Monthly Archives: July 2013

(Community Matters) I’ve stayed quiet on the Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman verdict b/c as imperfect as our jury-based judicial system is, it’s the best I’ve seen offered. I assume jurors take their jobs seriously and they certainly have better information than I do. But, after watching George Zimmerman on Sean Hannity say he regrets nothing that he did, nothing that happened, that he wouldn’t do anything differently . . . that’s just too much.

I’ve written before how some of Austin’s most influential & successful black women have shared with me that they remind their sons to be careful that they must behave better than others if stopped by police, or to avoid suspicion. And, this morning I listened to several black parents on NPR talk about how they fear for their kids, how their kids are held to different standards.

I don’t know if the jurors are right that they believe it was Zimmerman screaming for help over the telephone, or if Trayvon threw the first punch. But, I do know Zimmerman was held to a different standard by the police (probably because his father is a judge) until national attention focused on the case. And, I’m watching him interviewed on Fox News saying he doesn’t regret killing a 17 year old boy who he found simply walking through a neighborhood. Yes, I’m now going on record that there’s been a miscarriage of justice and hoping federal authorities will further review the case.

(Community Matters)  Hyperloop, a transport system faster than the bullet train.

Elon Musk (the founder of SpaceX, Tesla Motors and PayPal) is to publish details on August 12. He describes it as a “cross between a Concorde, a railgun and an air hockey table.”

(Community Matters) 

drink lots of champagne in honor of revolution!

(Community Matters) Super article on Opportunity Austin 3.0. I especially love that they are adding performance metrics for educational attainment, poverty and congestion as well as new job creation. I might not always agree with every incentive package (though I do with many if not most), but I always thank God for Gary Farmer’s generous leadership & investment.

(Community Matters) Video from this morning’s Running With The Bulls in Pamplona. Reading that the path into the stadium was unexpectedly blocked – the bulls and people locked together. Was bad; 23 taken to hospital, one evidently in quite serious condition.

omg, makes me shake; I remember being so scared when they got close.

video here

Pamplona, Spain 2000

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(Community Matters) Dining under the 40 foot Elm, twinkling and dangling lights from the branches, candles on long tables . . . one of my favorite dining experiences this year.  Our friend Sonya Cote opened Eden East at Springdale Farm. We had dinner there last night with Shawn Sides and Graham Reynolds – admittedly, we could probably have cafeteria food with these two and still have a spectacular night – and the farm to table dining experience was magic. 

Sonya’s previously opened Hillside Farmacy and as the chef for East Side Showroom. We’ve loved them all and especially the newest.

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(Community Matters) Hip hop artist Macklemore. His single “Thrift Shop” has been viewed on YouTube over 350 million times. Same Love –  56,807,005 hits.

The video, spanning decades, depicts the life of the main character and the same-sex partner with whom he falls in love, including the social conflicts which befall them in relation to their sexual orientation, their eventual marriage, and their final parting in old age. Macklemore cameos in a non-speaking role in the video.

When I was in the 3rd grade
I thought that I was gay
Cause I could draw, my uncle was
And I kept my room straight
I told my mom, tears rushing down my face
She’s like, “Ben, you’ve loved girls since before Pre-K!”
Tripping, yeah, I guess she had a point, didn’t she?
A bunch of stereotypes all in my head
I remember doing the math, like
“Yeah, I’m good at little league”

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(Community Matters) Paul Krugman: Defining Prosperity Down

(Community Matters) I had an epiphany on our most recent trip – things have little value to me if I can’t share them.

(Community Matters) Fron Politico’s Playbook, not an inconsequential predictor:

SIREN — RARE JOINT EDITORIAL from two of the most muscular conservative voices in the land – “Kill the Bill,” by William Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard, and Rich Lowry, editor of National Review: “We are conservatives who have differed in the past on immigration reform, with Kristol favorably disposed toward it and Lowry skeptical. But the Gang of Eight has brought us into full agreement: Their bill, passed out of the Senate, is a comprehensive mistake. House Republicans should kill it without reservation. … The enforcement provisions are riddled with exceptions, loopholes, and waivers. Every indication is that they are for show and will be disregarded, just as prior notional requirements to build a fence or an entry/exit visa system have been … Marco Rubio says he doesn’t want to have to come back ten years from now and deal with the same illegal-immigration problem. But that’s exactly what the CBO says will happen under his own bill. According to the CBO analysis of the bill, it will reduce illegal immigration by as little as a third or by half at most. By one estimate, this means there will be about 7.5 million illegal immigrants here in ten years. And this is under the implausible assumption that the Obama administration would administer the law as written.

(Community Matters) What an extraordinary music video of a gay man’s confusion about signals from a friend. Steve Grand’s story

(Community Matters) Ellen Gallagher – born in Providence, Rhode Island in 1965 and now living & working in Rotterdam and New York –   evidently one of our most acclaimed modern artists, is of biracial ethnicity; her father’s heritage was from Cape Verde, in Western Africa (but he was born in the United States), and her mother’s background was Caucasian Irish Catholic. I didn’t know her work until this weekend but love her range of mediums and imagery.

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