Hood County Issues Cowboy's Wedding License After Federal Lawsuit Filed

A couple weeks ago one would not thought possible we'd be seeing in Texas that which we've been seeing.

SCOTUS makes a ruling and pretty much universally, across America, the new law of the land prevails, causing rapid change, sort of like a revolution.

Except for a few holdouts here and there, like a county or two in Texas. And I think now, even those holdout county clerks are either doing their job or have resigned.

The Attorney General of Texas, currently in serious legal trouble which could send him to a life sentence in the slammer, made a fool of himself over religious rights or some such nonsense pertaining to county clerks doing there job.

One of the county clerk overbearing religious types was in Hood County. Name K.D. Lang. Or maybe Katie Lang. Ms. Lang managed to embarrass Hood County, Texas and much of America with her bone-headed statements regarding doing her job and the SCOTUS ruling.

I do not know if Ms. Lang decided to do her job without further nonsense, or if she resigned, or if she was fired.

What I do know is last week the pair of cowboys you see above, Jim Cato and Joe Stapleton, left Brokeback Mountain to ride into Granbury to get themselves hitched, only to find Ms. Lang refusing to issue the pair a license to marry.

The cowboys then filed a federal lawsuit against Hood County, with the result being Hood County then issued the license they sought.

I do not know if the wedding has already taken place, or if it will take place at a future date with a big shindig on the Hood County Courthouse Square.

Granbury puts on some of the best festivals I have ever seen. Like Granbury's 4th of July Parade and General Granbury's Birthday.

I assume that the General's birthday party still takes place. I had a mighty fine time my one and only time going to the General's birthday party....

Natural Gas Pipeline Exploded In Hood, Johnson, Or Maybe, Somervell County

A little before 4, this afternoon, Elsie Hotpepper called to tell me there had been a natural gas explosion. Elsie did not know if it was a well or a pipeline or what.

I quickly checked and saw it was a pipeline. In Johnson County. By Cleburne.

Elsie hung up and within a minute the Queen of Wink called to ask me if I'd felt the explosion.

Talking to the Queen postponed looking for information about the explosion.

Hours later it is still confusing. I've seen (and heard on TV) the location of the BIG BOOM being Johnson County, Hood County or the border of Hood County and Somervell County.

I've read and heard the explosion was near Cleburne. Or south of Granbury. Or near Pecan Plantation, next to Highway 67 or along County Road 1120, on Georges Creek Ranch.

I suppose, technically, all could be true, except for, maybe, the county confusions. I mean, one could say the explosion was near Fort Worth, which would be true, but not as accurate as one could be.

But there are also contradictions about the number killed, missing and injured. As few as 1 killed. As many as 3 killed. The number injured and missing varies too. I suppose that is understandable. When a big bomb explodes it isn't going to be easy to find all the victims.

My favorite commenter, the Ubiquitous Anonymous commented on the previous blogging about the explosion. It was such a good comment I thought I'd repeat it below...

This catastrophe was covered by the three major networks' evening news, CNN, and yahoo news. This pipeline is about twice as large as the one proposed for Carter Ave. residents, but the rural residences are nowhere as close to the pipeline or as tightly packed together either. So if such an awful thing were to happen on Carter St., even with just a 16-inch pipeline (remember CHK originally wanted to place 24-inch size and HELD FAST ON RUNNING AS MANY LINES AS POSSIBLE under those little yards), the likely results include obliterated--as in cremated bodies, so no need for autopsies--bodies and homes where the explosion/s occur with related damages from flying building materials/concrete and re-bar from the city streets and spreading fires NOT ONLY FROM THE EXPLODED PIPELINE but from the grid of smaller utility gas lines connected to the whole neighborhood and the nearby electrical lines. Of course, there will be exploded water and sewer (eeew!) lines spewing forth their contents. Traffic for the north central Texas area could come to a standstill as the nearby I-30 is within that "kill zone" and the I-35W mixmaster is just 1&1/2 mile away. The good part is that even people in the mid-cities and possibly nearby counties can see the drama by just looking since Carter St. is located on top of one of the highest geographical locations in FW. Note how first- responders could do very little since they lacked training and plus the heat makes it impossible to get anywhere close, unless some major fire suits are available.