About Your Host
Hi, I'm Kevin Whited, your friendly proprietor at PubliusTX.net. The following are some facts about me. If I haven't covered something, ask!
I was born on May 20, 1970, making me a Taurus (on the cusp), not that I pay much attention to these things.
I was born in Orange, TX (I'm a native Texan!), where my dad was stationed at a naval facility. I grew up in Pawhuska, OK, and went off to Springfield, MO for six years to do a B.S. in Political Science and an M.S. in Defense and Strategic Studies. One mentor in the master's program has educated a ton of defense policy analysts and is buddies with folks like Gaffney and Perle. The other mentor has taken an academic leave to serve as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Politics. These guys know their sh!t.
Because I grew up in Oklahoma watching Sooner football, my allegiance is to them, and not to any school in Texas. I love it when Bob Stoops thumps on Mack Brown.
I moved to Houston in 1995 to work on a Ph.D. in political science (fields of political theory, international politics, and American politics). I completed the coursework and exams in the fall of 1997. I also stumbled into a relatively unique gig at BigCo (I'm still there and don't care to name names) doing political risk analysis in the oil industry. My background really prepared me for this sort of work -- which is good, because at some point I lost all interest in being an academic. I did grow to love University of Houston baseball when I was there, though, and still see quite a few games.
After exams, I decided I was out of shape and fat, and dropped about 50 pounds over a year and a half or so through a combination of diet and exercise. Part of the motivation was getting into shape to start backpacking again. When I was single, I made tons of trips to the Ouachitas and even locally for short solo backpacking trips. I don't know why people are so afraid of solo trips. They can be enjoyable. But then, I can be a loner sometimes.
Somewhere along the way, I developed a love of live Texas music. It probably started with Joe Ely and Reckless Kelly (lesser known fact these days -- I used to maintain a fan site called 8 More Miles which was tons better than the official RK site, though not as good as the current main fan site).
I also met Callie, who's been a partner in crime travelling all over to see live music and who won me over to the Counting Crows. Well, partner in crime undersells her. How about just partner? Her site is here. Now, we drag her out packing. Because sometimes it's nice to share the load with the right someone.
She introduced me to live music recording, which has also developed as a hobby. We've acquired some relatively decent equipment for capturing live sound, and it's fun to have copies of shows we've seen. I'm not interested in trading for shows I've haven't seen for the most part, but I have no problem sharing most shows with folks who ask.
I've had some sort of website since 1997, but the online journal didn't come until early 2000. That's why watching the little warbloggers pretend to be Al Gore inventing the internet was kind of funny. Two spinoffs have come from this personal site of mine: the old 8 More Miles Reckless Kelly fan site that I mentioned above (and don't laugh at it, I didn't know crap about web design then), and Reductio Ad Absurdum (where I post most of my political stuff). Needless to say, I love tinkering around on the web. And I have great respect for the pros who make a living at it.
I never mentioned the dissertation, did I? Well, it was an on-again, off-again thing. I didn't get serious about finishing it until 2001. I had a completed manuscript in 2002. And my director nearly died of a massive stroke a few days after telling me we would take it to committee after I completed a few minor revisions. At that point, my committee didn't want to move. I was fairly convinced it was never going to be approved, just because of circumstances. But the man recovered (the really important thing, I should add) and I successfully defended in March 2003. I cannot emphasize how much Don Lutz has influenced my thinking about politics and political theory. He's not a Straussian, but I think he understands Leo Strauss better than most Straussians (at least the non-first-generation ones). And he's brilliant on American political theory. Just brilliant.
I have no children. I don't think I want children, because it's a lot of responsibility to someone else, and I'm selfish. But we do have a dog -- Kiwi, a sweet Australian Shepherd/Dobie rescue who's way too smart. She is spoiled.
In Springfield, the Honors College/National Merit Scholars organization used to sponsor a canoe/camping trip every semester. It was a really good time in the beautiful Mark Twain National Forest. For the last 4-5 Memorial Day weekends, I've gotten together with some of those old friends, not to mention family and new friends, for a camping/canoe trip on the Illinois River in OK (a childhood haunt). I don't like losing track of old friends. And sometimes the best way to stay in touch is just to commit to a weekend once a year. Tradition. If that sounds conservative....
It should, because I'm a political conservative. But I wasn't always. I was actually fairly liberal as an undergrad. Until I ran across a particularly compelling econ professor (who later shared a fair number of beers with me as an informal advisor to a radical student publication I started) and also discovered Ayn Rand. Yeah, I went through the obligatory hardcore Objectivist phase, and even found some fellow hardcore types when I got to Houston (Andrew, Sean, Meredith among others). But being a student of American political thought (and Lincoln), I was always aware of the tension between the politically possible and the philosophically ideal. That means I'm fairly conservative/hawkish on defense policy and harder to pin down on other matters (call me a Straussian, which tells you very little, despite what silly journalists and Shadia Drury would have you believe). I still am much influenced by Rand's thought, but if I had to pick an objectivist camp, I would call myself a post-objectivist. Politically, I'm a conservative (and influenced by the Claremont guys, who had me out as a Publius Fellow one summer).
This site is mainly a place for personal anecdotes, rants, comments on sports, and the like. Serious commentary on all but local politics has been shifted over to Reductio Ad Absurdum's blog. I figured as that shift took place, the readership here would decline. The opposite has been true. I'm not quite sure why. But it's flattering.
So thanks for visiting and reading. And if you've made it through all of this bio, why not drop me an email and say hi?
