Showing posts with label texas last. Show all posts
Showing posts with label texas last. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 26

the impartince of good speling

On one of the mailing lists I'm on, the following "conversation" took place yesterday:
... sent out a memo about using there name as a generic name for air ambulance. At our place the reporters were told to use "Air Ambilance"

then someone asked what an "Ambilance" was.

A third person chimed in with "So now we're complaining about spelling error's??"
Oy, vey.

Part of the reason the rest of the world (rightly so) sees Texas as a hillbilly backwater is because the vast majority of natives here can't spell (or grammar) their way out of a wet paper bag. In the first two sentences above, there are two errors. In the last sentence, there is one. I didn't see the use in correcting "error's" but couldn't help but feel sorry for the writer.

When I read something (whether online or in print) it's distracting to deal with the near-constant grammar errors, misspelling and misuse of punctuation. I don't understand how students can get a diploma when they can't complete even one sentence without an error that those of us with half a brain will trip over as we try to understand what they're saying.

Then, as seen in the second sentence above, someone else has the audacity to defend these errors under the guise that "smart people can figure out what he's trying to say". It's enough to make me want to take away "they're diploma" [sic] until they can converse like rational adults.

Perhaps they were home schooled, and their parents were incapable of correcting the errors, or didn't want Little Joe Bob to have poor self esteem, so they gave them a passing score although it was undeserved.

All of us make occasional typos, but with the ubiquity of spell checkers and grammar checkers, there's no excuse for such clumsiness; it simply breeds more and more bad behavior, until communication devolves into what passes for Acceptable via Text Messaging.

Monday, June 16

Texas Schoolchildren Am Doomed


Just for the record: Texas State Board of Education member David Bradley (R-Beaumont) is an embarrassment to Texas.

Why? He is a biblical creationist who rejects the science of evolution, and now he wants to shove his asinine views ("the world is 6000 years old, dinosaurs and humans coexisted" and other stupidity) into Texas school children's heads. Good luck with any of them ever getting jobs outside a fast-food drive-thru window, with that kind of "knowledge". Employers: please do yourself a favor and hire science graduates from ANY other state .. the ones here will be a waste of your time.

Honestly, it's a shame that anyone who can fog a mirror (without so much as a literacy test) -- without any education credentials AT ALL -- can get elected to the state board of education. The chairman (Dr. Don McLeroy) is a dentist, for cryin' out loud .. and another creationist.

The morons of Bradley's district (Texas SBOE #7) elected this moron to the State Board of Education in 1996, then moronically re-elected him to the board in 2000, 2002 and 2004. I hold each of them personally responsible for the damage this moron is about to inflict.

Thursday, June 5

DFW thanks NYC and ORD

There's a lovely article in Forbes magazine: "America's Most Time-Draining Airports" .. which ranks 100 US airports on delays. Apparently it's based on 2007 Bureau of Transportation statistics.

Good news: DFW is less delay-prone than the three (3) NYC* airports (LGA JFK EWR) and the country's worst: Chicago O'Hare. After that, it's all downhill for the local "big airport", beaten handily by six other airports in Texas. There's a direct correlation with the amount of traffic, so none of this surprises me:

12. ELP - El Paso
46. DAL - Dallas Love Field
58. HOU - Houston Hobby
59. AUS - Austin Bergstrom
61. SAT - San Antonio
80. IAH - Houston Bush Intercontinental
96. DFW - Dallas/Ft. Worth

The lower the number, the less likely you were to encounter delays in 2007, so says Forbes.
* multisearch is a truly wonderful thing. Pity there are only a handful (5) of these in the USA (CHI; NYC; QDF; QHO; WAS)
Forbes used seven (7) criteria to achieve their rankings:
  • Security-related delays
  • Late-aircraft-related delays
  • National-Aviation-System-related delays
  • Cancellation-related delay
  • Carrier-related delay
  • Weather-related delay
  • Percentage of flights arriving on time
  • Percentage of flights departing on time
To be sure, there are other airports in Texas, but they're smaller than any of those listed above. No offense intended: AMA; CRP; GLS; HRL; LBB and MAF.

Friday, May 23

Texas: where we am stupid an proude of It!

Today's must read: Texas education board passes new English, reading standards shows that we am gonna English like are fundamelnatlist Don McLeroy (a puppit of Guvinir Pretty Hair Perry).

