For Michael

Jonah almost blew it on the "begs the question" issue, but he recovered. It is late in the discussion so it's probably not worth the listen.

another thought about Dad (really about Mom)

I've come to the conclusion that if there is any chance that one will go quickly, going Home at home is overrated. Dad would have been in the living room...the room one first sees on entering Mom's house. I'm glad that Dad's passing will not be thing of which she thinks when she enters her house.

Well, I should have seen this coming...

Dad had some kind of heart event over the weekend. Not much was getting better so I drove back to Athens last night.

Got there late and discovered my two aunts/cousins were there (Dad's brother and his brother's wife were killed in a car wreck before I was born and Dad's parents adopted the two surviving daughters.) I hadn't seen them since the death of Dad's mom. They looked a lot different after almost 20 years but if either or both had snuck up behind me and said, "Hi, Scott," I'd've recognized their voices immediately.

So, all four of his children and his two sisters and wife were with him today. His breathing pretty labored...mask on all the time. Arrangements made for hospice care at home.... I spent the day in funeral homes; that is not very fun though I found the procedure much less ugly than I suspected.

Reported the results to my sisters...his sisters and my brother having returned home thinking all the arrangements were made. Mom had rearranged a hair appointment to today thinking tomorrow, Friday and the weekend were going to be moving days for Dad.

I jumped in the truck and drove the 4 hours back to Austin. Got home about 30 minutes ago and sure enough, Dad was mercifully taken into the arms of G-d while I drove home. I'll return to Athens tomorrow. After seeing him struggle to breathe today, I'm primarily relieved. I'm also selfishly relieved for Mom...she would not have been equipped for him at home...even with "Visiting Angels" and hospice care.

Saving Grace II

Big fat juicy UT connection tonight. Grace has had a, er, uh, relationship with one of her fellow detectives...a former UT quarterback.

More Dad

Some kind of heart event late Saturday night or early Sunday morning. For the first time he is in pain and requires morphine.

This for a guy whose orthopedist said he couldn't believe Dad could possibly have been walking on the stumps of bone that came together at his knee before the his knee replacement...must be some kind of pain now.

Feeding tube put in his stomach this morning but won't be fed until tomorrow. He's down to about 150 llb.

Looks like hospice care at home coming in the very near term.

Sorry for the morbid commentary but since I can't talk to him, this is my only other outlet besides my mom and sibs.

Re: A man of integrity

From Michael's post:

"I've never taken advantage of anybody," he said.

Noooo, never. No audited financials? What about those options?

A man of integrity

Now here's a guy I could do business with: "'[He] acknowledged that bondholders have a right to play hardball, but he doesn't think they should.

That's not, he said, how he does business.

'I've never taken advantage of anybody,' he said."

Dallas and Dennis Miller

Dennis Miller salutes (about 10 minutes in) Rochester (WYSL) and Dallas (KSKY)…big ratings.

Re: Amtrak

K-Lo echoes Scooter.

More Dad (and Mom)

Hard day today as they denied him water because of choking possibilities. Mom ultimately insisted and he drank some water with no repercussions. She just can't deny him water.

35W Bridge Disaster

Lileks is ok; hope Stephanie is, too.

Pardn me boy, ish that the Catanoogy Sho-Sho?

Amtrak is offering $100 in liquor to certain passengers.

What will be the first lawsuit?

More Ethanol Krep

Thanks to Kudlow for linking to this article at the Corner. From JEFF GOODELL at The Rolling Stone site:

Midwest farmers will get rich, the air will be cleaner, the planet will be cooler, and, best of all, we can tell those greedy sheiks to f--k off. As the king of ethanol hype, Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, put it recently, "Everything about ethanol is good, good, good."

This is not just hype -- it's dangerous, delusional bullshit. Ethanol doesn't burn cleaner than gasoline, nor is it cheaper. Our current ethanol production represents only 3.5 percent of our gasoline consumption -- yet it consumes twenty percent of the entire U.S. corn crop, causing the price of corn to double in the last two years and raising the threat of hunger in the Third World. And the increasing acreage devoted to corn for ethanol means less land for other staple crops, giving farmers in South America an incentive to carve fields out of tropical forests that help to cool the planet and stave off global warming.

[6-12-09 Update: deleted expletive to redeem my hypocrisy.]

Shariah-compliance

Got this in my email today from Financial Events International:

Understanding Islamic Finance- Conference - September 19 & 20, 2007 - Geneva - Switzerland

Contrary to common beliefs the financial world is not fully disconnected of religion or faith.

In fact, the rise of Islam oriented societies in the Middle or the Far East has led to the development of approaches that differ from the traditional ways of finance. For instance, the development of six income securities: the Islamic Sukuk.

Due to the constant revenues by oil, this asset class is growing at a very fast base. On the other hand, as the development of the system is relatively recent, capital raises in a shariah-compliant nation can be structured in many complex ways. Consequently, new ways of structuring Islamic securities are constantly developed and introduced in the market. Increasingly new corporate or sovereign sukuk are to be available.

The rules of efficient Islamic finance will be fully understood. Learning about them is the principal purpose of this conference. Among its main topics are:

Understanding the main words of Islamic finance: Riba, Gharar, Maysir, Mudarabah, Musharakah, Murabahah, Istinah, Salam, Ijarah, Sanduq.

Legal and tax considerations for the Islamic capital market

Step by step comparison between sukuk and traditional securities including conventional bonds and asset-backed securities.

How to choose the most suitable mode of Islamic housing finance

How to convert conventional real estate into Shariah-compliant transactions

How to assess risk and enhance credit in real estate sukuk

How to differentiate Islamic REIT's from ordinary real estate funds and sukuk

What are the basic principles of international contracts in shariah (aptitude, consent, alliance, word commitment, permissivity and variability/reality)

Understanding the shariah named financing contract (musharakah, murabahah, muzakha, salam, leasing)

How to share and exchange loan international contracts

Understanding structured hybrid Islamic financial contracts

Assessing the kind of risk Islamic banks are exposed to

How to look to shariah in extrinsic technique of risk management

Understanding the relationship between Basel II, its three pillars andthe Islamic banking corporations

Understanding the shariah and fiqh

How to develop new financial products in order to obtain shariah compliances

What are the different principles governing Islamic finance

Many other topics will also be approached during this conference to get a full and accurate picture of the Islamic finance.

Hate to say it but I found it a bit disturbing.

There was a time when I hated this guy: Bill Walsh, RIP

Hall of Fame coach Bill Walsh, who won three Super Bowls with the 49ers, dead at 75.

Re: SLIME in the ice machine

For those of you who don't know who he was, think Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. From the article to which LJ linked:

Though he was proudest of his work championing "the little guy" and helping secure medical care for needy children, he was best known for stories he did a mere seven months after starting the job in 1973 that led to the closing of the state's best-known "bawdy house," as Zindler called it — a notorious La Grange brothel known as the Chicken Ranch.

New City Journal out...

Got it a couple of weeks ago. As they usually do, they start trickling the articles out on-line after the dead tree version hits the post office. Several great articles now available here.

Dalrymple's on Tony Blair is particularly interesting. It describes TB as, "...morally and possibly financially corrupt, shallow and egotistical, a man who combined the qualities of Elmer Gantry with those of Juan Domingo Perón."

Yikes.

SLIME in the ice machine.....

A Houston TV legend is gone....I loved watching him on Channel 13.

Mom and Sibs

I can't ignore what toll these events are taking on them.

Dad is now on an anti-depressant that is causing him to want to just sleep more than anything else. Mom is seeing this as Dad taking a big turn for the worse. We try to explain that even with completely otherwise healthy individuals this would be the result as the body adjusts to the drug. (She'll get that eventually though that was part of my unspoken objection to administering the drug...what if he'd prefer to being fully aware?) We visited before going to church this morning after breakfast and it was clear all he wanted to do was go to sleep. Mom left sobbing and it was left to me to provide comfort as I pursued her out of the room. As LJ and Michael can attest, this is not my strong suit...emotional availability, even to the one person who loves me more unconditionally than anyone save G-d. Still, I was able to put my arm around her and mumble something that quieted her...hopefully something of comfort and not just something stifling her sobs. For such a woman who adopted me as an infant and treated my like her very own and loves me like she does, why is it so difficult for me to be more comforting? Yes, she can push my buttons like no other, however subconsciously that might be but she deserves better from me.

