May 23, 2012

The benefit of making money off of illness

David Henderson explains. H/T John Goodman.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

May 22, 2012

London

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

May 21, 2012

Those dang unintended consequences

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

May 20, 2012

Reassessing risk for the terminally ill

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

May 16, 2012

The mathematics of history

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

May 15, 2012

Moms against the most senseless war

As the late Milton Friedman pointed out: "The case for prohibiting drugs is exactly as strong and as weak as the case for prohibiting people from overeating."

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (1) |

May 13, 2012

I Was Watching You

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

May 12, 2012

Vidal Sassoon, R.I.P.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

May 11, 2012

Monsieur Lazhar

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

May 10, 2012

Amazing nature

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

May 9, 2012

The Magic Mushroom

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (1) |

May 7, 2012

How to fix U.S. airports

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

May 5, 2012

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

May 4, 2012

Willie 1965

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (1) |

May 3, 2012

The Visionary Watchmaker

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

May 2, 2012

A 50-year energy plan

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (1) |

May 1, 2012

A chat with Hans Rosling

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

April 30, 2012

Jack Kruse on Cold Thermogenesis

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

April 28, 2012

Poetry Technology

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

April 26, 2012

Charles Murray on Coming Apart

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

April 25, 2012

The Skinny on Obesity

Clear Thinkers favorite Dr. Robert Lustig eloquently explains in these videos the increasing scientific evidence supporting the alternative hypothesis that obesity is a growth disorder in which fat accumulation is determined not simply by the balance of calories consumed and expended, but by the effect of specific nutrients on the hormonal regulation of fat metabolism.

Here is Part I:

And Part III:

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

Fine-tuned for Life

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

April 23, 2012

"The Man Behind the Drums"

Robert Earl Keen's heartfelt tribute to the late Levon Helm. H/T Dan Cogdell.

Watch Robert Earl Keen "The Man Behind the Drums" on PBS. See more from Austin City Limits.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

April 22, 2012

Louis CK on George Carlin

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

April 20, 2012

Bag Testing and Expecting Michael Jordan

Two more segments in the continuing series on creative commercials, this time featuring Bones Mackay (Phil Mickelson's caddie) and Michael Jordan.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

April 18, 2012

Private schools serving the poor

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

April 15, 2012

Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

April 14, 2012

Gaffigan - Buy It Now!

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

April 11, 2012

Classical Music with Shining Eyes

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

April 10, 2012

Half a Million Secrets

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

April 9, 2012

Quads

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

April 8, 2012

Easter Juggling

H/T Craig Newmark.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

April 7, 2012

Sophie's Choice, Part II

I really admire LPGA member, Sophie Gustafson.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

April 6, 2012

The Masters, BBC-style

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

April 5, 2012

Google Glasses

H/T Jason Kottke

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

April 4, 2012

The Paradox of Choice

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (2) |

April 3, 2012

Is Sugar Toxic?

In case you missed it on Sunday evening, the 60 Minutes segment that addresses a health issue that has been a frequent topic here -- is sugar toxic?

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

April 2, 2012

How we read each other's minds

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

April 1, 2012

Chances Are

Hayes Carll and Bonnie Whitmore.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

March 31, 2012

Can't Find My Way Home

Happy Birthday Eric Clapton, who turned 67 yesterday.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (1) |

March 30, 2012

Death Ray Boogie

The amazing Stephanie Trick.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

March 28, 2012

Perpetual Ocean

A NASA visualization reflecting ocean surface currents around the world from June 2005 through December 2007.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

March 26, 2012

Extraordinary discoveries from simple ideas

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (1) |

March 25, 2012

Late Morning Lullaby

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

March 24, 2012

Listening to Shame

University of Houston professor Brené Brown follows up her popular first TED lecture with a second one -- Listening to Shame.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

March 23, 2012

Some Enchanted Evening

A rare video of the two stars from the original Broadway presentation of the great musical South Pacific, Mary Martin and Ezio Pinza. H/T Terry Teachout.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

March 21, 2012

Why you will fail to have a great career

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

March 20, 2012

The power of introverts

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

March 18, 2012

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, British-style

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March 17, 2012

The Kid with a Bike

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

March 16, 2012

Copyright Math

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

March 15, 2012

Deep Ocean Wonders

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

March 13, 2012

Lessons Worth Sharing

the launch of Ted-Ed.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

March 12, 2012

The technology of storytelling

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

March 11, 2012

Living Beyond Limits

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

March 10, 2012

ACL 35 Years

Watch Celebrating 35 Years of Austin City Limits on PBS. See more from Austin City Limits.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

March 9, 2012

Rainy Day Beethoven

The masterful Anne-Sophie Mutter and Lambert Orkis play Beethoven Violin Sonata No. 4. A perfect way to begin a rainy day in Houston.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

March 8, 2012

What drives the will to succeed?

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

March 7, 2012

How to tell a great story

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

March 4, 2012

Tell Me True

Watch Sarah Jarosz "Tell Me True" on PBS. See more from Austin City Limits.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

March 3, 2012

Google's Driverless Car

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (1) |

March 1, 2012

Sebastian Seung's Connectome

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

February 29, 2012

The Sibling Bond

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

February 27, 2012

The Power of Medicine

Nobel Prize winner Peter Agre talks about the power of medicine, even in regard the knotty problem of North Korea.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

February 26, 2012

Over the Rainbow

Brandi Carlile's splendid rendition of the Judy Garland classic.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (1) |

February 25, 2012

The Art of Storytelling

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

February 24, 2012

Life's Best Photos 1936-1972

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

February 22, 2012

Tipping Around the World

Mint.com Personal Finances

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

February 20, 2012

Flying through an Antarctic Ice-Crack

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

February 19, 2012

Streaming City

Steaming City from Simon Christen on Vimeo.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (1) |

February 18, 2012

What you don't know about marriage

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

February 16, 2012

American Experience - "Clinton"

The American Experience biography of Bill Clinton premieres February 20-21 on PBS.

Watch Clinton Chapter 1 on PBS. See more from American Experience.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

February 15, 2012

S*** happens, economics style

"Insider economics" jokes from the Standup Economist, but wickedly clever nonetheless (H/T Greg Mankiw).

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

February 14, 2012

Catching up with Texas' greatest novelist

An interview with Larry McMurtry, as well as a short video about a hidden gem of McMurtryism at the University of Houston's M.D. Andersen Library.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

February 12, 2012

Impossible photography

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (1) |

February 11, 2012

Ryan Adams in studio

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

February 10, 2012

"Dawned on Me"

Watch Wilco "Dawned on Me" on PBS. See more from Austin City Limits.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

February 9, 2012

What good talks have in common

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

February 8, 2012

The unintended consequences of non-lethal weapons

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

February 5, 2012

Crackberry'd

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

February 4, 2012

O Magnum Mysterium

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

February 2, 2012

Dr. Lustig on obesity

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

January 28, 2012

Bloody Mary Morning

Willie Nelson performs Bloody Mary Morning on October 17, 1974, the pilot episode of the popular PBS show, Austin City Limits.

Watch Pilot Performance: Willie Nelson "Bloody Mary Morning" on PBS. See more from Austin City Limits.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

January 27, 2012

The culture of denial in medicine

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (1) |

January 26, 2012

Fiji Vignette

Fiji Vignette 3/3 from Taj Burrow on Vimeo.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

January 24, 2012

A Separation

Here is a short interview with the director, Asghar Farhadi.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

January 23, 2012

Ashdown on the global power shift

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

January 22, 2012

Shining Night

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

January 21, 2012

Earl Scruggs

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (1) |

January 19, 2012

Online attacks on privacy

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

January 18, 2012

Atheism 2.0

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

January 16, 2012

Blue Zones of Health

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (1) |

January 15, 2012

Surf's Up!

Fiji Vignette 3/3 from Taj Burrow on Vimeo.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

January 14, 2012

Rehearsing "The Weight"

Extraordinary stuff from Jeff Tweedy, Mavis Staples, Nick Lowe and Wilco. H/T Radley Balko.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

January 13, 2012

The genesis of good ideas

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

January 12, 2012

The importance of ancient wonders

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

January 11, 2012

Tyler Cowen on suspicious stories

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

January 9, 2012

Too many bowls

On the day of the BCS national championship game, this SNL video reminds us that there are way too many bowl games.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

January 8, 2012

The Story

Watch Brandi Carlile "The Story" on PBS. See more from Austin City Limits.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

January 7, 2012

The science of improvisation

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

January 6, 2012

Recycled homes

Texas homebuilder Dan Phillips explains how to build homes from recycled and reclaimed materials.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

January 5, 2012

What is art?

World of Art Trailer from Cuttlefish Productions on Vimeo.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

January 4, 2012

"Living healthy was killing me"

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

January 1, 2012

Goodbye is All We Have

There are few better ways to end a year and begin a new one than listening to Alison Krauss.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

December 31, 2011

The power of vulnerability

The University of Houston's remarkable Brene Brown.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

December 29, 2011

There are no mistakes on the bandstand

Posted by Tom at 6:17 AM | Comments (0) |

December 28, 2011

The Ultimate Con Man

The incomparable Robert Preston as Harold Hill of The Music Man at the 1971 Tony Award show singing "Trouble." It's amazing how many contemporary governmental officials resemble Harold Hill. And, unfortunately, how many of their constituents resemble the gullible townspeople.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

December 26, 2011

Merry Christmas Everywhere

Posted by Tom at 7:58 PM | Comments (0) |

The Santa Tracker

Don't miss the hilarious story in this video from the NORAD officer who took the calls from children looking for Santa based on a wrong phone number contained in a Sears catalog advertisement.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

December 24, 2011

The hidden light of Afghanistan

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

December 21, 2011

Understanding Consciousness

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

December 19, 2011

Compact Swing

Continuing on the previous post's golf theme, here is another segment in our continuing series on creative commercials.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

December 18, 2011

Do Not Quit Your Job

Another entry in our continuing series of innovative commercials.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

December 17, 2011

Four on Six

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

December 16, 2011

Voices from the front lines of America's worst war

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (1) |

December 15, 2011

Inspiring action

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

December 14, 2011

Experiments in self-teaching

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (1) |

December 13, 2011

"500 Miles"

The magnificent Rosanne Cash absolutely nails it.

Watch Rosanne Cash "500 Miles" on PBS. See more from AUSTIN CITY LIMITS.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (1) |

December 12, 2011

Gratitude

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

December 11, 2011

Fueling the Age of Enlightenment

H/T Greg Mankiw.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

December 10, 2011

The Gift of Water

[AC] Haiti Orphanage from Advent Conspiracy on Vimeo.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

December 9, 2011

George Carlin's key to his success

It's when he finally realized the importance of not giving a shit what people think.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

December 8, 2011

Justin Townes Earle's "Harlem River Blues"

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

December 7, 2011

The amazing story of Dr. Terry Wahls

The University of Iowa internist tells her fascinating story on battling M.S.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

December 6, 2011

The paradox of income equality

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (1) |

December 4, 2011

The benefits of regret

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

December 2, 2011

How toilets can change the world

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

December 1, 2011

Can Technology be Society's Economic Engine?

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (2) |

November 30, 2011

Philosophy in Prison

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

November 29, 2011

Visualizing Conception to Birth

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

November 27, 2011

Baden Powell "Samba Triste"

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

November 26, 2011

Jack and Johnny

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

November 25, 2011

Telling stories with data and interfaces

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

November 24, 2011

Carve Away!

For the past several years, I have been passing along on Thanksgiving Day the instructions below, this interesting article and this excellent NY Times video that provide insightful butcher tips on how to get the most meat out of your turkey. Enjoy!

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

November 22, 2011

Amish Centerfold

Another great episode in our continuing series of wonderfully creative commercials.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (1) |

November 20, 2011

Salman Khan on reinventing education through video

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

November 19, 2011

Lyle Lovett's "My Baby Don't Tolerate"

Arguably Houston's best singer-songwriter, Lyle Lovett.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

November 18, 2011

The Lost Steve Jobs Interview

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

November 17, 2011

Hayes Carll raising the profile of Arkansas

Hayes Carll talks about his Arkansas project.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

November 16, 2011

Inside Out Bastrop

A remarkable story from the epicenter of the devastating Texas wildfires of 2011.

Inside Out Bastrop from frog on Vimeo.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

November 14, 2011

The Secret of Planet Earth

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

November 13, 2011

Wyman Meinzer's West Texas

Wyman Meinzer's West Texas from Wyman Meinzer on Vimeo.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (1) |

November 12, 2011

"Look at Miss Ohio"

Watch Gillian Welch "Look At Miss Ohio" on PBS. See more from AUSTIN CITY LIMITS.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

November 10, 2011

A plane you can drive

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

November 9, 2011

A closer look at the Euro debt crisis

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

November 6, 2011

The Rational Optimist

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

November 5, 2011

Conan delivers Chinese food in NYC

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

November 4, 2011

"What a Little Bit of Love Can Do"

Jeff Bridges is one of finest actors of our time. He's also a pretty darn good country music musician (H/T Austin City Limits).

Watch Jeff Bridges "What a Little Bit of Love Can Do" on PBS. See more from Austin City Limits.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (1) |

November 3, 2011

Billy Cannon's Punt Return

As no. 2 LSU prepares to play no. 1 Alabama on Saturday night, this video provides a glimpse at another big LSU game -- the 1959 battle between no. 1 LSU and no. 3 Ole Miss that propelled LSU legend Billy Cannon to a Heisman Trophy and a rich professional contract with the Houston Oilers.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

November 2, 2011

Sonia Arrison on the science of living longer

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

November 1, 2011

The real lesson about Steve Jobs' cancer

Since Steve Jobs' death almost a month ago, much has been written about his approach to dealing with his pancreatic cancer.

However, David Gorski over at Respectful Insolence here and here has provided the most level-headed analysis of Jobs' ordeal that I've read anywhere to date.

The bottom line is that we simply do not know enough about Jobs' circumstances with this particularly pernicious form of cancer to know whether his nine-month flirtation with quacks before submitting to the Whipple surgical procedure made any difference in his death. The Whipple procedure can save the lives of a very small percentage of pancreatic cancer patients, but we do not know if Jobs' tumor was of the specific type that can be effectively eradicated through that procedure. About the only sure thing that can be said about Jobs' foray into the ephemeral field of "alternative medicine" is that it didn't help his situation.

The optimistic view of therapeutic intervention in medicine that post-World War II doctors embraced has resulted in enormous advances in our understanding on how to cure, or mollify the effects of, disease.

But the real lesson of Steve Jobs' cancer is that there remains much more that we simply do not know.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

October 31, 2011

The Unintended Consequences of Prohibition

The futile and damaging nature of drug prohibition is a frequent topic on this blog, so check out this Nick Gillespie interview of Ken Burns on the unintended consequences of prohibition and then review this Radley Balko/Freedom Daily article on the enormous collateral damage of drug prohibition.
A truly civil society would find a better way.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

October 30, 2011

Gladwell on the Norden Bombsight

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

October 29, 2011

Colbert and that entertaining form of corruption

Stephen Colbert provides his amusing spin on the corruption of big-time college sports by interviewing Taylor Branch, author of the e-book The Cartel, which is an expanded version of Branch's cover story from the October issue of The Atlantic, The Shame of College Sports (H/T Jay Christensen).

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

October 26, 2011

Margin Call

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

October 24, 2011

Building a stadium

Check out this cool time-lapse photo video of the construction of Target Field, the new stadium of the Minnesota Twins.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

October 23, 2011

A prosthetic arm that feels

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

October 22, 2011

That deserves a Carlsberg

Yet another in our continuing series of creative commercials.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

October 20, 2011

Merle Hazard on moral hazard

Merle Hazard's latest, Diamond Jim (H/T Greg Mankiw)

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

October 18, 2011

Barriers to Action

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

October 17, 2011

Micheal O'Brien, Texas' photographer

Austin's Michael O'Brien, author of The Face of Texas (Bright Sky Press 2003), is one of Texas' finest photographers. Checking out the portraits on his webpage is a very good way to start the week. Enjoy.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

October 16, 2011

Finding life we can't imagine

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

October 14, 2011

How to spot a liar

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

October 12, 2011

Your web presence after death

Adam Ostrow: "By the end of this year, there'll be nearly a billion people on this planet that actively use social networking sites. The one thing that all of them have in common is that they are going to die."

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (1) |

October 11, 2011

Thinking about Jobs

We are quickly approaching overload on articles about the late Steve Jobs, but Martin Wolf's post in the Financial Times on what Jobs' career teaches us is definitely worth a read.

In short, Wolf explains that Jobs was the quintessential American entrepreneur who was able to marry form with function while bringing a showman's bravado in promoting Apple products. Not a bad prescription for success.

Meanwhile, David Gorski provides this interesting analysis of Jobs' bout with the pernicious disease that killed him, pancreatic cancer. Inasmuch as that cancer deprived Houston of one of its greatest teachers, I have followed the clinical research on the disease with interest over the past several years. Dr. Gorski does a masterful job of explaining the complexities involved in treating pancreatic cancer, while also taking a well-deserved swipe at the snake-oil salesmen who were quick to seize upon Jobs' tragic death to hawk their "alternative treatments" for this deadly disease.

One of many good points that Dr. Gorski makes is the risk that patients such as Jobs take in delaying surgery on cancers such as this while exploring alternative medicine treatments:

If there's one thing we're learning increasingly about cancer, it's that biology is king and queen, and that our ability to fight biology is depressingly limited. In retrospect, we can now tell that Jobs clearly had a tumor that was unusually aggressive for an insulinoma. Such tumors are usually pretty indolent and progress only slowly. Indeed, I've seen patients and known a friend of a friend who survived many years with metastatic neuroendocrine tumors with reasonable quality of life.

Jobs was unfortunate in that he appears to have had an unusually aggressive form of the disease that might well have ultimately killed him no matter what. That's not to say that we shouldn't take into account his delay in treatment and wonder if it contributed to his ultimate demise. It very well might have, the key word being "might." We don't know that it did, which is one reason why we have to be very, very careful not to overstate the case and attribute his death as being definitely due to the delay in therapy due to his wanting to "go alternative."

Finally, Jobs' case illustrates the difficulties with applying SBM to rare diseases. When a disease is as uncommon as insulinomas are, it's very difficult for practitioners to know what the best course of action is, and that uncertainty can make for decisions that are seemingly bizarre or inexplicable but that, if you have all the information, are supportable based on what we currently know.

In short, despite the advances of modern medicine, there is still much that we do not know about how disease attacks our bodies.

Patients beware.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

October 10, 2011

The interactive digital book

Regardless of what you think about Al Gore's books, the format of his latest is pretty cool.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

October 9, 2011

Unleashing a locked-in artist

Posted by Tom at 12:47 AM | Comments (0) |

October 8, 2011

Help

Posted by Tom at 12:05 AM | Comments (0) |

October 7, 2011

Marilyn

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

October 6, 2011

The promise of the driverless auto

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

October 5, 2011

How Algorithms are shaping the world

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

October 4, 2011

The Genomic Revolution

Posted by Tom at 7:18 AM | Comments (0) |

October 3, 2011

"I kiss so hot"

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

October 2, 2011

Backstage with the Fab Four

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

October 1, 2011

Sophie's Choice

Professional golfer Sophie Gustafson is an extremely interesting woman.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

September 30, 2011

Battling Bad Science

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

September 29, 2011

Markets in Self-Publishing

Despite our legislators' efforts, it's hard to keep vibrant markets down.

One of the most interesting emerging markets that I've been following recently has been in self-publishing. UCLA business law professor and longtime blogger Stephen Bainbridge - who, along with Larry Ribstein, is a blogosphere leader in advancing the understanding of corporate and business law principles - self-published his most recent corporate law book as a Kindle e-book. Professor Bainbridge passes along his reasoning for doing so here.

In short, Professor Bainbridge reasons that he will make money with his e-book than for law review articles, he controls the marketing and price of the book, and he keeps all the proceeds instead of just royalties. Moreover, the self-publishing route allows him to update his work in a timely manner so that he can provide analysis of recent court decisions that wouldn't be possible under the conventional book model.

Meanwhile, similar self-publishing ventures are emerging in the music industry.

For example, popular Houston-based musician Robbie Seay - the worship leader at Houston's fascinating inner-city church, Ecclesia - recently went the Kickstarter route to raise the funds necessary to self-produce his new CD. Seay - who melds spiritually-based contemporary music with a rocker's edge - raised enough money to self-produce his CD in two weeks and is now shooting to reach 1,000 backers in the next two weeks.

These are wonderful developments. Talented individuals taking risks that provide consumers at low cost with scholarship and music that might not otherwise get published.

In other words, the power of markets at work.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

September 28, 2011

Martha's comeback

You know, for someone who has had to endure the dark side of the federal government's criminalization-of-business lottery, Martha Stewart sure seems to be having fun with her post-prison life. Bravo!

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

September 26, 2011

The Generosity Experiment

Sasha Dichter: The Generosity Experiment from NextGen:Charity on Vimeo.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

September 25, 2011

Tsunami in a car

H/T Paul Kedrosky.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

September 24, 2011

The Quiet Beatle

Check out the trailer for Martin Scorsese's HBO documentary on George Harrison, whose widow Olivia is interviewed here.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

September 23, 2011

J. Edgar

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

September 22, 2011

The Rescue Reel

Inventing a new way to escape tall buildings from TED Blog on Vimeo.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

September 21, 2011

50 Greatest Plays in College Football History

College football season is a special time in Texas, so it's easy to take some time and get lost in this entertaining compilation of the 50 greatest plays in college football history.

Of course, as with any such list, there are going to be oversights, not the least of which is the late-in-the-game 4th down pass from Texas' James Street to Randy Peschel to set up the go ahead touchdown in the 1969 Game of the Century.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (2) |

September 20, 2011

Niall Ferguson on The Great Divergence

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

September 19, 2011

Obama’s hypocrisy on drug prohibition

There are many reasons to be disappointed about Barack Obama's presidency, but arguably no reason is more galling than Obama's failure to back up his campaign promise to re-evaluate the federal government's dubious drug prohibition policy.

Jacob Sullum sums up Obama's hypocrisy on drug prohibition in this masterful Reason.com op-ed:

It is not hard to see how critics of the war on drugs got the impression that Barack Obama was sympathetic to their cause. Throughout his public life as an author, law professor, and politician, Obama has said and done things that suggested he was not a run-of-the-mill drug warrior....

[But] Obama's drug policies ... by and large have been remarkably similar to his predecessor's. With the major exception of crack sentences, which were substantially reduced by a law the administration supported, Obama has not delivered what reformers hoped he would. His most conspicuous failure has been his policy on medical marijuana, which is in some ways even more aggressively intolerant than George W. Bush's, featuring more-frequent raids by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), ruinous IRS audits, and threats of prosecution against not only dispensaries but anyone who deals with them.  "I initially had high hopes," says Marsha Rosenbaum, "but now believe Obama has abdicated drug policy to the DEA."

It would be going too far to say that Obama has been faking it all these years, that he does not really care about the injustices perpetrated in the name of protecting Americans from the drugs they want.  But he clearly does not care enough to change the course of the life-wrecking, havoc-wreaking war on drugs....

We know how Obama responds when the question of marijuana legalization comes up in public: He laughs. The highest-rated questions submitted for his "virtual town meeting" in March 2009 dealt with pot prohibition. "I don't know what this says about the online audience," Obama said with a smirk, eliciting laughter from the live audience, "but...this was a fairly popular question."

Obama's dismissive attitude was especially galling in light of his own youthful pot smoking, which he presents in Dreams From My Father as a cautionary tale of near-disaster followed by redemption.  "Junkie. Pothead," he writes.  "That's where I'd been headed: the final, fatal role of the would-be black man."  Judging from the reports of friends interviewed by The New York Times in 2008, Obama exaggerated his brush with addiction for dramatic effect.  More important, he has never publicly acknowledged the plain truth that people who smoke pot rarely become junkies or suffer any other serious harm as a result -- unless they get caught.

As Richard Nixon's National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse pointed out when Obama was all of 10 years old, the biggest risk people face when they smoke pot is created by the government's attempts to stop them.  In 1977, when Obama was a pot-smoking high school student in Honolulu, President Jimmy Carter advocated decriminalizing marijuana possession, telling Congress that "penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself."

That is hardly a radical position.  Polls indicate that most Americans think pot smokers should not be treated like criminals...

In New York City, where marijuana arrests have increased dramatically since the late 1990s, blacks are five times as likely to be busted as whites.  The number of marijuana arrests by the New York Police Department (NYPD) from 1997 through 2006 was 11 times the number in the previous 10 years, despite the fact that possession of up to 25 grams (about nine-tenths of an ounce) has been decriminalized in New York....

Obama attended Columbia University in the early 1980s, well before the big increase in marijuana arrests that began a decade later.  There were about 858,000 pot arrests nationwide in 2009, more than twice the number in 1980, and the crackdown has been especially aggressive in New York City under Mayors Rudolph Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg (another former pot smoker).  "The odds are not bad," observes Ethan Nadelmann, "that a young Barry Obama, using marijuana at Columbia, might have been arrested had the NYPD been conducting the number of marijuana arrests then that it is now."

A misdemeanor marijuana conviction could have been a life-changing event for Obama, interrupting his education, impairing his job prospects, and derailing his political career before it began.  It would not have been fair, but it would have spared us the sorry spectacle of a president who champions a policy he once called "an utter failure" and who literally laughs at supporters whose objections to that doomed, disastrous crusade he once claimed to share.

Inasmuch as I do pro bono work in the juvenile justice system, I experience first hand the absurdly destructive effects of the drug prohibition policy on young people and their families. We get the quality of political representatives that we deserve, but Obama's disingenuousness and insensitivity with regard to the government's drug prohibition is reprehensible even by the low standards by which we evaluate U.S. politicians. That no Republican Presidential candidate other than Ron Paul is willing to take Obama to task for his hypocrisy is a reflection of the sad state of political discourse in this country.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (2) |

September 18, 2011

Richard Pryor - the real first black president

Posted by Tom at 6:36 AM | Comments (1) |

September 17, 2011

A good way to start a football Saturday

Houston Texans Performance on Sept. 11, 2011 from Barker Productions on Vimeo.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

September 16, 2011

This is our time?

As avant garde comedy, this University of Texas 2011 football video narrated by Matthew McConaughey is pretty good.

On the other hand, if not avant garde comedy, this video is seriously delusional and reflects much of why the UT is not a particularly attractive member for conference affiliation purposes right now.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (2) |

September 15, 2011

A masterful piece on that entertaining form of corruption

Regular readers of this blog know that I have regularly commented on the corrupt nature (see also here) of big-time college football and basketball.

Although corrupt, big-time college football and basketball resist comprehensive reform because - let's face it - they are a very entertaining form of corruption.

But as this masterful (and quite long) Taylor Branch/Atlantic article explains, that resistance to reform is being challenged:

A litany of scandals in recent years have made the corruption of college sports constant front-page news. We profess outrage each time we learn that yet another student-athlete has been taking money under the table. But the real scandal is the very structure of college sports, wherein student-athletes generate billions of dollars for universities and private companies while earning nothing for themselves.

Here, a leading civil-rights historian makes the case for paying college athletes--and reveals how a spate of lawsuits working their way through the courts could destroy the NCAA.

And one of those lawsuits is by a former Rice student-athlete!

For anyone interested in the future of big-time college football and basketball, this is a must read. A series of short interviews of Branch are associated with the article and provided below:

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

September 12, 2011

The Forger

In Bloodlands (Basic 2010), Timothy Snyder provides an extraordinary analysis of the human cost of the tyrannical regimes of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Sarah Kaminsky's father lived during those times and understood that cost. Ms. Kaminsky in the video below explains how her father figured out a way to reduce it.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

September 11, 2011

Opening Night, Apogee Stadium, University of North Texas

Posted by Tom at 1:41 AM | Comments (0) |

September 7, 2011

On unintended consequences

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September 4, 2011

Me & Bobby McGee, Aussie-style

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

September 3, 2011

Hayes Carll "Stomp and Holler"

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

September 2, 2011

Passacaglia

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August 29, 2011

Milton Friedman on the futility of changing legislators

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

August 28, 2011

Open Your Mind

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August 26, 2011

On being just crazy enough

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

August 21, 2011

Maria Callas "O Mio Babbino Caro"

Posted by Tom at 12:01 PM | Comments (1) |

August 20, 2011

Mark Seymour "Westgate"

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

August 19, 2011

So, what's the plan?

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

August 17, 2011

Thunder Soul Houston

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

August 16, 2011

The origins of pleasure

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

August 14, 2011

Throw your arms around me

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

August 12, 2011

So, what's the verdict?

Il Volo - Extraordinary talent? Or more the product of slick marketing?

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

August 10, 2011

The power of stories

Chris Seay is the pastor of Ecclesia, the innovative inner-city Houston church that has been the subject of previous posts here and here.

In the engaging TedXHouston video below, Chris insightfully talks about the power of stories in defining and directing our lives. Enjoy!

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

August 8, 2011

Divenire

A wonderful eight minutes to begin the week.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

August 7, 2011

The one-dimensional man

The late Duke University philosophy professor Rick Roderick talks about, among other things, the underpinnings of the drug culture of the United States.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

August 6, 2011

Be Here to Love Me

One of the first performers who I saw when I moved to Houston in 1972 was the late Townes Van Zandt at the Old Quarter on Market Square.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

August 4, 2011

The transforming nature of language

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

August 3, 2011

These guys are really . . . maybe better than the PGA Tour?

This is really remarkably creative advertising.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

July 31, 2011

Menu Psychology

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

July 30, 2011

Listen Up!

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

July 29, 2011

Thinking about Psychiatry

Marcia Angell, an internist and pathologist who is a senior lecturer at Harvard Medical School, has recently written two lengthy book reviews for The New York Review of Books  -- The Epidemic of Mental Illness: Why? and The Illusions of Psychiatry - that has re-ignited a debate among medical professionals regarding the effectiveness of modern psychiatry.

Dr. Angell reviews three books that challenge the effectiveness of psychiatric medications and the hypothesis that disordered neurotransmitters cause psychiatric ailments. Irving Kirsch's The Emperor's New Drugs: Exploding the Antidepressant Myth analyzes research on antidepressant medications and concludes that the vast majority of their impact stems from the placebo effect.

Roger Whitaker's Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America is even more disturbing in that Whitaker contends that the huge increase in diagnosis of serious psychiatric illness is actually caused by the detrimental effects of the medications. According to Whitaker, the problem isn't that medications don't help, it's that they make the problem worse. Yowza!

Finally, in Dr. Angell's second article, she takes on the entire profession of psychiatry in discussing Daniel Carlet's Unhinged: The Trouble with Psychiatry -- A Doctor's Revelations About a Profession in Crisis and the American Psychiatric Association's controversial "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" a/k/a "DSM."

As Harriet Hall points out, Dr. Angell's criticisms - particularly in regard to DSM - borders on psychiatry-bashing, which is of dubious merit. Sure, psychiatry is less science-based than other medical fields, but it has undeniably saved lives and improved the quality of life of many tortured souls. Are we simply to dispense with that progress?

Nevertheless, Dr. Angell reviews - as well as the books that are their subjects - provide a more nuanced view of human interaction that takes into consideration both the importance of both the "brain" and the "mind" without forcing a choice based on competing pseudo-truths.

These are discussions that need to be nurtured, both for the benefit of developing better protocols for patients afflicted with such disorders and for a society that still struggles on how best to deal with the social impact of such disorders.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (4) |

July 28, 2011

Sports Century

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

July 25, 2011

Reflecting on the Space Shuttle

The space shuttle Atlantis' landing this past Thursday was the end of an era of U.S. space exploration.

Lawrence Krauss contends that the space shuttle was a dud and that we can do better in space exploration. Former shuttle program manager Wayne Hale disagrees and believes that the shuttle program was worthwhile.

Meanwhile, Neil deGrasse Tyson asserts in the video below that the space shuttle program was never really about the promotion of science in the first place.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

July 24, 2011

The state of the tablets

The iPad's apps still give it the edge in the tablet wars. But Android products such as the Asus Transformer are closing the gap quickly.

 

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (2) |

July 23, 2011

Revolutionary Ideas, Microsoft-style

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

July 22, 2011

Deskbound Physical Therapy

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

July 21, 2011

Classic Walken

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (2) |

July 19, 2011

Lessig on the assault against sharing

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

July 18, 2011

Larry Lessig on laws that choke creativity

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

July 17, 2011

Anderson Fair, Houston

When I moved to Houston 40 years ago, one of the first clubs I visited was Anderson Fair.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

July 16, 2011

Tim Harford on trial, error and the God complex

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (2) |

July 12, 2011

Dying efficiently

As noted in earlier posts here, here and here -- as well as in connection with the final years of Dr. Michael DeBakey -- one of the thorniest issues confronting effective reform of the U.S. health care and health care finance systems is the extraordinary allocation of health care resources to end-of-life care under the current systems.

My interest in this issue prompted me to note this insightful NY Times op-ed from over the weekend.

The author of the piece -- Dudley Clendinen - is a former national correspondent and editorial writer for The Times. He is terminally ill with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS., more commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease) and is preparing to die in the most peaceful and efficient manner possible:

There is no meaningful treatment. No cure. There is one medication, Rilutek, which might make a few months' difference. It retails for about $14,000 a year. That doesn't seem worthwhile to me. If I let this run the whole course, with all the human, medical, technological and loving support I will start to need just months from now, it will leave me, in 5 or 8 or 12 or more years, a conscious but motionless, mute, withered, incontinent mummy of my former self. Maintained by feeding and waste tubes, breathing and suctioning machines.

No, thank you. I hate being a drag. I don't think I'll stick around for the back half of Lou.

I think it's important to say that. We obsess in this country about how to eat and dress and drink, about finding a job and a mate. About having sex and children. About how to live. But we don't talk about how to die. We act as if facing death weren't one of life's greatest, most absorbing thrills and challenges. Believe me, it is. This is not dull. But we have to be able to see doctors and machines, medical and insurance systems, family and friends and religions as informative -- not governing -- in order to be free.

And that's the point. This is not about one particular disease or even about Death. It's about Life, when you know there's not much left. That is the weird blessing of Lou. There is no escape, and nothing much to do. It's liberating. [.   .    .]

I'd rather die. I respect the wishes of people who want to live as long as they can. But I would like the same respect for those of us who decide -- rationally -- not to.   .   .   .

After World War II, the U.S. health care system was a leader in the medical world in embracing the optimistic view of therapeutic intervention in medicine, which was a fundamental change from the sense of therapeutic powerlessness that was widely taught to doctors by pre-WWII professors.

Isn't it ironic that this remarkable health care system has not yet figured out a way to allow elderly patients to die in a peaceful, dignified and non-wasteful manner?

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (3) |

July 11, 2011

Amazing soccer

With the U.S. Women's Soccer team's inspirational World Cup victory yesterday over Brazil, what better way to start the week than to watch a remarkable soccer commercial? Yet another in our continuing series of creative commercials.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

July 10, 2011

Key Tip of the Day

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

July 8, 2011

The remarkable story of Simon Lewis

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

July 5, 2011

Team Coco Car Pool

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July 4, 2011

Iowa River, Iowa City

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

July 3, 2011

Old Capitol, Iowa City

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

July 2, 2011

Aussies know beer

Another in our continuing series of creative commercials, an oldy but goody from Austrialia.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (2) |

July 1, 2011

The Minimalist Grills

Just in time for the 4th of July weekend, Mark Bittman of the NY Times provides a lucid and comprehensive overview on how to grill a variety of popular foods.

Enjoy!

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

June 30, 2011

The anatomy of a computer virus

Stuxnet: Anatomy of a Computer Virus from Patrick Clair on Vimeo.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

June 29, 2011

Math isn’t just computation

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (2) |

June 25, 2011

Distant Time and the Hint of a Multiverse

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (2) |

June 23, 2011

Project Ecclesia

Ecclesia is a creative and community-centered inner-city church on Taft Street just outside of downtown Houston. As noted in this earlier post, Ecclesia's heart is in the right place.

Ecclesia has outgrown its current location, so the church has acquired the old Houston Fire Department warehouse just outside downtown, where the church will move once renovations are substantially completed. Ecclesia's members are handling a good part of the renovations and raising money to cover the repairs that need to be performed by specialists.

As the video below delightfully notes, Ecclesia is currently in the phase of refinishing the warehouse's floors. Making a contribution to help Ecclesia renovate its new home would be a wonderful way to give something valuable back to downtown Houston.

 

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

June 21, 2011

The Rule of Law

In an insightful scene from the Academy Award-winning movie A Man for All Seasons, one of Sir Thomas More's apprentices -- Richard Rich -- confronts Thomas while he is chatting with his wife, daughter, and his daughter's fiancee, Will Roper, who is an aspiring lawyer.

Rich proceeds to beg Sir Thomas for a political appointment, which Thomas refuses because he knows that Rich is prone toward corruption and would never be able to resist the bribes that he would be offered in such an appointment. Sir Thomas thought Rich should pursue a career as a teacher to avoid such temptations.

An embittered Rich proceeds to leave Sir Thomas and his family to take a political job with Thomas Cromwell, who has been ordered by King Henry to pressure Thomas to take the King's oath forsaking Catholicism and the Pope. It is obvious to everyone in the room that the resentful Rich will ultimately betray Sir Thomas, which indeed he does later in the story.

Rich's departure leads to the following exchange in which Sir Thomas lucidly explains to his family members the importance of maintaining the rule of law and not trumping up charges even in regard to an unsavory man who will betray him:

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

June 19, 2011

A special father

I am blessed on this special day for fathers – and every other day – by my remembrances of a special father.

Posted by Tom at 12:22 PM | Comments (0) |

Resolved: America Should Legalize Drugs

Jeffrey Miron and Robert DuPont, M.D. debate at the Cato Institute whether the governmental policy of drug prohibition should be continued or ended.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

June 18, 2011

Moneyball

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

June 16, 2011

Tyler Cowen on the Great Stagnation

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

June 13, 2011

Give’em the Wild Turkey Bird

In our continuing series of creative commercials, Wild Turkey whiskey chimes in with a clever one to start the week.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

June 12, 2011

Wisdom from Terry Teachout

My experience is that good commencement speeches are rare, but I know a good one when I read one. And this one by drama critic Terry Teachout is one of the best that I've read in years. Short, clever and insightful, Teachout weaves in a profound exchange from the movie Bull Durham and a funny anecdote about the legendary actor Rex Harrison and Broadway producer Leland Hayward. Then, he concludes with the following sage advice:

If there's ever a time in life for you to shoot high, it's now. So take a long, cool look at yourself and say, What do I really want out of life? What would keep me interested until the day I die? Do I have a realistic chance to get it? And if you think you do, then go for it. Work as hard to get it as you worked to get your degree here. Settle later, if you must--but don't spend the rest of your life eating your heart out because you didn't give it your very best shot right now.

And that's that. I congratulate you, members of the Class of 2011, for doing something truly remarkable.

Remember: be proud.

Be professional.

Don't be bored. Enjoy the moment.

And be sure to get a good lunch.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (2) |

June 11, 2011

It's Tony Time!

Check out this excellent NY Times interactive feature of four, first-time Tony-nominated actors performing a short scene from their respective shows, including Joshua Henry's knockout performance of "Go Back Home" from The Scottsboro Boys. Here is a video clip of that song from the show. Enjoy!

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

June 9, 2011

The Constitutional Case for Marriage Equality

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (3) |

June 7, 2011

The Cease-Fire that is long overdue

America's dubious policy of drug prohibition has been a frequent topic on this blog, so I was pleased to see this Mary Anastasia O'Grady/WSJ column (previous posts on O'Grady's work are here) yesterday on the Global Commission on Drug Policy's statement last week calling for a "paradigm shift in global drug policy."

O'Grady's column is particularly noteworthy because of her citing of this fine Angelo Codevilla's/Claremont Institute piece that explains how one of the unintended consequences of the failed War on Drugs is the increasing militarization of America's borders. As Codevilla notes:

A friendly border is like oxygen: when you've got it, you don't think about it. Only when you lose it does its importance seize you. But by then it is difficult to remember the fundamental truth: if borders are friendly, you don't have to secure them; and if they are unfriendly, you must pay dearly for every bit of partial security, because ever harsher measures produce ever greater hostility.
Thucydides' account of the Peloponnesian War gives us what may be history's most poignant description of how a hostile border proved disastrous to a great power. In the war's 19th year, Sparta put a small garrison in Decelea, in their enemy's backyard, which, Thucydides tells us, "was one of the principal causes of [the Athenians'] ruin." "[I]nstead of a city, [Athens] became a fortress," with "two wars at once," and in a few years was "worn out by having to keep guard on the fortifications." Having lost a friendly border, Athens turned itself inside out trying to secure an unfriendly one.

For an excellent overview of why America's drug prohibition policy should be scuttled, check out this Milton Friedman argument. And if you are interested in how a regulatory structure for recreational drug usage could be devised, the University of Chicago's James Leitzel's TEDxUChicago presentation below provides a great starting point:

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (3) |

June 5, 2011

Time-lapse Thunderstorms

Check out this amazing time-lapse assembly from the Hector Thunderstorm Project in northern Australia.

Hector Thunderstorm Project from Murray Fredericks on Vimeo.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

June 3, 2011

Crosby, Nash and . . . Fallon?

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

June 2, 2011

Requiem de Verdi

From 1967 with Herbert Von Karajan directing. Simply delightful.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

May 29, 2011

50/50

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

May 28, 2011

Ecclesia Houston

Ecclesia is an inner-city church in Houston. Its heart is in the right place, as reflected by this video.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

May 27, 2011

It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Oprah

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (1) |

May 26, 2011

Dirt Devil

Yet another in our continuing series of the most creative product on television, commercials.

Dirt Devil-The Exorcist from MrPrice2U on Vimeo.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

May 24, 2011

Dylan turns 70

Steve Allen interviews a painfully shy Bob Dylan almost 50 years ago.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

May 23, 2011

The power of smiling

One of the nicest compliments that I have ever received came from from a court clerk who told me that the court staff enjoyed having me in their court because I always came with a smile on my face. Ron Gutman provides good thoughts on smiles to begin the week.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (1) |

May 21, 2011

Security theater as comedy

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (2) |

May 16, 2011

"In Prison Reform, Money Trumps Civil Rights"

That's the title of this important NY Times op-ed by Michelle Alexander, who who is the author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (New Press 2010). The entire op-ed is essential reading, but this excerpt focuses on one of the reasons why reforming the policy of overcriminalization has become politically difficult:

Those who believe that righteous indignation and protest politics were appropriate in the struggle to end Jim Crow, but that something less will do as we seek to dismantle mass incarceration, fail to appreciate the magnitude of the challenge.  If our nation were to return to the rates of incarceration we had in the 1970s, we would have to release 4 out of 5 people behind bars.  A million people employed by the criminal justice system could lose their jobs . Private prison companies would see their profits vanish. This system is now so deeply rooted in our social, political and economic structures that it is not going to fade away without a major shift in public consciousness.

Sentencing expert Doug Berman comments insightfully:

However, I strongly believe that liberty, not fairness, needs to be the guiding principle in this major shift.  After all, one big aspect of the modern mass incarceration movement has been an affinity for structured guideline reforms and the elimination of parole all in order to have greater fairness and consistency at sentence. 

What we have really achieved is less liberty as much, if not more, than less fairness.

 

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (6) |

May 15, 2011

Tales of ice-bound wonderlands

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

May 14, 2011

Seven Days in Utopia

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (2) |

May 13, 2011

Building an Art Museum on the Web

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

May 12, 2011

The Amazing Linotype

The fascinating documentary's website is here.

"Linotype: The Film" Official Trailer from Linotype: The Film on Vimeo.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

May 9, 2011

Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out

There are few better ways to start the week than listening to Josh White and his daughter.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

May 7, 2011

Willie Nelson, 1974

Watch the full episode. See more Austin City Limits.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

May 6, 2011

From The Rough

The story behind the film -- which is scheduled to open this fall -- is here.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

May 3, 2011

The end of the notebook?

The iPad began the notebook computer's demise. The Android tablet looks as if it might finish it.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

May 2, 2011

The perspective of Ric Elias

Ric Elias was a passenger on US Airways Flight 1549, which Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger crash landed in the middle of the Hudson River a couple of years ago. But before Sullenberger landed that Airbus A320 and the flight crew successfully evacuated everyone, Elias and the other passengers confronted the very real prospect that they were going to die. In this inspirational five minute video, Elias explains how that experience changed him. Watching it is a good way to start the week. Enjoy.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

May 1, 2011

Shake Your Moneymaker

Led Zeppelin and James Brown? Genuis!.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

April 30, 2011

Dress for the moment

The latest in our continuing series of creative commercials.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (1) |

April 29, 2011

Why art is important

Legendary director Warner Herzog reminds us of the importance of art in his latest film, Cave of Forgotten Dreams. The trailer for the film and a Scientific American interview of Herzog are below. The NY Times review is here.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

April 24, 2011

Sweet Baby James

James Taylor from 1970:

And from recently, with a nice explanation of how the song came about:

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (3) |

April 23, 2011

Drunken Poet's Dream

Clear Thinkers favorite Hayes Carll and Ray Wylie Hubbard on Austin City Limits:

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

April 22, 2011

Lone Star

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

April 21, 2011

The Quantum Story

Jim Baggott talks about his new book on the history of the quantum revolution.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

April 18, 2011

The Power of Words

A good way to start the week is the latest in our continuing series of creative commercials.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (1) |

April 17, 2011

The Amazing Walkens

"For a Walken, adolescence is a difficult time. You feel like you're the only normal person in a school of nut jobs."

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (3) |

April 16, 2011

Simon Sinek on inspirational leadership

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (1) |

April 14, 2011

Two essential reads

If you don't read anything else this week, don't miss what Byran Caplan and Gary Taubes wrote.

First, Caplan provides a compelling case against helicoptor parenting based on, of all things, research into twins:

But twin research has another far more amazing lesson: With a few exceptions, the effect of parenting on adult outcomes ranges from small to zero.Parents change kids in many ways; the catch is that the changes fade out as kids grow up.  By adulthood, identical twins aren't slightly more similar than fraternal twins; they're much more similar.  And when identical twins are raised apart, they're often just as similar as they are when they're raised together.

Once I became a dad, I noticed that parents around me had a different take on the power of nurture. I saw them turning parenthood into a chore--shuttling their kids to activities even the kids didn't enjoy, forbidding television, desperately trying to make their babies eat another spoonful of vegetables. Parents' main rationale is that their effort is an investment in their children's future; they're sacrificing now to turn their kids into healthy, smart, successful, well-adjusted adults. 

But according to decades of twin research, their rationale is just, well, wrong.  High-strung parenting isn't dangerous, but it does make being a parent a lot more work and less fun than it has to be.

The obvious lesson to draw is that parents should lighten up. .  .  .

Meanwhile, Taubes examines a penetrating question that is suggested by this recent post: i.e., is sugar toxic?:

This brings us to the salient question: Can sugar possibly be as bad as [being the primary reason that the numbers of obese and diabetic Americans have skyrocketed in the past 30 years and the likely dietary cause of several other chronic ailments widely considered to be diseases of Western lifestyles -- heart disease, hypertension and many common cancers"]?

It's one thing to suggest, as most nutritionists will, that a healthful diet includes more fruits and vegetables, and maybe less fat, red meat and salt, or less of everything.

It's entirely different to claim that one particularly cherished aspect of our diet might not just be an unhealthful indulgence but actually be toxic, that when you bake your children a birthday cake or give them lemonade on a hot summer day, you may be doing them more harm than good, despite all the love that goes with it.

Suggesting that sugar might kill us is what zealots do. But [pediatric hormone specialist Robert] Lustig, who has genuine expertise, has accumulated and synthesized a mass of evidence, which he finds compelling enough to convict sugar. His critics consider that evidence insufficient, but there's no way to know who might be right, or what must be done to find out, without discussing it.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

April 13, 2011

San Fran to Paris in Two Minutes

SF to Paris in Two Minutes from Beep Show on Vimeo.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

April 12, 2011

An Interesting American Art Project

Looking for a creative art project to support? Check this out:

Posted by Tom at 12:09 AM | Comments (0) |

April 9, 2011

Stomp and Holler

The Woodlands native Hayes Carll at SXSW 2011.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

April 3, 2011

Hiking 2,200 Miles in Four Minutes

Green Tunnel from Kevin Gallagher on Vimeo.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

April 2, 2011

You don't know Diddley!

In our continuing series of innovative commercials, Bos Jackson and Diddley corroborate on a classic for Nike.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

March 27, 2011

Julian Assange - Houseguest from Hell

H/T The NY Times Magazine 6th Floor Blog:

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

March 24, 2011

The greatest invention of the industrial revolution

Hans Rosling argues below that it was the humble washing machine. But Stephen Bainbridge makes a compelling argument in favor of an even more underappreciated invention.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

March 23, 2011

Even the Rain

Posted by Tom at 12:05 AM | Comments (0) |

March 22, 2011

Rethinking Obesity

The stigma attached to obesity has been an accepted practice of American society for a long time. Heck, even those who should know better often embrace the simplistic thinking that obesity is merely the result of an individual's lack of willpower.

But research is increasingly revealing that the obesity stigma is misplaced and counterproductive. Michelle Berman, MD noted this awhile back in this post on KevinMD.com:

Did you know that some psychologists and psychiatrists would like to classify obesity as a brain disease?

The reason for this is that there is mounting evidence that food, or certain types of food, can trigger the same addictive effects in the brain as drugs like heroin and cocaine. There is also substantial evidence that some people lose control over their food consumption and exhibit other behaviors (e.g. tolerance, withdrawal)  that may meet diagnostic criteria  .   .   . for substance dependence.

