Greg Bostwick our local weather guy says a “Blue Norther” is coming. High temperatures could be as low as the 30s. He’s talking snow. But not for here in Southeast Texas. Greg predicts a high of 40 on Tuesday. The National Weather Service says 51 although a low of 37 is expected that night. Who’s right? We shall see. Predicting winter weather in Texas is like teaching cats to march in a parade. Meeeeoooowwww!
A day in the life from those with mostly little hope
If I was a Republican — and pigs, of course, could fly — I would be halfway around the proverbial bend by now listening to the myriad of words about and from the mouths of all the 2012 presidential hopefuls. It is just staggering the news and the talking points and the yip-yap flying through the air and over the Internet and onto the printed pages of the media. A more cynical soul might think that this was a GOP prank to show all that the party had, themselves and without help from the legislative branch, invented a full-employment act for journalists and politicos.
Here is a little taste from a day in the life of the chase for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination:
The Godfather of Pizza, Herman Cain, told an Ohio crowd that “stupid people are ruining America.” Cain apparently had that epiphany after having gone through recent sex scandals and news that he allegedly has been carrying on a 13-year affair with a woman who is not his wife. Yesterday he told supporters he was “reassessing” his campaign. Today he sounds like he is still in it. Unfortunately, the thought may not have occurred to Cain that he just might be one of those people to whom he refers.
There is only one Newt. So, he should go by only one name, Newt. Newt, “The Newt,” Newt will tell Sean Hannity in an interview tonight that he helped Ronald Reagan and Jack Kemp develop supply side economics and that Newt also helped defeat communism. Although the aforementioned pigs will fly before I watch the interview, I can imagine Newt might also proclaimed that he helped Al Gore invent the Internet, he helped Edward Teller develop the hydrogen bomb and helped Bettie Nesmith Graham (mother of Monkee Mike Nesmith) invent Liquid Paper.
In yet another Faux News interview — Hmm, the network sure showcases a lot of Republicans. Wonder why? — Mitt “Mittens” Romney explained to Fox reporter Bret Baier that he did not exactly know how his position on immigration differed from that of Newt’s. But he’s sure it was somehow different. “Now what was it I said when I was governor of Massachusetts?”
Poor Rick Gov. “Good Hair” Perry. He seems to continue faltering in his quest to regain his status back at the top of the heap. I’d feel sorry for him except I know that if he doesn’t get the nomination — and it looks as if he may not — he will return to Texas and continue to make our lives a living hell. Maybe it’s the pressure of the campaign or maybe he’s been eating peyote buttons but he continues flubbing chunks of information that even an 18-year-old would know, like the legal age for voting. (It’s 18.) (It’s 21 to buy al-ki-haul.)
Michelle “Crazy Lady” Bachmann was supposed to call in to a South Carolina talk radio show the other day. The host waited and waited some more. He finally discovered Bachmann stood him up after glancing up at the TV and seeing her talking on Fox News. There must be some theme here, all these Republican politicians on Fox News!
I would normally make fun of Rick Santorum but for the news that he has been campaigning with a seriously ill 3-year-old daughter. I don’t like Santorum, I think he’s a sanctimonious SOB. But I will say this. I somehow understand his rationale for a campaign which has less than a snowball’s chance. Still, I believe that if I was in his shoes I’d go home and spend however many years, months or days he has to spend with his little girl.
Ron “Dr. No and No Some More” Paul has a 2 1/2-minute Web ad going off on Newt. Newt’s ties to the health care industry. Newt’s flip-flopping. Newt’s taking money from Freddie Mac. Newt’s taking money from the late Bernie Mac. Newt’s taking money from the way late Ted Mack. I watched the ad. You would think Ron Paul wouldn’t use Newt’s name and Newt’s picture so much during those 2 1/2 minutes. You know, even bad publicity is good publicity?
You know that Jon “Not in the Hunt” Hunstman really seems more Democrat than Republican when he uses terminology not heard since the first Clinton presidential campaign. The term “hopeful” really applies to Huntsman. Especially the “hope” part.
