A friend of 35 years' standing was until recently literary editor of The Wilson Quarterly, a publication of the Smithsonian. As such he was given many books by publishers who hoped to have them reviewed, and he passed on those he thought I might like to me. Oddly enough his tastes for me were sometimes surer than my tastes for me.

Unfortunately he decided that feeding his wife and daughters was more important than feeding me free books, and took a professorship at UNLV. I try to be understanding. There he met Dave Hickey, another professor who describes himself as a bleeding-heart Libertarian.

I am not above stealing a trope that good, and it might resonate with Vaughn too.

When immured in Pricey Private University, the Olympus to us of expensive elegance was the Hyatt Regency in Houston. We'd ride the elevators to the top, no doubt annoying everyone, and peer over the balcony to the lobby 35 floors below. No, we didn't spit over the railing.

With maturity, more than I am glad to own, I since joined the Hyatt Gold Passport program, although mine is blue--oxymoronic. And speaking of moronic, I was sent to a website which attempted to book me with this:

Hyatt Hotels & Resorts today unveiled its new digital download music pilot program that offers unique destination-specific music collections at individual properties in MP3 format that work with Apple's iPod and other portable players. Both Hyatt's Scottsdale and Lost Pines resorts now feature music on property that celebrates the respective destination and showcases international as well as local artists. The tone, style and pace of the music adjusts throughout each day to capture the essence of the environment and guest experience...

Emphasis mine. If you care for more touchy-feeling, gasping for breath drama, try this.

No doubt the spa does a good line in macrobiotic diets, aromatherapy, and channeling your grandmother's cat.

A year ago, I heard some VP in charge of guest fulfillment, or whatever is the title for someone paid a lot to put bodies in beds, talking about the Total Gaming Experience. In other words, come to Vegas and we'll figure out how best to part you from your money without it hurting you too much to sour you on having parted with it. I fully expect him to rise to eminence in the DNC.

I wonder if I can find some more coverage of Anna Nicole Smith. Has the father of her child been found? If it's predicated by DNA, anyone turning in a sample of Dupont silicone might find himself in charge of a lot of money.

The History Channel--it says it so it must be true, just like The New York Times--has on it a program about UFOs and the quest to detect them. The people on it are Real Serious and to convince us of how Real Serious it is, they're going to show us a video of a surgery removing implants left in earthlings which will change our minds, and I fully expect to be convinced by a bit of gore on a camera. That's the only gore that will convince me. Ka-boom.

I'm getting rather tired of all this to-ing and fro-ing about the existence of not of the UFO, and even the entire field of endeavor of Ufology. I wonder if I spelled that right; I'd hate to get them mad at me for they might make crop circles in the African roo in my yard.

These UFOs are, if you recall, the things inhabited by what the supermarket tabloids call space aliens, which is I suppose to distinguish them from aliens of the more normal kind. And this realization made me wonder if they do not walk among us right now and in the millions.

If a UFO comes from the south, then would it be an alien space alien? If that were so, and the Democrats were in charge of finding them, then we would never know if there really were UFOs. There could be millions of them, with driver's licenses and voter-registration cards under Motor Voter, and queuing up for food stamps. Having little green babies in emergency rooms, flying without insurance, and doing all of the things that we don't want to do.

Except pick green grapes. Too close to home and they're pro-life anyway.

So. If the price of green grapes goes through the roof, then we are infested by space aliens. Quod erat demonstrandum.

My lord but this is easy. Next I'll go into writing speeches for George McGovern; stamping his je ne sais quoi on my blinding logic will insure his elevation to be frontrunner for the 2008 Democratic presidential ticket. After all, he doesn't look like he has a gingerbread house in the woods and a large oven just the size for two fat, blond German children.

Tomorrow I'll prove that tyranny is freedom, taxation is prosperity, censorship is free speech, and I'll be cup bearer at the inauguration. I feel a change of career coming on. Cue the "Internationale."

While in Kansas and on Christmas Day, I drove by the Westboro Baptist Church to see the home of Fred Phelps, who is the founding father of his congregation. Evidently it's pretty much an extended family, and I'll omit the jokes for they write themselves.

Rising on the screensaver of Apple TV while the Scarlatti plays in the background is a picture I took of the side of the house, showing in 4' letters their motto, which is also the name of their website: God Hates America.

Perhaps once a month I go to this website, not to get stoked in outrage for what good would that do? And I run out of outrage over the left anyway for I have only so much. Really. But in its own perverse way, this website is bracing.

Here is a Win-Win situation. Buy yourself some carbon offsets without sticking money in Al Gore's pocket!

(h/t Tim Blair)

Get this:

"In Nevada....it is illegal -- unless you are licensed, or employed by someone licensed -- to move, in the role of an interior designer, any piece of furniture, such as an armoire, that is more than 69 inches tall. A Nevada bureaucrat says that 'placement of furniture' is an aspect of "space planning" and therefore is regulated -- restricted to a 'registered interior designer'."

I'm not kidding. Read the rest here.

As long as we are regulating what interior designers can and cannot do perhaps we can outlaw the odious practice of these designers showing up with books that they have purchased by the lineal yard on behalf of their obviously non-reading clients for them to place on their bookshelves as though it were really part of a "library".

They should not be allowed to make their clients look so dopey as that.

Is this a glimpse of the future?

A year ago the Dallas Morning News quit delivering in Midland.

