Sleepless in Midland

A High School Reunion to beat all High School Reunions

When Laura Welch was in school in Midland she was one of the nicest persons anyone could ever hope to meet.  Now she's First Lady Laura Bush, and she's still not only a very classy lady, a nice person and a super human being, but she's an important person who brings a lot of good to the world.

And this past weekend she hosted her old classmates, the 1964 graduates of Midland High School, Lee High School and Carver High School, in a high school reunion we will never forget.

Friday, March 28, we were invited to the White House for a tour and the opportunity to watch the President's helicopter land on the White House lawn.  Although we've all seen it before on tv, it's truly inspiring to see this and to watch the President disembark and walk right in front of us.  He gave a big Texas "Howdy" wave, and we all cheered.

And the First Lady came out, shook a few hands, gave a few hugs, and left us in awe.

Saturday night was the big event at the White House, and we arrived, all 500 of us, in taxis, limos and buses.  I hitched a ride in a limo, and as we approached the White House, tourists snapped our photos as if we were important.  (Ha, we sure fooled them!)

There was a terrific buffet, lots of wine and drink, a band, and lots of picture snapping people acting like kids in a candy store.  By golly, it was a once in a lifetime opportunity!

I had to sympathize with the President and First Lady.  There was a receiving line at which each person who attended could have his/her photo taken with the President and First Lady.  It must have been exhausting for them.  It took hours, and I'm sure they appreciated all the advice they probably got from some of their long winded classmates.

What a time!

Updated 4/1/08:  The Midland Reporter-Telegram's reporter Ruth Campbell wrote a nice story about the class reunion.  Click to read it.

And here's an an interview at KWES9.com.

Flying the unfriendly skies

Just returned from a fun filled trip to Washington, DC, with some of my old high school classmates.  It was a fabulous time -- more about that later.

But every silver lining has its cloud, and this one was the airlines.  One of our classmates was scheduled to catch a Delta flight last Thursday at 9:00 AM, but she received a call at 3:00 AM from Delta advising her that the flight had been canceled and inviting her to catch a 6:00 AM flight.  What a great way to start a day.

The airline industry has seen better days, and current airline economics have produced some very unfriendly skies for travelers.

My problem was with American Airlines.  The flight had two legs each way, and the first three legs went just fine -- no delays, no lost luggage, no problems.  The last leg of the return trip got canceled due to some phantom storm that American Airlines could see but no one else could.  The next available flight that wasn't fully booked was scheduled to depart in 20 hours.  There would be no reimbursement for the ticket, no reimbursement for expenses, and no reimbursement for the frustrating time invested in getting from there to here.  The American Airlines staff tried to be cordial, but by design, the people on the front line never have the authority to actually do anything to solve a problem.

My options were basically these:  (a) go away sad;   (b)  go away mad;  (c)  just go away.  So I rented a car (at my own expense) and drove the rest of the way home, cursing American Airlines the whole way.

There was time when American Airlines had a stellar reputation, and maybe it still does -- it's an example of a shifting baseline.  What was once considered mediocre service may now be considered pretty good.  If you are on the ground, alive, regardless of the location, then you had a good flight.

How to tell if your preacher could be crazy

A politician wears his/her religion like a decoration, showing it off at every opportunity.  And why not?  Polls tell them they could never get elected without an acceptable religion.

A politician needs to have a good church for a background shots and most do a fair job of picking that setting.  But obviously Barack Obama might need some help avoiding crazy preachers.

So as Easter Sunday approaches, this is one of an seldom occurring series of posts directed at politicians advising them how to be better politicians.  Specifically, how they can tell if their preacher is crazy.  Some examples.

• If the preacher preaches the ten commandments in one breath then violates one of them in the next (the one about using God's name in vain), he could be a crazy preacher.

• If the preacher seems unable to distinguish between good and evil, i.e., justifying ruthless terrorists bent on killing innocent civilians in the name of religion because the United States' fought for survival in World War II, he could be a crazy preacher.

• If the preacher seems bent on trying to convince white people that all of their efforts over the past five decades to improve race relations have been a total waste of time, he could be a crazy preacher.

• If the preacher wants to indoctrinate the children in racial hatred, he could be a crazy preacher.

• If the preacher sounds more like bin Laden than Billie Graham, he could be a crazy preacher.

Finally,  Mr. Obama made a speech attempting to justify his loyalty to his preacher, and in doing so, he pronounced that his grandmother is a "typical white person."  Some people may be confused by that wondering just what is a typical white person.  So here's a helpful site that identifies characteristics of the stereotypical white person.  It's stuff white people like (via Pajamas Media).

Hope this helps.

Number 9? Number 9? Client Number 9?

There's something jaw dropping about the Eliot Spitzer sex scandal.  First off, the price.  Supposedly this well paid public servant ordered services with a price tag of $4,300.  And here I am trying to decide whether to buy a cheap little computer.  What does one get for $4,300?  Er, besides an expectation of secrecy.

