Category Archives: Texana

Austin’s deep freeze

Posted on February 3, 2011 | Comments Off on Austin’s deep freeze

A second night of temps falling into the teens ahead, after having not gotten out of the mid-twenties all day. The elephant ears at the rancho have turned black and fallen on the ground, just like last year. Likewise the plumbago and the turk’s cap.

They’ll all grow back, they always have before. At least we’re not facing this blizzardification happening elsewhere, though the link is in Wisconsin, where they actually have radiators (and probably need them). But there are snow flurries in our forecast for Thursday night into Friday morning. Then, true to form, warming into the fifties on Saturday and Sunday. Come on, spring!

Comments Off on Austin’s deep freeze

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

Tagged , ,

The Russia bombing

Posted on January 24, 2011 | Comments Off on The Russia bombing

The scariest thing about the exploding visitor at the Russian airport today is that his/her TNT blast went off in a so-called soft target area, i.e. the public area, where no ticket or boarding pass is required and friends and family are awaiting an arrival. Stratfor’s Ben West sums it up here. Takes a minute to load.

Comments Off on The Russia bombing

Posted in Texana, The War

Tagged , ,

Four-stackers

Posted on January 24, 2011 | Comments Off on Four-stackers

These old (circa 1918) destroyer escorts were mostly sunk by 1945, but they feature prominently in a series of alternate-history novels I ran across the other day. Never cared for the genre myself.

Written by a North Texas history buff and movie extra who has a fan base so dedicated it likes to make models of the ships. That seems to be the way to sell books these days. Write a fantasy series, and keep ’em coming back for more.

Comments Off on Four-stackers

Posted in Blogosphere, Library, Texana

Tagged , , ,

Mexico’s crystal caves

Posted on January 22, 2011 | Comments Off on Mexico’s crystal caves

crystalsReprising a Texas Scribbler  oldie but goodie that’s a favorite with the Googlers.

Comments Off on Mexico’s crystal caves

Posted in Science/Engineering, South of the Border, Texana

Wire-tapping Dr. King

Posted on January 17, 2011 | Comments Off on Wire-tapping Dr. King

One of these years, before they’re all dead, the Democrats who initiated, authorized and carried out the wire-tapping and bugging of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s private life ought to use one of these national holidays to  ‘fess up and do some public hand-wringing.

Maybe one of the Kennedy children would speak out on behalf of the deceased wire-tappers and electronic buggers JFK and RFK? I know, it isn’t likely. Just s’posin’.

The Left’s favorite sanctimonious Baptist preacher, Bill Moyers, knows (and did) plenty in this and other regards for JFK’s successor Democrat LBJ. But it’s very unlikely the man some call J. Edgard Moyers will ever confess, let alone apologize. Nope, no mea culpas for Iago.

Comments Off on Wire-tapping Dr. King

Posted in Blogosphere, Library, Scribbles, Texana

Tagged , , , ,

A Scouting he goes

Posted on January 14, 2011 | Comments Off on A Scouting he goes

Mr. B. left a short while ago with two chums and one of their fathers for an overnight camping trip with the Boy Scouts on a private ranch near Bastrop, their final Cub Scout Webelos II requirement.

S’posed to be in the 40s out there tonight with a good chance of showers. Mrs. C., of course, sent him with twice as much as he needs, but maybe she’s right. A few more years of these once-a-month Scout adventures and he’ll know what to do on his own.

Comments Off on A Scouting he goes

Posted in Mr. Boy, Mrs. Charm, Rancho Roly Poly, Texana

Tagged , , , ,

The predictable Tucson shooting

Posted on January 13, 2011 | Comments Off on The predictable Tucson shooting

The Tucson shooting was predictable, and not because of heated Left-Right political rhetoric (which Obamalot helped create and cannot solve) but due to an older, never-resolved political mistake.

“These tragedies are the inevitable outcome of five decades of failed mental-health policies. During the 1960s, we began to empty the state mental hospitals but failed to put in place programs to ensure that the released patients received treatment after they left.

“By the 1980s, the results were evident—increasing numbers of seriously mentally ill persons among the homeless population and in the nation’s jails and prisons.”

You can see the results on any Austin street corner, i.e. the bums out cadging money from motorists. Some of them are too lazy to work, or have serious alcohol or drug addictions. But more have the dazed, out-of-it look of the mentally lost. Or the damned.

Comments Off on The predictable Tucson shooting

Posted in Scribbles, Texana

Tagged ,