Right now the Boston Globe is laying off Pulitzer winners.

I am seriously considering dropping delivery of the Reporter-Telegram in favor of just reading their online edition.

But I just sent Michael Yon fifty bucks.

Dig this:

A young lady who calls herself "J" on MySpace is staging a hunger strike until Sanjaya and his ever-changing locks are voted off of "Idol."

"Until the day that Sanjaya is no longer American Idol, I will be going on a hunger strike. This means I will refuse to eat anything until American Idol voters wise up, and stop voting Sanjaya through each week," she states. "If you would like to see this hunger strike end, the only way to let this happen is to vote for anyone OTHER than Sanjaya after 'American Idol' on Tuesday."

I don't know who this Sanjaya knucklehead is, but I hope he wins.

American Idol is the perfect metaphor for our nation's ills, personified exactly by "J", who is obviously an idiot with no grasp of what is truly important in life. Plus, ten bucks says she's never even heard of Bob Dylan.

And perhaps that's the thing that truly pissed me off about American Idol. True geniuses like Dylan or Clapton would be laughed off the stage if they were still unknown artists and auditioned for that show, turned away in favor of some bonehead with tricked-up vocal inflections and a penchant for Michael Bolton.

If only all American Idol fans would starve themselves to death. The average IQ of the world would go up by at least 25 points.

One of the words bandied about by the chattering classes, those artists of the rhetorical rabbit punch whose idea of heaven is having their ugly mugs in front of a camera, is hubris and this is used in conjunction with any Republican idea which seems vulnerable.

The American Heritage Dictionary defines hubris as "Overbearing pride or presumption; arrogance"; that serves but to me retrospectively. It is a word that took me decades to understand, even knowing its derivation and dictionary definition. I don't think that I understood just how precarious it is, that it is a disaster in the making. And just how dangerous it is.

It's bad enough when people do not estimate their finances, abilities, strengths, appeal--the fallout can be bad but is confined to them and their immediate family and friends. It is another thing entirely when it is a full-blown disease of people who would be our masters. And in the case of the left's charges of hubris against the right, in general I feel it is projection.

The MRT has a nice article about the Sports and Entertainment Association of Midland, and how it has been performing.

It seems SEAM is the middleman for the various event organizers to get money from the City's Hotel/Motel Tax fund. SEAM has been allocated a paltry $34,500 and apparently is going back to the City for $30,000+ dollars. So what does a $64,500 (Thousand) investment produce now that a $64,500,000 (Million) investment =might=?

Then in May there is the American Softball Association Hall of Fame Qualifier that is expected to generate about 1,248 room nights.

If you go by the Convention Center "Missed Booking List" these events would rank in the top 15 of events, with the May Softball Tournament being #2. Besides the value of the use of the City's softball fields, it seems all the softball organizers are getting from SEAM is $7,500! Yes you're reading that right, $7,500 of government investment equals 1,248 room nights!!

It seems our Recreational Sports fields which can be used by the Citizens when not used for hosting tournaments is the place to spend all that money to bring in the highly valued outside visitor dollar.

Plus, given the poor to fair shape of our adult softball fields and the penny-pinching budgets to maintain these economic development and tourism assets, it makes the convention center expenditure logic seem even more outlandish, when deferred maintenance and upgrades to these producing assets jeopardizes their future value.

Okay let us forget for a moment that every single high school dance ever portrayed in a movie took place in the gym. Let us also forget that each high school still has (I believe) a serviceable and free-standing youth center that can handle high school dances. And let us suspend disbelief for a moment and consider that the current Midland Center is somehow completely unsuitable for....let us remember what we are talking about here....a high school dance.

Is it wise to spend $66 million dollars in order to shield our precious young-uns from the gruesome horror of having to hold their high school dance at The Midland Horseshoe? Or the Midland Hilton? Or the Holiday Inn's event center on west Wall?

When arguements are presented for black tie balls and high schools dances as being any sort of impetuses...impetii...or whatever, for a new convention center one would almost be forced to guess that Midland currently has no existing facilities whatsoever to hold any sort of event.

But Midland has several. The question has been and always will be: Is it worth spending $66 million dollars PLUS $4 million per year in debt service PLUS $750,000 per year in operating losses in order that we may handle events that cannot be handled by the current Midland Center, nor the Midland Horseshoe, nor the Chaparral Center, nor the Holiday Inn's or the Hilton's big ballrooms, nor the new $48 million (or $65 million) performing arts center to be built and that hasn't even been designed yet?

In short, is the cost of this project worth the marginal gains that we might realize?

Further, this is not a question that we are asking in a vacuum. There is an upcoming school bond issue that will expand a lot of the out-dated facilites that our precious young-uns use each and every school day.

If you think we have plenty of tax headroom to do everything then neither bond issue presents a problem, no tax burden is too high, and you are born 'economic developer'.

If you think that we don't have unlimited tax headroom and need to have some priorities you then get to choose between schools that are used each and every day by local students and a convention center large enough to garner the Antioch Christian Church and their 100 room nights.

And if you think we have no tax headroom at all and are generally a sorehead, an aginner, and "non-progressive" in the terms of the proponents of a new center then you simply start a blog. You know...like this one.

Although, we are slipping on our non-progressive aginner-ness being for the school stuff. We have to work on that.

