Monthly Archives: April 2023

local news

Indeed … all things must pass

The recent tragedy that befell my family and me has forced us to learn some of life’s harshest lessons.

The great singer/songwriter George Harrison once told us that “All things must pass … all things must pass away.”

Indeed, if I have learned anything about myself while I mourn the passing of my beloved bride, Kathy Anne, is that grief and mourning are part of life.

This is my way of reporting to those of you who have been following me along this journey that I am a fairly quick study when it comes to learning that lesson. I am able to go through most days now without welling up, or without weeping openly at the thought that my bride is no longer by my side.

I am able to complete household tasks. I am able to look at Kathy Anne’s pictures without sobbing. I am able to talk about her (most of the time) without stopping to collect myself.

Granted, there remain many more hurdles to clear as I continue this trek through the darkness. They don’t look quite as daunting today as they did soon after cancer took my bride away from us. Do not misunderstand me on this point, which is that those hurdles are formidable, but I am beginning to have faith that I’ll be able to get past them … eventually.

One of the lessons that has been drummed into my noggin is to not “rush anything,” that I am entitled to grieve in my own way and at my own pace. I accept that and I am adhering to that advice.

Thus, my grief will continue, but I damn sure won’t let it burden me. That’s life, man … because all things must pass.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Going to vote early … for once!

Today I am going to do something I generally avoid like the proverbial plague.

Yep. I am going to vote early in advance of the May 6 election date. You see, I usually wait for Election Day to cast my ballot. My concern usually is to avoid being surprised by candidates for public office who mess up between the time I vote and the date we are scheduled to cast our ballots.

The Princeton, Texas, ballot features a bond issue request from the Princeton Independent School District. It’s a big one: $797 million to pay for construction of several new campuses over the next 10 years; my mind is made up on that matter. There also will be some seats to decide on the Collin College Board of Regents; I am going to take a chance and cast my votes for those seats with the hope that no one gets in trouble.

I am going to be out of town on May 6, which means I have to vote early. It’s the only reason I would do so. If I were King of the World, I would persuade the state to move Election Day to suit my schedule.

I can’t do that … obviously.

So I will do my civic duty as a proud American patriot and cast my vote early.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

medical news

SCOTUS strikes blow for restraint

The U.S. Supreme Court, the panel with that conservative supermajority, has done what many of us didn’t expect from it.

The court stemmed a judicial rampage launched by a lower court judge in Amarillo, who ruled that a tried-and-proven pill used by women to end pregnancies no longer is suitable.

The SCOTUS allowed the use of the pill approved 20-plus years ago by the Food and Drug Administration for several more weeks while appeals play out.

Two justices voted in the minority: Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. There might have been more, but only those two let their dissents be known.

The federal judge, Matthew Kacsmaryk, tossed judicial restraint out the window with his ruling against the drug. It is an ironic ruling, given conservative judges’ inherent dislike for what they call “judicial activism.”

The case now will go to the Fifth U.S. Circuit of Appeals, considered the most conservative appellate court in the federal system. I am going to hold out a glimmer of hope that the Fifth Circuit will follow the lead established by the Supreme Court and keep the drug in use.

Matthew Kacsmaryk, meanwhile, has breathed life into the upcoming political battle that well could determine whether Republicans maintain control of Congress in 2024 … and whether they can reclaim the White House as well.

Public opinion is not on the GOP’s side in this brewing battle for reproductive rights.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

State troopers to look for vote fraud? Please …

Someone will have to prove to me that the incidents of “widespread voter fraud” justify the deployment of Texas Department of Public Safety troopers to polling places to look for incidents of fraud.

Oh, brother. The ham-handed approach to this issue is disturbing to the max.

The Texas Senate has endorsed a plan to deploy the troopers. Why? Because Republicans — who else? — believe the threat of voter fraud makes the presence of troopers a proper deterrent to mischief.

The bill passed along party lines — imagine that, eh? One Senate Democrat, Borris Miles of Houston, calls it “another attempt of voter intimidation and suppression in Harris County.”

The bill’s GOP sponsor, Sen. Paul Bettencourt, also of Houston, said, “All too often, violations of election code occur and they’re not addressed.” Baloney!

I keep circling back to the dubious notion that the incidents of vote fraud justify this heavy-handed approach to solving a problem that truthfully does not exist.

