Sleepless in Midland

The fashionable shopper -- Spring 2020 edition

The in look this Spring will be conscientious, practical and sophisticated, with a just a hint of the stealth with these fashionable accessories.

Dress for success!

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1:30 PM 4/5/2020

Harry and Meghan step out of the limelight and into the spotlight

The royal family lives in a bubble. They maintain a carefully crafted public image in spite of a few bad apples. So now Harry and Meghan are making noises about stepping out of that bubble. That's a big step.

Someone once observed that a celebrity has three images. There's the one they play on screen, the one that's portrayed by their publicists for their public image, and the one that few see -- their own, closely guarded, real self.

These days with all the muck racking that feeds the desire of the non-famous to bring the famous down a few notches, it's harder for celebs to hide their real selves. Exposure will bring us a closer look at Harry and Meghan.

Kyle Smith paints the picture in Why Harry and Meghan will find life even harder as non-royals:

As if! Within the royal embrace, media coverage is bubble-wrapped. Out there in the cold cruel world of ordinary celebrity, it’s anything goes. No “Royal Rota” agreement applies in Hollywood. It’s every paparazzo out for himself, every time you go out for a coffee, and when you’re on your own property you have to pay for your own security to keep them at bay instead of sending the bill to the taxpayer. The Royals, because of the circumstances of Princess Diana’s death and because of the institutional respect commanded by the Crown, are just about the only celebs west of Vladimir Putin who can enforce any limits whatsoever over their coverage.

Besides, if H & M ever were to break completely free of the Firm (unlikely), a big chunk of their mystique would be gone. They’ll soon find themselves being mocked for pimping out their new Sussex Royal brand. Hoodies, T-shirts, socks, ball caps and pencils — really? They’re going to leverage a thousand years of dignity and tradition for a bunch of cheesy crapola that’s going to wind up at the Dollar Tree? The whole point of being royal is to float above and beyond ordinary existence, to make ordinary mortals fantasize about what it’s like to be you. Once you’re doing interviews with E! or hawking Christmas ornaments on the Home Shopping Network, you’re just two schmucks getting torn apart by the late-night comics.

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Prince Harry will get the respect he shows the crowds.

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1:38 PM 1/12/2020

suicide by firearm -- there's has to be a better way

A psychiatrist named Brian Barnett has published a piece titled National support for ‘red-flag’ gun laws could prevent many suicides in which he advocates for red-flag laws to add mental health providers to the list of those authorized to petition a court for removing guns from individuals in those states which have such laws. His concern is for the well being of those individuals, and the removal of guns would eliminate the easiest means of suicide for those people. It makes sense up to a point.

A firearm suicide leaves a mess. Anyone contemplating it should consider what the person who stumbles onto the scene will have to see. It would probably be very traumatic for whomever that person is and probably more traumatic if that person happened to be a family member.

But lack of access to firearms wouldn't necessarily prevent a suicide -- there are other ways to terminate one's life. According to CDC.gov only half of the 47,173 suicides in 2017 involved firearms.

My objective with this post isn't to prevent suicides, although that would be a nice result. There are plenty of better places to seek help, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention would be a good place to start. (The chart on the right came from there.)

And here's an interesting finding among the Research & Suicide Prevention: Top 10 Findings: "Ninety percent of people who die by suicide have an underlying — and potentially treatable — mental health condition." Help is out there.

Most of us, while not being suicidal or having a mental health condition, can contemplate a situation which might inspire suicide. And if suicide really is the only resort, please don't use a gun.

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10:41 AM 9/25/2019

Well this sucks -- hand sanitizer leaves a lot of bad stuff on your hands

They focused on the flu virus at Towards better hand hygiene for flu prevention. Excerpt:

The influenza A virus (IAV) remains infectious in wet mucus from infected patients, even after being exposed to an ethanol-based disinfectant (EBD) for two full minutes, report researchers at Kyoto Profectural University of Medicine, in Japan. Fully deactivating the virus, they found, required nearly four minutes of exposure to the EBD.