Arya Sharma, MD picks up on this line of thinking in this recent KevinMD.com post:

Recently, I attended a scientific symposium on addictions.

One of the books I picked up at that conference  .   .   .  is A. J. Adams' Undrunk: A Skeptic's Guide to AA. [.  .  .]

The definition [of alcoholism] reads as follows:

Alcoholism is a primary chronic disease with genetic, psycho-social and environmental factors influencing its development and manifestations. The disease is often progressive and fatal. It is characterized by continuous or periodic impaired control over drinking, preoccupation with the drug alcohol despite adverse consequences and distortions of thinking, mostly denial.

Let us look at this definition of alcoholism and see what aspects of it (if any) apply to obesity.

No doubt, as readers of these pages know, obesity is most definitely a chronic condition, whose development and manifestations are influenced by genetic, psycho-social and envrionmental factors. In some cases obesity may be more genetic, in others more psycho-social and sometimes purely environmental, but certainly, obesity would fit the bill as far as this statement goes.

And yes, obesity is often progressive and fatal. [.   .  .]

This may not seem as obvious as in the case of the alcoholic who dies of liver cirrhosis or totals his car (and himself) whilst DIU, but when you start looking at the many ways in which obesity can kill you, from heart attacks to cancer, there is no doubt that obesity is fatal (often after ruining most of your life first - another similarity to alcoholism).

Clear Thinkers favorite Art DeVany does an excellent job of explaining the physiological underpinnings of overeating in his recent book, The New Evolution Diet: What Our Paleolithic Ancestors Can Teach Us About Weight Loss, Fitness and Aging (Rodale 2010). The following oversimplifies DeVany's explanation, so definitely read the book if you are interested in this subject.

But the essence of DeVany's point is that the brain needs glucose - generally supplied by carbohydrates - in order to live and thrive. Thus, the brain signals that it needs more glucose, which triggers our desire to eat carbohydrate to fulfill that need. The body (specifically the pancreas) generates insulin to absorb the glucose into the bloodstream.

So far, so good. However, DeVany explains that most people who become obese fall into a sort of negative feedback loop in which they become "insulin insensitive." This is bad for a variety of reasons (damage on a cellular level, etc), but it is particularly damaging in in regard to obesity - the body ends up generating excess insulin, which it stores as fat.

Thus, insulin insensitivity causes a sort of negative feedback loop in which the consumer becomes conditioned to being continually hungry (the brain is signaling that it needs glucose), the consumer eats high-calorie, processed (and readily available) carbohydrate to fulfill that hunger, the body produces more insulin that it needs to absorb the glucose, the body stores the excess insulin as fat, and then the process starts all over again, partly because of the consumer's increasingly insulin-insensitive nature.

In short, willpower really doesn't have that much to do with it. Physiological impulses do.

As DeVany explains in his book (and in his excellent blog), the solution to this obesity syndrome is to become "insulin sensitive" through a lifestyle based on a diet of lean meats, vegetables and fruits, as well as exercise and recreation that promote maintenance of lean body mass. 

However, the more important message that DeVany delivers is that the social stigma attached to obesity is inhumane and counterproductive. It is that stigma that drives obese people to "quick fixes" such as fad diets and excessive exercise routines, both of which rarely result in sustained weight loss.

Rather, as with any addiction, the key to overcoming the addiction to high caloric food is to educate the addict to understand the physiological underpinnings that drive the addict's compulsion.

In short, less stigma and better education equals less obesity and better health.

Sounds like a good trade to me. 

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

March 20, 2011

Elie Wiesel on the perils of indifference

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (3) |

March 19, 2011

Liverpool Oratorio

Kiri Te Kanawa sings beautifully from Paul McCartney's 1991 foray into classical music. Enjoy!

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (1) |

March 18, 2011

Tournament Time

With the beginning of the NCAA Tournament, it's a good time to check out the NY Times' A.O. Scott's excellent analysis of the best basketball movie ever made, Hoosiers. Enjoy!

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

March 14, 2011

Take Five

It's hard to think of a better way to start the work week than listening to the Dave Brubeck Quartet.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (2) |

March 13, 2011

"Don't let your partner interrupt your dreams"

Another in our continuing series of innovative commercials, this time for Swiss furniture maker Pfister.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (2) |

March 12, 2011

The original Boxer

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (5) |

March 10, 2011

Khan on Education

The remarkable Salman Khan -- the founder of the popular Khan Academy -- talks about using video to reinvent education. Enjoy. H/T Paul Kedrosky.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

March 8, 2011

What are we doing to ourselves?

 Overcriminalization of life in America has been a frequent topic on this blog.

Mark Perry's post places the topic in perspective.

A truly civil society would find a better way.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (4) |

March 6, 2011

My Back Pages

As sung by Roger McGuinn, Tom Petty, Neil Young, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan and the late George Harrison at Dylan's 30th anniversary concert in 1992.

Neil Young,Dylan... My Back Pages
Uploaded by ivaxavi. - Music videos, artist interviews, concerts and more.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (5) |

March 5, 2011

Touring Rice

A video tour of one of Houston's most beautiful places, Rice University.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

March 4, 2011

Don't try this on your weekend bike ride

VCA 2010 RACE RUN from changoman on Vimeo.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

March 3, 2011

Jeff Miron on Libertarianism

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (6) |

February 27, 2011

The Child-Driven Education

Posted by Tom at 8:42 PM | Comments (0) |

Do not mess with Stevie Nicks

Watch through the end.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (1) |

February 26, 2011

Of Gods and Men

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (2) |

February 23, 2011

Wisconsin, Myth vs. Fact

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (6) |

February 21, 2011

The amazingly ineffective 40-year war

The dubious policies of overcriminalization and drug prohibition are two frequent topics on this blog, so this excellent Ethan Nadelmann essay on the utter failure of America's 40-year War on Drugs caught my eye. The entire piece is worth reading, but his final point is particularly illuminating:

Legalization has to be on the table. Not because it is necessarily the best solution. Not because it is the obvious alternative to the evident failures of drug prohibition. But for three important reasons:

First, because it is the best way to reduce dramatically the crime, violence, corruption and other extraordinary costs and harmful consequences of prohibition;

Second, because there are as many options -- indeed more -- for legally regulating drugs as there are options for prohibiting them; and

Third, because putting legalization on the table involves asking fundamental questions about why drug prohibitions first emerged, and whether they were or are truly essential to protect human societies from their own vulnerabilities. Insisting that legalization be on the table -- in legislative hearings, public forums and internal government discussions -- is not the same as advocating that all drugs be treated the same as alcohol and tobacco. It is, rather, a demand that prohibitionist precepts and policies be treated not as gospel but as political choices that merit critical assessment, including objective comparison with non-prohibitionist approaches.

My question is whether the elaborate law enforcement infrastructure that has been constructed to deal with drug prohibition policy become such a powerful political force that it effectively prevents Congress from changing this disastrous policy for the better good of the majority?

 

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (5) |

February 20, 2011

An English Lesson

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

February 19, 2011

The Boxer

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (2) |

February 13, 2011

Another Like You

Clear Thinkers favorite Hayes Carll -- a native of the Woodlands -- is the latest in Texas' long line of talented singer/songwriters such as Willie Nelson, Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, Steve Earle, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Robert Earl Keen and Lyle Lovett.

Carll has just come out with a new album, KMAG YOYO (and other American Stories). The following is a catchy duet from the new album called "Another Like You." Enjoy!

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

February 12, 2011

The Greatest Walk in Golf

The walk from the 15th green to the 16th tee of Cypress Point Golf Club on the Monterey Peninsula in Northern California.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

February 11, 2011

Be more efficient at work . . .

In our continuing series of innovation commercials, check out this one from Norway. Outstanding!

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (1) |

February 9, 2011

Narcotic maintenance vs. Addiction

This recent WaPo article highlights one of the senseless incongruities of the U.S.'s dubious policy of drug prohibition:

Twice, the patient, a man in his mid-30s, said he lost his prescriptions for Valium and Percocet. Once, he said he was in a car accident that scattered his pills on the road. Another time, he said the medicine he was first prescribed was no good, so he "returned the pills." Another time, his wife called and said their house had been "searched by authorities" and the medicine had gone missing.

Each time, no matter the story, Peter S. Trent or Hampton J. Jackson Jr., doctors at the same orthopedic practice in Oxon Hill, refilled the prescription, according to the Maryland Board of Physicians. Over the course of 21/2 years, the doctors gave the patient 275 prescriptions, mostly for Percocet, a powerful, highly addictive painkiller.

Sometimes they wrote the patient more than one prescription for the drug on the same day. In a single month, they wrote him 11 prescriptions for Percocet, totaling 734 pills.

On one hand, maybe the patients had a "legitimate" need for large amounts of narcotics, but most doctors wouldn't write prescriptions for the drugs because they fear prosecution if they did so.

On the other hand, the patients may be addicts without a "legitimate" need for the drugs, but they seek to obtain the narcotics through prescription because it is safer and probably cheaper than buying them illegally.

Current U.S. drug policy mandates that the patients who have a "legitimate" need for the narcotics can buy them legally, but the addicts cannot.

What valid public policy purpose is served by that distinction? Such a distinction only leads to arbitrary and capricious enforcement of criminal laws that terrorizes citizens who desperately need treatment regardless of the cause of that need.

Irrespective of whether a patient has a "legitimate" need for narcotics or is simply an addict, the patient should be able to obtain the drugs legally through prescription. Such a policy would allow the patient to obtain a known product at a reasonable price without risking expensive incarceration. A reduction of the mass incarceration problem and the expensive and brutal black market for drugs would be two fringe benefits of such a change in policy.

The federal government already funds methadone clinics for heroin addicts. Why not extend such a policy to narcotic maintenance?

A truly civil society would find a way.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

February 7, 2011

Getting back to the basics

This Japanese banana commercial is better than any of the commercials that I saw during this year's Super Bowl.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

February 6, 2011

Sweet Baby James

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

February 5, 2011

My name is Phony Bennett

Alec Baldwin and Tony Bennett have an excellent time in this classic SNL skit. Enjoy.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (1) |

February 4, 2011

If I Needed You

The late Townes Van Zandt from the mid-1970's, around the time that he was regularly performing in Houston at the Old Quarter on Market Square.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

January 31, 2011

The Agony of Defeat

Joe Posnanski artfully describes the 32 worst endings in sports history. And amazingly, not one of them involves a team from Houston!

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (2) |

January 30, 2011

Days With My Father

Phillip Toledano's extraordinary website is now a book. Don't miss it.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

January 29, 2011

They don't make clowns like this anymore

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (1) |

January 28, 2011

Wild as a Turkey

The Woodlands native Hayes Carll:

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

January 27, 2011

My Blackberry is Not Working

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

January 26, 2011

Replacing the notebooks

I still use a desktop computer when I'm in the office, but I bought a new notebook computer recently for when I'm mobile. While doing so, my tech consultant suggested to me that it will probably be the last notebook that I buy. Here's why:

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

January 25, 2011

Did you know you could do this with Google Docs?

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

January 24, 2011

First Time on the Tonight Show

The late Johnny Carson's Tonight Show was an entry forum for some very talented comedians who went on to successful careers. Enjoy!

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

January 22, 2011

Negotiating the Saturday morning golf kitchen pass

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

January 21, 2011

Experts at self-deception

Americans' proclivity to embrace myths is a frequent topic on this blog, so this Will Wilkinson post regarding Paul Krugman and this engaging William Easterly post on complexity and spontaneous order (among other things) is right up our alley. As Wilkinson notes:

It's clear by now that Paul Krugman thinks there is something seriously wrong with Republicans.  .   .  .

Though it is a challenge to accept that a man of Mr Krugman's intelligence truly believes America's ills flow exclusively from the intellectual and moral failures of the people who disagree with him, I don't believe he is arguing in bad faith. He really is that self-righteously Manichean. What drives Mr Krugman absolutely nuts is that people who are wrong about everything are just as self-righteously Manichean as he is. Where do they get off? [.  .  .]

.  .  .there is something quite significant about the evidently negative rhetorical charge of "welfare" and "food stamps" among smaller-government, freer-markets types. And there is something quite significant about Mr Krugman's evident confusion about American public opinion and his genuine alarm over libertarian "taxation-is-theft" rhetoric.

Although Americans left and right have remarkably consistent "ideologically conservative but programmatically progressive" preferences when it comes to redistributive social policy, it benefits political parties and party politicians to greatly exaggerate their differences. Partisan brand identity and distinction is achieved largely through a commitment to a certain stock of rhetorical tropes and symbolic gestures that float almost entirely free of the party's substantive commitments. People are suckers for rhetoric, which is why merely rhetorical differentiation works at both the grocery store and the polling station. It is also why we are prone to believing crazy things about what the other "side" believes. And this leads to a rhetorical atmosphere corrosive to the trust necessary to facilitate compromises over policy that would be agreeable to most everyone.

Our problem, and Mr Krugman's, is that we believe our own BS.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (3) |

January 17, 2011

I Have a Dream

No question about it, Martin Luther King could flat out give a speech.

And here is Robert F. Kennedy's moving tribute to Reverend King immediately after his death:

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

January 16, 2011

How to Build a Toaster

Thomas Thwaites with a practical lesson on the importance of facilitating trade.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

January 15, 2011

Take It Easy

The Eagles, Jackson Browne and Linda Ronstadt from the mid-70’s.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

January 12, 2011

A Houston Gem

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

January 8, 2011

Elizabeth Gilbert on creativity

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

January 7, 2011

Louis CK is a funny guy

H/T Adam Frucci at Splitsider.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (1) |

January 5, 2011

The trouble with those darn predictions

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

January 2, 2011

Who’s Got Rhythm?

They don’t make many like the Gerry Mulligan and Ben Webster Quintet anymore.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

January 1, 2011

So Long 2010

The only thing better than this political ad from the 2010 campaign was the target study that concluded that it would be effective. You gotta love Arizona politics:

And amazingly, the foregoing political ad was pretty restrained in comparison to this classic plaintiff's lawyer's ad:

By the way, while growing up in Iowa City, I never realized that Cedar Rapids 20 miles to the north was such an interesting place:

Happy New Year!

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

December 31, 2010

The Beauty of Pixar

H/T Jason Kottke.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

December 29, 2010

Lyle Lovett on Houston

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

December 25, 2010

Merry Christmas from the Family

Native Houstonian Robert Earl Keen sings his classic Texas country Christmas tune.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

December 24, 2010

Zeitgeist 2010

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

December 22, 2010

Thinking about income redistribution

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (2) |

December 21, 2010

Casino Jack Abramoff

Kevin Spacey is a national treasure.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

December 20, 2010

Johnny Carson on Politicians

The late Ross Lence, my mentor in undergraduate school, used to laugh when his students decried the lies of politicians. Lence contended that we expect - indeed, we want - our politicians to lie in order to make us feel better about the myths that we rely on about ourselves and our country in our day-to-day lives.

The late Johnny Carson provides a hilarious take on politicians' lies in this classic video from almost 30 years ago. Enjoy.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

December 19, 2010

Bill Murray on Robert Duvall

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

December 18, 2010

Rocky Top

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

December 17, 2010

Protecting the Children

No, really. this is not from The Onion:

The Center for Science in the Public Interest has filed a lawsuit against McDonald's Corp., claiming that the company's meals with toys unfairly entice children into eating food that can do them harm.

The Washington advocacy group warned McDonald's in June that it would sue if the company did not stop providing toys with children's meals that have high amounts of sugar, calories, fat and salt. The suit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court, seeks class-action status.[.  .  .]

The lead plaintiff in the suit is Monica Parham, a mother of two from Sacramento who said the company "uses toys as bait to induce her kids to clamor to go to McDonald's," the organization said.

Ms. Parham has to sue McDonald's rather than simply telling her children "no"? Walter Olson chronicles here.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (2) |

December 16, 2010

The 40-Year War

Gary Becker makes a good point about a frequent topic on this blog - the enormous cost of the government's drug prohibition policy:

[The Miron and Waldock study does] a good job of estimating the amount directly spent by the United States in fighting the war on drugs. They calculate about $41 billion is spent on this fight by state and local governments, and by the federal government, through policing efforts, the cost of court personnel and buildings used to try and convict drug offenders, and the cost of the guards and other resources used to imprison those convicting of drug offenses.  .  .  .  These estimated direct costs of the war are significant, yet they are regrettably only a small fraction of the total social costs due to the war on drugs. [ .  .  .]

Perhaps, however, the worse results of the American war on drugs are found in its effects on other countries, especially Mexico, Colombia, and other Latin American countries. Mexico is also engaged in a war on drugs, but it is a war almost entirely fought against drugs shipped from Mexico into the United States. The overwhelming majority of drugs that are either produced in Mexico, or that enter Mexico from other countries, are destined for shipment across the border to the United States. The two main drugs shipped from Mexico are marijuana and cocaine, the same two drugs that Miron and Waldock show constitute the vast majority of drugs used by American consumers.

Mexico is engaged in a real war, with advanced military equipment used by the drug gangs; often the gangs have better weapons than the army does. The casualties have been huge: an estimated 30,000 + persons have been killed in recent years as a result of the drug violence, far greater than the combined deaths of American and allied forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. Many of these deaths are of drug cartel members, but a considerable number also are of soldiers and policemen, journalists, and innocent bystanders.

After the drug lords discovered that they are very good at violence and intimidation, they expanded geographically and into other activities. They have spread out from concentration in enclaves near the border or in the West of Mexico into many other areas, including major cities like Monterrey. Some towns have become uninhabitable, as former residents fled from the violence, some entering illegally into the US. Drug lords have taken control in many places of prostitution, gambling, extraction of monies from businesses for "protection" services, and indirectly also various local governments. [.  .  .]

No one has estimated the social cost of American drug policy on Mexico, Colombia, and other countries, but it has to be immense. Perhaps these countries should just allow drugs to be shipped to the US, and put the full burden of stopping these shipments on American enforcement agencies. The American government would protest, but such a result would provide a clearer picture to the American people of the full cost of current policy, including the major costs imposed on other countries. One can hope that then we will get a serious rethinking of the American war on drugs, and some real political movement toward decriminalization and legalization of various drugs.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

December 14, 2010

Callaway vs. Lamborghini

H/T Geoff Shackelford

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

December 12, 2010

Scotland’s Caddies

H/T Geoff Shackelford

 

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

December 11, 2010

Dylan at his best

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

December 9, 2010

ABC’s Announcement of John Lennon’s Murder

Did you remember that it came toward the end of a Monday Night Football game? Below is a well done retrospective by ESPN Outside the Lines.  Well worth the 10 minute watch.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

December 4, 2010

Another good commercial

In this blog's continuing series of innovative commercials from over the years, here is another excellent one from Turkish Airlines with help from Manchester United.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

December 3, 2010

200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes

Plotting life expectancy against income for 200 countries since 1810, Hans Rosling shows the enormous impact that the increase in wealth has had on the world (H/T Don Boudreaux).

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

November 28, 2010

Turn, Turn, Turn

Roger McGuinn provides a masterful solo performance of The Byrds' classic.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

November 27, 2010

Split or Steal

A good lesson in psychology here.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

November 26, 2010

Baby Blue

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

November 25, 2010

Turkey Day Carving Lesson

For the past several years, I have been passing along on Thanksgiving Day the instructions below, this interesting article and this excellent NY Times video that provide insightful butcher tips on how to get the most meat out of your turkey. Enjoy!

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November 24, 2010

Are you ready for some football?

There is no better way to get ready for the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend of football than to take a dose of former Montana Tech football coach, Bob Green.

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November 22, 2010

SNL TSA/Security Theater Advertisement

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November 21, 2010

Tasty Waves!

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November 20, 2010

Tina Fey accepts the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor

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November 18, 2010

NYC Marathon Runners

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November 7, 2010

A Texas Legend

The late, great Roy Orbison on Dutch television in 1964.

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November 4, 2010

The politics of increasing state power

Will Wilkinson touches on an interesting dynamic of current political discourse in the U.S.:

It sometimes does seem as though the American left has more or less ceded the language of liberty to the right.  .   .   . Why is that?

I think "the left's confusion over how to respond ideologically" to the right's libertarian-sounding arguments flows in part from the left's own confusion about what it stands for. If the contemporary right is an uneasy fusion of conservative and libertarian articles of faith, the contemporary left is an uneasy fusion of technocratic progressive and liberal-democratic conviction.

One sees progressive managerial elitism most clearly in the left's public-health and environmental paternalism. The rarely uttered idea is that the people who know best need to force the rest of us to do what's good for us. Whatever you think of this sort of state paternalism, it isn't liberal or liberty-enhancing in any non-tortured sense. The progressive technocrat's attitude toward liberty is: "Trust us. You're better off without so much of it."

The more the left is inclined to stick up for this sort of "activist government" as a progressive, humanitarian force, the less it is inclined to couch its arguments in terms of liberty. And that's just honest. More honest, I would add, than social conservatives who in one breath praise liberty and in the next demand the state imposition of their favourite flavour of morality.

I agree with [Peter] Beinart that engaging the right's worries about liberty by couching the left's agenda in the language of liberty would improve the Democrats' prospects. But I don't think he should discount the extent to which a consistently liberal philosophy of government clashes with cherished and deep-seated parts of the American left's identity. (For example, the part that insists on defending Woodrow Wilson despite the profound depths of his illiberalism.)

Those Americans currently agitated about the threat Democrats pose to liberty are not wrong to be worried. Where they go wrong is in thinking Republicans are better on this score. Democrats might be able to argue this point effectively if only their own commitment to liberty was less conflicted.

The inclination of both major political parties to increase state power has ominous implications for citizens. Is it possible to change?

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (3) |

November 2, 2010

There is more than one way to skin a cat

At least that's the case when it comes to getting around dubious drug prohibition policies. Check out this WSJ article:

When the housing market crashed in 2008, David Llewellyn's construction business went with it. Casting around for a new gig, he decided to commercialize something he'd long done as a hobby: making drugs.

But the 49-year-old Scotsman didn't go into the illegal drug trade. Instead, he entered the so-called "legal high" business-a burgeoning industry producing new psychoactive powders and pills that are marketed as "not for human consumption."

Mr. Llewellyn, a self-described former crack addict, started out making mephedrone, a stimulant also known as Meow Meow that was already popular with the European clubbing set. Once governments began banning it earlier this year, Mr. Llewellyn and a chemistry-savvy partner started selling something they dubbed Nopaine-a stimulant they concocted by tweaking the molecular structure of the attention-deficit drug Ritalin. [.  .  .]

Mr. Llewellyn is part of a wave of laboratory-adept European entrepreneurs who see gold in the gray zone between legal and illegal drugs. They pose a stiff challenge for European law-enforcement, which is struggling to keep up with all the new concoctions. Last year, 24 new "psychoactive substances" were identified in Europe, almost double the number reported in 2008,  .  .  .

Particularly interesting is Mr. Llewellyn's "foolproof" safety testing method for new drugs:

[Mr. Llewellyn] boasts that his safety testing method is foolproof: He and several colleagues sit in a room and take a new product "almost to overdose levels" to see what happens. "We'll all sit with a pen and a pad, some good music on, and one person who's straight who's watching everything," he says.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

October 31, 2010

Time for a little Thriller

In observance of Halloween, one of my wife's favorite cinematic dance scenes.

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October 29, 2010

Norah Jones covers Wilco’s “Jesus, Etc.”

Is there any song that Norah Jones does not cover well?

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October 28, 2010

Rationalizing Misery

The title of this post refers to the thought process of the folks described in this New York Magazine article who are obsessed with following a severe calorie restriction diet.

And as if that isn't bad enough, this NY Times article reports on the large number of 40-somethings who are consumed with training and competing in triathlons. The article points out that some of the participants got into triathlons because their bodies were already breaking down under the stress of long-distance running!

What is utterly lacking in the lives of all the people described in these two articles is any sense of balance. Rather than eating a sensible and balanced diet, calorie restriction advocates deprive themselves in the hope that it will increase their lives for a few years. Maybe so, but how fulfilling is that extended life if one does not consume enough food to maintain a livable level of lean body mass?

Meanwhile, the triathletes punish themselves training under the delusion that more exercise is always better for their health. They ignore the substantial research that indicates that adequate rest and recovery after exercise is just as important for good health as the exercise itself.

What is it about life in America in 2010 that provokes people to do such things to themselves?

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (6) |

October 24, 2010

“Stop it”

Bob Newhart provides his hilarious version of cognitive behavioral therapy.

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October 23, 2010

Jetting through the Grand Canyon

Check out this cool video.

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October 22, 2010

“You’re not Chinese?”

Classic Seinfeld.

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October 16, 2010

Joan Sutherland, R.I.P.

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October 8, 2010

Liz Lemon Flashbacks

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October 7, 2010

Good Police Work

H/T Radley Balko.

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October 4, 2010

The difficulty of being right

This Kathryn Schulz/The Wrong Stuff blog post provides an insightful interview with clinical researcher Barry Marshall, the 2005 Nobel Prize winner who, along with colleague Robin Warren, proved that up to 90 percent of peptic ulcers are caused by a bacterium and not by stress as medical "wisdom" had long held.

The entire interview is interesting, but the most fascinating part is where Dr. Marshall explains the difficulty of attempting to persuade the scientific establishment to abandon the conventional wisdom about ulcers even when he could provide clinical evidence that the conventional wisdom was wrong. As with much of the progress in medical research over the past 50 years, Marshall's breakthrough in changing the conventional wisdom emanated from Houston:

When and how did you start to convince people?

Part of it had to do with David Graham, who was chief of medicine at [Baylor College of Medicine], in [Houston] Texas, and a thought leader in gastroenterology. Graham started off as a real skeptic but quickly turned around. To his credit, Graham never said that I was wrong. He said, "I don't know, and I'm going to find out." And a couple of years later, he said, "I've checked it out and it looks pretty good, it looks like it could be true."

And then in 1993 or '94, the NIH had a consensus conference, and Tachi Yamada summed it up. Yamada is currently the head of [the Global Health Program of] the Gates Foundation; he's a very, very smart guy, and he said, "Looks like it's proven: Bacteria cause ulcers, and everybody needs to start treating ulcers with antibiotics."

It was just like night and day after that. The whole thing just went ballistic.

So, why do we cling to conventional wisdom even in the face of compelling evidence to the contrary? Is embracing the truth not as important as being comfortable with the beliefs - regardless of whether they are right -- of what we want to be the truth or what those we live with believe is true? 

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (2) |

October 3, 2010

Austin City Limits, 35 Years of Photos

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October 2, 2010

Pepsi Cindy

In our ongoing series of innovative commercials, Cindy Crawford reminds us of how good those old Pepsi commercials were.

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September 28, 2010

“A powerful and alarming documentary about America’s failing public school system”

That's what this NY Times reviewer calls Waiting for Superman, the much-anticipated documentary on the failure of the U.S. public school system. Here are the John Heilemann/New York Magazine, the Lloyd Grove/Daily Beast and John Nolte/Big Hollywood reviews (h/t Craig Newmark).

Watch and think about this one, folks. It's for our children and grandchildren.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

September 26, 2010

Journey through Canyons

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September 24, 2010

Take a test or watch the Aggie game? That is the question

The fascinating culture of Texas A&M University football has been a frequent topic on this blog over the years. So, when a current student posted the following dilemma on an Aggie message board, hilarity ensued:

[A professor] scheduled a test on Thursday the 30th from 6-8. When we told him there is a game (Texas A&M vs. Oklahoma State) that night, he just laughed. Here are a list of options I have, please offer any advice.

• Take the test quickly and watch second half
• Record game and start from beginning when I get home, roommates would not be happy
• skip test
• fake illness
• actually get sick and go to quack shack for a university excused absence
• drop the class

Help me out TexAgs.

My favorite response came from an alum who got kicked out of class for bringing Reveille, the collie that is the Aggie mascot, to the class. He advised the professor upon leaving:

"This is your class and I will respect your rules, but please know that you are more expendable to the university than this dog."

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

September 23, 2010

Stifling Competition

Special business interests commonly use governmental power to stifle competition. Nevertheless, you really couldn't make this example up (H/T Jeff Miron):

The folks who deliver beer and other beverages to liquor stores have joined the fight against legalizing marijuana in California.

On Sept. 7, the California Beer & Beverage Distributors gave $10,000 to a committee opposing Proposition 19, the measure that would change state law to legalize pot and allow it to be taxed and regulated. [.  .  .]

"Unless the beer distributors in California have suddenly developed a philosophical opposition to the use of intoxicating substances, the motivation behind this contribution is clear," Steve Fox, director of government relations for the Marijuana Policy Project, said in statement.

"Plain and simple, the alcohol industry is trying to kill the competition. Their mission is to drive people to drink."

Amazingly, the alcoholic beverage distributors don't realize that one of the unintended consequences of the misguided drug prohibition policy is that illegal drugs are often much less expensive than legal alcoholic beverages.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 PM | Comments (0) |

September 20, 2010

The creative nature of football innovation

Inasmuch as Texas has always been a hotbed of innovation in football, this guest Freakonomics post by law professors Kal Raustiala and Chris Sprigman caught my eye:

The theory behind copyright is simple - if we allow anyone to copy a good new idea, then no one will come up with the next one.  The theory makes perfect sense - in theory. [.  .  .]

There has been a lot of innovation in football, in both offensive and defensive systems.  But there has been virtually no attempt to copyright or patent these innovations.  There are some serious doctrinal hurdles, but it's not impossible to imagine the law providing protection. [.  .  .]

So why do football coaches continue to innovate, even when they know that their rivals will study their innovations, take them and use them?  That is, why do football coaches engage in intellectual production without intellectual property?

The authors go on to characterize football as one of the industries in which innovation is best facilitated by intense competition rather than by copyright protection of new ideas. But what is interesting is that, even with the innovations of the pass-happy offenses of the past decade or so, the top teams at the highest levels of college and professional football continue to be the ones that balance an effective passing offense with a solid rushing attack that can wean time off the clock to protect a lead.

Sometimes the more things change in football, the more they remain the same.

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September 19, 2010

Perlman & Zukerman

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September 18, 2010

Fare Thee Well, Miss Carousel

Another classic from the late and legendary Texas singer-songwriter, Townes Van Zandt.

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September 16, 2010

Liberty or Equality?

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September 15, 2010

The Myth of Superiority

Clear Thinkers favorite Peter Gordon is a very astute fellow:

David Brooks wrote about The Genteel Nation and "gentility shift" last Friday. He was addressing long-term labor market problems that have nothing to do with aggregate demand or any lack of "stimulus," but rather with the tastes of young people making career choices. He cited the example of Michelle Obama, telling an audience of young women, "Don't go into corporate America ... become teachers. Work for the community. Be social workers. Be a nurse ... Make that choice, as we did, to move out of the money-making industry into the helping industry."

It's an old theme and many people think of the choices before them as between being self-serving and "helping people". I am not sure what sacrifices the First Lady has had to make in her personal life in order to get on the high road, but given a platform, we hold forth -- and also tell ourselves all sorts of stories about ourselves. There is always the lovely conceit that some of us are all about "helping people" and, thereby, so much better than the rest.

Labor markets provide their own signals (in terms of compensation packages as well as employment and unemployment prospects), but the problem with rhetoric such as the First Lady's in the Brooks cite is that it nourishes the idea that we see repeated on so often that our own pay is "unfair" in light of the job's assumed social worth.

Many public sector unions have managed to extract promises from their politician employers that these employers cannot keep. There is naturally unhappiness and resentment, but not at the employers. Rather, at the "stingy" taxpayers who just don't get it: those who have chosen to "help people" simply "deserve" more.

Labor markets signal facts of life that challenge the "gentility" view of the world. But the gentility view fortifies the idea that market signals are "unfair" and further politicization is the way. This is the way we get street demonstrations such as the ones we saw in Paris last week. We'll always have the barricades.

This dynamic is the other side of the coin from what leads us to ostracize famous people such as Ken Lay, Tiger Woods and Roger Clemens. We try in any way to avoid confronting our innate vulnerability, so we use myths to distract us. We rationalize that a wealthy and powerful person did bad things that we would never do if placed in the same position even though we really have no idea how we would react to such incentives. As a result, we scorn and ridicule the rich and powerful as we attempt to purge collectively that which is too shameful for us to confront individually.

Be wary of those who justify their world view on the supposed moral superiority of their cause versus how markets would reward that effort. As Gordon notes, this view assumes that market signals are unfair and that political corrections are the answer. The mob is never wrong in the moment of its action.

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September 14, 2010

What disaster is worse?

On one hand, the vested interests in America's unending War on Drugs continue to rationalize the enormous cost of drug prohibition by suggesting that the alternative is worse:

Every past administrator of the 37-year-old Drug Enforcement Administration is calling on the Justice Department to sue California if its voters decide to legalize marijuana in November.

Peter Bensinger, who ran the D.E.A. from January 1976 to July 1981, said legalizing the recreational use of pot, even in one state, would be a "disaster," leading to increased addiction, traffic accidents and trouble in the workplace.

Meanwhile, the WSJ's Mary Anastasia O'Grady writes about the wages of the War on Drugs just across the Texas border near El Paso:

Juárez is dying. Since the beginning of this year, more than 2,200 people in the city have been murdered. Since 2008, the toll is almost 6,500. On a per capita basis this would be equivalent to some 26,000 murders in New York City. Drug warriors play down these numbers by claiming that some 85% of the dead were themselves involved in trafficking. But that claim is dubious since in many of the murders-more than 90% of cases this year-there hasn't even been an arrest. And what about the hundreds of innocents, the other 15% of the victims, that the government admits were not criminals? [.  .  .]

In the 40 years since Richard Nixon declared war on drug suppliers abroad-because American consumers had consistently demonstrated that they had no interest in curtailing demand-illicit drug use in rich countries has remained fairly constant. Only preferences have shifted.

A report released in June by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime found that "drug use has stabilized in the developed world." Cocaine use in the U.S. has dropped in recent decades, but there is "growing abuse of amphetamine-type stimulants and prescription drugs around the world." The report also said that "cannabis is still the world's drug of choice." In other words, billions of dollars in warring has left us about where we started, except, according to the report, that the indoor cultivation of cannabis is now a major source of funding for criminal gangs.

As I've noted many times, America's War on Drugs is lost and it is long past time that we require our leaders to acknowledge that and end it.

Even if legalization would increase drug abuse and addition (not clear, but certainly possible), at least such a policy would allow the abusers to harm themselves rather than impose substantial risk of harm on innocent citizens.

The War on Drugs is dangerously close to becoming a war on us.

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September 12, 2010

Jackie Evancho

What a talent! The other side of the coin from Paul Potts.

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September 11, 2010

Lightnin’ Time

Another one of Houston's treasures, the late, great Lightnin' Hopkins.

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September 7, 2010

Preparing for Life

I've never been a fan of John Grisham's novels, although I concede that a couple of them have been made into entertaining movies.

But after reading this Grisham/NY Times op-ed, I'm a big fan of John Grisham:

I WASN'T always a lawyer or a novelist, and I've had my share of hard, dead-end jobs. I earned my first steady paycheck watering rose bushes at a nursery for a dollar an hour. I was in my early teens, but the man who owned the nursery saw potential, and he promoted me to his fence crew. For $1.50 an hour, I labored like a grown man as we laid mile after mile of chain-link fence. There was no future in this, and I shall never mention it again in writing.

Then, during the summer of my 16th year, I found a job with a plumbing contractor. I crawled under houses, into the cramped darkness, with a shovel, to somehow find the buried pipes, to dig until I found the problem, then crawl back out and report what I had found. I vowed to get a desk job. I've never drawn inspiration from that miserable work, and I shall never mention it again in writing, either.

But a desk wasn't in my immediate future. My father worked with heavy construction equipment, and through a friend of a friend of his, I got a job the next summer on a highway asphalt crew. This was July, when Mississippi is like a sauna. Add another 100 degrees for the fresh asphalt. I got a break when the operator of a Caterpillar bulldozer was fired; shown the finer points of handling this rather large machine, I contemplated a future in the cab, tons of growling machinery at my command, with the power to plow over anything. Then the operator was back, sober, repentant. I returned to the asphalt crew.

I was 17 years old that summer, and I learned a lot, most of which cannot be repeated in polite company. One Friday night I accompanied my new friends on the asphalt crew to a honky-tonk to celebrate the end of a hard week. When a fight broke out and I heard gunfire, I ran to the restroom, locked the door and crawled out a window. I stayed in the woods for an hour while the police hauled away rednecks. As I hitchhiked home, I realized I was not cut out for construction and got serious about college.

Many of us had similar experiences to Grisham's before finding our life's work. In talking with young folks these days about their uncertain futures, I find myself often advising them that uncertainty is, for most of us, an unavoidable part of life. Although often difficult at the time, those experiences help define our character and spirit.

I decided to go to law school while working on a loading dock on Produce Row in Houston. I'm eternally grateful for that loading dock. What was your loading dock?

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

September 6, 2010

Voice Recognition Elevator

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September 5, 2010

John Cleese on Creativity

Find a way to avoid the distractions, at least for a little while (H/T Presentation Zen).

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September 4, 2010

A Film Unfinished

The film's website is here.

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September 3, 2010

Answering the Obesity Paradox

On one hand, drinking even diet soft drinks causes higher risk of heart disease?:

A new US study has found that drinking more than one soft drink a day, whether regular or diet, may be linked to an increased risk of developing heart disease, via an increase in metabolic syndrome, a group of characteristics like excess girth, high blood pressure, and other factors that increase the chances of getting diabetes and cardiovascular problems.

But on the other hand, even though overweight people are at higher risk of heart attacks, patients with heart failure have lower mortality rates if they are obese:

[T]he "obesity paradox" among patients with heart failure. The paradox refers to the repeated finding that while overweight people are more prone to heart failure, patients with heart failure have lower mortality rates if they are obese. The reason for this paradox is far from clear, though Dr. Lavie suggested that one explanation could be that once people become ill, having more bodily "reserve" could be to their advantage.

My sense is that the obesity paradox is more the result of overweight people having more muscle mass. It's not the excess fat that helps them recover from heart failure. It's the muscle mass and strength.

As Art DeVany has been saying for years: "Muscle is medicine. Strength carries us effortlessly through life." As we age, our workout routines should be tailored toward maintaining or increasing strength.

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August 30, 2010

McMurtry's Hollywood

One of the wonderful things about owning a Kindle is that it is easy to download and read a book that you might have put off for awhile until the stack of books on the nightstand receded a bit.

One such book is Larry McMurtry's latest, Hollywood: A Third Memoir (Simon & Schuster 2010). McMurtry has been writing screenplays for Hollywood now for the better part of 50 years, so he has a wealth of anecdotes to pass along about the movie industry.

And somewhat surprisingly, McMurtry passes along keen insight into the business of how movies are conceived, made and sometimes not made.

For example, after the success of the 1971 film Last Picture Show, which was based on McMurtry's novel of the same name, McMurtry observed the following about the Academy Award-winning stars of that movie, Cloris Leachman and Ben Johnson:

Ironically, but not surprisingly, when Ben Johnson and Cloris Leachman won Oscars for their performances, they decided that, by God, they were stars, and acted like stars from then on.

The first thing they did, as stars in their own heads, was price themselves out of the market, which, Oscars or not, assessed them rather more modestly than they assessed themselves.

Refreshingly, despite his obvious affection for Tinseltown, McMurtry candidly admits that he was drawn to it by the money. As he observes:

Money trumped talent, and, in the movie business, that is usually the case.

He even learned how to be a cost-effective screenwriter:

[T]he fact that I came from a generation of cattlemen gave me a slight edge - I learned not to have scenes in my Westerns that would be prohibitively expensive.

One way to achieve that was to reduce the number of animals to the lowest possible figure. Animals are well protected on movie sets, and are very expensive to use. I think they used three sets of the famous pigs in Lonesome Dove, pigs who in the narrative walk all the way from Texas to Montana only to get eaten.

Finally, on the age-old issue of whether a movie is art or a profit center:

[B]ut any thinking based on the conviction that one movie is art and another not is purely speculative. Only time will answer that question.

If you enjoy good writing, insightful observations and Hollywood, then pick up Hollywood: A Third Memoir. You will not be disappointed.

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August 29, 2010

The Commerce Clause -- A conduit for state power

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August 26, 2010

Inside Job

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August 22, 2010

Hospitalist v. Cardiologist

The primary care doctors are having a nice chuckle over this one.

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August 21, 2010

Riding a solid rocket booster

The camera that shot this video is mounted on one of the solid rocket boosters for the Space Shuttle. The launch clock is in the upper left corner. The first couple of minutes is uneventful, but the rest of the seven minute video certainly is not. Enjoy!

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

August 20, 2010

A misfired missile shot at the Rocket

So, the seemingly inevitable indictment of Roger Clemens finally was handed down yesterday.

Perjury is serious business and it remains to be seen how well Clemens will deal with the charges. Clemen's legal strategy so far has certainly been at least questionable, if not downright bizarre. Joe Posnanski chronicles Clemens' self-denial.

But for all of Clemens' unattractiveness, it's difficult not to get the sense already that this is yet another colossal misuse use of prosecutorial resources (Bill Anderson agrees). In the glare of the spotlight of this high-profile prosecution, the more troubling issues involving the use of performance-enhancing drugs such as steroids tend to get overlooked.

The mainstream media and much of the public will castigate Clemens -- who is an easy target -- just as they filleted Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez.

The dynamic is the same one that we saw in regard to the downfalls of both Tiger Woods and Ken Lay. We try in any way to avoid confronting our innate vulnerability, so we use myths to distract us. We rationalize that a wealthy athlete such as Clemens did bad things that we would never do if placed in the same position (yeah, right). As a result, Clemens supposedly deserves our scorn and ridicule. That a scapegoat such as Clemens comes across as arrogant and irresponsible makes the lynch mob even more bloodthirsty as it attempts to purge collectively that which is too shameful for us to confront individually.

Of course, much of that same mainstream media and public contribute to the pathologically competitive Major League Baseball culture. The MSM regularly caters to the public's desire to idolize players who risk career-threatening disability by taking painkilling drugs so that they can play through injuries.

But players who used PED's in in an effort to strengthen their bodies to avoid or minimize the inevitable injuries of the physically-brutal MLB season are widely viewed as pariahs.

How does that make any sense?

Meanwhile, the fact that MLB players have been using PED's for at least the past two generations to enhance their performance is largely ignored the mind-numbingly superficial analysis of the PED issue that is being trotted out by most media outlets. Sure, Barry Bonds hit quite a few home runs during a time in which he was apparently using PED's. But should Pete Rose be denied the MLB record for breaking Ty Cobb's total base hits record because he used performance-enhancing amphetamines throughout his MLB career?

These witch hunts, investigations, criminal indictments, morality plays and public shaming episodes are not advancing a dispassionate and reasoned debate regarding the complex issues that are at the heart of the use of PED's in baseball and other sports. On a very basic level, it is not even clear that the controlled use of PED's to enhance athletic performance is as dangerous to health as many of the sports in which the users compete.

Wouldn't a public discussion on how to construct a reasonable regulatory system for the safe and healthy use of PED's be a more productive use of resources than criminalizing Roger Clemens?

Here are links to a number of related HCT posts over the years on the issues relating to performance-enhancing drugs in professional sports:

A former drug-tester advocates a different approach to regulating PED's.

When you break the law in pursuing the devil, what happens when the devil turns on you?

Art DeVany challenges the conventional wisdom regarding the impact of PED's in Major League Baseball. Russ Roberts interviews DeVany here.

Is Barry Bonds this era's Jack Johnson?

MLB's Mitchell Report on PED's was a real hatchet job (see also here and here).

Let's have a more productive discussion about PED's in sport.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

August 19, 2010

Sidewalk Socrates

In several respects, my mentor and dear friend Ross Lence was similar to legendary Columbia philosophy professor Sidney Morgenbesser -- a consummate teacher and witty thinker who didn't care much for academia's preoccupation with publishing.

So, I enjoyed reading this James Ryerson/NY Times Magazine profile (H/T Al Roberts) of Morgenbesser that reminded me of a funny philosophy story involving Morgenbesser that Professor Lence had passed along to me with relish many years ago:

In the academic world, custom dictates that you may be considered a legend if there is more than one well-known anecdote about you.

Morgenbesser, with his Borscht Belt humor and preternaturally agile mind, was the subject of dozens. In the absence of a written record of his wisdom, this was how people related to him: by knowing the stories and wanting to know more.

The most widely circulated tale -- in many renditions it is even presented as a joke, not the true story that it is -- was his encounter with the Oxford philosopher J. L. Austin.

During a talk on the philosophy of language at Columbia in the 50's, Austin noted that while a double negative amounts to a positive, never does a double positive amount to a negative.

From the audience, a familiar nasal voice muttered a dismissive, "Yeah, yeah."

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

August 15, 2010

Hallelujah

One of the best covers of one of the most covered songs -- the late Jeff Buckley's rendition of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah.

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August 12, 2010

Grad School?

A clever video for a new book (H/T Craig Newmark).

Posted by Tom at 5:27 AM | Comments (0) |

August 9, 2010

An Inspirational Story to Begin the Week

Clear Thinkers favorite Tom V. Morris and his family experienced a nightmare last week, one that would stop us all in our tracks.

However, as Tom relates here, this particular nightmare turned into a remarkably inspirational tale about courage, grace and humanity.

As Tom observes:

As a philosopher, it's my job to study human nature. And it's not always a pretty picture. But on days when things go horribly wrong, we sometimes see ordinary people take extraordinary actions for no reason except that they're necessary. This is a simple and powerful reassurance of the basic goodness that can still be found in people. Airline agents, waiters, and regular people who see a need can sometimes do great things. I know only one of these recent heroes-on-the-scene by name. But I'm grateful to them all,  .   .  .

Amen!

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

July 24, 2010

Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood

From a time when Eddie Murphy was very clever.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (1) |

July 22, 2010

On Turning 40

Sounds as if Louis CK has a wise doctor.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

July 16, 2010

On the future of education

Jesse Schell, who teaches game theory at Carnegie Mellon, provides his spot-on observations regarding the future of teaching and education. (H/T Jon Taplin).

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

July 15, 2010

The Rational Optimist

Following on this recent post, here is Matt Ridley's TED lecture:

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

July 12, 2010

The largest psychiatric hospital - America's prisons

An insightful Fault Lines segment examines how prison systems have become America's largest psychiatric hospitals, with a substantial focus on the Harris County and Texas prison systems.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (1) |

July 5, 2010

Yankee Doodle and Bob Hope

Around the 4th of July, most everyone has seen James Cagney’s magnificent dancing performance in television re-runs of Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942). But Bob Hope could cut a mean lick on the dance floor, too, as reflected in this dance routine from The Seven Little Foys, in which Cagney reprises his Yankee Doodle role of George M. Cohan. Enjoy!

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

July 3, 2010

Cottonfields

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

July 2, 2010

Rational Optimism

Matt Ridley supplies a dose of good end-of-the-week vibes with this article based on his new book, The Rational Optimist (Harper 2010):

When I set out to write a book about the material progress of the human race, now published at The Rational Optimist, I was only dimly aware of how much better my life is now than it would have been if I had been born 50 years before. I knew that I have novel technologies at my disposal from synthetic fleeces and discount airlines to Facebook and satellite navigation. I knew that I could rely on advances in vaccines, transplants and sleeping pills. I knew that I could experience cleaner air and cleaner water at least in my own country. I knew that for Chinese and Japanese people life had grown much more wealthy. But I did not know the numbers.

Do you know the numbers? In 2005, compared with 1955, the average human being on Planet Earth earned nearly three times as much money (corrected for inflation), ate one-third more calories of food, buried one-third as many of her children and could expect to live one-third longer. All this during a half-century when the world population has more than doubled, so that far from being rationed by population pressure, the goods and services available to the people of the world have expanded. It is, by any standard, an astonishing human achievement.

We invent new technologies that decrease the amount of time that it takes to supply each other’s needs. The great theme of human history is that we increasingly work for each other. We exchange our own specialised and highly efficient fragments of production for everybody else’s. The ‘division of labour’ Adam Smith called it, and it is still spreading. When a self-sufficient peasant moves to town and gets a job, supplying his own needs by buying them from others with the wages from his job, he can raise his standard of living and those he supplies with what he produces. [.  .  .]

So ask yourself this: with so much improvement behind us, why are we to expect only deterioration before us? I am quoting from an essay by Thomas Macaulay written in 1830, when pessimists were already promising doom:

“They were wrong then, and I think they are wrong now.”

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

June 27, 2010

Late-Season Hawaii Surfin'

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

June 23, 2010

What motivates us

Dan Pink presents thoughts on how to motivate people (H/T Political Calculations).

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (1) |

June 22, 2010

How important is knowing your Father?

Maybe pretty darn important, according to University of Texas researchers Karen Clark, Elizabeth Marquardt and Norval D. Glenn:

Each year, an estimated 30,000-60,000 children are born in this country via artificial insemination, but the number is only an educated guess. Neither the fertility industry nor any other entity is required to report on these statistics. The practice is not regulated, and the children’s health and well-being are not tracked.

In adoption, prospective parents go through a painstaking, systematic review, including home visits and detailed questions about their relationship, finances, even their sex life. With donor conception, the state requires absolutely none of that, and the effects of such a system on the people conceived this way have been largely unknown.

We set out to change that. We teamed up .   .   . to design and field a survey with a sample drawn from more than 1 million American households.

Our study, released this month by the Commission on Parenthood’s Future, focused on how young-adult donor offspring — and comparison samples of young adults who were raised by adoptive or biological parents — make sense of their identities and family experiences, how they approach reproductive technologies more generally and how they are faring on key outcomes. The study of 18- to 45-year-olds includes 485 who were conceived via sperm donation, 562 adopted as infants and 563 raised by their biological parents.

