Unca Darrell

JANUARY 24 / Last week Bill White pictured Rick Perry . . .

. . . the failed presidential candidate, as a wastral son who burns through his inheritance, then returns home to a grand reception.

My faith tells the story of a prodigal son who squanders his capital and sleeps with the pigs, yet is greet warmly when he returns home as a wise and better person.

(Bill White, "Perry needs to regain credibiliity with his Texas constituency," Houston Chronicle, January ___, 2012). Mr. White implicitly offers himself . . .

JANUARY 21 / Don't forget to give . . .

. . . money each week to help other people. You can afford it financially, and you will profit from it morally and, for gifts that honor God, spiritually. If you're unsure which charities to support, consider those listed in the right column of Unca D under "Good Works." Also consider sending money . . .   

JANUARY 18 / Is America in decline?

FOR MORE than two centuries, even before the formation of the United States, the answer has been no. To ask the question was a fool's errand. Despite recession and depression, despite wars and rumors of war, despite bad presidents and worse legislators and judges, despite it all, the longer trajectory was ever upward. Choose your own measure. Material prosperity. Life expectacy. International power. Better prospects for women and racial minorities. Up, up, up.

But is that still true?

JANUARY 15 / In remembrance of . . .

. . . the 53,310,843 American children murdered by abortion since Roe v. Wade, and the millions more around the globe:

JANUARY 12 / Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in . . .

. . . Bentonville, Arkansas, is well worth the trip. 

 More images . . .  

JANUARY 9 / Body count shows Chronicle's deep bias

ONE DEFENSE of the thoroughgoing liberalism of the Houston Chronicle's miserable editorial board is that conservatives get a fair shake on the op-eds. That's the newspaper's idea of balance: Hire not one local right-leaning opinionator; just rent a conservative from the national syndicates every now and again. 

But there is no balance among the Chronicle's op-eds. The left end of the seesaw is heavy in numbers, light in common sense and, in some cases, decency. The right end is . . .

JANUARY 6 / Are they talking about the same guy?

Comparing four newspaper ledes on the death of Kim Jong Il offers a useful primer on the shortcomings of the Houston Chronicle and New York Times and the relatively better work at the Washington Post (where, at least, the liberals are adults and editors still demand journalism) and the generally excellent Wall Street Journal. 

Absurdly gentle

Kim Jong Il, North Korea's mercurial and enigmatic leader . . . 

JANUARY 4 / Numbers

$825,000,000,000.00

The true price tag for President Obama's 2009 stimulus bill, according to the Congressional Budget Office. 

 $787,000,000,000.00

The advertised price tax for President Obama's 2009 stimulus bill.

541

Days Belgium went without a government. Belgium's S&P rating: AA. Cause and effect?

75

Percentage of America's last four presidents who were left-handed (Obama, Clinton, G.H.W. Bush).

50

Percentage of America's last twelve presidents who were left-handed (add Reagan (ambitextrous), Carter, Truman).

13

The U.S. misery index in September, a 28-year high. Unemployment was 9.1 percent; inflation, 3.9 percent.

10

Percentage of Americans who are left-handed. Time for an affirmative-action program for righties?

JANUARY 3 / The Chronicle did not quite apologize to . . .

. . . China. But in an editorial about the merit of teaching Mandarin in a planned new HISD magnet school, the paper couldn't help itself: It had to say something gratuitously nasty about . . .

JANUARY 2 / The Houston Chronicle editorial board celebrated . . .

. . . Christmas with an essay about that always-popular yuletide subject, untested rape kits. This keeps alive the paper's almost flawless record of refusing to acknowledge, much less participate in, the common rituals of civic life that help define American, Texan, and Houstonian culture: Christmas, the Fourth of July, and all in between. The Chronicle reserves editorials about civic holidays for truly mainstream events, such as . . . 

DECEMBER 31 / Thank you for reading "Unca D" . . .

. . . and best to you and yours in 2012.

 

DECEMBER 24 / Christmas Eve, a perfect time to . . .

. . . give to those in need. Let's write a check to Salvation Army, Star of Hope, or another worthy charity. (You can find them on the Web.) Then hug your kids and celebrate the birth . . .  

DECEMBER 19 / What glorious fall leaves we have had

DECEMBER 15 / The childish calculation present in . . .

. . . Lisa Falkenberg's "human equation."

Metro has apparently decided to cancel a bus route, the No. 48, that the agency says is losing $147,917 a year.

Ms. Falkenberg rushed to Pleasantville, a "quiet, aging, historically black hamlet known for its active civic club and voting precinct" -- and found that No. 48 serves an 85-year-old widow, cancer survivor, and "former River Oaks housekeeper" who really needs the bus.

Not to mention a fellow Pleasantville resident, 75; "a worker at a Heights funeral home, a clerk for HISD, a contractor on his way to a job in Missouri City, and two home health providers who . . . care for patients in Pleasantville"; and "a minister and retired bricklayer in a plaid flannel jacket." (Lisa Falkenberg, "Human equation absent from this calculation," Houston Chronicle, December 15, 2011)

This is an interesting and legitimate story. Good for Ms. Falkenberg in doing the legwork. Government actions have real human consequences that should not be ignored. 

But . . .  

DECEMBER 14 / Toljaso

FOR AT-LARGE CITY COUNCIL runoffs, the Houston Chronicle -- no real suprise -- endorsed a nasty-spirited shouter (Jolanda Jones) and a former ACORN employee (Kristi Thibaut), both reliable tax-and-spend progressives. Unca D endorsed . . .

DECEMBER 13 / The sky is falling. Let's . . .

. . . think really, really hard about it.

The Houston Chronicle supports Obama, Occupy, virtually every proposal from the left to take more dollars from taxpayers (or borrow it from our grandchildren) and spend it on God knows what, and, of course, most all proposed new state and federal regulations. But once a month or so, the most conservative guy . . .

DECEMBER 12 / Herman Cain's biggest sin . . .

. . . as revealed by the Wall Street Journal:  

DECEMBER 10 / Tebow on giving

While at Florida, Mr. Tebow became well known for spending his summers helping . . .

DECEMBER 9 / Stratfor on Afghanistan

SOME IN AFGHANISTAN have claimed that the United States has been defeated, but that is not the case. The United States may have failed to win the war, but it has not been defeated in the sense . . .

DECEMBER 8 / Deconstructing PKH

COLUMNIST Patricia Kilday Hart came out Wednesday against democratic, small-d, control of public money. Elected Texas authorities have decided to channel some federal taxpayer dollars to Texas community colleges rather than to an Alinskyite . . .