Dang. Four minutes is a long time. It might be easier to simply use soap and water. But then how long would we have to rub our hands together?

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4:50 PM 9/23/2019

Improve meetings by inviting only people who might benefit from them

This is not our first dive into the business of meetings and likely won't be the last. I'm no expert on meetings, but I know what I don't like when I see it, to paraphrase someone's famous quote.

Others have written about this, too.  For example, see You're running your meetings wrong. Here's how to make them more effective. Here are this expert's bullet points:

Keep the invite list exclusive
Have a clear agenda
Get broad participation (assuming you kept the list exclusive)
Limit your own talk time
Have a call to action
Limit tech
Avoid lip-service meetings
If it's daily, keep it short and try standing
Track how much time you spend in meetings

Here's something with which many might agree: "People don't hate meetings, they hate meetings that waste their time."

Maybe some people hate all meetings. My solution would be to dispense with meetings and collect information, share ideas, and issue instructions some other way.

Previously: Meetings for people who hate meetings; and
80% of meetings are waste of time

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2:43 PM 8/20/2019

Daredevils on the streets -- bike riders

A blog post earlier this year complained about how the city council wanted to convert more vehicle lanes into bicycle lanes on the city streets. See previously: Midland, TX, city leaders have adopted the crossing guard mentality when it comes to bicycles.

The efforts should be directed at getting drivers where they want to go in the minimum time, not slowing them down for the benefit of that tiny percentage of commuters who ride bicycles on city streets.

Seems I'm not the only one annoyed by bicycles. Kat Timpf of the Greg Gutfeld show has her own take on the ridiculous effort to give bicyclists more respect than drivers want to give them. See Experts: Stop Using the Word ‘Cyclist’ Because It ‘Dehumanises’ Bike Riders. Excerpt:

It all started with a study, conducted by researchers at Queensland University of Technology and Monash University, which found a connection between the dehumanization of bicycle-riders and aggressive acts toward them.

The Daily Mail reports that QUT professor Narelle Haworth said that the study found that 55 percent of non-cyclist respondents actually said that they consider cyclists to be “not completely human.” As annoying as people on bikes can be when they’re blocking up the road, that’s obviously pretty insane. What’s also insane, though, is what Haworth wants to do about it: Push people to stop using the word “cyclist,” and instead use the much wordier “people on bikes.” ...

Haworth also recommended making the infrastructure more bicycle-friendly so that cyclists (whoops, sorry!) wouldn’t have to share the road with vehicles.

He may have a point with that last one. But instead of altering the streets to accommodate bikes, it would certainly be more driver friendly -- and serve more people -- to ban bicycles from city streets and build a velodrome or put bike paths in existing parks.

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2:19 PM 4/9/2019

Arthur C. Brooks challenges us to love our enemies

There was a recent interview on C-Span's Washington Journal with Arthur C. Brooks who talked about his book, "Love Your Enemies." (Watch that interview here.)

He made some interesting observations about how people get too heated in their interactions about politics. And the solution, to love our enemies, is a tough prescription. But it's one worth considering.

The interview lasted about an hour, and rather than trying to summarize, we'll touch on some of the highlights. First off, his website contains a one paragraph description of the book, as follows:

Love Your Enemies
A NEW BOOK
America has developed a “culture of contempt.” We increasingly view people who disagree with us not as merely incorrect or misguided, but as worthless. This is warping political discourse, tearing us apart as people, and even wrecking our health. But we can fight back. Drawing on ancient wisdom, cutting-edge behavioral science, and examples from history’s greatest leaders, Arthur Brooks shows how we can bridge national divides and make progress as a society, all while becoming happier and more effective people. Love Your Enemies is a guide to building a better country-but more than that, it is a roadmap to the happiness that comes when we choose to love one another, despite our differences.

Authors these days boil everything down to five main rules. And here are Mr. Brooks' rules:

1. Stand up to the man (i.e., stand up to our own side on behalf of people on the other side);
2. Escape the bubble (get out, get to know people with whom you disagree);
3. Say no to contempt (don't hold people with whom you disagree in contempt);
4. Disagree better, not less (acknowledge that people with whom you disagree are not evil); and
5. Disconnect (turn off the TV for a couple of weeks).

