04 July 2008
Linkpost: Fourth of July '08 (Happy Birthday America!)
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/04/08 06:01 | Links | Technorati | Comments (0)
03 July 2008
Linkpost: 07/03/08
- The politics of can't-possibly-do (Daniel Henninger, WSJ) Shame.
- Hillaryland at War (Gail Sheehy, Vanity Fair) It still boggles the mind why no Democrat wants to run for Bill Clinton's third term.
- Why We Went to War in Iraq (Douglas Feith, WSJ)
- He's No Decider, He's a Ditherer (Daniel Benjamin, WaPo) On the flip side, Reagan presided over a similar model that was similarly riven with internal dissension and with opponents carping over allegedly broken interagency processes, and with Reagan and key principals often making key foreign policy decisions outside that loop -- and twenty years later, we now have some confidence that it worked pretty well. We probably won't know for at least a decade, maybe two, how functional -- or dysfunctional -- the Bush approach really was.
- Can Barack Buy the Presidency? (Karl Rove, WSJ)
- Turkey’s secularist coup must crumble (FT)
- Turmoil in Malaysia (WSJ)
- On Campus, the ’60s Begin to Fade as Liberal Professors Retire (Patricia Cohen, NY Times)
- Bad rap on the schools (Jay Mathews, Wilson Quarterly)
- "I'll take that one" (Ken Blackwell, RCP)
- While John Kerry was groveling to Ortega... (Brothers Judd) Contrast this with all the anti-Reagan Dem advisors who were so supportive of Ortega and the Sandinistas during that time period (some of whom are now part of Team Obama). The McCain camp can't be too upset about this story.
- Which makes being tiger-caged seem like an over-qualification (Brothers Judd) The McCain camp must be hoping against hope that the Obama people keep emphasizing foreign policy.
- China and cheap imports: Champions of equality (Christian Broda, Vox)
- Who put the ram in Obama-rama-ding-dong? (The County Seat)
- Cornyn and Noriega slip on oil issues (Lisa Falkenberg, Houston Chronicle) The metro/state diarist should really stick to topics she knows something about -- teen issues for example -- and leave energy security alone. More to follow at some point on bH.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/03/08 22:34 | Links | Technorati | Comments (0)
02 July 2008
Linkpost: 07/02/08
- The Audacity of Cynicism (Michael Gerson, WaPo)
- After Guantanamo (David Rivkin & Lee Casey, WSJ)
- A Brighter Future for Baghdad?: Optimism Grows in Iraq as Daily Life Improves (Bernhard Zand, Spiegel)
- Remember the Reader (Jessa Crispin, WaPo)
- In Praise of Political Insults (Joseph Tartakovsky, WSJ)
- The banality of hope (Brothers Judd)
- Here's a pretty easy definition of torture (Brothers Judd)
- Libya's oil cut threat sends out jitters (Javier Blas, FT) The mere threat of Dem "energy policy" initiatives sends up oil prices. Nicely done!
- What is GM thinking (Holman Jenkins, WSJ)
- Volt of the masses (Eric Peters, TAS)
- Hedge your gasoline purchases with MyGallons (Grant Martin, Gadling)
- NATO’s Role in Energy Security (Johannes Varwick, Spiegel)
- Oil Cash May Prove A Shaky Crutch for Iran's Ahmadinejad (Thomas Erdbrink, WaPo)
- Iraq opens door to foreign bidding to increase oil output (Sam Dagher, CSM)
- Foreign companies bid to boost Iraqi oil production (Doug Smith & Said Rifai, LA Times)
- Turkish ruling party put on trial (BBC News) Ticking time bomb...
- Malaysia's Anwar faces sodomy claim (John Burton, FT) Again?
- Malaysia's Anwar stopped in his tracks (Ioannis Gatiounis, Asia Times)
- How to stop the Great Crash of '08 (Spengler, Asia Times)
- Pakistani operation against militants raises questions (Laura King, LA Times)
- Are Sanctions Working on Iran? (Spiegel)
- Astros make bullpen move: Villarreal out, Borkowski in (Jesus Ortiz, Houston Chronicle) Ed Wade sure has wasted lots of Drayton's money so far this season.
- Temples of Tex-Mex: A Diner's Guide to the State's Oldest Mexican Restaurants (Robb Walsh, Houston Press)
- Charles Bacarisse named vice president of advancement (News at HBU)
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/02/08 22:39 | Links | Technorati | Comments (1)
01 July 2008
Linkpost: 07/01/08
- A conversation with Daniel Yergin, Chairman of Cambridge Energy Research Associates (Charlie Rose) Yergin is so solid.
