Master rosarian Mike Becker has more than 500 roses in the back yard of his home in Southlake, Texas: climbers, ramblers and miniatures; European classics and modern hybrids. He’s won awards for ‘lavaglut,’ the second one featured below. His used to be the largest private rose garden in Texas, until a tornado damaged over 200 plants a few years ago. Regardless, it’s still more than a little impressive. All photos courtesy Sonya N. Hebert, Dallas Morning News.
In this opinion piece from his The Rare Reporter column, David Webb compares and contrasts Dallas Country Sherriff Lupe Valdez and Pinal County, Arizona Sheriff Paul Babeau. Each has come under the usual scrutiny that high-ranking law enforcement officials usually experience. But, while Valdez has been criticized for her lack of oversight of the Dallas County jail system, Babeau has fallen victim to the same type of sex scandals that have become all too common in politics. Valdez first ran for sheriff in 2004 and scored a triple win; she is the first woman, first Hispanic and first openly gay or lesbian person to hold that position. A former Border Patrol agent, she dared to challenge Dallas County’s ‘good old boys’ network. While she didn’t acknowledge her sexuality in 2004, it never really became an issue. And, no one seemed to mind; in fact, no one seemed to care. For once – a rarity in Dallas County and anywhere in the nation – the voting electorate actually seemed to focus more on the candidate’s record and what she planned to do in the future. Her business-minded nature and somewhat subdued personality allowed her reelection in 2008.
Babeau probably wished he had it so good. He first ran and won the sheriff’s office in a landslide 2008 victory over his Democratic incumbent, becoming the first Republican to hold the office in Pinal County’s history. He boasts a 20-year career with the U.S. Army National Guard and has been in law enforcement almost as long. He’s now running for Congress. He’s also gay – a fact that never came out during his first run for office and something that doesn’t seem to give much pause to either his colleagues or his constituency. In other words, as with Valdez, people don’t seem to care about that. But, Babeau has become enmeshed in a sex scandal; one seemingly related to his career. An illegal Mexican immigrant, José Orozco, claims Babeau threatened to deport him if he revealed their romantic relationship. As with many of these situations, it’s often one person’s word against another. Who’s to say someone didn’t drag Orozco into the open and pay him to make the accusation against Babeau? Then again, maybe if Babeau hadn’t taken pictures of himself in his underwear and had another picture of him with a hand in Orozco’s unbuttoned shirt, he wouldn’t be in this mess. But, I just shook my head at the entire fiasco. It seems our political figures aren’t just expected to be ebullient and jovial 100% of the time; they’re sometimes expected to be asexual. No one seems to be talking now about Babeau’s record as sheriff, or his commitment to such things as border security. They just want to see how many salacious photos of him they can find on the Internet.
Survivalist Tip: I’d mentioned in previous posts that you should stockpile corn and rice in preparation for the apocalypse, since both are good basic sustenance foods. Beans are another such item. Beans are of unknown origin, probably first cultivated in Afghanistan and Egypt about 4,000 years ago. Egypt continued growing bean stalks, while Afghanistan switched to poppy plants – and look what happened! But, beans also were cultivated in ancient American societies, most notably in present-day Peru, but also in Guatemala. Guatemala, of course, is where the Mayans were deposited from the Heavens. Beans are easy to store and even easier to cook. Like corn and rice, beans are high in starch, but more importantly, high in protein. Protein, as I’ve mentioned more than once, will be critical in the immediate aftermath of the upheaval. A meal of corn, rice and beans is a great way to stay healthy in the uncertain days following December 21. And, don’t worry about any gas – that shit will just pass!
Director – screenwriter Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction, True Romance, Reservoir Dogs) is 49.
Singer Mariah Carey (Vision of Love, Emotions, Music Box, Daydream; only artist with a #1 single in every year of the 1990s; has spent more weeks at #1 than any other artist) is 42.
1845 – Wilhelm Roentgen, who discovered x-rays, was born in Lennep, Germany.
1860 – The corkscrew was patented by M.L. Byrn of New York City.
1905 – British police used fingerprint evidence to solve the murders of Thomas and Ann Farrow, shopkeepers in South London; the first time the technology was used to solve a crime.
1912 – First Lady Helen Taft, wife of U.S. President William Howard Taft, and the Viscountess Chinda, wife of the Japanese Ambassador, planted the first two cherry trees in Washington, D.C. The trees are Yoshino cherries, and are still standing several hundred yards west of the John Paul Jones statue at the south end of 17th Street.
1973 – Marlon Brando turned down the Best Actor Oscar for his role in The Godfather.
1977 – Two Boeing 747 jets, a Pan Am and a Dutch KLM, collided at an airport on Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the Canary Islands in heavy fog. The disaster killed 582 passengers and crew in the deadliest crash in aviation history.
“[T]eaching children about contraception is comparable to telling kids not to do drugs, then showing them how to ‘mainline’ heroin.”
— Utah state Sen. Margaret Dayton, co-sponsor of Utah legislation that would have allowed school districts to drop sex education and required abstinence-only instruction in those that kept it.
As a politician, I’m sure Dayton knows a lot about sex, drugs and poor decisions.
As a model car collector, I love just about any kind of miniatures, especially those involving vehicles. This particular display in Hamburg, Germany features the largest model railway in the world, plus a bevy of realistic model vehicles in an equally realistic miniature setting.
Chief Writing Wolf 