Even though a Senator is not planning on taking bribes from the underage-goat-sex lobby, that could change in an instant. Best we lock them all up now.

Dr. Reynolds on our over-zealous alcohol consumption inspectors.

Heh.

From Best of the Web Today:

An article in New York Teacher, the magazine of the state teachers union, pays tribute to Jack Powell--but not for his professional accomplishments, which are rather meager:

A longtime singer and guitarist with the Zucchini Brothers and a substitute teaching assistant for Washington-Saratoga-Warren-Hamilton-Essex BOCES [school board], Powell has lived frugally for years. He works about three days a week as a sub, earning about $70 a day, with no benefits. From March to October, he rides his bike 20 miles to work when work is available.

Sometimes he works for a funeral home to make extra money. The shawl he has wrapped around himself on this winter day, he says simply, doubles as a blanket.

"I do whatever it takes to survive and live a socially conscious life," said Powell, who has a tepee in his yard.

Far be it from us to fault Powell for lacking ambition or being a bit eccentric. If he's happy leading a modest life with his bike and his tepee and his courgette fraternity, hey, more power to him. But why is New York Teacher honoring him? Well, that is because of a "principled stand" he has taken. To wit:

Part of that survival--or so he thought--included shopping at Wal-Mart to take advantage of cheaper prices for himself, his partner and her two children. Then his discussions about Wal-Mart with Sandra Carner-Shafran, a teaching assistant at BOCES and a member of the Board of Directors of New York State United Teachers, started churning inside him. . . .

"I don't like what Wal-Mart stands for," Powell said, noting the mega-chain's scanty health insurance for staffers. "Because of all those things they can lower the prices."

He and his partner agreed to go on food stamps for their family rather than shop at Wal-Mart any longer.

Powell, that is, has generously permitted American taxpayers to subsidize his unaffordable moral tastes. Pardon us if we regard him as something less than a profile in courage.

Right on, Mr. Taranto! Maybe our local Wal-Mart dislikers can follow suit. Though I'd heartily suggest that they move to New York first.

Stephen Green at Vodkapundit:

"President Bush isn't a fascist, and I can prove it.

We've seen what American bookstores and publications and universities do when confronted with real fascists: they knuckle under. You might not be able to find those Danish cartoons anyplace respectable, but you'll sure find lots of anti-Bush stuff.

Ipso facto, America is doing just fine, thankyouverymuch."

Sort of related to this....we always read how moderate Muslims should overcome their fears and speak out more against radical Islamofascism.

And we read it in the very papers that would not dare print the Danish cartoons.

Awkward, that.

Either the MDDD is having some fun with MR-T writer Colin Guy, or the MR-T has accidently printed an April Fools article two days too early. Or...or the Magic Interactive Fountain of Revitalization is not just bad joke but is actually being considered as a good use of your tax dollars.

At least $480,000 of your tax dollars.

"[Project architect Gary] Vandergriff said the cost of the project would be around $480,000 at a minimum, including the cost for the architectural design but not the engineering designs."

WET Design, the firm that was approached about the project said that it "would be willing to work on a project in Midland but would not consider participation on a project with a budget of less than $300,000."

WET Design is the firm that did the work on those fountains, you know, at the freakin Bellagio.

"The current fountain at Pioneer Plaza features three tall spouts of water that spurt up to 30 feet high, Vandergriff said. It was "really quite a piece when operational," he said, and was an attractive feature for the building's employees and tenants but is not something that is very accessible to the public. Vandergriff said there are many options available for expanding the water feature and WET Design's proprietary technology could greatly enhance the water fountain.

Oh, it gets even better!

"Vandergriff said the technology utilized by WET Designs allows them to develop water fountains that can be programmed to behave in different "styles" in conjunction with various musical accompaniments. He said the company has also developed a patented process that causes the fountains' to produce "sculpture forms" out of the water they spray."

Truly, if this idea is even on the list of ideas for Downtown revitalization (much less high enough to rate an article) then it is proof positive that this band of insiders were formed and had pushed through legislation to coerce the unwilling before they had single idea on what to actually do with the money that was to be extracted from within the MDDD boundaries and lobbied for from without, i.e. all or part of the Federal grant money.

Politically, I think they have misjudged Midland's sensibilities. It is probably okay to speak in terms of employment incentives and micro-loans for development, and tax abatements in the name of "economic development". Glazed-over eyes are always considered general "support" in these situations.

But when you propose to drop over half a mil on a play pretty like this proposed fountain it may just stick in the craw of your average Midlander. To add insult to injury it looks as though we will be paying the building owners for the privilege of fixing the fountain that they don't value enough to fix themselves.