Sam Brownback, gubernatorial tattle-tale, still sucks
Emma Sullivan does not have to write Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback an apology for her Twitter comment, as she likely would not have done anyway.
The 18-year-old Shawnee Mission East High School senior was making a joke when she tweeted to a friend that after a school-sponsored visit to the Kansas statehouse: “Just made mean comments at gov brownback and told him he sucked, in person #heblowsalot.” Little did Sullivan know that all Hell would break loose. Her inside joke was discovered by the watchful eyes of staffers of the former U.S. Senator and House member — who once considered a run for the GOP presidential race — and she was ratted out to her principal. The staff apparently scans social media daily to see if anyone needs to be hunted down and water-boarded for making rude comments about Gov. Brownback.
Now no school administrator likes waves being made whether it be the size of a tsunami or a fart in the bathtub. One can only imagine the Shawnee Mission East heads of state scrambling for their figurative lifeboats after the Guv’s office called about one of their students.
Sullivan said she was summoned to the office by her principal and told that major damage control was needed. She was ordered to write a letter of apology by today. Sullivan didn’t do it.
Brownback, not calling Sullivan by name, himself apologized for what he termed an overreaction by his staff. I bet the staff was thrilled at getting thrown under the bus for keeping out such watchful eyes. The school district likewise issued a statement to the media, saying Sullivan would not be required to write an apology nor would she be censored. The statement also said the episode resulted in many “teachable moments” with respect to the use of social media. Hey, I once saw Barack Obama from more than 300 yards away. Barack Obama regularly “e-mails me.” And you, the Shawnee Mission School District officials, are no Barack Obama.
That such foolish and anti-democratic actions are generated from Brownback and his camp is not at all surprising. Brownback was linked to the controversial “C Street House,” a well-connected conservative religious ‘frat house,’ in Washington when he was a member of Congress. Other reports have characterized the Kansas Republican as envisioning a “fascist theocracy” in the nation.
Luckily things worked out for Sullivan and she wasn’t subjected to something really stupid like suspension or being prevented from graduation. That would have really been sad but not unpredictable when you have thin-skinned and paranoid pols, as well as school administrators who believe that learning CYA is more important than the ABCs.
So long to Texas-TAMU rivalry, hello to money-grubbing sports, sports, sports
The rivalry is dead. Long live the rivalry.
I wonder if anyone will remember the name Justin Tucker? Last night Tucker became a hero after literally booting a last-second kick for 40 yards through the east Central Texas air of Kyle Field, thus ending one of the most storied college football rivalries of all times. In the end it was Texas Longhorns 27 Texas A & M Aggies 25.
It would be no exaggeration for me to say that I practically knew the words to “The Aggie War Hymn” by they time I was five thanks to a record of Aggie songs my oldest brother brought home once, during the several semesters he attended A & M. A Christmas picture snapped with my four brothers at my Grandmother’s house one Christmas shows me hamming it up with a toy guitar while proudly wearing an Aggie Corps of Cadets garrison cap.
I have several close relatives who are Aggies — given that you believe once an Aggie always an Aggie — and a number of friends who attended “The” University of Texas at Austin. Actually, if you say “The University of Texas” that pretty much is understood to be the campus which is bounded to the west by “The Drag” or Guadalupe (pronounced “Guad-a-loop”) Street in Austin. I thought about attending UT both as an undergraduate and as a graduate student. My undergrad degree is from Stephen F. Austin. I’ve not attended graduate school. Obviously, I have nothing against TAMU. I just never thought of it as a collegiate choice due to the criteria I used to select a school. As is the case with some folks who might get a degree from a good school, some people I know who have gone to either school seems to think their educations are much more special than they believe.
