sis, you're gettin' in too deep

. . . the road of life is steep / and you're known by the company you keep (Dolly Parton)

It's self-beneficial for me to think so-- since the people I love & spend my time with are so much better and smarter and more beautiful than I-- but I'm going to assume for the moment that you really can be judged by the company you keep. Let's try to figger out just what kind of individual the Amarillo Globe-News Ghostly Voice is. The Ghostly Voice tried this morning to defend Kel Seligar in the wake of his comment, when asked to yield the floor during a Texas Senate debate that he

had already yielded more than a high school cheerleader at a drive-in.

In a tactic reminiscent of high school students getting called out for their behavior, the Ghost pointed at the Texas House and claimed they were even worse than Kel:

Seliger's one-liner was downright tame compared to a discussion the same day between representatives of the ACLU and the Texas Eagle Forum just across the legislative way in a House committee. The two sides were debating a bill regulating alleged suggestive performances by high school cheerleaders.

ACLU board member Pam Uhr was quoted by The Dallas Morning News as saying, "The purest thing we have is our sexual nature. Let's not try to adulterate that."

Huh?

If that weren't enough sexual innuendo, the Eagle Forum responded by alluding to sex-toy props in high school plays.

Apples and oranges, of course. The House was debating a bill that dealt specifically with high school cheerleaders and sexuality. Granted that bill was batcrap crazy, but it had been introduced and had to be debated. Seligar's comments were gratuitous. He wasn't supposed to be thinking about high school cheerleaders and sex-- and yet he was. Even a newsroom ghost ought to be able to see the difference. Even a newsroom ghost that needs to look up the definition of innuendo.

I went looking for other defenders of Seliger, to see who had the AGN's back in this little barroom brawl. I found this blogger who posts a clip from the Austin American-Statesman above a nightmarishly racist little joke about Asian people. And I found some law student who seems to think it's funny, but adds the really strange comment

However, what I found even funnier is that the Austin American-Statesman actually went out and found a cheerleader to comment on the quote. This is what our tax dollars are going to? Rather sad.

Ward, I'm worried about the Ghostly Voice. S/He seems to have fallen in with a bad crowd: racist joke-tellers and law students who think newspapers are publicly funded.

And the result seems to be that the Ghostly Voice is losing grip on reality. This morning's column ends

Those ready - O.K.! - to raise an eyebrow over Seliger's harmless jibe should have been next door in the House. That was the truly sexy story.

Come again? What was that random "O.K.!" in the middle of that sentence? Kinda reminds me of the way the emperor W suddenly starts talking to the sky or to his tie in the middle of his press conferences these days. Maybe the crowd the Ghostly Voice has fallen in with is worse than we thought. Maybe the Ghostly Voice is receiving orders from Karl Rove-- just like the emperor!

SPACEDARK