An the Bes Part is that theses new Rulez! will be in plaise for the nexst TEN YEERS!

Neck Stop: Science! Let's see how Fundy Don McLeroy guts that (we All No the worlds 6000 years old rite) ?!?

Parents - if you live in Texas nows the time to move to a more edjicated stait. The good news am that there is 49 the chose from, incluiding Alabama and Misssisipi. Thin again, there is one way to be efen dummer: you could hoam school yer Childern so thay don't half to micks with Meksicans an Nigras (jusst like in real life!).

Saturday, October 20

We're #2! We're #2!

Finally .. something where Texas isn't Dead Last:
"A review by The Associated Press shows Texas is No. 2 in the nation in the number of teachers sanctioned for sexual misconduct. Texas Education Agency records indicate at least 200 teachers have active sanctions on their certifications for sexual misconduct that occurred between 2001 and 2005. At least 50 more certified teachers faced sex crime allegations, but had their sanctions lifted or have decisions pending."
I'm sure that George W. Bush, Karl Rove, John Cornyn, Kay Bailey Hutchison, and Rick Perry and all brimming with pride today over this accomplishment. I'm sure these Texas Republicans will do everything in their pahr (power) to make Texas #1 in that statistic Real Soon Now.

Meanwhile, here's another case where Texas is No. 1: "Percentage of People Without Health Insurance"
In 2006, the percentage uninsured ... among the 20 largest states ranged from 7.7% in Michigan to 23.8% in Texas. (CDC)

Wednesday, September 19

Representation without representation

One of the more annoying problems about living in Red-State Texas is that there is no US Senator who will listen to reason. Both Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) are both lock-step Republicans, and simply will not listen to any constituent who has a thought which isn't shared by President Quagmire Bush.

So, when issue-upon-issue makes it to my desk, and I'm asked to call or email my representative, I've concluded that it's a Waste Of My Time to make my views known to either Hutchison or Cornyn, since they're going to vote against my best interests regardless of how nicely I ask.

Does this mean the fascists have won? In a sense, yes .. because I've grown weary (in my advanced age) of wasting my time, calling a senator who simply doesn't care what I think. Ditto goes for Pete Sessions (R-Texas), who barely fogs a mirror over on the House of Representatives side of the hall.

Given that incumbents win 99% of the time, and there are no term limits for the House or Senate, this trio will likely stay in power until their deaths. Maybe Texas won't always stay this way, but for now .. there's nobody in Washington who represents me. Nobody.

Monday, August 13

but .. how will he THINK ?

Word out of DC this morning that Bush's Brain will leave the building at the end of this month. Perhaps then Rove won't be able to claim executive privilege for everything including what He had for breakfast, and He'll be packed off to Gitmo with the rest of the 9/11 Conspirators?

Unrelated: Texas: really, really doomed (in the "Bad Astronomy Blog"). Sadly, this isn't news, as Governor PrettyHair does His best to turn Texas into a White Christian Theocracy.
Update: there's a splendid rumor that Rove will now toss his hand into Rudy Giuliani's campaign for the 2008 election. I can't imagine Rove staying out of politics, but also can't imagine that anything he now touches won't be (rightly so) perceived as Pure Poison.

Sunday, July 29

changing another shopping habit

Wow. Very cool .. I may never shop at Home Depot, ever again. Thanks for giving me a good reason to pull the plug on them, Lowes.
Lowe's pulls advertising from O'Reilly show.
Everybody Knows™ that the last time Bill Orally at Faux Noise (kudos to Keith Olbermann) told the truth was when Adam & Eve were riding their dinosaurs to church.

Meanwhile, Texas lawyers are apparently Licking Their Chops after the 2007 Texas Legislative Session. Why? Concerns Abound Over New Religious Laws Passed By Legislature

Saturday, July 21

Texas 34, Kansas 2

Entertaining spot today on the Red State Rabble blog: Somewhere in Texas. Indeed, it's been my experience that Kansas is waaaay behind Texas when it comes to religious zealots making educational policy.

Don McLeroy's appointment is just another example of Governor PrettyHair's pandering to His base. Kansas is starting to look saner and saner all the time.