- We Can Lower Oil Prices Now (Martin Feldstein, WSJ)
- Cornyn's anonymous online cheerleader (KVUE Political Junkie) One day, old-school Republicans may get a clue about the net. Or, they may just get older and go away. One hopes sooner than later.
- Obama's real patriotism problem (Jonah Goldberg, USA Today)
- Why Obama Will Be the Latest Democrat to Lose in Dixie (Thomas Schaller, NY Times)
- Global warming as mass neurosis (Bret Stephens, WSJ) Bet we won't see this linked by the Chron's Eric Berger any time soon.
- A judgment issue: Wesley clark wasn't the first (Orson Swindle, NRO)
- A Nicer Form of Tyranny (Ronald J. Pestritto, Claremont Review of Books)
- Jindal leads (Kathryn Jean Lopez, NRO)
- Grill power: Elitist feminism and the New York Times (Heather MacDonald, City Journal)
- Why Iraq Was Inevitable (Arthur Herman, Commentary)
- Innovation: Anchor And Twist (Dan Heath & Chip Heath, FastCompany.com)
- Profiles feature NOT going away (Netflix Community Blog) Nice they came to their senses.
- RAMBack Frees Memory from Firefox 3 on Demand (Lifehacker)
- Why You Want to Live in Buenos Aires
- Santorini, Greece (Janet Adamy, WSJ) Santorini is "off the beaten path?" Not especially.
- Amsterdam: No Smoking, Unless It's Pot (Christel Kucharz, ABC News)
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/01/08 22:36 | Links | Technorati | Comments (0)
30 June 2008
Linkpost: 06/30/08
- The Tragic End of Bush's North Korea Policy (John Bolton, WSJ)
- The Rival Chávez Won't Permit (Jackson Diehl, WaPo)
- Is Carly Fiorina the answer to McCain's prayers for a VP (Stuart Rothenberg, RCP) No. And it's not clear why this column was written.
- Obama’s Weakness With Whites: Party Problem as Much as Race (Peter Brown, WSJ)
- Christian exodus from GOP unlikely (David Hill, The Hill)
- Olympic nightmare: A red tide in the Yellow Sea (Jim Yardley, IHT) Why was China awarded the Olympics?
- The Anthrax Fiasco(WSJ)
- What’s Wrong with Richard Justice, Jose de Jesus Ortiz, Cecil Cooper and Carlos Lee, to Name a Few (Houstoned Ballz)
- The Chron's head-in-the-sand reporting on the Astros (Lose an Eye, It's a Sport) These two better be careful, or they may start getting barely coherent email rants from RJ.
- Getting the Astros back in contention: an expert's guide (SportsJustice) Speaking of...
- Joe Horn cleared by grand jury in Pasadena shootings (Brian Rogers & Ruth Rendon, Houston Chronicle)
- Houston mayor sounds primed for statewide run (W. Gardner Selby, AAS) White's ambitions outpace what his record will support statewide.
- Terry Abbott, HISD's press secretary, resigning (Chron School Zone)
- Cornyn aide bets $100 that he's not been fired (Chron Texas Politics) That Cornyn team is not impressive.
- Path to success (Bill Haisten, Tulsa World)
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/30/08 21:52 | Links | Technorati | Comments (1)
Checkup time
Today, I finally went in for a much-delayed checkup.
I decided to do the Kelsey-Seybold executive health assessment, which is the usual comprehensive physical (but done in half a day at their main campus). The tests were covered under my insurance, although I was responsible for the program fee (which I paid through with my HSA). It's a good approach.
The results were mostly good.
My blood/chem workup was fine -- no problems with cholesterol, good ratio of good cholesterol/bad cholesterol, normal liver/kidney functions indicated, etc. EKG was fine. Blah blah blah.
For years, I've been borderline hypertensive. With that info, my personal health history, and the results from my stress test, the doc recommended that I start the lowest dosage of ACE inhibitor (blood pressure medication). He thought I *might* be able to put it off if I were to cut caffeine entirely and up my workouts, but we both came to the conclusion that was unlikely (I likey my caffeine, and it's hard to see how I'm going to top the 1,560 minutes of cardio I have logged in the month of June).
Beyond that, the doc encouraged me to keep up my healthy eating/workout routine (and told me he could see my bad-carb/sat fats reduction efforts clearly in the blood workup).
