My Body & Me: A Love/Hate Story and Texas AG Impeached
My Body & Me: A Love/Hate Story and Texas AG Impeached
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My Body & Me: A Love/Hate Story
My body is an assassin. And his main target is me. He wants to kill me, but not all at once. He’s a sadistic sniper, hitting me here, allowing me to recover, then hitting me again in a different spot. He shot me with leukemia, prostate cancer, and Afib. He’s not done. He’s waiting out there somewhere, crouching in the bushes, controlling his breathing, line up his crosshairs on a fresh part of my body.
Oh, the betrayal. My body and I used to be best buds. We chummed around everywhere together, eating great food, playing basketball, enjoying romantic relationships. Sometimes we got hurt, but we healed fast and laughed it off. Together we felt like we could do anything, achieve greatness. And we did.
Now I sometimes feel about my body like I’m caring for a gruff hobbling parent, hauling him to appointment after appointment, while he shows no gratitude. Yet, he leans all his considerable weight on me as I schlep him around all day. It’s exhausting.
Still, I love the old curmudgeon. He may trip me when I’m not looking. May make me forget a book title or where I left my glasses. May be adding a laser scope to his rifle. But sometimes he forgets his sinister mission and comes out from the bushes to hang with old friends, play with grandchildren, and comfort others. He’s not all bad.
Our evolving relationship has actually done me more good than harm. I learned how to lean on others when I was ill. That is not a small accomplishment. Each clumsy potshot he’s taken has brought me closer to my friends and family. Plus, seeing dedicated doctors and nurses doing all they could to help me nurtured my faith in humanity. Faith in humanity is an endangered emotion these days, so I’m happy whenever I experience it anew.
Maybe my body isn’t an assassin. Maybe it’s still my best buddy. It’s just that now we have a different, more mature relationship, based on shared joys and shared struggles. In his song “Old Friends,” Paul Simon wrote about two old men sitting on a park bench: “Old friends, memory brushes the same years/Silently sharing the same fears.” Me and my body are those old friends. Maybe we do share the same fears about deterioration and death, but they’re a lot less scary facing them together.
And neither of us intends, as Dylan Thomas said, to “go gentle into that good night.”
Effort to impeach Ken Paxton, led by fellow Republicans, sets off political earthquake in Texas (The Texas Tribune)
SUMMARY: For nearly a decade, Texas Republicans largely looked the other way as Attorney General Ken Paxton's legal problems piled up.
That abruptly changed this week.
In revealing it had been secretly investigating Paxton since March — and then recommending his impeachment on Thursday — a Republican-led state House committee sought to hold Paxton accountable in a way the GOP has never come close to doing. It amounted to a political earthquake, and while it remains to be seen whether Paxton’s ouster will be the outcome, it represents a stunning act of self-policing.
“We’re used to seeing partisans protect their own, and in this case, the Republicans have turned on the attorney general,” said Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston. “It’s really surprising.”
MY TURN: How evil must you be when even Texas Republicans, who have passed some of the most heinous legislation in the country, think you’ve gone too far? Paxton, the state’s top law enforcement official, who was indicted in 2015 on felony securities fraud charges, has been accused by former staff members of abusing his office and committing bribery, and of using $3.3 million in taxpayer money in his settlement with four whistleblowers. (Here are the 20 articles of impeachment from the Texas House. Makes for disturbing reading.)
Paxton knew impeachment was coming and tried to deflect by accusing House Speaker Dade Phelan of being drunk during a House session and calling for his resignation (“Texas AG Ken Paxton accused the state's House Speaker Dade Phelan of being intoxicated during a late night vote as Texas House panel investigates AG”). It didn’t work. Paxton has been impeached and temporarily removed from office pending the Senate hearing.
Predictably, Ted Cruz is supporting Paxton, saying, “No attorney general has battled the abuses of the Biden admin more ferociously—and more effectively—than has Paxton.” Even if that was true, that doesn’t address the crimes he committed or his abuse of office. That’s like defending Harvey Weinstein by saying, “No one made better movies with Matt Damon.” Trump is also threatening to attack anyone who votes to remove Paxton from office. After all, Paxton did sue several states to prevent the counting of electoral votes in an effort to subvert the election in favor of Trump. Nothing reveals Trump and Cruz’s character than publicly supporting a criminal and threatening anyone who holds him accountable. Worse, they know their own supporters won’t care that they do this.
It’s tempting to dismiss this all as just Texas’ problem. But the state has a lot of influence over other states and has a large block of electoral votes. Corruption at the top of the state can affect the rest of the country.
What’s the lesson? Despite years of credible accusations of corruption, as well as a terrible record as an AG, Texans re-elected Paxton in 2022 for a third term. This isn’t about party politics—it’s about a state continuing to elect horrible people who have openly shown contempt for the voters who elected them. The Lone Star State: Is that their Yelp rating?