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By
JIM STREET Ed
& Pub Conservatives
are people who work hard to provide for themselves and their families. And
they reach into their pockets to help others. Liberals also “reach into our pockets”
to give to others. That was a comparison
offered last weekend by Texas State Senator Dan Patrick of Houston in an
interview with former Gov. Mike Huckabee on Fox News. It defines the
difference between liberals and conservatives just about as well as anything
we have heard. Liberals love
to accuse those “across the aisle” of not being “compassionate” enough
because they don’t favor massive welfare programs. OPINION I worked for a
millionaire many years ago who also defined the difference pretty well. “I don’t worry
that stuff,” he told us. “I pay someone to take care of that for me.” He soon
made clear he was talking about the fact he paid taxes that provided a
President and the President was supposed to worry about those less fortunate
so he didn’t have to. He was going
to keep all of his millions for himself, thank you, and let the President
worry about the needy. Except in this
guy’s world, the President wasn’t going to reach into his own pocket. He was
going to use taxpayer funds to take care of those who couldn’t – or didn’t
want to – work. A church that
I no longer belong to circulated a flyer one Sunday several years ago saying they
were concerned about world hunger and asked us to “tell the President” to
take care of it. I met with the
Session and told them if we are worried about hunger, we are the ones who
should do something about it. The President can’t – and shouldn’t – use our
tax dollars to help the needy. If the church
were truly concerned about world hunger, I said, it should take up a food
drive or collect money or something. Members of the
Session, who knew so much more than us lowly congregants, figuratively patted
me on the head and told me to run along and play and let them run the church. In the
interview, Sen. Patrick was promoting his “Contract with Texas,” signed by
members of what they call “Independent Conservative Republicans of Texas.” The signatories
were Republicans in the legislature and some who had been nominated to oppose
Democrats in November. We give our
word to stand for conservative principles and to put people before party,”
the members say. We give our
word to be fiscally accountable, limit the size of government and fight for
free market principles. We give our
word to protect our borders and to support a strong military. We give our
word to protect life, support strong family values and uphold the
Judeo-Christian beliefs our na-tion was founded upon. “We give our
word to defend the Constitution and protect the sovereign rights of Texas,”
they vow. Patrick said
it was not a “pledge” or “we will try” but “our word” that they would support
those principals and put people before party. “As members of
the Independent Conservative Republicans of Texas, we pledge to defend the
values and principles on which our nation was founded,” the “IC Republicans”
say in their mission statement. “We are proud Republicans who support our
party. But our first allegiance is to the people, the conservative majority
of our party who elected us to office. “We pledge not
to divide, but to unite Conservatives everywhere,” the statement says. “We
pledge to make America and Texas stronger by defending individual liberty,
freedom and the free market ideals that made our country the envy of the
world.” It’s this kind
of talk we need to hear from the Republicans if we are to return this country
to a semblance of the principals on which it was founded. All too often
in the past several years, Republicans have strayed from these principals,
sometimes trying to out liberal the liberals.
The Tea Party
demonstrations are trying to pass along a conservative message. We ignore
them at our peril. At the same
time, a separate party would only split the conservative vote, giving the
victory to the Democrats, who have proved they are incapable of understanding
what made us great. Patrick said
the Republicans can have a “big tent” and moderates would be welcome. “But they
can’t be ringleaders,” he said. With Tea Party
support, the GOP can turn the country around. But only if
they truly understand that message. Keeping
America safe By
US Rep. CIRO D. RODRIGUEZ Special
to the News Leader The headlines
are becoming all too familiar. “Border violence threatens Americans.” “Drug violence
scares off tourists to Mexico.” “Mexico border
city relives nightmare of violence.” Texas is my
home. I’ve worked and raised my family here and now I represent the 23rd Congressional
District in Washington, DC. It’s a special
and diverse district with unique characteristics and special challenges. With
785 miles of contiguous border with Mexico, it also lies smack on the front lines
of our nation’s security. OPINION I recently
visited the community of Fort Hancock where nearby Mexican drug cartels have
people looking over their shoulders and students are wondering who might show
up at their school. Fear and
intimidation have moved into town. But Fort Hancock isn’t alone. The recent
killing of an Arizona rancher still under investigation and the murder of Border
Patrol Agent Robert Rosas near San Diego remind us of the potential for violence,
particularly in rural areas. Combating this
widespread violence means working together across levels of government to ensure
that our communities are safe. I propose
several key strategies to help us get there. Increase
federal funding for Operation Stonegarden. Work closely
with the US Border Patrol to strengthen its presence along targeted border
areas. Call on Texas
Gov. Rick Perry to direct more federal funding received by the state to the
border regions through the Homeland Security Grant Program. Propose a
hardship duty pay for agents in rural and high-trafficked areas. Increase
funding for the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program and Southwest Border
Prosecution Initiative. Increase
Customs and Border Protection officers and expand technology at our ports of
entry. Partnering is
absolutely imperative when it comes to dealing with these challenges. We can
continue to throw federal money at the problem, but if those dollars don’t
end up where they’re needed most, we’ll only spin our wheels and fall further
behind. I, along with
my Border Delegation colleagues, recently sent a letter to Gov. Perry, asking
