On a Personal Note...

I passed the Texas Bar Exam. Sweetness!

Heyy, I'm Winnin' Here!

I'd like to extend my congrats to the New York Yankees for winning the world series for the 27th time.

On a side note, apparently democratic presidents are good for the Yankees, providing yet another reason for Mark to hate them.

Bullshit

An investigation by the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission has cleared the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission of any wrongdoing in the raid of a gay bar in Fort Worth in which a 160 lb. patron was shoved into a wall so hard it left a dent and he ended up in a coma.

Well that's a relief. CASE CLOSED!

Baseball: Game Six

Tonight is the sixth, and possibly last, game of the 2009 World Series. With the Yankees leading the series 3 games to the Phillies' two, Andy Pettitte has a chance to secure the Yankees 27th world championship.

And, as always, there is some drama. Pettite's coming off of only 3 days rest. Though it may not seem like a huge factor given how we're used to having pitchers going out on truncated schedules in the post-season, it's a bit worrisome when you compare the fact Phillies pitcher Pedro Martinez is coming off of five.

Will it make a huge difference? We'll see.

If Pettitte pitches well, everyone will be blabbing about how it was such a great managerial decision despite the risks and how awesome Yankees are. If he pitches poorly, everyone will be blabbing about how it was such a blunderous managerial decision in face of the risks but still how awesome the Yankees are.

Though my money's on the Phillies to win tonight, I'm hoping Pettitte pitches well, but the Yankee lose anyway. That way, we all get a game 7 and elongate the season just one more night before having to wait until next spring for baseball's return.

No hard feelings Andy, there's still much love for you in H-Town.

Public Education: Obama's Apple Polishers

More videos of school children singin' praise for The One. No matter your political bent, we should all agree that public schools should not be institutions of state indoctrination.

Of course, when you compare this to what Obama said about conservatives doin' just what their told and democrats bein' free thinkers, there seems to be something a little off.

On another note, watched ABC's new show "V" last night. I enjoyed it. Doubt Obamaphiles liked it as much. The show is not subtle and there is little that hasn't been done before. And it's kinda cheesy. But, it just might become my new guilty pleasure.

A show premised on a race of lizard aliens disguised as beautiful humans with eloquent speaking skills that offer hope and peace to a troubled world along with universal healthcare for all, so as to lure them into a calm before enslaving them.

"MMMMM, MMMMM, MMMMM, Barack Hussein Obama."

Last Night: A Mixed Bag For the Gays

So Prop 1 passed in Maine last night, repealing legislatively enacted gay marriage in that state. It sucks and even though I don't live in Maine and I'm not fixin' to marry anybody, I'm still bummed this morning because it's a very personal issue and every time one of these things passes, which is to say every time so far, it feels like a punch in the gut. I think that's why emotions got so heated in California after Prop 8 passed. It's easy for people to say the gays should just calm down and accept the will of the majority, but when these initiatives pass there is a real feeling of betrayal. Your friends and neighbors profess to love and accept you, but when they are sealed the voting cubicle their true feelings come out.

That said, there was some good news for gays last night that isn't getting as much attention. Washington state approved a referendum that would would expand domestic partnership benefits to that state's gays.

Also, it was a good night for gays running for office in urban hellholes, including my own. Not that long ago being openly gay would have been a serious liability in running for office in these places, and now it doesn't even seem to be much of a factor.

2 %

That's the percentage of folks who will be covered by the public option being touted in Congress. At the $1,200,000,000,000.00 price tag, I'm glad those two-percenter's are getting coverage.

Good job government.

EDIT: Just to clarify, I'm not scolding the government because I believe more individuals should have fallen under the public option. I'm finding it amazing that they've managed to bungle yet again with their most pet of pet-projects.

Governmental Incompetence: More news on the stimulus

Since the stimulus was such a roaring success according to its supporters, lets look at what our government is using our money on to stimulate, shall we.

Some of my Favorites:

- $300,000 for a GPS-equipped helicopter to hunt for radioactive rabbit droppings at the Hanford nuclear reservation in Washington state.

- $30 million for a spring training baseball complex for the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies. (that's our money being used to build a baseball field that should have been paid for by the owners of the teams, but instead we're doing it for them!)

- $11 million for Microsoft to build a bridge connecting its two headquarter campuses in Redmond, Wash., which are separated by a highway. (because Microsoft can't afford it themselves, duh!)

- $462,000 to purchase 22 concrete toilets for use in the Mark Twain National Forest in Missouri (that's $21 grand per toilet...made out of concrete...when you can buy an 80lb bag of concrete for $5.19...I'm sure it was special concrete.)

and the best

- $800,000 for the John Murtha Airport in Johnstown, Pa., serving about 20 passengers per day, to build a backup runway.

Aren't we all glad that the government, in spending almost $800 Billion of cash that didn't actually exist, is flushing it away on things like this.

