Unca Darrell

APRIL 18 / Once more into the breach

THE BUSH-CLINTON Coastal Recovery Fund is still banging the tin cup. Today would be a good time to give a few bucks. Then hug your kids.

APRIL 17 / Why was blogHouston kicked off the Chronicle blogroll?

WITH BLOGHOUSTON in the memory hole, how will Chronicle readers keep up with Editor Cohen's golf scores?

APRIL 17 / More from "Garrison in the News"

FROM Garrison in the News, January 29, 2009:

PAGE ONE: Jo Ann Barton, "January Joys and Sorrows," a profile of Bro. Travis Lunsford and wife Lavernie. The heart of the story is an account of the death of their son.

Darrell Lunsford was shot and killed while on a traffic stop. [He] found marijuana in the trunk of the . . . vehicle. The three suspects then jumped Constable Lunsford and shot and killed him with his own service weapon. 

APRIL 17 / Cacaphony?

Get a cup of coffee. This will take a while, but it's worth every minute.

The Chronicle on the tea parties:

Wednesday's protests told Americans that a vocal minority in this country . . .

APRIL 16 / Anybody even get today's Nick Anderson?

THE SHELL-SHOCKED Chronicle editorial board has slowly quit poking sharp sticks in the eyes of traditionalist readers.

Editorial insults these days are usually milder, the unintended byproduct of not understanding or appreciating conservative ideas or values.

All except Nick Anderson, who -- protected by his talent and his Pulitzer -- still whales away at us.

APRIL 15 / Victor Davis Hanson on how Obama Nation thinks

THIS ESSAY by classicist and military historian Victor Davis Hanson is a good short inventory of the propositions on which the administrator and its friends in academia and the media construct their view of the world. A sampling:

APRIL 14 / Too early to say "tipping point," but nice anyway

LAST THURSDAY the Chronicle bemoaned falling home prices and pointed out the obvious, but important, point that property-tax dependent government agencies are in for tough times.

Falling home values will mean tighter budgets in most if not all local political jurisdictions, including Houston. That certainly ought to bring vigorous debate among the candidates about how best to manage with leaner resources. Indeed voters should insist on it.

APRIL 10 / "Not interrupted once to get his cows off the railroad tracks"

MY HOMETOWN (and Diana's), Garrison, Texas, has a wonderful weekly newspaper -- Garrison in the News -- published as a labor of love by Jo Ann Barton. Let's flip through the issue of February 19:

APRIL 9 / Gerecht on Iran

Reuel Marc Gerecht:

In diplomacy and espionage, there is no worse mistake than "mirror-imaging," that is, ascribing to foreigners your own actions and views. For Westerners this is especially debilitating, given our modern proclivity to assume that others pursue their interests in secular, material, and guilt-ridden ways. Confession is an important part of the Western tradition; self-criticism is less acute elsewhere. Americans, the British, the Spanish, and the French have written libraries about their own imperialistic sins; Arabs, Iranians, Turks, and Russians have not. In an unsuccessful effort to reach out to Iran's clerical regime in 1999, President Bill Clinton apologized for the actions of the entire Western world. . . .

APRIL 8 / The price will be paid by your children and grandchildren

David S. Broder:

With a bit of bookkeeping legerdemain borrowed from the Bush administration, the Democratic Congress is about to perform a cover-up on the most serious threat to America's economic future.