Naming rights.

I don't know if it is unique to my neighborhood, or to Texans in general, but I have noticed a trend while making my calls for my candidate: people with large families who name every kid with a name beginning with the father's initial. For instance, John has kids named John, Jim, Jesse, Joshua and Julie.

What's up with that?

Now you will understand.

When I read this interview of Texas Governor Rick "Good Hair" Perry by NY Times writer Deborah Solomon, I literally choked with laughter. Governor Perry, you see, just wrote a book about how much he loves the Boy Scouts and how much he hates my favorite civil rights organization. While there are many wonderful quotes in the interview, this is, in my opinion, the money quote:

Solomon: I know they have a dog-care merit badge, but why not a child-care badge?

Perry: Why not teach scouts how to change a baby’s diaper and help out moms? I don’t have a problem with that.

I love that while the writer is pointing out the Boy Scouts' sexism in not having a child-care badge, Perry responds with uber-sexism, assuming the Scouts can help moms, not dads, with child care. Perfect!

A Perry anecdote: my friend's ex is an official with a powerful firemen's union and he had a photo-op a few years ago with the Governor. While they waited for the photographer to get ready, Governor Perry looked down at Brian's boots and said something like, "Those are nice. Where do you have them made?" Our Governor is so out of touch that he assumed a fireman has the money to have his boots specially made, which is a very expensive proposition.

Sometimes I wonder how in the world I've managed to live here for 20 years.

Only in Texas . . .

Most big-firm lawyers in Texas receive courthouse reports regarding the prior day's lawsuit filings. This permits us to watch for activity concerning our clients and give them a heads-up before a process server arrives at the door.

Sometimes, though, the reports are valuable in a different way: pure entertainment value. This excerpt from one of today's reports is one such example:

Negligence case in which church deacons responsible for catching church service attendees "taken by the spirit" during "special prayer" were not at the ready Jan. 9, 2005, when the plaintiff fell backwards. The suit states that the associate pastor of New Life Assembly of God had just laid hands on the plaintiff's forehead for the prayer, and that falling backwards was the established custom for this part of the service. Deacons responsible for catching those engaged in this prayer were in other sections of the sanctuary at the time and the plaintiff sustained injuries as a result.

Only in Texas would you see this perfect storm of evangelical religion, taking advantage of the tort system and failure to accept personal responsibility. I am curious as to how the plaintiff rationalized God's reason for letting this happen to her.