Taking an hour out of one's day to watch an interview is probably a lot to ask of people in this day and age of instant internet dopamine supply. But it was worth my time to watch it. Maybe it will be worth yours, too. (Oh, and wait to exercise rule #5 until after watching this.)

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2:57 PM 3/24/2019

Meetings for people who hate meetings

The other day I attended a starchy lunch meeting in which several new people were introduced. They introduced themselves and told us what they did. But one held the stage and asked us each to introduce ourselves and tell what we did. Groan. He wasn't there to educate us but to let us educate him. I edged toward the door and executed a French exit.

As one of those people who dislikes meetings it was refreshing to see a recent article by Steven Rogelberg, an expert on meetings, titled The Science of Better Meetings in which he set forth a simple formula on how to have a successful meeting.

And sure enough, he addressed the fact that sometimes the leader is the problem:

My team’s research, published in 2011 in the journal Group Dynamics, shows that one person usually leaves a meeting feeling good about it: the leader.

In outline form, his points are as follows:

1. Recognize that you may be the problem.

2. Keep it small.

3. Don’t take an hour. "Try a 48-minute rule in place of an hour ..."

4. Do a meeting “pre-mortem.” "[A]gendas were typically standard boilerplate, repeated at every meeting, or made up on the spot. ... An effective agenda works like a plan for an event: It has clear goals or key questions to answer. "

It's harder for the meeting planners, but it just might work. The goal should be to make attendees not dread another meeting but want to attend.

It's worth a try.

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3:57 PM 2/19/2019

Build the wall in the river

The issue of the Texas land owners resisting a wall on their border property is probably not the last barrier to building a wall that will come out. But to be sure, land owners do not like to part with even a small portion of their privately owned property.

Eminent domain is a legal government taking of a land owner's property. So here's a path around that: build the wall in the Rio Grande River. Yes, right in the water.

Offshore petroleum platforms survive in the Gulf of Mexico, so it shouldn't be too hard to sink pylons in a river bed and attach metal slats to them to form a long lasting physical barrier.

The adjacent land owners own the land underlying the river up to the Mexican border, which should be down the middle. But federal and state laws prevent the use by the landowner of the land under the water. So exercising eminent domain for the land under water shouldn't be that difficult.

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1:28 PM 2/19/2019

John Hawkins offers tips on how to deal with the online mob

Hawkins no doubt knows a thing or to about how vicious the online mob can be. So he has offered some simple advice on how to deal with the situation in The 5 Keys to Surviving Attacks from a Social Media Mob. Here are the keys in condensed form:

1. Don’t apologize to the mob.

2. Be prepared to take some losses.

3. Don’t try to reason with them.

4. Don’t take it personally.

5. Nothing lasts forever.

Some good advice there.

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9:20 AM 10/20/2018

A rocket named Viagra? NASA looking at selling naming rights

Here's Christian Davenport in WaPo Why NASA’s next rockets might say Budweiser on the side - The Washington Post:

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine has directed the space agency to look at boosting its brand by selling naming rights to rockets and spacecraft and allowing its astronauts to appear in commercials and on cereal boxes, as if they were celebrity athletes.

Can anyone play this game?

Soft lunar lander with My Pillow.
Go Greyhound, and leave the Driving to Us.
FedEx -- When it absolutely has to get there overnight.
Blue Emu -- Works fast and you won't stink.
Or picture a logo of the Geico lizard hanging onto a rocket for dear life.

The possibilities are unlimited.

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2:59 PM 9/12/2018

80% of meetings are waste of time

Some people seem to thrive on meetings -- for the most part, they are the ones who talk the most and relish any attention they receive. But most of us hate them and resent any attendance requirement.

Maybe for that reason -- call it bias confirmation if you want -- it's always fun to read articles criticizing meetings. The toon in the margin came from the July 11, 2018, print edition of the Wall Street Journal.