Allegedly he paid some $80,000 over a period of time for this service, and at $4,300 per session that comes to only 18.6 sessions. That really must have been some hot sex.

But what really gets one's attention is that the session that was under discussion in the wiretap supposedly occurred on February 13, the day before Valentine's Day.  Well, Valentine's Day is full of obligation for men.  Maybe he was just trying to get in shape for the big day.

Space Shuttle Launch - 3/11/08

They say a night time launch is so spectacular that the rocket turns night into day.  But night time launches went out of favor for a while because apparently there wasn't enough light for observers to see whether stuff was falling off the shuttle.

Well, they're back.  The next launch target is March 11, 2008 2:28 a.m. EDT.  Here's the mission information, and here's the Launch Blog.

Via Bad Asttronomy.

Constable position in Odessa -- an interesting race

Challenging an incumbent is always a tough proposition.  A challenger who flies under the radar is probably going to be unable to dislodge the incumbent, so it takes a lot of work on behalf of a challenger to persuade people to vote for the new guy.

We are seeing this played out in Odessa where Jeff Schwende is challenging incumbent Steven Brennan for the Precinct 1 Constable position.

The challenger revealed some information recently about the incumbent, and here's a local news account:

What started as a normal political debate with little or no drama ended Tuesday night with accusations that Precinct 1 Constable Steven Brennan had a criminal record. The accusations came from Jeff Schwende, Brennan’s only opponent, during closing statements.

Scwhende said he was the only person running for Precinct 1 who did not have a criminal record.

Schwende said he discovered Brennan’s “criminal history” using a website that searches public data.

Brennan said Wednesday that he was arrested 30 years ago on a charge of evading arrest, a Class C misdemeanor.

“My brother had just been killed in the oilfield, saving two Odessa residents’ lives,” Brennan said. “I was out on Andrews Highway pretty upset, running up the road.”

Officers stopped Brennan and told him to go home, he said.

“I said I would, and I didn’t,” he said. “They placed me in custody after that.”

Brennan was put on six months probation for the offense in 1978.

Brennan was arrested under the name Steven Cupp, the name he was given when he was adopted.

“When I turned 21, I went to the Ector County Courthouse and took my birth name back, Steven Brennan,” the incumbent constable said.

Here's the link to the story unfortunately titled Constable race gets nasty.  This is information the voters would probably like to know but which the news media failed to uncover.  So the challenger has to be the one to bring it up, and the news media calls it "Nasty."  The odds are really stacked against a challenger.  And a lot of people will be watching this one to see how it turns out.

Updated 3/5/08:  The incumbent won.  See Incumbents in; challengers out.

Fires, all the time, everywhere

The conditions were just right for the perfect fire storm:  a wet growing season, a dry winter, a high wind.  It seems that hardly a windy day goes by that we don't hear about a huge grass fire somewhere in West Texas.  (Perhaps today's moisture will provide an uneventful day for the firefighters.)

So what starts these fires?  Electrical lines get blown down.  Welders get careless.  And  cigarette smokers flick their lit butts onto the roadside and are long gone before the tobacco embers ignite the dry grass.  Jonathan Gurwitz wrote a delightful opinion piece about the flick, that careless cigarette toss out the window.

Tired of reading?  Here are some fire scene photos.

That one in the far right, above, is my favorite from this batch.  There's something strangely alluring about random symmetry.

These photos were taken at the grass fire near I-20 and Odessa South Loop 338 on February 25, 2008.  Read about it here.

Obama's biggest strength

There's a new word now off limits to those who would support a Barack Obama political opponent, his middle name.   The use of it becomes a rallying cry for the Obama troops.  In the meantime, for those of us entertained by the whole thing, there's a fun contest going on to pick a new middle name for Mr. Obama.  My favorites:  "Barack Herbert Walker Obama" and "Barack X. Obama."

Here's what Mr. Obama should do.  If/when he addresses the Democrat convention he could bring the house down if he walks up to the microphone and says: "I'm Barack Hussein Obama reporting for duty."

And why are women fainting at Obama appearances?  Here's one explanation:

Why do people keep fainting at Obama rallies? Are you sure this isn’t some kind of a setup?

They’re swooning on their own. Possibly helped along by the fact that the fans closest to the stage have to stand there for several hours before the event begins.

People stand  a long time for other candidates, too, without fainting.  But interestingly, those Obama rally faintings seemed to have stopped once the msm started reporting on them.

Anyway, there's a possibility that Mr. Obama could become our next president.  And watching him in the run up there's obviously one thing he's good at.  It's  the snappy comeback.  He's countered everything Hilary has thrown at him, and that may be his biggest strength.  So look out bin Laden, look out Ahmadinajad .  You just try something, and by golly Obama will hit you with a zinger that will have you curled in a fetal position crying like baby.