You've read about the Saudia Arabian woman that was raped by seven men and then sentenced to receive 200 lashes with a bamboo stick and then six months in jail haven't you?

I am just as prepared to go to war with Saudia Arabia for violating women's rights as human beings as I am to go to war with a country full of suicide bombers. I get that they claim it's part of their religion. Under their laws, women cannot drive. In education, they are segregated. Male and female teachers have to meet via the phone or Internet. Women working at the bank have to enter through a separate door.

Let's get back to this whole religion thing...how convenient right? Our God says we can subjugate and oppress women. We can marry as many as we want and oh, they can't drive a car.

I can't...I, uh...But...They can't...Ugh..I don't even know where to start. I guess we could relate this to how Christians used the Bible to justify slavery. Or, I guess we could relate this to how, in America, some people justify the discrimination against gays. Maybe it's also kind of like how Christians want laws violating a woman's right to privacy over her own body.

Crap. We're just as bad as they are. I was all ready to sit in righteous judgment about how f'ed up their culture is and be full of moral outrage at how they treat women and then I realized...before I start chucking rocks at their culture maybe I ought to think about what I'm doing to fight to defend my own neighbors in America first.

Damn you, logical thinking! Damn you to hell!

It's 3:30 pm on the day before Thanksgiving, so damn near everyone should be heading out of the office. I hope that y'all in the Capitol are getting a few days off - heck, hopefully you're reading this from home. Let us know who the Grinches are up there ... who's being forced to work Friday or, God forbid, tomorrow?!

Well, I hope everyone has a nice holiday planned. I'm not going home this year, so I'll be in town. I love Thanksgiving and am kinda sad I won't be with the whole family this year. I am looking forward to a few days of rest.

One of the most memorable Thanksgivings I had was when I was 15 we all went up to New York and stayed at the Waldorf-Astoria and saw the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade. For Thanksgiving dinner we ate at The Sea Grill in Rockefeller Center and went ice skating afterwords. It was such an awesome trip I still remember every detail of the trip.

Oil is clearly heading past that $100 mark. Every time I fill up the car, I'm seeing that it gets more and more expensive. It was $40, then $53, now it's $58 to fill 'er up. Thankfully, I changed jobs so my commute is significantly reduced. I was filling up twice a week, now it's down to every two weeks.

What sort of budget adjustments will I have to make if prices keep going up? Well, for me..none, because I'm rich. But, for poor people it certainly has to be something they think about. It upsets me because I hate to spend money on something like gasoline. On the other hand, those hybrid cars are so f'ing hideous I couldn't possibly be seen driving one. It's quite the conundrum.

Governor Rick Perry today decided Republican Mark Shelton and Democrat Dan Barrett would face off on December 18.

According to the Fort Worth Star Telegram, city official announced they would move the City Council runoff to the same date.(QR)

Well that ought to go over like a turd in a punchbowl.

For a ton of overweight, middle America that made the trip of a lifetime to NYC for the holidays to see the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and real live Broadway Show, the holiday is ruined. Stagehands are on strike and talks broke down.

The writers in L.A. are on strike in an unrelated demand to get paid for the work they produce. Seriously? Can you believe? The writer's strike in L.A. is the most annoying. Have you seen the YouTube videos of the people on strike? You'd think they were standing up against genocide in Darfur. So very self-righteous...as all people in L.A. are, right? That whole we make the world go around attitude they have and the whole time you're thinking...uhm...you work in movies you dumb shit, you aren't curing cancer.

The latest news was that CBS News writers were going on strike.

What will we do? Where will we turn for our news and entertainment? Everybody panic!

Freddie Mac posts a $2 billion third-quarter loss. Oh. My. God. That's a lot of foreclosures. So much so that Congress is considering legislation to require banks to allow tenants in rental property up to six months continued lease if their home is foreclosed upon. There's also new crime up in neighborhoods with a lot of foreclosed houses. People are stealing copper wiring, hardware, appliances and siding off of foreclosed properties.

I know nobody wants to say it, but...still in a war we can't pay for, near record high oil prices, weak dollar oversees, billions in defaulted home mortgages...nervous anyone?

Here's a perfect opportunity for you wannabe bloggers!

Find out the deets by clicking the "permalink"

Do you ever read the craigslist postings in the "politics" section? I peruse it every once in a while to see what the level of crazy is and it's always off the chart. Everything is conspiracy theories, liberal whining or conservative facism. The postings are like they are written by crazed escapees from a mental institution.

The sad part is those people that post in there are walking amongst us.

FM1460 is the 'road of hope' for Round Rock's development. As plans for growth are well underway, money to improve the road has been snatched back by the feds and there they all sit....suckin' on a pickle.

The money cut out of the budgets means new roads aren't on the horizon for any of us, and the money left is going to be shifted to maintaining the existing roads we do have. Bring on some toll roads cause we need congestion relief just as bad as they need to fix that damn pothole from hell on Live Oak.