"You ask me what I like about Texas ...."

... I tell you it's the wide open spaces!
It's everything between the Sabine and the Rio Grande.
It's the Llano Estacado,
It's the Brazos and the Colorado;
It's the spirit of the people down here who share this Land." -- Gary P. Nunn

I love this time of year in Texas. The bluebonnets are just about ready to bloom, we're reverently rembering the heroes of the Alamo, and the cowboys are rolling into town.

12 groups of trail riders are currently meandering along the highways into Houston and will meet up at Memorial Park today to help launch the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, which begins Monday -- my two-year-old son and husband are meeting the horses this morning.

From the Houston Chronicle:

With a trio of flag-bearing riders leading the way, the trail riders embarked on their trek to Rosharon — about 15 miles up the trail.

"It's an amazing sight to see," trail boss Alex Prince said of the long procession deftly maneuvering through city streets designed to accommodate four-wheeled Mustangs rather than the four-legged variety.

The riders skirted the most traffic-clogged parts of Angleton as they made their way to FM 521 — which they would follow to Rosharon and eventually Houston. Even those motorists forced to delay for a few moments didn't seem put out as the column passed by.

With the sun inching across a cloudless sky and just a touch of chill in the air, the weather was ideal for the trailriders.

"God couldn't have provided a more beautiful day," said Dwight Boykins, who has been with the Southwest Trailriders for about six years.

God Bless TEXAS!

The Audacity of Selling Hope

One of my favorite columnists nailed it. Bravo, Mr. Krauthammer.

ABC's Jake Tapper notes the "Helter-Skelter cult-ish qualities" of "Obama worshipers," what Joel Stein of the Los Angeles Times calls "the Cult of Obama." Obama's Super Tuesday victory speech was a classic of the genre. Its effect was electric, eliciting a rhythmic fervor in the audience -- to such rhetorical nonsense as "We are the ones we've been waiting for. (Cheers, applause.) We are the change that we seek."

That was too much for Time's Joe Klein. "There was something just a wee bit creepy about the mass messianism," he wrote. "The message is becoming dangerously self-referential. The Obama campaign all too often is about how wonderful the Obama campaign is."

Is the First Amendment dead?

Great read by Susan Estrich.

It's between John and Cindy McCain whom he goes out in public with, whether he's friendly with attractive blondes, whether she cares if he went to some dinner in Florida with Ms. Iseman and flew back with her on a private jet.

I care how he votes on bills, not whom he eats dinner with. If Mrs. McCain cares, she can deal with her husband on the subject. If she doesn't, I don't. If this is what a free press means, maybe they should try being a little less free. Or a little more careful.

Back in the saddle again

Life has inspired me to give this whole blog thing another shot.

... it could be that my political juices are beginning to flow again as the country officially settles into the campaign swing of things.

... it could be the pending major change in my family's life as my husband faces a 2-year deployment in a remote location (without us).

... or the fact that I just became an aunt to a teeny tiny baby boy! Yippee!

In actuality, it's probably a combination of all the above. Regardless, I've been feeling the need to write. I don't really have a direction or a plan, but I'm looking forward to the journey.