Also in this thrilling multi-part series: Convention Center: Part I - Black Tie Events

This article about the new or expanded convention center changes the focus from the possibility of spending $66,000,000 PLUS $4,000,000 in debt service per year PLUS $750,000 operating loss per year on the idea that we can become a destination of sorts for out of town conventioneers to...get this....spending the 66MM+4MM+740k on black tie balls and high school dances.

To be sure it can be stipulated that the current Midland Center is not the most aesthetically pleasing of venues. If we decide to have a new or improved center it will be much better looking and usable (especially if Rhotenberry/Wellen is involved. They do fine work.)

It can also be stipulated that the current Midland Center is perhaps too small for some local black tie type events and that if more space were available it would increase attendance at these events.

But just because these problems can be alleviated by spending millions and millions of dollars does not mean that they should be.

Let us take the black tie events. These events typically make their money in three ways: Event underwiters, table sponsorships, and live and silent auctions.

With a new or expanded center what will change?

Not the income derived from the big underwriters. Why would that change?

The table sponsorships may go up on the LOW end but not the high. Example: Let us say that Midland Center can accomodate, say, 50 sponsor tables. Event organizers would love to sell them all for $5,000 a piece but of course the demand is not that large so they have different levels of table sponsorships ranging from the top price down to individual seats for $125.

The current Midland Center has more than enough room to meet the demand for the upper end of sponsor tables. Unless you think that event organizers will let the individual ticket holders crowd out the sponsor tables you have to see that expanding the center will only increase the area for the individual tickets. So while the income from the sale of individual tickets may rise the income that comes from sponsor tables will remain largely intact.

And who spends the big money in the auctions, the sponsor table people or the individual ticket people?

If you took the top five black tie events and calculated the likely marginal income difference between their events being held in the current or a new(er) Midland Center that difference would not add up to even half of the scheduled $750,000 operating loss for the new center.

If price is not an issue and a really pretty center is all that matters for our five or six large black tie events then a new center is a no brainer.

If you are really wanting to run the numbers the salient question is "What is the total income derived from the sale of individual tickets to black tie events?" Because that is the only problem that is being solved for the organizers of those events with the purchase of a new center.

Next Up (today, tomorrow, who knows, really?): Convention Center: Part II - High School Dances

$64.5 Million is an interesting number. It represents the debt the City of Midland would incur to build a Convention Center for the use by the public. However, what kind of number is this? Let's take a look:

As of September 30, 2006 the total outstanding debt for the City of Midland was $96,488,551 (COM 2006-2007 Budget). This is a big improvement from September 30, 2005, when the City of Midland had an outstanding balance of $118,376,950 (COM 2005 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report). While very commendable, the majority of this debt reduction was due to debt refinancing facilitated by the Federal Reserve's interest rate policy, not the City of Midland paying extra on our debt.

To carry this debt, the City will make $7,378,650 in Principal reduction and $4,137,704 in interest payments in Fiscal 2007.

So, at the end of the Fiscal 2006-07 year the City should have had about $89,109,901 in outstanding debt. However, we have already sold $45,000,000 in water and sewer bonds, so the total is now $134,109,901.

So why is the Convention Center called 'feasible' with what seems like a huge current debt load? Well much like a mortgage broker pre-approving someone for a home loan, with a number they call "what you're approved for," the City of Midland has a "number they're approved for."

What is that number? Well it is 8% of the ad valorem assessed value minus the current debt, plus allowances for asset secured debt. Before the new $45M water bonds, the "banks" pre-approved the City of Midland for $257,514,133 in ADDITIONAL debt. Even with the water bonds, that still leaves the City with $212,514,133 left to potentially borrow.

I can see the bankers and money men saying, "well we're approved for $212M, what's $64.5M?, less than a third?" Well as as those who have taken out a loan for "what they're approved for" will attest, most of the time it is a nightmare.

In reading today's MRT article about the convention center task force meeting, I feel a bit vindicated that the true need for a new or expanded Midland Center is local in nature and that the Economic Development and Outside Convention aspects are wishful.

If the council decides to plow on ahead with this project, and the voters agree to the expense, I wish the operators well in attracting outside conventions, but the decision to build and finance the project should really be founded on the ability and the willingness of the locals to support a local venue for everything from professional luncheons, craft shows, high school dances, high school banquets, social functions and non-profit fund-raising diners with tax dollars.

That being said, the consultants really needed a sentence or two on how they got from 55,000 S.F. in the recommendation to 121,000 S.F. in the cost estimate. Thanks to the story, we now know that 2x to 2.5x the leasable space is "Estimating Standard" figure for the gross space.

So, how do you convey to the voter how big 121,000 S.F. is and how do you demonstrate how much usable public space this translates into? According to the Building Footprint ArcGIS files available from the City of Midland, there are eight buildings with a footprint between 110,000 S.F. and 130,000 S.F. (Cingular, Midland Freshman, Sam's, Claydesta Center, Target, Alamo Junior High, Holiday Inn Country Villa and the Airport Terminal Building). For this example, let's take Target which is approximately 117,000 S.F.

Imagine walking into Target, taking a left at the registers and then stopping somewhere about where the office supplies start. Now, facing the back of the store, everything to your right is what can be rented, and everything to your left is for support of the rented space. I'm no Architect, but even after you add back all these required spaces it still seems wasteful.

Why bring this up? Because square footage costs. Just reducing the building footprint to 100,000 (a multiplier of 1.8x) can save $5.25M on the base cost and close to $10M off the whole project. All while meeting the leasable space recommendations of the consultants. To see what a 100,000 S.F. building looks like, you can choose one of two, First Baptist Church at 98,000 S.F. and K-Mart at 96,000 S.F.