Operationally? I would be curious to know whether the new half million dollar fountain park will be maintained by the same organization that maintains, say, this particular water feature....one so sadly lacking in interactivity.

If this is on the list of projects for the MDDD then there is no argument to be made for their handling any public funds. Period.

And should this ham-handed largesse find a way on to the list of the City Council's (well most of the Council, anyway) priorities then.....well...that is actually good news because all of the other problems must have been solved. This may be one of those times when the Council is looking at the MDDD and telling them, "People are going to think you we're on drugs when you came up with this...and you may want to go ahead and take that as your defense."

The Bad News: This picture taken at 3:42PM Central Standard Time.

The Good News: The clock will again be accurate sometime early this coming Sunday morning. Don't forget to "Spring Forward".

I guess back when they fixed the clock they didn't get the "Spring Forward/Fall Back" add-on package. Failing that we could have had a sign made that said simply "Eastern" and then placed it below the clock.

Or as Walser suggested way back when (in the comments): Couldn't they just cut the power for 13 hours in the Fall?

UPDATE: The thought occurred to me that they might have changed the clock to CDT a bit early for whatever reason. Has the clock been an hour off since last Fall?

It has been 2,237 posts, 6,830 comments, and four years since prolific contributor and founding member Walser kicked this blog off with the inaugural rant hard-hitting social commentary.

Blog years are even longer than dog years....by a factor of three they tell me.

We had a tip jar for a while, and it was never put back up when the site was re-designed. But every little bit of relief helps with the bandwidth charges so I am going to do something crass. I am going to place the Amazon Honor System pay box in the body of this post for anyone who wants to provide us their own "pre-forgiven" micro-loan. Thanks for linking. Thanks for commenting. And most of all, thanks for reading.

Maybe if we get enough we can get that Sekimori makeover I keep promising.

Condolences to Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit.

Viva Aztlan!

Michelle Malkin has more.

Red America at the WaPo. Well, that didn't last for even the short period of time that that I thought it would. I was off by 85 days. I hope the Post finds someone worthy(er) of the post.

From Lileks today:

'Today I'm closer to home - working such as it is, at the local Starbucks. ('Where the WiFi Isn't Free!')'

Amen. While I don't think that free WiFi is some sort of entitlement, I do think that fee-based WiFi at places like these is already outdated as a business model. It is like charging extra for salt...or for the vanilla powder.

The vanilla powder that they always seem to be out of.

From on the fence films:

"Yesterday, Director Evan Coyne Maloney was on the Yale campus hoping to interview administrators and allow them to give a fuller accounting of their decision to admit an ex-Taliban official with very little previous education to the hallowed halls of one of America's elite universities.

Things didn't go so well."

Read the whole thing.

I know that a tremendous amount of good work goes on in academia....I do. But more and more you begin to see that the majority of those who went to the academies, and stayed at the academies, are really just kids that never moved out of their parent's house and into the real world. They take their comforts seriously and will simply not be challenged.

Jesus is Coming!

Abdur Rahman is on trial in an Afghan court for converting to Christianity and the death penalty is a likely sentence. Westerners around the world are expressing shock and awe over this development. SHOCK AND AWE.

"It is deeply troubling that a country we helped liberate would hold a person to account because they chose a particular religion over another," President George Bush said on Wednesday.

Please Mr. President, tell me you were just kidding. Tell me you are not in the least bit surprised that Islamic law would take a dim view of apostasy. Tell me you did not invade two Islamic countries, planning to convert them to democracy, without a clue about their beliefs. After street celebrations of 911, after fatwas over novels critical of Islam, after televised beheadings of charity workers, after riots and murder over a cartoon, tell me you are not surprised. Please Mr. President.

"End Bush's War on Iraq", said the sign pasted to the traffic signal control box.

I am too young to remember if there were ever any that said "End Roosevelt's War on France".

Margaret Cho: Still unfunny after all these years. At one time I think she had a television series. Now she warms up small crowds for the even more damaged Cindy Sheehan.

Next Stop: Celebrity Boxing.

Comments on this WaPo article by Ruth Marcus on the (non) virtues of manliness are several places around the blogosphere right now.

But I just had to post it because the link was sent to me along with a description of the article as a "hilarious feminist wheeze".....from my Mom.

Now how cool is that?

A new blog to follow: Red America. From our friends at the Washington Post. Really. I give it 3 months, but I hope I am wrong. h/t to Michelle Malkin.

Midland and Odessa are the featured destinations this week for Southwest Airlines. Cheap fares, discounted rooms, lots to see and do. Kudos to the Vistiors Bureaus and Southwest. Y'all come visit! A good time at a fair price? Virtually guaranteed.

