Thoughts and Prayers with the Folks of Oklahoma Tonight

 Posted by on 5/20/2013  3 Responses »
May 202013
 
child rescued from debris

A child is pulled from the debris after a tornado flattened his elementary school

Watching video of that massive tornado that ripped through Moore, Oklahoma and then seeing pictures of flattened elementary schools made me sick to my stomach.

So far, there are reports of 51 people dead, to include many school children.

I simply cannot begin to wrap my mind around the grief and pain their parents are going through right now. I simply cannot…

And while I know the human toll was significant, but the thought of all the dogs and cats who were most likely killed or maimed breaks my heart, too.

Bacon Makes Everything Better — With the Possible Exception of Live Mice

 Posted by on 5/8/2013  3 Responses »
May 082013
 

Whenever we cook bacon, we always save the drippings. I either top of my Foldger’s coffee can of bacon grease that I keep in the fridge for cooking, or I fill an old large plastic cup (after the grease cools, obviously), and keep it in the garage. When I feed the dogs, I mix in a spoonful of bacon grease with their dog food — they seem to love this.

Over the last week or so, I’ve been seeing mouse droppings in the garage. I was planning on putting out some more bait and traps this weekend…

Remember that big cup of bacon grease? Well it had about an inch or so of grease left in it, and with temps in the upper 80s today, it was fully melted. When I went to get a spoonful of it this evening? You guessed it — staring back up at me from the bottom of the cup was a bacon grease covered field mouse.

Still alive.

Normally, I exterminate mice in my garage or house with extreme prejudice. But I let this little guy go in the green belt out behind the house. I don’t imagine he’ll last long, as predators will now be tracking a mouse that smells like bacon. What a tasty, tasty treat.

The New Unmarried Moms — The Same Tragedy as the ‘Old’ Unmarried Moms

 Posted by on 4/25/2013  2 Responses »
Apr 252013
 

I’ve had this story from the Wall Street Journal bookmarked for about a  month now, but it’s still relevant today:

We’ve reduced teen pregnancy, but now childbearing outside wedlock is exploding among 20-somethings

For many Americans, the phrase “young single mother” conjures up a picture of a teenage high-school dropout. But that image is out of date. Teen pregnancy rates have been declining for two decades now. Today’s typical unmarried mother is a high-school graduate in her early 20s who may very well be living with her child’s father.

Despite her apparent advantages, however, she faces many of the same problems that we used to associate with her younger sisters. If 30 is the new 20, today’s unmarried 20-somethings are the new teen moms. And the tragic consequences are much the same: children raised in homes that often put them at an enormous disadvantage from the very start of life.

There is no single greater thing you can do to ensure the future failure of your children than to raise them as a single mom (or single dad, for that matter).

Yeah, yeah, yeah…spare me your stories that represent the exception. I grew up in a single-mother household, with a mom who is a superwoman and an amazing mother. She did her absolute best to raise her 5 children on her own. But guess what? We would have been better off with our father to help raise us.

From Ann Coulter’s fantastic 2009 book  Guilty: Liberal “Victims” and Their Assault on America:

As I described in my last book, “Guilty,” the leading cause of all social pathologies is single motherhood.

The statistics are so jaw-dropping that not giving up an illegitimate child for adoption ought to be considered child abuse.

Various studies have shown that children raised by a single mother comprise about 70 percent of juvenile murderers, delinquents, teenaged mothers, drug abusers, dropouts, suicides and runaways. Imagine an America with 70 percent fewer of these social disorders and you will see what liberals’ destruction of marriage has wrought.

Call off the search party, I’m back.

 Posted by on 4/21/2013  8 Responses »
Apr 212013
 

Sorry about the unannounced break from the blog, especially since the events of the last week included some amazing stories and narratives to blog about. But life got in the way.

Early Thursday evening, my younger brother, his wife and his youngest daughter came into town for a weekend-long visit. Along with another good friend, we all spent the evening at the Zac Brown Band concert at Austin’s newest (and instantly best) concert venue (the 360 Tower Amphitheater, which is located in the middle of the Circuit of the Americas race track).

I wore my favorite O.D. green wool beanie and a black Dickie’s workshirt — which turned out to be the exact same thing Zac Brown wore. And, with my full beard, I ended taking 20-30 pictures with folks who thought that I was Zac Brown.

