July 2008 Archives
31 July 2008
Linkpost: 07/31/08
- Turkey’s AKP survives court fight (Vincent Boland, FT)
- What if Iraq works? (Victor Davis Hanson, NRO)
- New Premises in Iraq (Henry Kissinger, WaPo)
- How to shake off the mortgage mess (Holman Jenkins, WSJ)
- Can Paulson Save the Economy? (Justin Fox, Time) He and Bernanke have been doing just a bang-up job of late. *eyeroll*
- What recession? (Unca Darrell)
- Healthy debate (Lose an Eye, It's a Sport)
- Dunkin' Donuts to offer healthier menu items (Lauren Shepherd, WaPo) It's a real stretch to call processed carb-laden crap that has a little less fat than their other processed carb-laden crap "healthier."
- Factors that improve online experiences (Sathis Menon & Michael Douma, Idea.org)
- Dashwire
- What Life Is Like Behind the Wheel (James Q Wilson, WSJ)
- What Kansas knows (Peter Ferrara, TAS)
- Having printed the myth (Brothers Judd)
- Obama's Iraq Fumble (Karl Rove, WSJ)
- You know he's in trouble when he starts mau-mauing (Brothers Judd)
- Did Obama Accuse McCain of Running a Racist, Xenophobic Campaign? (Jake Tapper, Political Punch) Any criticism of Obama is portrayed as racist.
- Is John McCain stupid? (Daniel Henninger, WSJ)
- McCain Should Pick Romney, And Soon (Jay Cost, RCP)
- Obama's "community organizer" phase was about political power, not soup kitchens (John Maki, The Windy Citizen)
- Oil firms give UH $1.6 million to boost engineering (Jeannie Kever, Houston Chronicle) Good stuff.
- An expanded stadium centerpiece of UH plan (Jeannie Kever, Houston Chronicle) It will still be the Robertson Dump, just a dump with a really nice building awkwardly spliced onto one end.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/31/08 22:05 | Links | Technorati | Comments (0)
Health and fitness update: 07/31/08
The trips to Oklahoma, San Francisco, and London took a bite out of the workout schedule this month -- with only 1,140 minutes of cardio logged (down from 1,560 minutes last month). While I did a bunch of walking in San Francisco and London, I don't really count that as cardio time, and didn't manage to log "real" cardio time in either city.
The diet didn't suffer too badly, although the time in London was too carb heavy (it's London, what are ya gonna do?). I did have lots of fresh veggies from my dad's garden for about half the month, so that helped. And I did manage to drop a few pounds.
August should be better in terms of food and fitness. Fewer trips are planned.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/31/08 22:05 | Other | Technorati | Comments (0)
30 July 2008
Linkpost: 07/30/08
- The Obstinate Obstetrician (Jacob Sullum, Reason)
- From Gitmo to Miranda, With Love (Debra Burlingame, WSJ)
- 'A Truman for our times' (Edward Luttwak, Prospect)
- Obama's women problem (Dick Morris, RCP)
- Drilling in Afghanistan (Thomas Friedman, NY Times)
- The Ted Stevens Indictment Is an Earthquake in Alaska Politics (Michael Barone, US News) Bye...
- Stevens's Payback Moment (Michael Crowley, WaPo) Bye!
- Chicken Fried Steak and Banana Pudding at the Humble City Cafe (Robb Walsh, Houston Press) It will probably pain some of the local foodie elitists to see this review in print. Not me. But then, I don't really give a sh!t about lamb tongue on lentils, so I'm definitely not among the elite.
- Wade could try to add insurance for 'pen (Alyson Footer, MLB.com) And, he did today. But seriously, "insurance" for such a bad team? Lord.
- Ex-Dallas Cowboys' presence fixing Parcells' Giant mistake (Jean-Jacques Taylor, DMN) Seeing all those Giants run around the franchise that made a habit of thumping them was annoying.
- Dallas Cowboys' Roy Williams is reignited (Jean-Jacques Taylor, DMN) What a bunch of crap from Williams and from Taylor. Williams isn't being criticized because he found Jesus. He's being criticized because he's paid like a top defensive player and has performed over the past two years like a guy who should be cut.
- Mack: No more sugar and spice for his Horns (Kirk Bohls, AAS) It's that time of the year when Kirk "Homer" Bohls tries to convince everyone that this year's Longhorns are TOUGH TOUGH TOUGH! So funny and so predictable.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/30/08 21:25 | Links | Technorati | Comments (5)
29 July 2008
Linkpost: 07/29/08
- Rewriting Reagan -- again (Ralph Reiland, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)
- Volcker's best apprentice (Martin Hutchinson, Asia Times)
- The death knell of Bernankeism (Martin Hutchinson, Asia Times)
- Trading Places (Alan Ehrenhalt, TNR)
- Commendable service (Paul Weyrich, Wash Times)
- Turkey in the throes of Islamic revolution? (Spengler, Asia Times)
- How to win the war within Islam (Economist)
- Iran: Who runs it? (Economist)
- Iraq's Fragile Upswing: Relative Stability Brings Opportunities for Foreign Investors (Wolfgang Reuter & Bernhard Zand, Spiegel)
- Lesbos locals lose lesbian appeal (BBC News)
- Edd Hendee responds to 5th Circuit’s Ramos & Compean decision (Lone Star Times) You knew it wouldn't take Hendee long to lecture the Fifth Circuit on con law on the "nominally independent" Lone Star Times.
