Community Matters

(Community Matters) Attorney General Vacates Immigration Ruling Over DOMA Questions.  Thank you again, Mr. President (& Mr. Holder)

Advocate

(Community Matters) Happy Cinco de Mayo – feels like I ought to beat up on the French just a little bit today – metaphorically speaking only of course (maybe tequila shots)

(Community Matters) Quick, unexpected trip to Paris to stay with my friends Jill McRae & Stephen Yelenosky.  Thx gosh for Continental miles and friends with nice places abroad.

(Community Matters)

(Community Matters) The NRA drops King & Spalding, the law firm which backed out of defending DOMA for Speaker Boehner and the GOP.

To be clear, our decision is not motivated by any position on the statute itself. As you know, the National Rifle Association is a single-issue organization dedicated to the protection of the Second Amendment. We are, however, often involved in controversial issues on which emotions can run high.

(Community Matters) This is the story circulating:

Sohaib Athar, a.k.a. @ReallyVirtual, had no idea the helicopters he was complaining about on twitter were part of the top secret mission that killed Osama bin Laden Sunday night. 10 hours before bin Laden’s death was announced Athar posted: “Helicopter hovering above Abbottabad at 1AM (is a rare event).” From the article: “During the raid, Athar speculates that he was two or three kilometers away from the shooting that took place. Once news broke that bin Laden had been killed in Abbottabad, Athar tweeted, ‘Uh oh, now I’m the guy who liveblogged the Osama raid without knowing it.’”

source

(Community Matters)

(Community Matters) NYTimes on same sex marriage

(Community Matters) Yesterday Mike Levy forwarded a March Dallas Morning News article about the Mexican Zeta gang establishing national distribution in Dallas and noting that federal authorities considered Austin a high-intensity drug area. Dallas Morning News

AusChron 2010

Austin is a so-called “tier two” city for the drug trade, meaning in part that because the city sits along the IH-35 corridor it has developed as a “command and control center” for the four main Mexican cartels (La Familia, the Gulf Cartel, Sinaloa, and Los Zetas) that move drugs (mostly cocaine and methamphetamine, he said) through Texas and to other states.

(Community Matters) from WSJ blog of Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting today:

(Community Matters) not only the two Fusebox Dinners (ughh, and today’s Bottled-in-Bond: The Decline and Fall of a Thug as Told in Five Drinks created by playwrights Steve Moore & Zeb West plus bartender Jason Stevens; I’m embarrassed to have flaked on this one due to extenuating circumstances) but also last night’s dinner hosted by Barbara Woghlemuth and Carrie Stapleton. It’s an annual event just before Barbara leaves for Cape Cod thru October. Suzanne Bryant, Sarah Goodfriend, Michael Mitchell, Robert Torian and I are the usual guests since Steven’s always traveling. Last night Robert couldn’t make it and Steven could. As usual, Barbara & Carrie outdid themselves, homemade Indian food from samosas as appetizers to coconut burfi for dessert. The spicy halibut paired with the Alsatian Gewurztraminer was exquisite; the entire evening was perfect – including sitting out on their back deck with a cool breeze overlooking the Long Center and downtown skyline.

(Community Matters) KT posts a compelling essay on prioritizing values over a hazy notion of winnability on Burnt Orange

Charles Blow in the NYT: Silliness and Sleight of Hand – “That is how sleight of hand works: distract and deceive. They need this distraction now more than ever because the right’s flimsy fiscal argument — that if we allow fat cats to gorge, crumbs will surely fall — is losing traction. ”

The shine has dulled on Warren Buffett. NYTimes’s Joe Nocera: The Party’s Over for Buffett. Still a fan of the man’s financial genius and philanthropic nature, though the saintly PR has been wearing thin ever since realizing he was a major investor in/purchaser of derivatives even while he was publicly criticizing them as financial vehicles of mass destruction. Add to that his lobbying in ways that directly yielded Berkshire and its holdings billions; I’m not sure he ever asked to be sainted. So, he’s mortal. blog of today’s Berkshire shareholder meeting – always great reading

Thoroughly enjoying thumbing through Marla Camp’s inaugural issue of edible Austin Cooks! [Dec 2010]. She gave me a copy at this week’s Springdale Farm dinner. Especially appreciate Chef David Bull’s, Emmett & Lisa’s and Garrett Weber-Gale’s recipes.