Here's the one that inspired this blog post: Tortured by meetings. Excerpt:

One eternal problem has been their inefficiency. In 1957, C. Northcote Parkinson, an academic and legendary writer on management, came up with the law of triviality, that “the time spent on any item of the agenda will be in inverse proportion to the sum [of money] involved.” In that same spirit, this columnist would like to propose an even broader principle, applying to gatherings of ten people or more, and immodestly called Bartleby’s Law: “80% of the time of 80% of the people in meetings is wasted.”

Various corollaries to this law follow. After at least 80% of meetings, any decisions taken will be in line with the HIPPO, or “highest-paid person’s opinion”. In short, those who backed a different outcome will have wasted their breath. Perhaps because they are aware of the futility of their input, fewer than half of the people in a large meeting will bother to speak and at least half of the attendees will at some point check their phones.

I'm surprised that most are not staring at their phones the entire time. But here's why the meetings are still with us:

Part of the problem lies in the paradox that, although workers hate attending meetings, they loathe being excluded even more. Nothing is so likely to induce paranoia than a department meeting to which you are not invited. To avoid this fear, managers are tempted to invite as many people as might be interested.

Read the whole thing to see tips on how to hold successful meetings. The best tip came from General Electric CEO, John Flannery, who suggested: “little or no meetings where possible”.

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1:56 PM 7/11/2018

Shaving face

I shave on most days, and the two devices I use most commonly are an old Norelco electric razor and a blade razor.

After hearing so many ads for safety razors I decided to try them after many years of using one of the Gillette Fusions with the disposable multi-blade razor cartridge. But it's old, and I'm afraid that the blades available these days might not fit. They are too expensive for trial and error.

I dug out an old safety razor and put a new blade in it. But the razor had been dropped too many times and resulted in too much blood letting.

So I ended up buying a new Van Der Hagen safety razor along with some of that brand's blades. It works great. And so far, no cuts!

All this came to mind as I read this popsci.com article: For the closest shave, get naked—doctor's orders. Basically, it says the best time to shave is after a shower while the face is wet and warm. (Actually, a basin of warm water and a wash cloth can achieve the same effect.)

Among the other suggestions are to use a shaving gel rather than cream:

Next, Fenton suggests you thoroughly rub a shave gel or cream into your face. Generally, he thinks the gels do a better job. Lathering in the goo helps the whiskers stand up on their ends, making them easier to mow down with your razor blades like you’re the grim reaper scything souls. If you’re not shaving in the shower, let the gel sit for a couple minutes before you pick up your razor.

And this:

Fenton suggests shaving with the grain, not against it, to avoid irritation and ingrown hairs. Jaber also recommends going with the grain, but says, “If you want a really close shave, and your skin can handle shaving against the grain, by all means do it.” It all depends on how sensitive your skin is and how close a cut you want.

After each stroke, rinse off your razor. This will keep it clean so it cuts efficiently.

As for cuts, I've relied on the styptic pencil to stop the bloodshed. But here's their alternative:

What if you’ve actually cut yourself though? First, apply pressure to stop the bleeding. Then cover the tiny wound with a product like Vaseline or Aquaphor to help it heal, says Jaber.

Meanwhile, those of us who like to stretch the pennies are likely curious about how to sharpen a razor blade. The most common advice on the net is to strop them on blue jean material.

Good luck, and may all your shaves be blood free.

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2:03 PM 7/6/2018

Animal House of Representatives -- How about a Congressional dormitory?

There's something amusing about the prospect of our elected representatives camping out in their Congressional offices. But given the high real estate values in the capitol area, maybe they've hit on the best way to live away from home on the cheap.

When Jason Chaffetz left office he suggested that members of Congress should get a $2,500 housing allowance. My thought at the time was, "why not put them in a dorm?"

Well, now someone has actually made that proposal, and it seems to be serious. See New bill would give ‘poor’ pols crashing in their offices cheap housing. Excerpt:

A Democratic congressman wants to create affordable housing in Washington, DC — for members of the House.