The results are surprising. While adoption is often the center of controversy, it turns out that sperm donation raises a host of different but equally complex issues.

Two-thirds of adult donor offspring agree with the statement “My sperm donor is half of who I am.” Nearly half are disturbed that money was involved in their conception. About two-thirds affirm the right of donor offspring to know the truth about their origins.

Regardless of socioeconomic status, donor offspring are twice as likely as those raised by biological parents to report problems with the law before age 25. They are more than twice as likely to report having struggled with substance abuse. And they are about 1.5 times as likely to report depression or other mental health problems.

As a group, the donor offspring in our study are suffering more than those who were adopted: hurting more, feeling more confused and feeling more isolated from their families. (And our study found that the adoptees on average are struggling more than those raised by their biological parents.)

Some feel like a “freak of nature” or a “lab experiment.” Others speak of the searching for their biological father in crowds, wondering if a man who resembles them could be “the one.” Still others speak of complicated emotional journeys and lost or damaged relationships with their families when they grow up.

Life is complicated.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

June 20, 2010

Amazing Ukulele

The remarkable Jake Shimabukuro: "One of the things I love about being a ukulele player is that no matter where I go in the world to play, the audience has such low expectations. [This is] a huge plus for sure."

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

June 19, 2010

Stand By Your Man

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June 17, 2010

Michael Shermer on Self-Deception

Stick with this interesting lecture to the end.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

June 16, 2010

The state of cancer research

Following on these recent posts on the state of cancer research, John Goodman provides this timely and lucid post on the problems with – as well as the direction of - cancer research:

Why so little progress [in cancer research despite the large amount of money spent on  it]?

Some researchers believe we have been using the wrong model. We’ve been trying to combat cancer the way we fight an infection initiated by the common cold. But cancer is very different from ordinary infections and colds.

Suppose you have strep throat. Your doctor prescribes an antibiotic and the drug immediately goes to work fighting it. Let’s say the antibiotic manages to kill 95% of the germs. That’s enough damage to allow your body’s natural defenses (white corpuscles) to take over and complete the clean-up job.

Now suppose we try to fight a cancerous tumor the same way. Let’s say that through chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy, doctors manage to kill 95% of the cancer cells. In this case, the white corpuscles won’t be able to pull off the clean-up, however. Once cancer cells multiply and become lethal, it’s an all-or-nothing proposition. As long as even a single cancer cell remains, it will eventually multiply again. And it will continue multiplying until the fight must be initiated all over again. Eventually the cancer will metastasize (spread all over your whole body), which is a virtual death sentence.

Unlike ordinary germs, therefore, in fighting a carcinogenic tumor you have to kill (or remove) every single cell. If even one cell survives, the cancer will return and become lethal again.

Strange as it may seem, cancer appears to disable the human immune system in much the same way as a fertilized egg in a woman’s womb. Why doesn’t the body’s immune system treat a fertilized egg as a foreign invader and try to attack and kill it? Because somehow the immune system is turned off. Cancer cells are able to do much the same thing. Although the ability of women to carry a fertilized egg is pro-life and cancer is anti-life, it seems likely that both phenomena act in the same biochemical way.

Somehow, cancer turns off our body’s natural defenses. Many researchers believe the most promising response, therefore, is to find a way to turn those defenses back on. By way of encouragement, consider that “nearly everyone by middle-age or older is riddled with…cancer cells and precancerous cells” that do not develop into large tumors. Somehow our body’s natural defenses are keeping them at bay. Could those same defenses be employed to take on more challenging tasks?

That is a good way of thinking about the two new drugs that were announced last week. Rather than fight cancer the way we fight ordinary infections, fighting cancer by liberating the body’s natural immune system seems to have much greater promise.

By the way, in case you missed it, U.S. News & World Report’s annual survey of U.S. hospitals recently ranked the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston’s Texas Medical Center as the no. 1 cancer hospital in the country. Texas Children’s Hospital, which is literally across the street from M.D. Anderson in the Medical Center, is ranked as the no. 5 pediatric cancer hospital in the nation.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

June 15, 2010

On Leadership

If you read just one article this week, make it this one (H/T Mike at Crime & Federalism)  – William Deresiewicz’s lecture to the plebe class at the United States Military Academy at West Point last year. A snippet:

That’s really the great mystery about bureaucracies. Why is it so often that the best people are stuck in the middle and the people who are running things—the leaders—are the mediocrities?

Because excellence isn’t usually what gets you up the greasy pole. What gets you up is a talent for maneuvering. Kissing up to the people above you, kicking down to the people below you. Pleasing your teachers, pleasing your superiors, picking a powerful mentor and riding his coattails until it’s time to stab him in the back. Jumping through hoops. Getting along by going along. Being whatever other people want you to be, so that it finally comes to seem that, like the manager of the Central Station, you have nothing inside you at all. Not taking stupid risks like trying to change how things are done or question why they’re done. Just keeping the routine going.

I tell you this to forewarn you, because I promise you that you will meet these people and you will find yourself in environments where what is rewarded above all is conformity. I tell you so you can decide to be a different kind of leader. And I tell you for one other reason.

As I thought about these things and put all these pieces together—the kind of students I had, the kind of leadership they were being trained for, the kind of leaders I saw in my own institution—I realized that this is a national problem. We have a crisis of leadership in this country, in every institution. Not just in government. Look at what happened to American corporations in recent decades, as all the old dinosaurs like General Motors or TWA or U.S. Steel fell apart. Look at what happened to Wall Street in just the last couple of years. [.  .   .]

We have a crisis of leadership in America because our overwhelming power and wealth, earned under earlier generations of leaders, made us complacent, and for too long we have been training leaders who only know how to keep the routine going. Who can answer questions, but don’t know how to ask them. Who can fulfill goals, but don’t know how to set them. Who think about how to get things done, but not whether they’re worth doing in the first place. What we have now are the greatest technocrats the world has ever seen, people who have been trained to be incredibly good at one specific thing, but who have no interest in anything beyond their area of expertise. What we don’t have are leaders.

What we don’t have, in other words, are thinkers. People who can think for themselves. People who can formulate a new direction: for the country, for a corporation or a college, for the Army—a new way of doing things, a new way of looking at things. People, in other words, with vision.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

June 13, 2010

"You've lost. You just don't know it."

Posted by Tom at 7:40 AM | Comments (0) |

June 12, 2010

"This is your time!"

I’m not an avid hockey fan, but I always enjoy watching the Stanley Cup finals each year. The incredible effort and passion of hockey of playoff hockey is endearing even for the casual observer. I was a bit disappointed that the Flyers lost the Cup to the Blackhawks in Game Six the other night because I envisioned their coach giving a pre-Game Seven speech similar to the one below that Kurt Russell delivered as Herb Brooks in “Miracle,” the fine 2004 movie about the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey team. Russell should have garnered an Academy Award nomination for his performance. Enjoy.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

June 10, 2010

Are you an Asker or a Guesser?

According to Andrea Donderi, as described here by The Guardian’s Oliver Burkeman, it depends on the culture in which you were raised:

We are raised, the theory runs, in one of two cultures.

In Ask culture, people grow up believing they can ask for anything – a favour, a pay rise– fully realising the answer may be no.

In Guess culture, by contrast, you avoid "putting a request into words unless you're pretty sure the answer will be yes… A key skill is putting out delicate feelers. If you do this with enough subtlety, you won't have to make the request directly; you'll get an offer. Even then, the offer may be genuine or pro forma; it takes yet more skill and delicacy to discern whether you should accept."

Neither's "wrong", but when an Asker meets a Guesser, unpleasantness results. An Asker won't think it's rude to request two weeks in your spare room, but a Guess culture person will hear it as presumptuous and resent the agony involved in saying no.  .   .   .

This is a spectrum, not a dichotomy, and it explains cross-cultural awkwardnesses, too. Brits and Americans get discombobulated doing business in Japan, because it's a Guess culture, yet experience Russians as rude, because they're diehard Askers.

Applying this to legal education, my sense is that law schools try to develop Askers into trial lawyers, while the die-hard Guessers among law students probably gravitate toward non-litigation areas. Off hand, I cannot recall in my experience a particularly effective litigator who was anything other than an Asker. On the other hand, I know a number of good deal lawyers who are Guessers. What do you think?

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

June 9, 2010

The futility of regulating failure

David Warren makes a remarkably lucid point about the dubious notion that governmental action is the proper remedy to any wrong:

Politicians try to pass laws against it; to create rules and regulations so complex and cumbersome that (as we saw in the BP disaster) an easily-corrupted "judgement call" bureaucracy must grant exemptions from them, in order for anything to function at all. When disaster strikes, they add more rules and regulations.

But more profoundly, the rules and regulations -- once they pass a point of irreducible complexity -- create a mindset in which those who should be thinking about safety are instead focused on rules and regulations. To those who see danger, the glib answer comes, citing all the safety standards that have been diligently observed.

From what we already know, this appears to be exactly what happened aboard Deepwater Horizon, and will not be rectified by the U.S. government's latest, very political decision, to use means both fair and foul to prosecute British Petroleum, and punish the rest of the oil industry for its mistakes.

Let me mention in passing that President Barack Obama was in no way responsible for the catastrophe, and that there is nothing he can do about it. He is being held to blame for "inaction," as wrongly as his predecessor was held to blame over Hurricane Katrina, by media and public unable to cope with the proposition that, "Stuff happens."

In a sense, Obama is hoist on his own petard. The man who blames Bush for everything now finds there are some things presidents cannot do. More deeply, the opposition party that persuades the public government can solve all their problems, discovers once in power there are problems their government cannot solve.

Alas, it will take more time than they have to learn the next lesson: that governments which try to solve the insoluble, more or less invariably, make each problem worse.

I like to dwell on the wisdom of our ancestors. It took us millennia to emerge from the primitive notion that a malignant agency must lie behind every unfortunate experience. Indeed, the Catholic Church spent centuries fighting folk pagan beliefs in things like evil fairies, and the whole notion the Devil can compel any person to act against his will -- only to watch an explosion of witch-hunting and related popular hysterias at the time of the Reformation.

In so many ways, the trend of post-Christian society today is back to pagan superstitions: to the belief that malice lies behind every misfortune, and to the related idea that various, essentially pagan charms can be used to ward off that to which all flesh is heir. The belief that, for instance, laws can be passed, that change the entire order of nature, is among the most irrational of these.

Sheer human stupidity is the cause of any number of human catastrophes -- including the stupidity of superstition itself. We need to re-embrace this concept; to hug the native incompetence within ourselves, and begin forgiving it in others.

Amen.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (3) |

June 6, 2010

The wisdom of John Wooden

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (2) |

June 5, 2010

Lake Austin Spa Resort

Posted by Tom at 12:10 AM | Comments (0) |

June 4, 2010

More Kiri

Last week, it was West Side Story. This week, the incomparable Tiri Te Kanawa sings O mio babbino caro.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

June 1, 2010

Can psychiatry be a science?

Louis Menand’s New Yorker article earlier this year that reviewed a couple of new books on psychiatry in the context of the confusing state of psychiatric literature posed the compelling question that is the title of this post:

You go see a doctor. The doctor hears your story and prescribes an antidepressant. Do you take it?

However you go about making this decision, do not read the psychiatric literature. Everything in it, from the science (do the meds really work?) to the metaphysics (is depression really a disease?), will confuse you. There is little agreement about what causes depression and no consensus about what cures it. Virtually no scientist subscribes to the man-in-the-waiting-room theory, which is that depression is caused by a lack of serotonin, but many people report that they feel better when they take drugs that affect serotonin and other brain chemicals. [.  .  .]

.  .  . As a branch of medicine, depression seems to be a mess. Business, however, is extremely good. Between 1988, the year after Prozac was approved by the F.D.A., and 2000, adult use of antidepressants almost tripled. By 2005, one out of every ten Americans had a prescription for an antidepressant. IMS Health, a company that gathers data on health care, reports that in the United States in 2008 a hundred and sixty-four million prescriptions were written for antidepressants, and sales totalled $9.6 billion.

As a depressed person might ask, What does it all mean?

Following on that provocative article, Russ Roberts' essential EconTalk series this week presents this fascinating interview of Menand on the state of psychiatric knowledge and the scientific basis for making conclusions about current therapeutic approaches of battling it.

Although hard and fast conclusions are few, Menand is asking the right questions about a subject that desperately needs better societal understanding. His article and interview are valuable contributions to improving that understanding.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (3) |

May 31, 2010

I Feel Pretty

Kiri Te Kanawa does Leonard Bernstein's classic from West Side Story.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

May 30, 2010

The Music of the Night

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May 29, 2010

Carnac the Magnificent

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May 28, 2010

This just might make your day

Another Paul Potts? Self-developed talent is truly inspiring.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

May 27, 2010

Children of the Taliban

Another fascinating TED video.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

May 26, 2010

Fallon does Seinfeld

Pretty darn impressive.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

May 23, 2010

Getting ready to grill steaks?

Get some pointers on grilling those Memorial Day Weekend steaks from Epicurious.com’s Elizabeth Karmel.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

May 21, 2010

Iceland volcano time lapse

Check out Sean Stiegemeier's phenomenal piece of time-lapse photography.

Iceland, Eyjafjallajökull - May 1st and 2nd, 2010 from Sean Stiegemeier on Vimeo.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (2) |

May 16, 2010

What would Mao Zedong say?

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (1) |

May 14, 2010

The War on Drugs goes viral

The perverse damage that federal and state drug prohibition policies impose on American citizens and our neighbors has been a frequent topic on this blog over the years.

In this must-read Reason.com article, Radley Balko reviews how America’s drug prohibition policies are increasingly being used as a basis for conducting Gestapo-like raids on American citizens:

Last week, a Columbia, Missouri, drug raid captured on video went viral. As of this morning, the video had garnered 950,000 views on YouTube. It has lit up message boards, blogs, and discussion groups around the Web, unleashing anger, resentment and even, regrettably, calls for violence against the police officers who conducted the raid.

I've been writing about and researching these raids for about five years, including raids that claimed the lives of innocent children, grandmothers, college students, and bystanders. Innocent families have been terrorized by cops who raided on bad information, or who raided the wrong home due to some careless mistake. There's never been a reaction like this one.

But despite all the anger the raid has inspired, the only thing unusual thing here is that the raid was captured on video, and that the video was subsequently released to the press. Everything else was routine. Save for the outrage coming from Columbia residents themselves, therefore, the mass anger directed at the Columbia Police Department over the last week is misdirected.

Raids just like the one captured in the video happen 100-150 times every day in America. Those angered by that video should probably look to their own communities. Odds are pretty good that your local police department is doing the same thing.

Meanwhile, after suggesting on the campaign trail that drug prohibition policies needed to be changed, President Obama has cynically and hypocritically retreated and now supports the federal government’s drug prohibition policy. Meanwhile, the enormous costs of the dubious policy continue to pile up.

America’s War on Drugs is lost. It is way past time that we require our leaders to acknowledge that and end it. Their war has now become a war on us.

Update: Scott Henson has more.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (3) |

May 9, 2010

Passenger Side

One of the all-time great road songs, Passenger Side by Wilco.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

May 8, 2010

Dylan 1966

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (2) |

May 7, 2010

Hayes Carll “Beaumont”

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April 30, 2010

Cleese on how to irritate people

You think the TSA is irritating? John Cleese provides a lesson on how to really irritate people.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

April 29, 2010

Why do we do this to ourselves?

As we ponder how one governmental agency -- which couldn't uncover Bernie Madoff or Stanford Financial's sketchy affairs despite being told about them -- is going to make a fraud case against Goldman Sachs on a transaction between sophisticated investors who knew what was going on, let's check out another government agency's bumbling decision-making:

More than thirty organizations across the political spectrum have filed a formal petition with the Department of Homeland Security, urging the federal agency to suspend the airport body scanner program.

Leading security expert Bruce Schneier stated, "Body scanners are one more example of security theater.

Last year, the organizations asked Secretary Janet Napolitano to give the public an opportunity to comment on the proposal to expand the body scanner program. Secretary Napolitano rejected the request. Since that time, evidence has emerged that the privacy safeguards do not work and that the devices are not very effective.

"At this point, there is no question that the body scanner program should be shut down. This is the worst type of government boondoggle -- expensive, ineffective, and offensive to Constitutional rights and deeply held religious beliefs," said Marc Rotenberg, President of EPIC.

And if Bruce Schneier's opinion isn't good enough for you, take heed of what a leading security expert who is constantly on the front lines says about the scanners:

A leading Israeli airport security expert says the Canadian government has wasted millions of dollars to install "useless" imaging machines at airports across the country.

"I don't know why everybody is running to buy these expensive and useless machines. I can overcome the body scanners with enough explosives to bring down a Boeing 747," Rafi Sela told parliamentarians probing the state of aviation safety in Canada.

"That's why we haven't put them in our airport," Sela said, referring to Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion International Airport, which has some of the toughest security in the world.

Sela, former chief security officer of the Israel Airport Authority and a 30-year veteran in airport security and defence technology, helped design the security at Ben Gurion.

Despite what the experts say, he wasteful airport security process that we have allowed the Transportation Security Administration to impose on us continues unabated at a substantial direct cost and an even greater indirect one.

It's bad enough that the TSA's procedures do virtually nothing to discourage serious terrorist threats. What's worse is that the inspection process is really just "security theater" that makes only a few naive travelers feel safer about airline travel.

And if all that weren't bad enough, the worst news is that once a governmental "safeguard" such as the TSA procedures are adopted, Congress has no interest in dismantling it even when it's clear that process is ineffective, expensive and obtrusive to citizens. Stated simply, the TSA has become a jobs program for thousands of registered voters.

James Fallows sums up the absurdity of the situation well:

TSA + defense contractor + security theater vs Israeli expert + Schneier + common sense.

Hmmm, I don't know what to believe.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (4) |

April 28, 2010

Time for a quick trip around the art museum

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

April 26, 2010

A real bad mix

Regular readers of this blog know about the human carnage that results from abuse of the government’s prosecutorial power.

Also, the immense damage that overly-broad application of child predator laws is inflicting on many citizens has been a frequent topic on this blog.

But, as Bill Anderson has been chronicling over the past month in regard to the Tonya Craft case, when both of these dynamics are involved in a particular case, the results are so troubling that they seem surreal.

We like to think that we have evolved to a point at which witch hunts are no longer possible. But the truth is that we are still quite capable of mounting them.

As Ayn Rand observed about those who abuse state power to further their supposedly altruistic goals:

"[T]he truth about their souls is worse than the obscene excuse you have allowed them, the excuse that the end justifies the means and that the horrors they practice are means to nobler ends."

"The truth is that those horrors are their ends."

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

April 24, 2010

Touring the world in 80 seconds

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April 21, 2010

Representing society’s new lepers

The increasingly draconian application of child predator and pornography laws has been a frequent topic on this blog.

Norm Pattis does a good job of summarizing the ominous information that defense counsel should provide to defendants and their families face when ensnared in such a prosecution. The bottom line is that the prosecution itself and the usual resulting prison sentence is only the beginning of the defendant’s troubles. The aftermath is often even worse.

No one objects to putting away true child predators. But when the tough criminal laws that are used to imprison the child predators are turned against young people who made a mistake in an underage relationship or in viewing pornography, the stark penalties cause needless damage to lives, careers and families.

Organizations such as Texas Voices are informing the public of this tragic waste and the need for reform. It is a worthy cause for a constituency that has no political leverage. Consider lending them your support. 

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

April 17, 2010

Rickles roasts Governor Reagan

When Don Rickles got on a roll, he was very, very funny.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

April 11, 2010

The Pope and the NY Times

It all seems so clear, doesn’t it?

As this Laurie Goodstein/Michael Luo/NY Times article presents, Pope Benedict XVI and a chronically corrupt Roman Catholic Church have been complicit in the protection of child-abusing priests.

But as this William McGurn/WSJ op-ed notes, the Times’ reporters undisclosed feeding of information from plaintiff’s lawyers who have made a cottage industry out of suing the Catholic Church raises as many questions as the ones the Times raises about the church’s handling of the sex-abuse cases. As McGurn notes:

The man who is now pope reopened cases that had been closed; did more than anyone to process cases and hold abusers accountable; and became the first pope to meet with victims. Isn't the more reasonable interpretation of all these events that Cardinal Ratzinger's experience with cases like Murphy's helped lead him to promote reforms that gave the church more effective tools for handling priestly abuse?

Yeah, but reporting that would not sell as many newspapers. And also not comply with the objectives of undisclosed agendas.

Morality plays are comforting because they make it easy to identify and demonize the villains. The truth is usually more nuanced and complicated, but ultimately more fulfilling to understand and less likely to generate witch hunts.

Update: Father Raymond J. De Souza provides more insight into the Kiesle case.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (5) |

April 4, 2010

Underwater astonishments

David Gallo’s remarkable footage during his 2008 TED lecture.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

April 3, 2010

Could this persuade the Aggies to consider female cheerleaders?

The yell leaders could have some fun with this.

Update: Turns out that A&M does have female cheerleaders, albeit "competitive cheer" only. The squad is called the Texas A&M Competition Squad (http://competitionsquad.tamu.edu/).

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

April 2, 2010

Austin’s Carpie

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April 1, 2010

De Vany on PED’s, Diet and Exercise

When you have a free hour, don’t miss Russ Roberts’ fascinating EconTalk interview of Clear Thinkers favorite Art De Vany.

Performance enhancing drugs resulted in new records in baseball? Pure conjecture. More likely the records are simply the result of outliers.

The more exercise, the better? Nope. Intensity and randomness is the key to an effective exercise regimen. Forget the jogging.

We’re healthier than our ancestors? Not really, unless you’re watching your diet and controlling your insulin levels.

Provocative stuff.

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March 28, 2010

A stroke of insight

This is one of the most fascinating TED lectures. Brain researcher Jill Bolte Taylor describes the experience of having a stroke.

Update: Interestingly, a number of neuroscientists believe that Bolte Taylor's lecture is misleading. See here and here.

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March 26, 2010

The epic story of technology

Publisher of the Whole Earth Review and former Wired executive editor Kevin Kelly weaves the fascinating tale.

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March 21, 2010

Anna Netrebko - O mio babbino caro

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March 20, 2010

I’d like one of these

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March 14, 2010

50 Impressions in 50 Seconds

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March 13, 2010

Dragonfly escape

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March 12, 2010

Exposing the myth of American exceptionalism

Conrad Black’s prison routine allows him time to think and write, which is a good thing in view of the enormous waste that results from his dubious imprisonment.

This week Lord Black takes aim at the myth of American exceptionalism promoted in this recent Richard Lowry and Ramesh Ponnurus essay (Walter McDougall has examined the origins of this myth in detail in the first two books of his fine three-part series on American history). In challenging the myth, Lord Black takes dead aim at a common topic on this blog – the overcriminalization of American life:

The wages of this [Cold War] victory have included the stale-dating of the authors’ claim that America “is freer, more individualistic, more democratic, and more open and dynamic than any other nation on earth.” It is more dynamic because of its size, the torpor of Europe and Japan, and the shambles of Russia.

But Americans do not do themselves a favor by not recognizing the terrible erosion of their country’s education, justice, and political systems, the shortcomings of U.S. health care, the collapse of its financial industry, the flight of most of its manufacturing, and the steep and generally unlamented decline of its prestige.

.   .    .   Rampaging and often lawless prosecutors win 95 percent of their cases (compared to 55 percent in Canada), by softening the pursuit of some in exchange for inculpatory perjury against others, in the plea-bargain system. The U.S. has six to fourteen times as many imprisoned people as other advanced prosperous democracies, and they languish in a corrupt carceral system that retains as many people as possible for as long as possible. There are an astounding 47 million Americans with a “record,” and the country glories with unseemly glee in the joys of the death penalty. Due process and the other guarantees of individual rights of the Fifth, Sixth, and Eighth Amendments (such as the grand jury as any sort of assurance against capricious prosecution) scarcely exist in practice.

Most of the Congress is an infestation of paid-for legislators from rotten boroughs, representing the interests that finance their elections and exchanging earmarks with their colleagues like casbah hucksters.  .   .   .

Lord Black can sure still turn a phrase -- “casbah hucksters.” Ha!

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (9) |

March 10, 2010

Smartphone Etiquette

I’m routinely amazed at how oblivious some people are regarding their rude cell phone manners. So, the 5Across video conversation below on smartphone etiquette interested me.

However, what starts as a discussion about smartphone etiquette turns into a more engaging conversation on the various ways in which different people are processing information in their daily interactions with friends and co-workers.

Proper etiquette is pretty simple. But the way in which people of different social and work groups communicate with each other is not. Watch this fascinating discussion and discover why.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (2) |

March 9, 2010

The National Enquirer one ups the MSM

The Washington Post’s Paul Farhi makes the interesting point in this American Journalism Review op-ed that the biggest scandal in regard to the Tiger Woods affair may be that the National Enquirer tabloid newspaper did a better job of following proper journalistic procedures in breaking the scandal than much of the mainstream media did in follow-up reporting on it:

[National Enquirer Editor] Barry Levine finds himself surprised, appalled and somewhat amused by the way much of the mainstream media handled the Woods scandal. The Enquirer's original story, he notes, took months of reporting. It involved many hours of interviews, polygraph tests, stakeouts, document dives and travel. It was checked and re-checked.

But many members of the MSM, he notes, exercised no such care in reporting subsequent aspects of the story. "It would have taken us a couple of years to properly investigate each of these women's claims as thoroughly as we did the first" woman's, Levine says. "The stories were all over the place. There was just some outrageous coverage."

That's right. The editor of the National Enquirer doesn't think much of the way the "respectable" media covered Tiger Woods. Anyone paying close attention would concur that he has a point. It might be that the biggest scandal to come out of the Woods affair wasn't the one about a golfer. It was the one about the news media.

Meanwhile, The New York Times – that paragon of the mainstream media – is currently taking it on the chin around the blogosphere because one of its leading business reporters essentially doesn’t know what she is talking about in this article from over the weekend.

The blogosphere exposed the vacuous nature of how much of the mainstream media addressed complex issues. Now the tabloids are doing a better quality of reporting than many MSM publications on certain major stories. Will the mainstream media have any credibility or meaningful stature left when the reformation of how we process information is complete?

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

March 6, 2010

Colbert’s interview of Shaun White at the Olympics

"How much of your hair is Red Bull?"

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Shaun White
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Skate Expectations

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March 1, 2010

The Code

If this Larry Getlen/NY Post review of Jason Turbow and Michael Duca's new book The Baseball Codes: Beanballs, Sign Stealing, and Bench-Clearing Brawls: The Unwritten Rules of America's Pastime (Pantheon March 9, 2010) doesn’t get you in the mood for Major League Spring Training and the upcoming MLB season, then nothing will:

Unbeknownst to most outsiders, all aspects of baseball — from hitting, pitching, and baserunning to dealing with management and the media — are governed by the Code, a complex series of unwritten rules that have evolved since baseball's earliest days.

This Code, which the authors describe as "less strategic than moral," includes behavioral rules for common baseball situations; the punishment for flouting those rules; and the "omerta" that ballplayers must never, ever, discuss the rules of the Code outside the clubhouse. [.   .   .]

* Cardinal great Bob Gibson believed that the Code entitled him to knock down any batter who bested him with a grand slam. So when the Chicago Cubs Pete LaCock did just that, Gibson felt he owed him one — unfortunately, the homer came during Gibson's final game. Gibson finally took his revenge 15 years later, plugging LaCock in the back during an Old Timers Game.

* When the Yankees took on the Angels in 1987, the announcers discussed how Angels pitcher Don Sutton was scuffing the ball. Yankee owner George Steinbrenner, hearing this on TV, called Yankee manager Lou Piniella in a rage, demanding that the umpires inspect Sutton's glove. Piniella had to explain to the Boss, "The guy who taught Don everything he knows about cheating is pitching for us tonight. Want me to get Tommy John thrown out too?"

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February 28, 2010

Cutting up at the Mayo Clinic

I never knew that the lobby of the Mayo Clinic could be such an entertaining place.

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February 27, 2010

Crazy good ukulele

The amazing Jake Shimabukuro.

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February 21, 2010

Not in this weather

Mercedes-Benz contributes to the ongoing series of posts on creative commercials. Enjoy.

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February 18, 2010

Jamie Oliver’s TED Nutrition Talk

Jamie Oliver eloquently discusses the dire impact of our abysmal teaching about nutrition in the U.S. Check out also this lengthy Byran Appleyard/TimesOnline article on Art DeVany’s continuing research on the integration of good nutrition with sound exercise protocols. Good information for increasing the chances of enjoying a healthy life.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (2) |

February 15, 2010

The common sense of civil unions

This WaPo article from last week on a recent WaPo/ABC News poll was interesting:

.  .  . opinions nationwide remain closely divided, but two-thirds of all Americans now say gay and lesbian couples should be able to have the same rights as heterosexual couples through civil unions.

In a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, 47 percent say gay marriages should be legal, with 31 percent saying they feel that way "strongly." Intensity is stronger among opponents, however: overall, half say such marriages should be illegal, including 42 percent who say so strongly.

Civil unions draw broader support. Two-thirds now say they favor allowing gay and lesbian couples to form civil unions that would give them many of the same legal rights as married couples.

Frankly, this is one of those contentious political issues for which there appears to be a simple solution. But implementing the solution will take some clear thinking, which is in short supply these days in our legislative circles.

The bottom line is that the state has no business being involved in the “marriage business.” That should be left to churches, some of which will approve gay marriages and some of which will not.

On the other hand, the state should provide for civil unions between same-sex and opposite-sex couples to promote societal stability through conferring the same rights relating to property, family, inheritance, etc. that are presently conferred through the institution of civil marriage.

For practical and legal purposes, such civil unions would be the same as civil marriages. And, as the poll numbers above reflect, most folks don’t have a problem with providing the same contractual and legal rights to gay couples through civil unions as opposite-sex couples presently enjoy through civil marriage. However, because most states presently only provide for civil marriage, the use of the term “marriage” becomes a hot button issue that provokes needless opposition to the implementation of the civil union concept in regard to same-sex couples to promote legitimate societal interests.

Thus, the solution is to have the state get out of the marriage business entirely and provide civil unions to opposite-sex and and same-sex couples. Many couples would still choose to get married in religious ceremonies, which is fine. But a couple that does not have access to marriage in a church would no longer be deprived of the legal and contractual rights that most states presently confer upon only married couples.

It sure seems as if this solution would solve the primary legal issues relating to continued state bans on gay marriages. Moreover, it would relegate the debate on marriage between same-sex couples to the churches and extract it from the political arena.

What’s not to like about that?

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

February 14, 2010

Happy Valentine’s Day

The lads sure did exude charisma, don’t you think?

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February 6, 2010

Kuroshio Sea

Kuroshio Sea - 2nd largest aquarium tank in the world - (song is Please don't go by Barcelona) from Jon Rawlinson on Vimeo.

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February 3, 2010

How to complete a census

2010 is a census year, so it’s a good time to recall one of the best Saturday Night Live skits ever, Christopher Walken answering a census taker’s questions. Enjoy.

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February 1, 2010

The Thrilla in Manila

As we prepare for the media tedium this Super Bowl week, it is a good time to appreciate the SI Vault, Sports Illustrated’s wonderful web archive of outstanding sports stories from the past.

For example, check out this article by Mark Kram chronicling 1975’s Thrilla in Manila, the epic heavyweight championship fight between Muhammad Ali and his arch-nemesis, Joe Frazier. The following is his conclusion:

In his suite the next morning [the victorious Ali] talked quietly.

"I heard some-thin' once," he said. "When somebody asked a marathon runner what goes through his mind in the last mile or two, he said that you ask yourself, Why am I doin' this? You get so tired. It takes so much out of you mentally. It changes you. It makes you go a little insane. I was thinkin' that at the end. Why am I doin' this? What am I doin' in here against this beast of a man? It's so painful. I must be crazy.”

“I always bring out the best in the men I fight, but Joe Frazier, I'll tell the world right now, brings out the best in me. I'm gonna tell ya, that's one helluva man, and God bless him."

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January 30, 2010

At one time, the NY Times was an interesting place to work

From Big Think, Guy Talese wonders how on earth he and his co-workers at the New York Times ever got the paper to publication:

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January 27, 2010

Positively 4th Street

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January 25, 2010

Visiting Florence

Regular readers of this blog know that I've been traveling to Florence, Italy frequently over the past year to visit my son Andy, who is attending the Angel Academy of Art there. Here is slideshow of photos from that beautiful city with musical accompaniment from Alison Krauss and Robert Plant. Enjoy!

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January 23, 2010

There’s a Light Beyond These Woods

The incomparable Nanci Griffith.

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January 22, 2010

Sharp cheddar

In our continuing series of splendidly creative commercials, check out this one for Norm’s Cheddar (H/T Bill Hesson):

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January 13, 2010

Game, Set, Match -- Houston

O.K., so the Cowboys are doing alright so far in this season’s NFL playoffs and the Texans, as usual, are in their annual “wait until next season” mode.

But there are other areas in which Houston simply throttles Dallas, hands down.

For example, in connection with its mandate to promote Houston, the Greater Houston Convention and Visitor’s Bureau released the video below late last year. Featuring the edgy local band The TonTons, the video does a very nice job of providing an attractive introduction to Houston:

But I didn’t realize just how good the GHCVB’s video was until I came across the abominable video below that the City of Dallas recently produced for the Professional Convention Management Association:

Key tip to Dallas – you are trying way too hard.

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January 12, 2010

Girl from the North Country

From the Johnny Cash Show of May 1, 1969, Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash.

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January 10, 2010

Homer Simpson’s Top Ten List

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January 5, 2010

Understanding Adoption

One of the most discouraging aspects of the societal tide of resentment and scapegoating that has permeated the corporate criminal prosecutions since the demise of Enron has been the utter lack of perspective regarding the horrendous human cost of those prosecutions.

Even the horrendous financial cost of those prosecutions seems easier to confront.

A stark example of the human cost is what happened to Ken Lay's family, who endured the decline of a loving father and grandfather as he defended himself against dubious charges that in a less-heated climate would likely never have been pursued.

Equally barbaric is the reprehensible 24-year prison sentence assessed to former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling, whose family has been deprived of their father for over three years now and is threatened to be without him for most of the rest of his life.

But the family that arguably paid the steepest cost from the wave of unjust corporate prosecutions was the family of Jamie Olis, the former mid-level Dynegy executive who was thrown to the prosecutorial wolves by his employer and then sentenced to a ludicrously excessive 24 plus-year prison term for his involvement in a structured finance transaction for which he profited not one dime.

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ultimately threw out that sentence, which resulted in a still-too-harsh six-year re-sentencing. Olis was finally paroled last year and reunited with his wife and young daughter, who literally grew up visiting her father in prison.

But even in the face of such inhumanity, the human spirit perseveres.

Throughout the Olis family's ordeal, Jamie's father -- Bill Olis -- stood out as a rock of stability and common sense.

Whether it was attending the myriad of hearings in Jamie's case in Houston, or escorting Jamie's wife and daughter the hundreds of miles to visit Jamie in far-off prisons, or lending moral support to other families who were enduring similar injustices, Bill Olis projected a sense of calm perspective that was contagious to all who came in contact with him.

He had much to be bitter about in regard to what the federal government did to his son and family, but Bill Olis never gave in to bitterness. He was a quintessential Christian gentleman and nothing that the government did to his family could change that.

Throughout his son's darkest times, Bill remained confident that he and his family would ultimately be reunited with Jamie. Yeah, the government is powerful, but no earthly force was going to destroy Bill Olis' family.

As a result, Ellen Podgor of the White Collar Crime Prof Blog re-named her "Collar for the Best Parent Award" to the "Bill Olis Best Parent Award" because -- in the category of a parent supporting an imprisoned child -- "no one comes close to Bill Olis."

What was not well known through all of this was that Bill Olis was slowly fading away physically during his son's imprisonment. Bill had an oxygen unit with him almost constantly as he tended to his family's needs throughout their ordeal. No big deal for Bill. Mere failing health was not going to stop Bill Olis from being present when his son was released from prison last year. He was there embracing Jamie with the rest of the family, oxygen tank and all.

With the work of reuniting his son with his family done, Bill Olis died over this past weekend. I understand from a family friend that Jamie was able to spend most of Bill's final two weeks with him, which I know Bill enjoyed immensely. He adored his son.

The Olis family story is a remarkable one and frankly far more interesting than the government's dishonest case against Jamie. Years ago, Bill Olis married a single Korean mother and adopted her young son. He provided his wife and son a stable and loving home, and the family flourished. His son excelled in school, obtained advanced degrees in both business and law, and embarked upon a successful career in corporate finance. And when the government targeted the son as a sacrificial lamb for the anti-business mob, Bill Olis spent his last days in this world supporting his son every step of the way and making sure that he returned to his wife and daughter.

Then he passed away.

A Christian minister friend once observed to me that a good way to embrace what is good about the Christian spirit is through understanding the nature of adoption.

Bill Olis was living proof of the truth of that observation.

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January 2, 2010

The Duke

A good way to start the new year -- Duke Ellington and Take the "A" Train.

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January 1, 2010

The Dude abides in academia

Somehow, it's comforting to know as we move into 2010 that analysis of The Big Lebowski has moved into academic circles.

Of course, these emerging academic treatments have a ways to go before they can rival Rob Ager's work on the film, the first installment of which can be viewed here.

Meanwhile, if you don't mind some pretty salty language, enjoy the clip below of the Dude and his friends discussing what to do about his rug.

Happy New Year!

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

December 29, 2009

Thinking about security theater

Given the Homeland Security Department and Transportation Security Administration's typically over-the-top reaction (see also here) to the Christmas Day attempt to blow up a jet flying into Detroit from Amsterdam, one wonders at what point the government's elaborate "security theater" will finally make flying so miserable that it will choke the life out of the U.S. airline industry? Professor Bainbridge provides a good roundup of the blogosphere's discussion of that and related issues.

The latest incident also reminded me of this prophetic Bruce Schneier post from about a month ago. Schneier does the best job that I've read of explaining why a balance between legitimate and symbolic is helpful in deterring terrorism, but that most of Homeland Security's security theater is utterly misguided, as well as a waste of time and resources.

The entire post is excellent, but two points he makes are particularly important.

First, Schneier observes that the governmental impulse "to do something" in response to an attack is mostly misdirected:

Often, this 'something' is directly related to the details of a recent event: we confiscate liquids, screen shoes, and ban box cutters on aeroplanes. But it's not the target and tactics of the last attack that are important, but the next attack. These measures are only effective if we happen to guess what the next terrorists are planning .   .   . Terrorists don't care what they blow up and it shouldn't be our goal merely to force the terrorists to make a minor change in their tactics or targets  .   .   .

Even more importantly, Schneier points out that the right kind of security theater -- that is, the best way to counteract the damage that terrorism attempts to inflict upon all of us -- is to act as if we are not scared of it:

The best way to help people feel secure is by acting secure around them. Instead of reacting to terrorism with fear, we -- and our leaders -- need to react with indomitability.

By not overreacting, by not responding to movie-plot threats, and by not becoming defensive, we demonstrate the resilience of our society, in our laws, our culture, our freedoms. There is a difference between indomitability and arrogant 'bring 'em on' ehetoric. There's a difference between accepting the inherent risk that comes with a free and open society, and hyping the threats .   .   .

Despite fearful rhetoric to the contrary, terrorism is not a transcendent threat. A terrorist attack cannot possibly destroy a country's way of life; it's only our reaction to that attack that can do that kind of damage.

Schneier is spot on. Rather than making air travel increasingly distasteful, Homeland Security and the TSA ought to be encouraging Americans to spit in the terrorists' collective eye by traveling even more by air under reasonably tolerable and legitimate security arrangements.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

December 27, 2009

Accord Perfection

In the continuing series of remarkable commercials, Honda chips in.

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December 25, 2009

The Light in the Darkness

Every Christmas since 1949, The Wall Street Journal has published the following op-ed -- In Hoc Anno Domini -- from the late Vernon Royster.

Royster's piece reminds us not only the the brutal nature of life in the Roman Empire, but the extraordinary impact that Judeo-Christian culture has had over the past two thousand years in improving the quality of life.

We take it for granted at our peril.

So the light came into the world.

When Saul of Tarsus set out on his journey to Damascus the whole of the known world lay in bondage. There was one state, and it was Rome. There was one master for it all, and he was Tiberius Caesar.

Everywhere there was civil order, for the arm of the Roman law was long. Everywhere there was stability, in government and in society, for the centurions saw that it was so.

But everywhere there was something else, too. There was oppression—for those who were not the friends of Tiberius Caesar. There was the tax gatherer to take the grain from the fields and the flax from the spindle to feed the legions or to fill the hungry treasury from which divine Caesar gave largess to the people. There was the impressor to find recruits for the circuses. There were executioners to quiet those whom the Emperor proscribed. What was a man for but to serve Caesar?

There was the persecution of men who dared think differently, who heard strange voices or read strange manuscripts. There was enslavement of men whose tribes came not from Rome, disdain for those who did not have the familiar visage. And most of all, there was everywhere a contempt for human life. What, to the strong, was one man more or less in a crowded world?

Then, of a sudden, there was a light in the world, and a man from Galilee saying, Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's.

And the voice from Galilee, which would defy Caesar, offered a new Kingdom in which each man could walk upright and bow to none but his God. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. And he sent this gospel of the Kingdom of Man into the uttermost ends of the earth.

So the light came into the world and the men who lived in darkness were afraid, and they tried to lower a curtain so that man would still believe salvation lay with the leaders.

But it came to pass for a while in divers places that the truth did set man free, although the men of darkness were offended and they tried to put out the light. The voice said, Haste ye. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness come upon you, for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.

Along the road to Damascus the light shone brightly. But afterward Paul of Tarsus, too, was sore afraid. He feared that other Caesars, other prophets, might one day persuade men that man was nothing save a servant unto them, that men might yield up their birthright from God for pottage and walk no more in freedom.

Then might it come to pass that darkness would settle again over the lands and there would be a burning of books and men would think only of what they should eat and what they should wear, and would give heed only to new Caesars and to false prophets. Then might it come to pass that men would not look upward to see even a winter's star in the East, and once more, there would be no light at all in the darkness.

And so Paul, the apostle of the Son of Man, spoke to his brethren, the Galatians, the words he would have us remember afterward in each of the years of his Lord:

Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

December 24, 2009

Merry Christmas from the Family

It wouldn't be Christmas in Texas without taking a moment to listen to Texas singer-songwriter and Houston native Robert Earl Keen's classic Texas Christmas carol and video, Merry Christmas from the Family Keen is playing the House of Blues at 8 p.m. on Monday.

Have a restful, joyous and safe holiday!

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

December 23, 2009

To Everything There is a Season

Still sounding darn good in 2006, Roger McGuinn, Chris Hillman and David Crosby sing Pete Seeger's classic that The Byrds made famous in the 1960's, Turn! Turn! Turn!

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December 13, 2009

Beauty is nothing without brains

Below is another in the continuing series of commercials that represent some of the most creative product on television.

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December 11, 2009

Junior Brown

One of the best shows that I've attended during my almost 40 years in Texas is one by Austin's Junior Brown.

In addition to being arguably Texas' most gifted guitarist, Junior performs an amazing breadth of material that spans Country-Western, Rock and Roll, the Blues and Surf music.

Below are videos of two of his classic country western songs -- My Wife Thinks Your Dead and Highway Patrol -- and, after the fold, a recording of 409 by Junior and the Beach Boys, plus another of his special medley of rock songs, which includes his spot-on imitation of Jimi Hendrix's Purple Haze (!) at around minute six or so.

Junior Brown is a Texas treasure. Enjoy.

 

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

December 9, 2009

The Real Tiger Tragedy

Watching the carnage unfold from the Tiger Woods affair is a bit like watching a train wreck in slow motion.

A train wreck unfolding with hyper-speed commentary from modern social media, that is.

The affair is a tragedy on several levels, from the public humiliation of Woods' wife to the distinct prospect of job losses in the reeling Woods' business empire (see also here). We should all have sympathy for those who are caught in this cauldron of insecurity resulting from Woods' appalling arrogance and irresponsibility.

But in so saying, it is not my purpose to pile on with more harsh criticism of Woods. The only time I have met Woods was back in the mid-1990's when he was attending Stanford and was in Houston practicing at Lochinvar Golf Club with his then-coach, Butch Harmon, who at that time was the head pro at the club.

When Butch introduced us, Woods could not have been more gracious. He thanked me as a club member for allowing him to practice at such a fine facility. My enduring thought of that brief encounter is that Woods' parents did a very fine job of raising him.

Frankly, the type of societal ridicule that Woods and his family are enduring always makes me a bit uncomfortable. As noted years ago in connection with the death of Ken Lay, the preoccupation with Woods' troubles is a palpable reminder of the fragile nature of the individual and civil society. The vulnerability that underlies our innate human insecurity is scary to behold, so we use myths and the related dynamics of scapegoating and resentment to distract us. We rationalize that a wealthy athlete did bad things that we would never do if placed in the same position (yeah, right) and thus, he is deserving of our scorn and ridicule. That the scapegoat is portrayed as arrogant and irresponsible makes the lynch mob even more bloodthirsty as it attempts to purge collectively that which is too shameful for us to confront individually.

In my experience, people in the public eye are often quite different in the context of a personal relationship than they are perceived publicly. That certainly could be the case with Woods, who people close to the PGA Tour tell me gets along quite well with most of his fellow Tour players. The same cannot be said about a number of other top Tour players from previous eras.

Similarly, the public scrutiny that Woods' private life is currently enduring exceeds anything that a major sports figure has ever had to deal with (the Woods affair has been on the front page of the New York Daily News for the past ten days straight!). Arnold Palmer -- a far more charismatic sportsman than Woods who is one of the few to rival Woods' wealth and business empire -- candidly admitted several years ago that, during his early days of success on the Tour, he had been less than completely faithful to his beloved late wife, Winnie. Although Palmer was never as indiscrete or arrogant as Woods has been, Palmer was also never subjected to the type of media scrutiny that Woods has endured. The media simply handled such things differently in Palmer's heyday.

Moreover, Woods has been unfairly criticized for his behavior since the scandal broke open on the early morning after Thanksgiving. As I noted on Twitter on the Sunday morning after his early Friday morning car wreck, Woods' silence has been absolutely essential and appropriate to the protection of his family and himself. Although none of us know what really happened leading up to Woods' car wreck, Woods and his wife clearly faced at least the distinct possibility of serious criminal charges.

Under those circumstances, any competent lawyer would have advised Woods and his wife to refrain from saying anything to the police or publicly, as many public relations "experts" were proposing that they do. The bottom line is that Woods has done -- and continues to do -- the right thing by remaining silent.

On the other hand, Woods and his business team have their work cut out for them in attempting to stem the damage to the billion dollar Woods business empire resulting from the affair and the societal reaction to it. Woods' main sponsors have stood by him so far, and I suspect that Nike -- his main sponsor from the beginning of his career -- will continue to support him.

But that Woods' sponsors are staying with him now does not mean that they are going to renew their contractual arrangements with him.

You see, Woods has earned most of that billion dollar net worth by parleying his nearly unrivaled record of excellence on the golf course to sponsors who have wanted to associate with that excellence.

What will those sponsors do -- particularly in fast-changing and dynamic advertising markets -- when excellence they previously associated with has been transformed into a joke?

That, my friends, is literally uncharted territory.

Finally, in one key respect, Woods' ordeal is similar to the one that former federal district judge Sam Kent endured over the past couple of years.

That is, how did the life of one of the most phenomenal athletes of our time come to this?

Where were Woods' "friends" who knew about his risky behavior and his thinly-veiled insecurities that were manifested in such behavior?

Why did these "friends" not intervene and help him before it was too late?

The reality is that Tiger Woods may not have any real friends.

And that might just be the saddest tragedy of this entire sordid affair.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (2) |

December 8, 2009

Society's New Lepers

The increasingly draconian nature of child pornography laws in the U.S. has been a frequent topic on this blog over the years.

In an effort to punish child predators, the laws have become so broadly interpreted and enforced that many citizens have become branded as child predators and forced to serve long prison sentences merely as a result of viewing child pornography.

Even after serving severe sentences, the victims of this modern day witch hunt are demonized further by being branded as child predators for life and prevented by law from living in anything but the least desirable neighborhoods in many communities.

As this NPR/All Things Considered article (H/T Doug Berman) explains, a Florida minister is trying to do something constructive for the society's new lepers:

More than 20 states, including Florida, limit where convicted sex offenders can live — keeping them away from schools, parks and other places where children congregate.

In Miami, dozens of homeless sex offenders live under a bridge because there are few, if any, options nearby. But 90 miles away, there's a community dedicated to housing sex offenders. [.  .  .]

This is the church at Miracle Park, a community mostly made up of sex offenders. Dick Witherow is their pastor. [.  .  .]

Witherow once had a ranch for sex offenders in Okeechobee County. But zoning law changes forced that facility to close. His search for another spot brought him here, to a small community he renamed Miracle Park. It's a collection of duplexes about 3 miles east of the town of Pahokee, in rural Palm Beach County.

It's surrounded on every side by sugar cane fields. About 40 of those living there now are sex offenders. [.  .  .]

Witherow has authored a book about sex offenders called The Modern Day Leper. He says he could have worn the same label as the men at Miracle Park. He was 18 years old when he met his first wife. She was just 14, and before long she was pregnant. A judge allowed them to get married but told Witherow he could have been charged with statutory rape.

"If that would have happened in today's society, I would have been charged with sexual battery on a minor, been given anywhere from 10 to 25 years in prison, plus extended probation time after that, and then been labeled a sex offender," he says.