Back to the drug; I have really mixed feelings about this. So far I've been overruled in my belief that Dad should be fully apprised of his condition, the theory being that what is the benefit to him if he wakes every morning only to wonder, "Will this is be the day I die?" I understand that from an emotional/comfort argument the medication makes sense, but what if he doesn't realize these will be the last days that he has to say something to his wife, children or G-d? I probably underestimate him greatly. He probably has to already knows.

The elder of my two younger sisters informed me that the prognosis is more likely a max of three months, not six, contrary to my previous post.

As for the sibs, two of the three were there this weekend. Baby sister in Montana with her husband's family and her four children on a long planned trip...available to return on a moment's notice. (What about my trip to Alberta for fly fishing at the end of August?) For the first time I'm starting to see the toll this takes on them, too. Extreme efforts to be as comforting as possible to Mom and Dad. I am grateful to the three of them and to baby sister's husband as well. All three really fill the gaps that I'm incapable of filling.

Since this whole post is such a downer, I have to leave on something positive. Regarding this "facility" Dad inhabits., I couldn't be more pleasantly surprised. No, it is not a high dollar facility where fortunes are spent to have oneself pampered as life's end nears. It is a pretty basic nursing facility in a small town in East Texas. Still, Dad's primary caretaker apart from genuine nursing or medicine has been a short, though robust 60 year old woman who has taken her job seriously for more than 40 years...making Dad as comfortable as possible while doing impossible tasks...all the while not taking any guff from Dad or anyone else. For that, I am grateful, too.

Re: Dad

Sorry to hear this Scooter. I think you are right though - better now than earlier in life. Thank God my parents are in good health, though I can see the signs of aging in them. Memory loss, getting tired out more quickly, more frequent minor health issues. I rue the day, which hopefully isn't close, but certainly is getting closer, of having to deal with something major.
You and your family are in our thoughts....

More Dad

Finally, the diagnosis that explains the precipitous decline: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis a/k/a ALS or Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

Neurologist says could be a matter of weeks to a maximum of about six months. I guess if one is going to contract this bad boy, better to do it at 82 than 45.

More on the Recycling Scam

I happened to be home at lunch today when the recycling guys came around to empty my City of Austin provided recycling bin. It had developed a pretty big crack in it due to our lovely Central Texas Sun.

The guys kindly replaced it with a new, apparently improved, recycling bin (it seems to be of a softer plastic, less likely to quickly crack in the heat).

But they just tossed the old bin onto my driveway. Is it not recyclable? What the heck am I supposed to do with it?

Saving Grace

Watched Saving Grace with Holly Hunter on TNT last night. It was a little intriguing. Set in OK City (when has that happened) and is centered around HH's character--a hard living cop who has lost her Catholic faith. She strikes a guy down while driving drunk (or did she?) and pleads, "Dear God, help me."

A very unlikely angel appears and thus begins her reanalysis of faith.

I'm interested because faith is so little explored on television. I'm also interested because the hard living is pretty explicitly shown.

I hope this will be a serious inquiry and not just salacious television. We'll see.

Dad

Just got back from home and have to report that Dad is not getting any better. I watched him go through a short session of physical therapy yesterday and his hips are just too weak. Even with the walker it is very hard for him to stand up straight and that makes walking exhausting. 20, maybe 25 steps was about as far as he could go. The knees and ankles seem ok but he needs his hips.

Speech is still very difficult for him but he can communicate much to my embarrassment, forcing me to translate to the physical therapist that the guy helping her with Dad, i.e., me, is an attorney. That was Dad bragging on me...made me blush.

The hardest part for me is that I still think of him as a 220 llb., 6'5" guy slinging his 5 year old son around like a sack lunch. Or, hoisting me onto his shoulders as if I were nothing more than a little rucksack. Those thoughts actually made me cry a couple of times on the road home.

I helped set up the television in his room yesterday and he was excited that the nursing facility has cable because he can watch the Weather Channel and Andy Griffith on TVLand (I guess one of the blessings of a failed memory is that every time one sees a Don Knotts/Barney Fife stunt, it is the first time one sees it). He was even more excited that his roommate was looking forward to watching AG, too. Pointing to his roommate (a prominent man in my hometown who donated to the city the land for its primary recreational center), somehow I figured out that Dad wanted me to ask the roommate about AG. The roommate replied that he'd be happy to watch AG with Dad and that made Dad quite happy.

The downside of all Dad's awareness: I almost wish he were not so aware of his situation. He did not seem depressed to me this weekend but Mom said he admitted to being so earlier in the week. He desperately wants to home (it was the first thing he mentioned this morning) but short of a miracle, I don't see that happening without full-time help for Mom. At the same time, he knows he can't get around and is aware of his other problems that Mom is not equipped to deal with.

Another plus: I've seen a lot of nursing facilities that go beyond the depressing to borderline criminal. This place, while not heaven, could be a great deal worse.

As for Mom, she sounded very strong and in control on Thursday and then terrible on Friday. She's better now but this is going to continue to be very rough. She's stronger than she thinks she is but I wish she knew that. She is really torn up about her guilty feelings for not wanting to visit him there but she is a champ when she is there. I tried to tell her to increase frequency and decrease length of visits. I think three half-hour visits are better than two two hour visits. But what do I know?

More Subsidy Insanity

As the biggest dairy consumer I know, this subsidy really ticks me off.

From Chris Edwards, director of tax policy at Cato:

To enforce artificially high prices, the government imposes import barriers on milk, butter, cheese, and other products. Without those barriers, consumers could simply purchase lower-priced foreign goods. Imports of cheese, butter, and dried milk are limited to about five percent or less of U.S. consumption.

All these policies add up to higher prices. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development found that U.S. policies create a 26 percent "implicit tax" on milk consumers. That "milk tax" is regressive, meaning that it harms low-income families the most.

The Government Accountability Office compared U.S. dairy prices to world prices over the period 1998 to 2004. It found that U.S. prices for butter averaged twice the world price, cheese prices were about 50 percent higher, and dry milk prices were 24 percent or more higher.

So we limit competition, subsidize and restrict imports, all clearly having the effect of increased prices. Then, in order for the poor to afford milk and mac-and-cheese, we’ve got to fund WIC programs and the like.

Shouldn't we stop this? Let's do it "for the children." And me.

Post by Hewitt

On new media, old media, the "outrage" of some lefty bloggers over the appearance by Gen. Petraeus on HH's show, the surge. It is long but worth reading the whole thing. A few excerpts:


"I think such a decision to cater to one party's propaganda outlet renders Petraeus' military independence moot,"[Andrew] Sullivan declared. "I'll wait for the transcript," he continued, before not waiting for the transcript. "But Petraeus is either willing to be used by the Republican propaganda machine or he is part of the Republican propaganda machine. I'm beginning to suspect the latter. The only thing worse than a deeply politicized and partisan war is a deeply politicized and partisan commander. But we now know whose side Petraeus seems to be on: Cheney's. Expect spin, not truth, in September."
...

Over at The Carpetbagger Report, a post concluded:

And speaking of Petraeus, what should we expect from him come September? It’s probably best to lower expectations now. Petraeus’ credibility suffered a serious blow this week when he appeared on far-right activist Hugh Hewitt’s radio show, and stuck closely to the White House script. Many of the comments that followed were as vile, an example of which is "Can you call him Betrayus now? He’s just an GOP stooge in a uniform."
....

What surprises me is that the extremists have fallen so deeply into their own narrative that they are wholly unaware of how their call for strict control of the news and their slander of the widely and rightly admired extraordinary hero that is General Petraeus exposes them to the public as deeply unbalanced, anti-intellectual and far, far removed from the mainstream of America. This disconnection from ordinary Americans is always obvious when a leftist resorts to the most foul sorts of profanity and vulgarity, but the rage that bubbles and erupts again and again is the sort of eye-opener that not even friends can ignore for very long. The demands for the Fairness Doctrine’s return displayed the same sort of zealotry in the attempt to shut down voices not in keeping with their own. The illiberal reflexiveness of the left tells you all you need to know about how they would govern if they ever got close to power.
....

