East Bernard Express (East Bernard, Tex.), Vol. 70, No. 46, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 14, 2013 Page: 4 of 12
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: Wharton County Newspaper Collection and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Wharton County Library.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
age A4 Thursday, November 14, 2013
East Bernard Express
Bill Wallace, Editor & Publisher
bwallace@journal-spectator.com
Keith Magee, Managing Editor
kmagee@journal-spectator.com
Burlon Parsons, Associate Editor
bparsons@journal-spectator.com
P.0. Box 111 • Wharton, Texas 77488 • 979-532-0095 • 979-532-8845 fax
Periodicals Postage Paid at East Bernard, Texas 77435. Annual
subscription price $29.00 per year in Wharton County, Eagle Lake and
Wallis; $39.00 per year elsewhere in Texas; $59.00 per year out of state.
E ist Bernard
Express
Incorporating the
Cast ikntarb Cnbttue
Letters welcomed
Your point of view on local issues is important and deserves a hearing. The Express encourages
readers to express their opinions on a wide variety of issues. Please share them through letters
to the editor. All letters are subject to editing.
This column is intended for opinions, not as a bulletin board of news events or thank-you notes.
All letters must be signed by the writer. Anonymous letters will not be considered for publication.
Please include an address and telephone number (they will not be printed).
Send to P.O. Box 111, Wharton, TX 77488.
For complete information on publishing policy, call the editor at 532-0095.
Send letters to LETTERS, P.O. Box 111, Wharton, TX 77488.
MAILBOX
To the editor:
About four weeks ago, I
had major surgery at Gulf
Coast Medical Center in
Wharton.
I want to thank Dr.
Mystan Gurkin for my sur-
gery. She really is the best
surgeon with a great bedside
manner.
I also want to thank the
nurses in surgery for making
me feel so safe and at ease.
They were so kind and very
caring.
I was in the intensive care
unit for five days, and I just
can’t say enough about the
excellent care I received from
the nurses to the hospital
staff always checking on me
to make sure I was well taken
care of. I had no complaints
at all.
We are so blessed to have
a great hospital with the
great doctors and such caring
nurses. Thanks to all at Gulf
Coast Medical Center for
making my stay a very good
experience.
May God bless you all.
Lorna Kaiser
Wharton
Who me, worry?
There is an old say-
ing, “No need to worry,
nothing is going to turn
out alright.” But the guy
who popularized that
saying was a pessimist.
I remember Race Horse
Haines, a famous trial
lawyer, describing his
more optimistic outlook
on life. He said, “If I have a
client who is charged with
being responsible for a Pit
Bull attack which severely
injured a person, my first line
of defense is that the injured
person provoked the attack.
My second line of defense
is that the dog was simply
protecting his territory, which
the injured person invaded
with full knowledge and
premeditation. My third line
of defense is that my client
doesn’t even have a dog.”
I was talking to a lady
recently who had an unusual
worry on her mind. She was
having cataract surgery and
was only going to risk one eye
at a time in case something
terrible happened and she
went blind.
She said, “I really worry
about this because if I went
blind, my husband would
have to put on my make-
up for me and pick out my
clothes to wear. I know him,
and I just know that he would
mix terrible colors together,
put on two different colors
of shoes, write little things
on my back like ‘I married a
trophy husband’ and smear
my lipstick so that I looked
like The Joker from Batman
and Robin. Then he’d lead me
around and show me off at
receptions.”
We all worry about our
weight, too much or too little.
One guy told me about this
girl he was going with who
was so skinny that she had to
run around under the show-
erhead or she wouldn’t get
wet. Another lady had just
the opposite condition.
She relates the story of
when she was pregnant with
her third child. She was
watching the weigh-in cere-
mony before a big Mike Tyson
fight. When they announced
his fighting weight, she burst
‘Doc’
Blakely
Pokin’ Fun
BW, m
u i »i i
into tears. Her husband, who
was by now used to these
unexpected outbursts, said,
‘What’s the matter now,
darlin’?” She bawled, “Oh,
nooooo, boo hoo hoo. I weigh
more than the heavyweight
champion of the world.”