- A tip for overseas travelers: leave your cellphones home (Brett Arends, WSJ) Eh, don't leave 'em at home, but do consider the tips offered here, and do consider swapping local sims into the phones.
- The Five Percent Solution (Robert Cringely, PBS.org)
- McCoy has a tip for Bradford (Jake Trotter, Daily Oklahoman)
- Surprise! Owens hasn’t been divisive force he once was (Jim Reeves, FWST)
- PHS 20-year Reunion (Photobucket) I can't say I'm sad I missed this. London trumps Pawhuska and things that make me feel old. Sorry.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/29/08 23:14 | Links | Technorati | Comments (1)
Sudden acceleration: 07/29/08
Man crashes car into House of Pies (KHOU-11 News)
Diners at the House of Pies got a little more than a late-night snack Tuesday.
Early in the morning, a man was in his car about to leave the restaurant on Westheimer and Fountainview when he accidentally hit the gas instead of the brake.
His car plowed into the back wall of the building, knocking a hole in it.
The crash also broke a small water pipe.
Fortunately, no one was hurt.
Let's hope no pies were damaged either!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/29/08 22:50 | Houston | Technorati | Comments (3)
28 July 2008
Linkpost: 07/28/08
- Starbucks nation (Daniel Henninger, WSJ)
- Economics does not lie (Guy Sorman, City Journal)
- The K Street project, part blue (Kimberley Strassel, WSJ) We all know from the nutroots that marshalling of money and power are entirely Republican matters.
- In Russia, 'Legal Nihilism' as Usual (Jackson Diehl, WaPo)
- He ventured forth to bring light to the world (Gerard Baker, Times of London)
- Obama's narcissism (Jack Kelly, RCP)
- A Long Wait at the Gate to Greatness (John Pomfret, WaPo)
- Sweet Nothings (Andrew Ferguson, Weekly Standard)
- Obama the Unknown (Richard Cohen, WaPo)
- 5th Circuit upholds prison terms for border agents (AP) Pat Gray and Edd Hendee will be more hysterical than usual tomorrow.
- Osteen, Schori, and American Heresy (Nathaniel Peters, First Things Blog)
- Whatever Happened to Liberal Humor? (Jason Maoz, Contentions)
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/28/08 23:32 | Links | Technorati | Comments (0)
27 July 2008
Linkpost: 07/27/08
- Magazine puts the spotlight on Tulsa's Art Deco architecture (Justin Juozapavicius, AP) One of many reasons that Tulsa is a pretty cool town.
- The Fannie Mae Gang (Paul Gigot, WSJ)
- God wants me to be rich (Karl Taro Greenfield, Portfolio.com) Joel Osteen's positive self help is big bidness, even if it isn't that much about Christian theology.
- Texas' new business tax coming up $1 billion short (Peggy Fikac, Houston Chronicle) No, really?
- Wind might have a big impact on our wallets (Loren Steffy, Houston Chronicle) Steffy has the wind partisans all riled up by pointing out some of the shortcomings of wind. As we've noted before, wind may be part of the solution, but it's not a panacea.
- Oil Subsidies Less Than 0.4 Cents Per Gallon (The Antiplanner)
- Boarding soon: Cuba flights from Windsor (Nathan Hurst, Detroit News) If I ever tried this, I'm sure I'd get caught.
- Hotwire spawns a baby sister (Summar Ghias, This Just In)
- San Francisco proposes car ban on Market Street (Out of Control) Where bad 70s urban planning ideas are all the rage!
- Google Maps Adds Walking Directions, Bad Neighborhood Caution (Gizmodo)
- Blogistan (JoeSentMe.com) Joe discovers the beauty of hyperlinks! Seriously, it's a good blogroll.
- Three injured in ferry collision off Andros (Kathimerini) Whoops!
- ThinkPad SL Series (Design Matters)
- Making security easier (Ariel Rideout, Official Gmail Blog)
- 'Goose' Gossage inducted into Hall of Fame (William Kates, AP) Long overdue. As a kid, I loved to watch this guy come in and scare the hell out of batters.
- Stoops still among coaching elite (Kirk Bohls, AAS)
- Stoops, Brown working on a rivalry for the ages (Berry Tramel, Daily Oklahoman)
- Oklahoma's no-huddle offense isn't ready just yet (Brandon George, DMN)
- Justice: Wolf trade shows Astros need reality check (Richard Justice, Houston Chronicle)
- Trade increases Astros' playoff hopes (Jim Molony, MLB.com) The headline writer is delusional.
- Bill Parcells is his typical classless self (Newy Scruggs, FWST)
- The scholarship game: No more easy outs in college baseball (Brian Davis, DMN)
- WNBA finally gets attention - for brawl (Larry Lage, AP) Watching them brawl has to be a hell of a lot more interesting than watching them try to play basketball.
- When should you banish your gas guzzler? (Scott Burns, Universal Press Syndicate) It's nice that Burns can shuffle between two cars, but maybe not everyone can, and maybe some people would like to reduce their fuel consumption as a matter of conservation and not pure economics.
- Boy slips out of day care, goes to Hooters (Monika Diaz, WFAA News) Nicely done, kiddo!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/27/08 21:46 | Links | Technorati | Comments (0)
Whirlwind
Well, THAT was a whirlwind...
I mostly avoided jet lag on the work side (thanks to CO BusinessFirst -- those upgrades were a great use of miles), but stayed way too busy on the work portion of the trip to the UK even to know exactly where I was most of the time. About the only "fun" non-work excursion* was a trip to Churchill's Cabinet War Rooms, which I had visited before but my boss had not. That's always a pretty cool trip.