Witherow knows that there are those who argue that's what should have happened.

Something to think about during a season that celebrates the birth of a savior who embraced the lepers of his day.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

December 6, 2009

"I hate rude behavior in a man. Won't tolerate it."

Below is the latest In the continuing series of excellent scenes (previous here and here) from the outstanding television mini-series of Larry McMurtry's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Lonesome Dove.

In this one, Tommy Lee Jones as Capt. Woodrow F. Call delivers one of the most frightening beatings in the history of cinema to a scout for a U.S. Army troop who attempts to take by force a horse from one of Call's men. That's Houston's Danny Kamin playing the part of the U.S. Army Captain who directs his men to gather up what's left of the scout after Call is done with him.

The title to this post -- which is Call's brief post-beating explanation to the dumbfounded townsfolk of the reason for his rather drastic action -- is my wife's and my favorite line from the movie.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (2) |

December 5, 2009

Opera Krispies

As noted several times over the years, some of the most creative product generated for television are commercials. And as this Rice Krispies commercial from the 1960's reflects, creativity in commercials is not a new phenomena.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

December 4, 2009

Shelby Foote

I would enjoy listening to the late Shelby Foote reading a phone book.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

December 2, 2009

"But not me"

My favorite novel of the late Kurt Vonnegut is Slaughterhouse Five, the haunting, semi-biographical story of a U.S. prisoner-of-war who endured the Allied fire-bombing of Dresden, Germany near the end of World War II.

I was reminded of Vonnegut and his fine novel by one of the most interesting sites that I've come across this year -- Letters of Note, which passes along "correspondence deserving of a wider audience."

This Letters of Note post provides Vonnegut's first letter to his parents that got through to the U.S. after he had been captured by the Nazis in 1944 and then freed by the Russians in 1945. It is a fascinating tale of his capture, the suffering he and his fellow prisoners endured as POW's, and his almost as harrowing repatriation.

An appropriate story to reflect upon as our federal government commits even more of our soldiers to a far off land.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

November 29, 2009

The Minstrel Boy

The masterful Danny Quinn. Enjoy.

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November 27, 2009

Ditching in the Hudson River

This is a pretty darn impressive computer reconstruction of US Airways 1549's emergency landing in the Hudson River earlier this year.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

November 26, 2009

Turkey Day Carving

For all you turkey carvers, check out the instructions above, this interesting article and this great NY Times video to get the most meat out of your turkey.

Carve away!

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

November 22, 2009

Saturday Night Dinner

My talented wife's lovely salad with a glass of Aymara Merlot Reserve 2006 (Argentina). Delightful!

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

November 21, 2009

Gus Dies

Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove is one of the best Texas novels of our time. The Pulitzer Prize-winning novel was later made into a wonderful television mini-series, which starred Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones as the iconic former Texas Rangers, Gus McRae and Woodrow Call.

One of the best scenes from the mini-series -- and arguably one of the best scenes ever produced for television -- is the scene in which Gus dies after being badly injured in an Indian ambush. After searching for his missing friend, Call finds Gus in a doctor's office after Gus has had one of his gangrene-infected legs amputated. Rather than have his other infected leg amputated, Gus elects to die.

Two old friends -- played by brilliant actors at the top of their game -- have a final conversation. Television has never been better. Enjoy.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

November 19, 2009

Pranav Mistry on SixthSense Technology

The link to the video on the TED site is here.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

November 15, 2009

Sound of Silence

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November 14, 2009

Homeward Bound

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November 10, 2009

Too Big Even to Consider Failing

As with many folks in the financial and legal world, I'm finishing up Andrew Ross Sorkin's entertaining new best-seller, Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System---and Themselves (Viking 2009). Clear Thinkers favorite Arnold Kling has the best analysis of the book that I've read to date:

Reading the book leads me to ponder the differences between Chauffered America--Hollywood, investment bankers, and high government officials--and Strip Mall America--people who launch businesses like restaurants, hair salons, and other small enterprises. [.  .  .]

The obvious sociological point is that the top finance people live in a bubble, with secret entrances, isolated offices, chauffered automobiles, and private jets. Even the top government officials inhabit this world. Sorkin describes Geithner arriving at the airport in DC and losing it over not being met by a driver. Forced to take a taxi, Geithner turns to his colleague and says that he has no cash. Perhaps this would have been a moment to teach the head of the New York Fed how to use an ATM. [.  .  .]

I do not see how reading this book can help but reinforce a Simon Johnson/James Kwak view of Washington captured by Wall Street. Paulson seems to have no use for anyone who is not a Goldman Sachs alumnus. Geithner seems to have no use for anyone who is not a CEO of a large financial institution. Both of them view the collapse of major Wall Street firms as Armageddon.

The "regulatory overhaul" promised by the Obama Administration is still the same-old, same-old. Chauffered America will be restored to its exalted status, with a few new rules and regulations thrown in.

Instead, somebody should be asking the deeper question about Chauffered America. If Chauffered America were to disappear, would the rest of us miss it? Or could Strip Mall America get along just fine without the big-time bankers and their friends in government?

One comes away from the book with the conclusion that the primary purpose of the government and corporate leaders involved in resolving the crisis was to maintain the elitist culture of Wall Street with regard to financial matters, while at all times making sure that the government protected the maximum number of the folks making the bad bets from ever having to endure the true extent of the risk that they took in placing those bets. That's why things like this happened.

As I noted after the demise of Lehman Brothers last fall, resolving the crisis was not rocket science. Sorkin's book establishes that the leaders who were calling the shots were never going to let on that such was the case.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

November 8, 2009

An amazing Amazing Grace for a Sunday

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November 7, 2009

Customer service

Robert Duvall -- in his classic role of former Texas Ranger Gus McCrae in Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove -- reminds a bartender the importance of good customer service.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

November 6, 2009

Dylan does Christmas

Andrew Ferguson is not impressed with Bob Dylan or his new Christmas CD:

The production and packaging are professional. The band is competent in a midnight-at-the-Nashville Hyatt sort of way--maybe a little heavy on the tremolo but still. And the songs themselves are fine, of course. The arrangements, though, are jarringly slick, with sleigh bells and gossamer strings and cooing girl singers--as if Dylan had chosen to lift the backing tracks from an Andy Williams Christmas special circa 1968. Oozing just beneath his asthmatic croak, the arrangements give an effect of overwhelming creepiness. His voice gets worse with every track. You wonder whether someone left the karaoke machine on in the emphysema ward at the old folks' home. He doesn't sing notes so much as make exhausted gestures in their general direction, until at a break he falls silent and is rescued by the backup singers, who reestablish the melody in the proper key. But then he starts singing again.

Yeah well, maybe ol' Bob blew the Christmas CD. But even at the age of 50 in the video below from almost 20 years ago, Dylan could still rock with the best of them -- Roger McGuinn, Tom Petty, Neil Young, Eric Clapton and the late George Harrison. Enjoy.

Neil Young,Dylan... My Back Pages
Uploaded by ivaxavi. - Music videos, artist interviews, concerts and more.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (2) |

November 1, 2009

Secret Agent Man

One of the most underappreciated rockers from the 60's, Johnny Rivers.

Posted by Tom at 4:58 AM | Comments (0) |

October 31, 2009

Jonathon Winters' Stick

Before Robin Williams and Jim Carrey, there was Jonathon Winters. Enjoy.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

October 28, 2009

The Prisoner's Dilemma

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October 25, 2009

Chris Rock provides key advice

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October 20, 2009

Kramer's Entrances

Every single Kramer entrance from Seinfeld, in chronological order, in a little over six minutes. Enjoy!

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

October 13, 2009

Gameday Saturday in Death Valley

I went over to Baton Rouge this past Saturday with my friend John Stevenson and his family to visit my old friend Dan McCarney -- who is now the Assistant Head Coach of the Florida Gators -- and to attend the SEC showdown between the 4th-ranked LSU Tigers and the no. 1 ranked Gators. The Gators won 13-3 in a defensive slugfest.

Gameday Saturday in Baton Rouge is a special cultural event. The entire state of Louisiana -- which produces more NFL players per capita than any state in the U.S. -- takes special pride in its flagship university and its football team. A record Tiger Stadium crowd of over 93,000 attended the game, but tens of thousands more milled around outside the stadium in hundreds of tailgating parties (which feature splendid Cajun and New Orleans-inspired cuisine) spread throughout the campus.

The atmosphere for a big Saturday night football game is so intimidating for the opposition that the stadium was nicknamed "Death Valley" years ago. The Florida win on Saturday night snapped a 32-game winning streak for LSU in Saturday night games at Death Valley.

Here is slideshow that will give you a glimpse of Gameday Saturday in Baton Rouge. It is one the special experiences in college football. Enjoy!

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

October 11, 2009

Dylan’s Best

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October 10, 2009

My favorite rock video

The legendary Roy Orbison, the Boss and James Burton collaborate on one of the best.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

October 9, 2009

Stairway to Heaven

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October 6, 2009

Chris Rock on Roman Polanski, Michael Vick and dogs

Posted by Tom at 12:01 PM | Comments (1) |

October 3, 2009

Capitalism is Michael Moore's megaphone

Larry Ribstein, who has written extensively about filmmakers' generally negative views toward business -- zeroes in on the irony of Michael Moore's new reductionist documentary on the evils of capitalism:

The irony is that many of these films could not reach a wide audience if not for their backing by – yes, capitalists. [.  .  .]

Capitalism is easy to knock because it produces losers that artists can juxtapose with winners. It gets bad press compared to alternatives like socialism that produces less social wealth but also less envy and resentment. The irony is that some of the biggest winners are also the biggest whiners. Only capitalism enables the dissemination of any ideas that anybody wants to hear. Capitalism gives Michael Moore his megaphone.

It's almost enough to make me an anti-capitalist.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

October 2, 2009

Compared to What

The incomparable Les McCann and Eddie Harris perform one of their signature hits from their great live album of the early 1970's.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

September 30, 2009

Fearless Critic 2010 is here

The best local restaurant evaluation guide -- Fearless Critic Houston Restaurant Guide 2010 -- is now available. The brutally honest restaurant guide is put together by a group of undercover local critics who "dine incognito, don't accept freebies, and don't pull punches" in rating a cross-section of 450 restaurants in the Houston metropolitan area.

Da Marco, Tony's and Catalan take the top three spots this time around (the guide is published every other year), but one of the aspects about Fearless Critic that I most enjoy is that it rates restaurants based upon the quality of the food relative to cost, so many not-so-high-priced restaurants rate far better than many expensive restaurants. For example, Huynh, a relatively inexpensive Vietnamese restaurant in downtown, comes in at 7th in the rankings.

You won't always agree with their evaluations, but the Fearless Critics make their case well. It's definitely worth the eleven buck cost currently on Amazon. Check it out.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (2) |

September 27, 2009

Leaving Italy during a Tuscan Sunset

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September 26, 2009

Breakfast on Via dei Neri

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September 25, 2009

Porta San Niccolò

As seen from a patio of Museo Pietro Annigoni at Villa Bardini on Costa San Giorgio in Florence.

Posted by Tom at 12:37 AM | Comments (0) |

September 24, 2009

Mime outside the Uffizi Gallery

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September 23, 2009

Gelato Carabe on Via Ricasoli

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September 22, 2009

The Duomo from San Marco

The dome of Florence’s Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore from inside the former Dominican convent, Museo di San Marco.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

September 21, 2009

Basilica di San Lorenzo

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September 20, 2009

Florence at Dusk

As seen from the Piazzale Michelangelo.

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September 19, 2009

San Gaetano

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September 18, 2009

San Miniato

The view of the San Miniato Church and Piazzale Michelangelo overlooking Florence, Italy from the Ponte alle Grazie Bridge.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

September 17, 2009

Pizzeria I Tarocchi, Florence, Italy

Prosciutto and Mushroom Pizza from one of Florence’s best pizzerias. Pure heaven for around ten bucks.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

September 12, 2009

Townes, Pancho & Lefty

The late Townes Van Zandt tells how he met Pancho & Lefty in Brenham.

And almost 10 years later, he delivers arguably his best television performance of his legendary song:

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

September 8, 2009

Understanding storytelling

When young attorneys ask me how they can become more effective advocates in the courtroom, I usually tell them: "Become better at telling stories."

Several years ago, Derek Sivers interviewed the late Kurt Vonnegut, who was no slouch as a storyteller. Check out Vonnegut's views on story-telling, which he believed promotes the need for drama in people's lives.

Essential reading for anyone who seeks to persuade.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

September 7, 2009

Love at the Five and Dime

Born in Seguin and now of Austin, the great Texas singer-songwriter, Nanci Griffith.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

September 6, 2009

Confession and Avoidance

As our own country confronts the difficult issues involved in conducting war, it seems appropriate to recall the closing defense argument in one of the all-time great lawyer movies, Breaker Morant.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

September 5, 2009

Crunchy excellence

Continuing on the thread of creative advertising, check out this brilliant series of Cinnamon Toast Crunch commercials by McCann Erickson/Campbell Mithun.

 

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

September 2, 2009

Tecumseh Valley

The incomparable Nanci Griffith sings a classic song by the late, great Texas songwriter, Towne Van Zandt.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

September 1, 2009

County Fair, L.A. style

Yet another example of how commercials (see earlier examples here) are providing some of the most creative product on television(H/T Glenn Reynolds ):

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

August 29, 2009

The Five Minute University

Food for thought from Father Guido Sarducci to collegians starting the new school year.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

August 26, 2009

Re-tracing Graham Greene's journey across Mexico

In the first of a series of upcoming blog posts that will interest most Texans, The Atlantic's Graeme Wood addresses many of the difficult issues facing Mexico that have been a frequent topic on this blog. Wood is re-tracing the journey across Mexico of Graham Greene of The Lawless Roads fame seventy years ago:

Seventy years ago, Graham Greene crossed the US-Mexican border into a land blighted by violence, unrest, insurgency, and religious and counter-religious mayhem. If he came back today he would find a country riven by other forces, but in some ways just as chaotic, and just as worthy of the title he gave his account of the journey, The Lawless Roads.

The news out of Mexico is all bad. When I was a kid, my parents and I went across the border at Reynosa, Matamoros, and Tijuana to take awkwardly posed photos on the backs of burros, buy cheap Kahlúa, and eat frog-legs at Garcia's. Now the drug war has re-ignited, the rules of engagement between police and crime syndicates have changed, and the environment has become more savage. The government of Felipe Calderon has challenged the narco-traffickers and has militarized the border. Garcia's is still open, but tourists have vanished. College kids don't head down here from South Padre so much, which is a good indicator of the downturn, because they are college students, and that Kahlúa was awfully cheap. There are serious questions of whether Mexico is becoming that scariest of things, a military state in only partial control -- i.e., a Latin American Pakistan.

Only some of the drama is on the border. Greene's trip through Mexico crossed the country on its long axis and reported how Mexicans were dealing with the effects of the Cristero War, its violent suppression of the Catholic church, and the armed discontent that suppression sparked. Over the next cycle of posts, I will steer my rented Mexican Ford (an inglorious chariot that feels like it would crumple like a soda can, if I were to give it a bear-hug) along Greene's path, with deviations, to see whether that lawlessness is a permanent condition.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

August 23, 2009

Mathemagic

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August 18, 2009

Alain de Botton on the randomness of merit

If you watch just one TED video this year, check out this 17 minute presentation by Alain de Botton on the cult of meritocracy and related issues. H/T Epicurean Dealmaker.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

August 16, 2009

The Hubble Ultra Deep Field

I watched this video enlarged on my 27-inch HD monitor. It is incredible. Enjoy.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

August 15, 2009

Johnnie Walker "Walk"

As noted earlier here, the most creative product being generated on television these days is commercials. The commercial below is the latest in that trend:

Posted by Tom at 12:01 PM | Comments (1) |

August 14, 2009

Les Paul, R.I.P.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (2) |

August 11, 2009

Enron, the play

It was probably inevitable, although I would have guessed an opening Off Broadway rather than in London. But the play is actually getting decent reviews. And it almost has to be better than this trash.

Where are Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder when you really need them?

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

July 29, 2009

The real message of the Gates affair

Despite America's dubious legacy of exercising state power to oppress minorities, that legacy really was not the most important dynamic in play in regard to the improper arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates.

Rather, the real issue here is the increasing arrogance of America's governmental officials to condone arrest of citizens as punishment for non-criminal behavior that police or prosecutors simply don't like.

Interestingly, as Alice Ristroph explains, the judicial acquiescence to this increasing problem has Texas roots. Gail Atwater was an Austin-area soccer mom who got into it with police officer and was arrested for a seatbelt violation, a "crime" that calls for no jail time. Atwater fought the charges, but the U.S. Supreme Court held in a 5-4 decision (what were Justices Souter, Kennedy, Scalia, Thomas and Rehnquist thinking?) that police officers may arrest citizens even for perceived offenses that call for no jail time. In short, the Court concluded that the "gratuitous humiliations" that the police officer imposed on Atwater were within the scope of the officer's discretion. Thus, Sergeant Crowley's exercise of power to put Professor Gates through the same humiliations over a bullshit disorderly conduct charge is protected by the Supreme Court.

Couple the foregoing with America's penchant for increasing criminalization of virtually everything and you have a very troubling trend. As Glenn Loury notes in this NY Times op-ed, "anyone who looks closely into the issue of crime and punishment in America cannot fail to notice that the institutions of domestic security — policing, surveillance, prisons, anti-drug policy, post-release parole supervision — have grown hugely over the past two generations." Similarly, given the expansion of the federal criminal code over the past generation, Radley Balko notes that "you're probably a federal criminal, too." Indeed, the Cato Institute for years has been criticizing what it calls the "overcriminalization of conduct and the overfederalization of criminal law." We already know all about that here in Houston, now don't we?

As I first noted in 2004 in regard to Martha Stewart's conviction on criminal charges, and as I've noted many times over the years in regard to other examples of overreaching prosecutions, Sir Thomas More in A Man for All Seasons alerts us on why we should all be concerned with such increasing judicial deference to the overwhelming prosecutorial power of the state. The context is the scene in which Sir Thomas explains to his wife, his daughter and her fiance why he won't misuse his power as Chancellor of England to arrest his student Richard Rich, despite the fact that Rich is preparing to betray Sir Thomas to Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII:

Lady Alice (Sir Thomas' Wife): "Arrest him!"

Sir Thomas: "For what?"

Lady Alice: "He's dangerous!"

Roper: "For all we know he's a spy!"

Daughter Margaret: "Father, that man is bad!"

Sir Thomas: "There's no law against that!"

Roper: "But there is, God's law!"

Sir Thomas: "Then let God arrest him!"

Lady Alice: "While you talk he's gone!"

Sir Thomas: "And go he should, if he were the Devil himself, until he broke the law!"

Roper: "So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!"

Sir Thomas: "Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?"

Roper: "Why, yes! I'd cut down every law in England to do that!"

Sir Thomas: "Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down--and you're just the man to do it, Roper!--do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then?"

"Yes, I'd give the Devil the benefit of the law. For my own safety's sake."

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

July 26, 2009

Early Morning Rain

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July 25, 2009

Falling Slowly

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July 24, 2009

Dave Mason, We Just Disagree

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July 23, 2009

Kiri Te Kanawa, O mio babbino caro

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July 18, 2009

Wish I Hadn't Stayed So Long

Another gem from The Woodlands native, Hayes Carll.

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July 17, 2009

Cecilia Bartoli and Renee Fleming from The Met

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July 16, 2009

Big Fan

I suspect that the NFL would prefer that you watch something else going into this upcoming season, but Big Fan looks interesting.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

July 12, 2009

They just don't make movie trailers like this anymore

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July 8, 2009

Crossing Heaven's Border

Over the past decade, tens of thousands defectors have crossed the dangerous waters of the Tumen and Yalu Rivers into northeast China to escape from North Korea, the world’s last closed Communist state. In the hour-long documentary Crossing Heaven’s Border, Wide Angle tells the moving stories of a few of those defectors.

Pastor Chun Ki Won is the director of Durihana, a Christian missionary organization that helps North Korean defectors make the treacherous journey along the Asian underground railroad to safety in South Korea. In the six-minute interview below, Chun describes the ordeal that the defectors endure and the complex relationship that they have with Christianity. The Wide Angle website on Crossing Heaven's Border is here.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

July 5, 2009

First, Henry VIII, then this

A rather odd postlude from Trinity Wall Street Episcopal Church. H/T J.D. Walt from The Firstborn Son :

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

July 4, 2009

The Yankee Doodle Boy

The late Michael Jackson was inarguably one of the most talented entertainers of our time and certainly one of the most innovative dancers. But well before Jackson, there was James Cagney, who was every bit as talented an entertainer and dancer as Jackson. In fact, I seem to recall reading an interview of Jackson years ago in which he admitted that he patterned many of his dance techniques on those of Cagney.

Although better known for his gangster movie roles, Cagney was actually Hollywood's best dancer for much of his long and storied career. Check out three of Cagney's signature dance scenes below from the 1942 film, Yankee Doodle Dandy, in which Cagney plays the early-20th century composer, George M. Cohan.

The first video below is probably Cagney's most famous dance sequence, the "Yankee Doodle Boy" scene from Cohan's first big-hit musical in the movie. The end of that video includes a short clip of a later salute to Cagney by Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland, which serves primarily to prove just how far Cagney's glorious talent exceeded that of a couple of pedestrian Hollywood hoofers. The third video below is the final dance scene of the movie in which Cagney as an ebullient Cohan descends the White House staircase after receiving the Congressional Medal of Honor from President Roosevelt. Note that the scene is shot in one take (the camera never strays from Cagney) and Cagney never once looks down at his feet. Heck, I cannot even walk down a staircase of that size without watching my feet. Enjoy!

 

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (3) |

July 3, 2009

Albert Collins

I saw Albert Collins perform at a Houston jazz club back in the late 1970's when he opened for a well-known local jazz musician. Suffice it to say that Albert stole the show. The headliner decided to have Collins and his band come out and play with him during his part of the show. It was a very smart move.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

June 30, 2009

The Stoning of Soraya M.

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June 29, 2009

Levity to start the week

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June 28, 2009

Classic Buddy Hackett

The video of Ed McMahon and Johnny Carson posted earlier this week reminded me of this classic joke that the late Buddy Hackett told and acted out on the Tonight Show years ago. Enjoy.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

June 27, 2009

The Hurt Locker

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June 26, 2009

Old Jews telling jokes is back

After a short break, one of the best new websites of the year -- Old Jews Telling Jokes -- is back with a new round of jokes. Enjoy.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

June 25, 2009

Ed McMahon, R.I.P.

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June 21, 2009

The Human Experience

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June 20, 2009

The Defense of Freedom

There is no question that President Obama is confronted with a delicate diplomatic situation in regard to the ongoing political unrest in Iran. But it is ironic that the main issue that is bubbling over on the streets of Tehran is the same one that John Quincy Adams addressed in the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of the illegally imported slaves that is wonderfully portrayed in the Stephen Spielberg movie, Amistad. In a magnificent performance, Anthony Hopkins plays the elderly Adams defending the slaves before the Supreme Court. Enjoy.

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June 18, 2009

Final Argument

The late Paul Newman in The Verdict playing a talented but alcoholic lawyer who gets a final opportunity to redeem a disappointing career in a difficult medical malpractice case. Enjoy.

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June 17, 2009

Italy is pretty good in Opera, too

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June 14, 2009

Lucy and Ethel in Iowa City

While reminiscing about my late mother with family members and friends at her recent funeral, it occurred to me that her remarkable life would be a great subject for a Larry McMurtry novel.

Along those lines, Sarah Swisher, an old family friend and a columnist for the Iowa City Press-Citizen, penned this column regarding an hilarious caper from the early 1960's involving my mother and Sarah's mother, who were dear friends. What started out as an attempt to create a plot for an Alfred Hitchcock movie quickly transformed into an episode of I Love Lucy with a touch of The  Honeymooners.

You really can't make this stuff up.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

June 11, 2009

The genius of Richard Pryor

This fine Stephan Kanfer/City Journal piece on the late Richard Pryor reminded me of this old Saturday Night Live skit entitled "Word Association." Enjoy.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

June 8, 2009

A productive idea for the Dome

Over the weekend, the Chronicle ran this story about Harris County officials considering an idea to convert the Astrodome into a planetarium and a medical and science education facility. It's actually a good idea and one that was suggested here months ago. Given the Dome's proximity to the Texas Medical Center, a county/med center partnership to turn the Dome into the premiere medical/science educational facility in the world makes a lot of sense.

On the other hand, the financing of such a project is not going to be easy, particularly in this economic climate. Nevertheless, given the potential benefit to Houston of becoming a leader in medical/science education, hopefully county officials will give this proposal a fair shake. It certainly makes far more sense than the alternative proposal.

Common sense aside, everyone needs to realize that this new proposal could effectively be scuttled by the financial commitments that have already been made in connection with Houston's previous poor public financing choices. That risk reminds us that such poor utilization of resources ultimately has consequences. It could a harsh irony if Houston's most well-known landmark is a victim of those bad choices.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

June 7, 2009

Bud Light's latest

As noted earlier here and here, commercials continue to provide some of the most creative entertainment on television. Check out Bud Light's latest:

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June 5, 2009

Eye of the Tiger

Ever since participating in a really good junior high school band, I've always been amazed at the way in which excellent music instructors can elicit outstanding musical performances from children. Another example here:

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

June 4, 2009

A timely reminder

As the heat of the summer months rises and thunderstorms become more frequent, this Bill Pennington/NY Times article passes along a helpful reminder to golfers regarding two commonly often overlooked hazards -- overexposure of skin to the sun and lightning strikes:

Dermatologists say golfers are notoriously poor at protecting themselves from sun damage and frequently need treatment for harmful lesions on ears, hands and noses. And in a typical year, lightning kills more people than tornadoes or hurricanes.  [.  .  .]

“Men also completely forget about their ears, and they miss the patch of skin on the side of their neck just below the ear,” [Dermatologist Dr. Wendy] Roberts said. “I remove a lot of cancers from that spot.” [. . .]

Lightning often strikes 10 miles from any rainfall and can strike ahead of storms or seemingly after they have passed.

“On a golf course, you usually have a good view of a coming storm, and if you hear any thunder, you should head inside a building or a hard-topped car as soon as you can get there,” [National Weather Service lightning safety expert John] Jensenius said. “I study the case histories of all lightning fatalities. Often, if people had gotten inside 5 or 10 minutes earlier, they would be alive. All the cases are very sad; these are good people who make a mistake.”

Jensenius said golf clubs and other metal objects do not attract lightning and that getting in the cart would not protect you. The rubber tires do not help, he said. Lightning victims, for example, are struck and injured riding lawn mowers. Cars are safe, he said, because they have metal roofs and sides.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (2) |

May 31, 2009

A Brit visits Texas

A friend of mine from London, on his first visit to Houston, candidly admitted that he was surprised that there were so many trees and no sagebrush or sandstorms. One can only imagine the similar misperceptions that this BBC video (H/T Professor Bainbridge) has created in English minds:

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May 30, 2009

Tea Party

As noted in this earlier post, some of the most creative work on television these days is being done in commercials.

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May 27, 2009

The power of info visualization

Check out this elegant example of information visualization focusing on the changes in life expectancy and wealth over the past 200 years.

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May 26, 2009

There is no crying in baseball

With the passing of Memorial Day, it's officially baseball season, even though the dang NBA Playoffs seem endless. Thus, it's time for Tom Hanks as exasperated Manager Jimmy Dugan to remind us of the best baseball tirade in cinematic history. Enjoy.

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May 25, 2009

"Rock & Roll specialist" Buddy Holly

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May 24, 2009

What's better? The goal or the call?

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May 22, 2009

Brothers at War

The trailer for the new documentary -- particularly appropriate for the Memorial Day weekend -- is below.

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May 21, 2009

Advantage Cartwright

Texas Monthly's Gary Cartwright caught my eye recently with this op-ed in which he bemoans the decline of sports writing in Texas.

I mean really. Can anyone who regularly reads the sports pages of Texas newspapers make a good faith argument against the notion that the current slate of Texas newspaper sportswriters cannot hold a candle to Dan Jenkins and his contemporaries?

Enter the Chronicle's lead sports columnist, Richard Justice.

Justice -- whose shoddy reporting, vapid analysis and bizarre blog comment attacks have been a frequent topic here for years -- essentially proves Cartwright's point about the demise of Texas sportswriting with this snarling and petty reply to Cartwright's op-ed.

An old saying in India is that "sarcasm is the last weapon of the defeated wit."

Justice is living proof of the truth of that adage.

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May 17, 2009

Kevin Spacey is very good at impersonations

Inside the Actors Studio - Kevin Spacey

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May 16, 2009

Still the best rendition of Pancho & Lefty

Emmylou Harris' version in 1977 of Townes Van Zandt's classic song.

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May 15, 2009

More Collision

This earlier post provided the trailer for Collision, the new Darren Doake-directed documentary about the series of debates and conversations last year between Christopher Hitchens and Douglas Wilson over the existence of God. Here is a longer sneak peak of the documentary. It looks as if it is very well done. Enjoy.

COLLISION - 13 min VIMEO Exclusive Sneak Peek from Collision Movie on Vimeo.

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May 10, 2009

An effective ad

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May 8, 2009

Mostly for Trekkies

With the latest Star Trek movie opening this weekend, you may want to pass the following video of an old William Shatner Saturday Night Life sketch along to your Trekkie friends. Be sure to watch through the end.

SNL Get A Life

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (3) |

May 7, 2009

Jenkins returns to Sawgrass

Clear Thinkers favorites Dan Jenkins, the dean of American golf writers, is making his first trek to TPC Sawgrass in a decade this week to cover my favorite tournament, The Players (which includes the always fun video of the 17th hole).

Geoff Shackelford scores this interview with Jenkins (which is a follow-up on this one from last year), and it is clear that Jenkins is already in mid-season form. The first part of the answer below is from last year's interview, the second from this year's:

The men's tour sucks. Everybody drives it 340 and shoots 63. I've never heard of half their names, and don't care to know them until they get back to me with two majors.

My fee for talking to Tiger Woods is going up every day. I've tried for 10 years to get a one-on-one with him---and can't. Why? Because Mark Steinberg says, "We have nothing to gain."

Can you imagine what the men's tour would look like if Tiger and Phil both suffered career-ending injuries? I'll tell you. It would look like what it looks like today when they aren't in the field. It would increase interest in polo.

.   .   .[I]in my declining years, I have arrived at the point where I don't give a damn about anything but the four majors and the Ryder Cup. They are important. The regular tour sucks.

I should mention that the regular tour didn't used to suck. It used to be quite glamorous, when the LA Open was always first, when the Crosby was the Crosby, when the players wore snappy clothes and movie stars hung around them, when the Florida swing had its own charm, same for Texas, and so on. But mainly when every winner was SOMEBODY.

I live in the past. It was a better world.

No doubt that more than a few of the folks attending the tournament this week will, at least part of the time, be enjoying Jenkins' classic “Mankind’s 10 Stages of Drunkenness” from his 1981 novel, Baja Oklahoma:

0) Sober

1) Witty and Charming

2) Rich and Powerful

3) Benevolent

4) Clairvoyant

5) F**k Dinner

6) Patriotic

7) Crank Up the Enola Gay

8) Witty and Charming, Part II

9) Invisible

10) Bulletproof

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (3) |

May 5, 2009

If the Rockets can shoot like this, then they may just beat the Lakers

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May 4, 2009

Princess Leia can roast with the best of them

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May 3, 2009

The Butcher vs. The Oilman

Daniel Day-Lewis as Bill the Butcher from Gangs of New York has a discussion with Daniel Day-Lewis as Daniel Plainview of There Will Be Blood.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (2) |

May 2, 2009

Heineken's Walk-in Cooler

Following up on this earlier post, isn't it interesting that some of the most creative product on television these days is in commercials?

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May 1, 2009

American Violet

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April 28, 2009

NBA Playoffs Win Probability

This is very cool.

Brian Burke, who authors the Advanced NFL Stats webpage, has developed a model for win probability for the NBA playoffs.  So, as you watch the Rockets/Blazers playoff game tonight, you can also watch a chart that calculates and constantly updates the probability of victory for each team while the game progresses.

Can you imagine the dynamic that these charts will contribute to the already electric playoff atmosphere at the Las Vegas casino sports books? ;^)

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

April 27, 2009

Barcelona 1908

This 36 Hours in Barcelona column in Sunday's New York Times reminded me of this fascinating video of Barcelona in 1908 shot from a streetcar. Enjoy.

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April 26, 2009

Hayes Carll "Beaumont"

From The Woodlands, Texas, Hayes Carll.

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April 25, 2009

Sisters Morales "You Wanna Love Me"

Another talented group that came of age in the Houston club scene, the Sisters Morales.

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April 20, 2009

Clear Thinking to begin the week

Former Cardinals and Pirates outfielder Andy Van Slyke from this recent interview ($) in Baseball Prospectus:

"Well, [former Astros pitcher] Mike Scott, to me, is the best pitcher to ever pitch in the big leagues. I went 1-for-38 against him.  .  .  . Mike Scott, when he was at the apex of his career, was actually cheating very well. When he threw that forkball, and he scuffed it all up... he threw 97-98 mph, and then he'd throw a forkball that was in the 90s and I just couldn't hit him."

Q: Were there a lot of guys "cheating very well" in your era?

"I think there was more of it going on back then than there is today. You don't really see guys scuffing balls—you don't see guys with sandpaper—but it was very prevalent when I came to the big leagues. The guys... everybody knew who was doing it. It was just hard to catch them."

Arnold Kling on an upcoming debate that he will be having with Robert Kuttner regarding health care finance:

The debate should be about how the cost-benefit trade-offs and rationing will take place. I will argue that most health care spending should be paid for out of pocket, with insurance reimbursement only for very large expenses over a multi-year period. With consumers paying out of pocket, they will take price into account in making their choices, and they will self-ration. The alternative is to have government officials make the choices about what treatments people are to obtain. I do not think that this is a one-sided debate, in which one position is clearly better than the other. But I hope that Kuttner and I can have this debate, rather than go off into red herrings like drug company profits.

The Financial Times' Clive Cook chimes in on America's intractable but nonsensical drug prohibition policy ($) (other posts on drug prohibition are here):

How much misery can a policy cause before it is acknowledged as a failure and reversed?

The US “war on drugs” suggests there is no upper limit. The country’s implacable blend of prohibition and punitive criminal justice is wrong-headed in every way: immoral in principle, since it prosecutes victimless crimes, and in practice a disaster of remarkable proportions. Yet for a US politician to suggest wholesale reform of this brainless regime is still seen as an act of reckless self-harm. [.  .  .]

Strict enforcement,  .   .   .  has reduced drug use only modestly – supposing for the moment that this is even a legitimate objective. The collateral damage is of a different order altogether. Violence related to drug crimes has surged in Mexico and in US cities close to the border, giving rise to renewed interest in the topic.  .  .  . [.  .  .]

Few policies manage to fail so comprehensively, and what makes it all the odder is that the US has seen it all before. Everybody understands that alcohol prohibition in the 1920s suffered from many of the same pathologies – albeit on a smaller scale – and was eventually abandoned. [.  .  .]

Is an outbreak of common sense on this subject likely? Unfortunately, no. Only the most daring politicians seem willing to think about it seriously.  .  .   . [.  .  .]

Somebody in the White House should take a look. This national calamity is no laughing matter.

And finally, Mark Steyn notes the insidious nature of encroaching government regulation over citizens:

The proper response of free men to the trivial but degrading impositions of the state is to answer as [gun owner] Pierre Lemieux did. But it requires a kind of 24/7 tenacity few can muster - and the machinery of bureaucracy barely pauses to scoff: In an age of mass communication and computer records, the screen blips for the merest nano-second, and your gun rights disappear. The remorseless, incremental annexation of "individual existence" by technologically all-pervasive micro-regulation is a profound threat to free peoples. But do we have the will to resist it?

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April 19, 2009

Hayes Carll "She Left Me for Jesus"

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April 18, 2009

Tyson

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April 17, 2009

This Church has something for you

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April 16, 2009

A Houston Original

One of Houston's many treasures is Jack Burke (earlier posts here), the 86 year-old co-founder and owner of Champions Golf Club. The energetic Burke was recently slowed by a "mild" stroke (my late father used to say that the only mild strokes were those that happened to someone else), but that didn't stop Jack from taking his family to Augusta National Golf Club last week for the Masters, where Burke is a former champion (1956). John Garrity provides this fine article on Burke's Augusta National visit (H/T Geoff Shackelford), which includes the following hilarious and typically Burkean anecdote that former Masters champion Bob Goalby tells fellow PGA Tour member, Miller Barber:

"You know Miller?" Goalby arches an eyebrow. "He's got about 14 curlicues in his backswing, and then he sticks the club straight up in the air with no wrist cock. Anyway, he asked Jackie for a lesson."

"They went out on the range, dumped the balls out. Miller said, 'I'm mixed up on my backswing. Watch me hit some.' So he hit about a dozen balls before Jackie turned and started walking away."

"Miller's got this squeaky voice. He shouted, 'Jackie! Jackie! Where are you going?' And Jackie said, 'Back to the clubhouse. I'm not going to live long enough to figure out that backswing.'"

 

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April 13, 2009

The Trial of Sir Thomas More

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April 12, 2009

Colbert defends Christ

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Bart Ehrman
colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor NASA Name Contest

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April 10, 2009

Dylan on Politics

From Bill Flanagan's recent interview with Bob Dylan:

What's your take on politics?

Politics is entertainment. It's a sport. It's for the well groomed and well heeled. The impeccably dressed. Party animals. Politicians are interchangeable.

Don't you believe in the democratic process?

Yeah, but what's that got to do with politics? Politics creates more problems than it solves. It can be counter-productive. The real power is in the hands of small groups of people and I don't think they have titles.

H'mm.

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April 4, 2009

"Steve Earle" by Sugarland

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April 3, 2009

The Tyranny of the Busybodies

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”

- C. S. Lewis, God in the Dock

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March 31, 2009

Florence Slideshow

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March 30, 2009

Henderson on the Nature of Government

David Henderson makes an insightful point about the Ryan Moats/Robert Powell run-in in Dallas last week in which Powell (the policeman) exhibited an utter lack of common sense, much less prosecutorial discretion (and this incident is apparently not the first time that Powell has exhibited this type of behavior):

So what is the essence? The issue of control. Read the abridged transcript of the interaction or, better yet, watch the whole 20-minute video. What comes out loud and clear is that the policeman was upset because the driver, Ryan Moats, tried passionately to tell him the nature of the emergency, whereas what Robert Powell saw as being primary was that Moats wait patiently while Powell wrote him a ticket. Even once a nurse came out from the hospital and assured the policeman that Moats's mother-in-law was dying, Powell, writing the ticket, said, "I'm almost done." Must get that ticket written no matter why Moats jumped a red light. [.  .  .]

This is the nature of government whether the government employees are policemen with guns on their sides or sometimes in their hands or are teachers in government-financed schools. The whole Powell-Moats incident reminds me of a passage from Steven E. Landsburg's book, Fair Play: What Your Child Can Teach You About Economics, Values, and the Meaning of Life. Landsburg tells of the propaganda his daughter Cayley's teachers subjected her to about the importance of not letting the water run when she brushed her teeth. Landsburg writes:

[.  .  .]

Where is the pattern, then? What general rule compels us to conserve water but not to conserve on resources devoted to education? The blunt truth is that there is no pattern, and the general rule is simply this: Only the teacher can tell you which resources should be conserved. The whole exercise is not about toothbrushing; it is about authority.

The Moats-Powell incident is a micro example of the government's proclivity to exert power arbitrarily. That essential nature is being largely ignored as the Obama Administration runs headlong into seeking even greater governmental regulation over broad sectors of the economy.

Given that one of the clearest lessons of the 20th century is the capacity of large government to cause unspeakable evil, any effort to centralize more power in the federal government should be subject to the most careful scrutiny and not the type of superficial posturing that Congress has exhibited to date.

Count me as not confident that Congress will oblige.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

March 27, 2009

Collision

Here is the trailer for Collision, the new Darren Doake-directed documentary about the series of debates and conversations between Christopher Hitchens and Douglas Wilson over the existence of God. Interestingly, Hitchens and Wilson became quite good friends during their travels and debates. The early reviews of the documentary indicate that it is even-handed and very well done.

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March 22, 2009

Leaving Florence at dusk

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March 21, 2009

Palazzo Pitti from the top of the Broboli Gardens (Florence)

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March 20, 2009

The Arno in the morning

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March 19, 2009

Porta San Niccolo from the Villa Bardini Museum (Florence)

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March 18, 2009

The Arno from the Ponte Vecchio Bridge

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March 17, 2009

Via del Cannelo in the Ortharno, Florence

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March 16, 2009

Piazza della Repubblica on a Sunday in Spring

This is the site of the original Roman forum in Florence. It is now a large plaza surrounded by chic cafes. The people watching on a beautiful March Sunday is extraordinary.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

March 15, 2009

Via di San Niccolò, Florence, Italy

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March 14, 2009

Cathedral of Santa Maria de Fiore (Florence)

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March 13, 2009

Morning in Pisa

I am in Italy for a few days with my son Andy helping him get set up in his apartment while he lives in Florence. We flew into Pisa last night and slept there before driving to Florence this morning. Inasmuch as it was late when we arrived in Pisa, we just grabbed a late dinner and didn’t look around much. So, it was a nice that when I went out on the balcony of our hotel room this morning that I turned and saw this view of the Leaning Tower. You are never very far from history while in Italy.

Posted by Tom at 6:09 AM | Comments (1) |

March 8, 2009

Lyle Lovett Time Again

Another song from one of Houston's treasures.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

March 7, 2009

Conan O'Brien's Greatest Guest Moments

Conan O'Brien - Great Guest moments - watch more funny videos

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March 6, 2009

Insightful thoughts to close the week

Writing in 1951 about popular attitudes toward income inequality in "The Ethics of Redistribution," Bertrand de Jouvenel observed the following (H/T WSJ):

The film-star or the crooner is not grudged the income that is grudged to the oil magnate, because the people appreciate the entertainer's accomplishment and not the entrepreneur's, and because the former's personality is liked and the latter's is not. They feel that consumption of the entertainer's income is itself an entertainment, while the capitalist's is not, and somehow think that what the entertainer enjoys is deliberately given by them while the capitalist's income is somehow filched from them.

In arguably the best financial blog post to date in 2009, the Epicurean Dealmaker analyzes the skewed dynamics that led to the Merrill Lynch high-level executive bonus pool and observes, among other things:

It would not be outlandish to consider the Merrill executives' bonus pool as the latest and largest campaign gift toward Mr. [Andrew] Cuomo's 2010 gubernatorial run.

Meanwhile, Andrew Morris wrote the following in a letter to the WSJ editor (H/T Don Boudreaux):

At first, when I read your headline “States give gambling a closer look” (Mar. 3) I thought you were reporting on yet another “stimulus” or “bailout” bill in which politicians played games of chance with taxpayers’ money. Hardly news -- just another “dog bites man” story.

Then I realized it was just a story about allowing ordinary people to risk their own money  --  now that’s a “man bites dog” story!

Along the same lines, the WSJ's Notable and Quotable series provided the following excerpt from Friedrich A. Hayek's "The Constitution of Liberty" (1960) on the illusory nature of progressive taxation and large increases in governmental spending:

Not only is the revenue derived from the high rates levied on large incomes, particularly in the highest brackets, so small compared with the total revenue as to make hardly any difference to the burden borne by the rest; but for a long time . . . it was not the poorest who benefited from it but entirely the better-off working class and the lower strata of the middle class who provided the largest number of voters.

It would probably be true, on the other hand, to say that the illusion that by means of progressive taxation the burden can be shifted substantially onto the shoulders of the wealthy has been the chief reason why taxation has increased as fast as it has done and that, under the influence of this illusion, the masses have come to accept a much heavier load than they would have done otherwise. The only major result of the policy has been the severe limitation of the incomes that could be earned by the most successful and thereby gratification of the envy of the less-well-off.

And Jason Kottke noted the technological irony of the week:

Now you can go to the iTunes Store to buy the Kindle app from Amazon that lets you read ebooks made for the Kindle device on the iPhone.

Finally, legendary Houston trial lawyer Joe Jamail passes along this anecdote about the late, great Houston criminal defense lawyer, Percy Foreman:

In the early 1980s, Jamail represented his courtroom idol, Houston criminal defense attorney Percy Foreman, whose neck was injured when his car was rear-ended by a commercial truck. On direct examination, Foreman testified that he had not experienced any neck problems before the accident, and that he was entitled to $75,000 for lost income due to the injury.

But on cross-examination, the defense revealed that Foreman had been hospitalized nine times for neck problems prior to this accident.

“The jury looked at me, expecting me to give them an answer,” says Jamail. “So I told them that Percy had been a great lawyer throughout his life, but that he was now just an old man and was growing senile.”

At that moment, Foreman jumped up and yelled out across the courtroom, “You goddamned son of a bitch!”

“See what I mean,” Jamail immediately told jurors. “He doesn’t even know where he is right now.”

The jury awarded Foreman the sum of $75,004. Jamail says he never figured out why the extra $4.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

March 1, 2009

Lyle Lovett Time

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February 28, 2009

The Price of Progress

As noted here last fall, one of the key dynamics that is delaying the recovery of financial markets is the resistance of many societal forces to allow the markets to allocate the risk of loss among the various investors in failed businesses.

Inasmuch as private capital will not invest in even a potentially viable business until that company's financial condition is likely to reward such an investment, the liquidation of unviable companies is an essential part of the process that has allowed market-based economies to generate the most wealth and jobs throughout modern history.

Despite the foregoing, the beneficial aspects of liquidating unprofitable businesses remains often unappreciated. A scene from the 1991 Norman Jewison film "Other's People Money" illustrates this truth wonderfully, first as Gregory Peck's character demonizes the forces of liquidation and then as Danny DeVito's "Larry the Liquidator" shatters the myths upon which such demonizing rests. Enjoy.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (2) |

February 27, 2009

He's back

Tiger Woods returned from major knee surgery to make his first appearance of the PGA Tour season this week, although Tim Clark made it a brief initial appearance.

Meanwhile, Woods' major sponsor Nike rolled out this commercial to celebrate Woods' return. It continues the trend of commercials representing some of the most creative product on television. Watch through the end and enjoy.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

February 26, 2009

The Making of the Godfather

Don't miss Mark Seal's wonderful Vanity Fair piece on the making -- and particularly the war over casting -- of The Godfather:

With The Godfather, the era of the $100 million blockbuster had begun, and its creator was the last to know.

“I had been so conditioned to think the film was bad—too dark, too long, too boring—that I didn’t think it would have any success,” says Francis Ford Coppola.

“In fact, the reason I took the job to write [a screenplay for the 1974 remake of] The Great Gatsby was because I had no money and three kids and was sure I’d need the money. I heard about the success of The Godfather from my wife, who called me while I was writing Gatsby. I wasn’t even there."

"Masterpiece, ha! I was not even confident it would be a mild success.”

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

February 22, 2009

A civilized routine

Check out Winston Churchill's entirely wonderful daily routine from the quite interesting blog, Daily Routines:

Despite all this activity Churchill’s daily routine changed little during these years. He awoke about 7:30 a.m. and remained in bed for a substantial breakfast and reading of mail and all the national newspapers. For the next couple of hours, still in bed, he worked, dictating to his secretaries.

At 11:00 a.m., he arose, bathed, and perhaps took a walk around the garden, and took a weak whisky and soda to his study.

At 1:00 p.m. he joined guests and family for a three-course lunch. Clementine drank claret, Winston champagne, preferable Pol Roger served at a specific temperature, port brandy and cigars. When lunch ended, about 3:30 p.m. he returned to his study to work, or supervised work on his estate, or played cards or backgammon with Clementine.

At 5:00 p.m., after another weak whisky and soda, he went to be for an hour and a half. He said this siesta, a habit gained in Cuba, allowed him to work 1 1/2 days in every 24 hours. At 6:30 p.m. he awoke, bathed again, and dressed for dinner at 8:00 p.m.

Dinner was the focal-point and highlight of Churchill’s day. Table talk, dominated by Churchill, was as important as the meal. Sometimes, depending on the company, drinks and cigars extended the event well past midnight. The guests retired, Churchill returned to his study for another hour or so of work.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

February 19, 2009

Hope in the battle against the fire ants!

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February 14, 2009

An unintended consequence of drug prohibition

While this post from earlier in the week highlighted the historical backdrop to the United States' failed drug prohibition policy, this Telegraph.co.uk article passes along an unintended consequence of that policy that should put to rest any concerns about reconsidering it:

The Home Office has admitted that the street price of both cocaine and heroin has fallen by nearly half in the last ten years, making the most dangerous illegal drugs cheaper than they have ever been.

That means a line of cocaine can cost as little as £1, with an average price per line of between £2 and £4.

The average price of a pint of lager is around £2.75, although some pub chains have reacted to the credit crunch by cutting the price of a pint as low as 99p. A glass of wine typically costs £3.50.  .  .  .

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (3) |

February 12, 2009

What Not to Wear, PGA Tour-style

Golf Digest fashion director Marty Hackel takes Phil Mickelson to task for wearing a white belt with his otherwise all-black oufit at the PGA Tour stop last weekend at Torrey Pines in San Diego:

OK, I have had a look at it and it's not ideal. You are correct in that if you wear a white belt and have a big waist you should select trousers that have less contrast.

White belts are fine, but, and this is a big BUT, if your waist is big, DO NOT HAVE CONTRAST. The white belt with the black trousers called your eye and attention on his waist. Save the white belt for beige trousers and a white golf shirt!!

