Category Archives: Texana

Go get ’em, Ted

Posted on September 24, 2013 | 8 comments

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s effort to defund Obamacare, which has proven to be far more expensive, intrusive and faulty than its Democrat backers promised, is getting as much flack from the GOP elite as the donks themselves.

“The GOP Establishment is so mad they have momentarily stopped attacking Sarah Palin…Fortunately, Governor Palin has not forgotten…”

Even the WSJ headlines Ted’s “confrontational tone.” Oh, dear. How rude of him.

And Ted’s co-senator, Corny Cornyn, is taking whacks at him, too. Corny, who isn’t really a conservative but only plays one on TV, needs to be recalled.

Ted, who also wisely wants to abolish the IRS, has taken to the Web, where all of us can register our backing for his effort. I did and you can, too. Go get ’em, Ted.

UPDATE:  Here’s a good excerpt from Ted’s marathon about how Obozocare is killing jobs. Time will tell whether he accomplished what he wanted, which was to energize the Tea Party and other small-government voters to more, not less, participation next year in the Congressional races and for the White House in 2016.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Obamalot, Texana

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The Horns unsuck

Posted on September 22, 2013 | Comments Off on The Horns unsuck

A new Longhorns team showed up in Austin Saturday night and beat KState 31-21 for the first time in ten years. The suck Horns of the past two games were nowhere to be seen. Unfortunately, QB David Ash seems to have another concussion.

Can’t imagine Ash’s parents (if not his coaches) would allow him to continue playing, as he would risk disability or even death. And if he doesn’t play again, the unsuck Horns could quickly be back to suck. He apparently is their only QB with an accurate long ball in him.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Texana, Texas Football

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Johnny F’ing Football

Posted on September 22, 2013 | Comments Off on Johnny F’ing Football

Texas Monthly’s cover article on Aggie’s QB Johnny Manziel is a good ‘un. I like him much better now. Thought himjust a typical teenage jerk before.

He’s from an old Texas family of Lebanese Americans who made it big in oil back in the early Twentieth. The wunderkind is fresh out of a tiny Kerrville high school of no football reputation, except for him when he played QB there. I wasn’t surprised to learn that UT turned him down for a scholarship. They’ve turned down all the good QBs, lately, it seems. But so did Baylor and TCU.

And so did A&M’s old coach Mike Sherman. Only Sherman’s firing, bringing in Kevin Sumlin, saved JFF. So far, anyhow. If he just doesn’t blow it. But he’ll always have the size issue (just 6’1″) far as the NFL is concerned.

Darkwater, an Aggie alum, says “Manziel’s young and immensely talented, but I hope that what appears to be cockiness (as opposed to a great sense of humor) can be kept in check. His Heisman does invite a huge target on his back, and some of the stories are inflated.”

Let’s hope. After watching UT’s Vince Young self-destruct with a bad attitude and Colt McCoy dissemble for the Cleveland Browns, we need a smart, achieving Texas quarterback to brag on. If we didn’t have JFF, ’bout all that’s left (other than Redskins’ RGIII) would be Baker Mayfield, formerly of Lake Travis High, one of the Austin area’s richest preps, now with the Red Raiders.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Texana, Texas Football

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Then, and now

Posted on September 18, 2013 | 8 comments

The UT Tower sniping has pretty much faded from local memory, but one aspect of it should be remembered for how things worked in 1966.

“After the first fifteen minutes, the sniper was pinned down by students and other civilians who’d spontaneously flocked to the university area with deer rifles.”

People were trusted, then, to do the right thing. Some didn’t, of course, but many did. Nowadays we’re all lumped in with the creeps who don’t. And we “shelter in place” like cowards while waiting for the police to arrive. Only to find out that their first priority is to go home safe at the end of their shift.

A similar Austin incident now would probably have a bigger toll than 1966’s seventeen dead and thirty-two wounded, all in those first fifteen minutes before the deer rifles spoke.

Via Instapundit, who agrees with a reader comment that lefty Austin is no longer a real part of Texas. Maybe, but I can’t think of a city in Texas today (or anywhere else in the country, see the Navy Yard massacre) that could now replicate Austin’s civilian defenders of 1966.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Guns, Obsessions, Texana

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Our coming winter: colder than usual

Posted on September 14, 2013 | 4 comments

I was thinking back on Labor Day when I cut back the Antique Roses in the Back Forty whether I should go the whole hog one-third trim, or do what I did which was just give them a haircut and plan to give them another one in January, instead of waiting to Valentine’s as is customary with this breed.