Decide for yourself....

First there is this opening paragraph from a story at Marketwatch.com

U.S. stocks fell sharply on Tuesday, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average down by 200 points, as weaker-than-expected February retail sales fueled concerns about growth, while the tide of problems in the subprime mortgage market continued unabated. The market's downturn accelerated in the early afternoon after news that the number of homeowners unable to meet mortgage payments and entering the foreclosure process hit a record high in the fourth quarter.

"The subprime issue is a little more contagious than people thought and it is spreading some fear in the market," said Jay Susskind, director of trading at Ryan Beck & Co.

Which put me in the Midland Economic Development "Way-Back-Machine" to this little quote from Countrywide in the MRT:

Simon said the warm welcome Craddick and Perry gave was a key element in the Midland deal, which takes effect immediately. "The first group that might come in is our Full Spectrum Lending, a division that primarily deals in sub-prime mortgages," he said.

Now that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.

Dear Site Admin:

I got kind of likkered up at The Bar last weekend and I think I may have driven home afterwards. I don't actually remember.

This morning I donated money to Mothers Against Drunk Drivers.

Does this make my alcohol footprint neutral?

Abandoned convention center a haven for eluders, says overseers council

Midland, Texas -- April 22, 2089 -- The Council of Overseers for Sector M7 expressed concern over what it called "a potential risk to the social order" in a special meeting with Republic Court elders today.

The council's worry stems from several vanguard patrols conducted in March and April that flushed out and subsequently liquidated three small groups of teenagers who had snuck into the abandoned convention center building on HST1788 in an apparent attempt to elude the Electric Eye. The deserted facility (built in 2008 by the forefathers of the New Society) has become a cesspool of crime and immorality, officials said, and should be razed immediately.

"We found 16 bottles of illegal, fermented homebrew, along with equipment for producing the drug," said Midland County sheriff Gary Painter. "There were kettles, yeast packets, freeze-dried hops, and enough canned molasses to float a canoe in."

This find marks the third beer lab authorities have discovered in the M sectors this year. But evidence of sexual activity and music-listening were also discovered during the most recent patrol, according to the sheriff.

"We found an old, 5-terrabite iPod and some condom packages that were probably smuggled-in from Europa," Painter explained. "Considering the circumstances, everyone involved in the abominations was made an immediate example of via molecular pulse execution. We will not tolerate this type of behavior in the New Society."

The council filed Probity Request 324 during today's meeting, in hopes that the rulers will allow the building's destruction via dimension-phase demolition. But Elder Galmorton the Unquestionable said the building's historical significance makes the decision a difficult one.

"This building and its sister structures [Republic Field, Empire Stadium, and the ruins of Midland Air Terminal] are our oldest and greatest reminders of those who first planted the seeds that led to the New Society," he said. "They are symbols of how we can one day realize the dream of creating ultimate propserity through taxation, if we will just continue to try. Our hope is to one day have the wealth to restore them."

A decision on the building's fate is expected by the end of next week.

Some days I wish the MRT put their letters to the editor on the MyWestTexas website.

I'm not sure how this whole thing concerning Jimmy the P started, but the letter from a Mr. Craig Hubbard on March 11, 2007, accused Jimmy the P (the most prolific printer of JW material in the MSM) of being a "token liberal," a "...mostly obedient Chihuahua, acting out the rare fit of petulant frustration...," and "not a pit bull."

So, did Jimmy the P forget to wash Gary Ott's socks or do Stewart Doreen's grocery shopping? Maybe he gets too involved in "The Drive In" and forgets to make these stops?

Well, if the MRT editorial board wants to keep printing these letters calling Jimmy the P out, I guess I could loan him my paper bag and he could be a token Wellhead to try and heal his image... or not.

Having passed through a second reading of the "Feasibility Analysis of a Potential New/Expanded Convention Center in Midland, Texas" I have to say that any characterization of the study as a rubber-stamp declaration of feasibility is probably unfair.

The report does not come close to doing that. It is very carefully worded and has many caveats. It does describe some of the risk and it dutifully includes as positives all of the "positives" that the consulting firm was fed by the people who hired them. But the report itself is startlingly non-committal when it comes down to the question of whether we should spend $66 million dollars on a new or expanded convention center.

Being ever the Midland-hating aginners that we are we of course looked into the report and saw flaccid returns and lukewarm interest.

Proponents looked at the same numbers and saw sure success.

Proponents looked at all of the other communities with a comparable center as proof that Midland had to have one also.

We here look at that same information and see a saturated market. And one that may be competing in a shrinking industry at that.

In one of the Harry Potter books is a mirror (the Mirror of Erised) that when you look into it it shows you what you most desire. Are these studies purposely written in the same way?

At this point I could wax all philosophical about different points of view and how we should all celebrate our diversity of opinions and how gosh awful funny it is that we see such different things in the same report.

But I am not going to. Not with $66 million somolians on the line.

The likely returns are flaccid, the interest is lukewarm and we shouldn't spend $66,000,000 PLUS $4,000,000/year debt service PLUS a $700,000/year operating loss to expand aggressively into the already saturated fourth-tier convention destination market.

By all means though, look into the report yourself and see what it shows you.

