A Texas woman to make us all proud

I am so in awe of Texas State Senator Wendy Davis. She's got a tiny bit over three hours to go in her thirteen-hour filibuster to prevent the Texas legislature from passing the strictest anti-abortion law in the country. The bill, sponsored by men with a sketchy knowledge of medicine, especially the female reproductive system, but political ambitions, would close ninety percent of the reproductive health care clinics in the state, forcing some rural women to drive hundreds of miles for care. Many would simply go without, to the detriment of their health, and so would many poor women. I believe it also bars exceptions in cases of rape and incest. It's a severe ramping up of the "war on women."
Senator Davis, wearing pink running shoes, is reading letters from hundreds of women all over Texas, telling their stories. Some letters have made the senator cry as she reads. Some have prompted questions from her opposition, giving her a slight break in talking. Whens she completes the filibuster, shortly after midnight, she will have successfully defeated the bill. Law requires this special called session to end at midnight tonight. Governor Rick Perry could conceivably call a second special session--and there are rumors he's considering it--which would cost Texas $30,000 a day. But I think both sides are tired of the fight. The session was originally called ostensibly to consider taxes or budget but has dealt with nothing but the abortion issue, which did not pass during the regular session.
Senator Davis cannot sit down, drink water (or anything else), take a bathroom break or any other kind of break. The filibuster rules are strict, and I got to wondering how one "trains" for this ordeal. Do you load up on water to avoid dehydration, or do you stop drinking it well in advance to avoid bathroom emergencies? One has to think of practicalities. Whatever, Senator Davis didn't have long. Her colleagues chose her to do this job just a day or two ago. The record for a filibuster in Texas is held by a gentleman (sorry I forget his name or the nature of the issue) who talked for something like forty-five hours. He was quoted today as saying the hardest part was staying awake.
Some time back I heard mention of Senator Davis as a possible gubernatorial candidate--for heaven's sake, we've got to have someone to get Perry out of office. Whether she'll run or not, no one knows, but I foresee a grass roots campaign to draft her.
Texas has a history of extraordinarily strong women, and someone commented today how much we miss Ann Richards and Molly Ivins. They'd have blistered the Republican-controller legislature. I once wrote a Texas Small Book for TCU Press titled Extraordinary Texas Women. If I had it to do over again, I'd surely add Wendy Davis. Proud to say she used to be my state representative and is from my part of Fort Worth--or maybe I should say I'm from her part of Fort Worth.
Go, Wendy! You can do this!

Current events--state, national and personal

I am much less upset about domestic spying than I am by the law the Texas legislature is trying to pass, dooming many women to back-alley, coat-hanger abortions and depriving poor women of affordable, available medical care. One person on Facebook suggested they don't care about individual women, they just want to please their base. I can't figure out what base the Republicans have left since they've alienated Hispanics, black Americans, women, and most thinking people. Who's left? Old, angry white men. Enough to vote them back into office and to re-elect Governor Perry, who supposedly called this special session over--what was it? taxes? budget?--Whatever it was, it got dumped and the session has been devoted to abortion legislation. And now Perry's talking about another special session--which will cost taxpayers tons of money--did I read #30,000/day. Our fiscally conservative governor. I love Texas, but too often I'm ashamed to live here.
On to the matter of domestic spying, which doesn't particularly upset me. Wasn't the program started under President Bush? Why were there no outcries then? Because no Snowden came forward? Since there's been testimony that some 50 terrorist attacks have been averted, I think it's well worth keeping. If you're trying that hard to hide something, it's probably something you shouldn't be doing. I don't think whoever's doing the wire-tapping, etc., pays much attention o us ordinary citizens.
As for the Snowden person, I think he's getting far too much more attention (and sympathy in some quarters) than he deserves: if he had a security clearance, I would presume he took an oath not to reveal what he knew. He violated that and caused his country all kinds of trouble-is that really patriotism. Besides, his background doesn't exactly support him with credibility. But that's all another matter.
Though I did have an eye-opening encounter with the FBI today. I got an email on a writers listserv that pointed out that bookos.org was posting pirated books. I've asked them to cease and desist before and they've done so, but I checked today and several of my titles were listed, including Mattie, which is my bestseller on Amazon. So the os in their name, which undoubtedly means out of stock, is not true. The email alert gave instructions for reporting them to the FBI, with the caveat that the FBI gets a gazillion tips a day but if enough of us complain, they might do something. So I clicked on the FBI tip site, filled out my name, and lo and behold! the site automatically filled in all my other information. Now I realize that may be a computer function, but it was, as I said, eye-opening to even think the FBI had it that accessible.
Two cooking magazines arrived in the mail today, but I resisted and finished reading galleys on my next Kelly O'Connell Mystery. Danger Comes Home will launch as an e-book the week of July 22--a nice birthday present for me--with print to follow. So now I've read galleys, typed the list of my corrections, and sent it to the editor. I can have the guilty pleasure of reading recipes the rest of the evening.