As the nation’s capital struggles with a homeless crisis, Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson plans to introduce legislation as soon as this week calling for a study into converting a vacant residence hall blocks from the US Capitol into cheap housing for the well-paid politicians.

“I think that building should be available to members of Congress who have found housing costs to be prohibitive,” Thompson told The Post — referring to House members who rake in at least $174,000 a year.

“It can be the affordable-housing-availability option,” he said. /snip/

But the proposal isn’t sitting well with some colleagues, who said it raises the specter of a congressional version of “Animal House.”

"Animal House." Well, why not? At least the rest of us might get some entertainment value out of it.

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10:05 AM 5/15/2018

Death with dignity -- stop stigmatizing suicide

According to news reports, Barbara Bush opted out of any further life saving procedures. Instead, she wanted palliative care to help her live her remaining days pain free. And the consensus of the reporters is that she was doing the right thing.

This wasn't suicide, which is routinely regarded by those same reporters as a need for counseling. And physician assisted suicide, which is legal in some states, is often excoriated. For example, see Physician-Assisted Suicide in Hawaii Is an Attack on All of Us.

Staying alive is the default mode in our genetic makeup. But some circumstances make life unlivable -- a debilitating but nonfatal disease comes to mind. So an "opt out" feature shouldn't be so roundly condemned.

There's even a app for that. SARCO CAPSULE: Check Out This State-Of-The-Art Suicide Machine.

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2:29 PM 4/18/2018

Mozilla Thunderbird and Avast Antivirus don't get along

Thunderbird is a popular email software program offered free by Mozilla. And Avast is a popular free antivirus program. But the two aren't exactly compatible without some tinkering.

In my case, after an update, Mozilla Thunderbird stopped connecting to the email server. And after much trial and error, not to mention anguish, I hit on the work-around.

Here's what the user needs to do:

1. Open the Avast program.
2. Click "Settings" at bottom left.
3. On the Settings page, click "Components."
4. On the Components page, locate the "Mail Shield" line and click on the green switch on the right to turn it off for the time duration you select.

Works for me. I hope this helps someone else.

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2:25 PM 4/3/2018

Night driving with dims on is dangerous -- just ask that driverless car driver who hit the pedestrian

Most of us has seen that video of the Uber driver as his car strikes a pedestrian. If not, click here if you want to watch it.

There are two views, interior of car and exterior in the same direction the vehicle is traveling. Anyone who has driven through the Texas hill country after dark had probably had a close call with a living or dead animal on the road. Often the traffic just heavy enough that the driver can't keep the brights on for long stretches. But visibility is drastically reduced with dims only.

A deer carcass on the road can be a real hazard. Striking a large dead deer while driving a low fast car could result in a serious accident. And of course, striking a live deer will definitely do some damage.

And with dim light driving the obstacles don't appear soon enough to easily avoid them. There's no easy answer. Slow driving will never make a comeback. The solution might be some sort of dark glasses that will allow drivers to use brights all the time but avoid eye annoyance to oncoming drivers.

That or stop humans from driving in the dark and turn the nighttime over to creatures of the night.

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1:15 PM 3/24/2018

Swearing in sign language -- perfect way to respond to horn honkers

With increasingly aggressive drivers on the mean streets these days, this looks like a useful way to communicate with them:

Click to go to Youtube video: Deaf People Teach Us Bad Words. Via Deaf People Show How To Swear In Sign Language, And It’s Shamefully Entertaining.

To do it with a British accent, see this video.

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12:38 PM 12/25/2017

So many things for which to be thankful

Thanksgiving is a day in which we should be thankful for the lives we live, the friends we keep, and the family who loves us. Let's also remember that our founding fathers bequeathed us a free country, and for that, we should be extremely grateful, respectful, and determined to keep it free.

Let's not forget random acts of kindness. But wait a minute. Those acts of kindness aren't random, they are intentional. To set us straight, Bob Brody has this in the Wall Street Journal: Random Acts of Kindness? Hardly. Subhead: The usual phrase has it wrong. Niceness can only be intentional.