No doubt I'm teetering into senescence, but to my enfeebled mind it seems that a reference to the F word was removed from a prior post. I freely admit that it was beaten to death, and there is much ground that doesn't need to be gone over in the pages, but there a Libertarian website with an interesting take on Ann Coulter. And some sardonic prose on the Democratic party, the party of promises and lies.

What? The Democratic party?

The author supposes that Ms. Coulter is caught in the Golden Predicament, one that Florence King, my heroine, ascribed to Rush Limbaugh. It sells and after it is no longer possible to turn up the volume, then they'll both, on this theory, have to admit that they were really just making a lot of it up.

But I know that Hillary is evil and that she really means it.

There is nothing so bitchy as an entertainment critic....except an entertainment critic that is reviewing a piece that doesn't flatter their personal politics or beliefs. The resulting review is so incredibly bitter it gets to be hilarious.

The Reporter-Telegram printed such a review from the AP's Christy Lemire under the headline "Despite visual effects, '300' is overbearing, self serious."

Really?

Unlike "Syriana", one supposes.

The state of the art bitchy review of the movie 300 was done by someone named Dana Stevens for Slate.com. An excerpt:

"One of the few war movies I've seen in the past two decades that doesn't include at least some nod in the direction of antiwar sentiment, 300 is a mythic ode to righteous bellicosity. "

Got that? All war movies now must at least make some nod in the direction of anti-war sentiment. Even war movies about...wait for it....ancient Sparta.

Better than the review is the review of the review by Ace over at Ace of Spades HQ. In blog terms this is called a "Fisking".

From another bitchy critic, this time from Scott Holleran at Box Office Mojo:

"......this latest message of Doomsday nihilism, which sidesteps history, serves one purpose: to validate chronic fear."

Unlike "Good Night and Good Luck", one supposes.

Five bucks says that before reviewing this movie Mr. Holleran thought Thermopylae was the new bistro on Wilshire Boulevard. For an informal review of the movie from someone who can actually find Greece on a map, try professor of classics Victor Davis Hansen.

This movie is irritating all of the right people with its total lack of proper pc attitudes towards war in particular and the defense of liberty generally.

And it is going to make a kajillion dollars, making already bitchy reviewers even more bitchy.

... is one of the best turns of phrase I've read in a while. George Will on a Conservative's dilemna for 2008.

Now, consider today's three leading candidates, starting with McCain, the mere mention of whose name elicited disapproving noises at CPAC. This column holds the Olympic record for sustained dismay about McCain's incorrigible itch to regulate political speech ("campaign finance reform"). But it is not incongruous that he holds Barry Goldwater's Senate seat.

Read the whole thing. Kudos to the MRT for continuing to run Mr. Will, a constant voice of reason.

In a nod to the new media, and showing some movement into the internet world of the Naughts from the Nineties, the MRT published the link to the Convention Center "feasability" "study" in today's paper. In a small footnote-ish article, buried. Good job Walser and Ospurt, giving them a push.

My original point in writing "The f Word--Redux" was to point out something worrying but it seems that the lightning rod of homosexuality grappled all attention away from my point, to the extent of eliciting 26 comments, and some of them mine. That would have made a fine post in and of itself, but the original intent was not to act as an apologist for homosexuality, but to point up something which ought to be entirely more sinister, no matter your bias on the matter. Or in my case, sinister in and of itself.

Let's pretend that homosexuality is either utterly unremarkable, which is one thing I'm much for, or that it is utterly unknown, as unfamiliar as the dual number in Ionic Greek. Which very few people care about and so it will suit my purposes here.

It is a commonplace for people from all sides of every aisle to grab any tool possible to first, scare people, to second, raise money, and three, to gain power from the whole process. It is a cynical ploy of course, and has been perfected over the millennia, and it's particularly effective with people who do not want to take the time to think about something, or cannot. Or who make the cynical calculation that based on information given, it's a better risk to get scared, channel with Chicken Little, and give money to people who present blandishments to cure what ails you than to worry about it. Buying another's thought.

Included on the list of the "Missed 26" conventions is "L. Walther & Sons, Inc." at 60 room nights missed.

Being unfamiliar with the company I did a Google search and turned up a company in the potato business.

In Michigan.

Why would a potato industry company from Michigan come to Midland, Texas for a convention?

Is it possible that this entry is left over from a feasibility study done for Midland, Michigan?

Surely not.

In what appears to be a gross error in the Convention Center Feasibilty report, the number bandied about for the cost of the Convention Center of $64.5M is apparently not for Midland, but for some previous client of the consultants. On page 71 of the report, a center with a size of 121,000 S.F at the cost of $250 per S.F. for a $30,250,000 base cost (you get to $64.5M with fixtures, landscape, parking, etc.) is shown in the cost estimate.

However, throughout the report the Midland facility is touted as 55,000 S.F. You multiply that out and you get $13,750,000 for the base cost. Basically the consultants have fed the city a number for a convention center TWICE the size recommended in the report.

If you can't get the MOST IMPORTANT part of the report correct, how much else is wrong with it?

Some observations on the "Missed 26", the conventions that we missed out on because the Midland Center was "too small". (From the Feasibility Analysis of a Potential New/Expanded Convention Center in Midland, Texas)

Please notice that the top four listings represent over 50% of the "missed bookings". How is that for spreading your risk?