There was a young guy
who was entered in a “Tough
Man Contest.” He bragged
about his Black Belts, Brown
Belts, 50 shades of Gray
belts, but got beat up by a
wiry little guy. When they
carried him out of the ring
he moaned, “I never thought
about the guys who hit below
the belt.”
My friend Mark worries
about little things, usually of
a deep philosophical nature.
Recently he mused, “If a
man is in his home and does
something, anything, and no
woman is there.. .is he still
wrong?”
My old pal Bill just had a
knee replaced. Lots of people
would find the pain and re-
habilitation challenging, but
not Bill.
He just grins and repeats
his new mantra, “After all
these years, I finally get to
use all those words I learned
in the Navy.”
■
Hey folks: The next Java
Jam will be Friday, Nov. 22,
at the Milam Street Coffee
Shop in downtown Wharton
so as not to conflict with
Thanksgiving. “Loves It,”
a musical duo composed of
Jenny and Vaughn, will be
special guests. They’ve been
here before and were a big
hit. Put the date on your frig.
Part hippie, part rock, part
country, they are a trip.
Doc Blakely is a humor-
ist and motivational speaker
who resides in Wharton. For
more information, visit www.
docblakely.com.
How to reach your
elected/public officials
WHARTON COUNTY
• County Judge Phillip
Spenrath (R)
309 E. Milam St.
Wharton, TX 77488
Phone: 979-5324612
Fax: 979-532-1970
Email: judge.spenrath@
co.wharton.tx.us
Website: www.co.wharton.tx.us
• Pet. 2 Commissioner Chris
King (R)
P.O. Box 399
East Bernard, TX 77435
Phone: 979-335-7541
Fax: 979-335-6029
Email: d.chris@co.wharton.
tx.us
EAST BERNARD
• Mayor Buck Boettcher
704 Church St.
East Bernard, TX 77435
Phone: 979-335-6558
EAST BERNARD ISD
• Charles New,
school board president
723 College St.
East Bernard, TX 77435
Phone: 335-7519, Ext. 119
Email: charles.new@ebisd.org
Like us on Facebook!
wvwv.facebook.com/eastbernardexpress
If/how weather affects
your body and emotions
Because my wife has been planning
to fly to New York this week to visit
our youngest daughter and see our
new grandpuppy Mabel, I checked out
the weather for the area, to find the
weatherman forecasting snow flurries
for tomorrow. The thought of snow flur-
ries took my mind back to the time we
lived in Michigan where flurries were
common, even in November. I remem-
ber how the first flurry in November
made my spirits buoyant, and, later,
how snow in February made me morose
and grouchy.
There’s no doubt that weather affects
us for better or worse in many ways,
and I’m not talking about catastrophic
typhoons that kill and injure thousands
of people as in the case of the Philip-
pines last week; those weather events
affect people in an obvious way.
No, I’m talking about how weather,
in general, can affect our bodies and our
moods. The Associated Press reported
that one in four Americans believe
weather affects our moods. Psycholo-
gists have studied this belief for many
years, and apparently they agree
with the one in four of us who think it
greatly affects our emotions. They have
a term for what we experienced dur-
ing the long Michigan winter — Sea-
sonal Affective Disorder. After months
of snow, ice, zero temperatures, and
no sun, you get a sort of “cabin fever”
which drives you nuts. You start feeling
down and sad and you feel an agoniz-
ingly painful yearning to see the sun, if
just for a short time.
Of course when spring arri ves, the
SAD goes away.
Here in our area where winters are
mild and short, most folks say they
are more likely to feel sad and gloomy
during our monsoons (which have been
a little rarer the past few years). Some
of us indoor types actually feel a little
more upbeat during the rains, maybe
because they help to justify our wanting
to be inside most of the time anyway. Is
it the pleasant temperatures or balmy
breezes in Hawaii that make vacation-
ers feel so cheerful, or is it the pina
coladas and the hula dances?