Sen. Carol Alvarado, D-Houston, said the bill is “like taking a sledgehammer to swat a fly.” Yeah … do ya think?

The proposed law would allow the Texas secretary of state to appoint “election marshals,” who then would deputize other officers employed by DPS, who then would be authorized to order local election officials to halt conduct they believe violates state election law.

There just is something bizarre about the prospect of armed uniformed state police troopers patrolling polling places looking for mischief where none is likely to occur.

Weird.

This is what we’re getting in this new age of Republican government activism.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Biden set to go again?

Joe Biden doesn’t need any advice from little ol’ me out here in Flyover Country … but he’s going to get some anyway.

Mr. President, let me be among the millions of Americans who voted for you in 2020 to wish you well as you launch your re-election effort. We hear it’s this week and that you’ll do it via an online platform of some sort.

Go for it!

The president has plenty to sell a public that seems embittered by the politics of the past half-dozen years. It appears that Joe Biden cannot do anything totally right in the eyes of a public that seems unwilling or unable to recognize success when it slaps ’em in the puss.

President Biden has gotten damn little help from his Republican “friends” in Congress. Democrats have held together on Capitol Hill to approve a number of key laws: gun safety rules, the Inflation Reduction Act, infrastructure repair and rebuilding.

Biden has spoken glowingly of his history of working well with Republicans. I guess it goes only so far as his record in the Senate and his eight-year stint at vice president. As POTUS? The GOP has dug in, many of ’em still angry that he defeated their hero in the 2020 presidential election.

I don’t want the president to re-litigate the previous election, which is what his defeated foe in 2020 keeps doing. Joe Biden should look to the future and tell us what he intends to do in a second term.

President Biden might need some help in ensuring he carries through on his agenda. Voters appear to be getting lathered up over the GOP’s insistence on banning abortion nationally, its resistance to gun safety measures and its haggling over the debt limit increase … and the failure to pay our debts sending the world’s economy into the crapper.

I said prior to the 2020 primary campaign that Joe Biden wasn’t my first pick. He ended up winning the Democratic nomination and, therefore, became my guy along with 81 million other Americans.

He’s my guy going into the 2024 election.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

religious news

GOP set to impose religion in public schools

Pass the Pepto … because my gut is starting to churn over a highly contentious issue making its way out of the Texas Legislature.

The state Senate has approved a bill that would require public schools in Texas to display the Ten Commandments.

Oh, boy! Here we go.

It’s headed to the House, with its own Republican majority. Any bets on whether it ends up on GOP Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk and on whether Abbott will sign it into law? I didn’t think so.

Why is issue so troublesome for me? For starters, I need to stipulate that I have no particularly strong personal objection to the Ten Commandments being displayed in public schools. The commandments, let us remember, are chronicled in the Old Testament, which tells of the instruction Moses received from the Almighty.

That’s out of the way.

However … the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution stipulates several civil liberties. The first of them declares that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion … ” Hmm. What does that mean, precisely?

It means, as I read it, that Congress’ prohibition is exclusive to that body. Meaning that Congress can’t enact a law. Does that also preclude state legislatures? Maybe I’m splitting hairs. I also understand fully that the founders created a secular government that is supposed to be free from religion.

Does it preclude religious influence? No, not that I can tell.

The Ten Commandments clearly are a religious statement, given to us by God Almighty. Public schools are government entities, paid for with taxpayer funds, some of which come from individuals and families that might object to any element of religion being installed in public school system. Is it fair to them to expose them to a statement they could find objectionable? No, which is what the founders realized when they created a secular Constitution.

I am not going to mount a protest if the Legislature sends this bill to Abbott’s desk and Abbott signs it.

I just fear we are about to head down that proverbial slippery slope.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

environmental news

Happy Earth Day … Earth

Dear Earth … well, this is your day. We human inhabitants of the only planet we can call home celebrate you and presumably give thanks for being alive and well enough to wish you good health.

Agreed, your health ain’t great. We human beings are doing our best (or shall I say our worst) to mess you up. Your climate is changing. Our planet is getting hotter every year. I keep reading about how glaciers are melting at a quicker rate than expected. Yes, I know what happens to that glacial ice: It turns to water and the sea levels are rising, endangering our seaside communities around the world.

The debate has pretty much ended about whether human beings are responsible for it. We are. We keep wiping out forests and we keep pouring carbon-based pollutants into the air. On behalf of my fellow humans, I apologize for the mistreatment we have laid on you.