Now look at the bottom thirteen on the list. Fully half of the "Missed 26" all have a "Room night" impact of 300 room nights or less each. Somebody please tell me what it is about the size of the current Midland Center that cannot handle, say, the Antioch Christian Church's event. Are they really turning us down because we don't have the $66,000,000 edifice? Or are they making their decision based on other factors?

Plus....not that I am in the consulting business or anything but if it were me putting out a list like this I think I would have stopped sometime before "Lithia Motors" with a whopping 12 room nights. But that is just me.

Here's the feasibility report for all to see and examine:

http://www.midlandtexas.gov/pdf/MidlandReportFinal2007_02_22.pdf

"I was going to have a few comments on the New Convention Center, but it turns out you have to go into rehab if you use the word 'feasible,' so I -- so kind of an impasse, can't really talk about the New Convention Center."

Jimmy the P, needs Copy for next week:

Mr. Guy has another good article about the Convention Center Task Force in the MRT today, and it has confirmed many of my musings regarding the convention center.

My contention: The Horseshoe has impacted the Midland Center, or abated most of our need for a new facility:

The number of "lost events" dropped from 231 in 2005 to 167 in 2006......Many of them have begun booking their regular meetings at Hilton Midland Plaza and a few have begun utilizing the Horseshoe, [Midland Chamber of Commerce President John Breier] said.

My contention: What we are really talking about is a civic space for mostly local events with a limited opportunity for large tourist dollar generating conventions and events.

.....adding that a large number of these events are local.....

"For the most part these are local events and individuals," Breier said. "I'd suggest we're not talking about -- in most cases -- a committee scanning. For the most part these are local events that have historically used (Midland Center) and no longer can."

OK, Let's just put the cards all on the table. The report of lost outside convention business is a Red Herring. The boosters know the cost numbers are too big for the voters to swallow (even a City Councilman said "WOW, that's crazy", when he saw it), and they are trying their best to justify all this extra expense. Even the Mayor was on the Radio (550 AM) talking about how the Gulf Building was "speculation" and was implying we should speculate on the Convention Center to grow into a success like the Original Downtown Midland did with the Gulf Building. I'm all for PRIVATE speculation (like the Gulf Building), but Midland hasn't had much success with government backed "speculation" buildings lately.

Does the Midland Center have some issues. Sure. It has outgrown many local events, the floor plan is poor, the acoustics in the main room are horrible, it needs lots of updating, etc. Anyone who has been at an event there could tell you that, even without the warts and moles tour put on by the Chamber for the task force.

Does all this warrant a $64.5 million dollar project? Do we have to spend that kind of money to ramp up the government subsidized competition with the Hilton Ballroom? Is it worth all that to host the Midland Cat Lovers and the Midland Dog Lovers Luncheons on the same day without them crossing paths in the new facility?

This is a "Quality of Life" project, no matter how the boosters will spin the tourist profit potential. The question everyone needs to be asking is what are the real needs and how much do we want to spend on a facility for the Locals to host their own events on the cheap by tapping the tax base.

Ospurt raised, in a prolegomenon to a rather nice analysis of the porc du jour, the convention center, the f word. I'd not heard Ann Coulter's blast, but I'm not surprised. I must confess to a sneaking admiration for her willingness to slaughter any number of sacred cows and the raised neck veins of some liberals warmed my icy cold heart, but there comes a time when giving free reign to one's mouth is dangerous--and I know that one well, from personal experience. I learn it daily, and believe it or not, am relatively restrained in these pages.

Ms. Coulter did not offend me by calling John Edwards a faggot; she's just mouthing off. But the fact that she felt she could say it scared me, as something I got in today's mail scared me. It was a begging letter from The Heritage Foundation, which has adopted a new tone.

This letter is a naked appeal for money using the club of fear. Nothing new in that, nor particularly wrong for there are, after all, things to be quite afraid of and if Mark Steyn were sending out begging letters, I'd unbelt with cash for him for his Malthusian analysis of Islamic fecundity is spot on, and that's not even considering that the Koran is not interpreted, as is the Bible after the Reformation, but considered the received word of Allah. Reconciliation seems impossible, but that's another story.

Feasible!

Let's get down to brass tacks. The convention center boosters have convinced themselves that we must have a new and/or expanded convention center to garner all this outside visitor money that we are missing out on. To build the case for the convention center, and combat those who want a transparent accounting of the costs and payback (if there is one), they produce a report with at least one apparent fabrication of "lost business" and a list of "conventions" that at best would make Midland a once every three to five year stop (Historical Society, ASA, etc.). Even their big fish, the ASA Softball Convention, only puts every other year up for bid between some really big convention cities, with the other years generally exclusive to Oklahoma City (its home base).

Let's look at the big fish and it's 1,000 attendees and 4,000 room nights. Is this really a good land? First off, if you could land it, you will have it once every 10 years at best. Even running the cost to the participants down isn't going to help that frequency, other cities have white elephants that are also bleeding taxpayer dollars. Now, using the magic $100/day/participant "direct economic activity", this one 4-day event is going to generate $400,000, but the City's only going to see 1.5% of that out of the gate, or $6,000. Then if Midland gets the max 6% on the room tax at say $85 a night (a good convention rate) that is an additional $20,400. Now charge about $50 a participant facility fee for an additional $50,000 and for one event you pull in about $76,400. Yeah that's right, you just cleared enough money to cover the annual salary of the Convention Center Director. All those multipliers taking into account property taxes and sales taxes collected from locals spending that new money, well, that's just fluff....and too hard to dedicate to the facility. I'm not saying they don't exist, but by the time it hits the general fund at the City, it has evaporated into a dozen or more general fund line items with no regard for where it came from.

