The Terrible Twos
The Terrible Twos My children are each more than 20 years past the Terrible Twos, but I still remember them. Josh started with this stage well before his second birthday. I recall begging his father to take our impossibly strong-willed toddler to work with him!!!! I was only halfheartedly joking. Becca didn
The Easter Bunny Is Still Getting Help From Fathers In Boxer Shorts
The Easter Bunny Is Still Getting Help From Fathers In Boxer Shorts Soon, in the wee hours of the morning, something magical will happen in back yards all across America as, one by one, each of them is visited by… You guessed it! A half-naked father hiding Easter eggs. That
CHANGING GEOGRAPHY: The 8th Wonder of the World… Dubai?
CHANGING GEOGRAPHY:
Take a look at what Middle East oil income is buying. You will be amazed.
While Americans and our neighbors around the globe are scratching their heads wondering why they
April Mailbag
April Mailbag It
Texans Crush Mexican-Indian Conspiracy
Texans Crush Mexican-Indian Conspiracy On April 15, 1839, Texans continued to beat the bushes of East Texas in their search for survivors of the Cordova Rebellion. The infamous conspiracy dated back to the revolutionary days of late 1835. While rebellious Texans were laying siege to San Antonio, Vicente Cordova of Nacogdoches recruited 1,200 Indians for a sneak attack on the defenseless Anglo-American colonies. The sudden surrender of the surrounded Mexican troops preempted the plan saving countless lives. The repudiation by the Republic Congress of Sam Houston
If You Can
If You Can
Letters To The Editor
To The Editor: Thank you, thank you, thank you! It is ONLY fitting that the Lone Star Iconoclast would be the one to put a reporter in Iraq that will TELL THE TRUTH. MaryAnn Dark, Dayton, Texas To The Editor: Special Interest Road Bond Politics? Hays County Commissioner Will Conley Pushes For Road Meeting Hays County voters should be asking, “Why is a County Commissioner holding a meeting to promote a road bond issue?” Isn
Christian Astrology Wins Again
Christian Astrology Wins Again As Uncle Hugh used to say, “At hog-killin
Boiling For Solar Power
Boiling For Solar Power Whoever said natural gas was cheap must have been full of beans? Earlier this month, workers installing a new gas pipeline broke a 36-inch water main in an intersection in northwest Fort Worth. After finally fixing water service days later, the local water department told the residents of 1,500 affected homes to boil their drinking water out of fear it was contaminated. This contamination occurs when a water system is de-pressurized for several days, allowing for the growth of bacteria to build up inside the pipes. “So for now, they can use the water except for consumption. If they want to drink they have to boil it for two minutes, otherwise use bottled water,” said water department spokesperson Mary Gugliuzza in the Fort Worth Star Telegram. Thank goodness the city distributed bottled water to its tired and thirsty residents. Still, there
Republican Aims To Keep Texas Energy Rates High — Bill Threatens To Kill TXU Buyout Deal
Bill Threatens To Kill TXU Buyout Deal
AUSTIN A Republican state lawmaker is aiming to keep electricity rates high and unchecked for consumers in Texas.
Last Wednesday, Rep. Robert Tarlton (R-Pasadena) successfully stalled debate on two senate bills that would give the state Public Utility Commission new power to regulate the electricity industry.
This power includes the authority to lower rates, a proposal which was passed in the Senate last month.
The author of the House versions, Rep. Phil King (R-Weatherford), said time remains to act on the bills.
One of the bills could lead to the PUC killing the proposed TXU buyout deal.
The $39 billion deal was shaped with help from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).
Such an accord had never been made before with the environmental advocates at the bargaining table.
