REFLECTIONS OF AN OBJECTIVIST MUSE

 

5 August 2000

 

 

 

Print Articles I'm Reading

 

I've made it clear that I think most journalists -- especially elite journalists -- are idiots.  I've also made it clear that I think they are often biased in a liberal manner, which far too many people have documented for there to be much doubt.  But overall, I do just think they tend to be idiots.  Here's an example from an article in today's New York Times online version (written by one James Dao) of just a nasty, dumb piece of writing:

"When I was in Vietnam, I didn't do the most or run the greatest danger," Mr. Gore said. "But I volunteered and enlisted because I loved my country, and I knew that if I didn't go, I knew that someone else from my home town of Carthage, Tenn., would have to go in my place."

Left out of that explanation are two other possible reasons for his decision to volunteer: his desire to help insulate his father, an antiwar senator from Tennessee, from Republican criticism, and his own interest in broadening his r�sum� for a possible career in politics.

That second paragraph has NO place in the article, which was a piece on Gore's active day of campaigning following a week off during the Republican Convention.  This is NOT an opinion column, which is where such snide, nasty remarks might arguably belong., but a news article.  The Gore people should be understandably upset at such a nasty remark.  And aspiring journalists everywhere ought to be embarrassed that this paragraph wound up in allegedly the finest newspaper in the country, which further illustrates the point with which I opened this section.

* * * *

Increasingly, people are moving back inside the loop in Houston for various reasons -- the commute to/from the glorious suburbs is getting old, downtown has become very "trendy" suddenly, living inside the loop is a "cool" thing to do, etc.  Unfortunately, many of these people are moving in from the suburbs and bringing their suburb attitude with them -- charming old historic buildings must be knocked down to build generic townhouses with a ground level facade that is a GARAGE DOOR.    Either that, or luxury apartment complexes that are four stories high, have no architectural character (and in many ways, are offensive architecturally, at least to an Objectivist), and just pile suburbanites on top of suburbanites, behind gates of course.  

So this week's Houston Press has a story about a fellow who moved from a Dallas suburb (even worse than a Houston suburb, a suburb of a city known for its racism, intolerance, and ethnic homogeneity) to just such a ridiculous townhouse on Shepherd, in between the Montrose and Heights neighborhoods.  Turns out Mr. Billy Murphy (even the name makes him sound like a rural Texas redneck, but obviously an elite one, since townhouses in that area are going for a cool quarter of a million for starters) didn't stop to think that his townhouse was located adjacent to a bar/grill and an icehouse (two of the better ones of each, I should add) and that it might occasionally have noise and some crowds nearby.  So Billy A-Hole has made a habit of calling the police constantly (over 100 times according to the report) and harassing the icehouse to no end.  It seems Billy A-Hole really wants to put them out of business, so, according to the story, someone can put in a nice Starbucks Drive Through!

I am sick of these dumbasses moving to the inner loop and trying to turn the inner loop into their suburbs.  Montrose and the Heights are NOT Dallas suburbs, nor are they Houston suburbs.  Not everything looks alike.  Not everyone is the same color.  Not everyone speaks the same language.  Not everyone has the same body art!  These neighborhoods celebrate the very diversity and life that planned communities outside of the city limits strive to stamp out.  THAT is why people want to live here.  

And then people like Billy A-Hole move in, and want the places to be like the suburbs, right down to generic coffeeshops (give me Diedrich's -- which is a small chain that has some character, Cafe Artiste, Brasil, anything but Starbucks!).  I'm not saying that Billy A-Hole may not have a point at times.  Living by a bar brings occasional noise, and sometimes some litter.  I know.  I live across the street from one of the best dive bars in the city, Cecil's Pub.  I love it, even on nights when I am awakened at 2:15 a.m. by drunken revelers singing Jerry Jeff Walker on the street.  I expect this to an extent.  l LIVE ACROSS THE STREET FROM A BAR IN MONTROSE!  

Some people celebrate life and diversity and think it's kind of cool that, because Houston has no zoning, we can live in neighborhoods in the inner city where we can walk to a restaurant or a bar or a poker house (there's a secret one down the street from me) or a psychic, all on the same block.  Then there are people like Billy A-Hole who are fun sponges -- they just can't stand for there to be any fun anywhere around them, and they soak it all up like a sponge.  What a sad way to be. 

 

 


Copyright (c) 2000, Kevin L. Whited