The Administration and the Pentagon have never emphasized enough the direct engagement of the public via the new media, or even the old media in the extended, one-on-one form which is the very best form for explaining the war to the public. The ear-splitting shrieks of outrage at General Petraeus’ interview with me should be a huge signal that this is what the anti-war extremists fear most: The calm presentation of facts at length by those in a position to know them, engaged in an interview the unpredictability of which makes the exchange interesting. Speeches rarely hold the attention of an audience, which is why only small excerpts of them make it on air. Interviews –conducted professionally by a prepared host—can be riveting. The war on terror depends upon sustaining the will of the American people to fight it, and sustaining that will means giving the public the facts, again, and again and again. Making themselves available in at least 30 minute chunks to all sorts of skilled interviewers –Russert, Brit Hume, Charlie Rose, and Chris Wallace are the best on television, my colleagues at Salem, Bill Bennett, Dennis Prager, and Michael Medved, excel at the form as does Laura Ingraham, Dennis Miller and Sean Hannity—is the best way to educate the American public about what is going on in the war on its many fronts.

I and the vast vast majority of listeners/readers are grateful that General Petraeus made time at the end of a very long day for the interview, a day which is nowhere near the end of his three plus years of tremendous service in Iraq and thirty years of service and sacrifice on behalf of the country. I hope he continues to agree to appear on any show or to be interviewed by any blogger or journalist –left, right, or center-- who will treat him with respect and fairness. I hope the same thing for other senior military and civilian officials engaged in fighting the war. Allowing the know-nothing, anti-intellectual fringe to block the flow of information to the American public via invective, slander and scorn that would be to keep the best, most compelling testimony from the public at a time when they need it most.

Jeri Thompson "Working the Pole"

From Levin's column today at NRO:

As for Joe Scarborough and his “work the pole” comment, he makes himself sound like the kind of guy who gets the frequent-tipper discount at most of these places.

I know I made a related post before but sheesh, "Work the pole."

I didn't know his wife's name is Jeri. The last time that happened when Jack Ryan (wife 7 of 9 a/k/a Jeri Ryan) was running for a Senate seat in Illinois, Obama became a US senator.

From eonline:

This is Ryan's second matrimonial go-round, her first occurring in 1991 with onetime U.S. Senate candidate Jack Ryan. The pair initially requested that the court keep the terms of their 1999 divorce under wraps, but their custody fight over Alex was unsealed in 2004, when Jack entered Illinois ' senatorial race.

In the court documents, the actress alleged that, during their marriage, her ex had taken her to sex clubs, including one "bizarre club with cages, whips and other apparatus hanging from the ceiling," and encouraged her to get freaky with him in public.

This revelation, not exactly a resume highlight for Jack Ryan, eventually resulted in the Republican candidate withdrawing from the '04 Senate race.

This can't be a good sign.

Holy Cow!

Dennis Miller defending GWB to Peggy Noonan. About 9 minutes into hour 1. After her Friday blast, I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

Lady Bird Update

Was in my office kitchen moment ago and watched as the honor guard proceeded to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center to take her to the LBJ Library. I'd guess that there were two sets of twenty State Troopers riding in pairs before the hearse.

Even though the hearse was empty, many drivers did pull over and stop to show their respect. When did we stop doing that? Granted that most funeral processions pass by so quickly today that it is difficult to pull over quickly enough before they pass but I think it sad that so many just don't care.

My grandfather would not only pull over, he'd get out and remove his hat.

Nice Words for Lady Bird

at NRO. My Lions Club has been hosting about 28 seventeen to twenty year-olds from Europe and the Middle East for a few days this week. Unfortunately, they were scheduled for the LBJ Presidential Library today...which was closed in her honor. She lies in state (is it "in state" when she really held no office?) there tomorrow and Saturday.

Update: Apparently, she is lying "in repose."

More facts about Ethanol Hooey

From today's Tech Central Station (the article is called Political Liquor's Economic Hangover Just Beginning, I couldn't get a link directly to the article):

President Bush has set a target of replacing 15 percent of domestic gasoline use with biofuels (ethanol and biodiesel) over the next 10 years, which would require almost a five-fold increase in mandatory biofuel use to about 35 billion gallons. With current technology, almost all of this biofuel would have to come from corn because there is no other feasible, proven alternative. However, it is unlikely that American farmers will be able to meet such demands: Achieving the 15 percent goal would require the entire current U.S. corn crop, which represents a whopping 40 percent of the world's corn supply [emph. mine].
...

Politicians like to say that ethanol is environmentally friendly, but these claims must be put into perspective. Although corn is a renewable resource, it has a far lower energy yield relative to the energy used to produce it -- what policy wonks call "net energy balance" -- than either biodiesel (such as soybean oil) or ethanol from many other plants.

Moreover, ethanol yields about 30 percent less energy per gallon than gasoline, so mileage per gallon in internal combustion engines drops off significantly. Finally, adding ethanol raises the price of blended fuel because it is more expensive to transport and handle.
...

Brazil and other major sugarcane-producing nations enjoy significant advantages over the U.S. in producing ethanol, including ample agricultural land, warm climates amenable to vast sugarcane plantations, and on-site distilleries that can process cane immediately after harvest. At current world prices for sugar and corn, Brazilian ethanol production would remain competitive even if oil prices were to drop below $30 per barrel, but U.S. corn-based ethanol plants would be losing money at forty-dollar oil, even with the subsidy. Thus, in the absence of cost-effective, domestically available sources for producing ethanol, rather than using corn it would make far more sense to import ethanol from Brazil and other countries that can produce it efficiently — and also to remove the 54 cents-per-gallon tariff on Brazilian ethanol imports.

Subsidies, mandates, tariffs...leave the market alone.

Nobel Prize Material

Women exercise power in marriages [HT: Jeff Ward].

Re: What a Shock Comments

While I don't justify the pardons of one administration by comparing those of other administrations, don't forget the FALN pardons.

Expanding the Dennis Miller Radio Universe

Had lunch today with the news director of a heritage radio station here in Austin. The discussion centered on what he believes will be a complete revolution of the radio industry in the next 6-8 years. Think having your car and home radio being wi-fi and all streaming audio all the time.

He asked if I listen to streaming audio on the web and I said I did. He asked what I listened to and I said, "the Dennis Miller Show." He then said he was thinking about bringing Miller to Austin and I told him he had me as a listener. I already fit his station's demographic so he knows he already has me, but I hope I helped.

Dad

My Dad is ailing. It is a family tragedy and Mom is a basket case but stepping back from all the emotional stuff, it is difficult to lament too much. He's 82 and has had a very full life. Lived through the Depression (and like many of his generation it practically defined him or at least the way he lived...he built my very first bike after finding a discarded bike frame on the side of the road), served in the Marine Corps in occupied Japan, was a professional engineer, married a great woman and raised four kids, even if three of them graduated from aTm.

Having said that, his condition has caused me to think about him a lot. I visited him yesterday after he was transferred from a hospital to a rehab center, the hope being that he can be mobile enough and take care of himself enough that he can continue to live at home. If not, then (gasp) it looks like some kind of nursing home will be in order.

One thing that happened yesterday gave me some strange comfort. My Mom mentioned to me (when I dutifully called home to report in that I made it home safely) that one of my sisters was visiting Dad last night when they brought his meal to him in his room. I guess she asked if he preferred to eat in the dining room with the other rehab patients and he said, "Yes." It may seem like a small thing but I think it is huge. When I think about it, almost my entire life the only friends Dad has had are those who have been thrust upon him by Mom or us kids. The only adult friends I ever really remembering him having were husbands of Mom's friends or parents of the friends of us kids. That he wanted to eat with folks he doesn't know was huge in my mind. I don't remember him ever doing that...ever. That he wanted to do so gives me some hope of his ability to cope if he has to move into a nursing facility.

Side note: when I wheeled Dad into the dining room for his lunch yesterday, the man directly across from Dad was a dead-ringer for Junior Soprano. Bald head, exact same glasses.

On the other hand it caused me to realize that at least for the last 48 years this has been a man dedicated to only one thing: his family. Completely, utterly dedicated. I remember fondly all the weekends (one a month for about five years) he gave up to transport and accompany my brother and me on Scouting camp outs and giving up every Tuesday night for the Troop meetings. I even remember one camp out that a subset of my Troop (a patrol) took. He was the only adult and we were camping in what was then a rural area north of Dallas (now part of the Dallas sprawl near Frisco). Doesn't sound like much until you learn that it was during the middle of a big freeze. I suspect it never rose above 40F the entire weekend. I distinctly recall that the creek running through the farm (or ranch or whatever it was) was frozen enough that we could walk on it. Dad slept in the station wagon. He also drove two friends of mine and me 200 miles for a weekend of spelunking at what is now Longhorn Caverns (used to be open to public, meaning anyone could go in at any time...alone...we had to swim through some parts).