Today, I'm fighting the jet lag a little bit (since I crashed a little earlier than I wanted last night), up about 5:15 am or so on a Sunday. That's not too far off normal workday, though, so tomorrow should be fine.
* Visiting our new Jane's colleagues was a little like being in the candy store, though.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/27/08 07:30 | Other | Technorati | Comments (0)
19 July 2008
Time for a little break....
The little blog is likely to be quiet for about a week....
I have a long-planned trip to San Francisco coming up, on a ridiculously cheap ($135) fare I booked back in January on Northwest. One leg of the trip has already been upgraded to first (NWA sometimes treats CO elites better than CO!), so this is just an extraordinary bargain considering the current price environment. I love fare sales!
Unfortunately, the people at work decided I needed to be in the UK at roughly the same time. This means a Tuesday San Francisco redeye to be followed by an IAH flight to Heathrow that evening. The company isn't generous enough to spring for BusinessFirst, but I cashed in some miles, and the upgrades have cleared, so that's good.
Still, by the middle of the week, I don't think my body is going to know where it is, or what time it is. But what the hell -- I should at least be able to track down some good Indian food.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/19/08 00:08 | Other | Technorati | Comments (3)
18 July 2008
Linkpost: 07/18/08
- The distraction of offshore drilling (Dianne Feinstein, LA Times) Trying to figure out comprehensive solutions to our energy security is a "distraction" to some pols who would rather be figuring out how to redistribute more of your income to more worthy recipients than yourself.
- Republicans rediscover ANWR (Mark Hyman, TAS)
- The Food Chain - As Price of Grain Rises, Catfish Farms Dry Up (David Streitfeld, NY Times) Another illustration of the food-as-fuel folly. We need to be working more on fuel as fuel, even if Sen. Feinstein thinks it's a "distraction."
- What Dems can't say about drilling (David Harsanyi, RCP)
- The Audacity of Vanity (Charles Krauthammer, WaPo)
- Obama's 'Judgment' (WSJ)
- GOP reformers face a tough fight (Kimberley Strassel, WSJ)
- Netroots nation: infiltrator in your midst (Karen Brooks, DMN) So utterly lame.
- More Iraqi ironies (Victor Davis Hanson, NRO)
- Turkey's Turmoil (Aliza Marcus & Andrew Apostolou, WaPo)
- Fannie and Freddie, damned by a Faustian bargain (John Eatwell & Avinash Persaud, FT)
- The rapid decline of the New York Times (Thomas Lifson, RCP)
- Inflection Point: What's the practical life span of DTV? (Robert Cringely, PBS.org)
- Houston pitches downtown flats, Yao's eatery to fight $4 fuel (Edward Klump, Bloomberg.com) The affluent people buying those nice new flats by the park that Mayor White built for them aren't worried about fighting $4 fuel.
- Development must hinge on road capacity (Jim Wotten, Atlanta Journal-Constitution) Wow, can this guy come take over the Chron editorial page?
- What Mainstream Publishers Don't Want You to Know About Door-to-Door Magazine Sales (Craig Malisow, Houston Press) Interesting expose.
- As Beaches Creep In, Ownership Disputes Erupt (David Baron, NPR) The Open Beaches Act isn't going to be declared a regulatory taking by the Supreme Court. It's unfortunate that nature has claimed the property of these people, but them's the breaks.
- KTLK host under fire for WNBA, gay comments (Nicole Muehlhausen, KSTP) Lesbian groups are the ones who have promoted kiss-offs. Why is it so incendiary to point this out?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/18/08 23:56 | Links | Technorati | Comments (0)
17 July 2008
Linkpost: 07/17/08
- Reagan on radio (Deroy Murdock, NRO)
- Fed to basics (NRO)
- Friends of Fannie and Freddie (Robert Novak, WaPo) The administration's deal to hand over economic policy to Paulson so that he would take the job looks worse and worse.
- Inflation and the Bush Legacy (George Melloan, WSJ)
- Monetary minefield (FT)
- Finance and the Fed: the battle is not over (Sam Natapoff, FT)
- America, too big to fail... probably (Nicole Gelinas, City Journal)
- Voters Want Economic Leadership (Karl Rove, WSJ) Instead, they have Paulson and Bernanke.
- America is not a post-anything (Victor Davis Hanson, RCP)
- The prophet Obama (R. Emmett Tyrrell, TAS)
- The Iron Timetable (WaPo)
- Who Obama Should See in Iraq (Dan Senor, WSJ)
- Unrealistic energy policies harm consumers (Drew Thornley, TPPF)
- Drilling in the offshore (Mark Hemingway, NRO)
- The Congressional drilling showdown (Ed Frank, NRO)
- Betting on Oil's Return to Earth (Steve LeVine, Businessweek)
- Unions are defining benefits down (Brian Johnson & William Hancock, NRO)
- In what parellel universe... (Brothers Judd)
- It doesn't matter in the long run (Brothers Judd)
- Women arrested in sex competition (Reuters) Oh those Greeks!
- Astros optimistic about second half (Krysten Oliphan, MLB.com) Why?
- Mizzou, OU are tabbed Big 12 favorites (Alan Trubow, AAS) Boomer!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/17/08 23:31 | Links | Technorati | Comments (1)
16 July 2008
Linkpost: 07/16/08
- God wants me to be rich (Karl Taro Greenfield, Portfolio.com) Positive self-help psychology is big business, but should it be confused for Christianity?