The next morning (Friday), my two brothers and I headed to Marble Falls, TX for breakfast at the famous (in Marble Falls, anyway) Blue Bonnet Cafe before playing 27 holes of golf. It wasn’t until breakfast that I learned of the shootout between police and the Tsarnaev brothers, resulting in the death of Tamerlan (who, in a spat of poetic justice, was apparently killed when his younger brother drove over him in the SUV they had jacked earlier that day).

When we got home from golf, I only had a short time in which to take a shower and get ready to head out for dinner to celebrate the birthday of one of our close friends and my niece (about 20 of us sharing drinks and great food at Verde’s Parilla, off Hamilton Pool Rd). Just before heading out to dinner, I saw that police had the younger brother pinned down in Watertown.

By the time we got home from dinner, he had already been captured. But I was too tired to try to follow the story, much less write about it.

Saturday morning found me at Quality Seafood Market bright and early to pick up 70 lbs of Lake Charles mudbugs for our big crawfish boil (to celebrate a bunch of birthdays, to include Cash’s first birthday). The rest of Saturday was spent purging crawfish, setting up the tables and chairs, and then finally hosting the crawfish boil, where I spent a few hours boiling bugs for our guests.

Around 8:00 pm after we finished eating, we fired up the fire pit, opened up another bottle of whiskey, and a bunch of us stayed up until just after midnight laughing and telling stories while we sat around the fire.

Sunday morning was spent peeling about 20 lbs of left-over crawfish, so my lovely sister-in-law (a Cajun girl from deep-East Texas) could whip up some of her family-secret-recipe crawfish etoufee. I just finished cleaning up the backyard and putting everything away, and am sitting down at a computer for the first time since Thursday morning.

I apologize to anybody who came here to look for more information (or my predictable opinions) on the huge news that was breaking over the weekend…but something (family) are simply more important than this little blogging hobby.

As Jim Treacher said, sometimes you just need a break.

EXECUTION WATCH: Rickey Lynn Lewis (TX)

 Posted by on 4/7/2013  53 Responses »
Apr 072013
 

UPDATE: He’s dead. Good and dead.

What a sorry piece-of-shit, right up until his dying breath. Even if he really wasn’t the one who shot Mr. Newman in the face and killed him, he was there. And he admits to raping Mrs. Hilton. Which means that he’s still deserved the death penalty and it was legally justified under the Texas Law of Parties.

But I don’t believe for a second that he wasn’t the killer. If he wasn’t he would have snitched on his two accomplices in a blink of an eye. He never named them for one reason and one reason only — he knew that they would simply confirm that Lewis was the killer.

Next on the agenda is Ronnie Threadgill, who will be executed on April 16.

_____________________________

Rickey Lynn Lewis

22 years on death row is not justice. Hopefully tomorrow puts and end to this evil

  • Thug: Rickey Lynn Lewis (31 at time of offense)
  • Date of Execution: April 9, 2013
  • Date of Crime: September 17, 1990
  • Victim(s): George Ray Newman (45)
  • Last Meal: Pentobarbital. As much as he’d like.
  • Final Words:  ”If I hadn’t raped you, you wouldn’t have lived [said to the Connie Hilton, who witnessed the execution]. I didn’t kill Mr. Newman and I didn’t rob your house. I was just there. … I’m sorry for what you’ve gone through. It wasn’t me that harmed and stole all of your stuff, I feel it in my throat. I’m getting dizzy.”

___________________________________________

On the evening of September 17, 1990, Rickey Lewis, along with two other men, broke into the home of George Newman in Tyler, TX.

George and Connie interrupted the burglary. So Lewis shot George in the face, killing him. Connie was raped and beaten. Lewis threatened to kill Connie. Lewis also killed their dog before leaving in Connie’s car. Lewis was arrested three days after the murder. The other two participants were never caught.

Broke into someone’s home to steal their stuff. Got caught. Shot a man in the face. Raped his fiance. Killed his dog. Stole their car.

Rickey Lewis is the epitome of evil, and there is only one way to deal with somebody this sick: put them down.

Lewis was first sentenced to death on May 6, 1994 and eventually re-sentenced to death on February 27, 1997.

Lewis was previously scheduled for execution on Aug. 7, 2003 but Lewis’ attorneys claimed he was mentally retarded, a matter that was finally settled this year. The final judgment came down when the Court of Criminal Appeals’ affirmed Judge Kent’s finding that Lewis is not mentally retarded.

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted 7-0 Friday to not recommend clemency for 50-year-old Rickey Lynn Lewis.

So it looks like his long, long stay on death row is about to finally come to an end.

