Ann Coulter takes a shot at soccer and scores!!!!!!!

Ann Coulter is at it again.  This time she's taking aim at soccer.  The game is a gigantic conspiracy to turn the country liberal, she says.  And, the same people who pretend to like soccer also pretend to think women's basketball is interesting.


What??


Coulter's claims are so far out there makes you wonder.  Wonder if they are too out there even for her.  Wonder if she so desperately craves the spotlight.  Wonder if she is crazy like a fox. 


I believe it's all of the above.  Coulter calculated the backlash, counted on it, and got a day or two worth of attention.  Blasted mostly.


This is how I see her reaction:   GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLLL!!!!

Joe Scarborough, you got it wrong!

Earlier this week my good buddy Joe Scarborough was griping that world leaders - European in particular - were more focused on what is going on in Brazil than the unfolding disaster in Iraq.


I say good buddy because I watch his and Mika's show with the kind of regularity that breeds familiarity. 


If nothing else, my little brother Joe is consistent.  Every time I watch he will say at least one thing that is truly annoying.  Which, really, is not a bad record given that he has an open mic for three hours a day, five days a week.  


So his comment scolding world leaders for their distracted attention on the World Cup instead of fixing a civil war that is now a few hundred years old was just plain wrong. 


Soccer is a spiritual experience.  Watch the pomp and tradition of the opening of a match.  Little children, representing hope for the future, walk hand-in-hand with players onto the sacred pitch.  Grown men and women belt out their national anthem, many with tears embracing the moment.  The friendly exchange between team captains and then with officials just before the whistle.  Fans wear their match-day regalia with pride and with most creative expression.  For 90-plus minutes any given nation viewership (90 percent of a nation if you are Dutch, 50 percent if you are English; 100 percent if you are Brazil, etc.) is mesmerized in the simple beauty and skill of back and forth movement.  Hope hangs over the pitch for the entire match.  Loads and loads of hope.  And when  hope is delivered; gratitude erupts.  Soccer is a spiritual experience.


Soccer transcends politics.  What other single event brings the world together for an entire month?  Olympics, yeah, but you are talking multiple sports that most people have no interest in, really.  Soccer is the world's most popular sport and all eyes currently are turned to the Southern Hemisphere.  What better venue, then, for a world leader to be seen attending??   I celebrate Angela Merkel cheering on the German team.  (Every time the camera zoomed in on her, my husband would say "looks like she needs a back rub."  And every time he said that, I laughed. He's funny.  Google "Merkel back rub" if you don't get why it's funny) My other favorite Joe, as in veep Joe Biden, was there for the U.S. match against Guyana, sitting next to our opponent's president.  Soccer transcends politics. 


So, my good friend who I never actually met, I forgive you for mistakenly dragging soccer into the political mud.  How about that Clint Dempsy playing with a broken nose!!?? 

Meat grinder

POW Bowe Bergdahl is back on US soil.  He now faces the impossible task of reintegration.  Impossible because his story already has gone through the meat grinder that is 24/7 news.  And by news, I mean cruel speculation, righteous indignation, and delusional rage.


I hope that he is able to piece together a semblance of life.  Enough so that he will be able to state his own truth, whatever that is. 


Time, as with all exaggerated news coverage, will be the equalizer.  How much time, though, will this young man need?  How much time will the meat grinder give him?  Is the exaggerated news coverage too invested to walk back some of the more outrageous accusations?


My own speculation: No one will be harder on the young man than the young man himself. 

Marijuana's time has come

Feel the movement?  Another paradigm shift is under foot with such momentum there's no turning back.


Marijuana's time has come.  Whether for medicinal or recreational purposes, it's here to stay.  And by here, I mean the United States, including Texas. 


Why?  Polls show a majority of us believe it's a good idea to let sick people use it if it helps them feel better.  Twenty-one states and DC allow medicinal use.  Two states allow recreational use.  These numbers will continue to climb.


The final push is going to come out of our respect and honor for those courageous soldiers when they need OUR help.  How?  A growing mountain of evidence is showing that cannabis (limiting the THC content) is the best treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).   That evidence is coming from former soldiers.  That evidence also was the subject of an article in the June issue of Texas Monthly written by a fellow from The Baker Institute at Rice University in Houston.  Baker, as in James Baker, W.H.'s right-hand man, who has never been accused of being a leftie.


Here's what the Baker Institute fellow is saying:


http://news.rice.edu/2014/05/28/access-to-marijuana-could-help-veterans-manage-ptsd-symptoms-baker-institute-expert-says/


What is more compelling a reason to support medicinal use than to support our troops? 

Strap on your boots and grab a shovel ...

Pull on your mud boots, we're about to get knee deep in it.


It was election day yesterday in Texas.  Primary election officially.  But for all intents and purposes, in this state it was the general election.  We now know who will be our new attorney general and lieutenant governor. 


And we are in some deep doo-doo.


The biggest news was the toppling of current Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst by Tea Party candidate Dan Patrick.  It really came as no surprise.  Just needed the period at the end of the sentence which was yesterday's low-voter-turnout primary election.  Out with the old old, in with the new old.


So what are we getting with Patrick?  Well, if we have any different views on multiple policy or political positions, such as heart-felt perspectives regarding immigration and abortion, than we get nothing.  Mr. Patrick has promised to push through his Tea Party positions, democracy be damned.  He proudly and unashamedly proclaims he will minimize the role of Democrats in the Texas Senate by reducing their committee chairmanship numbers.  I guess taking a page from the Putin School of Leadership.


Ken Paxton, another Tea Party politician, will be the state's new Attorney General, a position vacated by Greg Abbott, who is poised to be the next governor. 
Paxton's endorsements included Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas Patriots PAC (Tea Party), Texas Right to Life, Young Conservatives of Texas, Freedomworks, Grassroots America – We The People PAC,  Kingwood TEA Party,  Montgomery Tea Party,  Texas Conservative View PAC, Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee, and  Family Research Council Action PAC. 


That's some company he keeps.  This guy could be further right of our current AG.  Didn't think that would be possible. 


Where are my boots?

Insightful moment

Apparently I enjoy talking about myself.


I "discovered" that yesterday at the doctor's office.  Sinus stuff, blah, blah. 


So the doc asks me what I do, specifically what's my job.  It's been so long since anyone asked me that, so I go into so much unnecessary detail I suspect he regretted the question. 


In hindsight. 


Just before asking what I did, he asked if I smoked.  No.  Just before asking if I smoked, he said he heard a rattle in my lungs.  And then came the question: what's your job?


Not a social moment.  A House moment, as in Dr. House the medical detective with Asperger's on the former television show.  Perhaps the rattle comes from exposure in the sweat shop that is my work environment.  It doesn't.


What I do know is we will not be getting a coffee later and becoming BFF's. 


Crap.

Hostage video

I was watching a hostage video recently.  My heart bled for the captives forced to speak to a camera with words that clearly were not their own.


Their eyes darting from videographer to camera.  You could even hear a voice behind the camera giving them the words to be recorded.


Their facial expressions said it all.  Their lack of real emotion was telltale.

"We love you, Mare."  Their tiny monotone voices declared in unison.  They looked to their captor (my daughter and their mother), hoping for freedom.  After all they had done as asked.  Nope.  A muffled command could be heard and the girls look back at the camera.  "We miss you."


After that, the screen goes to black.  My darling granddaughters set free!  For now.