For me the most moving moment came when the family in front of me, comprising probably 4 generations of voters (including an 18 year old girl voting for her first time and a 90-something hunched-over grandmother), got their turn to vote. When the old woman left the voting booth she…
Put that fruit juice down and grab a Coke. Haven't you heard? High-fructose corn syrup -- the ubiquitous sweetener found in everything from soft drinks to ketchup -- isn't bad for you at all. It's true, because I saw it on TV. The story behind the corn industry's cloying ad…
This I can believe... Check out the comments from the Congresswoman from Minnesota at about 2:40...Are we back to McCarthyism already? When I heard her on Cris Matthews' podcast I was amazed by her comments...
Only in Houston could you hear a 66° temperature referred to as a "chilly autumn morning". All summer I've been amazed by the weather prognosticators descriptive adjectives. The mid-nineties and ozone warnings does not a beautiful fall day make...At least not in my book. I will admit a couple of…
What happens when credit markets seize up? We are beginning to see the result now: Businesses can't expand or don't open, houses aren't bought or sold, and economic growth slows to a crawl. In minority communities, where banks once welcomed residents' deposits but refused to lend to them, similar economic…
Poverty (also called penury) is deprivation of common necessities that determine the quality of life, including food, clothing, shelter and safe drinking water, and may also include the deprivation of opportunities to learn, to obtain better employment to escape poverty, and/or to enjoy the respect of fellow citizens. According to…
This link is as much for me as it is for you few folks who read these daily musings. Farmer in Chief By MICHAEL POLLAN Dear Mr. President-Elect, It may surprise you to learn that among the issues that will occupy much of your time in the coming years is…
Paul Krugman, a professor at Princeton University and an Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times, was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences on Monday. “It’s been an extremely weird day, but weird in a positive way,” Mr. Krugman said in an interview on his way to a…
Sitting here before sunup with the french doors open in the kitchen...Bird calls and air cool enough to keep the AC from kicking on (at least for an hour or so) wafting through with the aroma of the mornings coffee. The temperature is almost 70 again heading for the mid…
I heard this on my NPR podcast...I hope you like it...
Widely regarded as America's greatest living songwriter, Bob Dylan has written and recorded some of the most influential and acclaimed music of the past century. With countless studio albums, compilations and live discs to his name in his nearly 50-year career, Dylan continues to produce new music that's as vital…
For the first time in the back half of the year it really does feel like autumn this morning...We are even feeling like the mountains I long for... Alvin, TX 55.0 °F / 12.8 °C Clear Boone, NC 51.7 °F / 10.9 °C Drizzle Floyd, VA 53.4 °F / 11.9…
Palin, the Republican vice-presidential candidate, launched the attack Saturday and repeated it twice Sunday, signaling a new strategy by John McCain's presidential campaign to go after Obama's character. "The comments are about an association that has been known but hasn't been talked about," Palin said as she boarded her plane…
Every time Joe Biden made mention of the last eight years, Sarah Palin would chastise him for looking to the past not the future. Look who's digging deep now. SEDONA, Ariz., Oct. 4 -- GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin opened a new assault on Barack Obama on Saturday, accusing…
Makes sense to me...
Unbelievable. Sarah Palin finished her closing remarks by quoting Ronald Reagan: It was Ronald Reagan who said that freedom is always just one generation away from extinction. We don’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream; we have to fight for it and protect it, and then hand it…
If you haven't discovered TED Talks yet, you should. Really smart, really passionate people giving really passionate talks about subjects they know and love to people who really listen...
After wondering for days where the cool mornings the weather prognosticators kept telling me about were hiding, they arrived this morning. As a native to this climate in SE Texas, I am always amazed to hear these same prognosticators (most of whom arrived from climes much closer to the poles)…
But it’s equally clear that in recent years Mr. McCain has become impish cubed — impulsive, impetuous and impatient — and those are perilous qualities in a commander in chief.(1) What we learned last week is that the man who always puts his “country first” will take the country down…
Traffic signals at about 1,200 Houston area intersections were not yet working Tuesday but should all have at least a flashing red light by the end of next week, said Mike Marcotte, the city's director of public works and engineering. "I've been amazed with the courtesy our drivers have been…
It is arguable that, because of his inexperience, Obama is not ready for the presidency. It is arguable that McCain, because of his boiling moralism and bottomless reservoir of certitudes, is not suited to the presidency. Unreadiness can be corrected, although perhaps at great cost, by experience. Can a dismaying…
As a die hard West Wing fan I just loved this from Maureen Dowd... OBAMA The problem is we can’t appear angry. Bush called us the angry left. Did you see anyone in Denver who was angry? BARTLET Well ... let me think. ...We went to war against the wrong…
After the storm, once you realize you've lived through another, your awareness of your surroundings is contracted. You begin by wandering around just your own little space surrounding your home...Checking for damage, fixing the immediate needs if possible. Then you begin to expand your awareness to your neighbors. First you…
We got our power and phones back last night. The neighbors are still dark. I don't know exactly what the it is the government learned from Katrina, but living through their opinion of a well run after disaster relief effort I am unimpressed. Ike plowed through here like a farmer…
This isn't looking very good...Again. The latest 12Z (8 am EDT) computer models continue to show that Ike will track northwest into the central Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday and Wednesday. However, there has been a major shift in the model tracks for Thursday and Friday. All of the models…
Deprivatization I wish people wouldn’t say that Fannie and Freddie have been “nationalized.” I mean, it’s basically accurate, but it conveys the wrong impression. The fact is that Fannie Mae was originally a government agency; it was privatized in 1968, not for any good economic reason, but to move its…
With Hurricane Ike set to travel nearly the length of Cuba today before heading into the Gulf of Mexico, residents from Texas to Florida face another week of worrying about whether their communities will fall in the storm's path. Some public officials said Sunday they are concerned that the frequency…
For all the Republicans who are exulting that there’s now a “rock star” on the GOP ticket (and all the Democrats who are freaking out about it), there is one minor detail that’s worth considering in the days and months ahead. And that is that the “rock star” on the…
Happy Papaw with newest addition to the family tree... Cameron Jay September 5, 2008 And with beaming Grandma And shortly it'll be back to the hospital.
