Mooning the Klan, and Chickensnakes

Ok, a two-topic post. First, this weekend there's a Moon the Klan counter-rally in Austin. Seems mooning is a legal gesture of friendly insult in Texas, so long as you don't expose your private parts.

Second, that link led me to a column by Molly Ivins. Now, I love Molly Ivins. She's a pearl of wisdom, if she don't mind me sayin' so.

She tells a story about two boys who get scared by a chickensnake. Go read the whole column, but here's the crux of it:

I myself have never been nose-to-nose with a chicken snake, but I always took Johnny's word for it that it will just scare the living shit out of you. Scared those boys so bad that they both tried to exit the hen house at the same time, doing considerable damage to both themselves and the door.

Johnny's mama, Miz Faulk, was a kindly lady, but watching all this, it struck her funny. She was still laughin' when [the boys] trailed back up to the front porch. "Boys, boys, " said Miz Faulk, "what is wrong with you? You know perfectly well a chicken snake cannot hurt you."

That's when Boots Cooper made his semi-immortal observation. "Yes ma'am," he said, "but there's some things'll scare you so bad, you hurt yourself."

I think that's just what happened with the 9/11 terrorist attacks. They scared us so bad, we're hurting ourselves.