The longtime Catholic bishop of the Houston area has announced his retirement:

Archbishop Joseph A. Fiorenza, who led more than 1 million Texas Roman Catholics for more than 20 years, announced his resignation Tuesday because he has reached the 75-year-old age limit for the job.

The Vatican confirmed that Pope Benedict XVI had accepted the resignation of the leader of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston.

"I am deeply grateful to God that he has given me the great privilege of serving the church," Fiorenza said. "There is a need for new vigor, new fervor, fresh enthusiasm, new ideas and new leadership."

He leaves the diocese in very capable hands:

Archbishop Coadjutor Daniel N. DiNardo, whom Pope John Paul II selected in 2004 to replace Fiorenza, attended the announcement with Fiorenza.

"I look forward to being a part of this community at large and to working with other local faith and government leaders," he said. "I ask you all to pray for me that God will give me the wisdom, strength and grace to be a good shepherd."

I hope Archbishop Fiorenza enjoys his retirement. He’s certainly earned it.

Hanoi Jane Fonda is at it again. This time in Sydney, Australia.

Fonda calls for Iraq exit 

 ACTOR and political activist Jane Fonda says coalition forces should leave Iraq and has labelled the conflict "disgusting" and "despicable". Fonda, once dubbed Hanoi Jane for her opposition to America’s role in the Vietnam War, said too many lives were being lost after an invasion of Iraq that was based on lies. "I think it is a crime, a tragedy, disgusting and despicable," Fonda said in Sydney.

No Jane what is a crime, a tragedy, disgusting and dispicable is the fact that you are in Sydney to hawk your book and you took the opportunity to slam the United States once again.

Fonda’s political activism, film career and personal life are covered in her autobiography, titled My Life So Far, which she is in Australia to promote.

This is quite a change from a year ago when Fonda told Lesley Stahl in a "60 Minutes" interview

her 1972 visit to a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun site, an incident that brought her the nickname "Hanoi Jane," was a "betrayal" of American forces and of the "country that gave me privilege."

I guess it takes what it takes to sell books.

I wonder if Anna-Nicole is interested in the job.
I hear she needs the money….

Today The New York Times posts an article (free registratioin required) that says that the third rail of Canadian politics has shorted to ground and is being ripped up by the populace. I speak of Socialized Medicine. Private clinics and hospitals are opening all across the country and public doctors and hospitals are referring patients right and left. WHY? If you were diagnosed with cancer, how would YOU feel about waiting almost a month and a half before starting chemo or radiation? If you needed a hip replacement how would you feel about waiting almost a year before getting one? THAT’S why it is being dismantled. You can read more here and here.

A motley crew.

Strange bedfellows.

I got a fever and the only prescription is more cowbell!

Your taxdollars at work:

Rodeo fans and others planning to ride Metro’s light rail line today should expect that delays may continue as workers repair water damage that caused a shutdown of part of the line Monday.

This morning’s rush-hour service will be delayed, said Metro spokeswoman Raequel Roberts, as the agency continues to test the soil beneath its track at San Jacinto and Hermann Drive.

[snip]

Monday’s problem developed as the Metropolitan Transit Authority was celebrating ”20 Millionth Rider Day," but the event was celebrated anyhow, with music and prizes. MetroRail has logged 20 million boardings since opening for business Jan. 1, 2004…

Sounds like it was fun… can’t wait until mid-2012, for METRO’s "20 Millionth FarePayer Day."

Courtesy today’s Houston Chronicle:

A mysterious powder that set off a ricin scare at the University of Texas campus likely will remain a mystery, FBI officials said late Monday.

The coarse powder, which a UT student from Pearland found in a roll of quarters Thursday while doing laundry, prompted an FBI investigation after state lab results came back positive for the deadly toxin. But testing at a federal lab in Maryland showed the powder did not contain ricin.

The FBI announced Monday that it had closed its investigation without determining what the powder was.

A coarse white powder in a laundry room..

Hmm… has anyone bothered to test to see if it was, you know, DETERGENT?

Hope your day goes better than this kid’s…

Really, I do solemnly swear to not flame liberals. (Maybe)

David Benzion approached me at the last LST Bar Blogging Tour and asked if I would like to blog on the front page of LST.  After about a millisecond I said sure why not, enjoyed the rest of the night, came home and said to myself, "What have I gotten into now." 