Now they want to spend $1,200,000,000,000.00 of our money on healthcare "reform" and that's the low end estimate. They claim it won't add to the deficit, but the CBO added that that claim was very uncertain. And if you can tell your right foot from your left, you know this type of mass spending is in no way sustainable.

I will admit, I was swaying a bit towards backing reform because something just has to be done (mostly fueled by my distrust of and disgust with insurance companies). Then I thought, "how is the government any better?" Even though the insurance companies are no where near as profitable as some claim, they are still making money. Why? Because they have too in order to survive. The government can run in the red, bankrupting itself (and us along with 'em) and not even blink an eye.

If things are just so deplorable now, what's going to happen when the government takes over and we can't pay for this hunk of horse sh**?

Do away with trust exemptions for ins. co.'s and do some real reform instead of breaking the back of the American people with more taxes to cover this 2,000 page healthcare monstrosity.

There's a reason they're having to ram this through so fast. Dems are afraid this will be their only opportunity to finally get their idea of healthcare reform passed because come November they'll likely lose their majority due to their utter incompetence while in power. And they don't give a damn about the consequences of doing all this, that we get to face. Its about winning to them, not actually getting things done the right way.

If the Liberal Democrat plan is anything like other programs the governments has implemented, that 1.2 Trillion dollar number will have to be described using exponents, i.e. 1.2 x 10 to the 13th power. I don't even know what number that is! And national debt is ticking up to 12 Trillion dollars. Holy God. Where is all this money coming from to pay for this?!?!

Just awesome.

But What Does It All Mean???!!!

As I said in my previous post, the Villagers are going to try to extrapolate all sorts of dumb things from the elections today. If Republicans do well, it means Obama is d00med. If Republicans lose New Jersey and New York, they are d00med for all eternity. I think both of these analyses are wrong; however, the always intrepid and insightful Josh Green has it about right.

My Election Predictions

For what it's worth...

Today is election day, but since it's an off-off-year there are just three races that have gained national attention: the governor's races in Virginia and New Jersey, and the special election for an open congressional seat in New York's 23rd district.

Virginia Governor: I'm fairly confident in predicting that Republican Bob McDonnell will beat Democrat Creigh Deeds by a fairly comfortable margin. Deeds has run a pretty weak campaign and McDonnell has been pretty effective in tacking to the center to gain some votes in moderate northern Virginia that went to Obama last year. Not much mystery here.

New Jersey Governor: This is the race that is the hardest to predict. For most of the year Republican Chris Christie had a sizable lead over Democratic incumbent John Corzine, but Corzine is closing strong as some of the shine has come off Christie and now the race is literally tied in the Pollster.com average. What Christie has going for him are greater Republican enthusiasm and being a change agent in a bad economic year. Corzine has the structural advantages of incumbency and New Jersey's finely tuned Democratic get-out-the-vote machinery. I'll go down as predicting Corzine will eek out a win, but I wont be at all surprised if it comes out the other way. Additionally, there will be lots of punditizing about what these races mean for Obama and the Democrats, and most of it will be stupid, but this is the one race where it would be fair to extrapolate broader notions of the national mood. If the Democrats lose, they need to concentrate on ways to gin up enthusiasm before next year.

New York 23rd District: This is a crazy race. It was a three-way race that the Democrat Bill Owens was winning, but since Republican Dede Scozzafava dropped out, it's a two-way race between Owens and Conservative Party candidate and Teabagger Doug Hoffman. This is a heavily Republican district that elected a Republican even during the bloodbaths of 2006 and 2008, so it's no surprise that Hoffman is now in the lead since the conservative vote is no longer split. I think this race will say more about internal Republican dynamics than the direction of the country though. This race could be a surprise since there have been so many twists and turns, but I will go the safe route and predict a Hoffman victory.

EDIT: There is another congressional election going on today that I overlooked, and the Democrat is tethering himself to Obama and is likely to win. It hasn't gotten as much attention, probably because it doesn't fit the media's new narrative that the President is the most hated man in America.

Today In Urban Hellhole News

Historic preservationists like myself were weary of Weingarten Realty's plans to build a big-ass Barnes & Noble in the River Oaks Shopping Center because we were worried it would be the beginning of the end of the historic Alabama Theater down the street on Shepherd Drive, which housed another Barnes & Noble. As of right now that's thankfully not the case as the Alabama Theater will house the upcoming Cinema Arts Festival Houston. The festival will just occupy the theater temporarily, but hopefully it can serve to attract a new permanent tenant.

I've always thought building could be put to better use than a bookstore. I would prefer it were turned back into a movie theater, or perhaps a venue for plays and concerts.

We're just playing around...trust us.

So, this is encouraging: Russia playing war games with Poland staring as the target of their nuclear weapons.

I realize that countries carry out these exercises for a multitude of reasons, but it should raise an eyebrow given recent events of the U.S. pulling the plug on the missile defense system in Poland thereafter followed by Putin scoffing at the idea of increasing sanctions on Iran

Which makes an exchange that occurred a little over a month ago on the The Daily Ire (which can be found here and here) a little more interesting.