Rick Perry sleeps at night - Pontius Pilate didn't!

Death Row Cell in Texas - spot the cruciform layout!

Rick Perry lives the life of a politician flipping from religious rhetoric to populist polemic. I sometimes wonder what Bible these politicians are reading. Perry apparently doesn't believe in the New Testament doctrines but prefers a version of religion that suits the hollering hordes he's trying to ingratiate himself with. He is also something of a church flipper. That apparently is a person who "tries out" various denominations but is not firm;y rooted in any one. It a sort of glad handing approach, rather like the rubber chicken circuit in the secular world.

If Rick Perry sleeps at night not bothering whether a person is innocent or not then he's not a Christian in the real sense to my mind. In any event, death is not a penalty for Christians. For those who think they will be snuffed out  like a candle death probably is no problem either. However, it seems that Rick Perry's idea is that a person should see losing his life in this world as some sort of forfeiture. That amounts to a mockery of the Gospel.

Now I don't know whether those on Death Row in Texas have any Christian belief or not. If they have truly repented of their sins then the Gospel tells us that that is fine. Now that may not sit well with the hollering crowd that Perry seeks to influence at the polls. They seem to hold no truck with the Good Shepherd seeking out His lost sheep. Perhaps they would prefer it if the sheep that are not in the pen are given a good waterboarding in the sheep dip.

Perry may think talking tough as the Texan governor will make him electable. But there will come a time when he will have to account for those soporific nights. Will he be so bold in front of the whole company of Heaven? Pontious Pilate had his doubts. Rick Perry doesn't seem to have any. Strange.

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Rick Perry sneers at Obama's lack of military experience

Praying for victory Rick Perry style

Rick Perry is a Texan to the core. Fifth generation. With that sort of heritage he is probably related to Stephen F Austin, the Father of Texas. But Austin was a Texan of a different sort. Secretary of State for the Republic of Texas, albeit for a short time, he died uttering these words, "The independence of Texas is recognized! Don't you see it in the papers?..." Had the republic succeeded, today Rick Perry's ambitions in Washington could be as Ambassador for Texas. But that's all history and conjecture.

Mr Perry is up and running for president - of the United States. And he is coming out hard with the rhetoric of a rattle snake. So Rick Perry served in the USAAF as a pilot and got to be a captain. All very good, but does that make him better than the current president. Hardly. It's a cheap shot to suggest that those with no experience of serving in the military are inadequately placed to serve as president. It's a bit below the belt to suggest such a thing. It also suggests a "touch of the white feather". He says, alluding to Obama, "Experience matters. Having walked in a person’s shoes, having done what these men and women in the military are doing matters to them,” Perry said. “I don’t want somebody sitting in the front-left seat of the airliner who just got their pilots license."

People say nasty things. Harry Truman was muttered about because he was "a haberdasher's son". Elliot Richardson was considered "far too patrician to be president". Ronald Reagan was described as being a "B-movie actor" in such a way as to make him out to be inferior. Rick Perry can join the sniders and snigglers if he wants to. With an evangelical zeal! But if he wants to be president let the people of America choose him on his merits and not on his ability to score cheap points.

An independent Texas is still remembered in London through photos and cuisine.

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Texas executes another felon and carries on with life

Here yesterday, gone today

Texas has just executed another in a long line of executions. It's a kind of industry for the Governor and his minions. The fact that it continues rather like dispatching cattle in an abattoir is proof positive that it does not work. All it does is provide work for the incarcerators and death cell operatives. It also gives radio stations something to talk about and the religious right to pronounce on evil as they see it.

Texas is not a safer place because Mark Stroman has gone to meet his Maker. Successive governors, including the immigrant from Maine, Dubya Bush, have failed to stop the killings. They see death as a way to solve the problem. It's all very strange. When it comes to George Bush's death, will he go thinking he can make a good case in Heaven for judicial killings? What if he sees Stroman in a favoured place amongst the heavenly hosts? Will he smile sweetly or cause a rumpus?

I think the two most affected persons in this matter, namely the victim and the murderer, come out quite well. Stroman made his peace with the world and his victim Rais Bhuiyan made his peace with Stroman saying, "His execution will not eradicate hate crimes from this world. We will just simply lose another human life". Mr.Bhuiyan sounds like an exemplary human being. He also exemplifies Christian teaching in a nutshell.

So life carries on in Texas. Who cares that Stroman got executed? By next week, virtually nobody. The killing machine will still be there though and the death row industry in full swing (without the ropes!).

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Standing up for Texas!

The rumblings within the states against overbearing federal interference is making its mark. Texas has laid down a gauntlet. Governor Perry is backing the resolution affirming Texas Sovereignty under the 10th Amendment. This signifies to me the way in which written constitutions can unravel and the unravelling will be strongest in Texas.

Once the former Governor of Queensland, Australia, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen (a man of Danish background) said this, concerning the sacking of the federal premier Gough Whitlam. "What I say is this! First it's God, then the Queen, then Queensland, then Australia!" Gough Whitlam wasn't given much credence. Something similar could be said of Texas. "What we say is this! First it's God, then Texas!" Washington may have to think more carefully.

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