A good 25 team softball tournament can generate similar numbers for a whole lot less investment by the City.

Then there is the under reported room issue, which is as big, or bigger than, the Center itself. 4,000 room nights? According to the Comptroller of Public Accounts, there are only 2,313 Hotel Rooms in all of Midland, with the downtown Hilton having 256 of them. What convention is going to want to be spread out between a half a dozen hotels spread out all around the City? How's that going to stack up against something like the Gaylord Texan? They like to compete for these 1,000 attendee conventions too.

On top of that, even if we booked a 1,000 person convention, according to the Texas Travel & Tourism Motel Occupancy Report, Midland had a 69.5% occupancy rate for hotel rooms in 2006 (behind El Paso at 70.5% and Odessa following at 69.3%). How are you going to squeeze a convention or meeting into 705, or so, currently available rooms (some of which will not meet conventioneer standards)?

It is evident that the three words that made the hotel occupancy go up were "Price of Oil" and not "New Convention Center."

Edit: the report I pulled up for the room counts double counted the Clarion/Old Holiday Inn on Wall (250 rooms), because of a change in ownership last year. So there are currently less rooms than I first reported. However, we will soon add about 200 rooms between our motels under construction. Either way, we still don't have enough rooms at this current occupancy rate to meet the lodging needs of a 1,000 person convention.

Somebody help me out here.

Al Gore consumes in just one of his three mansions twenty times the gas and electricity of the average American household.

He considers himself "carbon-neutral" because he purchases "carbon offsets".

But unless the amount of carbon offsets available is unlimited (which I am guessing they cannot be) isn't Mr. Gore just consuming much more than his "fair share" of both carbon and carbon offsets?

And then from this article, the single most alarming thing that I have ever heard come out of the mouth of a City Councilman:

"You will hear some voices saying we're competing with the private sector. In my opinion government should compete with the private sector as long as it can beat it," [City Councilman William] Dingus said."

Every cable news channel is reporting on a guy who hacked up his wife and hid her in the woods. Or something.

I'm just saying...that if I happen to get on the guy's jury and it turns out that he did it to get the news channels to report on something other than Anna Nicole Smith.....well, I'll be conflicted.

I refer you to Colin Guy's excellent article on the 'needed' new or expanded convention center.

In short, Mr. Guy followed up with one of the "26 groups included on the list were ostensibly considering Midland as a destination for their meetings but were unable to utilize Midland Center", groups that aren't coming to Midland presumably because the current Midland Center is just too small.

Some observations:

Even if you are blinkered enough to equate the term "ostensibly considering" with cash in the bank you have to be alarmed by the fact that the veracity of the whole report needs to be questioned now that Mr. Guy has actually followed up with one of the hallowed 26 and found out that they (the Texas Pawnbrokers Association) have never considered Midland as a desination.

Next, weighing in at 455 "missed" room nights is the Texas Historical Commission:

The Texas Historical Commission -- which was included as a lost business representing 455 room nights -- holds its meetings all over the state, according to spokeswoman Debbi Head, and they would like to eventually hold an event in Midland.

Head said the availability of nightlife and entertainment options -- the absence of which was listed as a shortcoming for Midland -- was not as important to members of the THC as opportunities for taking a daytrip to visit historical properties and reasonable hotel rates.

Great. We actually have more nightlife and entertainment options than we have nearby historical properties of note. Yet, the Texas Historical Commission was also listed by the Chamber as one of the "Missed 26". You be the judge here.

And since all good comedy comes in threes we finish with Amatuer Softball Association, also a member of the Missed 26, and slated for 4,440 "missed" room nights.

Let us take the softballers at face value and that they do, in fact, represent 4,440 room nights missed.

That leaves us with two organizations that you would have to be foolish to count on thier coming to Midland for a convention. We outright don't meet the requirements for one and...let's see...oh, yeah...the other one told us that they have no interest in coming and that they never have.

Leaving us with the softball organization, a single organization that (unless it is a mis-print) represents fully 31% of the room nights that we are *cough* ostensibly missing out on.

Thirty-one percent. From one member of the list. Just let that sink in.

For proper risk assessment I would be curious to know how many "missed" room nights are attributed to the top five of the Missed 26.

Further, would it be unfair to ask how many other members of the Missed 26 shouldn't even be on the list as a "maybe" much less a "probable"....ostensible or otherwise?

And this is the stuff upon which is based a request of $66,000,000 (not counting interest) in public funds?

Major kudos to Mr. Guy on the report.

An excellent article on the TXU coal fired plants, the buyout and its effects on electicity consumers in Texas: from the Wall Street Journal editorial page on 2/27.

The New Greenmail February 27, 2007

Call it greenmail for a post-Kyoto world. The private-equity firms that just agreed to buy Texas utility TXU have scored something of a PR coup by getting Environmental Defense and other climate-change activists to fall in line with their purchase plans before the deal was announced. The question is what price shareholders are paying for this act of political correctness.

In the old days, a greenmail artist like Carl Icahn would buy up a tranch of some company's stock and threaten to buy the rest unless the target paid him to go away. But 21st-century greenmail works a little differently. Judging by media accounts, the price of Environmental Defense's support was an announcement that the new owners would build only three of the 11 coal-fired power plants that TXU has had on the drawing board.

