#1 -- Watch snakes fight.
Lake Jackson, the economic hub of Brazosport, is essentially built in the middle of a swamp, though you might not realize it when you drive by the mall, the Wal-Mart Supercenter (turn right at KFC to get to both places) and other such places.
Be that as it may and despite all the other modern conveniences you might find in, say, Pearland, Lake Jackson is crawling with snakes.
(Quote/unquote is fairly regular feature of The Brazosport News and is compiled by a fellow named Wilson in St. Louis who once worked for The Houston Post, The Riverfront Times and The Houma Courier. He coaches youth basketball and soccer in his spare time and is an avid recycler.)
"Nothing is more frightening than human history."
----motto of Museum of Historic Torture Devices, Wisconsin Dells
"Bruce Bartlett says that 'people are so risk-averse that they are hoarding money, refusing to spend' and that 'tax rebates don't work because people save them.' People are not hoarding cash and refusing to spend. They are not saving. They do not have money to save. They are paying down debt or they are broke. Tax rebates? Mine went into my gas tank."
- Debra Wiley of Inglewood, CA. in a NY Times Letter to the Editor, Dec. 30, '08
"Again, he was drawn compulsively to that which he found loathsome. Television, he could plainly see, would be the death of literacy and the handmaid of instant gratification. It would instill cheap and commercial values and incite the nastiest forms of populism. He fell for it like a ton of bricks. He wallowed exuberantly in its corruption. He was a natural. He was perfectly well aware, as his diaries show, that he was expending his spirit in a waste of shame. But he enjoyed it and excelled at it, and he may have hoped to turn the greatest weapon of crass modernity against itself."
--- Christopher Hitchens, The Weekly Standard, 5.5.03, in a review of "Malcolm Muggeridge: a Biography." (Muggeridge photo, above right)
"There was nothing unusual about how he was taken into custody. He was treated exactly like we treat anybody else."
- Lt. Eric Shuhandler of Gilbert, Arizona, about the DUI arrest last night of Charles Barkley
Early this morning we were reading that Dow Chemical Co. had taken out full-page newspaper ads in Kuwait that were characterized as an "open letter" to the citizens there, telling them that the partnership between that country and Dow was a wonderful, wonderful, honorable and good thing.
That's always the last gasp of just about any corporate endeavor about to head south.
And sure enough, some 12 hours later, we read via Bloomberg that all bets are off on the $9 billion venture known as K-Dow.
This isn't good news for the local workforce in the Greater Brazosport Area as a number of Dow employees avoided getting whacked cause they were working for the new K-Dow operation.
And if you own Dow stock, fasten your seatbelt.
The stock market watchers at 24/7 Wall Street say, "Look for Dow to drop below $15 this week, and it may not recover for months."
(Another in a series by Wilson in St. Louis)
"Christmas is coming, the geese are getting fat,
Please to put a penny in the old man's hat;
if you haven't got a penny, a ha'penny will do,
if you haven't got a ha'penny, God bless you..."
*----- beggar's rhyme, anonymous
"Or consider Christmas * could Satan in his most malignant mood have devised a worse combination of graft plus bunkum than the system whereby several hundred million people get a billion or so gifts for which they have no use, and some thousands of shop-clerks die of exhaustion while selling them, and every other child in the western world is made ill from overeating * all in the name of lowly Jesus?"
*- Upton Sinclair, "Money Writes" (1927)
"Zimbabwe is mine."
*- Robert Mugabe
"Forget about scouting, or player development, or even making a trade. See it, buy it and let the market be damned. No one could have imagined the kind of shameless shopping spree the Yankees have been on this month * $161 million for CC Sabathia, $82.5 million for A.J. Burnett and a reported $180 million for Teixeira * at a time when more than 10 million Americans are out of work and another 4 million might join them in 2009."
*-------- Wallace Matthews, Newsday
The U.S. Chemical Safety Board hopes not. But there's ample evidence that economic pressures have led certain companies (like BP in Texas City) to take shortcuts or ignore safety measures altogether to protect their bottom line. Imagine that.
Check it out here and click on the video if you're interested.
Besides layoffs and a struggling stock price, Dow Chemical has found another turd in its Christmas eggnog.
Over in Kuwait, there's growing opposition to the government's decision to partner with Dow in a big new venture called K-Dow, whose components would include elements of Dow's Texas operation here in Freeport.
Opponents "described the deal as a sell-off and an act of squandering public funds, since the market capitalisation of Dow Chemical has dropped from 51 billion dollars last year to around 17 billion dollars currently," reports AFP.
"The deal has been mired with an exaggeration in its value and with highly-inflated commitments, for the benefit of the other (Dow) party," the statement said.
Since the deal was unveiled earlier this month, it has come under fire from many MPs, who accuse the government of failing to protect national interests.
Under pressure, the government said last week it has referred the deal to the independent Audit Bureau for revision and also to its legal department to assess contractual obligations."
Slinging Sammy Baugh, the last surviving member of the original NFL Hall of Fame before he died the other day at 94, stirred up some memories in people who crossed paths with him.
Berry Tramel, sports columnist for the Oklahoma City daily, talked to a couple of them who knew Baugh after his playing days.
One played for Baugh when the famed quarterback was an assistant coach at Oklahoma State; another interviewed Baugh who happened to mention he had some visitors a few days earlier including a real tall fellow named Peyton something-or-other -- Peyton Manning.
Our Bloggerville buddy, Slampo, wrote a memoir-type post about his first newspaper job over in Louisiana at a small local paper in a corrupt parish. Pretty good stuff. Check it out here.
Pooty, despite his soulful eyes, is looking over his shoulder.
As Wall St. 24/7 puts it:
The sharp drop in oil has moved Putin from being a man who could invade his neighbors at will and carry on war games with Chavez in Venezuela to a fellow who is fighting to keep his job...
...Russians like to take to the street from time-to-time in a attempt to overthrow those seated in the Kremlin. It is a sort of blood sport filled with vodka and killings. But, it has a way of bringing about reform even if the new bosses look the same as the old ones.
There is a great deal of irony in the fact that the one global economic event which could help pull China, the EU, and US out of a deep recession--a sharp drop in the cost of energy--could cost the Russians a significant part of their power base. Oil is no longer good currency for holding adversaries hostage.
Mark Felt, #2 in the FBI pecking order during Watergate, was 95.
Tricky Dick Nixon knew who was ratting him out all along, says the NY Times.
And they were both law breakers.
Like Mr. Nixon, Mr. Felt authorized illegal break-ins in the name of national security and then received the absolution of a presidential pardon. Their lives were intertwined in ways only they and a few others knew.
Mr. Nixon cursed his name when he learned early on that Mr. Felt was providing aid to the enemy in the wars of Watergate. The conversation was recorded in the Oval Office and later made public.
“We know what’s leaked, and we know who leaked it,” Mr. Nixon’s chief of staff, H. R. Haldeman, told the president on Oct. 19, 1972, four months after a team of washed-up Central Intelligence Agency personnel hired by the White House was caught trying to wiretap the Democratic Party’s national offices at the Watergate.
“Somebody in the F.B.I.?” Mr. Nixon asked.
“Yes, sir,” Mr. Haldeman replied. Who? the president asked. “Mark Felt,” Mr. Haldeman said. “Now why the hell would he do that?” the president asked in a wounded tone.
No one, including Mr. Felt, ever answered that question in full. Mr. Felt later said he believed that the president had been misusing the F.B.I. for political advantage. He knew that Mr. Nixon wanted the Watergate affair to vanish. He knew that the White House had ordered the C.I.A. to tell the bureau, on grounds of national security, to stand down in its felony investigation of the June 1972 break-in. He saw that order as an effort to obstruct justice, and he rejected it. That resistance led indirectly to Mr. Nixon’s resignation.
Mr. Felt had expected to be named to succeed J. Edgar Hoover, who had run the bureau for 48 years and died in May 1972. The president instead chose a politically loyal Justice Department official, L. Patrick Gray, who later followed orders from the White House to destroy documents in the case.
The choice infuriated Mr. Felt. He later wrote that the president “wanted a politician in J. Edgar Hoover’s position who would convert the bureau into an adjunct of the White House machine.”
Mr. Hoover had sworn off break-ins without warrants — “black bag jobs,” he called them — in 1966, after carrying them out at the F.B.I. for four decades. The Nixon White House hired its own operatives to steal information, plant eavesdropping equipment and hunt down the sources of leaks. The Watergate break-in took place six weeks after Mr. Hoover died.
While Watergate was seething, Mr. Felt authorized nine illegal break-ins at the homes of friends and relatives of members of the Weather Underground, a violent left-wing splinter group. The people he chose as targets had committed no crimes. The F.B.I. had no search warrants. He later said he ordered the break-ins because he felt national security required it.
-- [NYT]
One of the all-time football legends has passed.
Sammy Baugh was 94.
Makes me think of the closing scene in the movie "Tender Mercies."
The Robert Duvall character is out in a field, tossing a football with his stepson, and he says "Sammy Baugh" as he tosses the ball.
He was the last surviving member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame's inaugural class.
After starring at TCU, "Slingin' Sammy" Baugh played with the Redskins from 1937 to 1952.
While he was noted for his passing, Baugh was one of the best all-around players of his day. One season he led the league in passing, defensive interceptions and punting. In one game, he threw four touchdown passes and intercepted four passes. -- Associated Press
(Another in a series of random quotes, seemingly plucked from random but more meaningful, by Wilson in St. Louis)
"No one I met at this time -- doctors, nurses, practicantes, or fellow-patients -- failed to assure me that a man who is hit through the neck and survives it is the luckiest creature alive. I could not help thinking that it would be even luckier not to be hit at all."
*- George Orwell, in "Homage to Catalonia" on being shot in the neck during the Spanish Civil War
"Struggling to make changes that will attract the young and other readers with short attention spans has everywhere failed to bring salubrious results. In the case of the Chicago Tribune all that has been accomplished is to make the paper * with more color photography, shorter stories, more features, less hard news * seem more like USA Today, of which the world does not need more than one. This has brought greater dicontent among loyal Tribune readers. I am not a regular reader of the Tribune, but when I do pick up a copy these days it feels like nothing so much as holding the local evening television news in my hand, and that's not a happy feeling."
* Joseph Epstein, op-ed in the Wall Street Journal dec. 13/14, about the Tribune bankruptcy
"Dolemite's the name and f*!king up motherf*!#kers is my game."
*- the late, great Rudy Ray Moore in the 1975 movie "Dolemite"
"I'm earning my check by doing nothing. I'm enjoying it to the fullest. I can go in and out of the country when I want during the season. They'll make a decision when they're ready to make a decision. I'm getting healthy, adding two, three years to my career. This has been great for me, able to heal."
* former Knick Stephon Marbury, who was cut from the Knicks yet is still receiving $21.9 million for his last year of his contract. Marbury attended the Knicks-Lakers game as a fan in the front row Tuesday night. The Knicks lost by two points, 116-114.
If you care, and you probably don't since less 10 percent of the eligible voters in Brazoria County cast ballots, Joan Huffman, a Republican, carried almost 68 percent of our county that's included in State Senate District 17. Congrats, Joan. She beat Chris Bell, a Democrat, in a runoff, and his party is chapped.
We're sorry to tell you this, but with newspapers everywhere making dramatic cutbacks in order to maintain profitability, they're not going to get better, they're going to get worse.
There will be more mistakes.
There is a "bright side," though, if you have a sense of humor, because if the mistakes are not funny enough, the corrections often top the mistakes for laughs.
Take, for instance, this one, which was voted "Best Headline Error" by Craig Silverman, a freelance journalist and author who wrote the book "Regret The Error":
The American Family Association’s OneNewsNow site has a standard practice of using the word “homosexual” instead of “gay.” They even set up a filter to automatically make the change. This didn’t serve ONN well when a sprinter named Tyson Gay made news at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials. He suddenly became Tyson Homosexual when the site’s filter got a hold of an AP story:
Novak has been a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times for decades. He announced late last month he has a brain. The revelation came less than a week after he struck a pedestrian with his Corvette and drove away.
The Texas Attorney General's Office, which has been after ex-Major Leaguer and Brazoswood High grad Troy Neel for not paying child support since 2005, finally got their man three days ago after he arrived in LA on a flight from Sydney, Australia.
The feds put the cuffs on him.
Neel was a hometown hero in Brazosport when he helped lead Brazoswood High to the the state baseball championship in 1984. He played football at Texas A&M, too, before playing pro hardball.
Texas A.G. Greg Abbot said Neel had been living on a private island in the South Pacific and owes $724,325 in back child support.
Background:
In 1998, Neel was ordered to pay $5,000 a month for the support for his son and daughter. The child support order was based on Neel’s earnings as a professional athlete.
On March 2, 2005, a San Antonio-based federal grand jury indicted Neel. The indictment, which was unsealed Thursday, alleges that Neel has traveled in foreign commerce since December 1998 in order to avoid paying child support for two children.
Neel remains in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service awaiting transfer to the Western District of Texas. Upon conviction, Neel faces up to two years in federal prison and up to a $250,000 fine.
Troy Neel played three years in the majors leagues from 1992-1994 but gained his most fame in baseball as a star in Japan. Prior to his major league days, he was in the minors from 1986-1992, and then after the majors he came back in 1998 for 14 more games in the minors.
Although he sometimes showed good power in the minors, he didn't hit .300 until 1992, when he posted impressive numbers of .351/~.439/.586. It got him 24 games in the big leagues with the Oakland Athletics, where he hit .264 with a .491 slugging percentage.
That earned him a starting position in 1993 with the A's, and he hit .290 with 19 home runs. He was seventh in the Rookie of the Year voting.
In 1994, he hit 15 home runs in 83 games, with a .266 batting average.
Starting in 1995, he played several years for the Orix Blue Wave in Japan, leading the league in homers and RBI in 1996. He led the league in 1997 in strikeouts. Released after the 1997 season, Orix signed him again in 1998 when they struggled early in the season.
In 1998, he came back to America for 14 AAA games, hitting .244, but getting lots of walks and slugging .600.
In 1999, he was back in Japan, but missed about half of the games due to injury.
We wrote about a run-in between an Angleton-based blogger and the company that calls itself TaxMasters back in July.
TaxMasters was pissed about the writings of Don Callaway on the blog known as Enormous Incongruities and threatened legal action.
At the time it was difficult for us to grasp what all the fuss was about, but we attempted to do so in this post, which explained it began with Callaway critiquing TaxMasters' TV commercials, which can be seen on an annoyingly regular basis, particularly during daytime viewing.
We continued:
...pretty soon Callaway started hearing, via e-mail, from all sorts of people who are mad as hell at TaxMasters for the way the Houston-based company handled their tax problems.
The complaints and various responses from the company continued and were dutifully posted by Callaway on Enormous Incongruities.
Before long, if you Googled "TaxMasters" the Enormous Incongruties coverage of the company appeared at the top of the Google search list, which apparently didn't sit well with the company, which just the other day demanded that Callaway remove all his posts regarding TaxMasters or face consequences of the "judicial" and "non-judicial" variety.
Callaway didn't take kindly to the letter.
He responded on his blog:
"...you fucktards over at TaxMasters can rest assured that I take your threats seriously; however, I will not be removing any content from my personal web log. I advise caution while determining what action is “appropriate” as there might well be none.
I am not sure what “non-judicial” actions there are available to TaxMasters. Is that where they send someone over to kick my ass? I hope so."
(Another in series from Wilson in St. Louis)
"My only advantage as a reporter is that I am so physically small, so temperamentally unobtrusive, and so neurotically inarticulate that people tend to forget that my presence runs counter to their best interests."
*- Joan Didion (pictured), "Slouching Towards Bethlehem" (1967)
"You gotta be careful how you express that and assume everybody's listening, the whole world is listening, you hear me?"
* ILL Gov. Rod Blagojevich, Dec. 4th, on the phone talking about appointing Obama's replacement
"A good politician is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar."
*- H.L. Mencken
You can see it from about half a mile away.
Number of Christmas lights used? Maybe a thousand.
Nobody's given me any crap about it. Lady across the street said she liked it, and flashed me the peace sign (wherein you extend forefinger and middle finger, parted, from your enclosed hand. In WW2 that was the V for victory sign, thanks to Churchill.)
The peace sign and the peace symbol on my roof you don't see much anymore, despite our current war. I'd venture to say many younger citizens have no idea what they mean. Maybe I'm wrong, but more than likely, the symbols are relics from the 60s and 70s, but still a reminder to older folks of the "hippies."
But before you go callin' me a stinkin' hippie, consider the "reason for the season," as the church folk say.
The birthday of Jesus. And who was he? Why, he was the Prince of Peace. It says it right there in The Bible.
Isaiah 9:6 (King James Version)
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
Can we all just agree not to give President-elect Barack Obama a lot of shit cause he went back to smokin'?
Considering the shitpile of problems he'll inherit, believe me, he needs to smoke. As much as he wants.
(Jesus, can you image how much the first photographer who gets a decent photo of Obama smokin' in the Rose Garden stands to make?)
We read about the smokin' relapse here at the LA Times blog Top Of The Ticket.
Wonder if Marlboro is his brand.
Nah. Probably Kool.
The news from Dow Chemical Co. that is cutting production as well as contract jobs came as no surprise.
We issued a warning in a Nov. 20 post entitled "The Worldwide Depression is Upon Us."
With Dow cutting production to 35 percent of capacity at its Freeport site, we wonder what this may mean for the local pollution scene.
We figure it could go one of two ways:
1. With production cut so drastically, there's bound to be much fewer chances for "emissions events," which would be "good."
2. On the other hand, with "thousands" of contract workers idle there will be fewer people running the place, so maybe that could mean more slipshod operating procedures, which would be "bad." As the local Dow spokeslady told The Facts newspaper today, "Dow leadership still is determining where there are contractors they cannot do without..."
We now call on Dow not to keep contract workers on the job who keep the place from blowing us all to Kingdom Come, as long as that makes economic sense.
Dow's stock price closed today at $18.85, a couple bucks above its 52-week low but way off its 52-week high of $45.50.
The cuts at the company's Freeport site were announced after the market closed, so we'll see what effect, if any, the moves have on Wall St. tomorrow.
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