- Pious populist: Understanding the rise of Iran's president (Abbas Milani, Boston Review)
- Is the War Over? (Michael J. Totten, Commentary)
- The New Reality in Iraq (Frederick Kagan, Kimberley Kagan & Jack Keane, WSJ)
- The success of the surge seemingly puts Obama on the defensive (Jake Tapper, ABC News) It should.
- Obama releases lists of approved jokes about himself (Andy Borowitz, JWR) Nice!
- Tasteless & offensive: The New Yorker's wrong view of the Right (Mark Hemingway, NRO)
- Why the race is tied (Dick Morris, RCP)
- McCain: A Formidable Rival (Nicholas Wapshott, NY Sun)
- Finish the companies off (Holman Jenkins, WSJ)
- Houston, New York Has a Problem (Edward Glaeser, NY Sun)
- DeBakey's heart (Peter Mehlman, LA Times)
- Suspected drunk driver slams into light pole in southeast Houston (KTRK-13 News) The red-light cameras didn't prevent this? Shocking!
- Sources: Roger Clemens got HGH in mail from Kirk Radomski (Teri Thompson, Michael O'Keeffe & Nathaniel Vinton, NY Daily News) Nice to see the New York newspaper scooping Houston media again.
- Cheap Wine (Steven Levitt, Freakonomics) So much wine snobbery is for show. Drink what you like, but be willing to experiment and branch out.
- Is it an airplane or a spa? (Ken Hoffman, Houston Chronicle)
- Snoozing at the Terminal (Sharon McDonnell, NY Times)
- If you'd rather be late, Southwest has the perfect flight (Bill Hensel, Houston Chronicle)
- Solid Photo Genius, #102 (The Fat Guy) Yes!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/16/08 22:51 | Links | Technorati | Comments (0)
15 July 2008
Linkpost: 07/15/08
- Stop pitting Iraq against Afghanistan (Christopher Hitchens, Slate)
- So Much for the 'Looted Sites' (Melik Kaylan, WSJ) Hey, who needs facts?
- Are facts obsolete? (Thomas Sowell, RCP)
- Planning to ignore the facts (Rich Lowry, RCP)
- Barack Obama purges Web site critique of surge in Iraq (James Gordon Meek, NY Daily News) Change we can believe in?
- Obama on the War (Peter Wehner, Commentary)
- Rangel to Relinquish Apartment Used as Office (Raymond Hernandez & David Kocieniewski, NY Times) So, he's giving up one of four rent-controlled apartments he shouldn't have? What a champion of the poor and downtrodden!
- Energy Boost: Solar and wind businesses powered by tax breaks (Anita Huslin, WaPo)
- Mortgage scandal a bipartisan affair (Froma Harrop, RCP)
- The saga of Fannie and Freddie (Lawrence Kudlow, RCP)
- The Perils of Paulson (Vincent Reinhart, WaPo)
- End the Mortgage Duopoly (Gerald P. O'Driscoll Jr., WSJ)
- Cities You Can Believe In (Heather MacDonald, WaPo)
- It comes across as editorial comment (Brothers Judd)
- Mediterranean Diet: Worth Taking a Second Look (Mike Howard, DietBlog)
- Global warming will bring more kidney stones, study warns (Eric Berger, Houston Chronicle) Like the Monkees, Eric Berger's a believer.
- Publisher, sportswriter file suit in fake story about Oklahoma quarterbacks (Randy Ellis, Daily Oklahoman)
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/15/08 23:16 | Links | Technorati | Comments (0)
14 July 2008
Linkpost: 07/14/08
- The Fed to Latin America: Slow down (Mary Anastasia O'Grady, WSJ)
- U.S. General: Iraqi Forces to Be Fully Ready in '09 (Ann Scott Tyson & Dan Eggen, WaPo)
- Absence of Malice (WSJ)
- Tony Snow and the Character of Optimism (William Kristol, NY Times)
- The wrong tools to tackle rising inflation (Wolfgang Munchau, FT)
- Downsize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (CSM)
- McCain’s Hillary Problem (John Heilemann, New York Mag)
- Obama Shaman: The candidates post-masculine charisma tempts America in the age of Oprah (Michael Knox Beran, City Journal)
- Ego-bama, swallow some of that pride (Jonah Goldberg, NY Post)
- What if the Candidates Pandered to Economists? (Gregory Mankiw, NY Times)
- Hillary's church troubles: Methodists lurch toward life (Paul Kengor, NRO)
- So the iPhone Has Problems. What About the Stock Options? (Randall Stross, NY Times)
- Total cancels gas field project in Iran (David Jolly, IHT) Political risk rears its ugly head.
- Worth the risk? Debate on offshore drilling heats up (Rick Jervis, William Welch, Richard Wolf, USA Today)
- Houston's DeBakey led the way into a new era of medicine (Eric Berger, Houston Chronicle) Too bad Jeff Cohen's newspaper couldn't spare the column space this feature deserved.
- Russian concert laser show blinds 30 (Telegraph) Whoops!
- The Lesbian Man: A Greek's Crusade to Protect His Island's Name (Kauke Goos, Spiegel)
- MLB Parks You Shouldn't Miss (Dan Butcher, Budget Travel)
- Mike Leach, Hal Mumme and [UH's] Offensive Future (CoogFans)
- Big 12 Bass Fishing Championship: Sooners dominate Lake Eufaula event (Ed Godfrey, Daily Oklahoman) There is a bass fishing championship now? Sweet.