There he provides an explanation and some examples of intentional acts of kindness, such as this one:

Why do we call acts of kindness random when they are so clearly intentional? Are acts of kindness any more random than acts of cruelty? The answer is no.

It’s 6:30 in the morning and raining hard. A woman caught in the downpour without an umbrella ducks inside a coffee shop. “I have to get to the hospital,” she says to a stranger. She’s a nurse due for a 7 o’clock shift. “See those people over here?” the stranger asks, nodding to a mother, father and two children. “They just pulled up in a car. You could ask for a ride.”

The nurse is skeptical, but the stranger is encouraging. When she finally goes over to ask for a lift, the family instantly agrees, and out the door they go. As they pull away, the nurse waves goodbye to the stranger, smiling.

Though rare, such flashes of empathy and altruism—of going above and beyond ourselves, setting aside, if only momentarily, our personal wants and needs—do occur. In Hebrew, this kind of good deed is called a mitzvah, literally meaning “commandment,” as in thou shalt be kind. Those who perform mitzvahs are in Yiddish called mensches, defined as people of integrity and honor.

Well said. May we all endeavor to be kind to one another and be thankful for the opportunity.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

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1:15 PM 11/22/2017

Anger management -- using anger as a negotiating tactic

If you've attended enough meetings, you are bound to have witnessed someone blowing his/her stack. And once you've seen it, you've figured out that it is a negotiating tactic, especially if your teammates fall for it and pull the rug out from under you.

Anyway, the 11/7/2017 WSJ had an article about it and provided some helpful guidelines, as follows:

How to Make Anger Work to Your Advantage
Stay in control. Remember, were talking about measured, well-articulated anger. yelling, name calling swearing and accusing are not likely to be received well. Express your displeasure in a calm and controlled manner.

Pick your timing. Gearing up for a negotiation or competition? It's best to get mad right before or during it, says Maurice Schweitzer a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School, who has studied how anger can benefit a negotiation. Be_ coming angry too far in advance will distract and consume you, Dr. Schweitzer says. Distract yourself in the meantime.

Focus on your objective. The point isn't simply to express your anger-to yell at your neighbor because his dog barks incessantly. That isn't beneficial. you want to decide what will make the situation better and use your anger to help you reach that goal.

Believe it will work. Research shows that expectations matter. lf you expect your anger to benefit you, you will be more likely to behave confidently and assertively and to make stronger arguments for your case, says Dr. Tamir. lf you don't believe it will work you should avoid it.

Avoid anger ff you want to be creative. 'Anger narrows our focus," Dr. Schweitzer says. "It doesn't allow us to use our minds in a free-flowing way and to think expansively." If you,re trying to accomplish a creative task or think big try to minimize your anger by distracting yourself. Read a funny book, watch a comedy, go exercise.

Don't get bored, get mad!

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3:22 PM 11/8/2017

How long before a reporter asks OJ Simpson whether he would take a knee during national anthem

Two media obsessions are about to collide. The mania surrounding the football players taking a knee during the singing of the national anthem has been a thumb in the eye to conservatives. And the media love it.

Then along came O.J. Simpson's parole hearing and his upcoming release. Those two trains have to collide for a wreck that will grab hold of reporters with a strangler's grip.

Simpson will be eligible for release on October 1, although there's no guarantee that's the day he will walk free.

In any event, I predict not 24 hours will elapse from the time he gets out until a reporter asks him whether he would stand or kneel during the national anthem at an NFL game. Simpson had a mixed history with police. They protected him as long as they could. But then he became the suspect in his wife's murder, and that protection seemed to end.

Simpson lived the dream with a big house in a rich white neighborhood. But Johnnie Cochran transformed him into a victimized black for the murder trial, and that was the narrative that got him the not guilty verdict. And now? My guess is he maintain that role and say that he will take a knee for the sake of all the other blacks who have been mistreated by law enforcement.

Editor's note: Maybe then he can finally resume that hunt for the real killer. -- Robo-ed.

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1:28 PM 9/29/2017

Houston just took a big hit as migrant magnet

The city of Houston and surrounding communities have been magnets for companies and individuals for decades. That's about to change.

