Support Texas Secession

There’s a movement in Texas to secede from the union.  This is a cause I can fully support.

No more will Dallas be able to call itself “America’s Team.”

No longer will we have to listen to tales about the brave defenders of the Alamo, whose basic goal was to change the laws of Mexico that forbade slavery.

No more will Texas drain off federal dollars.  That’s right.  Unlike Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey, Texas receives more federal dollars than it contributes.

We’ll lose a “red state.”  That’s ok with me.  I’m tired of those blowhards.  I will miss Austin and El Paso and San Antonio, but it sure will be nice to say goodbye to Waco and Midland and Lubbock and Dallas.

The downside is that we’ll have to redo the flag, but perhaps we can replace Texas with Puerto Rico.  That strikes me as a really good trade-off.

Pork chops with a side of bacteria

For years pork and beef producers have been lacing their animal feed with antibiotics.  The antibiotics improve weight gain which translates into increased profits.  For years warnings have been issued that the antibiotics in the feed would have negative consequences.  Agribusiness scoffed and also resisted any effort to label meat that came from animals fed antibiotics.

Buried at the bottom of page 23 of the Morning Call today was an article entitled ”Report:  Bacteria prevalent in pork.”  The article stated that the magazine Consumer Reports tested 148 samples of pork chops and 50 samples of ground pork from a variety of stores in six American cities.  

The bacterium Yersinia enterocolitica was found in 69% of the samples.  I never heard of it, but it is said to make 100,000 Americans, many of them children, sick each year.  And 69% of the bacteria samples discovered were resistant to at least one of the commonly prescribed antibiotics.

My best advice, since we aren’t going to overcome the pork and beef lobbyists, is to buy your pork and beef from local butchers.  Ask them if their products come from animals fed with antibiotics.  If they don’t know, don’t buy the meat.  

Not a scientist, man

The best estimate of the earth’s age, based on the latest scientific research, is about 4.5 billion years old.  The figure is based on radiometric dating of meteorites.  

Marco Rubio, possible Republican presidential candidate, was asked by a GQ magazine interviewer:  “How old do you think the earth is.?”

I will now quote Rubio’s answer as found in the Science section of the New York Times yesterday.  

     I’m not a scientist, man.  I can tell you what recorded history says, I can tell you what the Bible says, but I think that’s a dispute amongst theologians.

     At the end of the day, I think there are multiple theories out there on how the universe was created, and I think this is a country where people should have the opportunity to teach them all.  I think parents should be able to teach their kids what their faith says, what science says.
     Whether the earth was created in seven days, or seven actual eras, I’m not sure we’ll ever be able to answer that.  It’s one of the great mysteries.

The great mystery is why an intelligent (?) man would equate a Biblical story of creation with the latest scientific evidence.  Why do Republican leaders continue to degrade scientific research relating to global climate change, human reproduction, evolution, and pollution?  It really is the stupid party.

The power of gerrymandering

Billy O’Gurek, Chairman of the Carbon County Democratic Party, spoke about the November election at the CCDC meeting tonight in Jim Thorpe.  In the course of his analysis, he noted that in all the races for seats in the House of Representatives, the Democrats received hundreds of thousands more votes than the Republicans but only won 200 of the 435 seats.

In Pennsylvania the cumulative total for Democratic candidates was approximately 75,000 higher than the total for their Republican opponents, yet the Republicans won 13 seats; the Democrats won 5.  That is what a gerrymander does.  The next time you hear some Republican go on about voter fraud, mention the gerrymander.  That’s real fraud.   

Republican Lesbians

Today’s New York Times ran an article by Sarah Wheaton entitled “Republican and Lesbian, and Fighting for Acceptance of Both Identities.”  The article discussed the efforts of Sarah Longwell, a Log Cabin Republican, to win acceptance of gays by the Republican Party. 

The article notes that many of the conservative gays came out late in life.  Some of them are religious.  They want the party to be more accepting. 

Here’s my message to gay Republicans.  The Republican Party doesn’t want you.  They think you are evil.  The Democrats do want you.  We think your sexual orientation is not a government issue.  If you want to marry your significant other, we think you should have that right.  We like you.  Forget those right-wing creeps who degrade you, demean you, and castigate you.  Come on over to the party that welcomes you.  Re-register as a Democrat.  It’s an easy choice to make. 

President Morsi and George Washington

It is so difficult for a country to transition from a dictatorship to a democracy.  There are no examples to follow, no guidelines, no traditions.  The give and take, the necessary compromises, the willingness to accept one’s opponents as a loyal opposition rather than enemies--that doesn’t come easy to people in power. I had great hopes for President Morsi of Egypt.  He seemed like a reasonable man.  Now he has gutted the Egyptian court system, and Egypt is on the verge of civil war.  

He says he is doing this to insure democracy in Egypt.  I’m dubious.  Once again I appreciate what an amazing man George Washington was.  He could have been a king.  He could have been a dictator. Instead, he retired to his plantation, giving up his power voluntarily.  The United States was so fortunate to have him as our first President.

The Democratic Information Center

It is difficult for me to imagine how the Democratic campaigns would have functioned in Carbon County without the Headquarters on First Street in Lehighton.  Adam, the Rabenold campaign manager, had a portion of the headquarters all to himself, and he was there almost every day.  Matt Cartwright, our new congressman from this area, ran phone banks out of the office.  Voter registration drives used the office as the staging area.  Robin, our Obama campaign honcho, was in the office on a daily basis, and over a hundred Obama volunteers worked out of the office, making phone calls, canvassing, and running a major GOTV operation.

Some of us couldn’t bear to let the lease on the office lapse.  A group of Carbon County Democrats decided to fund the office for the next year.  Since the County Party is no longer the responsible tenant, we had to make some adjustments.  The office will be rented by the Community Outreach Association.  It will be called the Democratic Information Center.  It will serve as the county headquarters for volunteer recruitment, voter registration, and staging area for direct action.  

Romney won this county.  So did Heffley.  That will be the last time a Republican wins Carbon County.  We will turn this county around.