- Should the Astros trade stars for youth or try to win now? (Brian McTaggart, Houston Chronicle) Trading their stars to restock their system would make great sense if there was any confidence in management's ability to secure talent. Given Wade's performance so far, there is no such confidence.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/14/08 23:27 | Links | Technorati | Comments (0)
13 July 2008
Linkpost: 07/13/08
- Cancer's Unexpected Blessings (Tony Snow, Christianity Today) I admire his grace, but it's hard to think of the C word as a blessing.
- Lady Thatcher to be honoured with State funeral (Katie Nicholl & Simon Walter, Daily Mail) But of course!
- U.S. Aid Was a Key to the Hostage Rescue (Simon Romero, NY Times)
- Colombia Trade Deal Is Threatened (Steven Weisman, NY Times)
- Open outer continental shelf (Kenneth B. Medlock III, Houston Chronicle)
- Shell's U.S. chief sees need for 'full basket' of sources (Kristen Hays, Houston Chronicle) Some people inexplicably call such talk that includes drilling "moronic." (Tourette's perhaps?)
- Toyota Scales Back Production of Big Vehicles (Bill Vlasic & Nick Bunkley, NY Times)
- Demystifying the Dreaded End-of-Lease Inspection (Cheryl Jensen, NY Times)
- 2009 Subaru Forester: A Small Hauler Crosses the Line (Christopher Jensen, NY Times) I'm surprised no CVT for this guy.
- In House, Tweets Fly Over Web Plan (Michael Falcone, NY Times)
- Democrats, the military, and McCain (Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe)
- Obama’s No-Brainer on Education (Jonathan Alter, Newsweek) Is Alter on crack? Because what else could possibly explain his notion that Obama might take on teacher's unions, one of the most important Dem interest groups?
- Obama backers on the left are doing the wincing now (John Kass, Chicago Tribune)
- Making It: How Chicago shaped Obama (Ryan Lizza, The New Yorker)
- Bombardier launches jet to challenge Boeing, Airbus (Tim Hepher, Reuters)
- What are the Packers thinking? (Tim Cowlishaw, DMN)
- Sooners' line an offensive bunch (John Hensley, Daily Oklahoman)
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/13/08 23:21 | Links | Technorati | Comments (3)
12 July 2008
Linkpost: 07/12/08
- Phil Gramm Is Right (Amity Shlaes, WaPo)
- Pickens' energy plan is bold but it won't work (Loren Steffy, Houston Chronicle) Steffy notes some of the many flaws with the Pickens energy "plan."
- Environmentalists say yes to offshore drilling (Andrew Cline, WSJ) Meanwhile, unserious ideologues continue to say no.
- Our Electric Future (Andy Grove, The American)
- Counterterorrist tales (Tim Connors, City Journal)
- How Hostages, And Nations, Get Liberated (Charles Krauthammer, WaPo)
- The Wrong Education Fix (WSJ)
- John McCain's opportunity (Tony Perkins & Chuck Donovan, TAS)
- No Olympic Medal for Bush (Ronan O'Sullivan Farrow, WSJ)
- Don't Mess With the Electoral College (David Lewis Schaefer, WSJ)
- The Colorado Model: The Democrats' plan for turning red states blue (Fred Barnes, Weekly Standard) The influence of money on politics is an outrage for some people if it benefits the GOP, but not so much when the other party benefits. For less strident observers, it's just politics.
- Obama's Liberal Shock Troops (John Fund, WSJ)
- Harlem Congressman Rents 4 Apartments at Below-Market Rates (David Kociniewski, NY Times) It's always nice to see liberal pols helping
the poorthemselves. - Planned Parenthood to open site near UH (Amenah Khalil, Daily Cougar) Maybe to make abortions even more convenient, they could offer a drive-thru window?
- Congressman Culberson calls for more transparency (Rep. John Culberson, House.gov)
- Shining sunlight in Congress (Rep. John Culberson, House.gov)
- Route 66 motels: a rare breed (Rhett Morgan, Tulsa World)
- Why Southwest Succeeds (Joe Brancatelli, Seat 2B) If you don't want to get to an international destination, don't mind if your plane is late, and don't care if you're treated like cattle, then Southwest is a good cheap choice.
- Airline frequent flier programs: Why bother any more? (Allen On Travel) The perks of status and mileage upgrades are still nice.
- The Decline of the National League (Darren Everson, WSJ)
- Pitcher Villarreal placed on waivers (Brian McTaggart, Houston Chronicle) More of Drayton's money wasted.
- UH, Texas Tech to start two-year football series in 2009 (Michael Murphy, Houston Chronicle) This should be fun.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/12/08 23:15 | Links | Technorati | Comments (0)
RIP Linkpost: 07/12/08
- Dr. Michael DeBakey, 1908-2008: 'Greatest surgeon of the 20th century' dies (Todd Ackerman and Eric Berger, Houston Chronicle)
- Tony Snow, Former White House Press Secretary and FOX News Anchor, Dies at 53 (Fox News)
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/12/08 09:29 | Links | Technorati | Comments (0)
10 July 2008
Linkpost: 07/10/08
- Red Wine May Promote Healthy Aging (Anna Davison, ABC News) Best news (for me personally) that I have read in ages!