that he direct more of the federal funding our delegation has fought for to
the sensitive border regions where it can do the most good. In the last
four years, an average of $125 million per year in federal Homeland Security
money has gone to Texas but as little as three percent actually made it to
the border. That is unacceptable. I have also
asked for an additional $50 million to supplement Operation Stonegarden, a
DHS program that funds law enforcement operations along the border. That program,
which I helped to expand in 2007, is currently funded at $60 million annually
and promotes cooperation and coordination between federal, state, local and
tribal law enforcement agencies operating along the US borders. And by funding
our agencies with more resources and personnel, we will continue to ensure a
motivated, high-caliber workforce committed to the mission of protecting our
communities, even as threats increase. It’s time for
all of us to get on the same page and deal seri-ously with the threats on our
borders. The men and
women who make it their business to protect and defend us deserve that. So do
the hardworking residents who want nothing more than to work and raise their
families in a safe environment. This is
serious business. If our efforts are piecemeal, we will fail. If our
motivations are political, we can’t win. The
chicken lady of Carterville “I’m the chicken lady,” Helen Wilkerson said.
“My son in law calls my house the chicken coop.” Helen lives at
Carterville just north of Garden City and collects porcelain chicken figurines. “The very
first chickens I got were from a friend of mine when I got married,” she said.
“I really like chickens so I’d keep bringing a chicken or two in and finally
my husband said ‘if you bring another chicken in this house I’m leaving.’ “So I quit for
a few years and decided he wasn’t going to leave so I started again,” she
said. “I have around 4,000 now.” I told her she
can never move. “I know that,”
she said. “And I’m getting older. “I’ve wondered
what in the world I’m going to do with all these chickens,” Helen said. “It
would take a moving van just to move the chickens.” Each of her
chickens is numbered and referenced in a book to tell where it came
from. Her collecting is on hold now. “I ran out of
space. I had to quit,” she said. “There’s
no place to put another chicken. I
look at them longingly when I see one I don’t have, but so far this year I’ve
been able to pass them up.” Helen has
bought a lot of the chickens but her friends and family give them to her
because they know how much she likes chickens. One wall of
her house has been converted into a display area for her collection. “These are
shadow boxes that I have put together and painted,” Helen said. “I really
enjoy looking at them. A woman saw my collection and told me there was
medication for people like me.” The wall full
of chickens is eight feet by twelve feet.
It takes a while to dust her chickens. “Well over two
days,” she said. “That’s the only thing about my chickens I don’t like. I have to take a cloth and take each one
out of its little compartment and dust it, dust the compartment and put it
back. “It takes a
long time,” she said. “I have to stand on a ladder to reach the top ones.” Helen’s house
has pictures, doilies, place mats, cups, aprons, shirts and robes all in a
chicken motif. Chickens make her
happy. During our
visit, she laughed every time she said something. “Everything in
my house has to do with chickens,” she said.
“My sister and I travel a lot together and everywhere we go we try to
get a chicken. “That’s fun to
look at them and remember when we were on the trip and where we got them,”
she said. Her favorites
are some salt and pepper shakers called nodders. They’re like bubble heads that nod up and
down. The
Beautiful Wedding Last week, my
wife and I went to a wedding and it was a beautiful occasion. Both families
were there as well as friends. It was a neat location in the mountains. The bride wore
a stunning white gown and veil and the groom was well dressed and so were the
bride’s maids and the groomsmen. The preacher
performed the ceremony and, after their vows to God, there was lovely music
followed by lot of visiting between both families and their friends. And to
top it off, there was lots of good food. That wedding
reminded me of the early biblical weddings that took place 2,000 to 3,000
years ago. Wedding were
joyous and wonderful occasions with the consent and blessing of both families
(Exodus 22:17.) There were
gifts involved (Genesis 24:53) and the bride’s maids and groomsmen were
dressed in beautiful array. The bride wore
a special gown and jewelry and a veil (Isaiah 49:18 and 61:10, Jeremiah 2:32.) There was
music and plenty of food and gifts (Genesis 29:22.) These things
took place from 2,000 to 3,000 years ago. Today, it is up to the bride and
groom as to what kind of wedding they want. It may be very
simple or very elaborate but I think the most important thing is that they
bring God into the picture. And after the
wedding, they try to have a Godly or Christian marriage. See you in
Church next Sunday. Brother
J Happy
20th birthday, HST Sunday, April
25, marks the 20th anniversary of the much-anticipated deployment of the
Hubble Space Telescope by Discovery space shuttle astronauts in 1990. Then, to the
dismay of scientists and the public, it was quickly found that the HST had an
optical defect that seriously degraded its views. However, once
corrective optics were installed in 1993, the magnificent telescope has been
revealing a universe never before known in such depth and grandeur. In 1609-10,
Galileo and his new telescope revolutionized astronomy by revealing a cosmos
humans had scarcely imagined, much less seen, and altered our understanding
of our place in the universe. Then, in 1924,
a young American astronomer, Edwin Hubble (1889-1953), again revolutionized
astronomy. The
then-prevailing theory was that our Milky Way galaxy constituted the entire
universe. But using the
then-largest telescope in the world, the 100-inch Hooker Telescope on Mount
Wilson near Los Angeles, he discovered the universe to be vastly larger than
had been imagined and that our galaxy is but one of billions of galaxies. Many argue
that the HST, named for Edwin Hubble, has been no less revolutionary. It has enabled
astronomers to determine the age of the universe at 13.7 billion years and
confirm that super-massive black holes reside at the center of most galaxies.
