At another time and another place, I lived for five delightful years in West by Gawd Texas. While I was there, they elected a new Governor. In that campaign, there was a fascinating event.

Texans shake hands. When they meet. When they agree. When they part. If you do not, you might end up with a hole where your belly button used to be.

There was a race for the governorship between Ann Richards, the Democrat, and Clayton Williams, the Republican.

Claytie was the characature good ol' boy. An oilfield entrepreneur and an Aggie. He had a swimming pool in the shape of an Aggie Corps boot. He took a bunch of reporters out onto the brush for a chuckwagon lunch. A thunder storm came up. The reporters worried about being out there with the lightning. Claytie said “It is like being raped. There is nothing to do but lay back and enjoy it.” He talked about going down to Tijuana to get “serviced”. But nothing he said could shake his place in the hearts of Texans and he stayed on the top.

Ann Richards was the charicature of a Democratic politician. Tough as nails, ran a nasty, kill or be killed, campaign. She was the one who said that George Bush was “born with a silver foot in his mouth” at the Democratic Convention.

One day, in front of the TV cameras, God, and all of Texas, Ann happened to be in the same place as Claytie. She reached out her hand to shake his. And he refused. Claytie's poles plummeted. Richards became the Democratic Governor of Republican Texas.

Barrack, you should have shaken her hand. It was small.

Today is the birthday of W. C. Fields (thanks to my Yahoo home page and the Encyclopedia Britannica). Born this date in 1880 in Philadelphia.

Can not let the opportunity go past.

Sorry about the quality but it is the only long version of "The Dentist" I could find:

A couple of days ago, in “Quotations”, I wrote about some of the thresholds that formed The United States. One of my favorite topics and one of those thresholds was the end of World War II, President Harry S. Truman, and General George Marshall. See my 3 April, 2007 entry. A couple of things brought this to my attention today.

On “Sunday Morning” this morning there was an article on the “monument guys”. They were American soldiers whose task was to return to their rightful owners all the great works of art that Hitler and his officers had looted from museums, dealerships, homes all over Europe. A comment on the show was that to us good guys, the old saying, “to the victor belongs the spoils”, did not apply. That goes for the Marshall Plan, also. And the democratization of Japan. It might have been to combat Communism but it was the right thing to do. Something we can be proud of.

Hawk (http://isntlifestrange.blogstream.com/) left me a response to my comment on Monarchist or Consitutionalist in which he alluded to the stress and strain of the situation creating the great men of America's founding. One of my responses brought up the difference between the Treaty of Versailles and the end of World War II. In 1919, the need was there, the stress and strain, the refiner's cauldron were all there. But the men needed to do it right were not. Definitely not Henry Cabot Lodge. But in 1945 and the years right after, Truman and Marshall and Dean Acheson and a bunch of other Americans were. The right men in the right place at the right time.

Glad to be an American, to have had so many men to be proud of. To the good guys belong the spoils of making the world a better place.

There are some really good country music videos. Honky Tonk Badonkadonk, for one. One of my very favorites is “Whiskey Lullaby”. Be sure to see the ending.

There is a lot of bluegrass that is good. Alison Kraus and union Station were among the best of modern bluegrass.

This video is truly a classic. Thanks to Whit's Whittlings (http://bushsyndrome.blogstream.com/). I must admit that this is one of the kind of things that bring tears to my eyes.

At certain times in history, things that are miraculous seem to come together. The great men in this video who founded our country two hundred and fifty years ago. Lincoln, Lee and Grant, Sherman and Johnston one hundred and fifty years ago. Truman and Marshall fifty years ago. The time has come again. Where are the heroes of our time? Necessity is the mother of miracles. We need some in our political, international, financial situation today. All of you running for an office that affects all of us, all of the modern world, please watch this.