- A Bipartisan Fix for the Oil Crisis (Joseph Petrowski, WSJ)
- Our Congressional energy mess (Tom Nugent, NRO)
- Barack W. Bush? (Victor Davis Hanson, NRO)
- Will Obama let the sunshine in? (Daniel Henninger, WSJ)
- Barack Obama isn't making sense (W. James Antle III, TAS)
- Paging Dr. Smith (R. Emmett Tyrrell, TAS)
- Intellectuals lie, the powerless die (Ralph Peters, NY Post)
- The Price of Fannie Mae (WSJ)
- The triviality of the political moderate (Brothers Judd)
- They're willing to offer aid and comfort right up until they have to face their constituents (Brothers Judd)
- 'Rithmetic (Brothers Judd)
- Which is the difference... (Brothers Judd)
- Housing, Poverty, Crime, and Light Rail (The Antiplanner)
- Strangeness and trueness. And do you want a book club? (MeMo) Will the book selection be dumbed down and trashed up, like the * pages she oversees, or an effort to show the * pages aren't reflective of her intellect?
- Rockets agree to terms with free agent guard Barry (Jonathan Feigen, Houston Chronicle) This should help the Rockets. Maybe even past the first round.
- Story about OU QBs' drug busts a hoax (Berry Tramel, Daily Oklahoman) Don't believe everything you read on the internets.
- UT employee, a Nebraska fan, posted bogus story about OU quarterbacks (Randy Riggs, AAS) Awesome!
- Getting Game After a Testicular Fracture (Dan Childs, ABC News) Bad deal for a favorite former Coog.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/10/08 22:51 | Links | Technorati | Comments (0)
09 July 2008
Linkpost: 07/09/08
- Let Our Congress Tweet!
- Member Web Use Reconsidered (John Wonderlich, Sunlight Foundation)
- Culberson criticizes Dem effort to stifle member web communications (blogHOUSTON)
- My Plan to Escape the Grip of Foreign Oil (T. Boone Pickens, WSJ) Pickens relies heavily on natural gas, which is not so plentiful or cheap as he asserts (as Texans know from the electric bills). What is needed is a comprehensive approach to American energy security.
- Pelosi says tap emergency oil reserve to lower prices (H. Josef Hebert, AP) The strategic reserve is for major supply disruptions, not price manipulation. This is most certainly NOT a comprehensive approach to American energy security.
- Triumph of the Witless (Joshua Kurlantzick, TNR)
- Protest by brothel workers (Kathimerini) Everyone has strikes in Greece, even the prostitutes.
- Obama's Call For Unity Faces Abortion Test (Brian Montpoli, CBS News) He and Hillary all but advocated infanticide in their efforts to win liberals in the primaries. How do you back away from that, credibly?
- In Love and Hauteur: Obama and the press, sneering together (Noemie Emery, NRD)
- Obama would, in fact, govern from the left (Dick Morris, RCP)
- In over his head (Brothers Judd)
- Dancing on the grave of Jesse Helms (Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe)
- Holy Cows: George W Bush - buffoon or great leader? (Sameh El-Shahat, Telegraph) To be considered great, a leader typically should be able to speak credibly in public about policies and goals (among other things).
- Bus route gives Houstonians a back-door view to the city (Claudia Feldman, Houston Chronicle) How are MeMo's kids employed as journalists, when hard news is pared to the bone? It's unfortunate.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/09/08 23:55 | Links | Technorati | Comments (2)
08 July 2008
Linkpost: 07/08/08
- Undercover city detective finds hints of danger among mosques (Patrice O'Shaugnessy, NY Daily News) Scary stuff.
- NYPD gathering intel, on lookout for terrorists around the world (Patrice O'Shaugnessy, NY Daily News)
- Distracting Miss Daisy (John Staddon, Atlantic Monthly) Drive around Houston a while and experience its NOT-synchronized lights -- and one appreciates this perspective even more.
- Wikipropaganda: Spinning green (Lawrence Solomon, NRO)
- Why Trains Just Don’t Work in America (Charlie Martin, Pajamas Media)
- That '70s Show: Detroit (Paul Ingrassia, WSJ)
- G8 summit: Gordon Brown has eight-course dinner before food crisis talks (Robert Winnett, Telegraph) It is almost painful to watch Gordon Brown implode.
- Africa's shame (Economist) And the free world's.
- Iran Quietly Supported a Partitioning of Iraq (Kamal Nazer Yasin, EurasiaNet)
- Report: Western Democracies Enable "Petro-Authoritarianism" (Deirdre Tynan, EurasiaNet)
- The big question: Why is tension rising in Turkey, and is the country turning Islamist? (Nicholas Birch, Independent)
- Yemen blast just one sign of nation's troubles (Borzou Daragahi, LA Times)
- The Taliban at the Gates of Peshawar: Pakistan's Deal with the Devil (Walter Mayr, Spiegel)
- Interview with Pakistan Expert Rashid: 'A Regional War that Is Spreading to Pakistan' (Spiegel)
- Pakistan's future in the balance (Barbara Platt, BBC News)
- Pakistan: Suicide bombing in capital raises concerns about negotiating with militants (Mian Ridge, CSM)
- What should Big Oil's role in Iraq be? (Richard Thompson, BBC News)
- Oil Price Side-Effect: Why the Gulf Is Switching to Coal (Wolfgang Reuter, Spiegel) Meanwhile, some geniuses in America think it's a good idea to use food as fuel, and limit domestic production of crude.
- Grow more food instead of biofuels, World Bank head tells rich countries (Telegraph)
- The audacity of defeatism (Brothers Judd)
- Black and white and lots of gray (Brothers Judd)
- Obama's Nixon reprise (Bret Stephens, WSJ)
- Investing, Post-Bush (David Malpass, Forbes)
- Continued unfitness for command (Mark Hyman, TAS)
- Writing Off Extra Calories (Sally Squires, WaPo) Handy tools here.
