Prairie Weather

Now, empty your mind

Don't tell me you aren't into meditating.  We all do it ... well ... maybe not quite as much as say we do.  We are not perfect.  Meditation isn't perfect.  Random thoughts intrude. 

Find a comfortable seated position somewhere in nature. Now close your eyes and take a deep breath. Picture your front door. Did you lock it when you left? Even if you did . . . well, we can’t guarantee anything.

As you let your breathing settle into a steady pattern—eyes closed, arms at rest, palms face up—ask yourself, is that a pain in your forearm? You haven’t even done anything yet today. How can your forearm hurt, when there are hardly any muscles in there? Resist the urge to poke it. If you poke it, the pain won’t go away, and it might even get a little worse. Yes, it does feel worse. Do blood clots cause pain?

Take a deep breath in through your nose, and let it out—slowly, very slowly—through your mouth. Draw another breath in, and feel your belly fill with air. Your pants are awfully tight. You haven’t been to the gym in several days. Has it been two weeks already? It seems like you’ve been extra bloated after your last three Seamless orders from the Thai place downstairs. ...Casey Johnston,NewYorker

Smart Texans take a cold look at socialism

Scary stuff, socialism:

Found by PDiddie at Brains and Eggs

Yikes!  Teamwork!  Helping others!  Terrifying!!

A delicious moment in Texas justice

A grand jury here that was investigating accusations of misconduct against Planned Parenthood has instead indicted two abortion opponents who made undercover videos of the organization.

Prosecutors in Harris County said one of the leaders of the Center for Medical Progress — an anti-abortion group that made secretly recorded videos purporting to show Planned Parenthood officials trying to illegally profit from the sale of fetal tissue — had been indicted on a charge of tampering with a governmental record, a felony, and on a misdemeanor charge related to purchasing human organs. ...NYT

I didn't know grand juries could do that.  Since the Ferguson shooting, it's hard to think of grand juries as anything more than tools of a corrupt system.  But a Houston grand jury went and did the right thing  yesterday in the face of a (yet another) example of radicals v. women's health. 

Planned Parenthood was up before the jury after the "revelation" that the organization had -- quote unquote -- tried to illegally profit from the sale of fetal tissue. But the Houston jury turned on the accusers -- a couple of eager nutjobs with video cameras used to create the illusion that Planned Parenthood was in the fetal tissue business.  They had infiltrated Planned Parenthood on behalf of a right wing called the "Center for Medical Progress." (Imagine a little group of guys in white with stethoscopes around their necks walking backward, in the style of old silent movies, approximating the right's notion of "progress.")

The grand jury turned on the accusers.

But the state isn't going to stop its harassment of women's clinics.  The grand jury's action will remain, for time being, a short-lived, albeit delicious, moment.  The Center for Medical Progress isn't giving up. Our unlovely governor will make sure the campaign against women's freedom and well-being continues.

___

What happened in Houston, of course, just makes the right angry and eager for revenge.

A Republican-led committee in Congress charged with investigating Planned Parenthood has said it will not back down even as other states have cleared the group of wrongdoing. The leader of that panel, Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), did not immediately respond to the grand jury decision on Monday. ...TheHill

Helluva corrupt (and funny) governor

In Texas, of course.

Texas is (I'm not kidding, you coasties!) one of the very places best places to live.  One of its gifts is the corrupt state government.  Not  always. But certainly right now.  And at the head of that local right wing mess is Governor Abbott.  He is stuck in a wheelchair (a tree fell on him).

But even with that restraint he's managed to  set yet another record in venality.  Progress Texas has a roundup of his taste for the wild side during 2015.  A sampling:

Paid $104 in taxes – On a $134,000 salary - and you still pay for his housing!

Latinos Shmatinos – Supports a policy denying birth certificates to Latino children born in the US, and signed an $800 million immigration discrimination plan that turned into a runaway boondoggle for law enforcement.

Jade Helm 15 conspiracy – News outlets mocked Abbott when he sided with a talk radio host who said the Jade Helm 15 military exercise was a secret plot by President Obama to invade Texas… via Wal-Mart tunnels.

Maybe there's a tired post-storm live oak out there just waiting for Greg to roll on by ...

How long will this big lie endure?

Mexico wants to send notorious drug cartel leader Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán to face trial in the United States “as soon as possible,” President Enrique Peña Nieto said on Friday. ...TheHill

As long as we have Mexico to treat as our bête noire, we won't solve our own problems.  Take drugs and the export of Pablo Guzmán as stand-in for eager American drug importers. Does making Guzmán the perp-in-chief help?  Wasn't Guzmán created and sustained, as rich Mexican exporter, by the huge customer base up here in el Norte?

I mean, like, come on!

Jeez! Are Republicans really this desperate?

In the past few days, Trump has received unlikely public praise from GOP luminaries who said they would prefer him to his main rival, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.

In private, some veteran conservative Republicans have been reaching out to Trump. And Trump himself called the ultimate establishment figure in Washington, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, for a talk late last year.

“If it came down to Trump or Cruz, there is no question I’d vote for Trump,” said former New York mayor and 2008 presidential candidate Rudolph W. Giuliani, who has not endorsed a candidate. “As a party, we’d have a better chance of winning with him, and I think a lot of Republicans look at it that way.”  ...WaPo

Desperation?  Or simply the fact that Trump is a reddish blonde-headed fella who owns a lot of stuff -- more (in line with 21st-century Republicanism) than a darker, foreign (born where?) interloper. He's a rude upstart.  He has a kooky alien name and no huge properties who questions party elders and betters?

¡Que sinvergüenza!