Golf Digest writer John Strege observes that Mickelson’s outfit might spur a new fashion rule:

One press tent wag suggested a Rule 32 apply, that if you're older than 32 or have a waist size larger than 32 you should not wear a white belt.

Meanwhile, while enduring less encouraging news about professional athletes, take a moment to check out this nice story about PGA Tour veteran J.P. Hayes, who is finding a welcome market for sponsor’s exemptions into Tour events after he disqualified himself over a technical rules violation during the PGA Tour Q-School last fall.

Sometimes, good guys really do win.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

February 11, 2009

Interesting historical perspectives

Cato Unbound points us to a couple of articles that provide insightful observations on two of the crises that are swirling around us these days.

First, William Niskanen cautions us regarding the fear-mongering that supporters of the Obama Administration's fiscal stimulus plan are using to justify emergency passage of the plan:

This is the fifth time in my adult life that the president has asked for or asserted unprecedented authority on an expedited basis with little or no congressional review. Each of the prior occasions turned out to be a disaster. [.  .  .]

The only coherence in this plan is political, not whether it is an effective or efficient method to stimulate the economy.   .   .  .  Again, as in the four prior episodes, there is every reason not to rush to approve a program of such magnitude.

The primary reason for the current financial crisis is that many banks cannot evaluate their own solvency or that of their current or potential counter-parties, primarily because of the difficulty of valuing mortgage-backed securities and other complex derivatives, and neither TARP nor the fiscal stimulus plan addresses this problem.

Our political system, unfortunately, is strongly biased to try to protect people against the effects of a crisis without addressing the causes of the crisis. To Congress: Slow down. Make sure you understand the causes of the financial crisis and the potential solutions before you burden your children and your grandchildren with another trillion dollars of federal debt.

Your present course is best described as fiscal child abuse.

Meanwhile, as Texans continue to watch nervously to the south as the Mexican government teeters on the brink of losing control of large sectors of the country to drug kingpins, Dale Gieringer reminds us that the main cause of this crisis -- U.S. drug prohibition -- is the result of dubious public policy:

This week marks the centennial of a fateful landmark in U.S. history, the nation's first drug prohibition law.  On February 9, 1909, Congress passed the Opium Exclusion Act, barring the importation of opium for smoking as of April 1.  Thus began a hundred-year crusade that has unleashed unprecedented crime, violence and corruption around the world —a war with no victory in sight.

Long accustomed to federal drug control, most Americans are unaware that there was once a time when people were free to buy any drug, including opium, cocaine, and cannabis, at the pharmacy.  In that bygone era, drug-related crime and violence were largely unknown, and drug use was not a major public concern. [.  .  .]

Early 20th-century Americans would be astounded to see what a problem drugs have become since the establishment of drug prohibition. Every year, two million Americans are arrested and 400,000 imprisoned for drug offenses that did not exist in their time.  Drug laws are now the number-one source of crime in the U.S., with one-half of the entire adult population having violated them.

Long gone are the days when Americans were free to keep opium in their closet; today, even gravely suffering patients are denied pain-killing narcotics by their doctors out of fear of federal prosecution. While smoking opium has faded from the scene, the country is now rife with more potent and lethal narcotics, which are widely sold on the illegal market. 

Seen in retrospect, drug prohibition ranks as one of the great man-made disasters of the 20th century. .  .  .

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

February 10, 2009

The real A-Rod tragedy

As predicted here last year, the names of the MLB players who tested positive for steroids or other performance-enhancing drug use in MLB's 2003 survey test of 240 players are finally being leaked to the media (previous posts on PED use in sports are here).

That survey test was done under a deal between MLB and the MLB Players' Association for the purpose of encouraging voluntary and confidential disclosure of PED use by players so that MLB and the Players' Association could develop a productive program for helping the players get off the juice and monitor future use.

With the leaking of A-Rod's name and the ensuing public outcry, so much for the notion of encouraging players to get help by assuring confidentiality.

Predictably, the mainstream media and much of the public are castigating Rodriguez, who is an easy target.

Of course, much of that same mainstream media and public contribute to the pathologically competitive MLB culture by regularly reveling in players who risk career-threatening disability by taking painkilling drugs so that they can play through injuries.

But players who used PED's in in an effort to strengthen their bodies to avoid or minimize the inevitable injuries of the physically-brutal MLB season are pariahs. Go figure.

Meanwhile, the fact that MLB players have been using PED's for at least the past two generations to enhance their performance is not even mentioned in the mind-numbingly superficial analysis of the PED issue that is being trotted out by most media outlets. Sure, Barry Bonds hit quite a few home runs during a time in which he was apparently using PED's. But should Pete Rose be denied the record for breaking Ty Cobb's total base hits standard simply because he used performance-enhancing amphetamines throughout his MLB career?

As noted here last year in connection with release of the Mitchell Commission report, witch hunts, investigations, criminal indictments, morality plays and public shaming episodes are not advancing a dispassionate debate regarding the complex issues that are at the heart of the use of PED's in baseball and other sports. On a very basic level, it is not even clear that the controlled use of PED's to enhance athletic performance is as dangerous to health as many of the sports in which the users compete.

A truly civilized society would find a better way to address these issues.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

February 1, 2009

A solid Super Bowl Ad

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January 22, 2009

You won't see this at the local Metro Light Rail station

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January 18, 2009

The Hardest Job in Football

As you settle in to watch today's two NFL conference championship games, be sure to check out Mark Bowden's excellent article in this month's Atlantic on the enormous human and technological resources that to into the television production of a typical NFL game.

Sort of makes a two-minute offense at the end of a game seem a bit mundane in comparison, wouldn't you agree?

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

January 17, 2009

Hayes Carll on the Battle of Crystal Beach

Clear Thinkers favorite Hayes Carll sings "I Got a Gig" and tells the humorous story about about his first gigs in Crystal Beach, Texas.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

January 14, 2009

Fascinating trend

Following on this earlier post, isn't it interesting that companies selling alcoholic beverages are funding some of the most creative product on television?

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

January 11, 2009

Men are from Mars, Women from Venus

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December 27, 2008

Are you ready for some football?

The football rivalry between the Texas Longhorns and Oklahoma Sooners is one of the most passionate in college football. The intensity of that rivalry has led to some highly competitive recruiting battles between the two schools for the best football talent in Texas over the years.

With that backdrop, the NY Times' Thayer Evans ran this lengthy article on his bird's-eye view of the recruiting fight between UT and OU over the services of blue-chip Lufkin High School defensive tackle, Jamarkus McFarland, who orally committed to OU on Christmas day.

McFarland and his mother cooperated with Evans closely over the past several months in helping him chronicle the twists and turns of the recruiting battle. The article does not paint a pretty picture of the recruiting process, particularly of UT's efforts to land McFarland. NCAA investigations have been commenced over less.

However, the story doesn't stop there. Turns out that Evans is an Oklahoma native and apparently a long-time OU fan (he also used to write for Sooners Illustrated). Evans has written extensively about OU's football program over at the NY Times collegiate sports blog, the Quad, and almost always quite favorably. Neither Evans nor the Times disclosed any of this in connection with running the story on McFarland's recruitment.

Meanwhile, Longhorn supporters are already poking some big holes in Evans' story (see also here). And the NY Times continues to lose money hand-over-foot.

So it goes.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

December 26, 2008

Hayes Carll is back

The Woodlands native Hayes Carll (earlier post here) is back in town for the holiday season, playing tonight in downtown Houston at Warehouse Live and on Tuesday the 30th at Dosey Doe in The Woodlands. If you have not had the pleasure of enjoying a live performance of this latest in a long-line of talented Texas singer-songwriters, then check out one of his shows this week. You will not be disappointed.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

December 25, 2008

Merry Christmas from the Family

Back by popular demand is Texas singer-songwriter and Houston native Robert Earl Keen's classic Texas Christmas carol and video, Merry Christmas from the Family. Keen will be playing Houston's House of Blues on Sunday the 28th.

Happy holidays and thanks for reading HCT!

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

December 23, 2008

Enduring Gladwell?

Charlie Rose interviews Malcolm Gladwell in the video below in regard to his new book Outliers, but it does not appear that the Financial Times' Clive Cook will be watching:

Since the first chapter of “Tipping Point” I have been enduring Gladwell out of an increasingly weary sense of professional obligation. This is what they pay me to do, I tell myself. The man has a nose for interesting tales, I grant you, but his unfailing combination of intellectual parasitism, credulity, false modesty, and self-importance repels me. In “Tipping Point”, “Blink” and those of his New Yorker pieces I have read, the formula is always the same: find a scholarly opinion; sanctify said opinion with Gladwellian approval (transforming it from a disputed theory to something “we now know”); season with Madison Avenue terms of art; then deluge with anecdotes of questionable, if any, relevance. And let there be colour. Always, the colour. Please tell me about that man’s wry smile, interesting foreign accent, and cluttered desk (often, as studies show, the sign of a creative mind). I need to know all that.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

December 21, 2008

The Big Picture -- 2008

Don't miss Boston.com's Big Picture's collection of the best photos of 2008 here, here and here.

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December 12, 2008

Get inspired

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December 9, 2008

225 Miles High

Check out these magnificent Mail Online photos of the Endeavour astronauts completing the recent repairs on the International Space Station.

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December 6, 2008

Frost/Nixon looks interesting

Rick Perlstein, author of Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America (Scribner 2008), provides more insight into Nixon's fascinating relationship with television.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

November 30, 2008

Deep Impact Video

Check out NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft's video of the Moon transiting the Earth from 31 million miles away!

Posted by Tom at 12:01 PM | Comments (0) |

November 28, 2008

Thoughts on the attacks in Mumbai

Remember -- overcoming fascists of all stripes takes a fighting spirit.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

November 27, 2008

Turkey lessons

One of the most popular videos that I posted on this blog last year was the one of New York butcher Ray Venezia giving instructions on how to carve a turkey. All you fellow turkey carvers will find it highly informative and entertaining.

Also, check out Mark Bittman's video on how to roast a turkey in 45 minutes, although I'm not sure I'd try that for the first time on Thanksgiving.

Have a joyous Thanksgiving!

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

November 26, 2008

Problems, problems everywhere

Even in Santa Monica.

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November 23, 2008

Didn't you always want to say this . . .

to Matthew McConaughey?

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

November 20, 2008

Talking football in Texas

Football is an integral part of Texas culture. So, when a big game is around the corner, it seems as if everyone around here is talking about it. And some of the talk can get pretty entertaining.

The big game this Saturday pits the undefeated and 2nd-ranked Texas Tech Red Raiders (10-1) taking on the 5th-ranked Oklahoma Sooners (9-1) in Norman, Oklahoma.

The game has generated added interest in these parts because the 3rd-ranked Texas Longhorns (10-1), who lost to Tech a couple of weeks ago on a last second TD, could bolt back into the BCS Championship Game picture if the Sooners beat Tech.

And frankly, many Texans are pulling for Tech to beat the Sooners and remain in contention for the BCS Championship Game because Tech has never reached such heights before.

But that support doesn't immunize the Red Raiders from some good-natured razzing, such as the following OU message board comment about the above Tech promotional picture for the game:

"Why is Yosemite Sam attacking Guymon?"

Meanwhile, on the opposite end of the college football spectrum, perennial cellar-dwelling Baylor's decisive win last Saturday over the Texas A&M Aggies has also generated a fair amount of conversation in Texas football circles this week.

As has been noted many times on this blog, the devotion of many Texas A&M University alumni to the A&M football program is an endearing part of Texas culture that has generated some rather awkward moments over the years.

The A&M fan base overwhelmingly considers losing to Baylor in football as another such awkward moment. To make matters worse, the A&M football program has fallen on such hard times over the past several years that, relative to the size of the football budget, the A&M program is currently among the poorest-performing in major college football.

So, with that backdrop, check out the following post that a Baylor fan posted on an Aggie message board earlier this week (the post was quickly taken down by the owners of the Aggie board; thank goodness for Google Cache). On the heels of Baylor's big win over the Aggies, the Baylor fan's post passes along some key tips to the Aggies from the "hit" book, How to Handle Being The Worst Team in the Big XII South:

I wanted to share some thoughts from the hit book "How to Handle Being The Worst Team in the Big XII South". This book, originally authored by fans of Baylor University, with foreword by Oklahoma State, has been a work in progress for 25 something years now.

Now that we have handed that prestigious torch off to your school, and it looks like it will stay that way for quite some time, you and your Aggie friends may want to really get into this material. Here are some highlights:

Chapter 1 - Bring up past records when discussing your program with friends. The best way to do this is to start from the present and go back through the past until you can find where you have more wins than "x" team. Inconsistencies in time frame does not matter - it can be 5 years for one team and 45 for another.

Chapter 3 - Find other parts of your athletic program that you can be proud of and meticulously learn and promote their accomplishments, no matter how embarrassing the sport. Baylor has done this recently with women's basketball, tennis, and most notably, track and field (Olympic gold medalist anyone?). Rumor has it that your men's club lacrosse team is pretty awesome. Just throwing that out there.

Chapter 5 - Find a couple of solid scapegoats and complain tirelessly about them. Your fan base has already advanced far in this area, with "Shermione" and "$Bill" taking the brunt of this effective relaxation technique.

Chapter 10 - Pick a team to hate and root for their failure. For Baylor fans, this has been you, and look how well it's worked! It's like The Secret - the power of positive thinking. It's very refreshing to change the channel from a frustrating loss and watch your sworn enemy fail. You may have to really dig deep here - you want a team that is average to pretty bad. You losing and them winning is a double whammy, so don't set your sites too high (UT/Tech). Arkansas is a good start, they're down this year.

Chapter 11 (THIS IS A BIG ONE) - Focus on moral victories. This chapter has a lot of content, so really pay attention to it. Within the umbrella of the moral victories chapter you'll find subsections such as: a) Don't pin your hopes on winning the game, pin your hopes on covering the spread. The spread is key, and beating the spread will bring you years and years of joy. b) Get excited about first downs. These may be harder to come by than you think, so really cherish them. c) Find remote stats that can highlight your improvement. Really dig into improvement. This should be a buzzword to use in the coming years.

Chapter 12 - Talk about the other redeeming qualities of your school. This is tricky, because it's actually really dorky to engage in academic smack talk, but, if done correctly, can deflect the focus of a conversation away from your school's crappy football program and onto other areas where the playing field is more level. Now, I'm tailor making this to A&M a little here, but I would recommend you focus on your strong engineering and business school reputation, and don't forget to bring up your various traditions! People never get tired of hearing about this.

Chapter 14** - Find another school to support on the side. This chapter is very controversial and was only added in later editions. I myself never went down this road, but several of my friends found a great deal of relaxation and comfort in finding a side school. While immediate family connections are the best (father graduated from Penn State or mom and dad met at Florida), it is also valid to dig deep into your family's history to find that great aunt that went to Alabama or that second cousin who got a masters at USC. The further away the school, the better. Claim that you have been watching them for years, especially as a little kid growing up. This helps ward off eye rolls and front-runner accusations from your friends. **Note: though highly successful, this chapter can be very dangerous, and is probably the only method that will incur hatred from fellow alumni and students. Use Chapter 14 at your own risk. Advanced students only. I'd say you'll be there en mass around 2013, although seeing how your fan base is bailing after 3 losing seasons out of the past 24, you may be there as early as 2010. Talk about advanced students!

That's it folks. I'll send you a copy for free - we're so excited to share this with a team not named Baylor. And you may read this and think: "Wow, Baylor is pathetic. This is really sad stuff." No, no! This is you! This WAS Baylor and now IS your school! I'm talking about what you and your fan base will be and have already started saying and doing.

I want to leave you with this. This can be your chance to practice, right now. Skim some of the material above, and go ahead and start using it on me. I would say the record route is the obvious way to go, but don't be afraid to be creative. Angry phrases like "F off" and total dismissal of my thread also work. Have fun, and I'll critique some of your responses as we go .  .   .

Football in Texas -- you gotta love it!

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (2) |

November 5, 2008

A prayer for the new administration

Heather Headly and Andrea Bocelli sing a stirring rendition of The Prayer. Enjoy.

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November 1, 2008

Lacking appreciation for capitalism

Comedian Louis CK sums it pretty well:

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

October 29, 2008

What's worse?

Although not many people care much, the 2008 World Series has turned into a first rate mess.

Game Five is currently suspended while the Phillies and Rays players sit around Philadelphia waiting for the inclement weather to end. This after they nearly injured themselves while inexplicably being forced to play 5.5 innings during a driving rainstorm on Monday night. The remainder of the Game Five might be played tonight.

Moreover, Game Four began at 10 p.m. EDT because of rain most of the day on Saturday. That game finished sometime after 2 a.m. Sunday on the east coast. Not exactly the way to keep the young fans interested in the game.

Meanwhile, the umpiring in the series has been atrocious, with multiple of MLB's supposedly best umpires blowing easy calls and routinely calling strikes on pitches that are clearly out of the strike zone.

And just to make matters utterly unbearable, Fox Sports imposes senseless announcers Joe Buck and Tim McCarver on the few folks watching on television. These two babble on endlessly describing the utterly obvious without ever saying anything remotely insightful. Often, they say things that are simply flat wrong.

But as bad as the World Series has been, it's nothing compared to legendary Baylor and Chicago Bears linebacker Mike Singletary's first game this past Sunday as interim coach of the San Francisco 49'ers. Coach Singletary's post-game performance has already become an overnight YouTube sensation and is being touted as one of the all-time great coach tirades.

AP sportswriter Greg Beacham summed up Coach Singletary's bad first day at the office well:

Mike Singletary ended his head coaching debut by apologizing to 49ers fans above the locker room tunnel. Tight end Vernon Davis got sent to the showers like a petulant teenager, QB J.T. O’Sullivan was benched after his 11th fumble of the season, and the San Francisco defense let a 242-pound fullback catch two long touchdown passes.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

October 24, 2008

My Beijing Birthday

Take a couple of minutes to watch the trailer for what may be one of the most important movies of our time, My Beijing Birthday (H/T James Fallows).

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

October 18, 2008

The shame!

You know things are really getting bad in the financial markets when FT.com's always-lively Dear Lucy column (previous post here) receives the following letter from an investment banker:

"At a dinner party last Saturday I was asked by a fellow guest what I did and I said I was an investment banker. I might as well have said I was a paedophile. Suddenly the whole table – all friends of my wife from the art world – turned on me with such venom I was really taken aback. I tried to defend myself by saying that I had nothing to be ashamed of in the work that I do in M&A, but the more I argued the more hostile the other guests became."

"Next time this happens – and I fear there will be a next time – should I accept guilt for what isn’t my fault, or should I lie and say I’m a librarian?"

Investment banker, male, 42

Among the many entertaining reader comments to the letter were the following:

"Bit surprised you were invited to dinner in the first place."

"Confess and beg for another glass of wine."

"A sensitive investment banker……….. whatever next?"

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (3) |

October 4, 2008

Therapy, Jack Donagy-style

Whew! After the past couple of weeks, we all could use a little levity.

The creator and star of NBC's clever sitcom 30 Rock -- Tina Fey -- has been getting quite a bit of publicity lately because of her spot-on impersonation of GOP VP candidate Sarah Palin. But the real star of 30 Rock is Alec Baldwin, who plays Jack Donaghy, the  self-important television executive who oversees the fictional television show that 30 Rock revolves around.

In the clip below, Baldwin's Donagy helps counsel Tracy Morgan’s character (who is the star of the fictional TV show) through a therapeutic role-playing session that a psychologist has arranged at Donagy's request to bring Morgan out of a personal crisis. In just over two minutes, Baldwin resolves the root cause of Morgan's crisis (estrangement from his family) by assuming the roles of Morgan’s father (a black man from "funky North Philly" with a droopy lip), Morgan’s mother, the white boyfriend of Morgan's mother, Morgan himself and a Hispanic neighbor of the family, Mrs. Rodriguez.

Television these days doesn't get any better than this.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

September 28, 2008

Paul Newman, R.I.P.

The NY Times' Manohla Dargis reviews Newman's film career.

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September 27, 2008

The Rothko Chapel

It was the 105th anniversary of Mark Rothko's birth earlier this week, so it's a good time to learn a bit more about the artist whose paintings hang in one of Houston's most remarkable places, the Rothko Chapel on the campus of the University of St. Thomas (earlier post here).

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

August 27, 2008

The genesis of a mortgage fraud hotspot

Dealbreaker's essential Opening Bell yesterday included the following note about the connection between the state of Florida and mortgage fraud:

Florida tops 1Q mortgage fraud list (AP)

This is not surprising... Florida is already a key location of the housing bubble. What's more, Florida tops every fraud list. Hello, Boca Raton? Clearwater? These cities are to fraud what Hungary is to Paprika. It's an industry. Plus, doesn't Florida have really lax mortgage/bankruptcy laws as it is?

However, what's most interesting about Florida is how relatively well the state has turned out given its checkered history. In his fine Throes of Democracy: The American Civil War Era 1829-1877 (HarperCollins 2008) (earlier blog post here), Walter A. McDougall provides the following colorful overview of Florida's evolution from the epitome of a backwater port:

From the day of the of the pirates to our day of offshore bank accounts, hedonistic resorts, and drug smuggling, Americans have found in the Caribbean an escape from their own laws and morals. The sand spit that Juan Ponce de Leon baptized La Florida was no exception.

In 1595, the Spaniards garrisoned Saint Augustine, the oldest European settlement on what became U.S. soil; and over a century Franciscans founded thirty-two missions to proselytize the Indians. But the province, which was 300 miles wide at the Panhandle and 400 miles long on the Atlantic coast, remained a derelict.

The whole Spanish navy could not have policed its 8,246 miles of tidal coastline, nor could the army police its 54,000 square miles of jungle and swamp. Nor could either defend the Indians from European infectious diseases or from the renegade Creeks they called cimarrones (whence “Seminoles”).

By the nineteenth century, the Native American Floridians were dead, the European population was measured in hundreds, and the whole peninsula from the Apalachicola River to Key West served as a refuge for Tampa Bay buccaneers, mutineers, deserters, fugitive slaves, Seminoles, and plunderers of shipwrecks (a frequent occurrence, especially during the hurricane season). 

John Quincy Adams cited the anarchy as justification for the treaty of 1819 ceding Florida to the United States. But he was pretentious to think Americanization would ensure law and order. The mostly poor, mostly Scots-Irish “crackers” who spilled into the Panhandle had no patience for government. Hot blood, hot sunshine, laws so variable that even judges could not parse them, no jails, no constables, and plenty of places to hide encouraged “ingenious rascality.” Florida was “a rogue’s paradise.” [ .  .   .]

.   .   . [V]irtue was in short supply, not only among the murderers, gamblers, slavers, squatters, and drunks who poured over the border from Georgia, but among the erstwhile elite. One feud over banking provoked two duels, a murder and a lynching that left all parties dead. In 1827, Ralph Waldo Emerson found Tallahassee “a grotesque place . . . settled by public officers, land speculators, and desperadoes.”  .   .   .  [. . .]

The Jacksonian hatred of banks likewise prevailed. So stringent were the state’s restrictions that no state banks were chartered until the legislature itself chartered one in 1855. Education? The same story. In 1851, the state founded “seminaries” to train teachers at Ocala (parent of the University of Florida) and Tallahassee (the future Florida State University), but as late as 1860 the state counted just ninety-seven schools with 8,494 pupils.

The government showed vigor only in the enforcement of slave codes and the repression of free Negroes. As the state’s population rose from 87,445 in 1850 to 140,424 by 1860, the percentage of slaves remained above 40 percent. Disciplining that underclass was everyone’s business. Policing white people’s behavior was pretty much left up to the women and the Baptist and Methodist clergy. [.  .  .]

.    .    . Today [Florida] is home to Disney World, the space program, South Beach and golf and retirement complexes. But the original Florida will never die out so long as "darkies" gather in jook joints to dance the jubilee (jitterbug), bumper stickers proclaim "Redneck and Proud of it," policeman cruise with alcoholic "roaders" in hand, and transplanted Yankees are taught that "blacks is blacks, but there ain't nothin' sorrier than po' white trash."

Mortgage fraud doesn't sound all that out of place there, now does it? ;^)

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

August 25, 2008

Joe Cocker, captioned for the clear-headed

Come to think of it, I always have wondered what lyrics Joe Cocker was singing during his famous rendition of "With a Little Help from My Friends" at Woodstock in 1969 (H/T Craig Newmark).

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

August 19, 2008

Say what, Doc?

Inasmuch as my family and social groups include a large number of medical doctors, I've noticed that the slang that the docs use when they are talking shop can be incomprehensible at times. That's why this comprehensive list of Doctor's Slang, Medical Slang and Medical Acronyms will come in handy. A few good ones:

"Blade" -- Surgeon: dashing, bold, arrogant and often wrong, but never in doubt (very much appreciated by the primary care doctors);

"Captain Kangaroo" -- chairman of the pediatrics department;

"DTMA" -- Stands for "Don't Transfer to Me Again";

"Fonzie" -- Unflappable medic;

"Improving His Claim" -- Victim of minor accident, needs no treatment but wants something to support his insurance/legal claim;

"Masochist" -- Trauma surgeon;

"Sadomasochist" - Neurosurgeon

"NOCTOR"-- A nurse who has done a 6 week training course and acts like she or he is a Doctor;

"Two beers" -- the number of beers every patient involved in an alcohol-related automobile accident claims to have drunk before the accident.

Check out the entire list. Those docs are a tough bunch.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

August 17, 2008

Fashion trends

Check out Esquire's slideshow (on the left below) illustrating the evolution of men's fashion over the past 75 years. Then, take a look at this Time Magazine slideshow (on the right below) exhibiting the worst of golf fashion over the past century.

My sense is that there is a connection.

 

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

August 5, 2008

Enunciate!

Come to think of it, I had a difficult time understanding Batman at times, too.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

July 28, 2008

Glaeser on the State of the City

Harvard urban economist Ed Glaeser's NY Sun op-ed last week on Houston's success in maintaining an affordable standard of living generated a lively debate among the blogosphere's urban policy wonks, both for and against. So, Glaeser tees up the Houston debate again yesterday at the end of this Wall $treet Journal interview regarding the state of the city:

If you think about the lifestyle of ordinary Americans living on the fringe of Houston or Dallas, for example, compared to what their lifestyle would be in an older European city -- living in a walk-up apartment there compared to a 2,500-square-foot house here they bought for $130,000 with a 24-minute commute -- it's extraordinary in the low-cost areas of this country what a $60,000 family income gets you.

There's a reason Atlanta, Dallas, Houston and Phoenix are our four fastest-growing areas. They offer an astonishingly high standard of living for ordinary Americans.

New York City is a great place to be really rich and not a terrible place to be really poor, but it's a pretty hard place to live on $60,000 a year. You don't experience anywhere near the basic standard of living you would in Houston on the same income.

Ryan Avent is still not convinced.

Posted by Tom at 8:08 PM | Comments (0) |

July 25, 2008

Houston-based God, Inc.

Karl Taro Greenfeld of Portfolio.com examines the money-making machine that is Houston's Joel Osteen and Lakewood Church (prior posts here):

Last year, Lakewood generated $76 million in revenue, which amounts to just over $1,600 for every member of its congregation. Its take includes $44 million donated directly by congregants, who are asked to give 10 percent of their gross income; $10 million in product sales and sermon tapes; and $13 million brought in through direct-mail solicitations, up from about $6 million two years ago. The church’s greatest expense is the TV airtime it buys: $22 million last year to broadcast the show in more than 100 markets, a 10 percent annual increase in spending that is easy to justify. “Cutting back on airtime would be like saying we won’t be sending any trucks to deliver our product,” [Osteen brother-in-law Kevin] Comes says [Comes is Lakewood's chief operating officer]. An additional $13 million goes to administrative costs and salaries, and $9 million a year is spent on facilities and maintenance. [.  .  .]

Being backstage at a Joel Osteen worship event is remarkably similar to being at an N.B.A. game or a rock concert. Beefy security guards tell you where you can and can’t go. Crew members chow down on a buffet laid out by a local caterer and bark into walkie-talkies between bites. At some point, black Town Cars head down the long, curving driveway into the belly of the arena and drop off the pastors and performers, who retreat into private suites.

The night is a celebration of music, state-of-the-art visual effects, and, of course, Christ. Lakewood spends a great deal of money attracting top gospel and Christian talent, and music minister Cindy Cruse-Ratcliff leads a team of Grammy Award winners, including gospel singer Israel Houghton. It’s a thumping occasion, with people dancing in the aisles and even the security guards singing along to “Come Just as You Are” and “We Have Overcome.” Osteen’s entire family is in the act. His mother, wife, and children often play parts in the service.

But it’s Osteen himself we have come to see. He wins the crowd over with wholesome jokes and inspires with his sweet-voiced message. The sermon today is based on the notion of “hitting the DELETE button when you have those negative thoughts.” He urges us to banish that voice telling us, “I’ll never get that great job. I’ll never meet that special someone. I’ll never get married.” Hit the delete button, he urges, and reprogram your mind. “Just one inferior thought can keep you off balance and away from your God-given destiny.”

Read the entire article here. But hit the DELETE button to rid yourself of any negative thoughts first.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

July 9, 2008

The NFL confronts the Mismatch Problem

The pathological way in which National Football League teams annually evaluate college football players has been a common topic on this blog. So, I thoroughly enjoyed this New Yorker video (H/T Guy Kawasaki) of a recent talk by Clear Thinkers favorite Malcolm Gladwell in which he uses the NFL's new-player evaluation process as an example of a hiring practice that is undermined by the "mismatch problem" -- that is, the tendency of an employer to cling to outmoded employee evaluation variables despite the fast-changing nature of the employer's jobs.

Gladwell's point is that the nature and demands of jobs in American society are becoming increasingly complex. That complexity, in turn, drives employers to desire more certainty in making the right employment decision. However, in striving for that certainty, many employers continue to measure the wrong variables in evaluating prospects and finalizing their employment decisions. Gladwell is currently studying the mismatch problem and has some initial observations on how employers can minimize its effects. Check out his talk.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

July 1, 2008

Tyson who?

I swear, you can't make this stuff up.

The American Family Association apparently has a policy over at its new outlet, OneNewsNow, never to use the word "gay" in an article. Instead, the AFA always replaces "gay" with the supposedly more proper "homosexual."

Unfortunately for the AFA, someone forgot to check the automated changing of the word "gay" to "homosexual" when the subject of the article was Tyson Gay, who on Sunday nearly set a world record in the 100 meter sprint.

Ed Brayton has the hilarious story, and here is the Google Cache of the article before the AFA caught their blunder and changed it.

Update: By midday today, even the mainstream media was all over the gaffe.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

June 9, 2008

Aging well

Steve Winwood sounded good back in the 1960's and 70's during his days with the Spencer Davis Group and Traffic. I'll be darned if he doesn't sound even better now.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

June 4, 2008

Slugging Metro?

I'd bet that a program such as this (H/T Craig Newmark) would rival (if not exceed) the ridership on Houston Metro's light rail line.

Slugging is a term used to describe a unique form of commuting found in the Washington, DC area sometimes referred to as "Instant Carpooling" or "Casual Carpooling".   It's unique because people commuting into the city stop to pickup other passengers even though they are total strangers! However, slugging is a very organized system with its own set of rules, proper etiquette, and specific pickup and drop-off locations.  It has thousands of vehicles at its disposal, moves thousands of commuters daily, and the best part, it’s FREE! Not only is it free, but it gets people to and from work faster than the typical bus, metro, or train.  I think you'll find that it is the most efficient, cost-effective form of commuting in the nation.

Here is the etiquette and rules of the process. Being a "slug" doesn't sound all that bad! ;^)

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (2) |

May 31, 2008

I would have never guessed

That, according to this handy database, this person would have given the most commencement speeches during this current season of university graduation ceremonies.

Similarly, I would not have guessed the city in the world that is home to the most billionaires.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

May 25, 2008

Flying high

 Check out what Michel Fournier is doing for fun today.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

May 23, 2008

Reflecting on the raid

The Third Court of Appeals' decision yesterday ruling that the State of Texas had illegally seized over 450 children from their homes at a polygamist West Texas ranch threw a large monkey wrench into the largest custody case in (at least) recent American history (the court's decision is here). However, the decision is almost certainly the correct one. As Scott Henson has diligently reported over the past two months, the state's case for taking such pervasive action was shaky, at best, and has clearly deprived many parents and children of their due process rights.

The appellate court concluded the state had offered no evidence that all of the children were in danger other than an investigator's vague opinion that the church's "belief system" encouraged teenage pregnancies. State investigators have identified 20 females at the ranch who had become pregnant before age 18, but most of them are now adults. "Even if one views the FLDS belief system as creating a danger of sexual abuse, there is no evidence that this danger is 'immediate' or 'urgent' .  .  . with respect to every child in the community, " the court observed.

As Henson has noted, Texas authorities' handling of the case has been dubious from the get-go. The state raided the compound last month after a sobbing woman called a family-violence hotline and identified herself as a 16-year-old girl who had been forced into marriage at the compound. Authorities never found the girl and now believe the call may have been a hoax. Then, at a mass custody hearing in mid-April that can only be described as a gross miscarriage of justice, one of the state's chief witnesses testified that he did not really know whether the young girls and boys removed from the ranch truly had been in danger. Given that context, the appellate court's decision is not surprising.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, it is difficult not to feel a profound sense of sadness over the many women and children who are subjected to a stifling existence at the Eldorado compound by a relatively small number of sexual tyrants who hold sway over them. Anthropologist Lionel Tiger addressed the genesis of the cruelty recently in this Wall $treet Journal op-ed:

The fact is that, despite all the blather about faith and freedom of religion, the men operating the various compounds in question are behaving in virtually the same manner as countless dominant males in countless primate troops observed over the years.

The essence of the case is that the men who control the politics of the group (as well as the hapless women and children who live there) have used junk theology about heaven, hell, paradise and salvation to maintain their unquestioned access to all females of reproductive age (or younger).

That's the reproductive fantasy of any adult male primate.

In this blow to simple decency, the Texas polygamists are not pathfinders. Multiple wives are of course permitted in the Islamic religion, and co-wives are a feature of dozens of human groups in which powerful men control sufficient resources to be able to support more than one woman.

This is usually because the societies in which they live are sharply unequal. Sex and offspring flow to those with resources.

One of the triumphs of Western arrangements is the institution of monogamy, which has in principle made it possible for each male and female to enjoy a plausible shot at the reproductive outcome which all the apparatus of nature demands. Even Karl Marx did not fully appreciate the immense radicalism of this form of equity.

The Texans' faith-flaunting is morally disgraceful and crudely cynical. It also raises bewildering questions about human gullibility on one hand and the efficacy of the Big Lie on the other.

Can anyone really believe that the notorious communal bed to which senior men command 16-year-old girls is part of some holy temple apparatus? Apparently some people do, and the few escapees from the fetid zoo have testified to the power the ridiculous theory wields.

The victims are not only young women but young men too. They are reproductively and productively disenfranchised, and are in effect forced to leave the communities to become hopeless, ill-schooled misfits in the towns of normal life. No dignified lives as celibate monks with colorful costumes for them.

Again, the issue is cross-cultural. Osama bin Laden has at least five wives, which means that four young men of his tribe have no date on Saturday night and forever. They may become willing jihadists, or desperate suicides eager to soothe their god by killing infidels and Americans.

Elsewhere, preference for sons has meant a sharp shortage of women in China. It is known that raiding parties from there cross into bordering countries with more regular sex ratios to steal women.

The deranged cults have been operating in plain sight for years in Texan communities whose police forces have been earnestly writing parking tickets while ignoring what is obvious major criminality. Some 400 young children have been drastically separated from their mothers – who among other derogations of civil life are allegedly part of longstanding welfare fraud engineered by their sexual tyrants.

And now what? It will be intensely depressing but probably useful to acknowledge this is at bottom a natural matter, a product of our inner behavioral nature. Understanding the shadowy sources of this nightmare may help our community cope with its victims.

John Calvin would say that the Eldorado compound is a reflection of the depravity of man. A nation of laws that protect the individual from the overwhelming power of the state may prove inadequate to deter the men who perpetrate such cruelty. But a special place in hell awaits them.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

May 11, 2008

Nixonland

George Will gives Rick Perlstein, author of Nixonland (Scribner 2008), a history lesson.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

April 15, 2008

An eternal optimist

Don't tell Ray Kurzweil that we ought to be all gloomy about the prospects for mankind. This WaPo op-ed reflects that he is downright bullish:

MIT was so advanced in 1965 (the year I entered as a freshman) that it actually had a computer. Housed in its own building, it cost $11 million (in today's dollars) and was shared by all students and faculty. Four decades later, the computer in your cellphone is a million times smaller, a million times less expensive and a thousand times more powerful. That's a billion-fold increase in the amount of computation you can buy per dollar.

Yet as powerful as information technology is today, we will make another billion-fold increase in capability (for the same cost) over the next 25 years. That's because information technology builds on itself -- we are continually using the latest tools to create the next so they grow in capability at an exponential rate. This doesn't just mean snazzier cellphones. It means that change will rock every aspect of our world. The exponential growth in computing speed will unlock a solution to global warming, unmask the secret to longer life and solve myriad other worldly conundrums. [.  .  .]

Take energy. Today, 70 percent of it comes from fossil fuels, a 19th-century technology. But if we could capture just one ten-thousandth of the sunlight that falls on Earth, we could meet 100 percent of the world's energy needs using this renewable and environmentally friendly source. We can't do that now because solar panels rely on old technology, making them expensive, inefficient, heavy and hard to install. But a new generation of panels based on nanotechnology (which manipulates matter at the level of molecules) is starting to overcome these obstacles. The tipping point at which energy from solar panels will actually be less expensive than fossil fuels is only a few years away. The power we are generating from solar is doubling every two years; at that rate, it will be able to meet all our energy needs within 20 years.

I just thought I'd toss in that third paragraph for those in the oil and gas industry that believe that a period like the mid-to-late 1980's can't happen again. Meanwhile, light, sweet crude oil futures for May delivery settled yesterday at $111.76, a new record, on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (0) |

April 7, 2008

Acupuncture or fake acupuncture?

This Respectful Insolence blog post reports on yet another in an increasingly long line of medical studies that demonstrate that acupuncture is nothing more than an elaborate and fancy placebo. In this particular study involving patients in "true" acupuncture and "fake" acupuncture protocols, patients in the sham acupuncture group improved more than patients in the "true" acupuncture group.

My conclusion? On one hand, if you stick pins in people who are complaining about something, then some of them will eventually quit complaining. On the other hand, if you take pins out of some people who were previously complaining, then some of them will also stop complaining.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (6) |

April 4, 2008

The NY Times discovers that Houston

is a pretty darn diverse place.

Posted by Tom at 12:01 AM | Comments (1) |

February 29, 2008

Indexed

Jessica Hagy has had a smart blog for awhile. Now, she has a smart book. Barry Ritholtz provides a taste of her work. She is a very insightful lady. Enjoy

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

February 28, 2008

I'm shocked, shocked! There is academic cheating in big-time college football!

The entertaining hypocrisy of big-time college athletics continues at Florida State University. (H/T Jay Christensen). Just like Rick's Cafe, everybody knows what's going on, too.

So, what level of embarrassment in regard to "academic integrity" is it going to take to prompt university presidents to reorganize big-time college football into the professional minor league business that is its true nature?

This imbroglio reminds me of an insight into academia that my late mentor, Ross Lence, passed along to me years ago. As regular readers of this blog know, A Man for All Seasons -- the story of Sir Thomas More's conflict with King Henry VIII -- is one of my favorite movies and it was one of Ross' favorites, too. Ross particularly enjoyed the scene early in the movie when Sir Thomas attempts unsuccessfully to persuade his student, Richard Rich, to eschew a political appointment for a teaching career. After rejecting Sir Thomas' advice, Rich takes a political appointment from Henry's henchman, Thomas Cromwell, in return for agreeing to betray Sir Thomas.

"Sir Thomas knew that Rich had a corrupt heart and would never be able to resist the corrupt temptations of politics," Ross observed to me once with a chuckle. "So he recommended that Rich become a teacher." Then, with a twinkle in his eye, Ross posited the question for discussion:

"But was Sir Thomas suggesting that a corrupt heart is not a problem for an academic?"

Posted by Tom at 12:10 AM | Comments (0) |

February 27, 2008

Dick Armey on immigration

I must admit, I never thought that former House Majority Leader Dick Armey would sound like a statesman to me. I was wrong. Watch the video to find out why.

Posted by Tom at 12:10 AM | Comments (0) |

The diversity of Texas

Yes, Texas is a diverse place. It's a part of its charm. But following on this post from yesterday, that diversity does not make it an easy place to get one's arms around.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

February 22, 2008

Compensation through resort privileges

Check out the renovated digs for the University of Texas baseball team at UFCU Disch-Falk Field in Austin.

Even the most defensible big-time intercollegiate sport is now funneling compensation to its players through "resort privileges." The renovated locker room at Disch-Falk looks better than most university faculty lounges that I've seen.

Posted by Tom at 12:05 AM | Comments (0) |

February 20, 2008

Born Standing Up

Don't miss this Smithsonian.com excerpt from comedian Steve Martin's new autobiographical book, Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life (Scribner 2007). Take, for example, Martin's hilarious description of the implementation of his novel theory of comedy in one of his initial shows:

A skillful comedian could coax a laugh with tiny indicators such as a vocal tic (Bob Hope's "But I wanna tell ya") or even a slight body shift. Jack E. Leonard used to punctuate jokes by slapping his stomach with his hand. One night, watching him on "The Tonight Show," I noticed that several of his punch lines had been unintelligible, and the audience had actually laughed at nothing but the cue of his hand slap.

These notions stayed with me until they formed an idea that revolutionized my comic direction: What if there were no punch lines? What if there were no indicators? What if I created tension and never released it? What if I headed for a climax, but all I delivered was an anticlimax? What would the audience do with all that tension? Theoretically, it would have to come out sometime. But if I kept denying them the formality of a punch line, the audience would eventually pick their own place to laugh, essentially out of desperation. This type of laugh seemed stronger to me, as they would be laughing at something they chose, rather than being told exactly when to laugh.

To test my idea, I went onstage and began: "I'd like to open up with sort of a 'funny comedy bit.' This has really been a big one for me...it's the one that put me where I am today. I'm sure most of you will recognize the title when I mention it; it's the "Nose on Microphone" routine [pause for imagined applause]. And it's always funny, no matter how many times you see it."

I leaned in and placed my nose on the mike for a few long seconds. Then I stopped and took several bows, saying, "Thank you very much." "That's it?" they thought. Yes, that was it. The laugh came not then, but only after they realized I had already moved on to the next bit.

Now that I had assigned myself to an act without jokes, I gave myself a rule. Never let them know I was bombing: this is funny, you just haven't gotten it yet. If I wasn't offering punch lines, I'd never be standing there with egg on my face. It was essential that I never show doubt about what I was doing. I would move through my act without pausing for the laugh, as though everything were an aside. Eventually, I thought, the laughs would be playing catch-up to what I was doing. Everything would be either delivered in passing, or the opposite, an elaborate presentation that climaxed in pointlessness. Another rule was to make the audience believe that I thought I was fantastic, that my confidence could not be shattered. They had to believe that I didn't care if they laughed at all and that this act was going on with or without them.

I was having trouble ending my show. I thought, "Why not make a virtue of it?" I started closing with extended bowing, as though I heard heavy applause. I kept insisting that I needed to "beg off." No, nothing, not even this ovation I am imagining, can make me stay. My goal was to make the audience laugh but leave them unable to describe what it was that had made them laugh. In other words, like the helpless state of giddiness experienced by close friends tuned in to each other's sense of humor, you had to be there.

At least that was the theory. And for the next eight years, I rolled it up a hill like Sisyphus.

My first reviews came in. One said, "This so-called 'comedian' should be told that jokes are supposed to have punch lines." Another said I represented "the most serious booking error in the history of Los Angeles music."

"Wait," I thought, "let me explain my theory!"

Martin also passes along an interesting observation about longtime Tonight Show host, Johnny Carson. It took some time for Martin to earn Carson's professional respect:

I was able to maintain a personal relationship with Johnny over the next 30 years, at least as personal as he or I could make it, and I was flattered that he came to respect my comedy. . . Johnny once joked in his monologue: "I announced that I was going to write my autobiography, and 19 publishers went out and copyrighted the title Cold and Aloof." This was the common perception of him. But Johnny was not aloof; he was polite. He did not presume intimate relationships where there were none; he took time, and with time grew trust. He preserved his dignity by maintaining the personality that was appropriate for him.

The excerpt also includes Martin's chance encounter with Elvis. Classic.

Posted by Tom at 12:10 AM | Comments (0) |

February 19, 2008

Importantitis

Theater critic Terry Teachout made an interesting point the other day in this W$J op-ed about one of the hazards of great achievement relatively early in one's career:

Leonard Bernstein set Broadway on fire in 1957 with "West Side Story," a jazzed-up version of "Romeo and Juliet" in which the Capulets and Montagues were turned into Puerto Rican Sharks and American Jets. It was the most significant musical of the postwar era -- and the last successful work that Bernstein wrote for the stage. His next show, 1976's "1600 Pennsylvania Avenue," closed after seven performances. For the rest of his life he floundered, unable to compose anything worth hearing.

What happened? Stephen Sondheim, Bernstein's collaborator on "West Side Story," told Meryle Secrest, who wrote biographies of both men, that he developed "a bad case of importantitis." That sums up Bernstein's later years with devastating finality. Time and again he dove head first into grandiose-sounding projects, then emerged from the depths clutching such pretentious pieces of musical costume jewelry as the "Kaddish" Symphony and "A Quiet Place." In the end he dried up almost completely, longing to make Great Big Musical Statements -- he actually wanted to write a Holocaust opera -- but incapable of producing so much as a single memorable song.

Teachout goes on to discuss the career of Orson Welles, another performer who peaked early with "Citizen Kane" and then spent the remainder of his career attempting to scale that peak again. Teachout compares Welles and novelist Ralph Ellison to choreographer, George Balanchine:

Contrast Ellison's creative paralysis with the lifelong fecundity of the great choreographer George Balanchine, who went about his business efficiently and unpretentiously, turning out a ballet or two every season. Most were brilliant, a few were duds, but no matter what the one he'd just finished was like, and no matter what the critics thought of it, he moved on to the next one with the utmost dispatch, never looking back. "In making ballets, you cannot sit and wait for the Muse," he said. "Union time hardly allows it, anyhow. You must be able to be inventive at any time." That was the way Balanchine saw himself: as an artistic craftsman whose job was to make ballets. Yet the 20th century never saw a more important artist, or one less prone to importantitis.

I've admired the trait that Teachout notes in Balachine in Texas novelist, Larry McMurtry, who churned out interesting novels and short stories for 25 years or so until he reached the pinnacle of his profession at the age of 50 with his 1985 Pulitizer Prize-winning novel, Lonesome Dove. Even after hitting a grand slam with Lonesome Dove, McMurtry didn't rest on his laurels; he went back to work producing a novel every several years or so. Although many of those novels and other works (the screenplay to Brokeback Mountain, for example) have been highly entertaining, he has not been able to produce a work on the level of Lonesome Dove. The odds are that McMurtry won't (he is 72 now), but my sense is that he is much more likely to do so pursuing his craft the way in which he is doing it rather than sitting around contemplating what the next great American novel should be.

Posted by Tom at 12:05 AM | Comments (0) |

February 17, 2008

Letterman on body painting

David Letterman discusses body painting with Sports Illustrated cover girl Marisa Miller, who is a good sport about it all.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

February 8, 2008

The Dear Abby of business

Lucy Kellaway, Financial Times columnist and associate editor, pens an entertaining blog called Dear Lucy in which she solicits letters from businesspeople about various business problems. Sometimes she comments on them, but all the time she opens them up to reader comments, which range between the insightful, hilarious and bizarre. The following is last week's letter:

I recently submitted an expense report following a routine trip to Frankfurt. Instead of attaching the total bill, I mistakenly attached a fully itemised printout. Unfortunately, this was returned to me, copied to my boss, with one item – “Private Room Entertainment: Adults Only Movie” – highlighted as an illegitimate business expense. I ordered the film more out of curiosity than habit and am usually meticulous over my expenses. I work in the finance department and am a loyal and trusted employee. The form was seen by my secretary, though, and I am anxious that it may become a topic of conversation with her lunchtime colleagues. How do I salvage the situation?

Manager, Male, 43

The following was one reader's advice:

"Go to work tomorrow dressed as a lady. It's sure to deflect from any comments made."

Posted by Tom at 12:05 AM | Comments (0) |

February 6, 2008

Waxing philosophic on bad announcing

My standards for announcers of football games are not high, but it seemed to me that the Fox Sports announcing team of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman in last weekend's Super Bowl LXII game were unusually bad. For example, neither of them made much of Coach Belichick's dubious decision of going for it on 4th and 13 on the Giants 32 yard line rather trying a long field goal (49 yards) that is made easier by the pristine conditions in which the game was played. In particular, Aikman -- who has that annoying ability to say absolutely nothing of substance while reciting overlapping clichés -- could not bring himself to stop rhapsodizing about Tom Brady's "coolness under fire" despite the fact that Brady was missing badly on relatively easy passes while looking antsy in the pocket over the brutal pounding that he was enduring from the Giants' front seven.

Noting the same mediocrity in announcing quality, Michael Bérubé takes up another key call in the game and provides this imaginary dialogue between Buck and Aikman.

We can only dream. ;^)

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (1) |

January 28, 2008

The bus to Houston

Check out this interesting story of how a young woman's bus ride to Houston in the 1960's led to a better life. A redeeming quality of Houston is that it attracts folks who are looking to improve their lot in life. I hope that quality never changes.

