Is Texas Our Future?

On the cover of the October 28, 2013, copy of "Time" magazine, there was a picture of the United States of Texas! All of the present states were states in Texas. I thought maybe I was dreaming, but no, that's what it said. I will quote the first paragraph of the article:  "They say the Lone Star State has four seasons: drought, flood, blizzard and twister. This summer 97% of the state was in a persistent drought; in 2011 the Dallas-Fort Worth area experienced 40 straight days in July and August of temperatures of 100 degrees or higher. The state's social services are thin. Welfare benefits are skimpy. Roughly a  quarter of residents have no health insurance. Many of its schools are less than stellar. Property-crime rates are high. Rates of murder and other violent crimes are hardly sterling either.  A recent report from the FBI found that the home state of Chuck Norris led the nation as the place the most people got punched or kicked to death in 2012."

This was written by Tyler Cowen, an economist and Libertarian, who says Texas has acquired a cool factor recently, and it's a place where people go to get a fresh start. I certainly don't agree with that. The people moving there are not adding to middle America, they are dumbing it down to lower than middle. The only good news I've heard recently coming out of Texas is that a federal judge just knocked down the new law that  would make it impossible for clinics to provide abortions unless they were situated within 30 miles of a hospital. That's right on the way to destroying Roe v. Wade. That law would have put about 30 clinics out of business which was the idea all along. The good ol' people of Texas say they will fight the judge's decision all the way to the supreme court. I wonder if they ever solved their problem of not having anymore drugs for executions. They execute so many people in Texas you'd think they'd have a big stock of that kind of drug on hand. I certainly wouldn't want to move to a state which couldn't execute at will as Texas seems to do.

The article goes on to say Texas has many good things going for it. Maybe it does. but they aren't apparent to me. The undesirable aspects out-weigh the good ones by far and it would be the last place I would ever consider living. 

I miss Richard Belzer

Richard, who played John Munch on "Law&Order: SVU,'' retired from the show recently. And I miss him. I've watched the L&O franchise from the beginning. They began in 1988 and stopped in 2010 with the first show. They have three shows and Belzer was on the second one, "Special Victim's Unit," one which is centered on sex crimes. That is not my favorite one - I think the original one with Jerry Orbach was my favorite. He was very good and kept me interested as he was always wise-cracking and sarcastic which set him apart for me. But all three of them are very good - sort of like eating macaroni and cheese with a glass of milk and then lying down on he couch - very comforting. The third one is "Law&Order: Criminal Intent" which is about the big cases. That one is still on as are the other two in re-runs. SVU is still being produced.

Richard Belzer came from the show "Homicide: Life on the Street" which was a series showing the work of a fictional version of the Baltimore Police Department's Homicide Unit. That began in 1993 and ran until 1999. I watched every episode and loved it! The police were all so funny at times, and Richard Belzer was very good in it. They had many crazy incidents that happened during the filming sometimes - one in particular was when someone came running in from the street wanting to confess to something and surrender! I guess they looked pretty professional. Belzer was always very competent and intelligent - also he was pretty funny. I like that in a man - smart and funny. That makes him sexy - at least it does to me. He always found out things about the perps that he dug up from his reading or his own knowledge of things Jewish or out of the ordinary. He brought so much to the SVU franchise that it's going to be hard to replace his character. I feel like I've lost a friend and don't like that feeling. I remember when Jerry Orbach left L&O he supposedly went to the DA's office as an investigator. But he died shortly thereafter with pancreatic cancer. I

certainly hope Belzer does better in the DA's office where he's going although I don't think we'll ever see him. I thought he might do stand-up comedy, but Teri says he wants to go live in his house in France! How does she know and why didn't she warn me? 

"Brooklyn Nine-Nine"  -  new Fox show

In a recent blog, I mentioned I don't like Fox and don't watch it. I should have said it was Fox news that didn't appeal to me because of their politics. I am very liberal which is not what Fox news is all about. But I do like their entertainment shows, and there's a new one I think is so very funny! "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" makes me laugh out loud! I usually watch dramas like "Breaking Bad" -  I watched the finale three times already! It was excellent. I also like "The Bridge," "Homeland" and "Justified" - those types of shows. But I need something to make me laugh, especially with all the bad news that is constantly in our faces. "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" is about Andy Samberg who plays a new cop in a station of very interesting other cops. The captain or whatever you call the leader is Andre Braugher, playing a part I've never seen him do before. He's quite funny and has his hands full with Andy who is always doing something funny or not according to the rules. The entire cast is good. The show makes me laugh out loud and there aren't many that do that. Another one that did was "The Good Guys" about two cops. They were crazy and very funny. The writing in both those shows is good and really gets to me. Maybe I have a cop thing? I was crushed when Fox took the "Good Guys" off the air - why wasn't I informed?

So . . . I'm happy with Andy Samberg and think he made a good transition from "Saturday Night Live" to his "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" show. I didn't see him much on "Saturday Night Live" as I always sped up my DVR to watch Seth Meyers. I hope people watch Andy's new show so it will stay on and make me laugh! Andy is a really funny guy!