- Cowboys hitting market to shop for backup QB (Mac Engel, FWST) Chris Simms might not be a bad fit, at the right price.
- Obituary: Elliot "Mac" McCosar Jr.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/08/08 23:30 | Links | Technorati | Comments (2)
07 July 2008
Linkpost: 07/07/08
- Health Care 2009 (WSJ)
- Caring for Your Introvert (Jonathan Rauch,The Atlantic) Very helpful!
- Introverts of the World, Unite! (Sage Stossel, The Atlantic)
- US removes uranium from Iraq (Brian Murphy, AP)
- A Different Climate Change Apocalypse Than the One You Were Envisioning (Steven J. Dubner, Freakonomics)
- Fact check: Will Arctic drilling reduce the price of gasoline? (Texas on the Potomac) He was on fairly solid ground, until the ten-year prediction on gas prices. That's hard enough for experts, let alone journalists.
- No change: Meet Obama's foreign policy, same as the old foreign policy (Mark Hemingway, NRO)
- American Politics Aren't 'Post-Racial' (Dorothy Rabinowitz, WSJ)
- Jeep Patriot: Heating Up Sales With American SUV Buyers (Phil LeBeau, CNBC.com) It's a good combination of price, capability, and mileage. Unfortunately, it's hard to find one in town right now.
- Unloading information overload (Gordon Crovitz, WSJ)
- Radio rights for Astros in play; KGOW ponders lineup (David Barron, Houston Chronicle)
- Airport projects may be grounded (Dan Weikel & Peter Pae, LA Times) Some places have responded sensibly to industry shrinkage. Here in Houston, White/Vacar seem determined to spend millions on IAH renovation in the usual Ready-Fire-Aim! manner.
- Chronicle discovers contract deputies...again (HCSO Blog)
- New Orleans: A Vanilla City (The Antiplanner)
- When things looked hopeless for White, Chuck Long responded (Berry Tramel, Daily Oklahoman)
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/07/08 23:38 | Links | Technorati | Comments (1)
06 July 2008
Linkpost: 07/06/08
- New Twin Towers? (Nicole Gelinas, City Journal)
- Rush Limbaugh Is Just Getting Warmed Up (Zev Chafets, NY Times)
- America’s human capital is tested (Clive Crook, FT)
- Drip by drip, Starbucks lost what made it shine (Tom Mullaney, Chicago Tribune) Most real Starbucks stores are still reliable (and I admit I'm a fan), but some of those kiosks are terrible, and truly devalue the brand.
- Obama strikes first (Dick Morris & Eileen McGann, RCP)
- Reasons to temper our pessimism (Richad Halloran, RCP)
- Obama's candidacy is a test (Michael Barone, RCP)
- Add Tejada to GM Wade's list of Astros' woes (Richard Justice, Houston Chronicle) Why, oh why, couldn't Drayton have hired a moneyball disciple to try to turn around his baseball mess, instead of a hotheaded old-school retread like Wade?
- Dorsey looks to excel with Rockets (Steve Campbell, Houston Chronicle) Les Alexander, on the other hand, hired EXACTLY that sort of GM to try to fix his lagging franchise.
- Road rage turns deadly when motorcyclist attacks Mazda Miata (KHOU-11 News) Lesson: When riding a motorcycle, don't try to kick someone in a Miata. The results can be fatal.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/06/08 22:29 | Links | Technorati | Comments (0)
05 July 2008
Hanging out in the country
Lookee who came out to pose for the camera while we were enjoying a drinky tink (or two) on the back porch of my aunt's place on Lake Keystone today:
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/05/08 23:18 | Other | Technorati | Comments (2)
Linkpost: 07/05/08
- A Man of Seasonal Principles (Charles Krauthammer, WaPo)
- Iraq's Oil Surge (WSJ)
- Yellow Science (James Kerian, First Things) The sort of thought-provoking commentary you'll never see linked on Eric Berger's Chron blog.
- Interview with Theodore J. Forstmann: The credit crisis is going to get worse (WSJ)
- The Imaginative Analysis of Seymour Hersh (Max Boot, Commentary)
- Why Barack Obama may be lonely in 2009 (Doug Sanders, Globe and Mail)
- The Ascendancy of Jesse Helms (Fred Barnes, Weekly Standard)
- Jesse Helms (WSJ)
- How Jesse Helms Made a Difference (John Fund, WSJ)
- RIP: Jesse Helms Gentlemen and ladies might reasonably expect better of "the future" than partisan shots at a man who's died.
- Wade brawl brings back memories (Randy Miller, PhillyBurbs.com) You'd think at least ONE member of the Chron sports staff might be interested enough in this to get some quotes and write a column. But you'd be wrong.
- Oklahoma's Stoops keeps reloading, dominating (Chip Brown, DMN)
- Are you tired of Carlos Lee's defense? (Tag's Baseball Plays) What defense?
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/05/08 23:07 | Links | Technorati | Comments (0)
04 July 2008
Linkpost: Fourth of July '08 (Happy Birthday America!)
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/04/08 06:01 | Links | Technorati | Comments (0)
03 July 2008
Linkpost: 07/03/08
- The politics of can't-possibly-do (Daniel Henninger, WSJ) Shame.
- Hillaryland at War (Gail Sheehy, Vanity Fair) It still boggles the mind why no Democrat wants to run for Bill Clinton's third term.