Monday, May 28

just wait until `09

Barring more of Texas Governor PrettyHair's (in)famous Special Sessions, the Texas Legislature has concluded its work until 13 January 2009. It'll be a few more days until PrettyHair signs some legislation and vetoes others. It's a good great thing that this travesty of governance only happens biennially.
(for those of you who are Texas-edjicated, that's a Big People's Word that means "every two years")
There are several blogs that do a credible job of covering what goes on (far, far better than the local disgrace newspaper - the Dallas Managed News, which is increasingly irrelevant). Here are my Top Four picks (all have RSS feeds, thank-you-very-much):

Burnt Orange Report
Pink Dome
Texas Kaos
Texas Observer

Ones you can safely ignore: Capitol Letters and Dallas Managed News Editorial Board (a defacto mouthpiece for the SMU-inspired Loyal Bushies).

Saturday, April 28

Texas Voter Suppression Act of 2007

Yet another example of the moral turpitude that defines Texas Politics: Todd Smith: "I Did it Because I'm Republican"
Note to William-Bob: This is not the famous Plano Bowler. This is the Fort Worth attorney, graduate of the right-wing Southern Methodist University (future home of the Bush Liberry).
Some background: Texas already has the 6th worst voter participation in the country (citation). For many years, the Republics have gerrymandered districts (think: Tom DeLay) to maintain control. Now that such bad behavior has become common knowledge, the Republics have resorted to scare tactics to create what's affectionately being called "The Voter Suppression Act of 2007" which will prevent additional (low income, minority) voters from casting their vote, due to the higher entrance barrier erected against a Don Quixote-type adversary (the "illegal Mexicans who are trying to vote" - of which there are none).

For those of you voyeurs (!) who'd like to actually read the bill (something that our elected representatives are NOT required to do), here is the text of Texas House Bill 218 (2007). Once it's signed by Governor PrettyHair, it'll take effect in September 2007. I fully expect Texas to rocket to 50th (read: dead last) place soon thereafter. The good news: Texas is still #1 in executions.

Tuesday, April 24

pond scum sinks to the bottom, right?

From time to time, I've opined here about the correlation between a Fine Texas Education and the likes of Karl Rove; Tom DeLay and George W. Bush (collectively determined to destroy this country). This is not to ignore the current crop of pond scum working its way into the national limelight .. their day will arrive soon enough.

Granted, Texas isn't completely filled with vacuous neanderthals, since this is also home to Ann Richards; Molly Ivins; LBJ; Dan Rather and Bill Moyers* (to name a few) .. but, the statistics presented in January's "Texas on the Brink: How Texas Ranks Among the 50 States" are certainly chilling.
* okay, Bill Moyers was born in Oklahoma. But he was Raised Up here in Texas.
And it ain't a gittin' any better, given what I've read about the 2007 Texas Legislature and the new cavalcade of insanity that is about to be laded upon us, like so much cream gravy. With that in mind, I hereby point out today's recommended reading: A Race To The Bottom. Amazing.

If you have the time for more, yesterday's post on The Bush Library Blog ain't half bad, either.

Friday, April 13

Look out, Tulsa

A story in today's Dallas Managed News says:
"The Dallas-Fort Worth area is No. 2 on the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America’s latest list of the 100 most challenging places for allergy sufferers to live.

Tulsa leads the list."
I'm guessing our local politicians are working on a plan to make Dallas #1 .. so the Tulsans (Tulsians? Tulsicans?) had better watch their back. Meanwhile, will someone pass me another tissue? And some eye drops? And some sinus meds? And ...

Saturday, April 7

all shopped out

Jill was in own this week, to visit her dentist and take in a Stars game, and .. to shop. We started off at Kampai (sushi), then moseyed to Northpark Center (Eddie Bauer and the Apple store), then onto West Elm (furniture); Trinity Hall (nourishment); Pokey O's (dessert) and Half-Price Books (to buy vs. sell). No idea when she leaves or gets home.

Today it was Judy's turn: we fed at the Waffle House, then onto Saigon-Taipei (grocery); Hiep-Thai (grocery); Gateway Travel; watch a DVD (A Good Year); and Half-Price Books (to sell vs. buy).

I now think I'm All Retailed Out for awhile. Tomorrow, most stores will probably be closed (Easter Sunday in The Bible Belt) and it's a bit chilly (1°C tonight) so I'll probably be able to kick back and Read A Good Book tomorrow.



Unrelated: today's Texas Idiot Of the Day is Dan Patrick, who walked out on a different (than His own) religion's prayer. Patrick is a Texas state senator from Houston, and fulltime White Christian Republican radio talkshow host. I'm guessing he'd like better ratings, which is why he pulled this stunt.

