Unca Darrell

MAY 17 / Super-size the smelling salts

THE HOUSTON CHRONICLE editorial board will get the vapors when it reads this about the newspaper's least-favorite Houstonian: "Michael Berry Show Expanding Out of Houston," Wednesday's feature in "Talkers" magazine. Alternate headline: "Self-Syndication is Berry, Berry Good."

"Talkers" is the trade publication that covers the radio talk-show bidness.

Here's the teaser:

MAY 8 / Houston Chronicle, case study

WHY ARE the opinion pages of big-city American newspapers almost universally liberal? This question inspired a round of journalistic navel-gazing at reason.com (libertarian) and thedailybeast.com (the zombie that once was Newsweek). Our own Houston Chronicle, which seemingly prefers death to the dishonor of having even one genuine traditionalist and conservative on the local opinion payroll, popped up as . . .

MARCH 3 / One thing the Chronicle is (finally) getting right

REGULAR READERS of Unca D -- both of you -- know the Houston Chronicle has proudly and ostentatiously declined for many years to embrace, or express even minimal respect toward, the civic holidays that help define and strengthen and our American and Texan culture and polity.

Fourth of July? What's that? A bunch of beer-swilling, dog-roasting, flag-waving plebes . . .

FEBRUARY 28 / Progressives preach . . .

. . . more spending, more taxing, and more regulation. So does the uber-progressive Houston Chronicle.

In the last eight days, the paper -- in the voice of its editors, cartoonist, and public-affairs columnists -- has urged more spending at least six times, more regulation at least five times, and more taxes at least once. 

The paper frosted this three-layed cake with filigrees of criticism and mockery for those who would spend less, tax less, and regulate less: conservatives generally, the Tea Party in particular.

Details below.

OCTOBER 31 / Guess who these folks are lining up to vote against

THROUGH Tuesday, 491,349 early votes were cast in Harris County.

That's way more than total early voting in 2008 -- 433,908 -- and we still have three days to go.

Early voting at Kingwood Branch Library shows a pattern. See if you can spot it.

OCTOBER 24 / As measured by campaign contributions . . .

. . . academics from colleges and universities in Houston and Texas are (a) overwhelmingly for Barack Hussein Obama and (b) cheapskates. Details:

OCTOBER 17 / Dinosaur?

POLITICAL BLOGGERS come and go. One of Houston's best has . . .

OCTOBER 13 / It's been a while since . . .

. . . we contributed to . . .

JULY 24 / Stephen Tipps's local judicial recommendations . . .

. . . for the July 31 GOP runoff:

JUNE 12 / A skirmish over metaphors

As his presidential campaign disintegrated, Perry released an ad condemning President Obama's "war on religion." Although the war metaphor has become unsettlingly popular lately, if there is in fact a war on religion, it's not coming from President Obama . . . . (Joseph Locke, "The risk of religious politics," Houston Chronicle, June 4, 2012)

With the Chronicle's continuing reduction of staff, even in the plush offices of the editorial board, the newspaper must now outsource much of its nasty work. And where better to find a nasty basher . . .