The Dallas Morning News this afternoon posted an editorial urging people not to worry about so-called new extra levels of government and taxation being created to make their lives hell. The editorial also castigated Chicken Little types who spread rumors of new extra levels. My bumper sticker, incidentally, reads, “Chicken…
Welcome to my dark, dank, little out-of-the-way catch-all corner.In here every Friday afternoon you’ll find those cumbersome little pieces parts, fleeting thoughts and mind crumbs I couldn’t crowbar into other posts. It’s where I’ll come to clear my head, and to clean out my notebooks.Whether you’re at the end of…
I have been worried about why George W. Bush wants to move back to Dallas. What does it say about us that he feels welcome here? Obviously he has chosen an address that may be outside the Park Cities proper but is still solidly within “The Bubble.”He will be living…
If Marion Barber was healthy. If Ben Roethlisberger was healthy. If Felix Jones and Miles Austin and Kyle Kosier were all 100 percent for Sunday’s Cowboys-Steelers game.Oh yeah, and if the field wasn’t a patch of slippery sod slop out of a Saving Private Ryan battle scene.If all those were…
Rudy Bush had a good story in The Dallas Morning News yesterday about the new Trinity River “overlook” unveiled by the city on Wednesday and how handy it is if you want to go down and marvel at the lack of progress. Basically, as Bush points out, it’s a vantage…
Dear Mexican: Why is it that those of us who oppose illegal immigration are called racist by many Mexicans? Personally, I think Hispanic people are a beautiful and diverse people who contribute tremendously to our culture (and spicy-hot as well!). At the same time I oppose illegals who wander across…
I write a lot about how the city, Dallas proper, needs to defend itself against the suburbs. Sometimes I feel as if we are an urban Jerusalem surrounded by Nebuchadnezzar and all his Babylonian, golf-playing horde. But lately I’m wondering: Who’s the horde? Them or us? I’m talking about this…
Oh, what a nice morning. I had an opportunity to check back in on an old companion of mine, the Trinity River Project, and I’m delighted to say the old boy hasn’t changed not a jot nor a tiddle. Still dressed to the nines, lying through his teeth and playin’…
One of the more astounding discoveries I have made about the Dallas school board is that its recent behavior has been based on a so-called “theory of action for change” — part of a program called The Reform Governance® Framework run by an outfit called the Center for Reform of…
Wait a minute. How many times are we going to discover that DISD is stupid? I do not think—and I suspect you do not think—it’s even interesting anymore to learn that the financial accounting system at Dallas school headquarters looks like something the cat coughed up. Do you even read…
Dear Mexican: I hear all the time that 12 million illegal immigrants live in the United States. Is that true? Who counted them? How did they do it? Is there a turnstile at the border tallying up illegals and stamping their hands with neon glowing cartoon characters so they can…
If Boot Town can go out of business in Texas and if home builder D.R. Horton can lose $800 million and have its stock price shoot up because it’s not that bad, then in this absurd, quirky financial climate anything’s possible. Even, perhaps, a winning streak? A colossal…
What I gleaned amidst the crooners and cleavage:*Former Stone Temple Pilots’ front man Scott Wieland is (still) on something. *Paris Hilton is (still) annoying. *Mariah Carey is (still) hot. *Jamie Foxx is cocky with a capital ‘K’. *Kanye West wants to be Elvis. Making the feat even more unlikely, he’s…
DISD HR director Kimberly Olson I’ve been trading e-mails since yesterday with Dallas Independent School District’s spokesman extraordinaire Jon Dahlander on the subject of retired Air Force colonel Kimberly Olson, head of personnel for the district. She’s the person who approved all the unfunded teacher hirings that supposedly put Dallas…
Something I never envisioned typing along my life’s journey: Thank you, Martellus Bennett. But because of the backup tight end’s athletic, dramatic touchdown grab in Washington last week I’m still in bidness. Barely. Down a cool $7,500 this season, but in better shape than the poor schmucks who got hosed…
Dear Mexican: I recently received the biography of Rolling Stones bassist Ronnie Woods. While reading about his friendship with Jimi Hendrix, Ronnie described him as part black, Cherokee and Mexican. I’ve always read about Jimi’s grandmother being Cherokee, but this was the first I read about him being Mexican. I…
Go ahead and say it. Sometimes you think I make things up. I know you do. I don’t blame you. I can’t even believe this stuff half the time myself. This is an example. If somebody else told me this, I would chalk it up to urban legend. Bad urban…
Interesting how these things go. Yesterday I posted an item about DART. The comments thread turned into a discussion of DISD. Did people just get confused about the acronyms? I don’t think so. I think the school system is very much on people’s minds now, mainly for bad reasons. The…
Everybody needs to watch the ongoing KTVT-Channel 11 series by Bennett Cunningham on over-the-top spending at Dallas Area Rapid Transit. People also should go look at the incredible Web presentation 11 has put up. The thing that comes across so powerfully in Channel 11’s hidden-camera pieces is the overall culture…
Lee Trevino always says pressure isn’t trying to make a putt to win The Masters. “Pressure,” he maintains, “is trying to make a putt for a $10 bet with only $5 in your pocket.” I feel ya, Merry Mex. Unfortunately, I feel ya loud and clear. With my gas tank…
Look, let me take one specific portion of the D special issue about the Dallas Independent School District that came out this week and use it to explain why I don’t think much of this stuff is worth reading. This was a sidebar under the byline of our former colleague,…
Dear Mexican: In a column some time ago, you mentioned the Aztec prophecy claiming that “their descendants would reclaim ancestral lands in the southwest U.S., and guess what.” I’d appreciate it if you shed a little light on this statement. This is the mythical state of Aztlán you’re referring to,…
