolic of the partisan divide than a major disagreement over a wall. The walls, after all, are being built and strengthened every day, whether they're Trumpian or Pelosian.  For those of us who have stopped thinking for ourselves, which side of those walls you stand on depends upon whose tribe you're in.

What seems to be lost in the discussion, as we dispense with our natural instincts and turn over the debate to self-serving politicians, are the opinions of those who get up every day and go to work on the border.

Know Your America: The Bill of Rights

The United States of America is the world's oldest surviving federation -- a federal republic and a representative democracy. 

We as Americans developed our ideology of "republicanism" in our quest of independence from Great Britain, asserting that government rested on the will of the people and expressed in their local legislatures. 

On July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress unanimously adopted the "Declaration of Independence," which proclaimed that the 13 colonies were forming an independent nation and had no further allegiance to the British crown.