Our recent post about rewilding lawns and gardens garnered a ton of conversation about the value of letting nature take over. Many of you asked for information on how to get started with rewilding, and many of you are well into the process already, and had information to share. We love seeing our community come together to support each other like this!

What it is about today’s vituperative, foam-at-the-mouth Republican party? No longer disguising their desire to repress women, workers, immigrants, the poor, and all others who differ with (or are different from) their own partisan clan, the party has turned to a politics of hatred and division, openly seeking to

Years ago, House Speaker Sam Rayburn declared: “Every now and then, a politician ought to do something just because it’s right.” Which brings us to the carny sideshow of Rep. George Santos, the Republican lawmaker so bizarrely dishonest that even a majority of Congress critters finally gagged and tossed him out. But now we’re being treated to the institutional spectacle of Republican members piously proclaiming that his expulsion shows that the GOP is “the party of accountability,” courageously establishing a “high standard of integrity.”

According to an old saying, “You can’t squeeze blood from a turnip.” True. But that raises this question: Who would even try squeezing blood from a turnip? Well, metaphorically speaking, if “blood” means profit, and “turnips” are customers, airlines are eager to apply the squeeze. As are banks, credit card outfits, cable TV and Internet hucksters, car rental companies, concert promoters… and can anyone decipher their insurance policies!?

We heard you!

When we asked you for your favorite political and protest music last month, y’all didn’t hold back! We loved your suggestions and have been slowly sorting through all of them (and singing along while we do).

Growing up, I absorbed a lot of values from my Ol’ Texas Daddy – a strong commitment to the Common Good, a healthy work ethic, and a lively sense of humor. But one thing about him I’ve rejected: His determination to have a perfect yard of thick, verdant, St. Augustine grass. Lord, how he worked at it – laying sod, (watering), fertilizing, (watering), weeding, (watering), spreading pesticides, (watering), mowing… (more watering). But it was too hot, too dry, too infested with blight, bugs, slugs, and such. He was up against Texas nature, and he just couldn’t win.

Look up “tenacious” in the dictionary, and you will surely find a picture of Texan Diane Wilson. A total bad-ass agitator, Diane has spent decades fighting the good fight–and winning! In 1989, Diane took on an international polluter and multibillion-dollar corporation, Formosa Plastics. Formosa was contributing to the 454 million pounds of toxins released in Calhoun County, and a stunned Diane took her first steps toward activism.

In one of their satirical songs, the Austin Lounge Lizards lampooned the ridiculous bigotry of some Christian factions, singing: “Jesus loves me. But he can’t stand you.” That could be the bellicose anthem of a quasi-religious Republican front group with a very sweet-sounding name: “Moms for Liberty.” Far from sweet, however, these moms are funded by rich Republicans to be ground troops in the party’s culture wars – essentially an anti-liberty campaign against people, books, teachers, and ideas they don’t like. In the last few years, squads of these moms have turned into political hate groups, persecuting small town school board members by baselessly accusing them of conspiring to indoctrinate children with pornography, hatred of white people, and “liberal” thinking.

What to give friends and family for the holidays? Give ‘em hell! (Or at least give them Hightower at a helluva price.)