Informed Speculation

Well, you may have heard the bad news by now…Christopher Hitchens, a writer of considerable courage and integrity, as well as rarely surpassed erudition and elegance, has been diagnosed with esophageal cancer.  Hitchens is the sort of writer who has offended almost everyone at some point, but he has consistently, in his days of association [...]

You know the moments: the Miracle on Ice comes to mind.  For Texas Tech and college football fans, the Graham Harrell pass to Michael Crabtree to knock off #1 UT.  The Immaculate Reception.  Those moments that will stand frozen forever in the minds of the sports fans fortunate enough to witness them. Such is Landon [...]

The most remarkable thing about this current World Cup is not that it has resurrected this blog (I’m still alive!), nor that America got robbed (as it surely did of the winning goal against Slovenia), nor the omnipresent droning of the vuvuzelas. It is that this is the first World Cup where you can honestly [...]

In all the years of great musical performances on Saturday Night Live, I think my all-time favorite is the one below (couldn’t do YouTube, because YouTube keeps yanking it down).  This is DEFINITELY the most energetic performance I’ve ever seen on SNL, and I think you can chalk it up to a band that was [...]

Remember when the whole lefthand side of the blogosphere was all aflutter over a spot poll passed in the immediate wake of the passage of health care reform that showed that the public actually approved of the Democratic plan to bankrupt the nation – er, pass health care reform?  This despite months of polling showing [...]

Meant to blog on this yesterday, when the whole world was, but got busy…in case you missed it, Howard Fineman dropped quite a bombshell: A Democratic senator I can’t name, who reluctantly voted for the health-care bill out of loyalty to his party and his admiration for Barack Obama, privately complained to me that the [...]

As long as there has been a Congressional Budget Office, there has been a lot of crying from one side or the other of the partisan divide about their latest estimates.  So when a conservative such as myself says I don’t believe this health care boondoggle will reduce the deficit, the immediate accusation is one of [...]

Here’s a little Sunday fun – in October, 2006, the Rolling Stones played, incredibly, Zilker Park in Austin in front of about 45,000 people.  It boggled the mind to ponder it, and the show was, even more incredibly, better than anyone thought it could be.  It was one of those glorious evenings that, for those [...]

The liberal blogosphere and even commenters who lean left here were trumpeting a new poll released earlier this week that showed the public in favor of the health care reforms passed Sunday after months and months of polling showing the public as consistently opposed.  It is not surprising that the health care reforms would get [...]

I based my opposition to health care reform on a simple premise I repeated over and over – we can’t afford it.  I never believed the bill would reduce the deficit and I still don’t.  And I’m not alone – here’s Jay Cost: Between now and the next presidential election, ObamaCare is going to pay [...]

Want to help save one of Austin’s most cherished music rooms and look damn cool while doing it?  Donate to the Save the Cactus Cafe cause by buying one of their new t-shirts.  I did, and I can guarantee you, you cannot wear this shirt without getting into a cool conversation with a stranger.  It’s [...]

Those who are feeling abandoned by the fates after the heinous vote on Sunday can take solace in one bit of cheerful news – the most notorious national organization to somehow find itself in the midst of voter fraud allegations over and over again is closing its doors, permanently, we can only hope: The community organizing [...]

…and you can actually drive in dowtown Austin again for the first time in five days.  Seriously, it’s great to have what has now become, I think I can say without contradiction, the premier music festival in all of the world in town.  To give you some idea of the global scope of the festival [...]

Well, let’s not kid ourselves.  Health care reform is passing the House today, and it’s very unlikely it can be procedurally derailed in the Senate.  The game is, for all intents and purposes, over.  The turning point was the CBO report that showed increased deficit reduction (though a higher cost) than the Senate bill.  This [...]

Even loyal Democrats must surely be getting quesy about the prospect of passing major legislation that will have enormous consequences not only for health care, but for the deficit and the U.S. economy forevermore, through increasingly desperate measures that try to cover for the fact that the public is opposed and the votes just aren’t [...]

Who will historians blame when they look back on the series of financial catastrophes that led to the inevitable default of America on its obligations and the resulting global depression of the mid-21st century?  The New Dealers who started the entitlement wave?  The Great Society of Lyndon Johnson that extended it (during the middle of [...]

…and the reason?  Because Congress is full of public “servants” all too ready to prostitute their votes for a little bacon.  We’ve already seen what kind of cowardly horse-trading went down to get the votes of Ben Nelson, Mary Landrieu, and other “principled” leaders in the Senate – we can expect more of the same [...]

Nope, I’m not talking about political tactics…I’m just overdue on congratulating the President on finally embracing the inevitable answer if we are truly going to get serious about carbon emissions reductions: nuclear power.  I am delighted to finally see some real movement on the front.  Here’s the Dallas Morning News editorial board: At last, a [...]

If you were leading a party that was suffering massive unpopularity, with influential incumbents dropping like flies, polling everywhere suggesting you face a catastrophic reverse in upcoming elections, and dealing with a major financial crisis featuring unemployment that is predicted to hover uncomfortably close to double digits for years to come, you might think that [...]

An official student organization has been formed at the University of Texas to lobby the administration and the Texas Union board to keep the Cactus Cafe operating under its current professional management(!).  This is the proposal we have been waiting for – and the students have promised to involve the community and the Save the [...]