The Blaisdell Blog

The Devil always seems to be in the details.   But sometimes the Devil telegraphs his punch.   There is, in the language of poker players, a, “tell.”   We know what he is thinking because of how he holds his cards, or lowers his eyes, or hunches his shoulders.   Well, an intelligent person would (and apparently did) pick up the long range dangers inherent in the 1943 Supreme Court decision Wickard v. Filburn .   The decision, a precedent for the scope of Federal power, told an Ohio wheat farmer that he could not grow unlimited amounts of wheat on his farm and would be fined for each extra bushel.               Let’s boil this down to its basic parts.   A man owns his own land, pays for it with his own money, works it with his own effort, grows a legal crop, and is told by the government that he has a limit on how much he can produce because his work affects the cost of the product nationally.   A good farmer is punished so poor farmers can prosper.   Now government intervention is

Are you a person who lives primarily in your heart or your head?   More about this later. I am a better person because of the company of good women.   These are not the women you party with.    Those girls best belong to the, “…misery loves company” category.   I am talking about the women who make you talk, think and laugh, ladies like the ones in my book club. One of the best things the book club has done for me is introducing me to a great deal of fiction that I otherwise would not have read.   I prefer nonfiction, defaulting to biography and history with a little science thrown into the mix.    ( Truman by David McCullough; A Crack in the Edge of the World by Simon Winchester; and A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking are part of that list).    Since getting involved in this book club I have read some books I would not have wanted to live my life without ( A Prayer for Own Meany by Irving Stone; Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood; and the delightful Ladies No. 1 Detecti

For obvious reasons, I never read the paper before church on Sunday morning.   This afternoon I headed for the porch with my cup of coffee and, sure as shootin,’ found something there that would have ruined services for me.   The, “Valley and State” section of The Monitor had an article about local legislative leaders giving commentary on Texas ’ new congressional districts.               The Democrats are using all of the usual hyper-emotional verbiage to complain about redistricting.   The article highlighted three Rio Grande Valley districts: the 34 th (primarily Cameron County ), the 15 th (a hodgepodge of counties both including and west and north of Hidalgo County ), and the 27 th (around the Corpus Christi area).   The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) General Counsel, Luis Vera, had a quote in the article that is both ridiculous and revealing.   In reference to the 27 th district, which is almost evenly split between Anglo and Hispanic voters—and whi

Some time ago a woman in Georgia won a restraining order against a man who had been stalking her for months.   She had met him when he answered her advertisement in a singles column.   In the ad she described herself as a, “wiccan” priestess—a witch!   She was then shocked that she didn’t attract an intelligent, emotionally mature male.   Instead she got a weird, obsessive stalker.   Whom did she think she was going to get? I realize that I am probably not being as tolerant as the times require, but it seems to me that any adult who calls herself a witch should not be expected to be taken seriously.   Do adults have to be told that there are no such things as witches?   Didn’t we learn that sometime between the Salem Witch Trials and the dawning of the nuclear age?   What seems to be going on here is that the mantra of tolerance which rightly began as a way to combat institutionalized prejudice has been carried to an extreme that says we can no longer refer to anyone as a crackpot.

As readers of this column know, I was raised in a home where Mom was a Republican and Dad a Democrat.   Politics was served at every meal and the only rule was you had to keep one foot on the floor.   I have kept this tradition of loving the opposition alive by marrying a Democratic atheist, while remaining a Republican Lutheran.   I recommend this combination because it teaches one tolerance, manners and—most important of all—a constant reminder that truth does not go directly from God’s mouth to your ear.               I was reminded of this on the evening of the 28 th when my husband and I went to hear Thomas L. Friedman speak at the Distinguished Speakers Series at the University of Texas-Pan American in Edinburg , Texas .   Both of us like to read Mr. Friedman’s column in the New York Times .   Friedman is a Pulitzer Prize winning writer (three times over).   He is also the author of several books, the most recent of which is, That Used to be Us: How American Fell Behind in th