I want to boast just a bit, Mother Earth, about what we’re doing in our North Texas community to help you. I live in a community, Princeton, that recycles expendable items. The disposal company gives us bins into which we can toss our recyclable material: plastic, paper, metal. It all goes in there and I am told that it reduces landfill waste by about 40%. That’s not bad.

Mother Earth, I am sure you remember the era in which the U.S. government decided to honor you. It came in 1970, when a Republican served as president. Yes, it was President Nixon who thought enough of you to establish the Environmental Protection Agency. Ah, yes. Those were the days.

Imagine a MAGA Republican today endorsing such a thing. It won’t happen … but that’s another story for another day.

I just want to wish you well, Earth and I want to call on my neighbors and fellow Americans — along with my fellow terrestrial travelers — to honor you every single day we all are able.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

legal news

Electoral consequences are, um, lasting

As if anyone needs reminding of the consequences of electing certain individuals to public office …

Still, I am going to offer this brief reminder.

Donald Trump, in just a single term as president, was able to get three individuals seated on the U.S. Supreme Court; the court now comprises what they call a conservative “supermajority.” The justices who sit on the court are likely to outlive their political benefactor by many years.

Lower courts, too, will bear the impact of the recent POTUS’s appointment powers. Witness the decision handed down in Amarillo by Matthew Kacsmaryk , a U.S. district judge who tossed out the abortion pill based seemingly on his own personal opposition to abortion. Trump nominated this individual to the district court bench, and the Senate confirmed him. Still, elections have consequences, yes?

This is the kind of decision voters need to ponder when they prepare to cast their ballots, either for governor or president.

Trump is just the latest in a long line of politicians with appointment power who — in my view — abused that power by appointing men and women who provide the correct answers to what they call “litmus test” questions. Trump vowed to appoint anti-abortion judges and he made good on that pledge.

Thus, we see the most indelible effect of the consequence of any presidential election.

What is so maddening about the federal judicial appointment process is how political it has become, which to my viewing is counter to what the founders envisioned when they granted federal judges lifetime seats on the bench. Their effort was to de-politicize the federal judiciary; instead, it appears to have become more politicized today than ever in our nation’s history.

But then again, when we realize the consequences we face when certain politicians get elected president, this is what we get.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

science news

Strange boast of ‘success’

Elon Musk has a peculiar way of defining “success.” Let’s review the video, shall we?

The world’s largest-ever rocket blasted off from its launch pad in South Texas on Thursday. About four minutes into the flight and far from achieving Earth orbit, the rocket exploded. It burst into a zillion pieces.

What did the world’s richest individual call it? A success!

Which makes me wonder how Elon Musk defines the term. He said the ship cleared the launch pad, which was good enough for him to declare that the failed mission was, um, a successful one. And in the most euphemistic phrase possible, the Musk team described the explosion as an “unexpected disassembly.”

Go … figure.

The only thing that saved this even from being an unmitigated disaster was that there were no human beings aboard the rocket.

Musk’s rocket, the SpaceX, aims to ferry humans to the moon and he, and the rest of us hope, far beyond into the solar system.

The South Texas launch was not a success, no matter how much money SpaceX’s owner has at his disposal.

Scientists have plenty of work to do to make this ship suitable to carry priceless human cargo. Get to work … and fix the problem!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

State parks turn 100!

I want to get off my criticism bandwagon for a moment and toss a bouquet at the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department for celebrating a landmark anniversary.

Its state parks system is turning 100 years old. Texas Highways, the state travel magazine to which I subscribe, noted the anniversary in its latest issue.

My late wife was a huge fan of the state parks system. So am I. We once figured we visited about two-thirds of the state’s 90-plus state parks during the past four decades in Texas. We usually would haul our RV to a site and camp there for a few days, enjoying the varied hiking trails and wildlife that occasionally would visit our campsites.

I do not have a “favorite” state park, given that they all present unique charms. To single one out as a favorite would do an injustice to all the other parks I have visited.

I will say, though, that Mother Neff State Park near Waco — by far! — has the cleanest restrooms and public showers of any we have seen. That’s all I will say about that.

Lord knows I have been critical of Texas government during the nearly 40 years I have lived here. I will sing TP&W’s praises for the state park system it has developed and nurtured for as long as I am able.

Well done, TP&W.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com