Posted by Tom at 12:05 AM | Comments (2) |

January 21, 2008

The Civil War in Four Minutes

And to The Ashokan Farewell, no less!

Posted by Tom at 12:10 AM | Comments (2) |

January 12, 2008

Conquering stress in the skies

It seems as if everyone who has been traveling recently has a horror story to relate about an abysmal experience with an airline. Heck, air travel has become so distasteful that I don't even think about flying anymore if I'm traveling within the Houston-Dallas-Austin/SanAntonio triangle here in Texas. I have an excellent chauffeur (i.e., my wife) who handles the driving while I work. It's far more pleasant than dealing with the non-stop hassles of air travel.

But if you simply must endure air travel these days, take a moment to read this Peter Greenberg article that provides about a half-dozen tips for minimizing stress during air travel, such as:

Avoid "direct" flights. The only good flight is a nonstop flight. Labeling a flight "direct" is an airline euphemism that means you'll stop at least once, exponentially increasing your chances of being delayed.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (1) |

January 8, 2008

YouTube for eggheads?

This looks as if it has great potential. The NY Times has the background story on the project.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

January 5, 2008

The Great Debaters

My younger daughter, my wife and I took in Denzel Washington's new film the other night, The Great Debaters. Although the story was somewhat formulaic and the movie certainly not perfect, we found the movie to be hugely entertaining. The acting is superb, particularly the reliable Mr. Washington and newcomer Denzel Whitaker, a delightful young actor who literally steals the show as the youngest of the college debaters. Mr. Washington, who also directed, wisely decided to tell the story through Mr. Whitaker's character (James Farmer, Jr.), and Mr. Whitaker is more than up to the task. What a talent!

Interestingly, the always-excellent Forest Whitaker plays James Farmer, Sr., the father of the young Mr. Whitaker's character in the movie. However, despite their common last name, the two are not related.

At any rate, in discussing the movie on the way home afterward, my daughter observed that it sure is a good thing that the horrific racism depicted in the movie is not condoned in American society anymore. My reply was that brutal discrimination of blacks is still not as uncommon as we like to think. Scott Henson and Radley Balko comment on the unacceptable revelations of, at minimum, prosecutorial negligence in Dallas. Where is the outrage?

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

December 25, 2007

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays to all Clear Thinkers from my lovely wife Susan and me. We appreciate you checking on our small slice of the blogosphere from time to time.

In my Hayes Carll post from a few weeks ago, I noted the grand tradition of Texas songwriters, one of whom is Robert Earl Keen. A number of years ago, Keen wrote and recorded one of the funniest Texas-oriented Christmas songs that I have ever heard, and now he has the video below to go along with it. For a slice of quintessential Texas culture, don't miss it:

Finally, each Christmas season since 1949, the Wall Street Journal has published the late Vermont Royster's classic op-ed In Hoc Anno Domini, which is passed along in its entirety after the break below. Regardless of one's religious persuasion or whether one has a religion at all, Royster's short essay is a wonderful reminder of the extraordinary impact that an unlikely Jewish man of 2000 years ago had on the course of the human condition:

When Saul of Tarsus set out on his journey to Damascus the whole of the known world lay in bondage. There was one state, and it was Rome. There was one master for it all, and he was Tiberius Caesar.

Everywhere there was civil order, for the arm of the Roman law was long. Everywhere there was stability, in government and in society, for the centurions saw that it was so.

But everywhere there was something else, too. There was oppression -- for those who were not the friends of Tiberius Caesar. There was the tax gatherer to take the grain from the fields and the flax from the spindle to feed the legions or to fill the hungry treasury from which divine Caesar gave largess to the people. There was the impressor to find recruits for the circuses. There were executioners to quiet those whom the Emperor proscribed. What was a man for but to serve Caesar?

There was the persecution of men who dared think differently, who heard strange voices or read strange manuscripts. There was enslavement of men whose tribes came not from Rome, disdain for those who did not have the familiar visage. And most of all, there was everywhere a contempt for human life. What, to the strong, was one man more or less in a crowded world?

Then, of a sudden, there was a light in the world, and a man from Galilee saying, Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's.

And the voice from Galilee, which would defy Caesar, offered a new Kingdom in which each man could walk upright and bow to none but his God. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. And he sent this gospel of the Kingdom of Man into the uttermost ends of the earth.

So the light came into the world and the men who lived in darkness were afraid, and they tried to lower a curtain so that man would still believe salvation lay with the leaders.

But it came to pass for a while in divers places that the truth did set man free, although the men of darkness were offended and they tried to put out the light. The voice said, Haste ye. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness come upon you, for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.

Along the road to Damascus the light shone brightly. But afterward Paul of Tarsus, too, was sore afraid. He feared that other Caesars, other prophets, might one day persuade men that man was nothing save a servant unto them, that men might yield up their birthright from God for pottage and walk no more in freedom.

Then might it come to pass that darkness would settle again over the lands and there would be a burning of books and men would think only of what they should eat and what they should wear, and would give heed only to new Caesars and to false prophets. Then might it come to pass that men would not look upward to see even a winter's star in the East, and once more, there would be no light at all in the darkness.

And so Paul, the apostle of the Son of Man, spoke to his brethren, the Galatians, the words he would have us remember afterward in each of the years of his Lord:

Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (2) |

December 7, 2007

The world according to Americans

This map would be funnier if it wasn't so darn accurate.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (1) |

November 24, 2007

Hayes Carll's show in The Woodlands

One of the highlights of the Kirkendall family's Thanksgiving holiday was a family outing one evening that my older son Andy and his friend Jon Charbonnet arranged to enjoy a show by Hayes Carll, the emerging Texas singer-songwriter who grew up in The Woodlands.

The location of the show was Dosey Doe's, a delightful coffeehouse/restaurant/bar that has become the go-to club venue over the past year in The Woodlands and Houston's north side for performing artists. The show we attended was recorded as a segment in KVST-FM 99.7's series, "Real Life, Real Music," which airs from 6:00-7:00 p.m. on Sunday evening.

When Carll burst on the national scene with his 2002 album Flowers and Liquor, some critics assumed that it was just a matter of time until he became another local Texas singer who made "good" in the mainstream Nashville country music scene. But Carll followed up his first album with the 2005 Little Rock, which cemented his reputation for remaining steadfast to his Texas-rooted songwriting in the same vein as such legends as Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, Steve Earle, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Robert Earl Keen and Lyle Lovett.

Carll put on a wonderful show for my family and the other local folks, intermingling his soulful and heartfelt music with humorous and self-effacing memories of growing up in The Woodands, his college days in Conway, Arkansas, and "competing" for preeminence in the distinctive club scene of Crystal Beach, Texas during the early days of his performing career. At one point in the show, Carll admitted that he was struggling with naming his third album (scheduled for release in April, 2008), but that his mother -- who attended the show and still resides in The Woodlands with Hayes' father -- suggested the title "He's a Very Good Boy."

Check out Carll's touring schedule. If you enjoy Texas country/folk/rock music, then you will not be disappointed if you take in one of his shows (he is playing the Mucky Duck in Houston on December 1st). In the meantime, enjoy the video below of Carll singing "It's a Shame," which is on Flowers and Liquor. There is a reason that some are calling Hayes Carll the new "Bob Dylan of Texas."

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (1) |

November 22, 2007

A butcher's turkey carving instructions

I've been carving the family's Thanksgiving turkey for the past 25 years, so I speak with a bit of expertise in saying that this NY Times article and accompanying video provides the best turkey-carving instructions and tips that I've come across in quite awhile.

Have a restful and joyous Thanksgiving, and thanks for reading Clear Thinkers.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (1) |

November 3, 2007

Texas Haute Country

The New York Times discovers what we in Texas already know -- the Texas Hill Country is wonderful!

Posted by Tom at 12:40 AM | Comments (0) |

October 25, 2007

Goin' Tex-Mex

This NY Times article does a nice job of explaining the special place of Tex-Mex food within Texan culture. But I have one question. How does one write an article about Tex-Mex in Houston and not mention Ninfa's on Navigation? Alison Cook comments along the same lines.

Posted by Tom at 12:10 AM | Comments (3) |

October 22, 2007

Now even deer hunting regulations are running amok

As deer hunting season approaches, check out what regulations you have to follow simply to bag a deer in Texas these days:

When state game wardens hit the woods and fields in the wake of Texas' Nov. 3 opening of the general deer season, those 500 or so officers can pretty much predict the violations they're most likely to encounter.

"Tagging is the No. 1 (deer hunting-related) violation we see," said Maj. David Sinclair of TPWD's law enforcement division. [. . .]

In most cases, a hunter taking a deer in Texas must, immediately upon taking possession of the animal, attach to it the appropriate tag from the hunter's license. [. . .]

Deciding which tag to use isn't all that daunting. Five detachable tags valid for tagging whitetails are attached to the perimeter of a Texas hunting license. . . . Three of those whitetail tags are valid for tagging a buck or an antlerless deer, and two are valid only for tagging an antlerless deer.

It's a simple thing to detach the correct tag — a buck tag for a buck whitetail and antlerless tag for a doe.

But then some people drop the ball.

To legally tag a deer, the hunter must fill out, in ink, the requested information on the back of the tag — the name of the ranch or lease on which the deer was taken and the county in which that hunting area is located.

Also, the month and date the deer was taken has to be cut out of the tag. Cut out. Not marked with a pen. Cut out. [. . .]

But the most common deer-related violation was failure to complete the white-tailed deer log on the back of the hunting license.

The deer log was created this decade when the state seemed to be moving away from requiring tags be attached to deer. The log, printed on the back of the license, was seen as a way to keep track of how many deer, buck and doe, a hunter had taken, where they were taken and when.

The move to do away with deer tags has lost momentum. But the deer log remains. And it's surprising how many deer hunters don't know about the log requirement, forget to complete it or ignore it.

This past year, TPWD game wardens issued more than 500 citations for failing to complete the deer log.

As with the other tagging-related violations, hunters charged with not completing the deer log face a Class C misdemeanor. Conviction brings a fine of as much as $500.

Sheesh! Let's hope the regulators don't start piling on similar rules for hunting these.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

October 15, 2007

What is Joel Osteen's message?

The Chronicle's Tara Dooley is breathless in this Sunday Chronicle article on the ever-expanding financial empire of Joel Osteen, pastor of Houston megachurch, Lakewood Church (previous posts here):

Osteen and Free Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, will release the pastor's second book, Become a Better You on Monday. It debuts with at least 2.5 million copies, the largest first run in Free Press's more than 60-year history.

With an initial printing of 136,000, Osteen's first book, Your Best Life Now, attracted an audience just waking up to Osteen and his growing Houston church. The book, which came out in 2004, eventually sold about 5 million copies in the United States and was translated into 25 languages.

Become a Better You meets a public that has grown accustomed to Osteen's face. Taking his place with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie as one of the 10 Most Fascinating People of 2006 — according to Barbara Walters — Osteen's national profile has made him an A-list Christian celebrity.

"I'm starting to realize it," Osteen said in an interview. "It wasn't until about a year or so ago that I thought, 'This is something unusual and God has given us a lot of favor.' Sometimes you think it's just people flattering you, but I think it's starting to hit home."

But on Sunday night's segment of 60 Minutes, Michael S. Horton, J. Gresham Machen Professor of Systematic Theology and Apologetics at Westminster Seminary California, raised substantial questions regarding the theological substance -- or lack thereof -- of Osteen's basic message:

In the Wal-Mart era of religion and spirituality, every particular creed and any denominational distinctives get watered down. We don’t hear (at least explicitly) about our being “little gods,” “part and parcel of God,” or the blood of Christ as a talisman for healing and prosperity. The strange teachings of his father’s generation, still regularly heard on TBN, are not explored in any depth. In fact, nothing is explored in any depth. Osteen still uses the telltale lingo of the health-and-wealth evangelists: “Declare it,” “speak it,” “claim it,” and so forth, but there are no dramatic, made-for-TV healing lines. The pastor of Lakewood Church . . . does not come across as a flashy evangelist with jets and yachts, but as a charming next-door-neighbor who always has something nice to say.

Although remarkably gifted at the social psychology of television, Joel Osteen is hardly unique. In fact, his explicit drumbeat of prosperity (word-faith) teaching is communicated in the terms and the ambiance that might be difficult to distinguish from most megachurches. Joel Osteen is the next generation of the health-and-wealth gospel. This time, it’s mainstream. [. . .]

This is what we might call the false gospel of “God-Loves-You-Anyway.” . . . God is our buddy. He just wants us to be happy, and the Bible gives us the roadmap.

I have no reason to doubt the sincere motivation to reach non-Christians with a relevant message. My concern, however, is that the way this message comes out actually trivializes the faith at its best and contradicts it at its worst. In a way, it sounds like atheism: Imagine there is no heaven above us or hell below us, no necessary expectation that Christ “will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead” and establish perfect peace in the world. In fact, one would be hard-pressed to find anything in this message that would be offensive to a Unitarian, Buddhist, or cultural Christians who are used to a diet of gospel-as-American-Dream. Disney’s Jiminy Cricket expresses this sentiment: “If you wish upon a star, all your dreams will come true.”

To be clear, I’m not saying that it is atheism, but that it sounds oddly like it in this sense: that it is so bound to a this-worldly focus that we really do not hear anything about God himself—his character and works in creation, redemption, or the resurrection of the body and the age to come. . . . Despite the cut-aways of an enthralled audience with Bibles opened, I have yet to hear a single biblical passage actually preached. Is it possible to have evangelism without the evangel? Christian outreach without a Christian message? [. . .]

. . . “How can I be right with God?” is no longer a question when my happiness rather than God’s holiness is the main issue. My concern is that Joel Osteen is simply the latest in a long line of self-help evangelists who appeal to the native American obsession with pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps. Salvation is not a matter of divine rescue from the judgment that is coming on the world, but a matter of self-improvement in order to have your best life now.

Horton's collection of essays on Joel Osteen's ministry is here and Tim Challies provides this critical review of Osteen's new book.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (1) |

October 11, 2007

Texas' inexhaustible supply of hog

Anyone who has spent any time in rural Texas understands the havoc that the burgeoning feral hog population (previous posts here) has caused in almost every area of Texas. Chronicle outdoors columnist Shannon Tompkins has been studying the problem for quite some time and, in this article from this past weekend, he puts the hog problem in perspective:

Texas is awash in a rising tide of feral hogs. And Texans appear as impotent as King Canute in stopping that tide from climbing up the beach. [. . .]

Texas has about half as many feral hogs as it does white-tailed deer — perhaps 2 million hogs and about 4 million deer. [But] almost all the growth in the hog population has occurred over the past 20 years. Once limited to a few thousand pigs in small pockets of East and South Texas, feral hogs infest all but a half-dozen or so of Texas' 254 counties.

This is an incredible rate of expansion. And with it has come millions of dollars of damage to agriculture, land, water and native wildlife.

What's behind the expansion?

We Texans did this to ourselves. People hauled live-trapped feral hogs all over the state and released them, thinking they would create good hunting opportunities.

Those infections spread.

Also, changing land-use practices — everything from what grows on land, who owns it, average size of tracts, who has access to that land and what they do there — gave feral hogs the conditions they needed to become established and thrive.

Will feral hogs become more populous in Texas than whitetails?

Could happen. Texas' deer population is stable, and deer live on just about every acre that can support them; the herd isn't going to grow.

But the feral hog population continues mushrooming as the animals pioneer into new corners and herds expand to fill the newly infested habitat.

Feral hogs can outcompete and outreproduce deer.

Hogs are omnivores. Deer are browsers. Deer depend on a small suite of plants for food. Hogs can live on almost anything, and in places that will not support deer.

A doe deer doesn't breed until she's a year old, then produces one fawn most years and twins in really good years. On average, half those fawns survive to their first birthday.

A sow feral hog can breed for the first time when she's 8 months old or so, and throw litters of four to eight piglets twice a year, and almost all survive.

Do the math.

It appears impossible to eradicate feral hogs once they have become established at the level we have them in Texas.

Yes, extreme methods — intense trapping, aerial gunning — can clear an area of feral hogs. But it's expensive, time-consuming and only a temporary solution. If intense control is not maintained — constant trapping, brutally efficient gunning over a large area — new hogs migrate to fill the vacuum.

Look; Texas has the most liberal hog-killing regulations in the nation. Feral hogs can be killed by any method other than poisoning. They can be shot from the air or ground. They can be trapped. They can be run down by packs of hounds. Day and night. No limits.

No one has a dependable estimate of how many feral hogs are killed in Texas each year. But it has to be in the neighborhood of a quarter-million or more. Heck, the state's two commercial processing plants that butcher feral hogs for the retail market are annually handling an estimated 100,000 wild swine. Maybe twice that many are taken by recreational hunters and trappers.

Still, the pig population climbs.

Feral hogs are the four-legged equivalent of fire ants, tallow trees, salt cedar, water hyacinth and all the other non-native, invasive species that are damaging Texas' biota. Their only positive qualities are that they provide hunting opportunity, and they are great on the table.

I kill feral hogs whenever I can, even though I understand that assassinating one every now and again from a deer stand or even trapping a dozen or two a year from the deer lease has the same impact as trying to dip out the ocean using a coffee cup.

It's not particularly satisfying work. But I like to think the deer and the quail, squirrel and turkey and every other native creature in the woods appreciates the effort.

Feral hogs have even been seen roaming in parts of Houston's Memorial Park near Buffalo Bayou. And markets are developing for feral hog meat. But the population continues to grow steadily. Any ideas?

Posted by Tom at 12:02 AM | Comments (1) |

October 7, 2007

A good Sunday story

One of my many beautiful and talented nieces passes along this delightful story carrying on my family's legacy in medicine. Enjoy.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

October 4, 2007

The genesis of bad regulations

I'm not an advocate of using cell phones indiscrimately while driving. In fact, I try to avoid it as much as possible. But every few months or so, some media outlet passes along another superficial story (see also here) on the latest study or tragic story that supposedly suggests that use of cell phones while driving leads to accidents and, thus, should be outlawed.

Cell phones are a distraction while driving. No question about that. But so are conversations with passengers. Are we going to outlaw those, too? Granted, much cell phone use is trivial and unnecessary, but cell phones have unquestionably been a tremendous improvement in communications. Wouldn't it be prudent at least to perform some cost-benefit analysis of the probable impact of outlawing a valuable improvement in communications before foisting yet another regulation on the public?

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

September 21, 2007

Coopertown?

Dr. Kenneth Cooper of Dallas may have oversold the benefits of aerobic exercise, but will the same be true for his new real estate venture?:

Dr. Cooper is developing a $2 billion residential wellness community here called Cooper Life at Craig Ranch that is going up on the first 51 of an eventual 151 acres on the Texas plains, north of Dallas.

Taking the concept of spa real estate into the medical realm, Dr. Cooper’s community promises home buyers a life that sounds equal parts Norman Rockwell and Olympic village: a small town where doctors will make house calls and where every resident has a bevy of experts close at hand for keeping in tiptop shape.

It appears to be the first of its kind. . . .

Included in the monthly residential fee ($1,041 for an individual to $2,181 for a family of six) will be an annual physical and a six-month follow-up, which Dr. Cooper calls key to his utopian vision of a place where everyone can live in peak health. The fee also includes home doctor visits, a fitness center membership, concierge services and exterior home maintenance, lectures and social activities.

While a diverse mix of ages and fitness levels are welcome, Dr. Cooper admits that many prospective residents may well be baby boomers with cushy bank accounts. “They’ve got the money,” Dr. Cooper said, “now they want to live long enough to enjoy it.”

I get exhausted just thinking about the thought of living there. ;^)

Posted by Tom at 12:05 AM | Comments (0) |

September 19, 2007

A dose of Americana

Will Veber over at Road Tips reports on his trip (with pictures) to one of the last bastions of pure Americana -- the Iowa State Fair.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

September 16, 2007

Gambon on acting

Sir Michael Gambon is one of the finest character actors of our day. In the brief video below (h/t to my son, Cody), he brilliantly explains his theory on acting. Enjoy.

Posted by Tom at 12:00 AM | Comments (0) |

September 13, 2007

How to buy your next new car

Inasmuch as I have four college age children, I have become somewhat of a used car buying expert. But if you are in the market for a new car, check out the five-minute video below of car guy Rob Gruhl giving some practical and clever advice on how to find, finance and negotiate buying a new car.

Posted by Tom at 12:10 AM | Comments (0) |

August 30, 2007

Legal ethics -- an oxymoron?

The discussion began last week when the New York Times ethicist, Randy Cohen, ran the following question in his column:

I am a lawyer. During a first date with another lawyer, we had sex, and I wore a condom. Days later, when I came down with a bad fever and couldn’t determine the cause, she revealed that she had genital herpes. A judgeship will soon open up in her county, and she’s a near lock for it. But if I report her lapse of sexual ethics, I doubt that the selection committee will pick her. Should I? — NAME WITHHELD

Cohen replied as follows:

You should not. No doubt your paramour acted dreadfully. She should have told you that she had herpes and let you decide whether you wished to accept that risk. But the selection committee is not choosing a role model for the kids or someone to ride the express elevator to heaven; it seeks a person who will excel at a particular job. I do not believe that this sort of sexual misconduct correlates with an inability to be a good judge. [. . .]

Some private conduct does bespeak an inability to do a job. A would-be jurist who belonged to the Klan or even one who regularly used racist slurs would not inspire confidence in his or her ability to dispense equal justice to all. You should come forward with relevant information like that. But being unscrupulous in bed does not presage being inept on the bench, and so you should keep this demoralizing episode to yourself. And your doctor.

So, then Peter Lattman over at the WSJ Law Blog ran a post on Cohen's column and all hell broke loose in the comment section to Lattman's post. A few choice ones:

"Who cares! Sue the condom maker!"

"Great question! I am posing it to my Professional Responsibility students immediately. Thanks for the help."

"Leave it up to bunch of lawyers to discuss medicine. Totally absurd. The law profession is essentially an STD of society, recurring pain and not curable. As far as I am concerned, this is medically inaccurate and you all deserve the real disease."

Posted by Tom at 12:10 AM | Comments (2) |

And you thought your profession is stressful?

This earlier post about budding British tenor Paul Potts generated quite a bit of interest, particularly the difficulties that the humble Potts has had in overcoming a lack of confidence to perform on stage. This link from that earlier post discusses how common such insecurity is among opera singers, and this International Herald Tribune article reports that even established opera stars struggle mightily with the manifestations of insecurity:

[Opera] insiders agree that heightened competition, unyielding sponsor demands and the weight of stardom are leading to excesses that invite comparisons of opera to sports tarnished by doping scandals.

Some attempts to stay on top are relatively harmless, like popping a beta blocker to soothe the butterflies before stepping on stage. But others are more alarming.

Singers often overuse steroids in the form of cortisone to control inflamed vocal cords — sometimes in amounts that can permanently impair their abilities, say performers and their doctors. Others drink too much. Still others snort cocaine, according to insiders.

Inability to cope sometimes turns into tragedy — as in the case of American tenor Jerry Hadley, who killed himself last month after what friends said was a prolonged bout of depression and reported financial and drinking problems. [. . .]

To deal with the pressures, "soloists are taking beta blockers to control their angst, some tenors take cortisone to push their voice high, and alcohol is everywhere," [Tenor Endrik Wottrich] said. "The real pressure is no longer good old stage fright but comes from a new dimension that has penetrated opera — it now lives from glamour, and normal human mistakes are a disruption in such an environment." [. . .]

In the past 50 years, stages have grown in size, orchestral instruments accompanying singers have become stronger and opera seasons have lengthened. Adding to the pressure, singers get paid by the performance — no money for no shows.

Good singers are now in demand all year round, globe-trotting from one hemisphere to another. And even those who avoid long-distance travel often have little time between the late spring end of the subscription season, the start of rehearsals for summer festivals, and tours promoting their own recordings. [. . .]

Still, physicians who treat singers urge them to resist the temptation to perform at any cost. Some, they say, overdose without knowing it, as they travel from gig to gig in one city after the another without keeping track of cortisone treatments that — if overdone — can destroy a voice.

Read the entire article. Along the same lines, see "It wouldn't by Opera without an outrage."

Posted by Tom at 12:02 AM | Comments (0) |

July 22, 2007

"Hook'em what?"

This Washington Post article reports on a U.S. Joint Forces Command commissioned Rand Corp. study that examines how U.S. credibility is often undermined when American media images are misinterpreted in foreign countries. Supporters of the University of Oklahoma and Texas A&M University will be happy to learn that the picture on the left of President Bush and others flashing the University of Texas' famous "Hook'em Horns" gesture was used as one of the study's examples, with the following description:

Background: President Bush makes a "hook'em horns" gesture familiar to University of Texas fans during the 2005 inaugural parade.

Rand Commentary: "Unfortunately, that particular gesture is not unique to Texas, and it carries different meanings elsewhere in the world. Norwegians seeing the image were shocked to see the president of the United States making the 'Sign of the devil.' Mediterranean viewers and those in parts of Central and South America . . . saw the president indicating that someone's wife was unfaithful."

Also looks like excellent material for the Marching Owl Band's halftime performance during Rice's September 22nd game against UT. ;^)

Posted by Tom at 12:09 AM | Comments (1) |

June 25, 2007

Defending Stoogology

Christopher Hitchens wrote this Vanity Fair piece earlier this year in which he explains why men are generally funnier than women. Dubuque (Iowa) Tribune-Herald columnist Rebecca Christian took offense to Hitchens' article (her column is not online) and, in so doing, made several disparaging remarks regarding those icons of American male comedy, The Three Stooges. Those are fightin' words to the Kirkendall brothers, prompting this letter to the editor (registration required) from my brother Matt, which provides as follows:

Dear Editor:

I am responding to a recent column from Saturday columnist, Ms. Rebecca Christian. She wrote expressing her irritation at a Vanity Fair article by Christopher Hitchens, but included in this a general meditation on women's inability to appreciate male humor. Unfortunately, she made several disparaging remarks about the Three Stooges with some particularly cheap shots directed at Curly.

In this way, she demonstrated a woeful lack of appreciation of the Three Stooges and by implication the entire male philosophical discipline known as "Stoogology" -- the study of the Three Stooges and their impact on society. Her comments demand a response.

She is correct in her assertion that women generally do not understand the Stooge phenomenon. For men, however, the Stooges provide a framework to develop an understanding of the world and their place in it.

One of the most important and time honored responsibilities of any father is passing on to his son a passion and proper respect for the Three Stooges.

In their unique way, the Stooges teach valuable life lessons that all men can identify with and can use to try to fashion their own lives. Some of these lessons include:

* Life can be painful (i.e. eye pokes, face slaps).

* Question authority (be it as a teacher, plumber, census taker, columnist; most any job can be pretty much made up as you go along).

* Despite your best efforts whatever you do may not be appreciated (ex: a pie in the face).

These are tough lessons to be sure. It is a choice, you can spend thousands of dollars and years of their lives sending your sons to university to study obscure philosophers to learn these lessons, or you can allow them to watch Stooge shorts on men focused cable channels to learn the same things.

An added advantage is that even basic Stooge knowledge can be broadening as it allows your son to come to appreciate other important social commentary of our time such as that provided by Benny Hill, Monty Python, ESPN commercials, and many others.

Several years ago, a national magazine proposed that every man's personality type could be summarized as being one of the Three Stooges.

Most men are Larry; they just want to get along with everyone. The forceful personality types are Moe. These are the guys that run businesses, are corporate types and are generally SOBs.

It was in fact the Curlys, that women found most fascinating. One woman noting, "I would marry a Larry, but dating a Curly would be the most fun." Curlys tend to be exciting and prone to excess. Typically they burn out early. Unfortunately, this describes the life of the real Curly, Jerome Horowitz, who was famous for his girlfriends, several wives and dying at a young age.

Other famous Curly types have included Marlon Brando, Babe Ruth, Elvis and John Lennon. Significantly, former President Bill Clinton was felt to be a Curly, whereas, President George W. Bush was classified as a Shemp. Go figure.

Within this framework, the columnist Christopher Hitchens can be classified as a Curly. He is prone to polemical excess and his schtick is to be controversial. He tries to impress the girls with his vocabulary, his British accent and his peculiar worldview.

However, the TH columnist should not take her dislike of Mr. Hitchens' column as an excuse to condemn Curlys as a whole. In that way, she is insulting a large part of the male population and she may be seriously limiting her options for fun dating in the future. She should remember that in the end: "Soitenly, we all are just victims of coicumstance, N'yuk, N'yuk, N'yuk!"

Matthew J. Kirkendall
Dubuque, IA.
Kirkendall is a physician at Dubuque Internal Medicine.

Posted by Tom at 4:20 AM | Comments (0) |

June 22, 2007

The song of a salesman

I've never watched even one episode of American Idol. However, my nephew Rich passed along this four minute excerpt of an episode from the British version of the show, and it's truly about as inspiring as anything I've seen recently from television. There is some speculation around the Web that the performer was a ringer, but this critic makes a good case that he is legit. Take a look. It might just make your day.

Posted by Tom at 4:32 AM | Comments (1) |

June 20, 2007

How Not to use PowerPoint

Comedian Don McMillan nails it in this hilarious video. It's a must view for anyone who has ever endured a bad PowerPoint presentation (is there anyone left who has not?). Hat tip to Craig Newmark.

Meanwhile, the WSJ's ($) technology columnist Lee Gomes takes a look at the status of PowerPoint on its 20th (!) birthday.

Posted by Tom at 4:10 AM | Comments (2) |

June 19, 2007

The Texas Water Safari

I've heard about The Texas Water Safari, but didn't realize quite what is involved:

The Texas Water Safari begins in San Marcos with a gunshot that sends 200 paddlers madly thrashing across a murky pond.

Multicolored boats, ranging from six-seated scull-like canoes to single-seat kayaks, barrel into each other, tipping and tossing their occupants into the water. The bigger boats slam into the smaller ones, driving them toward rusty pilings.

Once the paddlers traverse the pond, they jump into the mud and drag their boats through thick brush to portage a dam churning with whitewater. They twist ankles and skin knees as they carry their boats down an incline of sharp rocks to the mouth of the San Marcos River near the center of Texas.

And that is only the beginning of the 262-mile endurance test that takes most entrants two to three days to complete and has enough danger lurking along the way to give Indiana Jones nightmares.

Poisonous water moccasins fall from trees. Wasps and fire ants are constant threats, mosquitoes and mayflies swarm at night.

In fast water, logs turn into torpedoes and trees tumble like boulders. In high water, hanging limbs snatch water jugs and knock competitors unconscious.

Paddlers navigate rapids in the first half of the race and cope with the broiling heat of the Texas summer in the daytime, then fight off hypothermia at night.

There are 12 classes for boats entered in the race, but competitors can use any kind of craft, as long as it is human-powered. No sails or motors are allowed.

No wonder it is billed as the world’s toughest canoe race. [. . .]

Remarkably, no one has died in the race’s 44-year history.

But many have come close.

Read the entire article. Golf, anyone? ;^)

Posted by Tom at 4:00 AM | Comments (0) |

June 10, 2007

Is Barry Bonds this era's Jack Johnson?

Inasmuch as I have never been comfortable with the characterization of Barry Bonds as a fraud because of his steroid use (prior posts here), this Skip Sauer/Sports Economist post comparing Bonds' situation to that of former heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson caught my eye:

This week's Chronicle of Higher Education has an piece worth reading by historian Warren Goldstein, on the simmering feud between Barry Bonds and his critics in baseball and the media. Goldstein sees an analogy between Bonds and the black superstars who were run out of sport in the 19th and 20th Century as racism became institutionalized in American society. The list, borrowing from William Rhoden's recent book, $40 Million Dollar Slaves, includes Isaac Murphy, a three time winner of the Kentucky Derby, Major Taylor, the top cyclist exiled to France, and boxer Jack Johnson. Since watching Ken Burns' documentary on Johnson a few years ago, I've viewed Bonds and Johnson as soul mates of a sort. So I am predisposed to both Goldstein and Rhoden's take on this.

Bonds plays in an era where overt racism is much diminished, and banishment akin to his predecessors seems unlikely. But he is caught front and center in the anti-drug witch-hunt, and he -- like just about every other player of his cohort -- is unapologetic. Indeed, I sometimes wonder if Bonds would not mind being immortalized in a manner similar to Murphy, Taylor, and Johnson. Just as Bud Selig and various members of the media shrink from celebrating Bond's pending achievement, it is likely that Bonds finds the prospect of sharing the moment with his detractors to be repulsive. For reasons both valid and perhaps a bit petulant, he'd rather figuratively hang with hishomies Murphy, Taylor, and Johnson. I can see his point: they're an accomplished group.

Posted by Tom at 7:38 AM | Comments (4) |

June 7, 2007

And you think Houston freeways are dangerous?

All you folks who enjoy swimming in coastal bays and inland waters close to the Gulf, take a look at what was caught in one of those over in Florida.

Meanwhile, when you have 8 minutes or so, watch the remarkable YouTube video below about a very tough buffalo calf's difficult day. HT to Jane Galt:

Posted by Tom at 4:05 AM | Comments (0) |

May 25, 2007

Checking in on the annual Cannes Vanity Fair Party

Reports on the social affairs surrounding the Cannes Film Festival don't usually interest me much, but WaPo's William Booth does a great job of placing the annual Vanity Fair party in perspective:

The annual Vanity Fair Oscar party in Los Angeles is now an institution filled to the rafters with Hollywood celebrities, our celebrities, the ones in our tabloids. This Cannes VF gig is different. Here it's London socialite Jemima Khan, the ex-wife of Pakistani cricketer Imran Khan, daughter of Lady Annabel Goldsmith. She's hot. She's smart. She's rich. She's huge. But we are going to confess this as an innocent abroad: We kinda had to Google her.

Read the entire clever piece.

Posted by Tom at 4:05 AM | Comments (0) |

May 17, 2007

There is no such thing as easy time

One of the most disturbing aspects of the federal government's criminalization of business since 2001 has been the delight that many people in American society took in having various businesspeople hauled off to prison. The sociology of that reaction is complicated, but my anecdotal experience is that people who have either experienced prison themselves or have had a loved one imprisoned are far less likely to revel in such a fate for another.

Along those lines, this Luke Mullins/American.com article provides an excellent description of the desultory nature of life even in the best of America's prisons. The willingness of many Americans to impose these conditions even where reasonable doubt exists that a crime has occurred -- as well as the troubling trend in the U.S. to criminalize almost everything -- is a disturbing development within our body politic.

Posted by Tom at 4:10 AM | Comments (0) |

May 15, 2007

Not your typical academic research project

It's not every day that a Baylor University professor's conversion from an Evangelical Protestant to Roman Catholicism (reversing a prior conversion the other way) generates a story in the weekend Washington Post. Here is Professor Francis J. Beckwith's announcement of his conversion, the announcement of his resignation from the Evangelical Theological Society, and an interview of Beckwith regarding his decision. James Grant provides this reaction from an evangelical standpoint to Professor Beckwith's decision, while Father Alvin Kimel provides a Roman Catholic perspective of the decision.

Posted by Tom at 4:07 AM | Comments (2) |

May 14, 2007

The American Experience on Alexander Hamilton

PBS' excellent American Experience series provides a two-hour documentary tonight appropriately entitled "Alexander Hamilton" (PBS, Monday 8-10 p.m. CDT, but check your local listings), which will focus on the remarkable life of arguably America's most controversial Founding Father. One of my favorite books of the past several years is Ron Chernow's excellent biography of Hamilton, so I am looking forward with great interest to the American Experience's treatment of the man who is most responsible among the Founding Fathers for the success of the U.S. market system.

Hamilton's numerous political opponents used to call him "the bastard son of a Scottish peddler," but the truth is that his parents were not legally married, he grew up dreadfully poor in the West Indies, and he was orphaned at an early age. Although the prideful Hamilton was ashamed of his troubled start in life, it fueled a fierce ambition that propelled him as a teenager to write newspaper articles that were so impressive that a group of men from St. Croix passed around the hat to pay his way to New England so he could attend college. At the age of 17, Hamilton literally stepped off the boat in Boston into the beginning of the American Revolution and, within three years, had risen through the ranks to become General Washington's chief of staff and most trusted aide.

That the young Hamilton in just a few years went from writing newspaper articles about hurricanes in the West Indies to becoming one of the key leaders of the American Revolution is merely one of numerous remarkable aspects of his compelling life. So, pull up a chair tonight and enjoy the fascinating story about the man who has much to do with establishing the foundation for the enormous wealth creation that has taken place in American society over the past 200 years.

Posted by Tom at 4:20 AM | Comments (1) |

May 10, 2007

Debating Christianity

Don't miss this Christianity Today debate between theologian Douglas Wilson and atheist author Christopher Hitchens on the question -- "Is Christianity good for the world?" Regardless of which position you favor, you have to admire Wilson's the following response to Hitchens' argument that Christians have been guilty of bad acts:

[Y]ou say that if "Christianity is to claim credit for the work of outstanding Christians or for the labors of famous charities, then it must in all honesty accept responsibility for the opposite." In short, if we point to our saints, you are going to demand that we point also to our charlatans, persecutors, shysters, slave-traders, inquisitors, hucksters, televangelists, and so on.

Now allow me the privilege of pointing out the structure of your argument here. If a professor takes credit for the student who mastered the material, aced his finals, and went on to a career that was a benefit to himself and the university he graduated from, the professor must (fairness dictates) be upbraided for the dope-smoking slacker that he kicked out of class in the second week. They were both formally enrolled, is that not correct? They were both students, were they not?

What you are doing is saying that Christianity must be judged not only on the basis of those who believe the gospel in truth and live accordingly but also on the basis of those baptized Christians who cannot listen to the Sermon on the Mount without a horse laugh and a life to match. You are saying that those who excel in the course and those who flunk out of it are all the same. This seems to me to be a curious way of proceeding.

This installment in the debate is the first of several installments in the debate that will occur over the next month, so stay tuned.

Update: Part two of the debate is here.

Update: Part three of the debate is here.

Update: Part four of the debate is here.

Posted by Tom at 4:15 AM | Comments (0) |

May 4, 2007

The Nanny State on overdrive

A nice couple with a couple of adopted young chidren also enjoys adopting rescue dogs — those dogs that are ignored, abandoned, malnourished, and mistreated. After two of the family dogs passed away, the couple decides its time for a family outing to the local SPCA to adopt a new dog for the family. The couple picks out a lovable St. Bernard, but the SPCA representatives balk at approving the couple's request to adopt the dog. Interesting interaction results, but the bottom line is that the couple has "been declared fit to adopt two baby girls, but unfit to adopt a dog." Read the entire incredible story.

Posted by Tom at 4:10 AM | Comments (4) |

April 30, 2007

Is it the farm subsidy? Or the processed food subsidy?

Michael Pollan, the Knight professor of journalism at the Cal-Berkeley and the author of “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” (earlier post here), has been writing a series of op-eds for the New York Times in which he is addressing in an abbreviated manner various nutritional issues that he covers in his book. In this recent piece, Pollan examines why calorie-intensive processed foods have such a relatively cheap price at the supermarket in comparison to fresh fruits and vegetables:

For the answer, you need look no farther than the farm bill. This resolutely unglamorous and head-hurtingly complicated piece of legislation, which comes around roughly every five years and is about to do so again, sets the rules for the American food system — indeed, to a considerable extent, for the world’s food system. Among other things, it determines which crops will be subsidized and which will not, and in the case of the carrot and the Twinkie, the farm bill as currently written offers a lot more support to the cake than to the root. Like most processed foods, the Twinkie is basically a clever arrangement of carbohydrates and fats teased out of corn, soybeans and wheat — three of the five commodity crops that the farm bill supports, to the tune of some $25 billion a year. (Rice and cotton are the others.) For the last several decades — indeed, for about as long as the American waistline has been ballooning — U.S. agricultural policy has been designed in such a way as to promote the overproduction of these five commodities, especially corn and soy.

That’s because the current farm bill helps commodity farmers by cutting them a check based on how many bushels they can grow, rather than, say, by supporting prices and limiting production, as farm bills once did. The result? A food system awash in added sugars (derived from corn) and added fats (derived mainly from soy), as well as dirt-cheap meat and milk (derived from both). By comparison, the farm bill does almost nothing to support farmers growing fresh produce. A result of these policy choices is on stark display in your supermarket, where the real price of fruits and vegetables between 1985 and 2000 increased by nearly 40 percent while the real price of soft drinks (a/k/a liquid corn) declined by 23 percent. The reason the least healthful calories in the supermarket are the cheapest is that those are the ones the farm bill encourages farmers to grow.

Read the entire piece.

Posted by Tom at 4:15 AM | Comments (0) |

April 23, 2007

Nifty graphic relating to the Virginia Tech shootings

The New York Times has published this nifty graphic display that provides an excellent overview and explanation of the specific locations of the shootings at Virginia Tech last week. Definitely worth checking out.

Posted by Tom at 4:05 AM | Comments (0) |

April 20, 2007

What would Miss Manners say?

Take a sick baby and an anxious mother;

Put them in a Ronald McDonald House waiting room in the Texas Medical Center with other patients and their relatives;

Add in that the mother decides to breastfeed the child in the waiting room;

Toss in a somewhat intolerant observor of the breastfeeding who registers a complaint about it, and

Presto!

All hell breaks loose.

Posted by Tom at 4:10 AM | Comments (0) |

April 19, 2007

The legacy of Charles Whitman

Following on this post from yesterday on the murderous rampage at Virginia Tech on Monday, Gary Lavergne, the director of admissions research at the University of Texas at Austin and one of the foremost experts on Charles Whitman's 1966 sniper attack from the UT Tower, provides this insightful Chronicle of Higher Education op-ed on the legacy of Whitman in relation to this week's attack:

In Sniper in the Tower I concluded, and later the FBI's premier profiler, John Douglas, in his book Anatomy of Motive would agree, that "[Whitman's] actions speak for themselves." Any cause-and-effect theory, whether organic (brain tumor), chemical (amphetamine psychosis), or psychological (military training or child abuse), embracing the idea that Charles Whitman's judgment or free will was impaired, is not consistent with what he did. He carefully planned every move and detail, and he succeeded in doing what he set out to do -- murdering people and getting himself killed in spectacular fashion. The Whitman case taught me that sometimes our zeal to champion causes important to us or to explain the unexplainable and be "enlightened" blinds us to the obvious.

Charles Whitman was a murderer; he killed innocent people. We should not forget that. In Virginia we appear to have a Whitman-like character. It is vitally important for all to remember that there is only one person responsible for what happened in Blacksburg, and that is the man who pulled the trigger. But in Virginia the diversions have already begun. As I write this, less than a half-day since the senseless killing of nearly three dozen innocent people, Web headlines on CNN, Fox, and MSNBC read: "Did Virginia Tech's Response Cost Lives?" "Parents Demand Firing of Virginia Tech President, Police Chief Over Handling," "Students Wonder About Police Response." Ironically, those headlines are juxtaposed with pictures of law-enforcement officers administering medical treatment and hauling wounded students to safety. Next to those pictures are videos of Virginia Tech's president and chief of police, in pain and in the midst of a nightmare, bombarded with sensational questions from irresponsible reporters. [. . .]

Before we identify and learn the lessons of Blacksburg, we must begin with the obvious: More than four dozen innocent people were gunned down by a murderer who is completely responsible for what happened. No one died for lack of text messages or an alarm system. They died of gunshot wounds. While we painfully learn our lessons, we must not treat each other as if we are responsible for the deaths that occurred. We must come together and be respectful and kind. This is not a time for us to torture ourselves or to seek comfort by finding someone to blame. Maybe as a result of the tragedy we will figure out how to more effectively use e-mail and text messages as emergency tools for warning large populations. We may come up with a plan that successfully clears a large area, with a population density of a midsize city, in less than two hours. Maybe universities will find a way to install surveillance cameras and convince students and faculty members that they are being monitored for their own safety and not for gathering domestic intelligence. All of those steps might be helpful in avoiding and reducing the carnage of any future incidents. But as long as we value living in a free society, we will be vulnerable to those who do harm -- because they want to and know how to do it.

Read the entire piece. Plus, check out Larry Ribstein's observations on the effect that over-regulation may had on the tragedy.

Posted by Tom at 4:30 AM | Comments (0) |

April 18, 2007

Thoughts on the tragedy at Virginia Tech

The New York Times:

Sympathy was not enough at the time of Columbine, and eight years later it is not enough. What is needed, urgently, is stronger controls over the lethal weapons that cause such wasteful carnage and such unbearable loss.

Art DeVany:

The Virginia Tech tragedy reminds me, sadly, of what John Lott said in his article that I posted a few days ago. He said students were sitting ducks because of college gun laws. If only one student had been carrying a gun -- and guys in Blacksburg know how to handle guns -- it might have been very different.

The London Times Online:

The simple truth is that Americans themselves remain unwilling to take drastic measures to restrict gun availability. This is rooted deep in the American belief in individual freedom and a powerful suspicion of government. Americans are deeply leery of efforts by government to restrict the freedom to defend themselves. A sizeable minority, perhaps a majority, believe the risk that criminals will perpetrate events such as yesterday’s is a painful but necessary price to pay to protect that freedom.

William Anderson, commenting on Columbine after the 9/11 attacks, but equally applicable to Virginia Tech:

When the police arrived after hearing reports of a massacre under way inside Columbine High School, they did not storm the building to catch the criminals. Instead, these heavily armed officers, wearing their famous coalscuttle helmets, surrounded the outside of the school, "sealing the perimeter," according to their spokesmen.

Inside the high school, Eric Harris and Dylan Kliebold were running freely through the halls, merrily killing and wounding unarmed teachers and students as they tried to escape. In the end, the police didn’t even have to fire a shot, as the two miscreants ended their own lives. Thus, people were treated to a worthless show of force by the authorities, which did almost nothing to save anyone caught in the building.

David Kopel channels that thought in this WSJ ($) op-ed:

At Virginia Tech's sprawling campus in southwestern Va., the local police arrived at the engineering building a few minutes after the start of the murder spree, and after a few critical minutes, broke through the doors that Cho Seung-Hui had apparently chained shut. From what we know now, Cho committed suicide when he realized he'd soon be confronted by the police. But by then, 30 people had been murdered.

But let's take a step back in time. Last year the Virginia legislature defeated a bill that would have ended the "gun-free zones" in Virginia's public universities. At the time, a Virginia Tech associate vice president praised the General Assembly's action "because this will help parents, students, faculty and visitors feel safe on our campus." In an August 2006 editorial for the Roanoke Times, he declared: "Guns don't belong in classrooms. They never will. Virginia Tech has a very sound policy preventing same."

Actually, Virginia Tech's policy only made the killer safer, for it was only the law-abiding victims, and not the criminal, who were prevented from having guns. Virginia Tech's policy bans all guns on campus (except for police and the university's own security guards); even faculty members are prohibited from keeping guns in their cars.

Peter Gordon:

Few differences are as clarifying as attitudes towards "gun control". (The quotation marks give me away.) (1) Control advocates trust the authorities to protect us -- and to somehow enforce gun control (consider long-standing attempts at heroin control and consider how carefully the DMV screens auto drivers); and (2) Gun control advocates cannot distinguish between the gun and the owner. Mere access makes us all equally dangerous. I have problems with both thought patterns.

And even amidst the terrible carnage, courage and humanity still shine:

A 76-year-old Jewish-Romanian lecturer was hailed a hero after blocking his classroom door long enough for many of his students to escape the Virginia Tech gunman, before being shot dead.

Liviu Librescu, a Holocaust survivor, pressed himself against the door of the classroom while shots were fired in the corridor and surrounding rooms. He stood firm, attempting to barricade the door, while his students clambered out of the windows.

The last person to see Professor Liviu Librescu alive appears to have been Alec Calhoun, a student at Virginia Tech who turned as he prepared to leap from a high classroom window to see the elderly academic holding shut the classroom door. The student jumped, and lived. Minutes later, the professor was shot dead.

There is no meaningful distinction between one relative’s grief and another’s sorrow as the bereaved converge on Blacksburg from as near as Roanoke and as far as India. But it is worth reflecting on the significance of Professor Librescu’s life of quiet heroism, which encompassed the Holocaust, a career of internationally admired teaching and research, and a final act of sacrifice that saved at least nine other lives.

The son of Romanian Jewish parents, he was sent to a Soviet labour camp as a boy after his father was deported by the Nazis. He was repatriated to communist Romania only to be forced out of academia there for his Israeli sympathies. A personal intervention by Menachem Begin enabled him to emigrate with his wife to Israel, from where he visited the US on a sabbatical in 1986, and chose to stay. The appalling ironies of his murder by a crazed student after a life of such fortitude and generosity will not be lost on anyone who hears his story.

Yet neither should those who mourn him forget the role that America played in his life. As for so many other survivors of the mid-20th century’s genocidal convulsions, the US was for this inspiring teacher both a beacon of hope and a welcoming new home. Founded on the idea of liberty, it also made, for him, a reality of that idea. Let those he saved now make the most of it.

Update: The NY Times has more on Professor Librescu here.

Posted by Tom at 4:15 AM | Comments (0) |

Business is good in one mega-church pulpit

Houston has several of the nation's largest churches and business is quite good in at least one of them:

The next book from megaselling pastor Joel Osteen—Become a Better You: 7 Keys to Improving Your Life—will have a first printing of three million and a one-day laydown on October 15. . . . The Osteen first printing is believed to be the highest for a hardcover book in S&S history, said spokesperson Adam Rothberg.

