I love the Bud Light real men of Genius ads. I was driving to work the other day when I heard the one entitled "Mr. Way-too-proud-of-Texas-guy." I laughed my head off because I knew I was so busted. (Regular readers may have seen a picture of my house I posted recently)
At any rate, I knew I had to find it so you could listen, and I couldn't wait to blog it. Turns out that fellow Texas blogger Travis Fell at Voice in the Wilderness beat me to it.
Flower Mound police officer Kevin Schmidt, was seriously injured this morning in a collision with a 1999 silver 4-door Toyota Camry at the intersection of Cross Timbers Road and Timber Valley. The accident was reported at approximately 10:04 AM.
CareFlite took officer Schmidt to John Peter Smith Hospital, where his condition is now listed as stable.
The driver of Toyota was not injured.
Officer Schmidt has been with the Flower Mound Police Department for nine years, five of those as a motor officer. Officer Schmidt is a decorated FMPD officer and a 2002 recipient of the Officer of the Year Award.
According to a news statement issued by the Town of Flower Mound, the incident is still under investigation by the Texas Department of Public Safety with the assistance of the Lewisville Police Department.
He was attempting to stop a traffic violator at the time of the accident. A 1999 Toyota Camry turned in front of him as he headed east-bound.
A fund has been established at Denton Area Teachers Credit Union (DATCU) to accept donations to help his family defray any costs. You can donate to the Kevin Schmidt fund at any area DATCU location.
Please join us in keeping Officer Schmidt in your thoughts and prayers. We wish him a speedy and full recovery, and will provide updates as more information becomes available.
The site lets users send virtual flowers, and posts some daily updates on his status:
Saturday, July 28th 2007 Kevin is having a great day today! He has started breathing on his own a little bit, and appears to be more alert and aware of those around him! Friday, July 27th 2007 Kevin continues to show great signs of improvement. While his condition is still considered by doctors to be serious, but stable, Kevin has demonstrated signs of being alert. When the doctors visited him this afternoon, he was able to open his eyes as well as move his legs and feet. The swelling in his brain has dropped to normal levels. (4:10 c.s.t)
MamaSk8z and I are just wrapping up watching the Democratic Presidential Candidates debate, based on questions from John Q. Public submitted via YouTube.
For those who have been living in a cave for the last few years, YouTube is an online service that allows viewers to upload home-made videos.
Up to this point, presidential debates have been based on questions by professional journalists, who have a stake in couching their questions very carefully.
The YouTube questions were downright BLUNT, and to the point. Many kudos to ALL of the candidates for their courage in taking on these questions, and to CNN for choosing this format.
MamaSk8z and I think this format is perfect, and it has to be this way from now on. You hear that, CNN? You did it right. When we finally whittle the field down to our Democratic and Republican nominees, it should ONLY be this way. No negotiations, no boundaries - just YouTube questions from regular citizens. If you can't take the heat, just bow out.
In fact, all candidates for federal election should have to go through this.
Each week, the Texas Progressive Alliance compiles the weekly Texas Blog Round Up, modeled after the 50 State Blog Round Up. It is published on member blogs every Monday. Here is this week’s installment, brought to you by Vince from Capitol Annex.
More than 9 years ago, when my wife was pregnant with our first child, she had a positive test for Toxoplasmosis. Information was hard to find, and scary when we found it. Our OB/GYN (whose name I shall not mention) was worse than useless. Toxoplasmosis can cause many birth defects, ranging from mild to severe retardation. We were told that we had "options" but being fundamentally opposed to abortion from a moral perspective, we simply kept the faith, and things turned out alright.
Warning: Disturbing images in the video, after the jump.
MamaSk8z and I viewed this video this morning while surfing the web, and were both somewhat horrified. The fact that this poor child was brought to full term is tragic. We both wondered if perhaps the most humane thing to do would be to euthanize this poor child to eliminate its suffering. I can't imagine the horrible pain to the child and distress to its parents.
I'm not making any judgments here, but just saying that this is something to think about.
Finally, a town in Texas has some sense. I was getting ready to change the lining in my bird cage yesterday when a story headline caught my eye. (Damn paper cuts suck!) When I recovered, I read that the city of Highland Village is getting ready to revise its anti-smoking ordinance to ease up on the smoking of "weeds or other plant products".
