Interesting to read this article in tandem with the other one in today's Peek about Iran stoning women to death for adultery.

I don't care what kind of intellectual contortions the Texas legislature goes through. There is no denying this for what it is: an attempt to control women's sexuality. To snuff it. Even though the penalties for infringement in Texas and Iran are not the same, the root at the base of these laws is ugly: a desire to punish women for using our God-given sexuality.

Iran? They're still executing homosexuals. Yes, they are backwards. Texas? Shame on you.

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Watch the video till the end. Molly's last line will leave you laughing for days.

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that Texas was brought into the US. Molly Ivins, their last positive public contribution, has unfortunately been dead for some time.

What do we have to do to get Texas to secede, again?

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OK, before we all go Texas bashing here let's make one thing clear. This is the result of the Texas legislature being full of conservatives from towns nobody cares about. As a bleeding heart liberal from the northeast who has lived in Austin for 12 years I can assure you that these nut jobs do not influence anything in Texas, they only pass these laws to appease the conservatives in the backwoods country. You can buy all the sex toys you want in Austin, and you can call them whatever you want, nobody will bother you.

Molly Ivins, the journalist in this piece is a good example of the majority of people I deal with on a daily basis: liberal, witty, and very smart. These Republicans passing these laws are all talk, if these laws meant anything then my wife would have been arrested for the bachelorette party she had.

The Bush machine (pun intended) rolled into Texas politics and gave Texas a bad name. They ran a classic Karl Rove smear campaign on the democratic Governor Ann Richards then took over the legislature and changed all the districts to make it near impossible for the democrats to take back the legislature. But honestly if all things were fair and the districts were more reflective of the diversity of Texas you would likely see a democratic legislature, or at least a strong democratic presence that would be able to prevent this non-sense.

Texas is great, especially Central Texas where Molly Ivins and Willie Nelson are idols. These laws are all bark and no bite. God bless Texas!

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.. to have legislators and law enforcement spend time, money and effort on foolishness like this isn't just a case of poor priorities, it's out and out insanity! First, it can have only three justifications: religion, totalitarian control, and male insecurity, and neither it belongs in the churches of fanatics or in a psychoanalysts office, NOT in the legislature, not on a court docket, and not in a police daily assignment list. This is Big Brother in the bedroom, and is nothing but the jackbooted feet of the self-righteous kicking in bedroom doors and those of legitimate businesses. This kind of idiocy is one reason I left my home state of Texas.

Almost thirty years ago when I went to the airport to meet my brother, whom I had not seen in years, I was advised by friends who were quite serious and concerned that, whatever I did, I had better not dare hug him 'hello' in public, because we could both be ticketed for "homosexual behavior". One buddy showed me a printed ticket with rows of boxes for cops to check to the left of 'crimes', and sure enough, one of them read "Homosexual Behavior"!

Considering what I knew even then about the private behavior of people (and the richer or better connected they were, the more "immoral behavior" there seemed to be in those circles), it was clear even then that all these "good Christians" were far more concerned with the appearance of propriety than with the actuality. Judging from the scandals exploding out from Southern politicians, police and conservatives in general and the real conservatives should be up in arms!), that hasn't changed except to get worse.

This system needs to be changed completely, from the top on down. So-called "conservatives" have shown themselves to be in politics for whatever they can get, any way they can get it, and God help the pissant peons who try to interfere with their special privileges. I think some of the basic requirements for any public office in any new system we come up with should be a)officials should be popularly nominated for their good works and records in private life, b)if they actually want the job, they should be considered unfit and disqualified, c)the pay should be nominal, and d)anyone caught misusing the powers of a public office should be immediately recalled and barred for life from any sort of public service other than picking up garbage in parks and along the road - after they get out of prison.

Lobbying must be made illegal, with stiff sentences for violators, and the "personhood" of corporations must be revoked, and any corporatist should also be barred from public office. Laws like this are the only things that might have any chance at all of saving us. These people who would rewrite history, rewrite the law as other "religionists" would have and who continue to try, who bitch about the "nanny state" and then want everyone's personal information available to any government agencies that want it are all hypocrites and wannabe dictators, and there are far too many of them. The self-proclaimed "elites" OWE us several trillion dollars for the infrastructure, public schooling, medical care and everything else they've robbed us of in order to line their own pockets. Their unearned, mostly outright stolen money should be confiscated and used to repair the damage they've done, while they're left to make a living by actually working for a change. Let them see what it's like in a system that's actually fair to everyone, where everyone gets a chance to contribute, not just to the wealthy who "make" their money by exploiting loopholes they and theirs have engineered to their advantage and to the often terminal detriment of everyone and everything else.

CONTINUED ON NEXT RANT

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They owe us, and the rest of the world, a terrible debt of blood and money, and at the very least, of whatever time they have remaining to them. We need to make sure they start paying it, personally, and with the hard, low-paying labor they've they've foisted off on everyone else. Leave them what they need to survive, and no more. It's more than they want to leave us, and more than any other revolution has ever left to the elites they've overthrown. Turn their mansions and other personal properties into home for the homeless they created, and leave them one, single residence each with only what they need in order to keep the rain off.

The time of the "elites" has to end now, before the time of humanity itself ends because of them. This attack on women is just another division meant to separate and control us through normal, healthy human sexuality and human nature in general - as are the never-ending "War On Drugs", and the Wars On Everyone and Everything Else; it's only one of hundreds of other tactics. They are and have been busily liquidating every natural resource they've been able to get their greedy hands on as fast as it can be done,including resources that should have been renewable for ages, because they know it will have to end some time; if nothing else, it will end when we run out of everything, and they fully expect that their compounds and warehouses will keep them and theirs alive and well-supplied throughout their lifetimes, beyond which they cannot see, and could care less about.

As one of the Rockefellers said to a potential recruit, the world's population of peons (everyone but them) needs to be reduced by as much as 90% or more anyway. It doesn't seem occur to them that the people of the world are likely to start with them, but when their plans and their part in the destruction of civilization becomes generally known, that's exactly what's likely to happen.

Ian MacLeod

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ANSWER: " T A L I B A N! "

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Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is a dildo.

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Thank you! Now I understand what is meant by "penile code."

And what an utter joy to see Molly Ivins in all her glory whanging this wingnut reasoning upside the head. RIP, dearest Molly.

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It would seem with the plethora of viagra, pee pee pumps, and pimping as a social fix for bureacratic professionals of which America probably outnumbers the world, as highlighted by spitzer. Dawn's early light should be shining on a new social enterprize, grooming the American woman for true consumerization. from early Preen pamper parties, to coercion of a hedonistic psychosis. Australian Universities are reportedly modelled on progressive feminism are moonlighting their female students for a little extracurricular income. Not only are our proud professional beuaracrats in the bedroom replacing natural appendanges with pills on behalf of our owners, they are tagging the oopsies we call children for a hefty taxpayer kickback with the advent of gynocratic laws that even lenin would be proud of, just for cuckolding a relationship. There is a very basic reason why men are in need of a supplemental boost in increasing numbers, but then again given a choice these day's sadly I think having a Bob around to take of that side of personal business is the new preference. I hear the Black mamba is a speciality favorite these days, I am suprised that all woman are not entitled to this at the taxpayers expense. Welcome to the new enlightened age, where AG's up and down the country operate a business that conservatively cost the American taxpayers at least a half trillion dollars and then some, what a way to earn an income. As for the author of this article, she always was a PR specialist with no foresight.

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