But the end of a regular football game between Texas and Texas A & M has nothing to do with academics. Well, at least not with athletics per se. The end of this long famous rivalry — the two teams may not play each other for at least seven or more years — has to do with money. The O’Jays, those grand philosophers of funk, sang it best:
For the love of money
People will steal from their mother
The football rivalry festered during the many years the two schools played each other in what I feel was the Daddy of all collegiate conferences, the Southwest Conference. Those teams plus others such as TCU, Baylor, Rice, Texas Tech, Houston, SMU and Arkansas, were mostly a Texas affair from the SWC’s beginnings in 1914. Schools from Oklahoma also played from time-to-time in the league’s history. The conference was truly an all-Texas from 1991, when Arkansas left, until the SWC disbanded in 1996. The break came as some of the schools heard those coins a jingle-jangle-jingling.
For the love of money
People don’t care who they hurt or beat
UT as the king of the schools comprising the Texas component of the Big 12 seemed to have all the prestige — a National Championship in 2006 and runner-up in 2009 — and big money that it could want. Money, though, seemed to overtake prestige. The University signed a $300 million deal with ESPN for its own sports network. The move, of course, rankled some schools and caused others to go “Wild West” on everyone and to do anything at all for money.
For the love of money
A woman will sell her precious body
Talk began of one Big 12 school going here another going there. Then, other schools, in other conferences, started making deals for new super-duper league alignments in which geography was thrown out the window.
In the meantime, Texas A & M had its eye on the prize. It lusted for what many to consider to be the Mother of all athletic conferences, the Southeast Conference. It seemed at one time as if the Big 12 would implode. That would surely be big trouble for schools already on the bubble such as Baylor. Baylor, which has one of the Lone Star State’s best law schools, sued.
All of the drama — to this point at least — played out to the ending blow last evening as Texas A & M said goodbye to its long-time rival, like the steady and sure teen headed out to make his way in the world. Unfortunately, the bon voyage ended badly for A & M. Now, the nationally-ranked albeit no potential national champion Aggies, will face some really tough SEC opponents in years to come and perhaps even experience extended periods of future cellar-dwelling what with foes such as LSU, Alabama, Auburn, et. al.
And of the rivalries, well, providing a school needs rivalries — perhaps not but whatever extra revenue, recruiting benefits and camaraderie such serial competitions bring, why not? — Texas still has a huge one with Oklahoma in the “Red River Shootout.” The Aggies may end up renewing an old Southwest Conference rival with Arkansas within the SEC. The teams are not strangers having played 68 games. The two teams first played in 1903 and met in October when the now No. 3 Razorbacks beat A & M 42-38. Another possible in-conference rival is present No. 1, the LSU Tigers. The Aggies have played the Louisiana team 50 times, the most games with any non-conference school although the two schools were twice in a pre-SWC league for a couple of years.
The loss of rivalry is a loss of tradition. Yet It isn’t just college tradition that is being destroyed by ” … that lean, mean, mean green/Almighty dollar, money … “ as the poignant 1973 O’Jays hit penned by Gamble, Huff and Jackson says.
High schools are being infected by big money. Look around Texas and one can find multi-million dollar football stadiums with deluxe computerized scoreboards and huge Jumbotron-like screens, usually bearing the name of some corporate sponsor.
Sure the money helps students. There is the old joke about one never having seen a stadium filled for a chemistry lecture. But the money doesn’t strictly benefit the kids in either college or high school. Look at UT’s Mack Brown, paid $5.166 million, making him the highest-paid Texas state employee. Then there is the money made in deals among school alumni. Let’s not even go to professional sports. It’s about enough to make one’s head explode.
So as we say adios to a great old rivalry, perhaps we shouldn’t go out with verses of the “Aggie War Hymn” or “Texas Fight.” Perhaps we should just keep in the groove with the O’Jays, “All for the love of money … ” Tradition, flattened by bundles of cash.
Gobble GOP gobble
It seems most appropriate that the most recent Republican presidential debate comes just before Thanksgiving. Rick “Man on Dog” Sanitorium says Muslims should be specifically profiled by airport security. Newt “Newt” Gingrich thinks the fascist-leaning Patriot Act should be enhanced. Michelle “the Wack Job” Bachmann says President Obama has handed over questioning of terror suspects to the ACLU. The empty rhetoric goes on and on and on. These candidates are as full of s**t as a Thanksgiving turkey.