I'm happy enough with all that. Now I just need to keep up the excellent workout routine (seriously, 1,560 minutes of cardio this month!) and the grilling/SouthBeach-Med diet thing.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/30/08 21:42 | Other | Technorati | Comments (6)
29 June 2008
Linkpost: 06/29/08
- A Skeptical Take on the Economy (Keith McFarland, BusinessWeek)
- Industry calls for new tests to gauge offshore oil and gas (Brett Clanton, Houston Chronicle)
- The poor Democrats... (Brothers Judd)
- Electro-Shock Therapy (Jonathan Rauch, Atlantic)
- How CVTs Work (William Harris, HowStuffWorks)
- Some wary of Heights high-rise proposal (Nancy Sarnoff, Houston Chronicle) Density is great -- so long as it's not in the neighborhoods of the affluent liberal types who urge it upon other neighborhoods.
- Fighting Houston's floodway ordinance (Jeremy Desel, KHOU-11 News) Another of Mayor White's Ready-Fire-Aim! messes that will likely be left to the next mayor to fix.
- Why Windows Software Could Use a Rush of Fresh Air (Randall Stross, NY Times)
- Set Firefox 3 to Launch Gmail for mailto Links (Lifehacker)
- The Texas Rangers' Young GM (Jeff Pearlman, Fast Company) Too bad the Astros don't have any such fresh thinking in their management ranks.
- As the AL lords over the NL, even the lowly Royals are flush (John Shea, SFGate)
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/29/08 21:05 | Links | Technorati | Comments (0)
28 June 2008
Linkpost: 06/28/08
- Where are the Bush Democrats? (Paul Kengor, American Thinker) A President who can't advance/defend his agenda rhetorically (like Reagan did) is a President who is going to have a tough time in this age. Critical/competing perspectives will simply fill the vacuum.
- The return of Dr. No (Stephen Moore, WSJ) There's a reason the Dems hope to vilify Gramm.
- A crack in the unity facade (Brothers Judd) THAT is an awesome blog post.
- Obama's boys of summer (Daniel Flynn, City Journal)
- Grim proving ground for Obama's housing policy (Binyamin Appelbaum, Boston Globe)
- Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what Obama will do to your country (Brothers Judd)
- America to hand back Anbar, Iraq's biggest province, to Baghdad (Damien McElroy, Telegraph) Will the American media even notice?
- Toyota Prius vs. Jeep Patriot: The great MPG test (Claire Edwards & Jay Nagley, Fifth Gear on Five) Too bad the diesel Pat isn't available in the U.S. Still, the gas models are pretty capable performers.
- 2009 Nissan Murano - A City Slicker’s Urbane Makeover (Peter Passell, NY Times) 18/23 mpg is not appreciably better than most midsize SUVs, even though the NYT reviewer thinks it's okay.
- Fort Worth population tops 700,000 (Byron Okada, FWST) It's nice that Dallas has had some success by offering a transit system that segregates rail from streets and moves people to/from different parts of town. It's too bad Houston insists on building an expensive, slow trolley-like system that hurts traffic mobility and isn't an appreciable improvement over buses.
- Is Ed Wade a Saint in the Shawn Chacon Debacle? Signs Point to No (HouStoned Ballz)
- The real story of Kyle Janek's resignation (Jim Hotze, TCR)
- Burger Friday: Barbecue Inn (Cook's Tour)
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/28/08 22:38 | Links | Technorati | Comments (0)
27 June 2008
Linkpost: 06/27/08
- Where's Bernanke's inner Volcker? (Lawrence Kudlow, RCP)
- Go Home, Bill (Robert Cringely, PBS.org)
- Mr. Murdoch goes to war (Mark Bowden, Atlantic Monthly)
- A Diplomatic Success That Defies the Critics (Steven Lee Myers, NY Times)
- Bad deal: All carrots, no sticks (Frank Gaffney, NRO) Just what every conservative administration likes to see -- praise (of sorts) from the NY Times, and brickbats from Gaffney.
- Not so fast to pillory the bad old oil speculators (Robert Hardaway, Houston Chronicle)
- The Ever-Malleable Mr. Obama (Charles Krauthammer, WaPo)
- No, McCain Isn't 'Doomed' (John Fund, WSJ)
- Every presidential election just boils down to... (Brothers Judd)
- There's a mistaken impression.... (Brothers Judd)
- The Sam’s Club Agenda of the G.O.P. (David Brooks, NY Times)
- The Salmonella Culprit: Cold Water? (Lauran Neergaard, AP) I think I'll be hitting the farmer's market for tomatoes for the foreseeable future.