In today's world of what (this childless lawyer perceives to be) hyper-attention to kids...making sure they get to their ballet lessons, baseball and soccer practices, this may not seem like that much, but looking back, Dad was way outside the norm.

It's floodin' down in Texas....

Last weekend I traveled to Houston and during the week I traveled to Athens. I've crossed the Colorado River at least six times and the Brazos and Trinity Rivers twice each. Word today is that Texoma will be over its dam shortly so the Red will be up soon if not already.

42 years in Texas and I've never seen this much water. Amazing.

Re: What a Shock

From Alan Dershowitz (hardly a conservative, whether neo or paleo) at the Huffington Post:

This was entirely a political case from beginning to end. Libby's actions were political. The decision to appoint a special prosecutor was political. The trial judges' rulings were political. The appellate court judges' decision to deny bail was political. And the president's decision to commute the sentence was political. But only the president acted within his authority by acting politically in commuting the politically motivated sentence.

What a shock

Scooter (not ours, the "other" famous Scooter) gets out of doing prison time. I want to meet the person who didn't see this coming....

NOT...

that I don't think she makes outrageous statements in her quest for book sales. Still, at least Ms. Coulter, brings arguments to bear that get lost, however bracingly she addresses them.

[Edit hat tip: Stephanie.]

LJ

You may want to reconsider that quote in context...think Bill Maher.

Ann at it again

Well Scooter, your girl is in the news again. Just when she is out of the limelight, she pops up somewhere and says something that at best is controversial - at worst, sick. The argument one hears is that she is just doing what liberals do. To me, the difference is that she is billed as a “political pundit”. It’s one thing for a comedian or celebrity to make bad jokes or comments (Letterman, O’Donnell, Maher), it is another for a “political pundit” to say…

“if I’m going to say anything about John Edwards in the future, I’ll just wish he had been killed in a terrorist assassination plot.”

Maybe I’ve missed it, but I don’t think I’ve heard or read where James Carville or Paul Begala has said they wished John McCain or Rudy Giuliani had been killed in a terrorist assassination plot.

I listened to the exchange between Ann and Elizabeth Edwards. I don’t care for John Edwards and other than his wife having cancer, I don’t know much about her. But I thought she was polite, respectful and not out of bounds asking for the personal attacks to stop. Ann said a couple of times…”are you asking me to stop writing columns, are you asking me to stop writing…’ No, she wasn’t asking her to stop. Just stop with the personal attacks. I do think Ann was blindsided by the call, which seemed a bit unfair, but that wasn’t Elizabeth Edwards fault – that was Hardball’s.

I’m interested in you thoughts/comments…as well as Michael’s, if he is still with us.

Byron York Channels Scooter

At the Corner today:

Then I read Bob Shrum's book, No Excuses, in which he writes this:

Kerry talked with several potential [vice presidential] picks, including Gephardt and Edwards. He was comfortable with Gephardt, but even queasier about Edwards after they met. Edwards had told Kerry he was going to share a story with him that he'd never told anyone else -- that after his son Wade had been killed, he climbed onto the slab at the funeral home, laid there and hugged his body, and promised that he'd do all he could to make life better for people, to live up to Wade's ideals of service. Kerry was stunned, not moved, because, as he told me later, Edwards had recounted the same exact story to him, almost in the exact same words, a year or two before -- and with the same preface, that he'd never shared the memory with anyone else. Kerry said he found it chilling, and he decided he couldn't pick Edwards unless he met with him again.

Previously posted by yours truly here.

Re: A civics lesson from the White House

It's a ridiculous argument...Cheney's, not yours. If the DMN is the only place you've seen it, you haven't been looking at enough conservative websites. It's all part of his grand plan to reestablish to the Executive the powers lost by Nixon.

A civics lesson from the White House

So I’ve been following the latest “fight” between the WH and the Congress over national security information oversight. I’m really surprised that this hasn’t had more “traction” (using a news term) in the news cycle (using another news term). I will tip my hat to the VP’s office and the WH lawyers – they are using very creative reasoning to somehow maintain that since the VP has duties and responsibilities in both the executive and legislative branches of government, he is exempt from the rules that apply to both, of course only when it suits him. Remember the Energy Task Force? When the VP was asked to disclose the members of this group, he refused, citing executive privilege. When asked to provide information regarding national security matters, the VP refuses, saying his office is part of the legislative branch and therefore, doesn’t have to comply with an executive order signed by President Bush in 2003. What is interesting about this position is that for 2 years, his office DID comply to this EO, but now, nope….not gonna do it.

Now I will admit the ongoing tussle between the VP and House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has made the DMN for the past several days, along with numerous on-line news sites. However, this little nugget was in the DMN on Saturday and I haven’t seen this mentioned anywhere else:


White House: Bush's office exempt from order

WASHINGTON – The White House said Friday that, like Vice President Dick
Cheney's office, President Bush's office is exempt from a presidential order
requiring government agencies that handle classified national security
information to submit to oversight by an independent federal watchdog. The
executive order that Mr. Bush issued in March 2003 covers all government
agencies that are part of the executive branch and, although it doesn't
specifically say so, was not meant to apply to the vice president's office or
the president's office, a White House spokesman said.


If I’m reading this correctly, now the President isn’t part of the executive branch either. Or if so, the EO doesn’t apply to him or his office as well. I am very, very confused. Exactly who is part of the executive branch anymore? All throughout my schooling, I was told, I think, that the President and VP WERE the executive branch. Now we’re being told that they are not. Who can clear this up for me?? For help, I decided to check out the WH press office – surely they know and can explain it to the rest of us:

WH press briefing via YouTube

A Texas capital in Louisiana?

Well, it was a long time ago.

Whales live 200 years?

Who knew? I thought sea turtles were the old men of the sea.

From this article:

BOSTON - A 50-ton bowhead whale caught off the Alaskan coast last month had a weapon fragment embedded in its neck that showed it survived a similar hunt — more than a century ago. Embedded deep under its blubber was a 3 1/2-inch arrow-shaped projectile that has given researchers insight into the whale's age, estimated between 115 and 130 years old.

"No other finding has been this precise," said John Bockstoce, an adjunct curator of the New Bedford Whaling Museum.

Calculating a whale's age can be difficult, and is usually gauged by amino acids in the eye lenses. It's rare to find one that has lived more than a century, but experts say the oldest were close to 200 years old.

Re: Re: The Nest Egg

I couldn't agree more with your review. After Hoover it really slides downhill.

And I think I agree about Holy Grail. I rarely laugh out loud at movies; I still laugh out loud when I watch HG.

The "burn the witch" scene for years puzzled me because I couldn't quite understand her last line as they knock the support out from under the scales ("Remooooove the s'pports!"). She says something like, "It's a fair cop." For the life of me I couldn't figure out what that meant. Michael and I did some poking around and came to the conclusion that it means "not a bad judgment."

HG script available here:

KNIGHTS:  [singing]
We're knights of the round table.
We dance when e'er we're able.
We do routines and chorus scenes
With footwork impeccable.
We dine well here in Camelot.
We eat ham and jam and spam a lot.

[dancing]
We're knights of the Round Table.
Our shows are formidable,
But many times we're given rhymes
That are quite unsingable.
We're opera mad in Camelot.
We sing from the diaphragm a lot.

[in dungeon]
PRISONER:  [clap clap clap clap]
[in medieval hall]
KNIGHTS:  [tap-dancing]
In war we're tough and able,
Quite indefatigable.
Between our quests we sequin vests and impersonate Clark Gable.
It's a busy life in Camelot.
MAN:  I have to push the pram a lot.

Re: The Nest Egg

"Twenty-two, twenty-two, come on back to me, come on back to me..."

Michael and I have had many discussions about Lost in America. My contention is that up to the scene at Hoover Dam, LIA is one of the funniest movies ever made. It is greatness. But it all goes WAY downhill after that and loses much of it's steam and humor, at least for me. Michael was all into Albert Brooks and I never "got it" until LIA.