Psychologists say that it is more
than just rain or snow or sunshine
that affect our emotions. Other fac-
tors are barometric pressure, humidity,
type of cloudiness, windy or non-windy
conditions, temperature, frequency of
change, etc. Psychology being an inex-
act science, I’m not sure we can ever
really nail it.
What is a little easier to nail is the
way that weather affects our bodies.
Professors of geosciences tell us that
barometric pressure changes do affect
our blood pressure, a fact that those
of us with high blood pressure need to
consider. You don’t have to tell those of
us with arthritis that weather affects
our joints, we know that as a fact (even
when some people insist it’s just our
imagination).
If you remember the weather condi-
tions last Sunday, you may understand
why those who came to my church with
walking canes said their joints were
stiffer that morning.
Biometeorologists study the physical
effects weather has on human be-
ings, and they also study how climate
changes can affect geographical areas
and populations; in other words, how
climate changes affect the symptoms of
existing diseases and impact animals,
plants and humans.
There are those who even say the
phases of the moon affect the crime
rate, that more violent crimes and
murders occur during certain phases of
the moon. Whether that’s true or not,
I don’t know, but the moon’s pull does
affect the earth, such as the oceans’
tides, which impact weather conditions,
which impact our bodies and our emo-
tions.
“Shooters, motive a mystery after
deadly house party,” reads the front-
page headlines of today’s Chronicle.
In the Cypress area, two high school
students were killed and twenty others
wounded. One month it’s a campus
shooting, another month it’s a home
shooting. Surely scientists don’t be-
lieve that the awful violence we see so
frequently in America and elsewhere
in the world is weather-related. Some
say it is the culture of violence that is
fostered by the media and electronic
games; some say it’s a lack of gun con-
trol; some say it’s bad parenting; lack
of discipline at school; loss of religious
values, etc. We have a long way to go in
finding an answer to that one, don’t we?
It’s funny how a weather report can
trigger so many ramblings — one of the
joys of being a newspaper columnist.
If I were a geoscientist, a biome-
teorologist, a jurisprudence scientist,
or some other kind of “ist” (other than
a column-ist), I would have to spend
hours every day at my telescope, hours
every day at my microscope, and at
many other devices I don’t know any-
thing about — only to conclude after
a year’s study that “at this time there
is no conclusive evidence to be found.”
Everybody knows to take a columnist
with a grain of salt!
Ray Spitzenberger serves as pastor
of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Wal-
lis, after retiring from Wharton County
Junior College, where he taught English
and speech and served as chairman
of Communications and Fine Arts for
many years.
Republican Party battle:
Pragmatism vs. purism
The mainstream Republican Party
seems ready to borrow the slogan
“Come and Take It,” which the Texans’
flag told the Mexicans in 1835 when the
Mexicans demanded their cannon be
returned.
This comes after two election cycles
in which the mainstreamers attitude to-
ward the Tea Party challenges seemed
to be “Stand By and Take It.”
The more pragmatic, business-
oriented Republican forces are decid-
ing that if they want candidates more
interested in winning general elections
than pleasing the Tea Party, they need
to quit sitting on their hands and fight
back.
Their new fighting spirit comes
in the wake of the Tea Party-driven
16-day government shutdown, led by
freshman Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz,
and its effect on Nov. 5 odd-year elec-
tions for governor in New Jersey and
Virginia and a special primary election
to fill a vacant Alabama congressional
seat.
Republican Gov. Chris Christie
breezed to re-election in Democratic-
leaning New Jersey by cutting deals,
welcoming Democratic President
Barack Obama to the state after Hur-
ricane Sandy and courting Democrats
as well as Republicans.
Meanwhile in Virginia, Republican
Atty. Gen. Ken Cuccinelli, nominated in
a caucus controlled by Tea Party back-
ers, lost the governor’s race to Demo-
crat Terry McAuliffe, who’s never before
held public office.