Harris County has had a flood problem for a long time. Any heavy rain, which they have plenty of without a hurricane, typically results in street flooding. It may not have been obvious to those people in other states who sought a new locale. But with Harvey in the headlines, it is now.

Furthermore, residents in our little city of Midland, Texas, see local taxing entities hike their taxes every year without some calamity as an excuse. Residents in Harris County and the city of Houston are sure to see their taxes sky rocket even without talk of fixing the constant problem of water runoff.

Dallas and Austin got a big boost from this. People and companies looking for a Texas city governed by Democrats will gravitate to those cities over Houston for years to come.

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10:59 AM 9/1/2017

New names for Lee High School -- some helpful suggestions

A local (Midland, Texas) petitioner is seeking a change of the name, Robert E. Lee High School, to something else. If you follow the news, you'll know why this is happening now. The newspaper article announcing the effort -- Midland ISD alumni behind petition for Lee name change -- doesn't suggest any new names. But have no fear, we are here to help.

First up: Robert Lee High School. No, not General Robert E. Lee but Robert Lee, the Asian-American ESPN announcer who got bounced from broadcasting a game because of his name. School groundskeepers could simply paint over the "E" where ever the school's full name appears.

Don't like that one? Here's another one: Clarence Thomas High School. He's a real hero who made it through Joe Biden's high tech lynch mob to become a Supreme Court Justice. And he's a good one! Oh, he's African American, so that should shut off many complaints.

Next up, Midland High School #2. There's already a Midland High School named after the city where it is situated. To keep the names absolutely neutral, start numbering them. Easy enough.

How about Caitlyn Jenner High School? Political correctness is all the rage these days. And attempts to pass bathroom bills get condemnation from all Democrats plus the heads of some of the largest corporations. So a transgender Olympian should shut them up, for a while.

But wait. If that's where we are going, Tona Brown High School. She was the first African American transgender to sing AND play a violin at Carnegie Hall. A twofer?

Moving along, the Rebel mascot would have to be replaced, too. For the new mascot I would recommend, The Facebooks. There probably isn't a student around who is not on Facebook. So why not name the mascot for their favorite forum?

Along those lines, maybe The iPhones might be just as appropriate, if not more so. At least the iPhone is a solid object rather than an internet portal. The students could hold up their iPhones when the team scores a touchdown, if teams are still allowed to score touchdowns. But that's a subject for another day. The PC police haven't shut down competitive sports yet, so there's still time to celebrate a victory.

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1:59 PM 8/24/2017

Declaration of Independence -- why we celebrate the 4th of July

As Allen Guezlo says in an interview at Divided America Stands—Then, and Now (paywalled): Republicans currently identify themselves as Americans first. But Democrats identify themselves as a member of one of various identity groups. He says people of the United States are as divided as they've been only once before. And they resorted to civil war then.

Cooler heads will likely prevail this time, if for no other reason than that geography doesn't facilitate combinations of states based on ideology like it did then. And maybe now, July 4, 2017, is a good time to reflect on something for which both sides should be grateful -- the Declaration of Independence. Here it is in all its splendor:

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

USA, USA, USA!

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1:00 PM 7/3/2017

Happy Memorial Day everyone

Oh, don't fret. I know that Memorial Day is a day of solemnity, not happiness. But I would like to think that most of those who gave their lives for this great country would appreciate the pursuit of happiness.

Kaepernick looking for job -- should try out for Cuba National Baseball Team

Colin Kaepernick declined a contract extension with the 49ers, and according to an item at dailywire.com -- Kaepernick Refused To Stand With The National Anthem. Now That He's Jobless, He's Changed His Mind. And this:

After his refusal to stand was noticed during a preseason game, Kaepernick told NFL.com why he was protesting the anthem. "I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color," he said. "To me, this is bigger than football, and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder."

Yeah, paid leave is a real killer.

Americans are very forgiving, especially if they like the person seeking forgiveness. Unfortunately for Kaepernick, he has the bad luck of being unlikable. Furthermore, he isn't seeking forgiveness.

