personal stories Rest Easy John Nova Lomax "I’m of the opinion that the loss of John’s writing and his sheer doggedness in following the rabbit trails of a good story equates to a loss for all of Texas, whether the state knows that or not."
Texas Outlaw Writers Newsletter: Everything is Aw-right Edition No. Not really. Everything is pretty sucky lately in Texas. The legislature, in an effort to ram through as much heartache before the fat lady sings, is trying to complete some nasty stuff so that it can be signed by the gub'ner. Here's a small sample:
Travel Looking for Mr. Brautigan “I always wanted to write a book that ended with the word mayonnaise.” - Richard Brautigan, Poet and Novelist
Aaron Sorkin For President Millions of Americans have mistaken notions about our history, our Constitution and the simple, observable state of our country. It isn't a disaster, though politicians would like you to believe that. There are real problems though, that are tough to tackle and require a joint effort.
Religion Is it Time for Churches to Pay Taxes? When it comes to churches that act like political action committees, I think we should continue to ask; why hasn’t their tax-exempt status been revoked or at least challenged by the IRS on a grand scale?
Newsletter Texas Outlaw Writers Newsletter: "I Had Sex with that Woman" Edition One of the Texas legislature's most militant culture warriors was voted off of the island for being a groomer.
Guns So… What About the Children? Are We Following the Trail that Gun Violence Leaves Behind? My father had a deer rifle and a pistol, but we never knew where they were kept. There was an unspoken sense that if someone broke into the house, he’d likely shoot them, but gun violence in a broader context was not really on our minds.
Immigration The North Bank of the Big River The Immigrants will keep coming. The only thing separating their misery from bright possibility is a river, a desert, and laws they don’t understand. They take their chances and trek northward. Our need for their labor is insatiable. Their dreams will not be thwarted.
Newsletter Texas Outlaw Writers Newsletter: Live Forever Edition We missed it. Sure, you clicked the Ticketmaster "Buy" button about 5 million times and finally scored your tween and her pals some $800 Taylor Swift tickets. (Don't forget to take several hundred bucks for a T-shirt!) But the ticket that you really wanted was the
education Teach Your Children Well “The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you.” – B.B King
Food Vegan, Vegetarian or Texatarian (plant-based with Texas-specific meat days): How is Life for the Herbivorous in Texas? In the land known for meat on the grill and animal footwear bragging rights, it used to be a brave move to go vegan. But today the plant-based food culture in Texas is in play.
Texas Politics Soylent Red, White and Blue A modest proposal for those wacky pranksters in Austin. Bon appétit!
Newsletter Texas Outlaw Writers Newsletter: All the Blowing Up of Things Edition News anchor careers, big-ass rockets, possibly an old hotel, maybe the debt ceiling, and hopefully the DeSantis campaign. All Blowed up. Blowed up real good.
Abortion A Wake-Up Call for the Un-Woke: A Recent Washington Post headline - "Abortion ban states see steep drop in OB/GYN residency applicants" Scrapping a medical residency application is no small act. Med school grads send out dozens of applications because they’re trying to “match,” or get accepted into a program---the greatest fear is not being picked up. Why risk being shut out when applying for residency in an anti-abortion state?
Science The Rocket's Dead Glare After the explosion, the female narrator, apparently without irony, told the audience, “There, as you saw, and as we promised, an exciting end to the Starship Inaugural Integrated test flight.”
Texas History A Clean, Well-Lighted Place The dilemma of the Luther Hotel in Palacios is an illustration of why we can't have nice things.
Newsletter Texas Outlaw Writers Newsletter: The Fire Still Burns Edition A packed issue this week, so pace yourself. I'll lead off with a piece that I've been working on for a while. Today marks a significant anniversary. Fire tore through the Branch Davidian compound thirty years ago, and it is not an exaggeration to say that
US History Diamonds (and the Waco Fire) Are Forever 30 years ago today, the Branch Davidian compound outside of Waco, TX went up in flames. 78 Davidians including their messianic leader, David Koresh died in the conflagration. For 51 days, hundreds of reporters from all over the world covered the siege, standoff, and fire. It was surreal.
Texas Politics To Read is to Fly “I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.” —Anna Quindlen
national politics Whatever He's For, I'm Against Our politics have gotten so trivial, we're down to drag queens, light beer, M&Ms, and Cracker Barrel. We're doing this at the expense of things, important things, that need doing.
Guns Using the Second Amendment to Battle the First Amendment Another example of the thousand cuts extremist Republicans employ to sabotage democracy.
Newsletter Texas Outlaw Writers Newsletter: Bud Light Edition And now, there's a beer boycott. So you can't drink America's beer while not watching America's game. (You do remember there's a boycott of the NFL, right?) Bud Light partnered with transgender influencer and activist Dylan Mulvaney. Mulvaney showed off
Texas Politics Slow Motion Secession What kind of world is it when the coach of an NBA team has more courage to speak the truth than the governor of our state?