- 36 Hours in Bangkok (Stuart Emmrich, NY Times) Thailand is definitely on my to-do travel list. Maybe CO's Star Alliance hookup will be helpful in that regard eventually.
- Blog: Friday, June 27th: Mexican military incursions? (Pat Gray) Pat seems to get really worked up over people who aren't as light as him.
- Astros' manager Cooper insists all is fine with pitchers (Jesus Ortiz, Houston Chronicle) Cooper seems in way over his head. What a disaster.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/27/08 22:55 | Links | Technorati | Comments (0)
Sudden acceleration update!
Car Slams Into Shipley's Again (KPRC-2 News)
On Friday morning, a woman was trying to park at Shipley Do-Nuts, 8802 Stella Link Road, when she hit the gas instead of the brake, sending her Volvo through the front windows, officials said.
The doughnut shop was closed at the time and no one was injured.
The crash broke brand new glass because on Monday, a man's car would not stop at the same location, causing him to also plow through the front of the store.
That driver was injured. His condition was not released.
Today's driver should have claimed Sudden Acceleration Syndrome!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/27/08 22:43 | Houston | Technorati | Comments (0)
The not-so-definitive word from Chron sports hacks
Chron writers can't seem to decide whether the Astros clubhouse is toxic:
Toxic time for Astros, and that's bad (Jesus Ortiz, Chron Baseball , 06/18/2008)
If you've spent a few minutes in the Astros' clubhouse these days, you'd feel bad for the boys.
"It's real bad in here," a player told me as soon as I got into the clubhouse Tuesday to try to get an unbiased opinion to the comments I read in the paper Monday from Roy Oswalt and Cecil Cooper. "It's not going to get better."
What? I was both stunned and saddened. How did it get this bad, this quick? This toxic?
Afterward, I sent a few close friends and family members who care about the Astros this text message: It's really toxic in here.
Toxic clubhouse environment? Winning will fix everything (Richard Justice, SportsJustice, 06/27/2008)
I've heard that phrase mentioned several times over the last few days. There are people claiming the atmosphere is poisonous, that dramatic changes need to be made.
I don't believe this to be true. I'm not in there enough to really know, but that's my opinion based on what I've seen and heard. It's very difficult for any member of the media to make that kind of assessment. I asked some players I trust and others that are in the clubhouse far more than me about this.
They don't buy it, either.
Justice isn't in there enough to know, except he still knows. Okee!
At least those are two different staff writers with different perspectives. Here's Fran Blinebury, who offers two contradictory perspectives on Joey Dorsey within a few hours:
Au revoir to Batum. Bonjour Greene and Dorsey (Fran Blinebury, Courtside, 06/26/08)
As for Dorsey, when he's good, he can be very, very good. Yes, he's another undersized player on the frontline for a team that already has Landry and Hayes. But Dorsey's bulk and quickness could compensate for his lack of height.
Rockets trade 1st pick Batum for Dorsey, Greene (Fran Blinebury, Houston Chronicle)
"We think Joey Dorsey was the best defensive player on the best defensive team in the country this year at Memphis," Morey said. "We think he plays much bigger than his 6-7 height with the size of his body and his aggressiveness."
The 24-year-old Dorsey was a key member of the Memphis Tigers who finished 38-2 and lost in overtime to Kansas in the NCAA title game. He averaged 6.9 points and 9.4 rebounds.
Dorsey has prototypical size, strength and athleticism for the NBA power forward spot.
6-7 is not prototypical size for an NBA power forward -- it's short! It's something Daryl Morey admits two paragraphs before Fran Blinebury writes that "prototypical size" nonsense. And it's something Blinebury seemed to admit last night, when he called Dorsey "undersized."
Bizarre.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/27/08 21:20 | Sports | Technorati | Comments (0)
26 June 2008
Linkpost: 06/26/08
- What Rumsfeld Got Right (Robert D. Kaplan, The Atlantic)
- A Better Way Than Cap and Trade (Bjorn Lomborg, WaPo)
- Coalition Of the Ineffectual (Richard Perle, WaPo)
- The can't do society (Victor Davis Hanson, RCP)
- Building a Wall Against Talent (George Will, WaPo)
- Business Failures Are Not a Crime (Robert Mintz, WSJ)
- Extra Crispy at Russo's New York Coal-Fired Pizzeria (Robb Walsh, Houston Press)
- 'Big John' Cornyn's campaign ad goes viral (Elise Hu, KVUE News) Why in the world did Cornyn's campaign put out this silliness? Hint to Big John: We're not laughing with you; we're laughing at you.