Actually the better question might be, "What are you gettin?"  I really do not know either but we shall see.  So for now I will say thanks to the commenters, bloggers and David for letting me earn your trust. 

You’ve grown to love him as a comment thread moderator– now you’ll soon forget how you lived without him as an LST blogger.

Please welcome our newest full-fledged front-page contributor– Mr. Squawkbox, of Squawkbox Noise.

And now we have proof!

Hat tip Clayton Cramer’s Blog

For your electoral pleasure, we’ll be re-posting on a daily basis the following links:

• CLOUT’S Candidate Endorsement List, along with Paul Bettencourt’s recommendations that you vote "YES" on all four GOP primary ballot questions;
• An online guide to assist you in finding an early voting location in Harris County; the same information, in a pdf file you can print.

And now, some frequently asked questions:

Q: Why did CLOUT make the endorsement that they did?

A: Because they wanted to. Feel free to call Edd in the morning if you need more information.

Q: Why didn’t CLOUT make an endorsement in the FILL-IN-THE-BLANK race?

A: Because they didn’t want to. Feel free to call Edd in the morning if you need more information.

Q: Why has / hasn’t LoneStarTimes.com done / not done something I wanted / didn’t want / still want you to do?

A: Because we wanted / didn’t want / don’t want to do it.

Thank you for your understanding.

METRO has a problem with transparancy, now that problem appears to be contagious. Tom Bazan, that intrepid Anti-METRO warrior, filed a TXPIA records request of all TxDOT records of inspections of the Pierce Elevated support structure where it goes over the Dangertrain Tracks in regard to galvanic corrosion of the rebar in the concrete pilings due to stray current coming from the trolley.

This is, as some of you may know, a very dangerous issue. Stray Current can cause massive corrosion damage in surrounding steel structures quite quickly. It essentially sets up an electroplating cell in reverse and blasts metal ions off unprotected metal out into the surrounding soil. Moisture and chlorides (salt) in the soil also contribute by making the soil more conductive.

Reinforced concrete is especially susceptible because steel corrosion products take up more space than the original steel, therefore those corrosion products act like a wedge and cause cracks to form in the concrete. Once cracks form and more moisture can get to the steel, the process accelerates. Once concrete is damaged this way, its repair is difficult or impossible.

Concrete is not waterproof, anyone who has ever lived up north and found water leaking into the basement knows this to be true. Concrete is porous. METRO and TxDOT claim that it is not.

TxDOT, instead of complying with the request, filed an appeal to the Attorney General’s office seeking to prevent disclosure based on what I feel is a mis-application of Federal Law. The law was intended to shield local and state agencies from lawsuits based on traffic safety studies that are mandated by Federal Law. Here they are using the law to hide their lack of interest in looking for Stray Current damage. You can read the OAG opinion here.

Ignoring Stray current problems among transit agencies is not a new problem. This site for instance pointed up the general feeling that if you don’t look for a problem, there must not be one. You’ll note that it is a little bit dated. There is a reason for that, the FTA stopped funding them when they became too critical of the lackadaisical attitude among transit agencies to the problem.

Remember a while back when Seimens refused to fix the automated track switches that were damaged and had to be operated manually because METRO installed them incorrectly? Here is an interesting quote from the article:

In a separate problem, Metro engineers say a small amount of "stray current" from the overhead wire that powers the trains is leaking into the ground at each switch location instead of flowing back through a rail to a power station.

Metro says there is no danger, but a spokeswoman for CenterPoint Energy, which called the problem to Metro’s attention, said the current could eventually corrode the company’s underground gas and electric conduits.

Current was also detected at "anchors" on each end of the MetroRail bridges over Buffalo Bayou and Brays Bayou. These are crossbars that keep the tracks from moving as the bridges expand and contract with temperature changes.

The Stray Current problem also will have to be fixed, Wilson said, mainly by ensuring that the trouble spots are covered with nonconducting materials. No cost estimate has been made.

That Dan Patrick / Senate District 7 race profile we mentioned last week by the ultra-liberal Texas Observer is now online, and the best thing about it is the AWESOME caricature that graces the cover:

Dan Patrick, conniving right-wing talk-radio puppet-master

Suweet.

Can you smell the fear of the hard-left Austin media?

I wonder what they are getting so worried about?

The world is a little less sweet this Monday morning…

Don Knotts, R.I.P.

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