Yesterday ESPN changed ESPNU to ESPN 8 "The Ocho" 13 years too late.
And I missed it.
If Patrick Wants to Demonize Cities, Should he Enjoy their Amenities? Lisa Falkenberg. HoustonChronicle.com ($$$) - Where the former teen columnists makes a juvenile argument against Dan "The Man Who Would be King" Patrick.
I'm no fan of Patrick, but criticism such as this just isn't helpful. It's clear here that Patrick's criticism is leveled solidly at the Democratic ruling classes of big cities, not the people that live in them. Flip this around a bit and you'll see how stupid this argument is: "If Lisa Falkenberg wants to Demonize Trump's America, should she be allowed to live in it?" These are arguments that children, not serious political thinkers, make.
Houston Should Make Batteries to Continue as Global Energy Capitol. Chris Tomlinson. HoustonChronicle.com ($$$) - It's a blessing that these are hidden behind the paywall, because there is some dodgy logic here.
With each column he writes it becomes pretty obvious that Austin-based Chris Tomlinson is not really a "business columnist", in fact he doesn't really "get" business at all. He especially doesn't understand the energy industry and shouldn't really write about it. 1950's style manufacturing of batteries is NOT going to keep Houston at the cutting edge of energy. Nor is the oil and gas industry all that likely to go away even IF the personal transportation fleet moves to electrical. Petroleum, lest we forget, is necessary for plastics manufacturing and natural gas, lest we forget, is key to cheap energy production. Houston's going to be just fine.
Sylvester Turner's Salary far Exceeds Mayoral Colleagues. Charles Blain, Empower Texans. - It's GOOD to be in Houston's ruling class.
Turner, a career back-bench legislator in State politics, waited his whole life to become Mayor of Houston and his limitations are on increasing display. Cronyism, fealty to long-time political patrons and a dearth of actual ideas are defining his administration.
Fit Mom Maria Kang criticizes plus-size model Tess Holiday on body positivity. Yahoo! - Ugly people bickering with uglier people.
We often make the mistake of judging beauty based solely on physical appearance. What we often forget is that one's attitude, and how we generally treat people is a better indicator. From this perspective this spat is a bunch of ugly people screaming at one another for attention. We should not give it to them. (In fact, I will not mention them again, only to point this out). In fact, It's high-time we stop paying attention to ANYONE who is famous simply for being famous. (Good bye Kardashians, and anyone whose career is "Instagram Model")
Scientists fear Trump will dismiss blunt Climate Change Report. Lisa Friedman, NY Times - WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!
The problem with the entire climate change 'movement' is that they don't actually have any workable ideas how to 'fix' an intractable issue, they just want taxes, more money for 'research' and lump-sum cash payments to Al Gore's investment group. My novel idea is this: Instead of trying to figure out how to "prevent" something over which we likely have negligible control we had damn-sure better start figuring out how to DEAL with the problem. I'll say it again: Pollution is a good place to start, because I'm more worried about it than I am Climate Change.
Lena Dunham and Google Demonstrate why our Free Speech Culture is Slipping Away. David French. National Review. - Except that neither of these issues really involves free speech.
"Congress shall make no law". Notice that it didn't say "Google" or "Very bad people who are famous for writing a television show of dubious quality". What speech private companies choose to police from their employees is NOT a free speech issue. Lena Dunham making up a story about two American Airlines employees having a transphobic talk (as people do) and reporting it to their employer is NOT a free speech issue. Do I agree with Google or Dunham? Of course not. Google is a damn menace and Dunham is an ugly (see above) mean-spirited liar.
and finally.....
Tillerson: Trump's 'tough talk' aims to send a message to North Korea. Doina Chiacu, US News & World Report - Fighting back against Un.
For some reason (my theory, they're functional idiots) many Democrats in elected positions have suddenly discovered the North Korea issue and are trying to erase 50 some-odd years of erratic behavior to make it seem as if Trump is the root cause of all this. Lest we forget, Obama speant 8 years ignoring the issue and the US has been overall clueless how to deal with the world's premier "rogue state" since the signing of the Korean Armistice Agreement. Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it and all of that jazz. We are truly governed by the least among us and I'm afraid it's going to jump up and bite us in the ass.
Then again, we get the government we deserve....