It has enabled
scientists to better understand how stars and planets are formed and has
detected organic molecules beyond our solar system, increasing the
possibility for the existence of other organic life in the cosmos. In its 20-year
history, data from the HST has generated more than 7,500 scientific papers,
making it one of the most productive scientific instruments in history. Although not
the largest telescope in the world, HST's 94-inch-diameter mirror is larger
than McDonald Observatory's original 82-inch telescope, which is still in
use. At 43 feet
long and 14 feet in diameter, our Toyota 4Runner and 23-foot travel trailer
could park inside the body of the HST. It also has
two rectangular solar panels, each 8.5 feet by 23 feet. If you want to
see the HST in the night sky, the Web site www.heavens-above.com
provides exact viewing information on many Earth-orbiting satellites,
including the HST. You'll need to
register – for free – and enter your viewing location the first time you use
the site. But then you won't need to do it again.
Sunday evening,
April 25, Venus passes near the Pleiades (Seven Sisters) star cluster low in
the west at dusk. Wednesday,
April 28, the full Moon is called Egg Moon, Grass Moon and Easter Moon. During the
early evenings of May, the Milky Way lies flat around the horizon, making it
seem to disappear. Saturday, May
1, May Day and Beltane, a cross-quarter day celebrating the middle of spring. Early evening,
Monday, May 3, Venus passes to the right of the star Aldebaran, the "red
eye" of the Taurus the bull, low in the west at dusk. Wednesday
morning, May 5, the Moon is at third quarter. Naked-eye Planets. The Sun, Moon,
and planets rise in the east and set in the west due to Earth's west-to-east
rotation on its axis. Evenings,
Brilliant Venus is low in the west with much fainter Mercury to its lower
right. Mars is high overhead and Saturn is high in the southeast. Mornings before
dawn, Saturn is setting in the west as Jupiter is rising in the east. Stargazer appears every other week, space
permitting. Paul Derrick is an amateur astronomer who lives in Waco. Contact
him at 918 N. 30th, Waco, 76707, (254) 753-6920 or paulderrickwaco@aol.com.
See the Stargazer Web site at stargazerpaul.com. ‘Date
Night’ funny “Date Night”
is a very funny, if not hilarious, movie. Rated PG 13, I was a little
uncomfortable with the numerous sexual innuendos and double-entendres. There was no
nudity and negligible foul language, which, I'm supposing makes the sexual
dialog more acceptable. I can only say
I wouldn't take my 13-year-old daughter to this movie. I felt it should
be PG-17. Having said
that, as an adult, I enjoyed the movie. Phil and
Claire played by Steve Carell (The Office, The Forty Year Old Virgin) and Tina
Fey (Saturday Night Live, Sarah Palin impersonator) depict an ordinary couple
from the New Jersey "burbs" who become involved in a case of
mistaken identity. The premise is
formulaic but this movie makes it work. The mistaken identity results
from them stealing a restaurant reservation. The adventure
begins while they're enjoying their dinner, thinking they've been busted when
two thugs approach them and ask them to step outside. Well, that’s
not quite what happens. They end up being chased by mob thugs and corrupt
police. The ensuing
chase and evasion scenes become the hilarious mainstay of the movie. You will laugh
at the mishaps and turn-arounds that occur. There is an
obligatory car chase that has a new twist and will leave you holding your
stomach in uncontrollable, raucous laughter. The Hollywood
staple, Mark Walberg (Four Brothers), makes a surprise appearance as a by-
chance person who reluctantly assists them out of their potentially fatal
situation. I enjoyed the
Phil and Claire characters. Steve Carell and Tina Fey work well together and
played out the mayhem superbly. I'm recommending
this movie as a PG-17. I give it three and a half stars out of
four. Enjoy. |
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