Category Archives: Texana

Reprise: Ran Runnels, The Hangman of Panama

Posted on December 16, 2015 | 1 comment

They’re still trying to figure out if Randolph Runnels really was a Texas Ranger before he was hired by the builders of the first transcontinental railroad (forty-seven miles across the Isthmus of Panama connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific) to solve a nasty bandido problem.

Runnels didn’t fit the physical image of a Ranger, according to historian David McCullough in his 1992 book Brave Companions, but he acted the myth well enough: he hanged seventy-eight men in two separate incidents in 1852 and, lo and behold, the banditry stopped. The Texas Rangers Association apparently has no record of Ran’s Ranger service, but their records admittedly aren’t complete.

But at least one railroad historian found sources crediting the Ranger tale, and there was a Runnels who had to do with the Rangers in the 1850s, Texas Gov. Hardin Runnels who took office in 1858. He was a champion of the Indian-fighting Rangers and he may have been Randolph’s brother.

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Posted in History, South of the Border, Texana

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Cold winter ahead

Posted on December 15, 2015 | 4 comments

Never mind the climate lies from Paris and the White House, nor the warm December we’ve been having so far in Central Texas, the cold is coming. Boy, is it coming, according to WeatherBell Analytics forecaster Joe Bastardi:

  • Overall, a snowy, colder than normal winter is expected in the South and East
  • Core of winter will be later rather then earlier
  • December could be very warm with February very cold
  • El Niño is a big influence but not the only factor

Snow here would be a minor miracle. It happens occasionally but only just. But in so generally warm a climate, a bitter cold and wet month (i.e. February) would be plenty impressive enough.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Rancho Roly Poly, Texana, Weather/Climate

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Cops fight back

Posted on December 11, 2015 | Comments Off on Cops fight back

“‘The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,’ [Brevard County, Florida, sheriff Wayne] Ivey said.

“He urged residents to arm themselves as a first line of defense against an active shooter.” Better than quaking or “sheltering in place,” until the SWAT team finally gets its camo and boots on.

Ivey’s not the only one who’s fed up with our Barry Hussein’s and his party’s constant anti-gun refrain. Leading to more and more restrictive gun registration schemes. You know, instead of recognizing terrorism.

“‘You are not our potentate, sir. You are our servant,’ says Randy Kennedy, police chief of Hughes Springs, a north Texas town east of Dallas.

Get it, Barry? These are the guys who would have to enforce your and the Hildabeast’s ultimate dream of confiscation.

Via Instapundit.

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Posted in Guns, History, Obamalot, Obsessions, Texana, The Culture

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Teach Texas women not to rape

Posted on December 9, 2015 | 2 comments

The headline is a modified steal from the Instapundit who has long chronicled the surprisingly increasing incidence of middle- and high school teachers, who are generally women, sexually abusing their students.

Now the problem is a growing Texas one, according to the state Senate Education Committee. The Texas Education Agency says the number of investigations of “inappropriate relationships” between teachers and students grew from 141 in 2009-10 to 188 in 2014-15. Long prison sentences may help.

And, strangely enough, it’s not just women teachers taking advantage of male students. They’re using the disappearing content feature of such apps as Snapchat and Kik to get sexually involved with female ones, too. Maybe it’s time for the Democrat party’s feminists to focus on the high school reality instead of their pretend rape problem involving only men at the country’s college and universities. Ya think?

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Posted in Blogosphere, Obamalot, Obsessions, Texana, The Culture

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Bench-clearing in football?

Posted on December 5, 2015 | 2 comments

Seen it in baseball, sure, but college football? Any football? But somehow, with the whole Baylor team on the Texas sidelines, only Texas gets a penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct. Weird.

Nice to see Texas at 17-0, but it can’t last. Can it? Naw. Not this season.

UPDATE: Welll… At the half it’s Texas 20, Baylor nothing. Lots of Baylor penalties and lost yardage, turnovers, field-goal kickers missing, and losing their QB early on to injury, to be replaced by a guy who can’t pass very well (sort of like Tyrone, actually), has kept the Bears off the board. This can’t last. Can it?

MORE:  Well, it did and it didn’t. Texas got the upset 23-17, sure enough, but they managed only 3 points in the whole second half. It’s more likely that fate had it in for Baylor than that Texas proved to be a better team than we thought. They got lucky, while Baylor’s luck ran out.

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Posted in Texana, Texas Football

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Damn cedar fever

Posted on December 5, 2015 | 2 comments

Mr. B set a recent, personal record for sneezing Friday—15 times in two minutes. His eyes were watering and the roof of his mouth itched. Oh, lord, that’s cedar fever most likely. Never bothered him before.

Then this morning I see KVUE weather reporting their daily rooftop air sample on Friday captured the first cedar (actually juniper) pollen of the season. Bit early for the annual Texas curse, but there it is.

Now we’ll have to hope and pray that El Nino delivers the forecast wet winter to help take the pollen out of the air. Otherwise he and I both will be struggling with the stuff before Xmas as well as after when it’s more generally a problem.

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

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Never a better time for firearms training

Posted on December 4, 2015 | 8 comments

Of course our half-wit president and his lapdog media cronies will do their best to use the San Bernadino murders to try and disarm the law-abiding. Oh, yes, that will help, no doubt. Common sense has never been one of His Putz’s strong points. Nor of his pals at the WaPo and NYT. Fortunately neither the congress nor the courts will follow their, uh, leadership on guns.

In fact, this is probably the best time ever to go out to your local range, indoors or out, rent a gun (pistol or rifle makes no difference) and learn how to defend yourself and your loved ones. Most ranges will “rent” the weapon for free and only charge you for the ammunition it “eats,” as well as normal range fees.

Mr. B. and I are headed out to Liberty Hill (apt name) on Sunday for the second meeting of the Jewish Rifle & Pistol Club of Central Texas. Weather forecast is good enough. We’ll get in a little dry-firing beforehand so our aim won’t be so far off this time and, as usual, pretend the paper target is a Jihadi come calling. Or, in the case of San Bernadino, a Jihadi husband-and-wife team.

Nowadays, with a Muslim-lovin’ twit in the White House, you never know. Better prepared than sorry. They’d be crazy to try it in Texas, but they’re crazy to begin with.

UPDATE:  Go get ’em, Ted: “You don’t get rid of the bad guys by getting rid of our guns. You get rid of the bad guys by using our guns.”

MORE:  Time to get a concealed-carry permit. But the laws are complicated.

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Posted in Guns, Obamalot, Texana, The Culture, The War

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