For a team in a regime more to his liking, he might consider switching to baseball and trying out for the Cuba National Baseball Team. Raul would probably welcome him with open arms.

Suggestions for Dems -- keep doing what you're doing, please

Every time republicans lose a major election some Democrat can be expected to lecture conservatives on what they should do to improve.

So it's a little bit gratifying to see Judah Friedman's satirical piece, Dear Democrats: Just Keep It Up. There he lists many of the things Democrats do so proudly, then wonder why we don't love them.

Among those things are Obama's contempt for people who voted for the next president, the protesters blocking streets real Americans use to go to work, celebrity endorsements, calling political opponents (and police) racists, persecuting Christians but glorifying Muslims -- you get the idea.

For a good schadenfreudian chuckle, read the whole thing.  And hope they do keep it up.

Town Hall? Clown Hall.

We recently learned that team Hillary had a young actress prepped to ask her a question at a recent event. The kid performed perfectly, Hillary answered perfectly, the audience was moved, and the msm dutifully reported this example of Hillary Clinton's skill on the hoof.

Now we are getting ready to watch the second debate, called a town hall meeting. We know that Hillary is working harder than a KGB spy to stack the deck in advance. But those of us out here in flyover country aren't going to be as easily impressed as the reporters are.

If I were in charge I would publish the questions in advance. Not 13,000 random questions, but the actual questions to be used that night. Let the candidates prepare their best answer, and we'll hear what they've got. After all, we want to see them at their best. Sure, they would have had help, but impromptu speeches are fine as far as they go. However, we expect the best from the president. And we want to know what that is, not how good they are at improv.

Editor's note: Send in the clowns. Scary clowns, HA HA!. -- Robo-ed.

Attention old Texans -- vote absentee if you don't trust the electronic voting system

We've heard enough about attempts to hack election software to put everyone on edge. The old paper ballots could be hacked, too -- the story of Lyndon Johnson stealing a Senate seat is a Texas legend -- but it took some effort.

These days to use a paper ballot in Texas the voter has to vote absentee. And even then not everyone qualifies to do that. Here's what the Texas Secretary of State's office says:

Can anybody vote early by mail (also referred to as “absentee voting”)?
Only specific reasons entitle a registered voter to vote early by mail (no longer called absentee voting). You may request a ballot by mail if you:

-will be away from your county on Election Day and during the hours that early voting is conducted;
-are sick or disabled;
-are 65 years of age or older on Election Day; or
-are confined in jail.

Request an application online here.

Or download the application here.

The voter is asked to use a #2 pencil to mark the ballot. That tells us it will get read into a machine. And that machine will undoubtedly feed it to the same program that collects the votes cast at the machines in the voting booth. So it might be all for naught. But it's worth a try.

Matt Patterson explains how to be a liberal -- shortened version, bury head in sand

Mr. Patterson really does a number on liberals in How to Be a Liberal. Seems that ignorance and hypocrisy are the two main requirements.

And he's probably right. So much of what today passes as progressive dogma has been demonstrated time and time again to bring more destruction than progress to the people under its influence.

Here's Patterson:

Ignorance is an absolute must, but especially ignorance of three things: economics, human nature and all of recorded history.

One has to be truly economically illiterate to believe that high taxes encourages productivity, that union-imposed labor regulations don't dis-incentivize hiring, that energy regulations don't raise prices on the poor and working class.

Likewise, to be a liberal you must pretend that men and women are exactly alike in every respect and that communism produces the most happiness for the most people.

Of course you can search the history books in vain for a communist society that did not produce poverty, misery and/or death on vast scales. But American liberals don’t read history books – just note the vast throngs who came out to support Bernie Sanders for President of the United States.

My only complaint is the use of the word "liberal." It's more of a regret than a complaint. The word meant something entirely different a while ago, and it was a good thing. But lefties took over the word to label their own deeds with it, but they ruined it and are trying to abandon it. "Progressive" is another word from long ago that is having a revival. But if we agree that lefties don't know much about history then any old word will do. Hey, "Lefty" still works.