Texas' overall uninsured rate of 25.2 percent, and its 20.2 uninsured rate for children, continued to be the highest in the country. Nationally, the number of people without health insurance last year declined from 47 million in 2006, the Census Bureau said. Median household income — meaning half of households…
Image via Wikipedia The weather here has been very dry...at least until the past week or so. We have been having a spring-like amount of rain. After complaining for so long about the lack, it seems almost sacrilegious to say anything about the water we needed so bad. After months…
In the midst of August, spring appears to have triumphantly — if temporarily — returned to Houston. Steady rainfall has delivered a blessed week of lower-than-normal temperatures, and Tuesday's high reached only 81 degrees, which is more typical of late April than mid-August. Wednesday's mercury reached a comparatively warm 84,…
Anything Wendell Berry writes is worth the time it takes to digest...My recommendation is to go spend some time today with the man... The general reaction to the apparent end of the era of cheap fossil fuel, as to other readily foreseeable curtailments, has been to delay any sort of…
This one's for you... While reporters at The Post and The New York Times have been vetting McCain, many others give him a free pass. Their default cliché is to present him as the Old Faithful everyone already knows. They routinely salute his “independence,” his “maverick image” and his “renegade…
Up on the mountain behind my house, the wild blueberries are ripe and prolific. It’s public land, part of the Maine state-park system, so the berries are free for the picking. In a half-hour or so, if I’m lucky, I can fill a tin cup with enough berries for breakfast,…
This has to be one of the strangest things about Texas Republicans... When health care in Texas makes headlines, the issues raised by administrators and physicians are hardly rosy. They include overcrowded emergency rooms, mounting hospital budget deficits created by unfunded indigent care, and uninsured rates for adults and children…
CARSON, NEW MEXICO—When the wind comes up the mesa, which it often does, there is a particular rusted-out old car nearby that whispers the same eerie, long-toned question every time: “Whoooooo?” I sometimes think: “Us.” Out in this remote part of the American Southwest lies the closest thing I have…
Obama is the first political figure since Carter to understand the energy efficiency and conservation approach and actually try to present it to the American people. Republicans want to nip it in the bud -- that's why they are so aggressively jumping on the tire gauge thing. They want to…
In order for the American dream to work, everyone must do their part. As you can see from this report, the majority of the corporations doing business here don't. WASHINGTON — Two-thirds of U.S. corporations paid no federal income taxes between 1998 and 2005, according to a new report from…
What do you call a Republican who is happy to lie directly to people's faces? John W. McCain. The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan.
Leaving the house this morning the temperature was already passing 80°. August in SE Texas may not be as hot as other places in the country, but factor in the humidity and it ain't pretty. The prognosticator on the radio was holding forth about a high today of 96°...But then…
It just goes to show you, when the government doesn't believe in regulations...Regulations go by the wayside and enforcement becomes mute... Whole Foods Market pulled fresh ground beef from all of its stores Friday, becoming the latest retailer affected by an E. coli outbreak traced to Nebraska Beef, one of…
I am working on moving my original blog to a new home. A lot of tweaking and redoing things I forgot doing two years ago...I'll probably be posting and polising the chrome over there for a few days (or weeks)...If you want to check up on me try me at…
Why Paul Roberts' End of Food deserves to be digested by policy makers and local-food activists alike | By Tom Philpott | Grist | Victual Reality | 08 Aug 2008 The Locavore's Dilemma Why Paul Roberts' End of Food deserves to be digested by policy makers and local-food activists alike…
Image by Getty Images via Daylife Ohio Sues Over Trouble With Voting Machines - washingtonpost.com During the May primary, Brunner said officials in Butler County, north of Cincinnati, realized that 150 votes were dropped when they were being transferred from memory cards. When Brunner looked into it, she found that…
I ran across this looking for a musician referenced on Americana Roots Radio yesterday. I tried it in the sidebar but it didn't work too well...So I'll post it here. There are some really good artists in the play list, so have a listen... Texas Back Porch Station 5428 at…
Could McCain possibly have received a better response to his "Celebrity" ad than this? See Paris Hilton Responds to McCain Ad and more funny videos on FunnyOrDie.comSee more funny videos at Funny or Die For the first time in my life I have to say...You go girl...
Up early to check on the status of Edouard...Looks like a miss for my house...Heading inland already on the Louisiana border. Should miss the majority of the Houston area, rain and moderate winds only. Sherry has headed for work already...Television on, radar on the monitor... Happy Birthday Wendell Berry It's…
All eyes in this area are watching the developements in the Gulf. It looks like we will be feeling the effects of the approaching storm tomorrow in the early pre-dawn hours. Hopefully, the storm will live down to the predictions and not become the storm it could be. All in…
The Pleasurable Choice Is the Ethical Choice I like to say that I'm not an an optimist, but I am a person of hope. That is to say, I cultivate the virtue of hope in myself. Hope takes account of the enormity and darkness of challenges and problems, and yet…
This project began as so many good things do, over a cup of coffee. So begins the preface to Rebooting America, Ideas for Redesigning American Democracy for the Internet Age. Dana Boyd blogged about the availability of the download this morning and I pulled the pdf down before leaving the…
First things first --- Happy Birthday Sherry. I know you never read these muses...but hell, I'll still say it here. The best present I ever got... Now to the subject of this muse...Heat. It's hot here, it's hot across the south, it's hot on the Blue Ridges of North Carolina…
The Podcast I listened to yesterday that really caught my interest was this one... Tiny Texas Cafe Fills Up After Barbecue Award : NPR All Things Considered, July 18, 2008 · Barbecue is religion in Texas. Every five years, Texas Monthly goes on a quest for the Holy Grail —…
The "Party" on Saturday had all of the appearances of being a success. By the time the house was empty and the ticky-tacky leftovers were put away I could once again hit the lazy-boy and reflect on the past couple of weeks of labor and feel good that it was…
...addicting...go play. Thanks Kate...
Around these parts most of our ripened fruit happened a month or better ago. The only thing still to come are the pecans in the fall. Even so the following resonates... The Suburban Life - Thinking Ahead - Editorial - NYTimes.com It’s a good year for blueberries. Decades ago, a…
The drive home yesterday was blustery but dry with lots of high clouds and rain showers off in the distance. Hurricane Dolly's approach to the Texas coast was being felt first far north of the expected landfall. The first bands of showers croosed Galveston Island early yesterday morning. The drive…
I finally bit the bullet and upgraded this site to the new WordPress 2.6...I thought I was locked out of my own site...It took two days to figure out why I could not log in...user name and password were right...log in again was the prompt...over and over again...then on a…
Pardon the parsity of the recent posts. I find myself in that strange world of being in between. After thirty-five years at the same company (yes, most of my co-workers weren't even born when I started), I find my skills and knowledge not as welcome as they were. Management changes…