Pope Francis — A True Inspiration, Regardless of Your Religious Affiliation (or lack of one)

 Posted by on 4/4/2013  4 Responses »
Apr 042013
 

My mom was raised Catholic, in a very large and very Catholic family. She decided, for many reasons, to raise her family outside of the Catholic church.

So, while I’m not Catholic, or even very religious for that matter — I have to tell you, this new Pope? I’m a huge fan already. Everything he’s done so far has shown that he a genuinely good man, who is the embodiment of love and compassion. We’d all do better to be more like this man.

Pope Francis embracing 8-year-old Dominic Gondreau.

Pope Francis embracing 8-year-old Dominic Gondreau.

This story and videos from Megyn Kelly interviewing the father an 8-year old boy suffering with cerebral palsy, who was embraced by Pope Francis on Easter Sunday is incredibly moving:

The moving images of this Easter Sunday moment at the Vatican have spread around the world over the last few days. Greeting followers in St. Peter’s Square from the “Popemobile,” Pope Francis called for 8-year-old Dominic Gondreau, who suffers from cerebral palsy, to be raised up to him. He proceeded to hug Dominic, giving him a kiss on the cheek.

Paul Gondreau, a theology professor at Providence College, had traveled with his wife and children to Rome to teach for a semester. He was shocked to see his son in the arms of the newly elected pontiff, and he shared the amazing experience with Megyn Kelly on America Live.

Gondreau said he was seated with his four other children further away from the pope. Dominic and his mother, Christina, had been summoned earlier by the Swiss Guards to move into a closer seating area with other disabled children.

Gondreau said one of his other sons pointed out what was happening, telling him it was actually Dominic that was being held by Pope Francis.

 

Sen. Rand Paul — A Filibuster for the Ages

 Posted by on 3/6/2013  10 Responses »
Mar 062013
 
Sen. Rand Paul filibuster

A true American patriot. If we had just 20 more like him, I believe we could begin to right this sinking ship.

Sometime around the time I was getting out of my morning staff meeting, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) started a filibuster against Obama’s nominee for director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), John Brennan.

I just put our son to bed, and am myself settling in for the night.

And Sen. Paul is still on the floor, having refused to yield the floor.

And all he’s asking is one very simple question: Does Obama believe it is constitutional to kill American citizens with drones, on US soil, with no trial, no due process, and who poses no threat.

Earlier this morning, Texas’ junior Senator, Ted Cruz, had to goad Attorney General Eric Holder into begrudgingly admit that it would indeed be unconstitutional.

Now all Sen. Paul wants is for Obama to put that in writing.

And, 9 hours into the filibuster, Obama has given it as much of a response as he did to the death of US Navy SEAL Chris Kyle: absolute silence and indifference.

You’d think that the left would be standing tall with Sen. Paul — as they Left is always telling us how it is they who are the true champions of civil liberties. But instead of support, they’re laughing and ridiculing him. I think we all know what they’re reaction would be if President Bush had declared the Presidential right to murder US citizens with drones.

Perhaps the most remarkable part of this 9 hours is the incredible lesson on the Constitution that Sen. Paul — with a hefty assist from Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT). If you’ve watched even a third of this filibuster, you are more of a Constitutional scholar than Obama claims to be.

As my friend Kathleen McKinney said on Facebook, “Seriously, Sen. Rand Paul is schooling America on liberty and our rights and how Pres. Obama has abused his power over and over. It’s epic!”

And of course, very proud of Sen. Cruz for helping Sen. Paul with his filibuster:

Then there’s this, from one of the leftist reporters over at the Texas Tribune:

She somehow fails to mention his party affiliation (hint: he’s a braying ass). Or to expound on the fact that this Democrat spent those 22 hours railing against equal rights for black people, which was pretty much the default ideology of the Democrat party at the time.

#StandWithRand? You betchurass I do (make sure to also follow the #filiblizzard meme).

For all the faults I can find with his father, Rep. Ron Paul did a helluva job raising his boy to be damned good man.

_____________________

MORE from Twitter:

Damned straight…

Oh God, I hope so…

If You’re Going to Grow a Beard, Son…Then Freak’n Grow a Beard!

 Posted by on 2/28/2013  9 Responses »
Feb 282013
 

Walked into our break room at work yesterday afternoon, and somebody had accidentally left one of the televisions on CNN (they’re usually either on Fox News or ESPN at our office) and saw this panel talking about something — not sure, think it might have been Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer’s decision to terminate her company’s telecommuting policy and forcing employees to actually — gasp — come into the office to work:

CNN panel

You call that a beard?

