Oh no, mom. The Texans are rewriting history. I don't know of all the details, but one major move I'm aware of is to downplay Thomas Jefferson as much as possible. The new textbook drafts also cast the Civil War in a much different light.

Lots of people think they couldn't care less about what happens in Texas, after all, Texas has always been a little bit different and after rooming in college with a full blooded Austin born Texan, I've got a pretty good idea how much different. Here's the problem though. Texas is the second largest school system in the nation after California. The "Big Three" of Cali, Texas, and NY consume the vast majority of textbooks produced in this country. As a result, what Texas wants in its textbooks, Texas gets. Unfortunately, not all states have such clout so they are more or less forced to use whatever texts the Big Three buy because those are the books that get printed. As usual, it's a money thing, but this particular incident could really rewrite history the way many of us have always feared would happen!

Much has been made over the years about George W. Bush's abuses of power during the Global War on Terror, and rightly so, but he didn't invent the idea. During the Civil War, Lincoln suspended the Writ of Habeas Corpus. Without going into all the legal mumbo jumbo, suspending the WoHC basically meant a person in the North or South could be arrested and detained for an indefinite period of time, and many were. Many Northern politicians were shocked that the President would take such a huge, and basically illegal, action, but, as others have pointed out, Lincoln was a pragmatic man first and foremost. He wanted the Union preserved and if that meant having the US equivalent of the Secret Police arresting citizens and throwing them in the dungeon, so be it. It was a controversial move by a very complex and controversial man, but it is hard to argue with the results.

As a Southern Rocker born and bred, I must protest the absence of "Freebird" from either list. Before I am stoned with flaming bricks of comments, let me clarify. Yes, the "single" version comes in at 4:01, but no one I know of including radio stations ever plays that version. The most popular version on our hometown classic rock station WROQ is the 10:13 live version of the song which starts out with Johnny Van Zant yelling out "What song y'all wanna hear now?"

Also notably absent for us fans of Dixie rock is The Allman Brothers Band epic "Whipping Post" that clocks in at 22:56 on the spectacular live album they recorded in July 1971.

Just something to think about. In any event, InnaGadda has maybe the greatest drum solo ever.

"There are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy, Horatio."