Shoveled snow for the first time in my life...

...and I don't know how you people up north do it. Of course, you probably have equipment for stuff like this, instead of the regular garden shovel that I had. Had I a regular snow shovel, this might have gone faster. But then again, the snow in the shovel was heavy enough, so I probably did good just using the garden shovel.

The snow was pretty to look at until I had to shovel it - then I was ready for it to be gone!

New link to a blog

If you will notice, I have a new link to a blogger that I know. Meet Chris Manno, airline pilot and blogger, and his blog is called Jethead's Blog.

I first met the guy back when we both were "community columnists" in 2005 for our local city paper, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

He's an excellent writer, and a bit crazy, but I guarantee you'll like his stuff.

If you see him piloting your flight, tell him I said "Hi!"

Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated

Hey. It's been awhile, I know. Basically, I just needed a short break, and before I knew it, months passed.

But now with an election season beginning, it's time to resume my blog and my usual brilliant and insightful commentary. Politicians often say and do dumb stuff, and it's folks like me that like to point it out. Why do we keep re-electing these guys anyway?

Since I'm out of practice, I'll be a bit rusty, but I'll try to keep at it until the old form comes back. Who knows - maybe I'll even do some edtoons as well.

Stay tuned, folks. I'm back!

See you next week

Sorry for the lack of posts in recent day, folks, but I've have had some medical issues to deal with lately. Details of such may be forthcoming - I'll think about it. It's not so much that it's anything shocking, but that I tend to be a private person about such matters - that is, I am not comfortable posting publicly what I regard as a personal matter. I hope you understand.

Anyway, I'll try to resume my regular blogging schedule next week.

In the meantime, your good thoughts and prayers are greatly appreciated.

Dang! Another week went by just like that!

Sorry, folks. Just been busy lately. However, if you are on facebook, at least I've been more consistent in posting there. :-D

Still, this is for more detailed responses instead of the mundane stuff that is usually posted on facebook or Twitter. Must ... get ... back ... to blogging...

Sorry, folks!

Sorry for not posting this week! It's been a bit crazy lately!

However, I will strive to get back to at least a twice-a-week schedule.

It's Hunger Week at TCU

Let's test the reach of both my blog and the Internet, and at the same time give to a good cause.

This link takes you to the website for Texas Christian University's Heal Hunger Campaign.

This link takes you to their auction items. Make some bids on items you are interested and let's see just how great the reach that both the Internet and your generosity have.

Ray Charles, Jerry Lee Lewis, Fat Domino...

Heck, there's nothing I can say about this. Just enjoy, man!


Ray Charles, Jerry Lee Lewis
Uploaded by Hanvak

Creative juices have run dry

Man, I have never had a dry spell like that. I don't know if the election burned out my creative juices or what, but in the past couple of weeks, I just couldn't get the ol' creative writing mojo going. My art pretty much came to a standstill as well. I've never had the well run dry like that. Thing is, it's not like there's anything in my life right now that's stressing me out to the point that my creativity has shut down. I just - can't seem to get my thoughts focused to write about something. It's not like there hasn't been anything to write about; I just can't seem to get the words going before X news event is replaced by another.

So what do I hope to be doing here now? I don't know. Like I said, I've never had a creative shutdown like this. I guess I'm just writing about my experience so that I might find some focus to get my creative mojo flowing again. You know how I feel right now creatively? Like a boxer in a ring who's being given the countdown, and who's trying to decide whether or not to get back up again. Thing is, why do I feel like I've been in a fight? What has brought about this boxer analogy impression? Like I said, it's not like I'm going through a divorce or custody suit or anything truly stress-inducing.

Well, the helpful thing about the boxer analogy is that it reminds me that the boxer won't win the fight if he doesn't get back up before the countdown is done. No, I will get through this. I've fought through ruts before and I'll do so again. I've just never been so public about it. Again, I don't know what I hope to accomplish by being so public about this - perhaps I'm just trying to stretch my creativity into new directions. After all, part of being an artist or writer is the willingness to take such chances. So - what happens next? I don't know, but I will find out.

