Category Archives: Texana

The second-grade choice

Posted on February 9, 2008 | Comments Off on The second-grade choice

Obama-rama, the Keep Hope Alive candidate who is already leading his enthralled leftie audiences in Jesse Jackson-like chanting, is the presidential pick of most of the kids in Mr. Boy’s second-grade class. Mr. B., whose occasional rebellion in the behavior department masks his generally-conformist nature, says he also is for the O man because "he gives good speeches." But you shouldn’t take any significance from this, despite the fact that most kids this young are merely parroting their parents. This is Austin, the San Francisco of Texas, which always can be counted on to be majority Democrat, whatever the issue, while the rest of the state reliably votes Republican. Of perhaps more significance is the class consensus on Hilarity: Says Mr. B.: "She only cried to make people feel sorry for her." The class wasn’t fooled.

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Posted in Texana

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Willie’s toke

Posted on February 8, 2008 | Comments Off on Willie’s toke

Alas, outlaw icon Willie Nelson seems to have joined the Truthers, questioning what made the Twin Towers collapse. Not all that surprising, I suppose. He came out for Dennis Kuchinich in ’04, after all.

Via Scott at The Fat Guy. 

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Posted in Texana

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Texas lege

Posted on February 8, 2008 | Comments Off on Texas lege

Texas has changed in many ways in the past thirty years, as the population has grown and grown, but some things haven’t changed at all. Such as the Legislature’s flaunting of its own rules, particularly on voting for bills and amendments. Lawmakers supposedly are forbidden to push the buttons of the voting machines for their absent colleagues, but they certainly do, as shown rather comically in this good video report from KEYETV Austin that’s making the angry-taxpayer email-forwarding rounds. What’s rules for thee and me ain’t no rules at all for them. Thank goodness they only meet every two years. Better would be every four years. Best of all would be never.

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Posted in Texana

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Cedar anomaly

Posted on February 6, 2008 | Comments Off on Cedar anomaly

KVUE’s pollen count for cedar/juniper is way low, just 100 grains per cubic meter of air. So why am I as stuffed up as I was when the count was in the thousands? Maybe the rancho needs a good cleaning.

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Posted in Rancho Roly Poly, Texana

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Cedar pollen declining at last

Posted on February 1, 2008 | Comments Off on Cedar pollen declining at last

Current_Allergy.jpg

Says here, via KVUE, that it’s medium, but it feels like a lot less, at least around the rancho. Yesterday when I ventured out to pick up Mr. B. from school I came back with a snootfull, itching eyes and plenty of sneezing. Today, nothing. Usually, all the high wind we’ve been having the last few days, stirs more pollen into the air. But, this time, it seems to have blown what was there away, which probably means the season is almost over. Which is fine with me.

UPDATE:  Down even more Saturday morning. No more Prisoner of Zenda routine for me. 

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Posted in Mr. Boy, Rancho Roly Poly, Texana, Weather/Climate

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Cedar (dammit) Fever

Posted on January 30, 2008 | Comments Off on Cedar (dammit) Fever

I am reminded, irritably, of Texas Monthly’s claim that cedar fever lasts but a week. Ha! It’s going on four weeks now with no end in sight. Even Mr. B., whose early claims of cedar irritation seemed no more than sympathetic, now has credible sneezes. This is the longest season I remember. But I never saw them last only one week. Maybe TM is shilling for the chamber of commerce these days.

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Posted in Texana

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No Country for Vietnam Vets

Posted on January 30, 2008 | Comments Off on No Country for Vietnam Vets

I was looking for an excuse to avoid the new movie about the latest violent Cormac McCarthy book, No Country for Old Men, set in a mythical West Texas, and Marc Leepson of the VVA Veteran magazine has provided it in the latest issue–which isn’t at the link yet, but will be soon. "No Movie for the Faint of Heart," is his review of this Coen Brothers flicker. Why, I wonder, is Hollywood so invested in extreme violence, as the only alternative to the bad-America message-movie crep they normally churn out? What ever happened to musical comedies and light-hearted romances? Gone with the wind, I guess. I don’t wonder why they typically use Vietnam veterans as mindlessly-violent characters, as the Coens do here one of them in this movie more or less is. It must be part of Scientology’s secret credo. At any rate, it’s too characteristic of their work to be chewed over. Leepson pronounces this one a tsunami of blood and guts, boring in parts, not very thrilling, and ultimately pointless. Yep, that’s McCarthy and Hollywood, peas in a pod.

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Posted in Texana, Troops, Viet Nam

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