THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER

Every now and then, somebody wanders in here searching for Ura Hogg. It’s an old Texas joke, folks. There was no Ura. No Hoosa, either. But there certainly was a Miss Ima. And, besides being gorgeous, and the daughter of a governor, she was a great philanthropist, too.

As a recovering journalist, my memories of the job come and go, some quite indistinct—like this tornado recollection I left at JD Allen’s place not long ago: “I ‘chased’ one in the Panhandle one time so the photographer I was working with could get a decent shot of it. He was driving. We were about [...]

Texas has long required presentation of a driver’s license, or other photo i.d., in order to vote. Prove you’re a citizen with a right to the privilege. What could be more sensible? Not to Obamalot’s “justice” department. You know, the guys who shipped automatic rifles and hand grenades to Mexican drug lords and are still [...]

In 1965, the Joint Chiefs of Staff recommended bombing Hanoi and mining Haiphong Harbor to avoid a protracted ground war in South Viet Nam. President Johnson screamed at them, cursing them and calling them idiots. “Why had Johnson not only dismissed their recommendations, but also ridiculed them? It must have been that Johnson had lacked [...]

Jury duty is our duty as citizens, right? I suppose. I certainly have the time, if not the inclination, to play the courthouse game on April 2, the date I’ve been told to report to the Travis County courthouse downtown to receive a court assignment. Allegedly. Allegedly, because I expect to be cut from the jury [...]

I never pay attention anymore to TNR or the other Lefty rags I once read with such devotion when I was a youngish liberal Democrat journalist. Most all journalists still are, however much some of them pretend to be objective. It’s hard to be objective when you think Republicans are evil right-wingers, and most journalists [...]

It’s traditional here to read this aloud on the 2nd of March, which is Texas Independence Day. Even big-Lib Gov. Ann Richards did it when she was in office. Commandancy of the Alamo Bexar, Feby. 24th, 1836 To the People of Texas & all Americans in the World– Fellow Citizens and Compatriots– I am besieged [...]

Nope, we never tire of Betty around here at the rancho. Well, not me.

“…if we’re allowed to read any book that we want under freedom of speech, why is it we can’t put into our body whatever we want?” The Texas congressman is the only wouldbe Republican nominee, so far, who has the cajones to question our insane drug laws. All they do is give the police an [...]

We’re not normally into “boy art” around here, but we’ll make an exception for the Iranian-Japanese heartthrob Yu Darvish, the pitching sensation for whom the Texas Rangers recently paid $107.7 million—$57 to Darvish and 51.7 to his old team the Nippon Ham-Fighters. You’re not likely to see this sort of thing in your daily’s sport [...]