As an aside, Monty Python and the Holy Grail is the funniest movie ever made.

"It's just a flesh wound..."
"Help...help..I'm being repressed..."
"Listen, strange women in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government..."

I'm laughing just thinking about HG...I may have to pop in the DVD this weekend.

The Nest Egg...

made the HH show tonight in the Emmett of the Unblinking Eye segment about the 10 best casino movies. Julie Haggerty.

Lileks has a bucket

Congratulations to James.

Rush posting on the Corner tonight

See Corner link to the right.

More on GF's position

Just her voice [2/3rds of the way down] is enough to convince this single guy but Peggy Noonan, and I admit again my infatuation, is sounding increasingly convincing.

Obama = Thompson

I'm thinking that both of these guys look great but have no real experience. Granted that FT has more life experience but I'm not sure he has the admin. experience. I'm hating this early political season.

GF clearly suffering from BFS

I've known it for some time but this makes it clear.

Political Party "Card"

There is a lady here cutting up her Republican "card" because of the immigration bill. Do party cards really exist? If so, why have I never gotten one?

Re: "He looked healthy to me"

It certainly inspires no confidence though it is difficult for me to ascribe the act of one border agent to GWB...just as it was difficult for me to credit the last administration for stopping the Millennium Bomber. How long has this guy been at his post?

Having said that, I may be suffering BFS (Bush Fatigue Syndrome) but the incompetence of this administration during the second term is really wearing on me. Is this how Clinton supporters felt circa 1998?

"He looked healthy to me"

Yep, this makes me sleep better at night, knowing that a diligent professional like this is guarding the border. What an idiot. This what my tax $$ are going towards????

And speaking of Homeland Security, has anyone seen or heard from Mr. Chertoff recently? Is he still head of this department? I'm waiting for a ''...you're doing a great job Chertie..." moment any day now.

Then again, perhaps it will take another "professional" border agent to let some al-Qaeda terrorists in, even though their passports are flagged and when questioned, say "well, they didn't look like terrorists to me" before we get a public GWB endorsement of "Chertie".

Buenos Aires Story #2

One night we meet some of our friends for happy hour. To give some background on them, they are in their mid to late 20’s, college educated, speak at LEAST 2 languages and have traveled to the USA multiple times, as well as to Europe and to various South American countries. While they may not follow US politics as closely as we do, they are aware of what goes on (when they are in the States, it is usually for extended periods). Since BA is having local elections, we were asking about the candidates and the differences between them. The consensus among them was that it didn’t matter who won, nothing would change. It was also interesting to hear them talk about “left and right” – they told us that there isn’t really a “right” in Argentina – a politician in Argentina who is “right” is really just not as far left as everyone else. This subject, of course, led us into US politics.

I asked them why do most Argentine’s dislike GWB. The answer, from more than one, was the war in Iraq. They do not view it as a war on terror – they view it as a big, strong country fighting a small, weak one – and doing it for the oil. And it’s not that they condone terrorists or 9/11, but they see it as us wanting something that Iraq has (oil), and coming up with some pre-text to start a conflict. And more than one of them expressed the concern that we might do the same to Argentina. I was incredulous and asked why, for what? The answer was – water. Their concern is that water will be the next resource that we (the USA) will run out of; Argentina has a large reserve/supply and therefore, we’ll come down and take it. C and I just looked at each other and could not believe what we were hearing. We said, even if the US needed water, Canada was much closer and/or we would come up with some technology to convert salt water to fresh. Their response was that Canada was our neighbor, our friend and we wouldn’t “take’ from them. We told them that our government had nothing against Argentina, so why would we “take” from them? The reply - you don’t treat us like friends. You don’t make us feel welcomed when we come to the States. You treat us like an enemy. We are small country and if the US wants water from us, they will come up with a reason to start a conflict and Argentina could not fight us.

Now, this “treating us like a friend/enemy” is a sentiment that we had heard before, not only from Argentines, but from Brazilians as well. And not only on this trip, but on our last one as well. 2 years ago, we were having breakfast at our hotel and at our table were an older (50-60) couple from Brazil. They were talking to us about 9/11 and the aftermath. They kept asking us – why didn’t you just kick out all the Arabs after 9/11? That is what Brazil would have done, that is what almost any country would have done. Why at airports do you treat everyone as an enemy, when most of them are your friends? If you treat a friend like an enemy, then why are you surprised that you have no friends?

Our friends said almost the same thing. They did not understand why they get searched ( people from non-Arab countries, non-Muslims). If a certain people are your enemy, those are the ones you search or detain or not let in or kick out. We tried to explain that internal US politics and political correctness dictated that we treat EVERYONE the same, thus we treat EVERYONE like an enemy. That was a concept that they, and others we talked to, didn’t get.
They also told us that when they travel, especially to the US, they don’t use their Argentina passport. That most Argentines have 2 passports – since Argentina was settled mostly by Europeans (Germans, Spanish, and Italians), most have passports from Argentina and from the country of a grand-parent (if that grand-parent was a citizen of say, Italy, then you could have an Italian passport as well). This surprised me. We were told that it was because eve though the security rules were the same, that US officials treated them “differently” if they used a non-Argentina passport (that being said, I also think that the rules/restrictions on what you can bring into/out of Argentina using an Argentina passport has something to do with it)

Dem. Debate

GWB may be incompetent or a dope but this is just painful. Mitt or Rudy...I've got to start donating.

I want to be a part of BA, Buenos Aires, Big Apple

Nice to learn the meaning of "feria" as it is in the name of one of my favorite restaurants here in Austin.

That Ernesto Guevara de la Serna (Che) is considered a hero to anyone still boggles my mind.

Can't argue with the international Bush hatred, if LJ saw/heard it I believe him.

Kerry on Edwards

From Robert Shrum at Time:

Kerry talked with several potential picks, including Gephardt and Edwards. He was comfortable after his conversations with Gephardt, but even queasier about Edwards after they met. Edwards had told Kerry he was going to share a story with him that he'd never told anyone else—that after his son Wade had been killed, he climbed onto the slab at the funeral home, laid there and hugged his body, and promised that he'd do all he could to make life better for people, to live up to Wade's ideals of service. Kerry was stunned, not moved, because, as he told me later, Edwards had recounted the same exact story to him, almost in the exact same words, a year or two before—and with the same preface, that he'd never shared the memory with anyone else. Kerry said he found it chilling [emph. added], and he decided he couldn't pick Edwards unless he met with him again.

That is just creepy...not so much the thing about his son, if that is true [though what is it they say about remembering one's lies] I'm not going to judge...but having forgotten he'd already told the story.

Nineteen Minutes

I wouldn't call myself a huge fan of Ms. Picoult, but I have read several of her books and have enjoyed the ones I have read. I knew the basic plot (a school rampage shooting at a high school) beforehand, but what made this interesting to me was how she explored the event from many different angles (the shooter, the shooter's parents, the lead detective, the best friend of the shooter, the judge who is the mother of the best friend) and from different points in time from years before the shooting to months after. You do find yourself, while perhaps not condoning the shooting, sympathizing with the shooter and what drove him to get to that point. Of course there is a plot twist that to me seemed rather predictable (I had mostly figured it out at page 108), but even with the ending not being a total surprise, I found this to be a very good read. It did, at times, take me back to my middle school and high school days, wondering if my schools had anyone that was a "walking time bomb".

Buenos Aires Story #1

One of the bigger attractions of Buenos Aires (BA) are the various weekend ferias (arts and crafts markets), which can range from small to large, depending on the neighborhood. One of the biggest, and most famous, is the one in San Telmo. It is geared more to tourists and is mostly tango and antique oriented. It is held on Sunday. On our first trip to BA 2 years ago, we didn’t get to go because I went to futbol (soccer) matches on the 2 Sundays we were there (C shopped on one; the other she also went to the soccer match with me). The feria spreads from the main square in San Telmo outwards, mainly going down the major E-W street of the district. This is the “official” feria, with booths and what looks like permits from the city. Once you get to the intersection of the main E-W street and the main N-S street, the “unofficial” feria starts – mainly young people with blankets on the ground with the stuff they are selling. It was packed (people as far as you could see) and it got rather warm in the afternoon – at least warm enough for us to stop in at a local heladeria (ice cream shop). Even though C and I have mastered the ordering technique, it is still obvious to all that we aren’t Argentine. The following is the exchange we had with the counter people as they were making our cones:

Counter person #1: “Ah, you are American, yes?”
Me: “Yes, we are.”
Counter person #1: “Where are you from?”
Me: “Texas, Dallas.”
Counter person #1: “Oh, Texas….George Bush. I don’t like George Bush.”
Counter person #2: “Me either. I don’t like him.”
Me: “Well, that’s OK. I don’t like him much either.”
C: “Many Americans don’t like him. But we are having elections next year and he will not
be President any longer, so that will make those who don’t like him happy.”
Counter person #1: “Who will be the new President?”
C: “We don’t know – it’s too soon to tell. We don’t even know who our choices will be.”
Me: “Thank you – gracias.”
Counter person #1: “Good day – enjoy your time here in Argentina.”