Osteen made big news last year ("Osteen Heads to Free Press," PW Daily, Mar. 15, 2006) when he jumped the Warner ship for Simon & Schuster for a deal worth some $13 million, according to informed sources, though S&S denied that figure. Osteen's first book, Your Best Life Now, was published by Warner Faith (now Hachette's FaithWords division) in 2004 and has sold more than four million copies to date, with a constant presence on the bestsellers lists.

S&S will publish Become a Better You simultaneously in Spanish-language and audio editions.

Posted by Tom at 4:03 AM | Comments (0) |

April 12, 2007

Kurt Vonnegut, R.I.P.

Novelist Kurt Vonnegut, the author of fourteen novels including “Slaughterhouse-Five” and “Cat’s Cradle,” died last night in Manhattan at the age of 84 after suffering irreversible brain injuries as a result of a fall several weeks ago.

Vonnegut has always interested me, probably because he rented a house in Iowa City one summer back in the 1960's next to my big family's home on Brown Street while he was teaching at the University of Iowa's heralded Writer's Workshop. Vonnegut kept to himself mostly, although my brothers, friends and I would occasionally see him watching us play baseball and football in a big open field that adjoined the house he rented. This was around the time he was probably working on "Slaughterhouse Five" (my favorite), which may explain why my friends and I noticed one day a rather extensive array of empty liquor bottles teeming from the trash cans in the back yard of Vonnegut's house. Chivas Regal was Vonnegut's preferred brand at the time. May his restless and somewhat tormented soul rest in peace.

Posted by Tom at 6:17 AM | Comments (0) |

March 22, 2007

The very funny Mr. Gaffigan

My college age children have introduced me to the comedy of Jim Gaffigan, who is the subject of this nice NY Times profile. In addition to being a very funny fellow who remains quite appreciative for his good fortune, Gaffigan is one of the most prominent of a refreshing new breed of comedians (Frank Caliendo is another) who eschew profanity in their routines:

[Gaffigan] also said he was gratified by his fans’ repeated support for the decision he made about five years ago to quite literally clean up his act and purge it of the “cussing,” as he calls it, that he found he was using as a crutch. (On the meet-and-greet-line in Charlotte, he tried to warn some unsuspecting audience members about to buy one of his older CDs that his language was coarser.)

“The topics I’m discussing — there’s no reason to curse when you’re talking about escalators,” he said. “Among comedians, George Carlin, Richard Pryor and Lenny Bruce are, in a way, the martyrs who fought for us to have the right to curse. I feel like they also made it possible for us not to.”

Posted by Tom at 4:15 AM | Comments (0) |

March 9, 2007

Levinson and Balkin on the Dred Scott case

Longtime University of Texas Law Professor Sandy Levinson has teamed up with Jack Balkin of Balkinization fame to author a new SSRN paper, 13 Ways of Looking at Dred Scott. For a provocative abstract, check the following out:

Dred Scott v. Sanford is a classic case that is relevant to almost every important question of contemporary constitutional theory.

Dred Scott connected race to social status, to citizenship, and to being a part of the American people. One hundred fifty years later these connections still haunt us; and the twin questions of who is truly American and who American belongs to still roil our national debates.

Dred Scott is a case about threats to national security and whether the Constitution is a suicide pact. It concerns whether the Constitution follows the flag and whether constitutional rights obtain in federally held lands overseas. And it asks whether, as Chief Justice Taney famously said of blacks, there are indeed some people who have no rights we Americans are bound to respect.

Dred Scott remains the most salient example in debates over the legitimacy of substantive due process. It subverts our intuitions about the relative merits of originalism and living constitutionalism. It symbolizes the problem of constitutional evil and the question whether responsibility for great injustices lies in the Constitution itself or in the judges who apply it.

Finally, Dred Scott encapsulates the central problems of judicial review in a constitutional democracy. On the one hand, Dred Scott raises perennial questions about the judicial role in cases of profound moral and political disagreement, and about judicial responsibility for the backlash and political upheaval that may result from judicial review. On the other hand, the political context of the Dred Scott decision suggests that the Supreme Court rarely strays far from the wishes of the dominant national political coalition. It raises the unsettling possibility that, given larger social and political forces, what courts do in highly contested cases is far less important than we imagine.

Posted by Tom at 4:47 AM | Comments (0) |

March 5, 2007

Build it and they will come

Former Mercury, Gemini and Apollo Astronaut Buzz Aldrin is about ready to show us that there is something else to do to get away from the gaming tables while visiting Las Vegas:

On March 20, the second man on the Moon, Buzz Aldrin, will lead the first walk across Skywalk, the cantilevered glass semicircular walkway that juts out 70 feet over the Grand Canyon and 4,000 feet above the Colorado River in Arizona.

The walkway, which will open to the public on March 28, is made of two million pounds of glass and steel and cost more than $30 million to construct. It is the centerpiece of a development plan called Grand Canyon West. The group behind the project — which will include a 6,000-square-foot visitors center, with a museum, a movie theater, a gift shop and several restaurants — is the Hualapai Indian tribe, which also has a reservation on the million acres of land they own on the western rim of the canyon.

The website for the Skywalk is here. It's about 120 miles from Las Vegas. A walk around the Skywalk will cost $25 plus the Grand Canyon West entrance fee.

Posted by Tom at 4:08 AM | Comments (0) |

March 2, 2007

Faces of the Subway

Check out this Bill Sullivan photo series of people walking through three subway aisles. A reminder that simple ideas often result in compelling art.

Posted by Tom at 4:55 AM | Comments (0) |

February 6, 2007

But do they have WiFi?

It was a tough day for yuppies yesterday as this Consumer Reports analysis concluded that good ol' fashioned McDonald's coffee was superior to Starbuck's in taste testing. But both McDonald's and Starbucks are going to have a hard time competing with the new coffee franchise described in this LA Times article:

On a quick break from his job as a trash hauler, Rob Chapman was in the mood for some coffee. So he pulled his truck into the Sweet Spot Cafe, a drive-through espresso stand on busy Aurora Avenue here in the Seattle suburbs.

"Do you want a Wet Dream or the Sexual Mix today, honey?" asked barista Edie Smith, dressed in a tight-fitting yellow blouse that did a less than fully effective job of covering her cleavage. She leaned down in the window, perhaps all the closer to hear his order. He chose the first option: a coffee with white chocolate, milk and caramel sauce.

It is possible, of course, that Chapman and the dozens of other drive-by customers at the parking lot stand one recent morning stopped by only for the coffee.

But, as Chapman dryly observed, "I do enjoy coming here more than Starbucks."

In a way, it is perhaps stunning that it took so long for entrepreneurs here to figure out that coffee, the fabled Seattle obsession, mixes very well with sex, the fabled human obsession.

But apparently it does, to judge from the growing number of steamy espresso stands that have popped up around the region in the last year or so.

At the Sweet Spot here in Shoreline, the Natte Latte in Port Orchard and the Bikini Espresso in Renton, not to mention the multi-stand Cowgirls Espresso, the term "hot coffee" has clearly taken on a whole new meaning.

It's safe to say that it's only a matter of time before this type of coffee shop catches on in Houston.

Posted by Tom at 4:05 AM | Comments (0) |

January 30, 2007

So, where does Bob Dylan holiday?

The same way that I would like to -- he goes to his new vacation home in the Scottish Highlands to play golf:

Bob Dylan said in one of his songs that his heart was in the Highlands. Now he has proved the point by paying more than £2 million for a secluded Edwardian mansion with a view of the hills.

The notoriously reclusive American star and his brother David have bought Aultmore House in the foothills of the Cairngorms.

The house was built at the turn of the 20th century for the millionaire owner of a department store in Moscow and has been described as one of the finest homes in the Highlands. [. . .]

Dylan is a keen golfer and plays off a 17 handicap at Malibu Country Club in California. His new home is close to the more utilitarian Abernethy golf club, where a day ticket costs just £10, but membership is never a foregone conclusion.

Jack McCool, the treasurer, said: "Mr Dylan would have to apply in writing just like everyone else and be vetted by the committee.

"If there were no objections then he would be a member after paying the membership fee, which at present is £105."

Golf at Malibu and the Highlands? Sweet.

Posted by Tom at 4:50 AM | Comments (1) |

January 28, 2007

"30 Rock" channels a sitcom classic

It's well known in my family that I haven't watched a sitcom regularly on television for many years. But my son Cody and brother Mike recently recommended that I give the new NBC comedy sitcom "30 Rock" (8:30 p.m., CST, Thursday) a try, so I watched it over the past several weeks and found it to be quite clever and entertaining.

As this CNN.com article notes, the show is basically a 2007 version of the popular Mary Tyler Moore Show from 30 years ago, with former Saturday Night Live writer and performer Tina Fey playing the Mary Tyler Moore-type lead role and Alec Baldwin playing an absolutely hilarious combination of the Lou Grant/Ted Baxter character from the MTM show. Having seen Baldwin in several movies, I knew that he was a fine actor, but had no idea that he possessed the depth of comedic talent that he is exhibiting on this show. The scene of outtakes of Baldwin's flubs ("product integortion?") during the filming of a short corporate presentation -- which can be viewed here toward the end of part two of episode 5 "Jack-Tor" -- is already a cult classic. Check it out.

Posted by Tom at 6:47 AM | Comments (0) |

January 24, 2007

The sad story of Denice Denton

Denice Denton grew up in the Houston area, went to MIT to study engineering, won a number of research awards and eventually signed on in 1987 as a faculty member at the University of Wisconsin, where she was the only female faculty member in the department of electrical and computer engineering at the time. She continued to excel at Wisconsin and by 1996, Denton was hired at the age of 37 as the first female engineering dean at a major US research university in the U.S. (the University of Washington's College of Engineering).

Thus, it was not particularly surprising that Denton was named as chancellor at the University of California, Santa Cruz in 2004, the youngest chancellor in the UC system. Less than two years later, an embattled Denton went on medical leave and checked herself into the Langley Porter Psychiatric Hospital at the University of California at San Francisco. On June 24, 2006, after checking out of the hospital, Denton committed suicide by leaping from a high-rise apartment building in San Francisco.

This Paul Fain/Arts & Letters Daily article covers the final few weeks of Denton's life, and it's fascinating look into the intersection of depression, political correctness, anti-political correctness, and the byzantine world of academic politics. Definitely not a life for the faint-hearted.

Posted by Tom at 5:49 AM | Comments (0) |

January 22, 2007

The best character actor you never heard of

Don't miss this fine piece by the Chronicle's Andrew Dansby on the late Trey Wilson, the fine character actor from Houston who died tragically of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 40, just as he was hitting his stride in Hollywood.

The 20th anniversary of the Coen Brothers' masterpiece comedy Raising Arizona prompted the look-back at Wilson, and Dansby begins his piece with one of Wilson's most memorable scenes from that movie -- playing unpainted furniture dealer Nathan Arizona Huffheins, Sr. facing the questions of investigating authorities after the kidnapping of one of the baby quintuplets he had fathered:

Raising Arizona, celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, is the kind of cult comedy that blossoms with repeated viewings. Its most memorable scene doesn't involve leads Nicolas Cage and Holly Hunter. Instead, it follows an unpainted-furniture salesman named Nathan Arizona; one of his quintuplets has been abducted.

And Nathan Arizona. Well, shoot. Y'all know who he is. Or maybe not. Years after his death, Houston-born character actor Trey Wilson, who brought proud, frenzied and compassionate life to that character, is a vaguely familiar face and an unknown name.

But on DVD, that marvelous scene remains vivid. "Was the child wearing anything when he was abducted?" asks a police officer, gathering information for an APB.

"Nobody sleeps naked in this house!" says Nathan. He's unshaven and clad in a bathrobe, simultaneously tragic and comic. As Wilson played him, he's both believably frantic and wildly funny.

An FBI agent joins the fray: "What was the child wearing?" "A dinner jacket," snaps Nathan. "What do you think? He was wearing his damn jammies." "What did the jammies look like?"

"Aw, I dunno," says Nathan. His head rolls back in frustration, also reflected in his gruff voice. "They were jammies. They had Yodas and (expletive) on 'em."

Heck, Dansby's fine piece on Wilson doesn't even include my favorite exchanges from the scene:

Policeman: "Do you have any disgruntled employees?"

Nathan Arizona Sr.: "Hell, they're all disgruntled. I aint running no damn daisy farm. My motto is 'Do it my way or watch your butt!'"

Policeman: "Well, do you think any of them could've done it?"

Nathan Arizona Sr.: "Oh, don't make me laugh. Without my say-so they wouldn't piss with their pants on fire."

Or this one:

FBI Agent: "Sir, we discovered you were born 'Nathan Huffheins.'"

Nathan Arizona Sr.: "Yeah, I changed my name. What of it?"

FBI Agent: "Can you give us an indication why?"

Nathan Arizona Sr.: "Would you shop at a store called 'Unpainted Huffheins?'"

That scene was one of three remarkable scenes involving Wilson in that movie, the two others being Wilson's negotiation scene with the frightful bounty hunter played by the former heavyweight boxer Randall "Tex" Cobb and the penultimate scene of the movie in which Wilson exhibited extraordinary depth in counseling the estranged kidnappers (played by Nicholas Cage and Holly Hunter). Dansby sums up Wilson's talent well:

In Raising Arizona, Wilson was on screen no more than 12 minutes, and he lit up every one of them. "It's an inspired piece, to play the comedy of it so vividly and at the same time to be this realistically harried father," said Thomas Schlamme, a writer/producer (West Wing, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip) who was friends with Wilson. [. . .]

Robert Wuhl, who starred with Wilson in Bull Durham, said that had the actor lived another 10 years, "there's no question he becomes a John C. Reilly or a Jerry Orbach. He was a funny man and a great actor. He made you feel like he was on the way to his best role." "He was just turning a corner in his career," said Blye Wilson, "Each project he got closer and closer to a very big character spot."

Today Wilson's great, small roles are easy to find and enjoy. He made an impression as he put it, something people could identify with sometimes in a matter of minutes.

Posted by Tom at 4:15 AM | Comments (1) |

January 21, 2007

Colbert v. O'Reilly

Steven Colbert and Bill O'Reilly recently agreed to be interviewed on each other's show, and the interviews took place this past week. O'Reilly is the more popular pundit and Colbert overmatches O'Reilly humor-wise, but neither man went for the jugular in the interviews, which is common with such highly-anticipated showdowns,

Nevertheless, Colbert did get in a couple of good cracks. After O'Reilly admitted that his TV show persona was all "an act," Colbert asked O'Reilly: "If you're an act, what am I?"

Another came during O'Reilly's interview of Colbert. "They criticize you for what you say," observed Colbert about O'Reilly's critics. "But they never give you credit for how loud you say it."

Finally, when Colbert pitched O'Reilly's new book, one of those large, red "30% Off" Barnes & Noble stickers blotted out a portion of O'Reilly's head during the close-up of the book's cover. O'Reilly did not appear pleased.

Here is the first interview, Colbert on O'Reilly:

And the second, O'Reilly on Colbert:

Posted by Tom at 6:45 AM | Comments (2) |

January 20, 2007

Sign of the Apocalypse?

Zero Mostel seemed larger than life in defining the role of Max Bialystock, the lovable Ponzi-schemer in the original film version of The Producers.

And Nathan Lane was a worthy successor to Zero when The Producers was revived as a musical on Broadway.

But Tony Danza as Max?

Posted by Tom at 6:59 AM | Comments (0) |

January 17, 2007

The man who would not shut up

Fox News talk show host Bill O'Reilly has some strange ideas about energy prices, but he remains a popular -- and quite wealthy -- television demagogue. This Cathy Young/Reason article sums up O'Reilly's demagogy well:

O’Reilly has not lost the independent streak that sets him apart from GOP apparatchiks like Sean Hannity. But shrill, intolerant rhetoric has almost entirely eclipsed intelligent discussion on his show, and his pugnacious but likable populism has given way to a paranoid and venomous self-aggrandizement.

O’Reilly cultivates an image of a giant almost single-handedly fighting for “the folks” against slimy politicians, elitist journalists, nutty professors, namby-pamby judges, and greedy corporations. Sometimes he champions unquestionably good causes, such as the rights of abused children. But even then, he undercuts his own stance with grandstanding and selective presentation of facts.

Meanwhile, this Jacob Heilbrunn/NY Times Book Review article reviews Marvin Kitman's The Man Who Would Not Shut Up (St. Martin's Press 2007), which tracks O'Reilly's career as a local television news reporter into wealthy demagogue. Heilbrunn notes:

"[T]here is something more than a little nonsensical than a little nonsensical in O’Reilly’s lachrymose nostalgia about his humble origins, as well as in his self-important declarations about his heroic battle to save America from the cultural elites." [. . .]

. . . O’Reilly’s struggle isn’t about conservative ideas. It’s about parading his seething personal resentments in order to become the very thing he purports to despise: a celebrity.

Posted by Tom at 4:53 AM | Comments (0) |

January 14, 2007

Also a golf pioneer

On this eve of Martin Luther King Day, GolfObservor.com's Frank Hannigan reflects in this piece on a little-known pioneering effort of another important black man of Dr. King's era -- Willie Mays.

Although Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball in 1947, Mays and Hank Aaron were the first true black superstars in baseball. To give you a snapshot of Mays' greatness, he began his career as a 20 year-old in 1951 and played until he was a 42 year-old. During that span, he only had one season (as a 42 year old in 1973) in which he generated fewer runs for his team than an average National League hitter would have created using the same number of outs as Mays ("RCAA," explained here). For his career, Mays generated an RCAA of 1008, which is 11th all-time among Major League ballplayers and second only to Mickey Mantle (who had an RCAA of 1099) among centerfielders in Major League Baseball history. A true five-tool player, Mays was also an extraordinary defensive player and a fine baserunner for most of his career. In short, anyone who knew anything about professional sports in that era knew about Willie Mays.

Mays was also an avid amateur golfer and, along with dozens of other baseball players, he had played in an off-season golf tournament in which the promoter had provided some prize money to entice the ballplayers. Under the rules of the United States Golf Association at the time, the USGA ruled that all the participants in the tournament had lost their amateur status, regardless, as Hannigan puts it, as to "whether or not they could break 100."

Mays enjoyed playing in the annual Bing Crosby Pro-Am at Pebble Beach during the off-season, so losing his amateur status would have prevented him from playing in that tournament. As a result, shortly after the close of the 1972 baseball season, Mays showed up at the USGA's offices in New York to arrange to reclaim his amateur status and Hannigan was the USGA Assistant Director who helped Mays do so. In reflecting on his short meeting with Mays, Hannigan concludes by observing that even Mays probably did not realize just how much of a pioneer that he was:

Mays was soon to join the Los Altos Country Club in the San Francisco Bay area, known to be a club that was favored by professional athletes including John Brodie and Bob Rosburg.

Although there are no precise records for such matters, it was my impression at that time that no other black person in America belonged to a member-owned club. This was more than an impression since we at the USGA knew the front office managers of every golf organization in the United States. It's hard to imagine we would not have known of a black member of a private, member owned course.

So, until somebody tells me otherwise, I regard Mays as having been a pioneer. My guess is that he may not have known that.

Posted by Tom at 7:03 AM | Comments (0) |

January 8, 2007

And you thought big-time college football was competitive?

Alums of several Ivy League powerhouses might be calling for the head of their coaches soon.

Their chess coaches, that is.

As noted in this Washington Post article, former Ivy League chess powerhouses such as Harvard and Princeton are now routinely waxed by emerging powers such as burgeoning powers as University of Maryland, the University of Texas at Dallas and Miami Dade College. Even more interesting is the way that these new top teams are doing it. They hire Russian and East European coaches and offer full-ride scholarships for recruits, many of whom are from abroad, one of whom was a 40 year old grandmaster. Ringers such as that led to the usual regulatory initiatives, such as prohibiting grandmasters over the age of 25. Now, there is even a six-year eligibility limit and a requirement that players maintain a 2.0 GPA and at least a half-time course schedule. Sounds almost like football . . .

But the market for chess coaches remains robust. Might things have turned out differently for Bobby Fischer had this market been around a generation ago?

Posted by Tom at 5:50 AM | Comments (0) |

December 30, 2006

Reacting to the DeBakey surgery story

The reactions to last weekend's fascinating story about the surgery to repair a dissecting aortic aneurysm in 97-year old Medical Center icon, Dr. Michael DeBakey, are as interesting as the story itself. The following are a few comments selected from letters to the NY Times regarding the story:

"Dr. Michael E. DeBakey’s surgery may have been a technical advance of heroic and dramatic proportions, but it was a setback for patients’ rights. Dr. DeBakey is the epitome of the informed patient, and a document evidently existed that said he did not want surgery for his disease.

Progressing into a coma as one dies is a normal part of the terminal stages of many illnesses. Directives exist to prevent such an incapacitated patient from becoming a victim of the grieving spouse or the frightened caregiver.

Because of Dr. DeBakey’s stature and publicity about his case, this surgery may decrease patients’ right to die in a manner they desire, an unfortunate result of a remarkable feat."

"Your article about Dr. Michael E. DeBakey’s aortic aneurysm operation was described as emblematic of the difficulties of end-of-life care, but it is as much or more emblematic of the difficulty patients encounter in having their wishes to forgo treatment respected. No one in the world had better capacity to refuse this operation than Dr. DeBakey, and he did.

. . .After the world’s best medical care, months in the hospital and a million dollars, Dr. DeBakey and his family had a happy outcome.

But for those thousands of ordinary patients who must struggle against family, church and state to refuse invasive, risky, experimental or simply unwanted care, it is not necessarily a happy ending."

"I wonder if Katrin DeBakey would have been so eager for her husband’s surgery if she had had to provide all the postoperative care herself as the rest of us have to do.

Almost any elderly patient with good insurance and an educated and younger spouse making decisions can get good high-tech surgery, but the system fails when the hospital dumps the patient back home on the spouse after only two days of postoperative hospital care.

In Mrs. DeBakey’s case, her husband received months of in-hospital intensive care, emergency care, more surgery, physical therapy and psychological support.

The rest of us caregivers would have long since passed the breaking point from dealing on our own with medical emergencies, unavailable doctors, no home nurses, no respite time and the psychiatric problems of many elderly male patients — rage and depression."

"The article about Dr. Michael E. DeBakey illustrates many central issues that arise in determining types of care for gravely ill patients and whether to perform a risky but potentially lifesaving procedure.

The case exposes the standards of patient autonomy and informed consent — foundational principles of ethical medicine — to be impossible ideals. Even Dr. DeBakey, likely the person most thoroughly informed about the procedure, regretted his prior decision to forgo the surgery.

Another problem exposed by this case is the persistent misuse of the do-not-resuscitate order, interpreting it to signify more general wishes about less aggressive care instead of its actual, more restricted meaning: not resuscitating in the event of cardiac arrest."

As one of the other letter-writers pointed out, the story also reflects that Dr. DeBakey is the consummate educator, using his experience to prompt consideration and discussion of important medical and ethical issues in caring for patients who are close to death. He is truly one of Houston's treasures.

Posted by Tom at 7:09 AM | Comments (0) |

December 22, 2006

Thoughts for a Christmas season

During this holiday season, I find myself thinking often of my friend and mentor, the late Ross M. Lence, who was the happiest and most fulfilled man who I have known in my life. A couple of weeks ago, as I was preparing my tribute to Ross, I listened to a remarkable sermon at my church in The Woodlands in which a visiting speaker, Craig Hill, a New Testament scholar at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C., talked about his lifelong "project" to find fulfillment in his life:

Beyond mere survival, to what goal are we most directed? With what do we most concern ourselves during the course of our waking hours? Certainly, a variety of things require our attention: what we'll eat, what we'll wear, how we'll accomplish the tasks before us. These all concern us, but none of them dominates our lives in quite the way that something else does. That thing is so central that it has been called "The Project."

I started working on my project when I was quite small, smaller than I can consciously remember. That time that I bought my mother a present for no special occasion with my allowance, the times I mowed the lawn or did other jobs without being asked–little did I know that I was hard at work on my project. The criticisms and childhood taunts that stung, the disappointment at not being chosen a part of the group, little did I understand that the hurt I felt was that of a project threatening to fail.

People have variously described the project. It is called the quest for meaning, the desire for competence. the need for self-esteem and purpose. Behind it all is the question "Who am I?"--or, more particularly, "Do I matter?" [. . .]

It's the pervasiveness of the project that is so interesting. It lurks around every corner; it's in the very prejudices, intentions, and dreams that guide our lives. What impression will I give by my dress, my speech, my possessions, my job? Will the others in the office think that I'm a good employee; am I a good mother or father; was I "being myself" when I behaved that way last night? How am I doing?

Dr. Hill went on to describe how each one of us shares the struggle of "the project" and how an essential element of Christian theology is based upon Christ's teaching and example of how to conquer it. His sermon was so insightful that I came away from church that day wishing I had a copy of it.

Well, Asbury Theological Institute scholar Ben Witherington happened to be at my church that day, too, and he had the same thought as I did. Except that he counts Dr. Hill as a friend and was able to get a copy of the sermon, which he has posted here. Regardless of your religious persuasion or whether you believe in a religion at all, take a moment during this holiday season to read it. You will not be disappointed.

Posted by Tom at 4:29 AM | Comments (0) |

A remarkable Aggie resource

Despite Desmond Howard's gaffe earlier this week, Texas A&M University is a fascinating and indelible part of Texas culture. Recognizing that stature, Texas A&M's Cushing Library has undertaken a remarkable project entitled "The Historic Images Collection--Historic Images and Photographs of the Texas A&M Community."

The collection is a treasure trove of interesting photographs, such as this one of a pre-1900s baseball squad. Another early baseball team is here, while this 1923 picture includes in the back row, second from left, King Gill, the original A&M “12th Man,” and in the middle of the back row, Pat Olsen (the tallest one), a former major leaguer for whom the A&M baseball stadium is named. Finally, this picture of Aggie great Jacob Green from the 1970's shows the Emory Bellard-era striped shoulder football uniforms.

This is only a fraction of the photos in this remarkable collection, so take a few minutes to peruse the archive. Aggies take quite a bit of ribbing in Texas for their dogged adherence to tradition, but that respect for tradition is a big part of what produced this wonderful collection.

Posted by Tom at 4:10 AM | Comments (1) |

December 7, 2006

C.T.'s Time profile

I have to admit that it's not every day that an old buddy of mine is profiled in Time:

There are two paths to music immortality: the Prince route and the Patty and Mildred Hill route. In the Prince model, you write a piece of music that people love so much, they seek it out, download it and turn up the radio whenever it comes on. The Hill sisters model is trickier; they composed the melody for Happy Birthday to You. They achieved their fame by writing a tune that people don't listen to so much as sing.

Chris Tomlin belongs in the second camp. People sing his songs a lot, often repeatedly. Specifically, they sing them in church. According to Christian Copyright Licensing International (CCLI), an organization that licenses music to churches, Tomlin, 34, is the most often sung contemporary artist in U.S. congregations every week. Since glee clubs have fallen out of popularity, that might make Tomlin the most often sung artist anywhere.

Chris started his ministry at my family's church in The Woodlands when he was freshly graduated from Texas A&M University, and we hit it off immediately. He has sinced moved on to base his ministry in a church comprised of mostly students and young couples in Austin, but we stay in touch as his career continues to flourish. The success that Chris is experiencing could not happen to a nicer fellow and is a testament to his grace and humility. But he still does lose control on the golf course at times. I'm helping him work on that. ;^)

Posted by Tom at 4:13 AM | Comments (1) |

December 1, 2006

Benny Hinn has a deal for you

The last time we checked in on televangelist Benny Hinn, he was having a snit with the Nigerian hosts for one of his crusades and fighting with the IRS. Recently, Hinn has been in the news again as the subject of this NBC Dateline piece regarding Hinn's rather lavish lifestyle and tastes that are, might we say, a tad alien to Christ's message of sacrificial atonement upon which his business, . . uh, I mean, "ministry" is based.

A $10-million, 7,000 sq. ft. home, $112,000 per month for a private jet, a couple of $80,000 cars, luxury hotel rooms that are 5,400 sq. ft. at $10,800 per night for a "layover." At least Hinn is generous with his tips, which totaled over $4,500 during a recent three-day period. A salary of half a million to a million dollars per year--plus book royalties. Business, . . . er, I mean the ministry is good, eh?

At any rate, Hinn has now decided that the lease payments for his corporate jet are a tad steep, so he wants to acquire a corporate jet, which he has already named "Dove One." Hinn is ramping up his money-raising machinery to pay for his new toy, and for a mere $1,000 "donation," here's what Hinn promises:

You will receive a beautiful art-quality model of Dove One for your desk or mantle as a constant reminder that you are a vital part of this last-days harvest for souls.

Your name will be placed prominently in a special area of Dove One where I study and pray during my travels, where I will also pray for you and your family as I go around the world preaching the Gospel. Everywhere I fly, your name will travel with me, millions of miles and for years to come, reminding me that you have made it possible for me to go and preach as God has called me to do.

What a deal! ;^)

Posted by Tom at 4:49 AM | Comments (1) |

November 22, 2006

The story of the open road

As many of us get ready to hit the road over the holiday weekend, Ralph Bennett in this TCS Daily article provides an excellent overview of the birth of the nation's Interstate Highway System during the Eisenhower Administration. We tend to take the system for granted these days, but it is truly an engineering and economic marvel that is one of our many blessings for which we will give thanks this holiday weekend.

Posted by Tom at 7:35 AM | Comments (0) |

November 20, 2006

Politics and the Evangelicals

This NY Times article reports on the how Ted Haggard's evangelical church dealt with the termination and succession issues in the large Colorado church that Haggard had started and had become identified with him. The article concludes that the church ultimately handled the termination and succession reasonably well, although it appears that warning signs regarding Haggard's behaviour went largely unheeded among church leaders before his public meltdown.

But the more interesting analysis of the current state of the Evangelical movement is contained in this Ben Witherington post, which includes these following observations regarding the dubious political allegiance between Evangelicals and certain elements of the Republican Party:

[T]he alliance between Evangelicals and the hard line conservatives in the Republican party has made it difficult for many Evangelicals to see the difference in our time between being a Christian and being an American, and in particular being a certain kind of an American—namely a Republican. The problem is that this reflects a certain kind of mental ghettoizing of the Gospel, a blunting of its prophetic voice on issues ranging from war to poverty, and sometimes this even comes with the not so subtle suggestion that to be un-American (defined as being opposed to certain key Republican credo items) is to be un-Christian. But Christianity must and does transcend any particular cultural expression of itself, otherwise we have the cultural captivity of the Gospel which leads to a form of idolatry. It is one thing to sing ‘my country tis of Thee’, its another thing to have a bunker mentality which makes our countries ills hard to define and our flaws even harder to critique and correct. [. . .]

Christians should never be making their major decisions in life chiefly based on fear or a desire for revenge, or both. Nor should we support politicians who do so, whether they go to church or not. They are part of the problem, not part of the solution. If the question is WWJD, for sure its not what we’ve been mostly doing as a nation in the last six years.

So its time to wake up and smell the coffee. Does it smell like the aroma of Christ and his Gospel, or does it smell like dirt, like grounds, like mud? I hope someone out there in the Evangelical Church is listening. We need a whole new approach to ethics and ministry in the years to come in the 21rst century. It's time for a year of Jubilee. It's time to mend fences with our neighbors and the neutral. It's time to stop sticking sticks in hornet’s nests and wondering why we keep getting stung. May God help us overcome our American and Evangelical myopia.

Read Dr. Witherington's entire post. It's well worth it.

Posted by Tom at 4:54 AM | Comments (0) |

November 10, 2006

A good football coach steps down

Dan McCarney, the "dean" of the Big 12 Conference football coaches, resigned under pressure on Wednesday as head football coach at Iowa State University after 12 seasons. The announcement barely made a blip in the local Houston media, but Coach Mac's resignation highlighted many aspects of the troubling direction of major college football, a topic that has also been touched on here, here, here and here.

I am biased about Coach McCarney, who is called Coach Mac by most everyone. As regular readers of this blog know (see here and here), Coach Mac and I have been friends since growing up together in Iowa City, Iowa, where we played together on City High School's championship football team in 1970. I moved to Houston with my family shortly after finishing high school and Mac went on to play football at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, but we remained in contact over the years as I went to law school and began a legal career in Houston and Mac went on to the Iowa coaching staff after graduating from undergraduate school. When Hayden Fry was hired to revive the downtrodden Iowa program in 1979, Coach Mac was one of the only coaches who Coach Fry retained from the previous coaching staff. As with most of Coach Fry's personnel decisions, retaining Coach Mac was a good one.

For the following decade, Coach Mac was a part of an extraordinary Iowa coaching staff that not only revived Iowa's football fortunes, but also produced such outstanding head coaches as Wisconsin's Barry Alvarez, Oklahoma's Bob Stoops, Kansas State's Bill Snyder, Iowa's Kirk Ferentz and South Florida's Jim Leavitt. In 1990, Coach Mac followed Alvarez to Wisconsin, where they took over a 2-9 Badger program and, by 1993, had the team winning the Big Ten Conference championship with a 10-1-1 record, which included a Rose Bowl victory over UCLA. The next year, Iowa State came calling for Coach Mac and the native Iowan was off to Ames for his first head coaching job.

Over the years, Mac and I have laughed many times about the fact that neither of us really had a clue of what he was getting into at Iowa State. We both knew that the university had long been a coaching graveyard and had eeked out a barely-winning record only a couple of times in the previous 15 years. Ames is nice little college town, but it is in north central Iowa, pretty much in the middle of nowhere in the opinion of most good college football players. As a result, the football program has always struggled to attract good football prospects, who usually have sexier alternatives to living in central Iowa for four years. The physical facilities of Iowa State's football program were poor and the entire football budget at the time was just over $3 million, which was by far the smallest of any public school in the then newly-constituted Big 12 Conference that included such far better-funded programs as Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, and Nebraska, just to name a few. To make matters worse, Iowa State was a clear second fiddle in the state of Iowa to the University of Iowa, which has a far superior football tradition and an athletic budget more than twice as large as Iowa State's. Most folks assume that Kansas State was the toughest head coaching job in the United States before Bill Snyder resurrected it in the 1990's, but I think a good case can be made that the Iowa State job was even more difficult before Coach Mac took over.

To Mac and Iowa State's credit, they agreed at the outset that turning Iowa State's program around was going to be a long-term project. As he did at Iowa and Wisconsin, Mac literally threw himself into the job of rebuilding the Cyclone football program, taking on any speaking engagement and going anywhere to promote Iowa State and its athletic teams. An outstanding recruiter, Mac and his coaching staff began to expand Iowa State's traditional Midwestern recruiting base to such football hotbeds as Texas, Florida and California. Mac began to challenge Iowa's traditional toehold on the best recruits in the state of Iowa. The progress was slow, though -- Mac's teams lost 42 or their 57 games during his first five seasons.

However, by the 2000 season, Mac and his staff had built a solid foundation for the program. Behind QB Sage Rosenfels (yes, the Texans' backup QB), Iowa State went 9-3 during that season and won the university's first post-season bowl game in the university's 108-year football history (over Pitt in the Insight.com Bowl in Tucson). That started a 40 game run where Mac's teams were 25-15, a remarkable feat considering that Iowa State was competing in the brutally-tough Big 12 Conference and playing tough Iowa each season (Mac's teams won six of their last nine games against their in-state rival). By the 2004 and 2005 seasons, Coach Mac had his teams on the cusp of the Big 12 North Division title both seasons only to lose them in an excrutiatingly close final game in each season. Nevertheless, after Iowa State had gone to only four bowl games in its history before Coach Mac's tenure, Mac took the Cyclones to five bowl games in six years, winning two of them. Coming into the 2006 season, optimism was high that the Cyclones would again contend for the Big 12 North Division championship and go to yet another bowl game.

Alas, the 2006 season did not turn out as planned. First, the Cyclones faced one of the toughest schedules in the country, including an initial stretch of Big 12 games at Texas, at home against Nebraska, at Oklahoma and at home against Texas Tech. Iowa State lost all four and were battered in the process, losing six senior starters to season-ending injury. Lack of depth is a chronic Achille's Heel at a place such as Iowa State, so a thin and deflated Cyclone team was smoked over the past two weeks by mediocre Kansas State and Kansas teams. That brought out the "what have you done for me lately" crowd in full force, many of whom were calling on Iowa State to fire Coach Mac despite the fact that few of them have any idea how difficult it is to win consistently at the top levels of major college football.

Suddenly, a little over a year after one of Mac's best wins as a coach, Mac concluded it was not right for him to become a divisive issue for the university. Understanding Spike Dykes' advice that "you lose 10% of your support each season" as a college football coach, Mac understood that he was 20% in the hole at Iowa State based on that formula. So, he elected to resign as head football coach at Iowa State, a difficult job that he would have gladly continued to perform for the rest of his coaching days. Take a moment to watch his performance during the press conference (click the video camera icon on the left side of the page) to announce his resignation -- Mac exudes the class and passion with which he handled all of his duties at Iowa State. In this age of cold-hearted and businesslike coaches who are constantly posturing for the "better" job, it is refreshing to watch someone such as Mac, who wears his big heart and humanity on his sleeve.

Thus, 12 years after arriving at Iowa State, Mac leaves the football program in far better shape than he found it. The football budget has quadrupled in size under Mac, but it remains the smallest of any public institution in the Big 12 Conference (Texas and A&M's football budgets are at least 4 to 5 times larger than Iowa State's). Mac worked behind the scenes continually to improve Iowa State's facilities and they have improved substantially during his time there. However, Cyclone athletic department officials are now attempting to raise another $135 million for facilities upgrades in an effort to keep up with the seemingly endless arms race of major college football. In one of the more bizarre aspects of Mac's resignation, that imminent capital funds campaign was one of the key pressure points that prompted the resignation of the best fundraiser in the history of the Cyclone football program. So it goes in trying to keep up with the Joneses in the wacky world of college football.

After coaching the Iowa State team in its final two games this season, Mac will kick back for a few days, but then I suspect that he will back out looking for another opportunity. His motor is always running and he has a passionate love for coaching. Inasmuch as Mac is widely popular among his fellow coaches, I am confident that he will land on his feet.

However, I am not so sure about Iowa State. The institution is caught in the proverbial rat race of attempting to compete with far-better funded programs and the gap between Iowa State's resources and those of programs such as Texas and A&M are likely to get even larger. The pressure of that competition has now prompted Iowa State's administration to take what appears to be a huge risk that the program will decline from the solid foundation that Mac painstakingly built over the past 12 years.

Does Iowa State think that it is going to hire someone who will magically recruit better athletes to Ames than Mac? That's highly doubtful as Mac is one of the best recruiters in the business and Ames is always going to be a difficult sell to all but a few of the best football prospects. Does the institution think that it is going to hire someone who will coach better than Mac? Maybe, but Mac is a pretty darn good coach and how many more wins does Iowa State really believe it can achieve through slightly better coaching methods? And even Iowa State officials readily concede that it is highly unlikely that they will ever be able to find someone who can match Mac's tireless enthusiasm for promoting the institution and the football program.

The bottom line is that seasons such as the one that the Cyclones and Mac are enduring this season are inevitable at a program such as Iowa State's. That is one of the costs of attempting to compete with limited resources at the highest level of major college football. That's not a particularly pleasant reality, but it's dubious decision-making to take big risks based on an emotional reaction to a disappointing result that is inevitable. That appears to be precisely what Iowa State is doing in letting Mac get away. Wouldn't embracing a good coach who understands the institution's limitations and has competed effectively in spite of them be far less risky and much more likely to result in continued success?

Ironically, the Cyclone family now finds itself looking for a new head coach who has the depth and characteristics of . . . well, Dan McCarney. Iowa State will be extremely fortunate if they find one.

Posted by Tom at 4:44 AM | Comments (4) |

November 8, 2006

They play for keeps at the Country Music Awards Show

One does get the impression from the video below that country-music singer Faith Hill does not believe that former American Idol Carrie Underwood should have received the Best Female Country Singer Award at Monday Night's Country Music Awards Show in Nashville.

The Hill-McGraw public relations machine was in full gear afterward.

Posted by Tom at 5:30 AM | Comments (0) |

November 6, 2006

Troubles in the pulpit

It was not a good week in the church business last week.

First, as this Findlaw article reports, the Baptist General Convention of Texas is trying to figure out what happened to $1.3 million that was raised to help start hundreds of churches in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. Apparently, three pastors reported that they had started 258 churches in the Valley over the past decade, but only "five to 10" of those churches actually exist. Yup, those things happen even in the pulpit, folks.

Meanwhile, the Ted Haggard affair moved into the mainstream of the pre-election gamesmanship while distracting most from the real issue, which is the risk of elevating personality over worship within the megachurch movement in the U.S. (Ben Witherington has insightful comments on that issue here). The Richard Dawkins interview of Haggard below reveals that Haggard is indeed wound pretty tight, but my sense is that Dawkins does not come off looking any better than Haggard. I mean really. Why should Dawkins care that Haggard or his ilk talks to people about what Dawkins considers to be myths? Nobody is forcing these folks to go to church and it's not as if Dawkins suffers from a lack of forums in which to express his views. In that regard, here are the letters that Haggard and his wife Gayle wrote to the New Life Church congregation upon his removal from the church and which were read to the congregation yesterday. Gayle's letter includes the following observation, which is pretty remarkable under the circumstances:

For those of you who have been concerned that my marriage was so perfect I could not possibly relate to the women who are facing great difficulties, know that this will never again be the case.

Finally, from a far different and more civil time, Ann Althouse brings us this very clever interview between Woody Allen and Billy Graham. I particularly enjoyed Allen's answer to the question from the audience on his worst sin. Don't miss it.

Posted by Tom at 4:40 AM | Comments (3) |

October 26, 2006

A Wonder of West Texas

The New York Times discovers one of the many remarkable features of Texas -- the oasis in the West Texas desert known as Balmorhea. 200 miles from El Paso near Pecos, Balmorhea has a remarkable 3.5 million gallon, spring-fed pool that supports a varied aquatic ecosystem, including tiny tetra fish, huge catfish and rare pupfish. Scuba divers say that the water clarity is unparalleled, but the remote location of the park means that the park is never crowded. Read the entire article and learn about one of Texas' treasures that even many Texans know nothing about.

Posted by Tom at 4:17 AM | Comments (0) |

October 25, 2006

A fascinating peek at the descent into Alzheimer’s

When he learned in 1995 that he had Alzheimer’s disease, William Utermohlen, an American artist based in London, began his final project -- drawing self-portraits during his descent into dementia and ultimately Alzheimer's. This NY Times article reports that Utermohlen's work is being exhibited this week by the Alzheimer's Association at the New York Academy of Medicine in Manhattan:

The paintings starkly reveal the artist’s descent into dementia, as his world began to tilt, perspectives flattened and details melted away. His wife and his doctors said he seemed aware at times that technical flaws had crept into his work, but he could not figure out how to correct them.

“The spatial sense kept slipping, and I think he knew,” Professor [Patricia] Utermohlen [William Utermohlen's wife] said. A psychoanalyst wrote that the paintings depicted sadness, anxiety, resignation and feelings of feebleness and shame. [. . .]

Mr. Utermohlen, 73, is now in a nursing home. He no longer paints.

His work has been exhibited in several cities, and more shows are planned. The interest in his paintings as a chronicle of illness is bittersweet, his wife said, because it has outstripped the recognition he received even at the height of his career.

Colleen Carroll Campbell, who has written extensively about Alzheimer's, observes that the disease "embodies everything we fear most about aging -- weakness and dependence, humiliation and oblivion." Nearly half of Americans over the age of 35 know someone personally who is at some stage of dementia, and as Americans are living longer, Alzheimer's is claiming more victims. About 4.5 million Americans suffer from Alzheimer's today, which is more than double the number who had the disease just 25 years ago. Utermohlen's paintings provide us with an important perspective on this insidious disease as we confront the difficult issues that result from it.

Posted by Tom at 4:15 AM | Comments (0) |

October 10, 2006

The Amish Way

The first two paragraphs of Rod Dreher's op-ed in the Dallas Morning News says it all:

Is there any place on earth that more bespeaks peace, restfulness and sanctuary from the demons of modern life than a one-room Amish schoolhouse? That fact is no doubt why so many of us felt so defiled – there is no more precise word – by news of the mass murders that took place there this week. If you're not safe in an Amish schoolhouse ... And yet, as unspeakable as those killings were, they were not the most shocking news to come out of Lancaster County this week.

No, that would be the revelation that the Amish community, which buried five of its little girls this week, is collecting money to help the widow and children of Charles Carl Roberts IV, the man who executed their own children before taking his own life. A serene Amish midwife told NBC News on Tuesday that this is normal for them. It's what Jesus would have them do.

Read the entire piece. What a magnificent expression of true faith.

Posted by Tom at 4:36 AM | Comments (0) |

October 6, 2006

Garrison Keillor's Dallas adventure

Well, it doesn't look as if Garrison Keillor will be placing Dallas on his travel itinerary again anytime soon.

According to this Jacquielynn Floyd/Dallas Morning News column, the author, humorist, syndicated columnist and creator of National Public Radio's venerable Prairie Home Companion show visited Dallas a week ago to promote his latest book, Homegrown Democrat. Highland Park United Methodist Church near the Southern Methodist University campus sponsored Keillor's visit, and over 1,000 of Keillor's adoring fans showed up for his hour-long lecture. The evening apparently went quite well -- the audience laughed and applauded throughout Keillor's talk and he even stuck around afterward to chat and sign a few copies of his book.

But Keillor apparently had a different view of how his trip to Dallas went. The following is what he wrote at the end of his Chicago Tribune column this week:

. . . our country has taken a step toward totalitarianism. If the government can round up someone and never be required to explain why, then it's no longer the United States as you and I always understood it. Our enemies have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. They have made us become like them.

I got some insight last week into who supports torture when I went down to Dallas to speak at Highland Park Methodist Church. It was spooky. I walked in, was met by two burly security men with walkie-talkies, and within 10 minutes was told by three people that this was the Bushes' church and that it would be better if I didn't talk about politics. I was there on a book tour for "Homegrown Democrat," but they thought it better if I didn't mention it. So I tried to make light of it: I told the audience, "I don't need to talk politics. I have no need even to be interested in politics--I'm a citizen, I have plenty of money and my grandsons are at least 12 years away from being eligible for military service." And the audience applauded! Those were their sentiments exactly. We've got ours, and who cares?

The Methodists of Dallas can be fairly sure that none of them will be snatched off the streets, flown to Guantanamo Bay, stripped naked, forced to stand for 48 hours in a freezing room with deafening noise. So why should they worry? It's only the Jews who are in danger, and the homosexuals and gypsies. The Christians are doing fine. If you can't trust a Methodist with absolute power to arrest people and not have to say why, then whom can you trust?

Dallas Methodists are the same as German appeasers of Nazi genocide? As Floyd's column relates, Keillor is probably at least exaggerating about what occurred during his visit.

Posted by Tom at 4:35 AM | Comments (3) |

October 3, 2006

Surviving a collision at 37,000 feet

Don't miss this extraordinary report by NY Times columnist Joe Sharkey of his experience on the Embraer Legacy 600 corporate jet that collided with a Brazilian Boeing 737 airliner at 37,000 feet this past weekend. The airliner crashed in the Amazon jungle, killing all 155 people on board. Miraculously, the corporate jet -- although heavily damaged -- was able to make an emergency landing on a military base runway in the jungle, allowing Sharkey and his fellow travelers to survive.

Update: The two American pilots of the corporate jet have been detained in Brazil in connection with the investigation into the crash.

Posted by Tom at 7:11 AM | Comments (0) |

The story of Skidboot

Texas is a land of many different cultures, one of the most endearing of which is that of West Texas. Many of the qualities that make West Texas such a special place shine through in this nine-minute video about a remarkable dog and his master. When you have ten minutes, watch the video and appreciate a wonderful part of this always intriguing state.

Posted by Tom at 4:20 AM | Comments (0) |

September 29, 2006

One of the risks of the modern church

It's trendy these days for megachurches to provide all sorts of special services for their members. One of the most popular of such services is marriage counseling, which this NY Times article reports placed a Texas church squarely in the crosshairs of a defamation lawsuit when the minister providing the service went and blabbed confidential information about one of the church members to the church elders.

The leaders of the churches providing these services better recognize that such lawsuits are part of the risk of providing such a service and that it is not at all clear that the traditional separation between church and state is going to insulate the church from liability. Pastors who are leading their churches down this course need to ask themselves how their flocks will react when the church must raise money to pay a damages award from such a lawsuit or even just to pay the considerable cost of defending one. That's not the type of sacrificial atonement that Christ had in mind.

Speaking of risks for megachurches, Victoria Osteen -- wife of Lakewood Church's Joel Osteen -- has resolved her little Christmas season snit with the FAA, but that apparently is not the end of the story:

The Federal Aviation Administration has fined Victoria Osteen, wife of Lakewood pastor Joel Osteen, $3,000 after determining she had interfered with a Continental Airlines crew member aboard a flight late last year.

And this week, a flight attendant filed suit claiming she was assaulted by Victoria Osteen during that flight to Vail, Colo., for the Christmas holidays.

Osteen has paid the penalty, which is not an admission of guilt

Mrs. Osteen is well-represented by none other than the ubiquitous Rusty Hardin.

Posted by Tom at 4:55 AM | Comments (1) |

August 19, 2006

Not enough choices?

This NY Times article passes along the news that the last remaining area-wide radio station in the Los Angeles market playing country music has changed its format, so the second-largest radio market in the country joins New York (the largest radio market) and San Francisco (the fourth largest) as big markets that no longer host a radio station with a country music format. Inasmuch as such a development seems unthinkable in a country-music hotbed such as Houston, the Times article provides the following explanation:

“Country is a tough format to do in a market that is an ethnic melting pot,” said Rick Cummings, Emmis’s president of radio. “The appeal of the format is fairly limited when it comes to ethnicity.” In Los Angeles, he said, stations that cater mostly to white listeners are “playing for less than 25 percent of the marketplace on a good day.”

