The line is open. It was an auspicious day. I ran into Norma Bates, visiting the elite shops along Little Rock’s version of Rodeo Drive. I believe she was getting a part for her Mont Blanc Meisterstuck pen.

The Hogs lost, but only by 10 and many a fan on Twitter proclaimed they saw “baby steps” toward a glorious football future. Too bad a couple more SEC teams intervene before then.

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That said, some final words:

* WAIT UNTIL JERRY COX HEARS ABOUT THIS: A gay couple was kicked out of a Walmart store in Chickasha, Okla. By the janitor. For being gay. He proclaimed that in HIS religion God didn’t create no Adam and Steve.

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Happy ending. The janitor was fired by the Walmart manager who deemed the action unacceptable. You never kick a paying customer out of a Walmart, no matter how heretical. (And, to its credit, Walmart has a nondiscrimination rule, supports gay rights groups and has even explicitly extended employment protection to  transgender as well as gay employees.)

But, see, this is what Jerry Cox of the homophobic Family Council is talking about. The queers all want to trample on your religion. In his world, all businesses and all janitors should have the right to discriminate against gay people on account of their sexual orientation. And be protected by the law. Call a lawyer, Jerry. And careful of those restrooms at Walmart. You never know who or what might be lurking inside a store that believes in equality.

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* POT SMOKING OUTING ENDS WITH ONE DEAD, ONE ARRESTED: A tangled tale from the Garland County sheriff’s office.

Deputies found Shea O’Neill, bloody and battered about the head, flagging down traffic near Amity and South Moore Roads about 10 p.m. last night. About the same time, a woman and two men arrived at Mercy Hospital in Hot Springs with an occupant suffering stab wounds. The man, Eston Hogue, 23, died. The other two said Hogue had been stabbed by O’Neill.

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O’Neill said he’d been picked up by the female and they were traveling down the road when he was suddenly attacked by two men who’d been hiding in the back seat. He said he pulled a gun after being struck 15 to 20 times, but it was taken away. Then, he said, he pulled a knife to defend himself. He said he cut one of his attackers and they then left him on the side of the road.

The two living occupants of the vehicle said all four were going to smoke marijuana and had pulled off the road to relieve themselves. O’Neill and one of the men began arguing. They said O’Neill then lunged from the front seat and stabbed Hogue, who was in the back seat.

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Authorities decided O’Neill’s statements were inconsistent. He was charged with 2nd degree murder. He’s been hospitalized with injuries from the scuffle.

* I THINK IT’S AN ELWOOD WANNABE: I saw some Twitter traffic today about a letter to the Democrat-Gazette editor from William Kramer of North Little Rock. He was unhappy about having to reset clocks at the end of daylight saving time. “God made the world on standard time,” Kramer wrote, “and if he wanted daylight saving time he’d a-put it in the Bible.”

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Which reminded Kramer of another pet peeve, the conflict over another language for Americans. “I believe that if English was good enough for Jesus Christ, it’s good enough for me.”


What sez you? Butter or margarine? I think margarine, but people say some pretty outlandish things in dead seriousness. See Jerry Cox.

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