As C and I walk out of the shop, she comments that my cone has twice as much ice cream than hers. I hadn’t really noticed and look and sure enough, mine is huge. I ask C why and she laughs and says it was because I told the girl that I didn’t like George Bush. And she was probably right. As we walk down the street looking at the booths and what they are selling, I notice a booth selling t-shirts. They have the usual blue and white striped Argentina shirt (modeled after the soccer jersey of the national team), the “Che” shirt and then I notice another. It says…..”KILL BUSH” with a drawing of GWB. I was shocked. I mean, that is pretty extreme. I thought about buying one, not to wear or to condone the message, but to have. But then, I worried about the possibilities if it was seen by US Custom agents upon our return. We did take a picture of it (as proof of its existence). I wanted to ask the seller how many she sells, but I was afraid of the answer. You see anti-GWB graffiti all over the place. To say that he is not well liked down there is an vast understatement

Victoria Jackson a Believer?

Who would have thought it of...the zany blond on SNL?

Update: must go to bio to see my point.

Even a bit of CS Lewis in there.

Christopher Hitchens and Dennis Prager on Religion

Very interesting discussion of the book by Hitchens on "god" to be found at Prager's radio show (hour three, May 29, 2007).

May God bless Christopher Hitchens. He is so good and smart and so wrong.

Texas Funeral at the Corner

First, LJ, welcome back.

Second, this post at the Corner almost brought tears to my eyes.

Observations from Buenos Aires

Well, C and I are back from our trip. I'm just going to share a few general observations for now, then relate 2 stories a bit later. First, it sucks to have a cold when you are on a plane for 10 1/2 hours. I had just gotten over a cold/flu before we left and on the day we left to come back, suffered a bit of a relapse. Didn't feel too well yesterday, today a bit better.

It was obvious to us that prices had gone up in Argentina. While the exchange rate is still good for U.S travellers ($1 = 3 pesos), prices for most all goods and services had gone up since our last trip 2 years ago. Even our Argentine friends commented that they had noticed that prices had risen. The said that the government says prices have risen about 12-15%, but they say it's closer to 35-40%. Their economy is getting stronger and you can see the results in new construction, rebuilding of infrastructure, etc.

This trip, we noticed military personnel at various locations throughout Buenos Aires. We did not see that our last trip. We thought it might be because of a national holiday on Friday (perhaps military parades), but our friends said that normally the military only parades on the Argentine independence day. Our friends could not explain the presence of military in the city.

The subway workers were on strike while we were there. As it was explained to us, the government (which either owns or controls the subway) offered the workers a 16% raise. The workers wanted 24% and thus went on strike. Now, an Argentine strike is a bit different than what we are used to. What they did was for 2 days, not charge anyone for riding. They just opened the gates. For the rest of the time we were there, it was free during both morning and afternoon rush hours, but you had to pay during all other times. As it was explained to us, the average Argentine didn't understand how you reject a 16% pay raise and had the workers done what we would consider a normal strike, they would lose the support of the people. Needless to say, the subways were packed, and not just during rush hour. In the middle of the day, there were times when we were crammed in like cattle and could barely move.

It was the beginning of fall and the weather was great - low 60's and blue skies during the day, upper 40's at night. We had only 1 day (out of 9) that it was windy and thus felt cold. But it was strange to see many, many people bundled up like it was the depth of winter in Buffalo when I was walking around in a short sleeve shirt.

We noticed many more English speaking tourists this time around. Not just Americans, but British and Australians. We went to a tango show (geared to tourists) and there were folks from Israel, Japan, Russia, Canada among many others.

Guess that's all for now - in the next few days, I'll relate a couple of stories that I feel will be very enlightening concerning how America, Americans, our President and our policies are viewed by Argentines (many of whom have travelled not only to the USA, but to Europe as well).

VDH on HH

Victor Davis Hanson spent three hours with Hugh Hewitt for HH's Memorial Day program. It was great but he did reiterate disconcertingly that he is still a registered Democrat.

P. J. O'Rourke

I should have posted this during my reading of his book On The Wealth of Nations but was derelict.

When I read Peggy Noonan’s What I Saw At The Revolution, I came across my favorite P.J. O’Rourke quote.

From page 219 of her book:

Well, I’ll tell you how I feel about European tastes. I love Europe, we all love Europe. But there’s that European attitude, the snide superior smirk you get sometimes in Paris or Bonn. I have only once seen it properly responded to, by the writer P. J. O’Rourke in a 1986 essay for Rolling Stone about his vacation in Europe. It was at the end of the trip and he was having an argument about America with a “Limey poofter” and he finally blew his stack. “We’re three-quarters grizzly bear and two-thirds car wreck and descended from a stock-market crash on our mother’s side. You take your Germany, France and Spain, roll them all together, and it wouldn’t give us room to park our cars. We’re the big boys, Jack, the original giant economy-size new and improved butt kicker of all time. When we snort coke in Houston, people lose their hats in Cap d’Antibes…. We drink napalm to get our hearts started in the morning. A rape and a mugging is our way of saying cheerio. Hell can’t hold our sock hops. We walk taller, talk louder, spit further…and buy more things that you know the names of. I’d rather be a junkie in a New York jail than king, queen and jack of all you Europeans. We eat little countries like this for breakfast and s**t [edit by scooter] them out before lunch.”

Although he exaggerates to illustrate, I hope he was right or I hope we still are. I also hope that the Merkel and Sarkozy elections indicate a change.

Alzheimer's

Alzheimer's is a pretty interesting thing.

About 2 hours ago there was a knock at my door and I opened it to a well dressed older gentlemen. He looked at me and said, "I have no idea where I am or how I got here. Can you help me?"

He knew his name and his wife's so I went to the phone book to no avail. I tried dialing 411 and learned that that apparently is no longer available to me. Starting to panic, I jumped on the internet and found that Carl was about 35 miles from home. He is a resident of Sun City which is a seniors community (and quite a nice one) about six miles west of Georgetown, Texas which is about 30 miles north of me. Stupidly, I never thought to ask him if he had his wallet.

I tried calling his wife but no answer so I left her my number. Then I called back and left another message telling her not to worry because I would bring Carl home. He's now home. Lots of conversation about his wife (he clearly loves her but she's Roman Catholic and "that's her problem") and some of his time as a clergyman. He has a theory about the inordinate number of grey, brown and green cars but he never shared it with me. I think he might be colorblind and sees them all as one color.

I still have no idea how he got here and neither does he. 35 miles...scary.

How do I know it was Alzheimer's? At some point he felt compelled to show me his driver's license and noticed an Alzheimer's card in his wallet.

Sowell's letter to Lino Graglia

For Michael due to his Con Law Prof.

From p. 242-3 of A Man of Letters:

July 28, 1972

Dear Lino:
...

Coincidentally, I received in the same mail a letter from a reader of my Forbes column, who takes me to task for having let my "anti-abortion" bias cloud my judgment of Planned Parenthood v. Casey. The very possibility that my criticism of that case was about judicial activism, rather than the policy decision, seem not to have crossed his mind. In reality, I am one of the few people in America who does not have "the answer" on abortion policy.

....

A point made throughout his letters, the elected and therefore accountable legislature decides policy not unelected, unaccountable judges.

Dell and Walmart Marriage

Walmart to start selling Dell computers per Reuters. Two of corporate America's greatest squeezers negotiate a deal. Those meetings must have been something. HT: Jeff Ward.

Re: Why Fred Thompson won't be Prez

Glad to hear from his supporters. I'm not sold but hope he gets in. Glad to know, too, that his supporters are up on this "internet thing."