*well, at least some of us think so.

Carried up from a comment under a post below...bob Nails It:

I do not jump on the Wal-Mart argument because I like Wal-Mart, though I do find their ability to adapt and change the retail status-quo impressive. I argue because at the root of the opposition, such as yours, to Wal-Mart's practices is a sense of entitlement (to high wages, to local business, to little parking lots) that I just don't think exists. And for this entitlement to exist, it requires that I surrender my right to choose what kind of economic exchange I will take part in.

Emphasis added. Thanks, bob!

The entitlement mentality vs. the creative destruction of free markets. A daily battle but a worthy one.

I'm not real sure how we missed this:

A Rachel Corrie Memorial Pancake Breakfast. Really.

But I'm glad I found it. Via LGF and, of all places, A View Through a Windshield and Carnival of Cars.

More here.

Made in the USA.

That was what everything* in my basket was labeled on a recent shopping trip. Made in the USA. And where was I shopping? Sam's, that horrible, American job crushing, outsourcing monster of an affiliate of Wal-Mart. Water, wine, paper products, cups, candy, plates, and some other stuff, all Made in the USA. Amazing.

*everything except the beer which was hecho en Mexico. 'Markin beer was available, but I needed some south of the border brew.

The preceding post is a public service and a poke in the eye for our local Wal-Mart hating commenters. You know who you are.

On the other hand, give Mr. Conaway credit for attempting the blog format at all. His site does need to be a bit less formal to differentiate itself from the official house.gov site (like has been mentioned before) but at least he gets it.

Some Republicans Senators and their staffers have invited right-leaning bloggers in for a presser either thinking or hoping that they really would be what the Kos Kids call...essentially...mind-numbed automatons in the service of their paymaster Karl Rove. They found out different, though.

We may be right-leaning and generally conservative and therefore somewhat pre-disposed to accept your message, but that doesn't mean we will.

Case in point: Absolute runaway spending by a Republican congress with not a single veto in 6 years. I agree with a lot on the left that if the Republicans didn't own the national security issue they would be in big trouble. I disagree with a lot on the right when I think that they should rightly be if they didn't own the national security issue. (If you want to see what someone who just has to be....I mean it...just has to be on Karl Rove's payroll, I give you Senator Russ Feingold.)

Another Case in Point: Our Congressman to the North is rated as the top house conservative. But he can spend with the best of them.

Especially when it comes to the mother of all welfare programs: farm subsidies.

Without a war on terror, is there any real difference in philosophy between the Republicans and the Democrats when it comes to the size and scope of government? That shows up in the budgets that are passed, I mean?

What do you think that the response would have been from an out of power Republican party had Hillary Rodham Clinton's Health Care Task Force proposed the exact prescription drug entitlement program that was passed a couple of years ago?

If you guessed anyting other than gnashing of teeth, wrending of garments, and cries of socialism (if not outright communism) you fail.

The National is The Local. When you are in power, you get to do the spending. And when it is you doing the spending, it isn't spending. It is investing.

Spending is what the other party does when your own party is out of power.

Having said all that: Thank God for the Republican party. With all of their faults, they recognize that we have enemies that want to destroy us and they have shown that they will destroy our enemies. Right now, I'll take that.

I just wish that they were not quite so certain of it.

As attractive and possibly lucrative as the "West Texas Web Log and Freedom of Communications and Pontification Act of 2006" sounds, I really don't want to take any money from the Feds....because they will do to us the same thing they did to those poor law school perfessers...making them *shudder* share idea space with military recruiters. Only in reverse.

We would have to provide blog space to Russ Feingold in his quest to find just one other Democrat....excuse me...one other dementia-free Democrat to join his campaign to censure President Bush.

Now the Midland Development Corporation is another matter. Maybe we could get them to give us free money provide us a forgivable micro-loan for every new Jessica's Well contributor that we recruit.

And kudos to Congressman Conaway for his support of H.R. 1606 (whatever it is really called).

Blogwise, Mr. Conaway has his blog link etiquette down pat as he provided a link to the New York Times editorial on the subject that contained this nugget:

It is imperative that the courageous lawmakers who supported the McCain-Feingold reform law four years ago stand together against making the Internet a cornucopia of political corruption.

You know that law, don't you? The one that says you can't criticize an office holder within 60 days of an election? Well, not where anyone could actually hear you, anyway.

Unless, of course, you are a journalist. Then your opinions and your campaigning becomes reporting. And we musn't infringe on that. That would be a violation of the First Amendement.

