Texas Outlaw Writers (Page 6)

Contents of a Car

I cleaned out my car. There was more stuff than you might expect. And it was a study of humanity.

2024: The Year We Learn the Truth About America

"The establishment of our new Government seemed to be the last great experiment for promoting human happiness." -George Washington, January 9, 1790 (Hold your breath George, we might have to shelve this quote).

Immigration

"Oh, Maria? Another Gin and Tonic, Please."

Right now the total unauthorized population in this country of 340 million is around 11 million. It's about 3%. And they mostly all came for a few reasons; to work, not starve, and not be killed.

personal stories

To Grandmother's House We Go

The late-night drive home along FM roads took me back to childhood holiday road trips. Passing farms and fields with small frame houses, many bare save for one or two light strings and maybe a plastic manger scene. It took me back.

Immigration

Texas: Show Us Your Papers

The dynamics of economies and immigration and politics that made the border a unique culture are turning it into what amounts to a war zone.

Texas History

Here's Why We Can't Have Nice News

We love the negative. It is an axiom in the news business that we don't report planes that land safely or dogs that don't bite. But in the internet age, we find that calling Trump a fascist, or Biden senile will get you noticed.

Texas Politics

America's Third World

Because Texas is a big and consequential state, often with outsized influence over national political and economic and cultural developments, we have become a kind of petri dish of dumbassery, a place to see what ignorance will grow beyond the lost souls of Abbott and Paxton and Trump’s party.

environment

We’re on The Eve of (Self) Destruction

We can look into one billboard-sized mirror and see the origins of most of life’s ills. And here’s the pun…it’s not new news that humans, not magic, are the lead source of misery and destruction.

Culture

Your Holiday Journey

We're a year out from the next presidential election – the president has a full quarter of his term left to serve. But I bet your Thanksgiving sounded like a bad cable news debate. Or worse yet, Thanksgiving with the family. And it's a preview of Christmas to come.

Journalism

Goldberg

“Parking meters look like periscopes,” I said, as the first video appeared. It was a flood story.

Texas History

CORRECTED: That Sound You Hear is Sam Houston Spinning

This particular Karen rails against those who contend that the fact that Mexico had outlawed slavery was a large motivator for the revolution. In fact, our Texian forbears used a legal fiction to circumvent the law by having slaves sign a document that they were now "indentured servants." For life.

International Politics

Kissinger's Greatest Crime

The 1968 peace talks to broker an end to the war concluded with the same terms as the 1973 Paris Peace Accords, which resulted in the 1975 collapse of South Vietnam. The unnecessary delay was a product, in significant part, to the ego and ambitions of Henry Kissinger.

Texas Politics

I Really Want to Be Fair to Republicans

Paxton is suing Pfizer for "overstating the effectiveness of their vaccine." Really? This guy has decided that the testing of the vaccine was flawed. No doubt renowned scientist George Santos will be an expert witness, if he can interrupt his renewed work with Goldman-Sachs, NASA, and the Beatles.

Texas Politics

I Remember Texas

Two very close friends of mine are on a northbound plane. They have joined a growing number of Texans who are sick of the endless partisan politics and repressive legislation coming out of Austin, and were, ultimately, driven to leave the home they have always loved.

national politics

If You Can't Say Something Nice, Sit Next to Me

President Obama could be chosen by the Almighty to emcee the second coming, and his critics would find something to criticize. If Congress is a clown car, then every clown car needs a driver and we know who that is.

national politics

The Day Democracy Died

“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” - John Adams

International Politics

Some Thanksgiving Musings

The old saying is that politics is show business for ugly people. I am now convinced it's high school for slow learners.

Trump

Face it, Our Laws are Anemic

Is the U.S. Constitution powerless to protect us from a presidential candidate with four criminal indictments? If so, why?

Culture

The Tipping Point

Take a few lunch shifts at your neighborhood T.G.I.Chiligans, pour a couple hundred artisanal IPAs over at Bro's Brewpub, or sign up to drive for Uber or Lyft. Experience why you should be a better tipper.

Immigration

"Shoot, Shovel, and Shut Up"

If your answers do not satisfy the law officer, you might be driven hundreds of miles to the border and ordered to get the hell out of Texas and don’t come back, unless you want to end up in prison. You are guilty of nothing more than looking downtrodden.

International Politics

What Rodney Could Have Taught Vivek

Not only is his overwrought and seemingly tireless debating style hitting the crowd as distinctly joyless, but maddening as well. It seems that no moderator, Fox or NBC, can convince him to put a sock in it. It's like the worst High School Class President contest ever.

US History

The Second Casualty

"Nothing seems to have changed in a century and a half. Humans are still killing other humans because of their differing gods or how they look, or the things they believe... and the children still fall first."

International Politics

OK. Uncle! I Give Up.

I am inclined to frankly, give up. The forces of commerce and human inertia are too strong. Politicians on the take, the companies that take them, and our own reluctance when confronted with change, will doom it.

personal stories

Boyhood

Much of the culture from south of the Mason-Dixon Line had come north with us in our rattly old cars and cardboard boxes of modest belongings, which meant racism traveled as well as coon hunting.

Health Care

When the Man in the Gray Flannel Suit is your Speaker*

Yeah, Mike Johnson looks mild-mannered now, but wait until he steps into a phone booth.

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