Many things come around the Internet and this one has the ring of truth. Of course I do want to believe it, and on what I've seen of the players, it seems entirely possible.

This purports to be an email from a Secret Service Agent.

I flew 4 Presidential support missions in the C-141 out of Dover AFB, DE, two for President Johnson and two for President Nixon. Johnson was a first class jerk and on the two occasions I flew for him, if the Secret Service and their Liaison in the Pentagon hadn't intervened, we would have had to stay on the airplane for hours while he (Johnson) was off somewhere. Nixon never required that, and the four (4) stops we made with him he was cordial to the Secret Service and to my crew and me.

D. K.: We had a neighbor when I lived in DC who was part of the secret service presidential detail for many years. His stories of Kennedy and Johnson were the same as those I heard from the guys who flew the presidents' plane.

I'm sure the community and ED boosters in Colorado City are none to pleased that the potential new owners of TXU have pulled the plug on the $1 Billion dollar reconstruction of the Morgan Creek Unit on Lake Colorado City.

The eighth plant the firms have agreed not to build - the Morgan Creek pulverized-coal plant in Mitchell County - is not part of the motion because it has not been challenged.

OK, so lets get this straight, TXU =was= looking to build 11 plants because they said, energy demand in Texas will grow to the point we must have these plants. Now they are just going to build three plants. However, given the acrimony and legal battles over the permitting process, why take out a facility that had no opposition?

I guess somebody from the equity firms did something different in the economic analysis of the Morgan Creek Unit than TXU did.

That still begs the question, if we needed 11 plants before, why is 3 sufficient now?

From the article, "How Humor Can Help You At Work", some tips on how to provide humor in the workplace.

At Number Five (and needing a bullet) is: Convene A Fun Committee.

Why not just create the position of Senior Vice President of Fun?

Me? I want to manage the Department of Knock-Knock jokes for the company's Central Division.

Sheesh.

I just found a resume posted a couple of weeks ago by one of our favorite bloggers.

We need to help her find her next paying gig. Perhaps one of us can offer her a job in a "fast-paced thought leadership position in major Western industrial phallocracy," i.e. the oil and gas industry. She sounds like a budding landman to me. Or better yet, how about the fast-paced world of community economic development? Could they use some help in the area of thought leadership?

Update: ospurt's link added. Sheesh. I thought everyone would remember the post because it was so fantabulous...

Oh goody, we get a chance to use taxpayer money to bail out a private concern that is having a...what are they calling it? Oh, yeah, a budget shortfall.

From the article:

The successful conversion of the old Vaughn Building into a high-rise suite of condominiums could add millions of dollars to Midland's property rolls and help spur downtown revitalization, but it may not happen without some financial aid from the public sector according to a representative from Midland Skytower, LLC.

Notice how the upside is always presented....it "could add millions of dollars to Midland's property rolls and help spur downtown revitalization" but never mentioned is that it could also collapse in a heap, add nothing to the tax rolls and cost the taxpayers $2 million dollars.

Also note the mention of the phrase "financial aid from the public sector". This means that people who lend their own money for a living (like real banks) and consequently expect a return that only a likely successful enterprise will generate have opted out of helping with the *cough* budget shortfall here. Good news for the building owners: The Midland Development Corporation is under no such constraints.

Fuglaar said the total "hard cost" of the project will run around $15 million and indicated an additional $2 million in financial assistance is needed in order for the development of a mixed-use property featuring high-end condominiums, retail on the ground floor and a restaurant on the roof to become viable.

This company is either woefully undercapitalized, did extremely poor due diligence before the purchase....or....or is asking for free money to do something they already plan to do because they know they have a good shot at being successful. If the MDC can cook up incentives for those already here surely they can do this, right?

Companies are always willing get some cash selling partial credit for a project and the MDC is always willing to purchase some using your money.

Fuglaar said by abandoning plans to convert the roof of the building into a restaurant and lounge $1 million could be knocked off the price and further savings could be achieved by using less-luxurious materials to finish and furnish the residential units, which would then be rented as executive apartments rather than sold as condominiums. While this approach would "pencil nicely," Fuglaar said it would not be as beneficial to the city as developing a property that would help relieve the city's housing shortage and also serve as a major downtown destination for non-tenants.

Well, grab some popcorn and sit back and watch what happens. Somehow, though, I have a bad feeling that it is the taxpayer that is going to get...er...pencilled nicely here.

More on Al Gore purchasing "carbon offsets" to get his carbon footprint to "neutral".

So, where does Gore buy his 'carbon offsets'? According to The Tennessean newspaper's report, Gore buys his carbon offsets through Generation Investment Management, a company he co-founded and serves as chairman:

"Gore helped found Generation Investment Management, through which he and others pay for offsets. The firm invests the money in solar, wind and other projects that reduce energy consumption around the globe..."

As co-founder and chairman of the firm Gore presumably draws an income or will make money as its investments prosper. In other words, he "buys" his "carbon offsets" from himself, through a transaction designed to boost his own investments and return a profit to himself. To be blunt, Gore doesn't buy "carbon offsets" through Generation Investment Management - he buys stocks."

I'm with Ann Coulter on this one. It gives me a whole new respect for Gore in that it is obvious he doesn't actually believe his own b.s. on global warming...or at the very least he doesn't believe his own b.s. concerning his "carbon neutrality".