- Kirby: As Houston changes, streets must change (Lisa Gray, Houston Chronicle) What is it with Chron columnists named Lisa and this excessive "me" "my" "I" diary style. Blech.
- An upsetting voice heard at City Hall (Lisa Falkenberg, Houston Chronicle) Nice to see the Chron's teen diarist deploy vulgar slang today. So impressive.
- Wade really needs to look in the mirror (Ken Rosenthal, Fox Sports) To see his bruises?!
- Fresno State wins unlikely national title (Eric Olson, AP) Hope for Rayner Noble! (Probably not, actually).
- Southwest Airlines Changes 2008 Schedules to Include Holidays (RickSeaney.com) The legacies should start to match out to the holidays soon.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/26/08 23:36 | Links | Technorati | Comments (0)
More decent IAH international fares
Poking around on FareCompare earlier, I found a couple more good international fares on Continental.
Houston - Berlin is running around $650 all in through most of March 2009.
UPDATE: Some early March dates on CO's website are coming up just under $600 all in. That's quite a fare in the current environment.
Houston - Frankfurt is running about the same, also through most of March 2009.
It looks like other carriers are pretty close to these prices, in case you have loyalties to another FF program. A trip to Berlin is looking really tempting. Hell, that's cheaper than CO's (obscene) rate to Springfield, MO at the moment!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/26/08 21:24 | Travel | Technorati | Comments (1)
25 June 2008
Linkpost: 06/25/08
- General David Petraeus: My philosophy on war (Damien McElroy, Telegraph)
- HIRAs Are The Future (Diana Furchtgott-Roth, NY Sun) They should be, anyway.
- NCLB gets a passing grade (USA TODAY)
- Study Says Student Reading and Math Scores Are Improving (Eddy Ramirez, US News)
- Obamaweek in review (Mark Hemingway, NRO)
- Can't-Do Government (Paul Light, WaPo) One hardly needs a Ph.D. in political science to comprehend that as government grows, so does (brain-numbing) bureaucracy. A solution that doesn't involve shrinking the morass isn't much of a solution, but that approach is opposed by voters. Maybe we get the government we deserve?
- Obama's Social Security Fine Print (Donald Luskin, WSJ)
- Patriot Games (Ruth Marcus, WaPo)
- How to Put the Heat on Mugabe (Paul Wolfowitz, WSJ)
- Dallas City Council officially shuts down Reunion Arena (Dave Levinthal, DMN) If only Harris County leaders would shut down the Astrodome moneypit.
- ViewSourceWith (Firefox Add-ons) This one is REALLY handy.
- Et Tu, Intel? Chip Giant Wont Embrace Microsoft's Windows Vista (Steve Lohr, NY Times) I'll be "downgrading" my next ThinkPad to XP Pro.
- Letter from Albania: Into one of Europe's last dark corners (Jeffrey White, Gadling)
- Traveling to Europe can be affordable, with planning (Clayton McCleskey, DMN)
- Falkenberg: Houston Still Sucks (Bayou City Madman)
- Life on the fringes of U.S. suburbia becomes untenable with rising gas costs (Peter Goodman, IHT)
- The Next Slum? (Christopher B. Leinberger, The Atlantic)
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/25/08 21:18 | Links | Technorati | Comments (1)
Danger Train collision downtown (06/25/08)
Metro Light Rail involved in crash with car (KHOU-11 News)
A Metro Light Rail train was involved in an accident with a car Wednesday morning.
The train was heading south on Main at Leland when a woman in a car ran a red light.
The train struck the car, and the woman and her passenger were taken to St. Joseph’s with non-life threatening injuries.
Metrorail collision in downtown Houston injures two (Dale Lezon, Houston Chronicle)
Two women were injured this morning when a car collided with a Metrorail train at Main and Leeland in downtown Houston.
Police were not sure about the severity of the women's injuries, but said both were conscious before being taken to nearby St. Joseph Medical Center.
No occupants of the train were reported to have been injured.
The accident was reported about 8:50 a.m.
Cars and trains sharing busy streets makes so much sense. We should (and are planning to) build more of the same!
It's always good for a laugh when friends from actual world-class cities with rail that is segregated from cars look at the thing and ask me what the hell Houston was thinking, and I tell them this is what transit planners in town consider "world-class."
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/25/08 13:35 | Houston | Technorati | Comments (1)
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