Well, that didn't last long...so much for beating up on Mike Conaway over his blog...although we shouldn't ignore the possibility that he is trying to curry favor with us.

Blogs offers a wealth of opinions that have enhanced political participation and information. The recent court ruling that demands the FEC regulate online political speech threatens to squash this new form of free speech and gives another opportunity to the trial lawyers to make a buck. ...snip... As a blogger myself I proudly defend this open forum and believe that the government has no place regulating political debate on the internet. Tomorrow, you can expect me to cast my vote to protect free speech for everyone in America, not just the media elites. Mike

Read today's entire post, written by Mike his ownself, here. Ah, the power of the blog as a lobbying tool!

Don't earmarks start at about $500k? "The West Texas Web Log Freedom of Communication and Pontification Act of 2006" sounds like a good working title... With a little gov'mint monetary mojo, we could hire some staffers that could write!

Drawn out from the Comments of a previous post:

"Hey JW crew,

Unless you're famous for something else then if you step out from behind the veil your audience might react with a big yawn.

You've got this mystique going with your anonymity. Once that's gone it's gone for good."

If we can get them yawning without giving up our anonymity then why on earth would we give that deal up?

The Many Moods of Denny

From Fire Ant Gazette:

"....there's no small irony in a collection of anonymous bloggers giving grief to Conaway for letting his staff write most of the posts on his blog."

Okay, point taken. I guess we could up the irony meter by having our anonymous posts written by our staffers.

In any event, if he is going to have a blog then he ought to, by gosh, have a blog! So if any Conaway staffers are out there, please feel free to rip off the animated gif above for your blog site. That way it will be different than an RSS feed from the official Conaway House web site.

Isaac Hayes, who plays "Chef" on Comedy Central's Southpark has quit the show because he is a Scientologist and he feels that the show has taken one too many shots at his religion.

He reportedly left without beheading cartoonists and show creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker.

(h/t VodkaPundit)

By going to ConawayBlog, you can get the text of the bill that he is introducing that will require all members of Congress and their staff to read....at least once each session...the United States Constitution.

It is a pretty silly bill. In lieu of this bill, I would like to see one introduced that requires all Law School professors to read the Constitution....just one time. Then, perhaps, things like this would not happen.

In the comments of this post, Commenter "DRJ" (Julius Erving, is that you?) solicited opinions on U.S. Congressman Mike Conaway's Blog located at www.conawayblog.com.

After reading through the archives I was forced to conclude that the domain name www.conawaystaffwrittenblog.com was already taken.

Using Movable Type (or whatever) to post press releases does not a blog make.

Audiotapes of Saddam Hussein and his aides underscore the Bush administration's argument that Baghdad was determined to rebuild its arsenal of weapons of mass destruction once the international community had tired of inspections and left the Iraqi dictator alone. ...snip... The documents also speak of burying prohibited missiles, according to a government official familiar with the declassification process.

This should be a top story today. We'll see if the HBM does anything with it, or is the only place you'll find it the Washington Times?

Oh, here is a story in the Boston Herald, not the New York Times-owned Globe, the Herald, published Saturday.

And Disney/ABC apparently had access to the tapes and did a big teevee special on them. Conclusion: "Nothing to see here. Keep moving along."

It's time to get back to First Principles:

The real story of government, indeed, the real story behind any socialist enterprise, is that the power given to the state is always power wrenched away from the people. Where Leviathan reigns supreme the rights of the citizenry are irrelevant and dismissed for the "good" of the whole as disinterested clerks and functionaries determine the fates of millions.

From Enter Stage Right.

"Old news", but maybe it is time that folks were reminded. I know I'm getting fed up...

The gap you see in the posting here was, apparently, Spring Break induced.

I haven't navigated the whole site yet, but the new look of www.mywesttexas.com is really, really good.

Kudos!

As long as we are reviewing things entertainment-wise, let me give you the scoop on the Grand Opening of The Midland Horseshoe. The building looks pretty good for what it is intended for. It is new and fresh and well designed. I am hoping that a few years of atomized and airborne cow dung settling on every surface won't diminish this.

The event organizers need to work on the ingress function a bit more. The line (yes, singular) to get in was too long.

Now...short reviews:

Mikey and the Motorcars: A great band that I had not heard of. A great band to get for a party. A large party.

Seth James Band: Great blues band. Have heard them before and they were very entertaining this time also.

Ray Wylie Hubbard: A legend. And for good reason.

Cross Canadian Ragweed: A good band that can entertain well....but...well....they couldn't carry Ray Wylie Hubbard's jock.