The private equity investment groups pushing the deal
Delaware House Passes Mandatory Minimums Repeal — Former FBI Chief Backs Measure
Former FBI Chief Backs Measure DOVER Delaware’s House of Representatives backed a bill repealing the state’s mandatory minimum drug sentences last week by a 26-13 vote. The Senate has yet to take up the measure, though it is expected to face a tough battle. Police and prosecutors, including the state attorney general, say the House Bill 71 would tie the hands of law enforcement, preventing them from bargaining for information about drug trafficking. Advocates, including defense attorneys and a local issue group Stand Up for What’s Right and Just (SURJ) counter that the bill restores the balance of power that currently is lopsided in favor of the prosecution. Sponsored by Republican House Speaker Terry Spence, the bill, in essence, returns sentencing in the hands of judges on a case-by-case basis, say advocates. SURJ is comprised of a number of prominent Delaware lawyers and jurists. Some include Edmund N. Carpenter II, retired Supreme Court Justice Joseph T. Walsh, and former Delaware Attorney General Charles M. Oberly III. The seven-year-old organization is currently chaired by Greenville resident Louis J. Freeh, a former FBI director who served from 1993 to 2001. In a letter, Freeh wrote that he backed the measure because the two decade law is ineffective. “Drugs are cheaper, purer and more available than ever before, and America’s prison population has tripled to more than 2.1 million,” Freeh wrote. He added that the difference between getting a minimum prison sentence for drug offenses in Delaware is one packet of artificial sweetener. “Add one and an addict faces a long term of imprisonment,” he wrote. The House bill, if passed, would reclassify drug trafficking crimes from Class B to Class C felonies. This means that a person currently facing a two-to 25-year-sentence would instead face zero to 15 years in prison. In other words, an average offender facing a sentence of two-to five-years would then face zero to 2 1/2 years in jail. Gov. Ruth Ann Minner said that she tentatively supports the House bill, specifically because of her state’s prison problem. “One of the points that really wasn’t made was that our prisons are overcrowded and this might do something to help,” she said. In the last 25 years, the Delaware prison population has quadrupled at the cost of $200 million a year, according to Freeh.
Mother Blames Bush For Tillman Cover Up
SAN FRANCISCO
U.S.-Korea Trade Deal To Harm Detroit Auto: Labor
SAN FRANCISCO
In The Name Of The Constitution: Military Dad Fights Religious Right — Interview With Michael L. Weinstein, Founder Of Military Religious Freedom Foundation
Interview With
Michael L. Weinstein,
Founder Of Military Religious Freedom Foundation
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. If you ever find Michael L. “Mikey” Weinstein pissed off, it could be for only a handful of reasons.
But the one thing that really gets his goat is when people using the institutions of government attempt to impose a religious world view on the general population.
That kind of abuse of the U.S. Constitution doesn’t sit well with this former assistant general counsel to President Ronald Reagan.
In fact, after he discovered the religious abuse inflicted on his cadet sons at his alma mater, the United States Air Force Academy, Weinstein fought back using any legal means available to him.
So committed is he in his mission to protect religious freedom of men and women serving in the U.S. armed forces, he quit his post as formerly General Counsel for H. Ross Perot and Perot Systems Corporation.
Since last March, he has devoted his full time with the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), a grassroots organization he founded a year ago.
In his fight, Weinstein has employed his skills and experience as a Judge Advocate General (JAG) in the United States Air Force and the Air Force’s first Chief of Telecommunications and Information Systems Procurement Law.
His new book “With God on Our Side: One Man’s War Against an Evangelical Coup in America’s Military,” co-authored by Davin Seay and published last October by St. Martin’s Press, he describes his battles against illegal evangelization inside the Air Force Academy.
“It’s a war. It’s a fight,” said Weinstein in a telephone interview. “Elliot Spitzer, the new governor of New York, makes a statement that you can’t change the world by whispering. Well, my book is meant to be a primal scream.”
It’s a fight, though, that he is not fighting alone. Serving on the foundation’s advisory board are big names in the American politics and military circles, such as Richard T. Schlosberg III, the former CEO/publisher of The Denver Post and the Los Angeles Times; Gen. Robert T. Herres, former first Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Richard Lamm, former three-term Governor of Colorado; and Joseph Wilson III, U.S. Ambassador.
The Iconoclast’s Nathan Diebenow recently spoke with Weinstein about the rise of the Religious Right in the U.S. military, the on-going smear campaign against him and his family, and the importance of the separation of church and state.
Here is that interview:
