Monthly Archives: January 2014

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Let’s await the outcome of pot legalization

Now that marijuana is a legal substance in Colorado, I’ll await along with the rest of the nation — if not the world — to see how this all plays out.

I’m not yet ready to climb aboard fully on the Legalize Pot Bandwagon, but I’m ready to give this notion a chance to see what transpires in at least one of our 50 states.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2014/01/03/the_perils_of_legalized_marijuana.html

We’re getting some intelligent debate now about pot legalization. Some people argue that it’s going to produce a large influx of young users and that it will inhibit their thinking capacities. Others say that it will generate income for cash-strapped state governments that they can use to combat drug abuse. Some advocates say it’s time we decriminalize an activity that has become as common as cigarette use and alcohol consumption. Others suggest the federal sentencing guidelines are OK, while still others point to the overwhelming racial disparity in our jails and prisons of people incarcerated for drug use.

My sense is that the tide of history is turning toward eventual legalization of this substance.

I’ve spent my life opposing it. I’m not so sure any longer. The older I get the more open-minded I become. I guess that’s a good thing.

Am I going to light up? Never. Not going to happen. As the columnist David Brooks wrote, “Been there, done that.” I’m finished with it.

I think we’ll know the results fairly quickly, perhaps by the end of this year, about the result of marijuana legalization. I’m no longer convinced it’s going to wreck society as we know it.

I might be wrong about that … but I doubt it.

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N. Korean leader redefines ‘hideous’

There is hideous conduct.

And then there is the kind of act being reported out of North Korea involving the late uncle of dictator Kim Jong Un.

If it’s true, then we have seen a new standard for barbarism.

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2014/01/03/22156917-kim-jong-uns-executed-uncle-was-eaten-alive-by-120-hungry-dogs-report?lite

The report says the despot’s uncle was stripped naked and thrown into a cage where he was eaten by 120 starving dogs. That’s how the kid executed the husband of his aunt, reportedly for crimes against the state.

Jang Song Thaek had been taken into custody reportedly for plotting against Kim Jong Un. He was killed apparently days after his arrest. Reports didn’t confirm a trial of any consequence, merely a death sentence carried out with extreme dispatch.

U.S. officials haven’t confirmed the reports through any independent sources. However, NBC.com says the reports are coming from sources with close ties to China’s ruling communist party, which apparently is about the only friendly government left on the planet for North Korea.

To think we actually want to start talking to this animal.

I don’t want to jump to any conclusions until the world knows the facts — if they can be ascertained in that super-secret society.

This, however, falls into that category of despicable act that somehow shouldn’t totally surprise anyone.

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Edwin Edwards making a comeback?

Awesome news is trickling out way over yonder in Louisiana.

It’s that former Gov. Edwin Edwards is thinking of making a political comeback. The formerly disgraced Democratic governor, who’s now 86 years of age, might run for a congressional seat that will be vacated when the incumbent runs this year against U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu.

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/house-races/194323-report-former-gov-edwin-edwards-considers-run-for-congress

The incumbent is a Republican, Bill Cassidy. He’ll run against Landrieu, meaning that his seat automatically becomes vacant, as he can’t run for two offices at the same time.

Edwards would create quite a stir were he to win the House seat. He has been convicted of money laundering and racketeering. Edwards has led quite a flamboyant life for as long as anyone can remember.

I had the pleasure of covering a bit of one of Edwards’s re-election campaigns while I was working in Beaumont, just about 25 miles from the Louisiana border. His GOP foe in 1991 was none other than Klansman David Duke. I’d say “former” except that Duke kept talking like an active KKK member as he campaigned around the state. Edwards won easily — thank goodness.

He’s a character of the first order.

I’ve been fond of repeating a quote that’s been attributed to Edwards. I cannot vouch for its accuracy but if he didn’t actually say it, he should have.

It’s that Louisianans don’t “expect their politicians to be corrupt. They demand it of them.”

Were he to win — and given Congress’s abysmal approval rating among Americans, it seems ol’ Cajun Edwin will fit right in.

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Female Marines fail physical. Now what?

I was afraid this could happen.

The Marine Corps joined the other military branches in requiring women to compete with men in physical fitness tests to determine their ability to perform the sometimes-arduous tasks the military requires of them.