Now I wish I had gone the one-third, because January could be icy (probably not snowy, that’s hardly ever true here) according to WeatherBell meteorologist Joe Bastardi. His conclusion is terse: “Another colder, snowier than normal winter is on the way, in my opinion. I would prepare using a blend of 02-03, 09-10 as two-thirds, with 04-05, 06-07 as one-third…”

If the latter half of the statement is confusing, it refers to analogue winters which is Bastardi’s favorite method of forecasting because it frequently works. The winter of 2010, for instance, was so cold here that the green elephant ears in the front beds turned black and fell on the ground. They grew back, of course, from the roots. Go here for his not very technical, reasonably easy to understand explanation with lots of pretty graphics.

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Posted in Antique Roses, Rancho Roly Poly, Texana, Weather/Climate

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Waiting for the Ole Miss catastrophe

Posted on September 13, 2013 | 2 comments

Hard to believe the Longhorns defense could have improved sufficiently in six days to erase their BYU beatdown—550 rushing yards allowed. My Mississippi cousins are happily anticipating tomorrow’s Ole Miss game. They always win the tailgate, they like to say, but this time they have a good chance to win the game.

Even former Texas safety Kenny Vaccaro, now lighting up opponents of the New Orleans Saints, says the problems are on the field, not with the coaches on the sidelines. No grit, no leadership, no execution. At least we have one good Texas game to watch tomorrow (Aggies vs Alabama) even if the QB in College Station is a self-centered jerk who will never make it in the NFL.

UPDATE:  Hoo-Boy, do these 2013 Longhorns suck. No defense and very inconsistent offense. After three scoreless quarters, including the whole second half, they lost 44 to 23. Kansas State next week undoubtedly will be more of the same—only the KState score will be a lot higher.

As for the Ags, they almost beat Bama a second time, but lost 49-42. Despite Manziel the bad-boy wonder-worker and his last-minute 95 yard TD.

AND:  Mrs. Charm, taking Mr. Boy to lunch out near Cedar Park day after the game, reports seeing a Longhorn flag in someone’s front yard: It was at half-staff and upside down. Yep.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Rancho Roly Poly, Texana, Texas Football

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BYU 40, Texas 21

Posted on September 8, 2013 | 2 comments

BYU was David Ash’s winning debut in 2011. This year the boys in Utah were his humiliation. His offense couldn’t protect him. When he dropped back to pass, there were three Brigham Young University defenders in his face. His defense looked comical with one missed tackle after another.

The secret “elevation masks” apparently didn’t make a difference. After sacking him repeatedly, BYU finally knocked Ash out of the game in the first half of the fourth quarter with a possible head injury.

Always hard to see the Longhorns lose, especially when an unranked team like BYU runs over them. Literally—with 550 rushing yards, the most by any opponent ever. In truth, though, it was predictable. The Horns were lackluster in the first half against cupcake New Mexico State last week.

Now Texas, which already was a miserable 15th in the AP ranking, could fall out of the Top 25 altogether. Just like last year. Once more dismantling the pre-season narrative of better, faster, tougher, etc. And, once more, reinstating calls to fire Coach Mack Brown and Defensive Coordinator Manny Diaz. Might as well add Co-Offensive Coordinator Major Applewhite to the list, too.

The Horns might come back. Maybe. We’ll see if they can come back far enough to at least win another Alamo Bowl. They certainly won’t beat Oklahoma or Oklahoma State, and may well lose to West Virginia, TCU, etc. Sigh.

UPDATE:  As expected, Texas has fallen out of the AP Top 25, replaced in its No. 15 slot by Miami. That’s what happens when an unranked team whips your ass, like BYU did.

Ironically, USC, the team Texas beat for the national title back in ’05, has also fallen out, for only a 10-7 loss to Washington State. Something to worry about, maybe: Ole Miss, Texas’ next opponent, debuted this week at No. 25.

MORE:  Texas has fired Defensive Coordinator Manny Diaz. Pity, I think, but somebody’s head had to roll. It was for sure it wouldn’t be Brown’s.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Obsessions, Texana, Texas Football

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