McAuliffe backed the Affordable
Care Act, nicknamed ObamaCare, said
he’d accept federal money to expand
Medicaid and backs a woman’s choice
on abortion — all opposed by Cuccinelli.
The government shutdown also hurt
Cuccinelli, since a large number of
workers affected by it live in Northern
Virginia. That area provided McAu-
liffe’s narrow victory margin.
In Alabama’s 1st Congressial Dis-
trict, business-oriented establishment
money helped Bradley Byrne beat Tea
Party-backed Dean Young, who had
said he’d be a “Ted Cruz congressman.”
That business-group pushback for
Byrne, including $200,000 from the
U.S. Chamber of Commerce, was not
lost on Republican officeholders ner-
vous about Tea Party challengers in
2014 primaries.
In 2010 and 2012, the National Re-
publican Senatorial Committee, headed
by Texas Sen. John Cornyn, stayed out
of primaries to avoid intraparty battles.
But no more. Senate Republican incum-
bents are ready to play hardball in next
year’s primaries — including Cornyn,
who is up for re-election in 2014.
“If super PACs are going to get
involved in primaries, there has to be
some other people involved in primaries
who are interested in actually winning
the election in November — and not
just purifying the party in the primary,”
Cornyn said.
The Senate Republican committee
has also warned against hiring political
consulting firms who do work for Tea
Party challengers to Senate incum-
bents.
On the House side, former U.S. Rep.
Steven C. LaTourette of Ohio, who quit
the House this year, fed up with the
intraparty fighting and rampant par-
tisanship, formed a group called Main
Street Advocacy to battle the Tea Party.
“We want our party back, and we are
going to do what it takes to accomplish
that,” LaTourette said.
He held a fundraiser in New York
City aimed at raising $8 million to help
eight moderate Republicans defend
their congressional seats being chal-
lenged from the right or to challenge
Tea Party-backed members already in
office.
There are also Super PACs being
formed to aid specific mainstream
Republican House members or candi-
dates to be sure the money backs their
campaigns.
It’s a move to avoid funneling it
through large conservative organiza-
tions where its impact might be diluted
— like Karl Rove’s Crossroads network,
or Americans for Prosperity, linked to
the politically-active Koch brothers.
■
Cornyn has challengers ... but no
biggies: With $7 million already in his
campaign piggy bank, Texas senior
senator and Republican Whip has
challengers, but so far, none considered
worrisome.
The latest to say “No, thanks” to
talk he should run against Cornyn was
religious conservative and former GOP
state vice-chairman David Barton.
Barton estimated he’d have to raise
$200,000 a day from now until the
March 4 primary to come anywhere
close to being competitive.
Others who say they won’t run are
Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Wil-
lett, U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert and Tea
Party activist Katrina Pierson, who is
running a more localized race against
Dallas U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions.
Other GOP primary competitors to
Cornyn include political unknowns Lin-
da Vega, Erick Wyatt, Wayne Stovall,
Roland Casares and Curt Cleaver.
Democrat Maxey Scherr may seek
her party’s nomination, and Libertarian
Jon Roland plans to run.
■
Lieutenant governor candidate Dan
Patrick, the ultra-conservative Houston
state senator and Republican primary
challenger to Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst,
predicts he’ll be in a runoff with Dew-
hurst — in which hell beat the Dew like
Ted Cruz did for the U.S. Senate last
year.
Two other Dewhurst challengers —
Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Pat-
terson and Agriculture Commissioner
Todd Staples — hope to prove Patrick
wrong.
Contact Dave McNeely at davemc-
neelylll@gmail.com or 512-458-2963.
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
Wallace, Bill. East Bernard Express (East Bernard, Tex.), Vol. 70, No. 46, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 14, 2013, newspaper, November 14, 2013; East Bernard, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth787513/m1/4/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Wharton County Library.