Why Fred Thompson won't be President

His wife is what, about 20?

Ok, Wikipedia says she was born in 1967, but man [Update: and I should have said this before, rather than just implying it, she is "smokin' hot"].

In great company...

For those who know that I eschew the use of cell phones (especially my old college roommate), I happily join the ranks of Thomas Sowell, of whom it was said he was "the last of the Luddites."

Page 182 of A Man of Letters (linked here):

Incidentally, it would be a decade later [written in 1981] before I would finally begin to use a computer. Before then, a colleague at Stanford who was more up to date on the computer revolution called me "the last of the Luddites."

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band...40 years ago?

Russ Smith (aka Mugger) on the anniversary:

It's possible for two reasonable adults, probably older than 45, to argue for hours about the most significant pop music event of the 1960s. My own vote would be cast in favor of the Beatles' first appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show" in February 1964, but a very close second is the release of their "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," the majestic album that will be 40 years old in early June. It's not that "Sgt. Pepper" is my favorite record from that era -- Bob Dylan's "Blonde on Blonde" is -- but there's no denying the extraordinary influence that the Beatles' most famous achievement had not only in the music industry but this country's popular culture as well.

KSKY in Dallas

KSKY has a pretty impressive daytime range out of Dallas. I drove from Athens to Palestine to Hearne and all the way to Round Rock today before I lost 'em.

The Townhall.com network grows its web.

Emergency Room as Admitance

I hate what seems to becoming a new way of admitting patients. Get a bad test result? Go get admitted at the emergency room and the doctor will come see you as soon as he can.

What is already the nightmarish process of getting admitted into a hospital becomes a six hour ordeal in a gown on a bed in a hall...with sick, injured people all around. To top it off, by getting admitted this way, the admittee becomes part of the problem for the ER.

It sucks.

Porn Star endorses Hillary in a very funny way...

See Carol Platt Liebau's short post here.

I readily admit the endorsement was not sought.

Quick Hits

1) I watched a little of the last Republican debate. I might have to look into Romney a bit more - I liked what I heard from him. As for Ron Paul, dude is a wacko. Michael, is he your Congressman?

2) My new most hated person is Paul Wolfowitz. What a piece of work he is. I was reading about his ongoing "problem" at the World Bank and saw a quote from him that alluded to the fact that he didn't the ethics rules at the WB applied to him. Wonder where he got that idea?

3) Are the Texas Rangers the worst baseball franchise? They suck this year, like they do most every year, and have never come close to winning anything - EVER! Yet, year after year, the media here in Dallas pumps them up and tries to convince the public that THIS year is THE year. They are on pace to lose 100 games this season. The owner seems more interested in buying an English soccer team (Liverpool) than having a decent baseball team. Not that I really care that much, since I've been anti-baseball since the first strike many years ago. But it gives me great pleasure to hear all the moaning on the sports talk shows and in the paper. Not that the Astros are anything to write home about this year....

4) I will be out of pocket until after Memorial Day (as I talked about here). I'm sure Michael and Scooter will carry on without me...and probably enjoy my absence.

Newt and Krauthammer on Dennis Miller

Newt and Krauthammer on Dennis Miller. This guy is on his way.

Romney

This is going to be interesting. HH and MM seem to heading toward an endorsement. I attended a 46th birthday celebration for my old college roommate, a die-hard leftie, who referred to Romney as Flitt Flopney, or something like that. The Left seems to really fear him.

Marriage Class Bill goes to Gov. Perry

From KEYE:

State lawmakers decided to tie a few strings to tying the knot in Texas, by offering incentives to couples who attend premarital counseling. Those who don't would be slapped with what opponents call a marriage tax.

Lawmakers agreed Tuesday to double the marriage license fee to $60, but that fee would only have to be paid by people who don't attend marriage classes before they walk down the aisle.

Proponents say they're just trying to save an institution, but critics say that's not the business of lawmakers.

I think I have to agree with the critics. This seems like a bad idea. What on earth is an additional $30 for the marriage license going to net those who decide to go to the counseling? I think it's pretty safe to say at that cost, it won't be one on one with a genuinely qualified counselor. This is going to be a lot more like an eight hour defensive driving class...stuffed in DMV-like office with 20 other couples watching short films of Marriages Gone Bad. I'm all for good ante-nuptial counseling but The State won't provide it. This is just another way to pry another $30 out of our pockets.

No single person can make a pencil...

Dr. Sowell reminds us:

If you start from a belief that the most knowledgeable person on earth does not have even one percent of the total knowledge on earth, that shoots down social engineering, economic central planning, judicial activism and innumerable other ambitious notions favored by the political left.

If no one has even one percent of the knowledge currently available, not counting the vast amounts of knowledge yet to be discovered, the imposition from the top of the notions favored by elites convinced of their own superior knowledge and virtue is a formula for disaster.

Sometimes it is economic disaster, which central planning turned out to be in so many countries around the world that even most governments run by socialists and communists began freeing up their markets by the end of the 20th century.

Re: Dallas News TV

Certainly Channel 8 has always had the edge. And, certainly Hanson is an arrogant S.O.B. He's also good.

Skip Bayless was the same in the DTH when I slung it.

Re: Weather

BS? C'mon, Dallas and Houston are virtually the same.

If, otoh, you mean Denver doesn't have that much sunshine, I have to disagree. Lots of sun, it's the skin cancer capital of the world.

Re: Dallas Morning News

Scooter, regarding your question about local news here. I normally watch ABC (channel 8). They are the leader, by far, in this market. Several months ago, they started broadcasting all their newscasts in HD. They also moved their studios to "Victory Park", which is the new development around the AAC (American Airlines Center). The setup is like a mini Times Square, with video screen and access for the public to see into the studio. Dale Hansen is the #1 sports guy. An arrogant s.o.b. One of the week-night female anchors (Macie Jepson) is mentioned all the time on 1310 The Ticket (she is rather well-endowed). The NBC station (channel 5) is #2. We sometimes watch them. Newy Scruggs is their sports guy and I like him. He's pretty funny and has a running thing with one of the guys on the Ticket- they REALLY don't like each other. CBS (channel 11) sucks and we never watch them. I think that is where the old color guy for the Cowboys (Babe Laufenberg) is the #1 sports guy. The main anchor, Tracy Rowlett, has been there forever and i thin k is retiring sometime this year. Or maybe not, I"ll never know because I never watch them.

Maroon/lumberyard

"What a maroon!" is a Bugs Bunny quote, instead of "What a moron!"

The "lumberyard" Chevy Chase quote is from Caddyshack, a term to indicate the hitter will make it to manual labor rather than the tour.

Update: This link is a bit more direct.

Language questions for Scooter

"Hit it into the lumberyard" means what, and where does it come from? 'Maroon," I assume is a play on "moron.' I've seen it a couple of times recently. Where does it come from?

Dan Patrick

I've admired him as an entrepreneur having missed his sports broadcasts. He's making a lot of noise in Austin.

Steyn on Miller today

...at about 56 minutes into the show.

Dallas Morning News

While I only read it rarely now, I still love it. (Disclosure: I slung the Dallas Times Herald in my youth.)

That doesn't mean it isn't suffering the fate of the NYT or the LAT in circulation.

LJ, I'd be interested on your thoughts about local TV news. Since I lived there while so young, much of my view is colored by the local sports anchors. Verne Lundquist at the ABC affiliate and Brad Sham at the CBS affiliate (back when it was channel 4)...glory days. The NBC guy died at least 15 years ago but he was great, too. I'm embarrassed that I can't recall his name. He was play by play for the Cowboys with Verne before Sham came in to sit in with Verne as color. I think I have that right.

And the NBC affiliate had a great, crusty, genuine meteorologist Harold Taft. Bob Shieffer began his career there.

Texas weather

Ok, Colorado weather. The state tourist board touts 300+ clear days per year.

Houston and Dallas

Couple of more thoughts:

LJ is right about the dry parts of Dallas and its 'burbs. I remember growing up in what used to be North Dallas in the 60s and 70s...one would be driving around, cross a major street and all of a sudden there would be trash everywhere. Why trash on one side of the street and not the other? The trashy side was wet and the other side dry.

