A big thank you to the St. Louis Rams football players who said "Hands up/Don't shoot." before today's Rams game in St. Louis.

The work of freedom is up to each of us. 

Please read all of NeilAquino.com   

Here is a picture of the waiting area of the Honda dealership I was last week to get my car fixed as part of the giant airbag recall. 

Airbags in millions of cars sold to consumers all over the world in recent years are defective. If they go off, they may well shoot shrapnel into your body.

If this had been a government screw-up, you'd never hear the end of it all. 

The private sector makes defective products all the time. The private sector cheats hard-working people out of fair wages all the time.

Folks can keep on bashing government for everything in our society, but in so many cases if were not for government oversight and regulations we would be even more powerless in the face of big money than we are at the moment.

The work of asking for something better is up to each of us. 

Please read all of NeilAquino.com

A good thing in Texas politics is the Texas Progressive Alliance. I am a member of this organization. 

The TPA is a group of citizen-bloggers who each day observe, write about and take an active part in Texas politics at the local and statewide level.

The work of freedom is up to each of us. 

Each week the TPA offers a round-up of the best in Texas blogging for the week just past.

Here is the current round-up--- 

As the Fifth Circuit gets set to hear arguments over Texas' ban on same sex marriage, Off the Kuffreminds us that public opinion is much more favorable towards same sex marriage in Texas now.

Libby Shaw, writing for Daily Kos and Texas Kaos, believes that although this election was lost almost before it began, capitulation is not an option: We Lost the Election but We Are Not Giving Up.

The first beatings in the Republican takeover in Harris County were administered at their election night watch party, as the media that dared to speak during a prayer experienced first-hand the love of Christ and his believers. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs wonders if assaulting a reporter on camera, physically or verbally, is really what Jesus would do.

Despite the ugly results from last Tuesday, CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme refuses to be discouraged. We learn from our mistakes. PS: The Valley went for Davis.

WCNews at Eye on Williamson reminds us that fewer than 30% of eligible voters turned out to vote in the 2014 mid-terms in Texas. Needless to say, 2014 turnout was horrible.

Texpatriate bemoans the fact that Texas will never turn blue. 

Neil at All People Have Value has a news flash: if Democrats want to change their political fortunes, then their policies have to offer a ray of hope for the working class.

Texas Leftist noted that minimum wage initiatives elsewhere in the United States won approval. Might Texas be next?

Dos Centavos also points out that in Texas, Latinos just didn't vote.

In environmental developments, Bluedaze reports on the aftermath of the landslide win for thefracking ban in Denton, and Texas Vox wants to be sure everybody understands the difference between better air and still-bad air. 

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Other blog posts from around the state...

Lone Star Q observes that Westboro Baptist Church is wading into the HERO fight against the Houston pastors.

nonsequiteuse passes along a few suggestions on what might come next.

Socratic Gadfly thinks that the Democrats' Obama problem in 2014 was akin to their Clinton problem in 2000.

Hair Balls informs us that the Fifth Circuit wasn't always a judicial wingnut backwater.

John Wright updates us on Connie Wilson's efforts to get a drivers license that properly uses her wife's surname.

The Lunch Tray divines what the elections mean for school food.

Prairie Weather thinks we ought to just go ahead and let the GOP impeach Obama, since his economic numbers are so bad anyway.

And finally, Carol Morgan says that while the voters may have spoken, what they said makes no sense at all.

Election Day 2014

1. I care./ I don't care.

2. It matters./ We are not offered any meaningful options.

3. We should be involved with politics on Election Day./We should do what we need to do to stay sane and keep hope alive on Election Day.

4. Election Day 2014 outcomes matter./ Real progress will come from actions outside the failing traditional political process.

5. Nothing I'm saying here is contradictory.

99% of the time we should bow, bend & defer.

1% of the time we should stand our ground.

But these two things should have equal weight in defining who we are.

I early voted today in Houston, Harris County, Texas.

I voted for 8 or 9 Green Party nominees and for whatever larger number of Democrats.

There is no Repubilcan fit for public office in Texas until I here of one who renounces the far right extremism of the Abbott/Patrick team at the top of the GOP ballot.

Libertariaism is law of the jungle brutality.

In addition to voting, there is also great and essential value to actions such as the ongoing pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong and the recent climate change match in New York City.

There are many paths to freedom. The work of freedom is up to each of us.

(Please excuse the lack of links and the brevity of recent posts on this blog. My home wi-fi is on the fritz and that is making posting more difficult. Please focus instead on all the ways we can make life better.)