I had considered taking a short break, but that would only get me out of the habit of writing, and if I get out of the habit of writing, then I'll never get out of this creative rut. No, the solution here is to keep plugging along. I'll keep you updated on my progress. Understand though, that I will get through this - this I promise you, folks. I will remain standing in the ring when the count is done. And I won't need no Rocky music to do it.

Rumors of my demise were greatly exaggerated...

...but not by much! Sorry I've been so lax in posting the past couple of week, folks. Things just piled up on me, and last week was just crazy-busy. But I wanted to post SOMETHING today so that you won't think that I was kidnapped by gypsys or abducted by aliens. I'm good.

I'll try to hit the ground running tomorrow.

Hey, I'm back, and I brought Leonard Pitts with me

Sorry to have been away longer than expected, folks - but I'm back, and I'm bad. Well, not really - I'm just back.

Anyway, to hit the ground running, I'd like to bring up an issue that Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts Jr. brought up about public education in D.C. and whether Barack Obama is going to send his daughters there. Pitts feels - as I do - that Obama should send his kids to a private school. He feels that way, and yet he laments that it's necessary. At the end of his column, he states:

"Too many of us, I think, have made peace with the idea that public schools don't work, have come to regard it as normal that they crank out poorly educated kids, have come to accept that certain children in certain places are ineducable. But I saw the falsity of that with my own eyes while traveling the country for ''What Works,'' saw some of the nation's best students in some of its most dire places.

The failure here, then, is not the students', but ours, a failure of will and imagination. We need to reassess the things we take for granted. We need to decide that our children deserve better.

And we need to ask a simple question: If public schools are not good enough for the president's kids, what makes us think they are good enough for ours?"

I was also surprised to see actual criticism of teachers' unions in his column. I have been critical of teachers' unions for years, and they are one of the reasons that I advocate tuition vouchers. Pitts does not state his views on the matter, but it seems to me that public schools and teachers' unions are not going to be motivated to change unless they have competition to gain and retain students.

You know what? If Obama truly intends to bring change, this would be a good start. Obama, start by changing the Dept. of Education and the teachers' unions. Get them to realize that they're part of the problem instead of part of the solution. Get them to realize that their obsession with protecting themselves and their power has damaged generations of kids. Obama, you could REALLY institute change by advocating tuition vouchers. I don't buy that argument that tuition vouchers violate the church/state separation wall, because the gov't had already had a form of a tuition voucher with the GI Bill, and our school system didn't go to hell in a handbasket, did it? In fact, it helped a lot of students. Like we could do now.

If Obama can manage to get this ball rolling, then I'll start believing that he's a miracle worker.

Gas prices and blog news

Below are a couple of pictures I took while testing out my new cellphone. The Santa one is a t-shirt in a local store. The other pic is to show that gas actually went under $2 a gallon here. Wow.



Now for some blog news: Gang o' mine, I am going to take a short respite. I got real-life stuff to take care of, an' me writin' fangers is gettin' tired. I'll be back on Sunday the 17th.

In the meantime, enjoy my buddy Joel's blog. I certainly do! :-)

See you in a week!

A quick note

For those of you who saw the start of my entry on gay marriage - er, that was supposed to be a draft. Apparently, I hit "Publish Post" instead of "Save Now", because I noticed later that I had already got a comment on it. Anyway, that blog entry is back in draft status, and I'll publish it later. However, for the commentator, your comment is still there. I'll publish it whenever I publish the blog entry that it goes to. My apologies.

Conceding a point to a fellow blogger

Okay folks, listen up. In the 500+ posts that I've had on this blog, I don't think I've ever publicly conceded a point that was made in a previous blog entry.

However, fellow blogger Joel has, in comments to my previous blog entry and in an entry in his own blog, provided enough argumentation and persuasion on the Sarah Palin $150k wardrobe issue that I must concede a point that I had previously made. I had said before that it was a non-issue. Now I must say that the wardrobe issue is indeed a valid election issue, especially considering how that $150k could have been spent helping with GOP state campaign efforts instead of helping to deck out Palin to make sure she stayed looking hot.