Then half of the women Marines failed the exam.

http://news.msn.com/us/marines-delay-female-fitness-plan-after-half-fail

The failure rate has prompted the Marine Corps to delay its fitness plan to determine what its next step should be.

What we have here is a serious conundrum for the Marine Corps, not to mention all the services that include women in their ranks.

Count me as someone who has been skeptical of the decision to allow women into the combat arms, which is what is happening. The combat arms are the infantry, artillery and armor branches of the military, primarily in the Army and the Marine Corps.

I have no doubt that some women can perform as well as their male colleagues. I’ve known many women over the years with whom I would not want to encounter in a fistfight.

But … the issue here is whether all the females who serve in the combat arms are able to carry their share of the load in combat situations. I mean “carry their share” quite literally.

The Marine Corps has said it wouldn’t reduce its physical requirements for women who have enlisted for duty. They would be required to do all the tasks required of men. However, half of them have been unable to make the grade.

What now?

Am I wrong to have these doubts?

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Mack Brown shows class in final defeat

My interest in the 2013 college football season ended when the Oregon-Texas game at the Alamo Bowl concluded on Dec. 30.

The Ducks won big, 30-7, which made me — a native Oregonian — quite happy indeed.

But the moments after the game left me feeling sad that Mack Brown had coached his final game for the University of Texas Longhorns.

I’ve lived in Texas for nearly 30 years now, but never have become a big fan of college football here. Then came Mack Brown to the Lone Star State 16 years ago. He ran up some big numbers while rescuing a football program that had hit the skids. He won a national championship. His teams won about 75 percent of all the games they played during his time in Austin.

It wasn’t good enough, though, to suit many Texas boosters, alumni and the faithful who insist that they win every time they take the field.

The end of the Alamo Bowl showed why Coach Brown is such a classy individual and a gentleman.

He embraced Oregon coach Mark Helfrich in the middle of the field. He then whispered something into Helfrich’s ear and I was struck by the way he held a folder in front of his mouth to shield whatever he was telling the opposing coach from the TV camera’s prying eyes. Whatever it was, it must have been intensely personal.

Then the defeated coach talked to many of the Oregon players, congratulating them, patting them on the back, the shoulders, the head — maybe even a few backsides.

Coach Brown could have skulked off the field. He could have reacted differently. He left the field with his head held high — and his reputation as a gentleman burnished to a fine shine.

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Hoping Stockman flames out

My fond hope is that Paul Burka is right that Steve Stockman’s candidacy will vaporize after the March Republican primary.

http://www.texasmonthly.com/burka-blog/steve-stockman-non-story

It’s not that I’m terribly fond of Sen. John Cornyn.

Here’s my concern.

A victory by Stockman, a congressman who has become a GOP tea party golden boy, could spell doom if he manages to win this fall against whomever the Democrats nominate. You see, Texas is so solidly Republican — even with strong Democratic candidates running for governor and lieutenant governor this year — that Stockman could win this fall even with his loony record in Congress.

Burka is betting on Cornyn “wiping the floor” with Stockman.

I hope that’s true. Given what I know about both of these guys, Cornyn is the far superior Republican nominee.

As they say, though, stranger things can — and do — happen.

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Let’s just skip Texas governor’s primary

Can’t we just move right into the Texas general election campaign for governor?

How about just skipping these meaningless primaries? We know who’s going to be nominated: Republicans will pick Attorney General Greg Abbott; Democrats are going to nominate state Sen. Wendy Davis.

The Texas Tribune notes that the new year will see a significant spike in campaign activity from both candidates. Rest assured, they won’t talk about the primary. They’re going to talk — a lot — about each other.

http://www.texastribune.org/2014/01/01/texas-governors-race-getting-more-heated/

I’m ready for a rumble.

Abbott has been the prohibitive favorite to become the next governor ever since he announced his candidacy. Davis is the underdog, given the state’s decidedly Republican tilt.

Some folks have wondered where Davis has been lurking in recent weeks. She hasn’t been as visible as some have said she should be. Never fear, says Jim Henson, a Texas Tribune pollster. She’ll get in the game quickly, as will Abbott.