When Highland Village Mayor Dianne Costa discussed the current smoking ordinance last week, she wasn’t talking tobacco.
The ordinance, passed in 1987, begins: “Whereas, the smoking of tobacco or weeds or other plant products has been demonstrated to have a detrimental effect…”
“Weeds or other plant products?” Costa said.
The council agreed that the outdated terminology had to go. Costa suggested that they revisit the tenets of the ordinance and strike out the reference to marijuana.
I totally agree with Mayor Costa's puzzlement over "weeds and other plant products" having a detrimental effect. I've been smoking weeds for over um.... a number of years, and they have not had a detrimental effect or any detrimental effects on me.
I called Ms Costa for comment, and she made the following statement:
"Who is this? Do you know what time it is? Are you high right now?"
Indeed, I couldn't have said it better myself Ms. Costa. I think we should make one of those Budweiser "True men of genius" commercials for you, except it would be "True Chicks of Genius". We should totally write that. Yeah, it could be like this:
We salute you miss marijuana-legalization-trigger-law mayor. (Sing along:) "Miss-marijuana-legalization-trigger-law-may-ay-yorrr..." When other mayors waste their time with silly things like streets, water, and police protection, you go straight for the Marijuana references in smoking ordinances. (Sing along:) "Smoking weeds and other plant pro-oood-ucts!" Because of you, when Norml finally gets those pesky federal and state marijuana laws repealed, pot heads everywhere will be able to torch up in the local diner. (Sing along:) "Get wasted at the city cou-in-cil meee-eee-ee-ting". We salute you, Miss marijuana-legalization-trigger-law mayor. This "bud" is for you!
Formr Norml member, Congressman Michael C. Burgess, whose district includes Highland Village (the city name of which is suddenly makes much more sense) was unavailable for comment, but the babe on his answering machine sounds hot! (Call me!)
It's hard to fully respond to everything that our U.S. Representative says. In fact, it's tiring - because it's the same old crap. I was cleaning out my inbox and came across this turd from the other day. While I don't have the time right now to fully deconstruct this and point out the fallacious thinking, I thought I would go ahead and post it. I don't know how Dr. Burgess rates as a physician, but as an economist - not so much. Perhaps someone with more energy than me will care to post a comment or two.
Dear Mr. Xxxxxxxx:
Thank you for expressing your interest in H.R. 676, The United States National Health Insurance Act. I appreciate hearing from you on this important matter.
H.R. 676 would establish a national health program for all Americans. The program would offer the following benefit services: (1) primary care and prevention; (2) prescription drugs; (3) emergency care; and, (4) mental health services. While I agree that more Americans need health coverage, I disagree with the approach taken by this legislation. I am an opponent of a single payer, government-run program because I do not believe that it will increase positive health outcomes. The United States has the best health care system in the world.
Supporters of a single payer, government-run health care system often times fail to recognize or choose to ignore the problems faced by the programs in other countries. In countries that have adopted this model of care, their citizens do not have access to the most modern medical technology and the distribution of health care is far from equal. The poor, the elderly, members of minority groups and residents of rural areas are the special victims of national health insurance programs.
As a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, I am working very hard to initiate market driven reforms to the health care system that will decrease the uninsured, lower the cost of health insurance and medical services, and provide consumers with the tools to make rational decisions about their health care needs.
Again, thank you for taking the time to contact me. I appreciate having the opportunity to represent you in the U.S. House of Representatives. Please feel free to visit my website ( www.house.gov/burgess ) or contact me with any future concerns.
Denton County Young Democrats are collecting school supplies and funds to be used to buy school supplies for children in Title 1 schools. More information is here
Blogger Max Blumenthal crashes the College Republican Convention in D.C. and gets an earful before getting the boot. I especially like the part where he asks them whether they are going to enlist or not. Such great excuses...
There's also the part where dipstick money launderer Tom Delay claims that if it weren't for the "40 million abortions" then "we wouldn't need all these illegal aliens to do all of these jobs we have". Whisky Tango Foxtrot?
The Denton County chapter of Democracy for America is putting together a FAMILY NIGHT and POOL PARTY. This is NOT a political gathering, but rather a fun family night, dinner, and pool party for families with children.