Joel had further argued that the GOP's spending habits in this instance can be seen as an indicator of how they'll spend OUR money should they get elected. I stated in the comments section of his blog entry that the Obama camp should use this argument in their campaign ads. Having said all this, let me finish by saying:

Okay dude, you won this one. :-)

I'm sick as a dawg, y'all....

Hey, all. I won't be posting for a couple of days, as I am sick as a dog. How sick? I couldn't hold down Jell-o! Now that's sad, man!

Anyway, I'll try to return either Thursday or Friday. In the meantime, take care and play nice.

Sad news

I just found out that the grandmother of one of my student worker died as a result of the hurricane over the weekend. My student has gone back to Houston to be with her family. Prayers for Lacey and her family are greatly appreciated.

Swooning

Before more times passes, I need to answer the following question for someone: If I don't swoon over politicians, who DO I swoon for?"

Right now, if I ever met her in person, I would swoon over Halle Berry. In fact, I have this fantasy that I'd swoon and she'd catch me, asking "Are you okay?" Yeah, a nice fantasy, but what she probably would say in that scenario is "Release the hounds." But hey, a fellah can dream, can't he? ;-)

UPDATE: Someone else just said that I used to swoon over Sandra Bullock. That was before she married Tattoo Dude!

Time to get back up to speed

Okay, getting back to blogging took longer than I thought. Sorry about that, but stuff comes up, yanno? So with that…

Death in the family
My thanks for all who sent their thoughts and prayers for my uncle. I very much appreciate it. He was a good man, and he will be missed. Such times are reminders of our mortality. I have no more living grandparents, and my parents’ generation has lost a few members. This makes me appreciate the ones still with us all the more. By the way, when was the last time you talked to your uncle or aunt? Better do it now.

Edtoon video
My initial efforts to do an edtoon video did not come out good, as the lighting - well, it sucked. I need much better lighting so that you will be able to see what I’m doing. I’ll work on it, because I want you all to see what goes into making an edtoon. And for the video, I’ll make the idea for the edtoon as I’m working on it, so that you can see what thought processes go on for an edtoon. The edtoon will have Barack Obama and John McCain, but that’s all I’m going to say at this point, because right now I have NO idea on what it’s going to be. You’ll just have to wait and see just like me!

Nancy Pelosi’s tortured Catholic theology (Meet the Press, Aug 24, 2008).
The only good thing to come out of Pelosi’s pathetic explanation of the Catholic Church’s view on abortion is that it finally got some bishops to speak out about it. In recent decades, many Catholic bishops have failed in their duty as shepherds, which was most glaringly demonstrated in the priest scandal of 2002. "Better late than never" is the phrase that pops into mind, but the bishops shouldn't stop at criticizing Pelosi - there's plenty of wayward Catholic politicians to go around for them. As for Pelosi, she should brush up on her Catechism. Tom Brokaw knew better of the Church's position on abortion than she did! Her alleged “knowledge” is embarrassingly lacking, and she is exactly the type that I was referring to when I wrote this column some years back. Pelosi is a meat-eating vegetarian, as mentioned in that column.

Sarah Palin
Palin has certainly drawn a lot of interest and excitement. She's saying all the right things, and even got praise from the pro-choice Salon.com columnist, Camille Paglia (I love reading her columns, by the way). However, I am reserving judgment until I hear more, because I always keep in mind that it is the nature of politicians to say what others want to hear. There's an old saying that goes, "If it seems too good to be true, then it probably is". That's what I keep stored in my head when it comes to the stories that come out regarding politicians. For me, the jury is still out in regards to Palin. As of now, I am still voting 3rd party come November.

Palin is scheduled to speak at the GOP convention tonight. That would be a good time to sell herself to the American public, and to explain about the recent issues that have been brought up about her. By the way, kudos to Obama for saying to leave Bristol Palin (Sarah's teenage pregnant daughter) out of it. It's Sarah that's running for office, not Bristol. The teenage pregnancy is difficult enough to contend with, and she doesn't need the glare of the national spotlight to make it worse. There's no need to make this another Jamie Lynn Spears saga.