The crowd was decent and, all in all, it was a good grand opening. But I remember the original sales pitch for the building and the visions of car shows, and 4H events, and dog shows, etc. I am sure that project visionary Mike Bradford, who pretty much stood astride the entrance to the VIP section all night long ("Hi, I'm Mike. Welcome to my Horseshoe."**), was at least non-plussed to hear of exposed breasts in the front of the audience and to witness the many condom balloons floating over the crowd during the show. That and the sight of countless barely legal drinkers who, to avoid having to stand in the beer lines, pretty much carried about four or five beers around with them at all times. The thought that I probably looked like that when I was their age makes me tremble. What is different is that seventeen year old girls Just. Did. Not. Look. Like. That. Then.

Oh well, you put on a rock concert and you attract rock music fans.

**No, he wasn't actually saying that to people. Verbally.

Powerline on The Oscars:

"My only other observation is that I thought it was good that they got away from the custom of using a comedian for the master of ceremonies."

Ouch.

Usually, these jokes are either tiresome or you have seen it a million times already.

But, I had to link this one: The Best Blonde Joke Ever.

Pay me.

UPDATE: From Today's kausfiles:

"Update: LAT's Kenneth Turan claims firsties on the Hollywood-is-homophic angle.

In the privacy of the voting booth, as many political candidates who've led in polls only to lose elections have found out, people are free to act out the unspoken fears and unconscious prejudices that they would never breathe to another soul, or, likely, acknowledge to themselves. And at least this year, that acting out doomed 'Brokeback Mountain.' [Emph. added]"

Sure, he can claim firsties all he wants, but we called it here back on February 23rd.

Note to "The Academy": Tomorrow morning, when you are pondering tonight's low television ratings for the biggest night of your year, keep in mind that it would have been a better idea to feature movies that people have seen rather than movies that you think they should be seeing.

Just sayin'.

I have made my prediction about which movie will win Best Picture. Natalie has made her prediction about which movie won't win. Cathy Seipp makes hers:

"The fifth Best Picture nominee, Capote, is merely a brilliant character study with no obviously useful lessons for Hollywood to teach the unenlightened, so I'd say it's a longshot..."

Here is the rest.

Hollywood Courage II: Meanwhile, Theo Van Gogh remains dead.

As much as I would like to see John Stewart as the host, I think I will beg off from the Oscars this year. Hollywood is determined to send us a message that they are sure that we need.

We already know what Hollywood has to say.

They will just have to tell each other how enlightened and courageous they all are without me watching them do it.

But it is their big night so don't anyone be a skunk at the garden party and mention Theo van Gogh or something. Because it is, after all, Hollywood...and when they are talking about courage, they are talking about...well...Hollywood courage.

It is wiped off in time for the after parties just like Hollywood blood.

Ben Stein on cowardice:

They kill us in the name of a religion and we bow and scrape to that religion while letting people dump on Christianity and Judaism.

Go. Read. I want one of the t-shirts that Walsingham is advertising below...

Pssst! Jimmy? I know you are reading out there.

I think this subject would be great for the MRT to write about, maybe with a bit of a local spin. I don't think that this is getting much coverage yet, but I'd call it news. Google suggests the article has been picked up by the Tulsa paper and in Council Bluffs, but I can't access a link to either. The field is still pretty wide open.

"It is not a coincidence that the Dust Bowl years of the 1930s were marked by years of tremendous hurricane activity," said AccuWeather.com Hurricane Center Chief Forecaster Joe Bastardi. "For example, the record-shattering 2005 hurricane season was the first to eclipse 1933 in number of tropical cyclones, and that may only have been because we didn't have satellites in the 1930s to identify the major storms that failed to reach the U.S. coast."

The weather we are having has happened before. We just may not have been paying (or have been able to pay)as much attention as we can now. More info here and here.

Maybe a little discussion with the guys in State College, PA and the local weather service staff? Who do I think I am? An editor? I just wonder how our water supplies are holding up in an already dry year, especially if we are just entering rather than finishing a drought. Just curious. And getting thirsty just thinking about it.

Bishop Desmond Tutu on the Danish cartoonists:

" 'Imagine if the subject had been the Holocaust and it had been treated in a way that the Jews had deemed offensive and the reaction of the Danish government and international community had been as it is now,' he said."

John Hinderaker at Powerline Blog on Bishop Desmond Tutu:

" 'Imagine'? 'Imagine'? Does Bishop Tutu really not know that this happens all the time? Is he unaware that Iran is, in fact, sponsoring a Holocaust cartoon contest, the reaction to which has been a big yawn? This is willful ignorance."

Read the rest here. Oh, and you can buy the T-Shirt by going here.