- Why We Went to War in Iraq (Douglas Feith, WSJ)
- He's No Decider, He's a Ditherer (Daniel Benjamin, WaPo) On the flip side, Reagan presided over a similar model that was similarly riven with internal dissension and with opponents carping over allegedly broken interagency processes, and with Reagan and key principals often making key foreign policy decisions outside that loop -- and twenty years later, we now have some confidence that it worked pretty well. We probably won't know for at least a decade, maybe two, how functional -- or dysfunctional -- the Bush approach really was.
- Can Barack Buy the Presidency? (Karl Rove, WSJ)
- Turkey’s secularist coup must crumble (FT)
- Turmoil in Malaysia (WSJ)
- On Campus, the ’60s Begin to Fade as Liberal Professors Retire (Patricia Cohen, NY Times)
- Bad rap on the schools (Jay Mathews, Wilson Quarterly)
- "I'll take that one" (Ken Blackwell, RCP)
- While John Kerry was groveling to Ortega... (Brothers Judd) Contrast this with all the anti-Reagan Dem advisors who were so supportive of Ortega and the Sandinistas during that time period (some of whom are now part of Team Obama). The McCain camp can't be too upset about this story.
- Which makes being tiger-caged seem like an over-qualification (Brothers Judd) The McCain camp must be hoping against hope that the Obama people keep emphasizing foreign policy.
- China and cheap imports: Champions of equality (Christian Broda, Vox)
- Who put the ram in Obama-rama-ding-dong? (The County Seat)
- Cornyn and Noriega slip on oil issues (Lisa Falkenberg, Houston Chronicle) The metro/state diarist should really stick to topics she knows something about -- teen issues for example -- and leave energy security alone. More to follow at some point on bH.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/03/08 22:34 | Links | Technorati | Comments (0)
02 July 2008
Linkpost: 07/02/08
- The Audacity of Cynicism (Michael Gerson, WaPo)
- After Guantanamo (David Rivkin & Lee Casey, WSJ)
- A Brighter Future for Baghdad?: Optimism Grows in Iraq as Daily Life Improves (Bernhard Zand, Spiegel)
- Remember the Reader (Jessa Crispin, WaPo)
- In Praise of Political Insults (Joseph Tartakovsky, WSJ)
- The banality of hope (Brothers Judd)
- Here's a pretty easy definition of torture (Brothers Judd)
- Libya's oil cut threat sends out jitters (Javier Blas, FT) The mere threat of Dem "energy policy" initiatives sends up oil prices. Nicely done!
- What is GM thinking (Holman Jenkins, WSJ)
- Volt of the masses (Eric Peters, TAS)
- Hedge your gasoline purchases with MyGallons (Grant Martin, Gadling)
- NATO’s Role in Energy Security (Johannes Varwick, Spiegel)
- Oil Cash May Prove A Shaky Crutch for Iran's Ahmadinejad (Thomas Erdbrink, WaPo)
- Iraq opens door to foreign bidding to increase oil output (Sam Dagher, CSM)
- Foreign companies bid to boost Iraqi oil production (Doug Smith & Said Rifai, LA Times)
- Turkish ruling party put on trial (BBC News) Ticking time bomb...
- Malaysia's Anwar faces sodomy claim (John Burton, FT) Again?
- Malaysia's Anwar stopped in his tracks (Ioannis Gatiounis, Asia Times)
- How to stop the Great Crash of '08 (Spengler, Asia Times)
- Pakistani operation against militants raises questions (Laura King, LA Times)
- Are Sanctions Working on Iran? (Spiegel)
- Astros make bullpen move: Villarreal out, Borkowski in (Jesus Ortiz, Houston Chronicle) Ed Wade sure has wasted lots of Drayton's money so far this season.
- Temples of Tex-Mex: A Diner's Guide to the State's Oldest Mexican Restaurants (Robb Walsh, Houston Press)
- Charles Bacarisse named vice president of advancement (News at HBU)
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/02/08 22:39 | Links | Technorati | Comments (1)
01 July 2008
Linkpost: 07/01/08
- A conversation with Daniel Yergin, Chairman of Cambridge Energy Research Associates (Charlie Rose) Yergin is so solid.
- We Can Lower Oil Prices Now (Martin Feldstein, WSJ)
- Cornyn's anonymous online cheerleader (KVUE Political Junkie) One day, old-school Republicans may get a clue about the net. Or, they may just get older and go away. One hopes sooner than later.
- Obama's real patriotism problem (Jonah Goldberg, USA Today)
- Why Obama Will Be the Latest Democrat to Lose in Dixie (Thomas Schaller, NY Times)
- Global warming as mass neurosis (Bret Stephens, WSJ) Bet we won't see this linked by the Chron's Eric Berger any time soon.
- A judgment issue: Wesley clark wasn't the first (Orson Swindle, NRO)
- A Nicer Form of Tyranny (Ronald J. Pestritto, Claremont Review of Books)
- Jindal leads (Kathryn Jean Lopez, NRO)
- Grill power: Elitist feminism and the New York Times (Heather MacDonald, City Journal)
- Why Iraq Was Inevitable (Arthur Herman, Commentary)
- Innovation: Anchor And Twist (Dan Heath & Chip Heath, FastCompany.com)
- Profiles feature NOT going away (Netflix Community Blog) Nice they came to their senses.
- RAMBack Frees Memory from Firefox 3 on Demand (Lifehacker)
- Why You Want to Live in Buenos Aires
- Santorini, Greece (Janet Adamy, WSJ) Santorini is "off the beaten path?" Not especially.
- Amsterdam: No Smoking, Unless It's Pot (Christel Kucharz, ABC News)
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/01/08 22:36 | Links | Technorati | Comments (0)
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