And while country music may draw a more diverse audience in cities like Houston, he added, it simply does not in Los Angeles, where Latino listeners have a wealth of choices for entertainment in both English and Spanish.

So, Latinos are forced to listen to country music more in Houston than in L.A. because they lack the variety of entertainment choices of the Los Angeles area?

My sense is that the Times reporter has not checked out the Houston radio market recently.

Posted by Tom at 4:51 AM | Comments (0) |

July 17, 2006

Houston's most influential churches

The Church Report has released its annual list of America's 50 Most Influential (Protestant) Churches and, as with last year's list, several Houston megachurches made the list.

Lakewood Church and the ubiquitous Joel Osteen come in again as the highest-rated local church at fifth, while Kerry Shook's Fellowship of The Woodlands dropped from no. 17 last year to 41 this year, and KirbyJohn Caldwell's Windsor Village United Methodist dropped from no. 43 to 49. Surprisingly, Ed Young's Second Baptist Church -- one of Houston's original megachurches and arguably its most influential -- dropped out of the top 50 list altogether after being listed at no. 33 last year.

The list is interesting in that it includes churches from both ends of the current political debate that is raging among Protestants regarding the core nature of megachurches. Osteen, Shook and a number of others on the list preach what traditionalists criticize as a feel-good gospel that views God as sort of a cosmic bellhop who exists to meet desires of humans and to make them feel comfortable with material wealth. Dallas' T.D. Jakes (Potter's House - 8) even denies the orthodox doctrine of the Holy Trinity, although the rest of his message has a harder edge than that of either Osteen or Shook. On the other hand, the list also includes a number of church leaders -- including notably John MacArthur (Grace Community - 31), John Piper (Bethlehem Baptist - 42) and Dallas' Tony Evans (Oak Cliff - 44) -- who advocate the more traditional Christian theology that emphasizes Christ's divinity, justification by faith, sacrifice and stewardship.

Meanwhile, the Catholics just shake their heads and go off to Mass. ;^)

Posted by Tom at 6:31 AM | Comments (7) |

July 15, 2006

Agency costs of big-time college football

College football is a big and competitive business, so it's no surprise that the issue of agency costs has reared its head with frequency over the past century of the sport. This NY Times article reports on the latest incident of apparent academic fraud -- an Auburn University sociology professor arranged to have 18 members of the 2004 Auburn football team, which went undefeated and finished No. 2 in the nation, take a combined 97 hours of the "directed-reading courses" which required no classroom instruction whatsoever. More than a quarter of the students in the professor's directed-reading courses were Auburn University athletes. The usual NCAA investigation is to follow while serious academics at Auburn must be shaking their heads over it all.

As noted in this previous post, big-time college football and basketball are caught in a vicious cycle of uneven growth, feckless leadership from many university presidents and obsolescent business models. As the previous post notes, it's an unfortunate situation because big-time college football and basketball would likely not suffer a bit from reform that required universities to compete with true student-athletes, as opposed to minor league professional players. Given the hyprocrisy of many state universities subsidizing minor league football and basketball at the same time as grappling with funding issues for core academic programs, one would think that expensive and mostly unprofitable system of big-time college football and basketball would be ripe for reform. However, powerful and wealthy special interests continue to support the current system despite the implications to the universities' academic responsibilities.

Is there any hope for true reform of intercollegiate athletics as well as minor league football and basketball? Or is the current system so entrenched in concentrated wealth and regulation that it is impervious to reform?

Posted by Tom at 9:36 AM | Comments (0) |

April 1, 2006

The Osteen Empire

This Ralph Blumenthal/NY Times article profiles the ubiquitous Houston-based mega-pastor, Joel Osteen (prior posts here) in a quite positive light:

After a warm-up of rousing original rock and gospel hymns with lyrics and videos flashing on jumbo screens around the arena, Mr. Osteen began to speak. "We come with good news each week," he told the packed crowd at his gigachurch in his native Texan twang.

The news for Mr. Osteen has lately been very good indeed: two weeks ago he signed a contract with Free Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, that could bring him as much as $13 million for a follow-up book to his debut spiritual guide, "Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential," which, since it was published by Warner Faith in 2004, has sold more than three million copies. "I believe God wants us to prosper" is the gospel according to Mr. Osteen, 43, who offers no apologies for his wealth.

"You know what, I've never done it for the money," he said in an interview after Sunday's service, which he led with his glamorous wife and co-pastor, Victoria. "I've never asked for money on television." But opening oneself to God's favors was a blessing, he said. "I believe it's God rewarding you.

Mr. Osteen's motto is: "God wants you to be a winner, not a whiner." [...]

He is not shy about calling on the Lord. He writes of praying for a winning basket in a basketball game, and then sinking it; and even of circling a parking lot, praying for a space, and then finding it. "Better yet," he writes, "it was the premier spot in that parking lot."

But R. Albert Mohler, Jr., the president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, one of the largest seminaries in the world, is a tad skeptical of Reverend Osteen's message:

The first question is this -- Would anyone watching his television program, or sitting in his vast church facility, hear in Mr. Osteen's message a clear and undiluted message of Gospel proclamation? Would this person have any reason, based on hearing Mr. Osteen's message, to know himself as a sinner and to understand how the cross of Christ is the only ground of his salvation? Would he come to know that Jesus the Christ is fully human and fully divine, and that He came in order that we might have everlasting life -- not just a good parking space?

Ben Witherington has more.

Posted by Tom at 8:45 AM | Comments (5) |

December 25, 2005

The Game of a Lifetime

On this Christmas Day, take a moment to read this heartwarming story (pdf here) about a daughter arranging the golfing gift of a lifetime for a father who gave of his life selflessly, and a member of Augusta National Golf Club who understands the true meaning of giving.

Merry Christmas and thank you for reading Houston's Clear Thinkers.

Posted by Tom at 7:37 AM | Comments (4) |

November 5, 2005

Tyler Cowen discovers Texas barbeque

Marginal Revolution's Tyler Cowen has been eating Texas barbeque this week in Lockhart and he is finding it to be a very satisfying experience. Indeed, one of the many pleasures of living in Texas is taking a day to visit several of the charming small towns in the triangle formed by the cities of Houston, Austin and San Antonio, and sampling the local barbeque. One of my fondest memories from years ago is accompanying a client to several of these towns as we took a day to meet witnesses in a lawsuit I was defending for him. Each meeting took place in each town's best local barbeque restaurant and, of course, we sampled the barbeque at every spot. To this day, I have not come up with a better way to prepare for a trial.

Posted by Tom at 9:54 AM | Comments (0) |

July 6, 2005

Benny Hinn and the I.R.S.

Last week, televangelist Benny Hinn was not particularly pleased with, might we say, the responsiveness of his Nigerian hosts to his latest African crusade.

Well, this latest news report probably explains why Benny is a tad jumpy these days:

The IRS is questioning televangelist Benny Hinn's organization about its operations and finances issues that underlie its tax-exempt status as a church.

The inquiry into the flamboyant faith healer's ministry began a year ago, and the IRS has asked for dozens of detailed answers, according to documents provided to The Dallas Morning News by a watchdog group. . .

Separately, The News found that another watchdog group's complaint to the IRS that the ministry lacks financial oversight and independent governance may have led the agency to question the operation through what's called a church tax-inquiry letter.

While detractors argue that Mr. Hinn improperly profits from a ministry that hasn't met the IRS definition of a church for years, his public-relations contractor dismissed the possibility that the tax exemptions -- worth millions a year -- could be at risk. [Hinn's public relations contractor] repeatedly warned The News should "be very careful about what it reports."

Geez, Hinn's public relations contractor sounds a bit like Tom Hagen, Don Corleone's lawyer, don't you think?

By the way, did you know that Benny asserted at one time that the Trinity was comprised not of three persons, but nine?!

Posted by Tom at 5:12 AM | Comments (0) |

June 16, 2005

The Jobs commencement speech

How many people would have predicted that Steve Jobs would give the best commencement speech of the year?

The text of his address to the graduating class of Stanford University proves that he did. After noting his experience as a cancer survivor, Mr. Jobs observed:

Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

Read the entire speech. Bravo!

Update: Here is an audio link to Mr. Jobs speech.

Posted by Tom at 7:52 AM | Comments (0) |

May 31, 2005

It's vacation time!

Via Google Maps, the picture on the left is the satellite view of the waterpark area of the Fiesta Texas Theme Park in San Antonio, which -- of course -- includes a Texas-shaped pool!

By the way, Fiesta Texas is directly adjacent to the Westin La Cantera Resort, which is one of the best resort properties in Texas. A part of one of the two La Cantera golf courses (the one on which the Texas Open is played) runs right next to the Rattler, one of the giant rollercoasters at Fiesta Texas.

Several years ago, my older brother Bud and I were playing a round at that La Cantera course with a club pro from East Texas. The club pro was not having a good round. After snap hooking one off the tee on the hole where you tee off right above -- and within earshot of the screams emanating from -- the Rattler, the club pro turned to Bud and me and said with utter exasperation:

"This sure as hell ain't Augusta National."

Posted by Tom at 5:33 AM | Comments (1) |

May 13, 2005

Morgenstern on the state of Hollywood filmmaking

Joe Morgenstern is the film critic of The Wall Street Journal, where he writes the Friday "Review/Film" column in the Weekend Journal and supervises the Leisure & Arts page's coverage of the business of Hollywood. Mr. Morgenstern won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism "for his reviews that elucidated the strengths and weaknesses of film with rare insight, authority and wit."

A good example of that insight appears in Mr. Morgenstern's column in today's WSJ ($), in which he pans the new Jennifer Lopez-Jane Fonda movie, Monster-in-Law, and observes the following about the current trend in Hollywood filmmaking:

Films like this -- as well as two other clumsy features opening today -- are emblematic of Hollywood's relentless dumbing-down and defining-down of big-screen attractions. There's an audience for such stuff, but little enthusiasm or loyalty. Adult moviegoers are being ignored almost completely during all but the last two or three months of each year, while even the kids who march off to the multiplexes each weekend know they're getting moldy servings of same-old, rather than entertainments that feed their appetite for surprise and delight. "Life's too short to live the same day twice," Charlie says in "Monster-In-Law," quoting her father. It's also too short to keep living the same weekend, though that's what the movie going experience is starting to feel like -- an extended Groundhog Day of amateur nights.

Posted by Tom at 5:47 AM | Comments (0) |

May 4, 2005

The Cream reunion concert

61 year old Bass player Jack Bruce has had a liver transplant and 65 year old drummer Ginger Baker suffers from arthritis, but Eric Clapton's first big rock group -- Cream (you know, Sunshine of Your Love, Badge, White Room, etc)-- lives on.

Craig Newmark points us to Fark.com's comment on this article about the reunion concert of the 1960's rock band:

Cream reunites in concert. For those of you under 40: Cream was Eric Clapton's old band. Under 30: Clapton was once a big rock star. And for you under 20: Rock was a kind of music they used to play on the radio.

And don't miss Banjo Jones' musings on what happened to Cream after Clapton heard The Band.

Posted by Tom at 6:53 AM | Comments (1) |

April 25, 2005

Sightseeing using Google satellite maps

Take a spin sightseeing throught the United States on this interesting page that links to Google satellite images of various American attractions.

That's Houston's Reliant Park in the picture on the left. As one would expect, the satellite images of Alaska, Colorado and California attactions are particularly spectacular.

By the way, in case you haven't used it yet, the related Google map website is the best mapping website available on the Web.

Posted by Tom at 7:55 AM | Comments (0) |

April 16, 2005

C.T. wins a Dove Award

Chris Tomlin, my old friend who has been the subject of these previous posts, was awarded a prestigious Dove Award for Best Praise and Worship Album of the Year by the Gospel Music Association in its awards show on Wednesday night in Nashville. Chris' award-winning album -- Arriving -- has been at the top of the contemporary Christian music charts for months now.

This richly deserved award could not have been won by a nicer fellow than C.T. However, the honor will still not stop me from continuing to throttle him on the golf course. That's just the way it is in big golf games.

Posted by Tom at 4:14 PM | Comments (1) |

April 12, 2005

An interesting new museum

Las Vegas is not normally the place that one goes to visit a museum, but the one described in this Opinion Journal piece appears to be worth checking out during a respite from the blackjack tables:

Over . . . 40 years, 928 nuclear devices were exploded at [the Nevada Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas] -- although atmospheric blasts eventually gave way to underground testing.

The fascinating, often surprising, story of the site's four-decade history is the subject of the new Atomic Testing Museum (www.ntshf.org), not far from the Las Vegas Strip, a place where levity and holocaust often go hand-in-hand. In the museum gift shop, for example, I picked up a postcard. "Greetings from the Nevada Test Site," it proclaimed, showing a collage of doomsday clouds floating above a scraggly desert. I half expected to see a postmark from hell.

Posted by Tom at 7:14 AM | Comments (0) |

April 2, 2005

Pictures of a great man

As Pope John Paul II nears death, Newsweek provides this online review of its issues over the past 27 years that have featured a picture of the Pope on the cover.

George Weigel's Witness to Hope is probably the best biography on Pope John Paul II. Mr. Weigal's op-ed from ten years ago -- The Mobile Pope -- explains how the Pope modernized the papacy and in The Holy Father in the Holy Land from five years ago, Mr. Wiegel describes the Pope's historic visit to Jerusalem and the Middle East.

Pope John Paul II leaves a legacy of grace, strength and forgiveness that is a beacon of light in an increasingly dark world. His is a life worthy of reflection, so take a few moments to review the momentous contributions of this remarkable man.

Update: Mr. Wiegel provides this interesting personal remembrance upon the Pope's death on Saturday afternoon.

Posted by Tom at 7:43 AM | Comments (0) |

March 24, 2005

The Schiavo case

A number of friends have asked me why I have not blogged on the Terri Schiavo case, to which I have stolen Eugene Volokh's reply that "I know nothing about the Schiavo matter, and -- despite that -- have no opinion."

As we have seen with the Enron case, when a case becomes as sensationalized in the MSM as the Schiavo case has over the past several weeks, battle lines get drawn politically, increasingly shrill views compete for the public's limited attention, and wise perspectives tend to get lost in the shuffle. Bloggers can find thoughtful views -- such as those of Professors Bainbridge and Ribstein -- but, let's face it, the vast majority of the public do not read blogs.

At any rate, I wanted to pass along a couple of informative articles on the Schiavo case that will appear in next month's New England Journal of Medicine. Timothy Quill, M.D. is a nationally-recognized expert in palliative care and end-of-life issues who is a professor of medicine, psychiatry, and medical humanities at the University of Rochester, School of Medicine and Dentistry. In this article, Dr. Quill dispassionately reviews what has occurred in the Schiavo case, and then makes the following observation:

In considering this profound decision, the central issue is not what family members would want for themselves or what they want for their incapacitated loved one, but rather what the patient would want for himself or herself. The New Jersey Supreme Court that decided the case of Karen Ann Quinlan got the question of substituted judgment right:

If the patient could wake up for 15 minutes and understand his or her condition fully, and then had to return to it, what would he or she tell you to do?

If the data about the patient?s wishes are not clear, then in the absence of public policy or family consensus, we should err on the side of continued treatment even in cases of a persistent vegetative state in which there is no hope of recovery. But if the evidence is clear, as the courts have found in the case of Terri Schiavo, then enforcing life-prolonging treatment against what is agreed to be the patient?s will is both unethical and illegal.

In the same issue, George P. Annas, J.D., the Edward R. Utley Professor and Chair Department of Health Law, Bioethics & Human Rights at Boston University School of Public Health, pens this article in which he reviews the legal precedent relating to the Schiavo case and criticizes Congress for ignoring it. In so doing, Professor Annas observes the following:

There is (and should be) no special law regarding the refusal of treatment that is tailored to specific diseases or prognoses, and the persistent vegetative state is no exception. "Erring on the side of life" in this context often results in violating a person?s body and human dignity in a way few would want for themselves. In such situations, erring on the side of liberty ? specifically, the patient?s right to decide on treatment ? is more consistent with American values and our constitutional traditions.

Hat tip to the HealthLawProf blog for the links to these articles.

Posted by Tom at 8:17 AM | Comments (3) |

March 13, 2005

Everyone is doing it

Now even Rosie O'Donnell has a blog?

Posted by Tom at 7:39 AM | Comments (0) |

February 21, 2005

Hunter Thompson, RIP

Hunter S. Thompson fatally shot himself Sunday night at his Aspen-area home. He was 67.

Mr. Thompson was a counterculture writer who popularized a new form of fictional journalism in books during the early 1970's such as Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and and Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72. Mr. Thompson also was the model for Gary Trudeau's balding "Uncle Duke" in the comic strip "Doonesbury."

Although Mr. Thompson was a writer for many years before joining Rolling Stone magazine in the late 1960's, that association led to a fairly large following during the 1970's. Nevertheless, Mr. Thompson's popularity as a writer peaked as a counterculture icon during the Watergate era and the Nixon Administration. He never moved beyond the vacuity of "gonzo journalism" and, thus, the popularity of his writing receded over the past three decades.

Here is an archive of Mr. Thompson's work.

Here is the ESPN.com archive of Mr. Thompson's work.

Update: Banjo Jones over at the Brazosport News has an insightful post on Mr. Thompson.

And Tom Wolfe remembers Mr. Thompson here.

Posted by Tom at 4:50 AM | Comments (0) |

February 17, 2005

On the author of "On Bullshit"

This NY Times article profiles Princeton professor Harry G. Frankfurt, who is the author of the brilliantly named new book, On Bullshit, which was the subject of this earlier post.

Posted by Tom at 8:21 AM | Comments (0) |

February 15, 2005

Wiess Law gift to the Houston MFA grows

This earlier post noted the late Caroline Wiess Law's bequest last year of almost 60 artworks valued at between $60-85 million to the Houston Museum of Fine Arts.

In a remarkable development, this Chronicle article reports that the value of Ms. Wiess Law's overall bequest to the MFA may end up generating more than $450 million, which would make the bequest one of the largest in the history of American philanthropy.

Mrs. Wiess Law, who died in 2003 at the age of 85, was one of Houston's most generous donors to the arts and sciences. She was a longtime supporter of the MFA, the Houston Ballet, Houston Grand Opera, and the Houston Symphony, and also bequeathed $25 million to Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.

Mrs. Wiess Law was one of the three daughters of the marriage of Olga Keith and Harry C. Wiess, who was one of the founders of Humble Oil Co., the predecessor to Exxon Mobil. Mr. and Mrs. Wiess were founding members of the MFA, which has grown into the centerpiece of Houston's Museum District just north of the Texas Medical Center.

Posted by Tom at 7:56 AM | Comments (0) |

January 25, 2005

Remembering Johnny

Don't miss former Tonight Show writer Raymond Siller's piece on Johnny Carson in today's Wall Street Journal ($).

Posted by Tom at 3:36 AM | Comments (0) |

January 22, 2005

The risks of the Texas-Mexico border

This Washington Post article reports on a troubling development that many Texans prefer to ignore -- that is, the increasing number of missing persons who are being abducted in the Mexican border towns along the border of Texas and Mexico.

21 U.S. citizens have been kidnapped or disappeared between August and December of last year. Of those 21, nine were later released, two were killed, and 10 remain missing. Moreover, law enforcement officials report an alarming rate of kidnappings that are occurring across Mexico, including what are dubbed "express" kidnappings that are performed for "quick cash" ransoms.

The Rio Grande Valley of Texas -- or "the Valley" as Texans call it -- has always been a fascinating and troubling part of Texan culture. Larry McMurtry portrayed the late 19th century version of the area brilliantly in his Pulitzer Prize winning novel, Lonesome Dove, which was made into one of the best television mini-series of all time in 1989 with Robert Duvall and Tommie Lee Jones in the main roles. Filmmaker John Sayles provides an equally remarkable portrayal of the area during the 1950's and 1980's in his fine 1996 film, Lone Star, which includes Valley native Kris Kristofferson in the flat out best performance of his acting career. The area is among the lowest in terms of per capita income in the United States, yet even that chronically depressed economy is a fantasy of riches for many of those living in the poverty of the teeming Mexican border towns.

The region's problems are complex and difficult, which makes the area prone to being ignored. The increased violence of late is the natural result of such neglect, and the usual response to such spikes in violence along the border -- i.e., heightened law enforcement -- is only a short term solution that often contributes to the animus that many of the Hispanic citizens of the area have toward the state. The area is desperate for leadership and a vision for solving its problems, yet those intractable problems tend to repel those in government who are in a position to do something about them. In short, the Valley needs statesmen, which are in short supply in the polarized American political landscape of the early 21st century.

Posted by Tom at 7:21 AM | Comments (0) |

December 24, 2004

Wishing you and your family Happy Holidays and Clear Thinking from the Kirkendall Family

Posted by Tom at 11:25 AM | Comments (3) |

December 21, 2004

Prairie Home Companion is 30 years old

Time flies when listening to a good radio show.

Posted by Tom at 7:04 AM | Comments (0) |

December 7, 2004

"Kiddie Cocaine"

This Christian Science Monitor article reports on Adderall, the prescription medication normally used to treat attention deficit disorder (ADD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but which is now becoming the study amphetamine of choice on college campuses.

Posted by Tom at 7:05 AM | Comments (0) |

December 2, 2004

Peggy Noonan on Dan Rather

In this Opinion Journal piece, Peggy Noonan writes the best and most balanced epilogue on Dan Rather's career that I have read to date. Ms. Noonan, who used to write Mr. Rather's daily radio commentary, has some particularly insightful personal observations about Mr. Rather, including the following:

Dan was a great boss. He was appreciative of good work and sympathetic when it wasn't good. He was one of the men--Douglas Edwards and Dallas Townsend were two others--to whom I am indebted, for they taught me how to write for the ear, how to write for people who are listening as opposed to reading. He was generous with praise. Someone who did a good job on a story got flowers and a note. Someone in the newsroom once knocked Dan in a magazine profile, saying he was insecure, always sending too many flowers. Dan thought, Really? Life's tough, you can't send too many flowers! He was open to ideas, he was democratic and not hierarchical in his management style, and he tried to be fair in his dealings with people in spite of a personal emotionalism that was deep, ever present and not entirely predictable.

For three years, from 1981 through 1984, I wrote his daily radio commentary, a four-minute essay with a one-minute spot that went out to all the CBS affiliates and network-owned stations. It was a great job. We did some good work. Here's how it got done: When I had been doing the show for a few weeks I could see that my work was not good--uneven, without voice, without a clear point of view. I thought I knew the reason. I had become increasingly a political conservative. Dan, it was obvious to me, was a sort of establishment liberal--not a wild leftist and not an ideologue, but whatever smart liberals thought was more or less what he wound up thinking, and saying. I couldn't write his views well, because I didn't buy them and didn't fully understand them. I couldn't write my views, because the show had to reflect his thinking. So I went to him and told him my problem. He was great. He said: On any given issue that we discuss, give the liberal point of view fairly and give the conservative point of view fairly, and then we'll end it with my opinion, because it's my show. I thought that sounded good.

And it worked. "Dan Rather Reporting" actually got something of a conservative following, not because it was a conservative show--it wasn't--but because it actually put forward the conservative point of view in what might be called a fair and balanced way.

Read the entire piece.

Posted by Tom at 9:15 AM | Comments (0) |

December 1, 2004

Thinking about the Second Coming

Check out these interesting thoughts about the Second Coming of Christ from J.D. Walt and a student over at Asbury Theological Seminary's Web Parish blog.

And on a lighter note, my nephew Richard passes along an excellent and funny story about the Talmudist.

Posted by Tom at 7:08 AM | Comments (1) |

November 27, 2004

For Seinfeld fans

The Chronicle's Ken Hoffman will like this -- The Jerry Seinfeld Dictionary of Terms and Phrases. An example:

Must-Lie Situation - when a person feels that they cannot tell the truth to someone else for fear of offending them (ex #1 calling one's baby "Breathtaking", ex #2 not being able to tell someone that their hairdo is pre-1960's or just plain hideous)

Posted by Tom at 8:25 AM | Comments (0) |

November 16, 2004

Former KLOL-FM listeners can take solace in this

This London Telegraph article reports the following soothing news for former listerners of Houston's KLOL-FM:

Eric Clapton has astounded the music world by finally agreeing to reform Cream, rock's first supergroup, 36 years after they split up at the height of their worldwide fame.

John Mayall, the veteran leader of the Bluesbreakers, the British band from which Clapton defected to create Cream in 1966, said yesterday: "I'm amazed. But Eric is always doing something unexpected. He moves in so many directions, always out front with his music."

Sources close to the musicians said that reunion plans were under way, with Clapton, 59, Jack Bruce, 61, and Ginger Baker, 65, talking of "probably two gigs, or maybe more" at the Royal Albert Hall in May, although that venue, where Clapton staged his traditional blues stint this spring, has yet to be booked.

"A reunion of Cream would be a classic show," Mayall went on to say. "The band was so influential. They helped pave the way for me in America. The Beatles were first. The Rolling Stones were next. Then there was Cream. I had my first US tour in 1968, and moved there a year later."

Cream members are staying silent at the moment about their plans. A spokesman for Clapton said that he had no comment. Bruce was on holiday, and there was no reply from Baker's farm in South Africa, where he raises polo ponies.

Posted by Tom at 8:31 AM | Comments (0) |

November 13, 2004

Check out "Hairspray"

If you are looking for a fun evening in the next week or so, I highly recommend checking out the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Hairspray, the latest event in Houston's Broadway Series at the Hobby Center. Even the Chronicle's notoriously tough theatre critic Everett Evans gave the performance a hearty thumbs up.

My wife, daughters and I attended Friday night's show, and we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Although the entire cast and production is magnificent, Keala Settle's peformance in the lead role is absolutely incredible -- she sings and dances with a dynamic combination of clarity, agility, and spunk that is truly infectious. Don't miss it.

Posted by Tom at 8:48 AM | Comments (0) |

October 14, 2004

New book on Mark Rothko

One of Houston's most fascinating places is the Rothko Chapel (map here) on the campus of St. Thomas University in the Montrose area, which is one of the most peaceful places in Houston. The chapel houses fourteen paintings of the late American abstract expressionist Mark Rothko, who committed suicide in 1970. Rothko and architect Philip Johnson collaborated on the design of the chapel, which opened in 1971 and is a part of the art empire of the late John and Dominique de Menil, who were Houston's primary art patrons over much of the past half century.

This NY Times article reviews a new book on Rothko based on some recently discovered writings of Rothko -- "The Artist's Reality: Philosophies of Art" (Yale University Press). The book was writted by Rothko's son, who was six years old at the time of Rothko's suicide, and addresses the philosophical underpinnings of the Color Field paintings, which are generally considered to be Rothko's greatest breakthrough. The review provides a decent overview of Rothko's fascinating life, and also of the infamous decade-long battle over the Rothko estate that erupted after Rothko's death.

The Rothko Chapel is a special place, and it never fails to generate interesting reactions when I introduce friends and visitors to it. If you have never visited the chapel, I highly recommend that you do so and learn more about this interesting part of Houston art culture.

Posted by Tom at 7:04 AM | Comments (2) |

October 1, 2004

It's Texas Renaissance Festival time!

The Texas Renaissance Festival outside of Magnolia northwest of Houston begins its annual month and a half long run this weekend for the 30th straight year (has it really been that long?). Even if interacting with Renaissance characters is not your thing, a trip to the festival is worth it just to admire the festival location, which is a huge city from several centuries ago that has been built gradually over the past 30 years in the middle of a huge Texas pasture. Moreover, the food at the festival is exquisite and also well worth the trip -- where else can you enjoy a lunch of a turkey leg polished off with a dessert of fried ice cream?

Posted by Tom at 8:05 AM | Comments (4) |

July 10, 2004

Oklahoma! at the Hobby Center

I have been remiss to mention that the latest play in Houston's Broadway Series -- Oklahoma! is currently playing through July 18 at the fabulous Hobby Center.

My wife, one of my daughters and I went to Friday night's show, and it was outstanding. The tour that opened this past Tuesday at the Hobby Center is a generally faithful re-creation of the Royal National Theatre's acclaimed 1998 London revival, seen on Broadway in 2002. This excellent revival is a great afternoon or evening of entertainment, and if you want to combine a fine meal with the play, make a reservation at the Hobby Center's Artista, which is one Houston's finest new restaurants.

Oklahoma! is at 8 p.m. on Tuesdays-Fridays; 2 and 8 p.m. on Saturdays; and 2 and 7:30 p.m. on Sundays through July 18. Tickets range from $23-$64 and can be obtained either online or through the Hobby Center ticket office at 713-629-3700.

Posted by Tom at 10:42 AM | Comments (0) |

July 9, 2004

The NY Times Travel section covers my hometown

I have lived in Texas for 32 years, but I was born and raised through high school in the wonderful midwestern university community of Iowa City, Iowa. This NY Times Travel section article reports on Iowa City, and even includes a mention of the Kirkendall Family's old house, 430 Brown Street (now a bed & breakfast). For a student's tour of Iowa City, be sure to check out my nephew Richard's picture tour here.

Posted by Tom at 3:04 PM | Comments (0) |

June 13, 2004

Revisiting the Son of Sam

David Berkowitz is one of the most notorious serial killers in New York City history. The postal clerk terrorized the city for thirteen months in 1976-77 as he stalked young women in lovers' lanes with a .44-caliber handgun and mocked the police probe in notes sent to then-Daily News columnist Jimmy Breslin. Berkowitz's rampage ultimately became the subject of a popular Spike Lee movie.

After his arrest and trial in 1977, Berkowitz was sentenced to serve 25 years to life in prison for the ambush killings of six people. In connection with the trial, Berkowitz exhibited many symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia, including his statements that he was acting on orders of a dog owned by a neighbor named Sam.

Last week, Berkowitz was rejected for parole. Under New York law, it is mandatory that Berkowitz be considered for parole again in 2006.

Interestingly, Berkowitz has been a model prisoner and became a born-again Christian in 1987. He maintains a website that has some blog characteristics (a daily journal). He accepts full responsibility for his actions, makes no excuses, and appears to have true remorse for the surviving victims and survivors of the victims of his crimes.

Regardless of (or perhaps because of) the depravity of his crimes, Berkowitz's case raises fascinating criminal justice, medical, and societal questions. Hat tip to Charles Kuffner over at Off the Kuff for the link to the Berkowitz story.

Posted by Tom at 12:10 PM | Comments (0) |

April 17, 2004

The Passion Experience Tour

My old friend Chris Tomlin of Austin, Texas and his running buddy, Louie Giglio of Atlanta, Ga. are two of the subjects of this NY Times article today regarding their participation in the fabulously successful Passion Experience Tour, which is a series of Christian worship gatherings for college students that combines the groundswell of evangelical Christian spirit among young adults with talented leaders from the contemporary Christian music field. These are remarkable folks pursuing a wonderful and productive ministry, so the entire article is a refreshing and interesting read.

Although Chris continues to excel on the contemporary Christian music scene, he still has not been able to overcome my consistent throttling of him on the golf course.

Posted by Tom at 12:47 PM | Comments (0) |

April 13, 2004

Wiseguy Philosophy - "I kill therefore I am"

This NY Times book review examines a new collection of essays called "The Sopranos and Philosophy: I Kill Therefore I Am" (Open Court Publishing, $17.95). The book is the seventh in Open Court Publishing's "Popular Culture and Philosophy" series that is described as "philosophy with training wheels". Previous books explored pop culture franchises including "Seinfeld," "The Simpsons," "The Matrix," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Lord of the Rings."

Interestingly (and thankfully), not all pop culture is fit for philosophical examination, said the editor of the series, William Irwin, an associate professor of philosophy at King's College in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Mr. Irwin said he rejected book proposals on the long-running television shows "Friends" and "E.R." because "they lacked the basic depth and literacy for a thorough philosophical discourse."

Posted by Tom at 7:26 AM | Comments (0) |

April 10, 2004

Ms. Manners is a gem

I am a big Judith Martin (a/k/a Ms. Manners) fan. My wife passed along to me Ms. Manners' typically insightful piece of advice to one family's problem:

Dear Miss Manners:

What should we "loving family members" do after our "beloved family member":

1. Marries, has three children, divorces a man;

2. Asks us, "Why didn't you tell me you thought he was a creep?"

3. Has a long-distance lover for four years (not during marriage) -- whom we all really like -- but who never seems quite able to move to her city even after three job and city changes -- due to career opportunities -- and has canceled vacations with her (and us) at the last minute;

4. Flies to see her lover every other weekend because it's "easier" for her than for him;

5. Cries to family members about her finances, how hard it all is for her, and about her ex-husband not letting her move with the children to her lover's city;

6. Becomes very resentful when we family members finally tell her that maybe her lover isn't playing fair with her?

Were we wrong in addressing our fears to her? I now fear for our future relationship with HER.

Ms. Manners: You must realize that you were wrong to think it would help. Much as Miss Manners sympathizes with the desire to shout warnings when observing someone pursuing disaster, she recognizes that there is a time to give up.

The answer to your relative's accusation that you failed to warn her should be the formula you use when tempted to issue futile advice: "We were (or are) relying on your judgment."

The hope is that this will eventually make her realize that she doesn't have any, but Miss Manners is afraid that it might be a long wait.

Posted by Tom at 9:49 AM | Comments (0) |

April 7, 2004

History Channel apologizes

This earlier post relates the story of how The History Story had inexplicably ignored a generation of evidence analysis in airing a documentary earlier this year that implicated former President Lyndon B. Johnson in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The History Channel publicly apologizes this evening when it broadcasts an evaluation of the earlier documentary that concludes that it and the channel were irresponsible. The History Channel exhibits admirable integrity and contrition in apologizing for its error in broadcasting the poorly researched and highly inflammatory documentary on the Kennedy Assassination.

Posted by Tom at 6:37 AM | Comments (0) |

April 6, 2004

Friday Night Lights

Some of my non-Texan friends chide me that the phrase "Texas culture" is an oxymoron. However, Texas actually is a place rich in many distinctly interesting cultures, and the following are a few noteworthy books and movies that explore those cultures.

Texas author Larry McMurtry has brilliantly explored the diversity of Texas culture in many of his novels. His Pulitzer Prize-winning novel "Lonesome Dove" and the extraordinary television mini-series based on the book (with Robert Duvall and Tommie Lee Jones in th lead roles) captures many of the frontier aspects of Texas culture. Similarly, Mr. McMurtry's "Last Picture Show," -- which Peter Bogdanovich made into a fine movie -- is an exceptional depiction of West Texas culture, just as his alternately hilarious and heart-wrenching "Terms of Endearment" (also made into a wonderful movie starring Shirley McLaine, Debra Winger and Jack Nicholson) is an insightful view into the upper crust of Houston culture.

One of my favorite movies about Texas is John Sayles' movie "Lone Star," which is a fine murder mystery set in the complicated culture of Texas' Rio Grande Valley near Texas' border with Mexico. As the characters in this movie remind us on several occasions, "This isn't Houston, ya know."

But one of the most popular books about Texas culture is H.G. Bissinger's "Friday Night Lights," the definitive book on the fascinating culture of Texas high school football. In this fine book, Mr. Bissinger examines the spirit of one of Texas high school football's most successful programs: the Odessa Permian Panthers. Set in a city in decline in the West Texas desert, Mr. Bissinger explores the town, the school, the coaches, the team, its players, and how -- for better and for worse -- the team becomes the town's identity. The picture is not always pretty, but the image is impossible to forget.

"Friday Night Lights" is now about to become a movie. This Chronicle article describes the current Houston-area filming of the new movie, which stars Billy Bob Thorton. Here's hoping that this movie can live up to the standard of the above-described movies in portraying yet another fascinating aspect of Texas culture.

Posted by Tom at 9:50 AM | Comments (2) |

March 19, 2004

Can't say that I ever really thought about that question

Why is Fleetwood Mac the least influential great band of all time?

Posted by Tom at 8:52 PM | Comments (0) |

Memorable Zoo trip

It must have been one wild zoo trip for those at the Dallas Zoo yesterday.

Posted by Tom at 6:38 AM | Comments (0) |

March 17, 2004

Odds are that God exists

Logos points us to this article that describes a scientist's calculation that concluded that there is a 67% that God exists. Actually, such scientific calculations have been around for quite some time. They are essentially the basis of 17th century French philosopher Blaise Pascal's "Wager Theory" on the existence of God, brilliantly presented in former Notre Dame philosophy professor T.V. Morris' 1992 book, "Making Sense of It All."

Posted by Tom at 8:14 AM | Comments (0) |

Watch out for the virus on that nickel slot machine

This NY Times article reports a virus outbreak linked to a Las Vegas casino hotel that sickened more than 1,000 people, most of them from Hawaii. The hotel casino involved is the California Hotel and Casino, a downtown Las Vegas property with a largely Hawaiian clientele.

Posted by Tom at 6:49 AM | Comments (0) |

March 12, 2004

Professor Volokh on the basis of one's political position

The always insightful UCLA Law Professor Eugene Volokh has an interesting post on his blog in which he addresses the fallacy of the common argument in political debates that "we don't like the other side attempting to impose their beliefs on us." Professor Volokh points out:

. . . as it happens, many laws -- civil rights laws, for instance -- were motivated by religious opinions (it's the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., you might recall). But more importantly, all of our opinions are ultimately based on unproven and unprovable moral premises. For some of us, the moral premises are secular; for others, they're religious; I don't see why the former are somehow more acceptable than the latter. And the slogan "separation of church and state" hardly resolves anything here: Churches may have no legal role in our government, but religious believers are just as entitled to vote their views into law as are atheists or agnostics.

Of course, it's perfectly sound to disagree with people's views on the merits: If I don't agree with the substance of someone's proposal, whether it's religious or secular, I'll certainly criticize the substance. And naturally people will often find others' religious arguments unpersuasive -- "ban this because God said so" isn't going to persuade someone who doesn't believe in God, or who has a different view of God's will. (Likewise, many devout Christians may find unpersuasive arguments that completely fail to engage devout Christians' religious beliefs.) But there's nothing at all illegitimate about people making up their own minds about which laws to enact based on their own unprovable religious moral beliefs, or on their own unprovable secular moral beliefs.

Meanwhile, this Logos blog post points to a couple of interesting op-eds on the gay marriage debate, and includes the following passage on marriage and divorce from the late great Christian writer, C.S. Lewis, which includes a great observation from Mr. Lewis' "Mere Christianity" regarding his well-known affection for wine:

Before leaving the question of divorce, I should like to distinguish two things which are very often confused. The Christian conception of marriage is one; the other is the quite different question -- how far Christians, if they are voters or members of Parliament, ought to try to force their views of marriage on the rest of the community by embodying them in the divorce laws. A great many people seem to think that if you are a Christian yourself you should try to make divorce difficult for everyone. I do not think that. At least I know I should be very angry if the Mohammedans tried to prevent the rest of us from drinking wine. My own view is that the Churches should frankly recognize that the majority of the British people are not Christians and, therefore, cannot be expected to live Christian lives. There ought to be two distinct kinds of marriage: one governed by the State with rules enforced on all citizens, the other governed by the Church with rules enforced by her on her own members. The distinction ought to be quite sharp, so that a man knows which couples are married in a Christian sense and which are not."

Posted by Tom at 7:51 AM | Comments (0) |

March 10, 2004

$26 grand for kindergarten?

Ouch!

Posted by Tom at 7:36 AM | Comments (0) |

NY Times on Lakewood Church - Compaq Center deal

This NY Times article describes Lakewood Church's long term lease on the City of Houston's Compaq Center, formerly the home of the NBA Houston Rockets, who have now moved to a new downtown arena, the Toyota Center.

Lakewood's acquisition of the lease on Compaq Center was not easy. Immediately after the deal was announced, Fort Worth-based Crescent Real Estate Equities Company, the owner of Greenway Plaza, the five-million-square-foot high-end office complex that surrounds the arena, threw ecclesiastic concerns aside and sued Lakewood, contending that its proposed lease on the Compaq Center would violate deed restrictions on the arena. Of course, the new office building that Crescent wanted to build on the Compaq Center site did not violate those same deed restrictions. At any rate, the suit was settled last year, after the city agreed to overpay and buy 5.5 acres of land from Crescent in front of the City's George R. Brown Convention Center for $33 million.

Posted by Tom at 6:46 AM | Comments (0) |

March 8, 2004

Philip Jenkins on Gay Marriage

Dr. Philip Jenkins is a prolific author and an outstanding professor of history religious studies at Penn State University. Dr. Jenkins' 2002 book, "Hidden Gospels: How the Search for Jesus Lost Its Way", convincingly debunks the claims that recently discovered texts such as the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Mary, and the Dead Sea Scrolls undermine the historical validity of the New Testament.

In this Dallas Morning News op-ed, Professor Jenkins addresses one of the many legal issues that must be addressed in connection with the societal drift toward gay marriage -- i.e., the age of consent. Interesting reading from a compelling thinker.

Posted by Tom at 7:24 AM | Comments (4) |

March 1, 2004

David Warren on "The Passion"

David Warren has not seen Mel Gibson's "The Passion" yet, but he nevertheless has penned the best review of the movie that I read to date.

Posted by Tom at 8:53 AM | Comments (1) |

February 25, 2004

More on "The Passion"

Following on yesterday's post about Mel Gibson's new movie, "The Passion," neither the Chronicle nor the NY Times reviewers were particularly impressed from a filmmaking standpoint. From the Chronicle review:

It's a stylish and visually polished re-creation of the last 12 hours in the life of Jesus -- unrelieved suffering and martyrdom, in other words. Controversy over whether it will inflame anti-Semitism guarantees huge audiences, and many people may be profoundly moved. But as a film it is quite bad.

It isn't awful merely because of Gibson's obsessive need to zoom in and linger on bloodletting, although this makes it difficult to watch. It's awful because everything he knows about storytelling has been swept aside by proselytizing zeal. Without doubt, this is a heartfelt expression of religious faith, but it is so naked an expression -- untempered by detached, mediating intelligence -- that it speaks solely to the converted.

And the NY Times review adds:

"The Passion of the Christ" is so relentlessly focused on the savagery of Jesus' final hours that this film seems to arise less from love than from wrath, and to succeed more in assaulting the spirit than in uplifting it. Mr. Gibson has constructed an unnerving and painful spectacle that is also, in the end, a depressing one. It is disheartening to see a film made with evident and abundant religious conviction that is at the same time so utterly lacking in grace.

But Kenneth L. Woodward observes in this NY Times op-ed that the public's interest in the movie is due largely to the sanitized versions of Christianity that are so prevalant in America today:

Mr. Gibson's raw images invade our religious comfort zone, which has long since been cleansed of the Gospels' harsher edges. Most Americans worship in churches where the bloodied body of Jesus is absent from sanctuary crosses or else styled in ways so abstract that there is no hint of suffering. In sermons, too, the emphasis all too often is on the smoothly therapeutic: what Jesus can do for me.

More than 60 years ago, H. Richard Neibuhr summarized the creed of an easygoing American Christianity that has in our time triumphantly come to pass: "A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment though the ministrations of a Christ without a cross." Despite its muscular excess, Mr. Gibson's symbol-laden film is a welcome repudiation of all that.

Indeed, Mr. Gibson's film leaves out most of the elements of the Jesus story that contemporary Christianity now emphasizes. His Jesus does not demand a "born again" experience, as most evangelists do, in order to gain salvation. He does not heal the sick or exorcise demons, as Pentecostals emphasize. He doesn't promote social causes, as liberal denominations do. He certainly doesn't crusade against gender discrimination, as some feminists believe he did, nor does he teach that we all possess an inner divinity, as today's nouveau Gnostics believe. One cannot imagine this Jesus joining a New Age sunrise Easter service overlooking the Pacific.

Like Jeremiah, Jesus is a Jewish prophet rejected by the leaders of his own people, and abandoned by his handpicked disciples. Besides taking an awful beating, he is cruelly tempted to despair by a Satan whom millions of church-going Christians no longer believe in, and dies in obedience to a heavenly Father who, by today's standards, would stand convicted of child abuse. In short, this Jesus carries a cross that not many Christians are ready to share.

The religious website beliefnet has been sponsoring an online debate over The Passion and the theological issues it raises. The participants are two scholars representing diverse theological and academic perspectives. John Dominic Crossan is a well-known liberal New Testament scholar whose approach to Jesus is creative, but rather bizarre and skeptical. Ben Witherington III is an outstanding academic from Asbury Theological Seminary who advocates orthodox Christian theology. These two scholars are publishing a measured dialogue that is must reading for people who want to wrestle with the serious issues raised by The Passion of the Christ.

Posted by Tom at 6:43 AM | Comments (0) |

February 24, 2004

Go Texan Day is this Friday

Houston has grown into a remarkably diverse city, but its heritage as a quintessential Texas city is reflected best by the annual Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. Unless you are a Houstonian, it's a bit difficult to explain "the Rodeo," as Houstonians call it. But it's an event that lasts almost three weeks each March, involves volunteer efforts of thousands of Houstonians, brings hundreds of thousands of people into Houston, raises millions of dollars for academic scholarships, and provides some of the most interesting and unique entertainment that one could ever imagine.

Started in the early 1930's in downtown Houston, the Rodeo has grown into a huge event that literally envelopes the entire Reliant Park complex, including Reliant Stadium and the adjacent convention facility. The Rodeo kicks off with 5,000 trailriders descending on Houston's Memorial Park this Friday, which is "Go Texan Day" in Houston in which most folks go to work in some type of cowboy attire. After a wild night of campfire parties at Memorial Park, the Trailriders ride the five miles down Memorial Drive to downtown Houston early Saturday morning for the annual Rodeo Parade, which is great fun. Then, it's off to the Rodeo at Reliant Park.

The Rodeo always has a first rate lineup of entertainers who perform after each night of the rodeo event, and this year is no exception. However, this year is particularly special for me in that rising country music star Dierks Bentley is one of the headline performers. Dierks is the younger brother of an old friend of mine, Houston real estate attorney Bart Bentley, who happens to be a pretty fair guitarist himself in the popular Houston rock band, Mid-Life Crisis and the Hot Flashes.

Although my teenage daughters undoubtedly will want to see Dierks' show at the Rodeo, I most enjoy the Livestock Show in the Reliant Convention facility while visiting the Rodeo. Over the years, I have seen more incredible animals in the Livestock Show than in any zoo that I have ever visited.

Accordingly, if you are visiting Houston during March, do not miss the opportunity to visit the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. Not only will you be highly entertained, but you will learn more about Texas in general and Houston in particular than you could anywhere else.

Posted by Tom at 8:47 AM | Comments (0) |

February 15, 2004

Houston Symphony announces 2004-05 Season

The Houston Symphony has announced its 2004-05 season. The Symphony has gone through a tough financial stretch over the past couple of years, but it is a class organization and deserving of Houstonians' generous support. The Symphony plays in Houston's venerable Jones Hall, which is located in the heart of Houston's downtown Theatre District.

Posted by Tom at 12:32 PM | Comments (0) |

February 11, 2004

Museum of Fine Arts receives huge gift

The Houston Chronicle reports on Houston's Museum of Fine Arts' announcement of the late Caroline Wiess Law's bequest of almost 60 artworks valued at between $60-85 million. Mrs. Law was a daughter of Harry Wiess, one of the founders of Humble Oil Co., the predecessor to Exxon Mobil. Mr. Wiess and his wife Olga were founding members of the Museum of Fine Arts, which has grown into the centerpiece of Houston's Museum District just north of the Texas Medical Center.

Posted by Tom at 7:01 PM | Comments (0) |

February 10, 2004

The Super Bowl of Dog Shows

Having Super Bowl hangover? Check out the Westminster Dog Show this evening on USA Network. The Houston Chronicle reports on the increasingly popular event, which was hilariously depicted in Christopher Guest's spoof documentary, Best in Show. This is very good dog--and people--watching.

Posted by Tom at 9:09 AM | Comments (0) |

February 9, 2004

The Producers is a Great Show

In a prior post, I noted that The Producers is playing at the Hobby Center the next couple of weeks. One of my sons, my wife and I went to this past Friday's performance, and it is truly a great show. Even Everett Evans, the Chronicle's tough theatre critic, gives the show a spectacular review. This is Broadway at its finest, so don't miss it.

Posted by Tom at 6:22 PM | Comments (0) |

February 6, 2004

Ebert Likes "Miracle on Ice"

The Chicago Sun Times movie critic Roger Ebert gives a thumbs up in this review of "Miracle on Ice", the new movie about the 1980 gold medal winning U.S. Olympic Hockey Team.

Of course, a couple of my brothers will contend that no hockey movie can ever surpass this classic, which includes these legendary characters.

Posted by Tom at 4:56 AM | Comments (0) |

February 5, 2004

The Producers is in Town!

Mel Brooks' Tony Award winning (Best Musical of 2001) smash hit musical, The Producers, started a two and half week run in Houston this week. It is a part of the fabulous Hobby Center's annual Broadway Series. The Producers was originally one of Brooks' first movies, and Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder's performances in that 1968 classic helped make it into a cult comedy classic. Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick reprised Mostel and Wilder's roles when Brooks turned the show into a musical and the play took Broadway by storm during the 2001 season, winning a record 12 Tony Awards. This is a great show, and my family and I are looking forward to enjoying it while it is in Houston.

Posted by Tom at 6:45 AM | Comments (0) |

February 4, 2004

Halftime Show Controversy

Author Crispin Sartwell pretty much reflects my thinking in this piece on the dreadful Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show. Meanwhile, Janet Jackson's show ending performance has set at least one type of record, which is described here.

Posted by Tom at 6:23 AM | Comments (0) |