Rick Perrys prayer for rain

I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree about whether it's the federal government's job to build a wall along the entire southern border of the United States.

Aside from Carlos Mencia's question ("Who's gonna build it?"), it's one of those camel's nose dilemmas. Dole out that kind of "protection" money to Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, and every other state in the union is gonna want some reciprocity.

And you'll be the first one whining when your federal taxes go up.

No need for it to go up when they could just piss away less of it on other things.

No, I'll be the first one whining when my Federal taxes go up.

Except that in the scenario as outlined, if four states get a massive infusion of revenue to build the Great Wall, the other 46 will have their hands out for the same amount.

And any of those states sharing a border with another nation may surely have it.

You don't actually believe it works that way?

I think I've made my stance on "belief" abundantly clear. There is nothing physically preventing it from working that way.

You keep talking about a wall as if it were the only thing involved here. Wait, you're probably one of those people who thought the only component of SDI was a laser-based satellite, aren't you?

Considering that governors routinely proclaim days on the calendar as "Kumquat Day" or "Adopt a Puppy" day, or "{Insert name of retiring longtime government worker} Day", I honestly don't see what the big deal is. Those who believe can celebrate that day as they wish, those who don't can ignore it. No skin off anyone's ass, aside from the militant atheists who can't handle others not agreeing with them. This is much ado about nothing.

A question springs to mind: Is this the only solution he came up with? Were there no other plans? Somebody tell me he had a few other ideas on how to deal with this problem.

I don't have a problem with prayer. If I'm sick, I'll want my pastor, friends & family to pray for me.

If I'm at my job & the network goes down, I don't expect my IT guy to come out & have us pray for the servers. I expect him to do his job & get it fixed. If I lived in Texas I'd feel the same way about Perry.

Rick, what have you done? You cost yourself the Irish-Irish vote!

Something like 47% of rice grown in the U.S. is grown in Arkansas. Texas grows just a fraction comparatively. And Arkansas is somewhat damper than Texas.

And all irrigation does is move existing water from one location to the other. It does nothing to increase the net available fresh water.

The United States has observed a National Day of Prayer since the days of President Washington. Congress and President Truman codified it into law in 1952. That bill declared that each following President must declare which day it would fall on. It was later changed in 1983 to be one set day each year.

It has been observed by every President since, and on my list of the grand scheme of things, this is one of the least offensive things a President can do.

What would you suggest the governor do to make it rain?

I didn't say they should make it rain. There are other ways to deal with a drought.

I dunno, encouraging water conservation? Desalination plants? (I hear there's a bunch in the Mid-East and Australia.) Air wells? Dew ponds? Fog fences? Or maybe a series of canals and pipelines to carry flood waters from the Mississippi to Texas? (Expensive? Sure, but you'd be killing two birds with one stone, less flood damage along big muddy and lots of water for Texas.)

In and of itself, innocuous. But then there's this:

Exactly.

Precisely my point. You grow rice in damp climates with high annual rainfall, not in deserts like Texas and California.

Two words: Drip irrigation. First developed in Israel over 40 years ago, with remarkable results. Ever have a Jaffa orange?

Here's another crazy idea: Instead of farm subsidies for *not* growing crops, why not subsidize solar and wind farms on at least some of the land that's drought-prone?

I have a rock that keeps tigers away.

Texas is not a desert. I have to drive 10 hours just to get to the desert. Much of East Texas is a swamp. I grew up with a bayou in my backyard. The problem with the drought isn't that the desert isn't getting rain. It's that the areas that usually get plenty of rain have been getting little to none since October.

Okay, so a proactive governor would recognize that there will be some drought years and do more than hold a prayer meeting. Has Perry done that?

Again.

What is Governor Perry supposed to do?

And don't say Drip Irrigation.

I don't think it works with all crops.

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Texas may get a tropical storm or a hurricane by next week...

Didja bother reading the links in my post? The specs on the desalination plants are pretty informative.

As for the air wells, an engineer discovered that one ancient design

15K gallons a day is a whole lot better than nothing, which is what's falling from the skies over Texas right now. Certainly would be enough to keep a small herd of cattle watered, rather than having to be sold for pennies on the dollar to the slaughter house.

^Desalination plants only make long term sense if they are nuclear powered.

As for the rest.

A drop in the bucket compared to what is needed.

Probably not worth the effort.