Author: Dick

So what’s up with the economy? Or rather, what’s down with the economy?

Plenty of people pooh-pooh any notion that we are heading toward anything more than a little bump in one’s 401K. The truth is that retirement account losses are nearing $2 trillion. How many O00000000000sssssssssss is that?

A lot of people — intelligent people — are in denial about what can happen. Granted, what can happen is a different animal from what will happen. Could we possibly find ourselves in a depression? It’s happened before in our country. In fact, it’s happened five times more or less in U.S. history. The exact numbers might vary because its definitions of depression, to paraphrase Bill Clinton, depends on what “it” is.

But we are not there yet. Things can get better. That’s not to say they will but they can, just as they can get worse. Which will it be? I don’t know. I think it would be helpful to the U.S. electorate if our two presidential candidates could have an earnest discussion about these issues during their “debate” tonight. Of course, it would also be entertaining to see pigs fly.

Maybe next time you’ll use only one parking place with your big ol’ pickup truck. — NOAA photo.

Is it irrational that I get irritated when I see a large pickup truck parked in more than one parking place? I guess you’d have to ask my therapist that. But in fact, I do tend to get ticked off especially when a large dual-cab pickup is parked in two parking places in which one space could have been more than sufficient to park my little Tacoma pickup.

I suppose it is anal for it to bother me. But parking in a marked parking space is not that difficult. Hundreds of thousands do it every day and most without hitting some other object. Oh, I guess it says something about a person who doesn’t park within the boundaries. They like to color outside the lines. They’re individuals. Or maybe, just maybe, they’re assholes.

Certainly laziness has to play a part in a great many incidences of poor parking behavior. But I have to ask, what kind of energy does one expend parking their car or truck within a specific area?

When I worked as a fireman I had to park some very large trucks in some very confined space and people, meaning the fire brass, the city council, the taxpayers, all wouldn’t take very kindly to someone dinging up their trucks worth sometimes a half-million dollars or upwards. So I parked those trucks just like they should have been parked. It didn’t wear me out — physically or mentally — from what I remember.

So if you would like to make a statement, perhaps you might express yourself in a way in which someone other than yourself will not be affected. But, of course, I know you are too self-involved to consider that, jerkass.

“Now just remember, if you hang around with some Commie pinko now it might come back to haunt you if you run for president many, many years down the line,” Gov. Palin tells the crowd of young admirers over tea and cookies.

It hurts to lose a friend. Even if that friend isn’t really a friend — a pseudo-friend if you will — it is disappointing to find that someone you admire turns out to be much, much less a decent human being than you can imagine.

And that pretty much sums up how I feel now about Sen. John McCain.

I still admire McCain for what he went through during his captivity during the Vietnam War. And he had some good ideas during his time as a U.S. Senator. But he caught the Presidential Fever so badly that he doesn’t care how sickingly he smears his own name or reputation or that of others.

The problems I have with McCain right now don’t even arise from anything he has particularly said but instead comes from his running mate, the annoying Alaska Gov. Mrs. Palin. She is using that attack on Obama “palling around” with former 60s radical William Ayers. And she is using the smear as if Obama was dancing around in a dashiki while sporting a 10-foot-tall Afro and brandishing an AK-47 when he was eight years old — that being the time Ayers was involved in his hijinx with the Weather Underground.

Burn baby burn. Drill baby drill. Indeed baby indeed.

Of course, we have long ago been asked to forget the association between McCain and the Keating Five.
Apparently, the McCainiacs have decided that the campaign has turned so irrevocably south that the only course of action is to Swift Boat Obama. It worked against Kerry and ol’ Gee Dubya ended up with another term. The problem this time though is that the Gee Dubyaites’ tricks worn way too thin so very long ago. Our national security is in shambles. Our economy appears to have been eaten by a wolf and s**t (hey, remember the past tense) over a cliff. And I don’t know if I can remain polite for too much longer.

So there.

Having been born in Jasper, Texas, where that horrible example of horrors took place in 1998, and raised in a nearby burg, even a few months ago I wouldn’t have imagined that I would have ever voted for a black person, man or woman, for president. It’s not that I don’t like black folks, it’s just I grew up in a place that made you feel like you would never, ever vote for a black person for president.

But unless between now and election day, I find out that Barack Obama did something unspeakable like sell secrets to Al-Quida or he is actually a serial murderer in disguise or else he is really, secretly, the son of Dick Cheney, then it looks as if I might actually have to vote for him.

I have been and remain reluctant in voting for Obama. It has nothing to do with his color. I don’t see what color has to do with his campaign anyway. He is part-black African and part-white American. He is a true African-American, much closer to the African than many black Americans. He is also a lot less seasoned as a leader than I would prefer and that is my major problem with him.

But Obama seems less eager to sell his soul to become president than his Senate colleague McCain.