Sorry that I don't have much to go on about Palin, but there just isn't that much out there yet. But give it time - I'm sure more is to come, and I will most certainly comment on it. I'm not in a swoon over her like other people I know. I speak more on swooning below.

Barack Obama
And speaking of Obama, let's go ahead and hit upon the "spotty past" that I had mentioned previously. There's questions I have, and it's not easy to find objective sources for answers. Should I believe the pro-Obama sites, or the anti-Obama sites? Either side will be saying their version of the truth by emphasizing what favors their side while de-emphasizing what doesn't favor their side. Below are my questions. If there ever were a time to sell Obama to me, this is it.

1.) Tony Rezko
My understanding is that Tony Rezko was a slumlord, and Obama was his lawyer. Also, Rezko donated a considerable sum to Obama for his campaign before Rezko was indicted for various legal charges related to finance. So how much does this taint Obama? If Obama is going to sell us that he is a "man of the people", I don't see how such a man defends a slumlord.

2.) "Clinging to guns and religion" comment
Obama got a lot of bad publicity from a remark he made at an April 6 fundraiser in California in which he said that Americans are clinging to guns, religion and anti-immigration sentiment because they are bitter about Washington’s unfulfilled economic promises. Hillary Clinton tried to use this comment against him during the Democratic primary. The "clinging" comment, I think, is what got the elitist talk going. If there ever was a time for Obama to defend the "little people", that fundraiser was it - but his comment suggests that instead he was trying to appeal to his potential donors with talk that they likely wanted to hear. Unfortunately, that's not what I want to hear.

3.) Bill Ayers
Why, o why would Obama go meet this man if he was planning to run for office? Ayers was part of a group that had orchestrated the bombings of buildings! The Weather Underground promoted and practiced domestic terrorism as stark, dramatic messages that "the establishment" couldn't ignore. But surely there were other, more civil yet just as passionate leaders that Obama could have chosen to associate with?

4.) Voted "Present" 130 times
That's what I don't like the most. If he's liberal, then vote that way! To me, voting "present" so many times shows not so much a lack of convictions, but rather an ambition that seeks to not have any potential "controversial" votes on his record. On the one hand, he'll visit men like Ayers, but on the other hand, he'll vote "present". Which is the true Barack Obama?

Anyway, that's the spotty past that I am curious about, and would like answers to. I see that Obama will appear on Fox on Thursday night. If Obama can make a good showing of it on "enemy turf", he will go a long way in helping his campaign.

Swooning over politicians
Just in my family, I've had members that have swooned over both Obama and the recent selection of Palin. Swooning is not good. I don't like swooning, and I don't swoon over people - at least not politicians. Swooning means that you're accepting a candidate uncritically. That's also not good. The swooning family members who support Obama don't like me criticizing Obama. Well, as a columnist and blogger, criticizing politicians is what I do. If I wanted to gush about Obama - or Palin - on my blog, then I might as well join their campaigns. Other family members wonder why I'm not on board with Palin, since she's prolife. Like I said previously, it's the nature of politicians to say what people want to hear. But what I haven't heard enough of is more about Palin and her past. Until such time, I am reserving judgment on how I feel about Palin. Call me a cynic if you will, but cynics don't swoon. It just doesn't fit our cynical attitudes.

Football is back!
What else needs to be said? :-D

Okay folks, that's it for now. Hopefully now I can get back to posting on a regular basis, and I'll keep you updated on the edtoon video.

Death in the family - posts to come tomorrow

It was a sad weekend for my family, as one of my uncles passed away. That's why I didn't post yesterday, but I'll catch up tomorrow, as the funeral is today. In the meantime, I ask for your thoughts and prayers for Joaquin Mercado and his family.

Blog news

Hey folks, sorry I haven't posted anything yet on the issues that I mentioned previously, but I'm currently working on what I hope to be a special treat for you. I'm working on a short video of what I do to make an editorial cartoon (this one is going to be on the selection of Sarah Palin). I want to go through this step by step so that you see what goes into making one, and I really hope you enjoy it. Anyway, I'll discuss everything that I had mentioned previously tomorrow in a Labor Day special. Have a great holiday!