He told the Tribune: ā€œIā€™m looking for both of the campaigns to get very aggressive as soon as they find it strategically sound. I would expect that ethics and character are going to be big parts of both of those efforts.ā€

Henson told the Tribune that Abbott will focus on Davis’s private law practice and her connection with firms dealing with the Legislature; he adds that Davis will train her sights on Abbott’s role in a cancer research outfit’s involvement with someone indicted for allegedly lax tax procedures.

Who needs primaries when you have two candidates many voters know already and who are loading up for a donnybrook that won’t end until — gulp! — next November?

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New normal in gas prices no longer so new

The “new normal” in gasoline prices used to be cause for laughter around our house.

I remember when Mom or Dad would pull up to the service station pump and tell the attendant — yes, they still have attendants in my home state of Oregon — to put a “dollar’s worth of regular” into the tank. That would be about four gallons. Off we went and tooled around for the rest of the day, maybe a bit into the next one.

Those days are gone.

Now comes news that gas prices are declining. They’re at the lowest level since 2010. They’re heading downward into the new year.

Gas prices at lowest level since 2010

It’s not that we should be surprised that gasoline still costs about $3 a gallon in Amarillo, which is a bit lower than the rest of the state. My wife and I just returned from the Metroplex and were surprised to learn that drivers there are paying about 20 cents more per gallon than we are.

We’re all going to welcome the prospect of paying less for gas in the new year — and hopefully beyond.

Automakers are building more fuel-efficient cars, people are buying them (we’re driving a Toyota hybrid and loving the 45 miles per gallon were getting with that little buggy) and domestic energy producers are pulling a lot of oil out of the ground in newly discovered well fields way up yonder near the Canadian border.

I still have to chuckle at the notion that gasoline that dips below 3 bucks a gallon is now considered “cheap.”

My memory of the old days remains too fresh.

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Our new year has arrived with great joy

Years that come in with “firsts” are always worth remembering.

We welcomed 2014 in fine fashion. It was so fine that I want to share just a bit of it here.

The end of the year just past saw us drive to Allen to spend some time with our sons and with one of the boys’ family, our daughter-in-law, our grandson and our brand new granddaughter.

It was a glorious couple of days to be sure. I’ll stipulate right up front that it was our first new year with our little one, our granddaughter Emma Nicole, who’s about to turn 10 months in just a few days.

Why is that so special? It’s hard to define. It falls into that category of life’s mysteries that you have to experience to understand completely.

Grandparents know what I’m saying.

Our older son spent a day with us before he returned home the next day. We spent the next two days and nights with our younger son and his family.

Ah, but Emma stole the show. Make no mistake about that.

Our grandson left to spend time with his father. We said so long to him as he departed New Year’s Eve. Our son and daughter-in-law planned an evening out with friends to ring in the new year.

Would we mind staying home with Emma? Uhhh, no. We not only didn’t mind, we welcomed the idea of playing with her until she — or we — crashed for the night. We laughed the evening away with our little pumpkin. She turned in for the night, but only after filling us with this unique joy that remains beyond my ability to describe it.

Did we stay up until midnight? Nope. We turned in right after Emma.

We awoke the next morning and were greeted with her cheerful little smile.

OK, so maybe our new year wasn’t all that special.

But it was to us. This will be a good year, indeed.

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Not a ‘career pol’? Give me a break

Don Huffines cracks me up.

I stumbled onto his website this New Year’s morn and found something hackneyed and time-worn: a declaration that a politician is not a “career politician” and who is a “true conservative.”

Home

Huffines is running against state Sen. John Carona of Dallas.

Carona’s been in the Legislature for a while. I don’t know much about him, except that he, too, declares himself to be a conservative. My bet is that he’s not conservative enough for Huffines, although I only can presume that to mean that Carona doesn’t declare his conservatism with the requisite zeal and fervor that many on the far right seem to insist in their politicians.

He vows to serve only 12 years in the Senate. Then he’ll back out … he says. Border security is a federal responsibility and if the feds don’t do the job, Huffines vows to hold ’em “accountable.” Of course, he opposes the Affordable Care Act. He wants good highways, good public education that enables parents to have more “choices,” and wants the government to let private enterprise create jobs.

Does any of this sound familiar? It should. I think I’ve heard it a bazillion times during my lengthy career covering politics and government in Texas — and in Oregon, where I grew up and where my career got its start.

Don Huffines, though, is not a career politician and, by golly, he’s going to make it all happen just because of that declaration.

I’ve heard that one, too. A lot.