John McCain was a good American. What he went through ensures he will always be an exemplary countryman. He always will remain such in my mind. I just hope he never becomes president. And who knows, maybe this time people will get fed up with the Swift Boating so that McCain does not become our president.

A non-black Las Vegas jury of nine women and three men late Friday found former football great, movie star and supreme goofball O.J. Simpson guilty of 12 counts related to an armed robbery.

Jurors delivered the verdict exactly 13 years to the day when another jury acquitted Simpson of murdering his wife, Nicole, and her friend, Ron Goldman.

The highly-publicized first trial, named by many as the “Trial of the Century,” cemented Simpson among the most reviled Americans ever while others saw him as victim of racism who triumphed.

As for me, I thought O.J. did it, meaning killed Nicole and Goldman. I think the police botched the investigation and should have hung former Det. Mark Fuhrman by the heels and left him in the desert for coyote chow. I think Simpson had one of the most talented legal defense teams in history. I think Judge Lance Ito should have been remanded to traffic court. And give me just a little more time and I will say what I really think about that particular travesty of justice.

Simpson, of course, lost a wrongful death suit and slowly saw some of his wealth disappear. But if this conviction subsequently stands up on any appeal one might make at least a tangential argument for karma. If not karma, then just the notion of “everything that cha do will come back to you,” like Wet Willie said. (Who?)

I am not sure if I believe in karma. I would like to believe, especially in the sense of reincarnation, because my sense of justice sometimes bends more toward the side of vindictiveness than simple just deserts on toast with a cup of (Oh my, I can’t believe I am about to write this) O.J.

But call this Simpson verdict what you want, provided he does the time. He wasn’t punished for the deaths that so many believed he caused. But perhaps, in a subconscious way, he was or will be. Either way, perhaps soap on a rope might be a good investment in O.J.’s future.

This is the type of sight you expect to see around Port Arthur, Texas, these days in the wake of first Rita in 2005, then Ike last month.

Actually, the photo was taken after Hurricane Rita hit and was actually in Sabine Pass, which although is about 10-15 miles from downtown Port Arthur is an annexed part of Port Arthur.

To be honest, downtown Port Arthur is nothing to brag about. It was a once vital city and shows some promise with several oil refinery expansions including one which will make PA home to the nation’s largest refinery. But back to PA, it’s kind of a mutt, a sad-looking place in that old Rust Belt type of way. Yeah, I know, this coming from someone who lives in nearby Beaumont. Enough said.

But just because a place looks as if it was hit with a neutron bomb doesn’t mean one can’t find a decent place to eat. There are, in fact, a number of good eateries around Port Arthur including one of the best seafood places I have ever set foot in — a place called Esther’s Cajun Seafood which is located underneath the Rainbow Bridge on State Highway 87 South. (The northbound bridge is the Veterans Memorial Bridge unless they redirected the traffic since I last visited there.)

Today I found a little place to eat in downtown Port Arthur tucked away in between a couple of buildings on Highway 87 between Twin City Highway and Highway 69/96/287/Woodworth/Memorial (Pick one.) It’s called the Tropical Grill.

While you are greeted at your table with chips and salsa upon arriving and are given a bilingual menu, the place is not just another Mexican restaurant.

The Tropical actually has an extensive menu with a large appetizer and soup/salad menu, the latter featuring a Cayman salad no doubt a salud to the native Cayman population in this highly diverse city which sports a large Vietnamese Buddhist temple not far from the grill.

Included on the menu are numerous steak, chicken, pasta, shrimp and fish entrees. Here you will find the likes of Aruba grilled chicken or devil shrimp, Bahamas scampi, Hawaiian grilled fish, and even Acapulco shrimp kabobs. A pretty extensive Mexican entree menu is also available with standard fare such as fajitas, enchiladas and the not-so-common-in-these-parts such as Mojarra frita, which is whole fried fish with bones served with rice, pico de gallo y tortillas Mojarra.

And then there are sandwiches. I had a breaded, tropical fish sandwich which pits a large breaded filet against an equally large piece of French bread with some sort of sauce with lettuce, tomatoes and several nice pickle chunks on the side. It comes with fries or onion rings. I chose the latter, which was okay, but was nothing special. But iced tea. Yes if you can taste unsweetened ice tea in these parts you have found the Holy Grail and mine tasted just fine.

You can have a cold one there if you like. I was on lunch break so I stuck to tea. I can’t imagine many good reasons to go to Port Arthur these days unless you work or live there but if you do and want something different and tasty in a meal, then you should try the Tropical Grill, 4751 Gulfway Dr., Port Arthur, TX (409)982-3357. Open 10:30 a.mm.-9 p.m. Monday-Thursday; 10:30-10 Friday and Saturday; and 10-8 on Sunday. Bring your appetite.