Good cheer

As I've said before, in Texas cheerleading is serious business. So I'm kind of surprised that this bill to prohibit "overtly sexually suggestive" cheerleading has made it past the House.

"I felt in my heart that this bill was the right thing to pursue," said Representative Tommy Merritt, a Republican from Longview whose wife is a former member of the Kilgore Rangerettes, the celebrated women's drill team from Kilgore College in East Texas. The Rangerettes, who dress conservatively in white cowboy hats and boots and red, white and blue outfits, were held up as a proper example by the bill's supporters.

The sponsor is a man of God who believes that taking extremities is no vice:

The legislation [is] sponsored by Representative Al Edwards, a Houston Democrat and ordained minister who once proposed a measure to amputate the fingers of drug dealers.

The so-called "booty bill" is said to be about the exploitation of young women. OK, but let's level the playing field. Where is the bill to regulate steroid use in Texas high school athletics? It didn't happen.


Rangerettes: Models of virtue