Anyway…I don’t care about Yahoo, I don’t care about Ms. Mayer, I don’t care about Yahoo’s policies, and I certainly don’t care about these yahoos at CNN. I only snapped this picture and wrote this post for one reason: to mock the hell out of that  effeminate nancy boy in the upper-right corner.

Son — if you’re going to grow a beard, then grow a fucking beard. A beard is manly thing (especially a good combat beard). If that’s the best you can do, then don’t. You look like a rat. A dirty, homeless, testosterone-deficient rat.

Damned shame of it that he’s been trying to grow those pubes on his face for more than a year and he thinks it looks good on him.

You call that a beard, boy? This is a beard:

Combat beard

University of Texas Ready to Offer Nine Massive Open Online Courses

 Posted by on 2/24/2013  1 Response »
Feb 242013
 

The University of Texas has announced plans to offer nine massive open enrollment, online courses during the 2013-14 academic year:

The courses will be deployed on the edX platform. EdX is an online nonprofit learning initiative founded by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in May 2012. In October the University of Texas System became the fourth partner in the edX consortium of leading colleges, universities and university systems. Other members include Harvard, MIT, the University of California at Berkeley, Wellesley College and Georgetown University.

The University of Texas at Austin plans to deploy the first four MOOCs in fall 2013, followed by an additional five in spring 2014. Faculty and course development teams will use state-of-the-art approaches to build the content, assessments and technology for each course.

“Our faculty is enthusiastic about this frontier, and I’m proud that The University of Texas is in the vanguard of blended and online learning,” said university President Bill Powers. “Innovations like this make it an exciting time to be in higher education.”

These courses, which will be designed and taught by award-winning faculty members, are as follows:

The planned courses are:

Fall 2013 launch

  • Ideas of the Twentieth Century — Daniel Bonevac, College of Liberal Arts; Roy Flukinger, Harry Huntt Ransom Humanities Research Center
  • Introduction to Globalization — John Hoberman, College of Liberal Arts
  • Bench to Bedside: Introduction to Drug Development and the Commercialization Process — Janet Walkow, College of Pharmacy; Donna Kidwell, IC2 Institute; Alan Watts, College of Pharmacy
  • Energy Technology & Policy — Michael Webber, Cockrell School of Engineering

Spring 2014 launch

  • Jazz Appreciation — Jeffrey Hellmer, College of Fine Arts
  • Foundations of Data Analysis — Catherine Stacy and Michael Mahometa, College of Natural Sciences
  • Mathematics and Effective Thinking — Michael Starbird, College of Natural Sciences
  • Introduction to Embedded Systems — Jonathan Valvano and Ramesh Yerraballi, Cockrell School of Engineering
  • Linear Algebra: Theory and Computation — Robert van de Geijn and Margaret Myers, College of Natural Sciences

I’m looking forward to this, and plan on taking Dr. Bonevac’s course on Ideas of the Twentieth Century. I had the opportunity to meet Dr. Bonevac back in 2008 when he debated Dr. James Galbraith at the University of Texas’ Lecture Series billed as a “Liberal vs. Conservative: Debate to the Death”).

The debate, which was held before a packed house of mostly 19-20 year old kids on the UT campus, was between:

  • Dr. James K Galbraith, a distinguished and world-renowned Economics professor and — even in an academic environment run over by Liberals, considered to be one of the most Liberal.
  • Dr. Daniel Bonevac, a Professor of Philosophy and a core faculty member of the Program in Western Civilization and American Institutions at UT. Considered to be one of the most Conservative professors on campus. Meaning he might be the only one.

The Energy Technology and Policy course sounds interesting as well. If I have time, I might try to take part in that one as well.

Man Falls Off Overpass, Gets Hit By 18-Wheeler; Condition ‘Unknown’

 Posted by on 2/10/2013  7 Responses »
Feb 102013
 

From KVUE News’ (Austin) Facebook page:

Breaking news from KVUE

His condition is “unknown at this time?” If his condition is anything other than ‘dead’ I’d be amazed. How the hell do you survive something like that?

And, if KVUE doesn’t know his condition, how do they know he “fell?” Seems more likely that he “jumped” or was “pushed” rather than “fell.”

UPDATE — OK, they’ve got a little more:

Update on the breaking news from Shannon Murray KVUE: RRPD says 20 yo man was sitting on the bridge and fell, according to witnesses. He is alive, has a broken leg. Internal injuries are unknown. I-35 southbound remains closed.

Are they sure he was hit by a semi after falling off the overpass?

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