Category Archives: Uncategorized

(Community Matters) Super visit to Oklahoma to see Carol & Phil for Steven’s birthday. Bonus treats: Craig coming in for Saturday lunch, Hilary joining us for dinner and Avery’s play at OBU, meeting Rickie Bond in Dallas for a quick dinner on the way here, and anticipating lunch with Rickie & Charles Santos on the way home.

(Community Matters) “‘The United States did a lot of damage to their image by failing to attack Syria,” said an Israeli diplomat in Jerusalem.”

Seriously? The resolution is Syria surrendering all its chemical weapon. Criticizing the US for achieving this surrender just shows a blatantly self serving perspective – and a short term one at that. Yeah, yeah, I hear the chorus refrain how Russia saved the day here, but the facts are Pres O and Putin had just met, Kerry “casually mentioned” this as a solution (diplomats don’t just ad lib), then the Russians followed up; nevertheless, even serendipity counts as opportunity meeting preparation.

Ditto Saudi Arabia – upset by a “cooling” in the diplomatic cold war between the US and Iran. Evidence that economic sanctions are driving their government to, at least, conversations with the west . . . and an important ally which continues to deny women equality, a dictator state from which radical islamists groups are financed by certain Saudi families, expresses hurt that we didn’t follow through with an attack on Syria and that we abandoned a dictator neighbor, threatens to pull away from an alliance.

Admittedly, Iran is not a credible player, and we can’t rely on their word but on deeds. Saudi Arabia and Israel are important regional allies – Israel like a brother. Not to mention our disastrous foreign, NSA spying on principals, though, seriously, how long do we imagine this has been going on? Who doesn’t do it? My appreciation for Snowden’s whistle blowing about domestic spying notwithstanding, foreign protests feel a little like the wolf complaining that grandma’d eaten something unsavory before being eaten.

President captured Osama Bin Laden, has captured or killed most of his top men, pulled out of Iraq, Syria is surrendering chemical weapons, Iran is, apparently, at the table talking, we successfully and with minimal damage intervened in Libya, and this administration has prevented what I’m assuming are hundreds of domestic & foreign terrorists incidents. Okay, NSA abuse sucks and I think unconstitutional, and we may need to reign in drone killing; I’m uneducated and not sure about the latter. Benghazi . . . unfortunate, obviously some people fucked up and I wish those who can’t get over the four Americans who accepted the risks of their missions would care as much about the thousands of Americans who die every year because of the lack of healthcare. I don’t want to be an apologist, and I’m offended by these sophomoric refrains.

(Community Matters)   I always love Kip Keller’s comments – his comment in response to a posting/notation of Greenspan’s new book:

I know you’re just pointing readers to the Greenspan interview, but I hope you’re not indirectly promoting his book. Given his remarkably bad record at seeing how things tend to turn out, I can’t imagine he’s offering much more than the “investors are so irrational” explanation, which is isomorphic with “I don’t know what the hell’s going on.”

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(Community Matters) Is Texas the US future? Time Magazine – 10 Reasons Texas is Our Future.

Like my feelings about the previous post (fan of grossly imperfect capitalism and free markets) as a third generation Texan raised in the anything goes boom town of Houston in the 6os and 70s, matured in the new economy boom town of Austin since the 80s (played a lot in Dallas during the raging gay 90s and now spending as much time as any nonnative in Far West Texas, including wealthiest-place-in-the-world, Permian Basin), I love this state . . . and, no surprise, we have gross imperfections. There’s a lot to be said for incentivizing self-reliance, and we can’t be so calloused as to let folks go unfed, without medical or without shelter during inclement weather. Texans are huge philanthropists –

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(Community Matters) Good gosh, I’m not only a capitalist, I’m an enthusiastic capitalist and free market advocate. Sure I recognize the imperfections, and they’re the best systems that exist. We must regulate and govern to ameliorate their gross flaws, especially the externalizing of costs (espec pollution) AND increasingly exploitive economic clout in American politics.

I am NOT a believer that corporations “are people too” and enjoy constitutional rights – that’s just bullshit. Corporations are creations of the state, a privilege explicitly granted to encourage economic activity while granting individuals limited liability in exchange for taxes.

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(Community Matters) Friday (10/25) Steven’s 52nd birthday. Steven loved his birthday – morning massage w/ Paul, meeting with Cody, Randall & Simon, seeing Rickie in Dallas, 7 hours us two alone in the car and winding up the day with his parents in Shawnee. I’m so lucky to be married to such a spectacular human being with such simple tastes – he’s a little more challenged being married to me.

(Community Matters)  Alan Greenspan’s new book and an interview.

(Community Matters) I hadn’t thought of this – Biden gives the house away? Opening of article on Pres Obama & Harry Reid suggests Biden had undermined Senate negotiations, lowering the yield on D’s previous negotiations. Don’t know about this – though, Ds certainly earned better results this go around.

I like VP Biden a lot – have been around him many times. He speaks his mind, remembers folks, seems closer to the ground than most politicos – but does he negotiate well? question.

(Community Matters) Way too early to predict a return of Congress’ House of Representatives to Democrats but not at all too early to recruit & fund incumbent challengers – HuffPost on GOP vulnerability. See The Center of American Politics for the type of candidates it will take to win over districts in play. If Ds could take back the House and win a filibuster proof majority in the Senate, they could make serious progress on climate change, tax code revisions and health care reform enhancements.  D reps from swing districts would likely temper calls for swings too far left. I wish we’d prioritize a rewrite of business regulations, deleting and consolidating a lot of them, preserving what’s needed to ensure (boost) public safety and to recapture costs currently being externalized. I’m not sure even a D majority in both houses will be powerful enough to scale back the finance industry. Banking/finance is out of control – its influence is too overwhelming for meaningful oversight and restructure, the extraordinary profits being generated are an insidious tax on the middle class at every turn of a transaction – not to mention unfair practices such as high frequency trading. Even the reported settlement for $13 billion against JP Morgan while a substantial dollar amount, represents only half of last year’s profits and would be charged against a $28 billion reserve. Preserving states’ rights to pursue criminal charges is critical.

(Community Matters) We’ve come to love these two young people, sharing meals semi-regularly and watching (sometimes offering advice) as they pursue new paths. Kara Dockery & Garrett Weber-Gale were married last night at a beautiful setting in the country. They are remarkable; we can’t wait to see their next impact on the world.

We wish them the world and much fun on their secret, mini-honeymoon (the location of which I’ve been sworn to secrecy – they don’t even yet know). 

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(Community Matters) gail collins notes the craziness of elected Texas Republicans – http://bit.ly/GVyAWt. Heck, we’re seeing the light gov candidates out crazy each other. I call it their Alamo battle cries. While they might go down proud (?) and fighting (though, really, I don’t ascribe them much courage), I don’t anticipate any survivors as the purple, then blue tides sweep Texas. Every metropolitan area in our state voted for Obama (including beaumont and except Midland). It’s just a matter of time – of course those who oppose this political shift are fighting as if it’s do or die. It’s unavoidable and will be irreversible. Posted from my blackberry -tiny little keys, please excuse typos

(Community Matters) I think a $11 min wage for recipients of Austin economic development incentives is a terrific idea. I might not please some friends for saying so but I am also tired (& know most Austinites are) of taxes going up as our population grows (ie, the need for social services on top of infrastructure). Of course we need to continue prioritizing economic development and playing hard ball to get the best employers to create more jobs in Central Texas. And, I can’t think of a company I would want to attract to Austin who would balk at paying at least $11 per hour.

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