Category Archives: Blogosphere

Abortion restrictions finally pass

It took two special sessions of the Legislature to do it thanks to the pro-abortion mob who disrupted the vote in the first session. But it finally passed.

“The Texas abortion bill passed both houses of the state legislature [at midnight Friday passing] the House 98-49 and…the Senate 19-11. … The modest bill bans abortions after 20 weeks and elevates standards at abortion clinics to be on par with standards at ambulatory surgical centers.”

President Wormtongue, whose busy golfing and vacationing schedule hardly allows him time to do anything else, managed to tweet his dismay at Democracy that didn’t go his way. Funny, he seemed to like the Muslim Brotherhood’s win.

The pro-abortion crowd, many of them students from Austin universities, mobbed the Capitol Rotunda, but state troopers kept most of them out of the Senate gallery where the final vote went down. Confiscated were jars of feces and urine and unusual amounts of tampons, all apparently to be thrown on the Senate floor. Later, when some refused to leave the gallery, they were arrested.

The anti-abortion crowd was outnumbered, as usual, and some were afraid.

All this to maintain a woman’s right to commit infanticide by aborting a fetus/child who is seven months old, an age at which neonatal units can now save them.  The law makes allowance for emergency medical conditions, but seven-month abortions for any other reason are right up there with the Philadelphia abortionist recently convicted of murder.

Another reason for the good Texas economy

Production in the oil patch is back up to where it was in 1985, “putting [Texas] in the ranks of OPEC heavy hitters like Venezuela, Kuwait and Nigeria.”

Texas alone produced more than a third of April’s U.S. production of 221 million barrels of crude oil.

Now, I suppose, all we have to do is wait for the EPA’s new jobs-squelching regs on CO2 emissions—fighting the myth of climate change, don’t you know—to depress it again.

UPDATE:  And the Port of Houston surpasses NYC in exports, specifically petroleum, coal and chemicals.

Did NSA surveillance start with Bush?

In a way, yes. But not in the main way, according to Charlie Martin at PJMedia. Martin, a government intelligence consultant in his day job, says:

“Everything we know about the program under Bush says they needed suspicion about an individual, and then collected information about that individual’s calls only. If they saw a connection, they had to make a separate request for that person’s metadata.

“In the Obama administration program, they just collect all the data from everybody in case they want to look at it later.”

So the American surveillance state really is a Leftist creation. No surprise. Who else tries constantly to control what we buy, say, drive and so forth? Martin’s primer on what the NSA is doing—which is here—is worth a read.

UPDATE:  Meanwhile, Wormtongue’s education bureaucracy is snooping on kindergartners, gathering info about their families, supposedly to target the kiddies (like Amazon or Google) for more effective education (i.e. sales) but which could also be used to punish their parents for political transgressions.

A Rebel soldier’s message to President Lincoln

Rocky Lockley, a reader of my Civil War blog about my great grandfather’s 13th Mississippi Infantry Regiment, emails with a photo of an extraordinary find.

He and a friend recently dug up this old bullet when they were relic hunting near known Civil War camps in the vicinity of Brucetown, northeast of Winchester, Virginia. The 13th Regiment camped there in October, 1862, after the Battle of Sharpsburg (Antietam).  Lockley explains:

“An Enfield bullet was recovered that at first glance seemed just like all the others except it had its nose cut down to be more like a snub-nose. When this bullet was being cleaned up with water and a toothbrush the engraved letters started coming out.

“After calming down a little [Lockley saw that] the letters formed a name and a message. G.M. Mott was carved from bottom to top on one side and “To Old Abe” was carved on the other!! After searching the internet for less than 5 minutes I had a hit that showed George M. Mott, Company E [The Alamutcha Infantry], 13th Mississippi, had been a part of the entire war.”

After more research, Lockley found a photo of Mott’s tombstone, showing that he was a medical doctor when he died in 1906 in Sabine Parish, Louisiana.

Independent historian H. Grady Howell’s muster listing for the 13th shows Mott entered the war as a private and had been promoted 2nd sergeant when Lee’s Army, of which the 13th had been a part, surrendered in 1865.

Independent historian Jess McLean, author of the only compendium of the men who served in the regiment, found that Mott was a 21-year-old student living near Marion, Mississippi, when he joined in the spring of 1861 as a sergeant. He apparently was later demoted to private before rising in rank again.

Mott is buried in Oak Grove Cemetery, two miles south of Converse, Louisiana, which is south of Shreveport.

Bye, bye AltaVista

Years ago when I was new to the Web, I thought the AltaVista search engine was the epitome of what was possible. It didn’t hurt that I was then living on Alta Vista Avenue in the Travis Heights neighborhood of South Austin, though if there was any connection I never found it.

Alas, today is the day that owner Yahoo! is scheduled to put AltaVista to permanent digital sleep. It’s been little more than “a front end for Yahoo! Search,” according to the Bandwidth Wastage Station, “and Marissa Mayer needs to cut costs.” Adios, amigo.

Via Dustbury.

The Random Platitude Generator

Is the generator, wonders Stacy McCain, the real author of Wormtongue’s increasingly banal speeches?

“…empty rhetoric, glittering generalities and vague diplomatic argle-bargle?”

Well, sure, then it’s off to another expensive vacation with Mooch and the girls. The Magical Negro shouldn’t have to expend any real blood, sweat and tears, when he can use Air Force One like a taxi and spend millions in tax money lord-and-ladying it up at Aspen or on safari in darkest Africa.

Via The Other McCain

Rule 5: The braless look

I never cared much for Carley Simon’s music, but her perky little breasts looked pretty good without a bra. Nowadays, too many women who should know better go braless. I try not to notice.

Via Dustbury