Zoning and No Zoning: As my compadres know or probably suspect, as a free marketeer, I favor Houston's approach. The less regulations the better, notwithstanding any "nimby" feelings I might have about where I might live. I would NEVER live in a community with "deed restrictions" and an HOA. As Michael learned, busybodies have way too much time on their hands. Living in a city with zoning laws (and boy do I ever) gives the guvmint that authority that I don't even want to cede to an HOA over which I theoretically could exercise more control. If I want to put my truck up on blocks, then I'm going to do it. This misanthrope would rather live out in the boonies...but close enough to enjoy the benefits. And here I am living in the most meddlesome city in the state.

I'd say the weather is a draw...October/November and March/April being the best months in either city give or take.

Having lived in Dallas for my 18 formative years and in Houston for 10, my main conclusion is that the two cities are more similar than either would like to admit.

What about "friendliness?" I know this is Tejas, but I honestly found Houston a bit friendlier. Not sure what to make of that.

Ricky Williams hits it...

right into the lumberyard.

If this is correct, what a maroon!

Texas weather

These numbers come from CityRating.Com (http://www.cityrating.com/weatherhistory.asp). No idea what period of time they claim to cover or even if they're accurate, but they match my preconceived notions so I'll go with them.

Average temp in Dallas for June/July/August: 81/85.3/84.9. Same for Houston: 80.4/82.6/82.3. Houston is indeed a couple of degrees cooler.

Relative humidity for Dallas in A.M. for same months: 85/80/79; in P.M.: 58/52/52. Same for Houston: 92/92/93; 63/61/61. Ouch.

Number of days above 90 degrees in Dallas: 97. 99 in Houston.

Average temp in Dallas for December/January/February: 46.9/43.4/47.9. Same for Houston: 53.5/50.4/53.9. Several degrees warmer in Houston.

Number of days below 32 degrees in Dallas: 37. 18 in Houston. (Not even close this year; I doubt we had four days below 32 this winter.)

Here's a surprise: Number of clear days in Dallas: 135; only 90 in Houston.

Big D in the NYT

The Newspaper of Record has a story on Dallas today. We all know that the Times is unbiased and scrupulously fair, so let's see what we can learn about Big D.





Gosh, not a very flattering photo. What else?

"[T]he nation’s ninth-largest metropolis, long troubled by crime, scandals, racial polarization and government gridlock." Yikes.

"[T]here is also Deep Ellum, the once-vibrant blues district that has proved a graveyard of renewal hopes — 'It’s just looking worse and worse all the time,' said Gianna Madrini, a fashion videographer who heads the neighborhood association — and a federal lawsuit is challenging the city’s restrictions on feeding the homeless in public."

"Mr. Hill, the mayor pro tem, has been under the cloud of a federal investigation for two years since tapes leaked from an F.B.I. undercover operation revealed a developer’s negotiating a $50,000 payoff with a lawyer and contractors seeking Mr. Hill’s support for a commercial development."

"The corruption inquiry and leaks have deepened longstanding tensions among blacks in South Dallas, which has historically been shortchanged on development projects, schools and city services. Resentments have festered since Ms. Miller pressured the city manager to fire Dallas’s first African-American police chief after a scandal involving a drug-frame-up in 2003...."

"Dallas still leads major cities in crime, largely because of thefts...."

"A current uproar is over the future of the Trinity River park project for flood control and recreation, which has yet to see any of the sailboat ponds and aesthetic bridges that were promised to voters in 1998."

Goodness, Houston looks like a paradise compared to this cesspool...

Re: Re: Houston and Dallas

Actually, I did mention zoning (only in passing) and I guess I wasn't articulate enough in trying to make my case about excluding the suburbs. Let me try again...

While it is true that in both cases they (the burbs) are part of the whole, at least to me, there is a palatable difference. And I can trace it back to the almost the first day I moved here back in 2000. I went out to eat that first night at a Chili's in Irving. I ordered my food and an adult beverage. The waiter told me that I had to buy a private club membership or something along those lines, but the amount of the membership would be refunded on my final bill. What?????

That was my first taste of the incorporated city concept that is Dallas. Yes, Houston has that in Bellaire and West U, but if my memory serves, other than than the street signs being a different color, nothing else is really different. Here, many things are different. Smoking vs, non-smoking. Liquor stores. Liquor laws. It just has a different "feel" to it. And for the most part, you can't tell visually when you are leaving Dallas proper and entering one of these burbs. It's all clean and nice and maintained. Yes, Dallas has some not as well maintained parts, but you almost have to seek them out. You have to find them. In Houston, it is easy to tell the difference visually between Kingwood and Houston, Sugar Land and Houston, Clear Lake and Houston. The farther out you go from the city, the cleaner it gets (that is a generalization and is dependent, of course, on the direction - River Oaks as an example). But that is the only difference. Liquor laws are the same. Zoning laws (if you can call them that) are the same. The sense I got in Houston when I was growing up, and now, is that it is just one big PLACE, made up by neighborhoods - not a metro area made up of incorporated cities.

Not to always bring up liquor, but in Houston, you don't even have to think about where to buy beer or wine or whatever. Wherever you are, it's there. In Dallas, you have to think about it. I can buy beer and wine all around me - to buy harder stuff, the closest place is about 10-15 miles away. And as big of an adjustment that was to me, for C, it was/is even a bigger one. In Milwaukee (and all of Wisconsin, I believe), they sell all types of liquor in grocery stores. You can also go to a bar/tavern and buy beer...to go! Freaked me out the first time we did that.

Re Houston and Dallas

Notice the title is not Houston v. Dallas, for a couple of reasons. First, I've spent very little time in Dallas: a handful of short business trips and three or four days for LJ's wedding. It's a bit of an exaggeration (but not much) to say what that I know about Dallas I have seen from an office or rent car window and LJ's backyard. Consequently, I can't say anything intelligent about Dallas. I don't have LJ's perspective, and so can only comment on what I know about Houston, which leads to reason number two: Try as I might, I'm having a hard time disagreeing with much of what LJ has said, although there are some points to address.

Hot and humid: check. I'm sure Dallas has a higher average summer temperature than Houston, but lower humidity. Unfortunately it's the humidity that makes you suffer. On the other hand, Houston's average low in the winter has to be quite a bit warmer than Dallas' and that's just fine with me. We don't get the occasional snow like Dallas (well, once a decade maybe), which would be neat, but I'll trade the generally mild winter temps for that.

Dirty, yes, more often than not. For the life of me I can't understand why the City can't mow the grass and pick up trash on the freeways and major streets.

The billboards are hideous. It's been a long time since I paid attention to the Billboards Wars, and I guess things are better than they used to be (although I don't see how), but we apparently have a Billboard Lobby that has every Houston politician in its pocket. It's a shame.

The Chronic is a pitiful rag. I've liked the Morning News since I was a student in Austin and picked it up when I couldn't find the Chronic or the Post.

Not mentioned by either LJ or Scooter (maybe because they're not natives) is the fact that among cities in the U.S. of any real size, Houston is the only one without zoning. I used to be able to spout the advantages of the lack of zoning, but they escape me now.

LJ, I'm afraid your dismissal of the suburbs of Dallas (incorporated cities though they are) and those of Houston (unincorporated and subsumed by the Blob that is Houston) doesn't work. The Woodlands, Kingwood, Sugarland, and Clear Lake are Houston, and if you're going to fault "Houston" for it's ugliness, you have to give credit to the parts of it that aren't ugly and in fact are pretty damn nice. For every ugly freeway view and littered corner there are really nice places in Houston, and they are often in the far-flung suburbs. So I can't let you take those out of the equation. Likewise, Dallas is just not the city limits: it's Plano, Irving, etc. for better or worse.

Who's more conservative? LJ's not stating that Dallas is more conservative because he thinks it's favorable; he's just making an observation. I'm sure the numbers are available for the last national election and I'm guessing that there's no discernible difference. I do think that Dallas traditionally, at least the early 1960s, was considered ultraconservative. The right-wingers killed Kennedy, right? Nuff said.

Sports, which started this, I can't really comment on. I hate the Cowboys because I must since I'm from Houston. I've suffered with the Astros since the first time I set foot in Colt Stadium and I always will. I recall with nostalgia the Rockets' run and Scooter, LJ, and the gang on Nina Lee. That's the limit of my sports input.

Maybe more later; Scooter said "more to come." Someone hold him to it.

Prager gets Scootered

Dennis Prager has Scooter moment…and the guy stopped.