Monday, April 2

The Mathematics of Revelation

Well, isn't that special?

Not only are Texas legislators considering gutting the public school system, so that Rich White Christians can channel their money to School Vouchers (and private, White Christian Schools) but now they want to mandate an elective course in the Christian Bible in Texas schools.

House Bill 1287 would mandate that every high school in the state offer an elective Bible course. Unbelievable. I guess they must think that their own White Christian education every Sunday isn't enough, so they now must encroach on the public school system (or whatever is left after James Leininger and his School Voucher Nazis take every last dime).

When was the last time you heard a realtor say "your property values will increase because this neighborhood has a great private school system? Yeah, I didn't think so.

Wouldn't it be easier to mandate a law where English and Trigonometry are taught by the White Christian schools? Certainly Real Texans don't want Liberal Readin' Rightin' and Rithmetic (the Texas 3 Rs) to be tot in non-Christian schools? Oy, vey.

I'm guessing that these new White Christian classes will not teach how to add 666 and 666 together?

Friday, March 16

DST-induced time warp

I watched today as some email threads between friends got very confusing. Some of them had applied the DST [Daylight Saving Time] patches to their systems, while others had not, so the email thread became difficult to follow. Ref: EPACT

Most people don't realize that their PC is the source of the timestamp affixed to every message, (unless you're using your provider's webmail). Even if the PC's clock appears current, email will arrive in the recipient's mailbox out-of-sequence:
11:52 John / here's my reply
12:04 John / John's conclusion
12:45 Mary / here's the original email
12:58 Mary / Mary's reply
In case you're not following the example .. Mary didn't apply the DST patches. In real time, Mary sent an email at 11:45am -- but was timestamped as 12:45pm. John replied seven minutes later (11:52), Mary replied six minutes after that (11:58) and John finished the thread six minutes later (12:04pm).

That could be hard to follow if you're trying to make sense of this email thread. The problem will continue until either:

1- 16 more days pass until DST would otherwise start - on April 1st;
2- the person applies the new DST patches.

Even then, it's not foolproof since the clocks on most PCs wander. On one of my XP boxes, I was forced to install Automachron because the PC wandered up to 8 minutes a day, and there's no obvious way to adjust XP's Internet-sync feature to probe more than once a week.

Related: I watched one TV news show - sometime around March 9th - explain how to "fix" the PC without installing the DST patches: they said to simply (x)uncheck the box related to Daylight Saving Time, then manually (x)check it back on April 1. They must've been Texans because the advice was WRONG, WRONG, WRONG.

Friday, March 2

Texas Liars Independence Day

I nearly forgot that today is a state holiday:
"On this day in 1836, the Republic of Texas declared its independence from Mexico."
Given the fact that 29.3%(*) of all people living in Texas were born in Mexico, I find this .. uh .. Curious.

I was reading the Bold Types Blog (columnists from the Dallas Managed News) where one of the guys (Josh Benton) is taking flak for inferring that we dispense with having schoolchildren recite the Texas pledge of allegiance:
"Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one and indivisible."
Hey, I'm with Josh, but 91%(*) of the Texas population would rather send him back to Louisiana for even thinking that The Texas Pledge should be sent to the dung heap of history. Me, I find it a meaningless rote gesture that will have lost its meaning after about three recitations, but you can't tell that to a Texas native, who has it so drilled into her/his brain that it cannot be dislodged by logic.

Later, Josh tried to correct a blog commenter who wrote
"Texas is the only state in the Union that was previously a nation all its own. Texans are particularly proud of that fact."
.. which is an oft-repeated lie (think Hawaii and Vermont). The same commenter babbled on with
"And proud of the fact that ours is the only state flag that can be flown side by side with the US flag."
.. which is ANOTHER lie (see snopes.com)

All this reminds me of the need to Get It Wright Right The First Time. So many times, I've received an email from someone who has forwarded a maltruth .. and cc'ed everyone in his/her Address Book. While I used to be forgiving and only reply to the sender, pointing out the error, I have learned that she/he never sends a retraction .. so I'm now happy to do it for him/her. Let this serve as a warning to any of you who emails me with a pack-o-lies: I WILL respond to Everyone On Your List with the corrected information. This will make you look like a fool to all your friends. This is not my problem: you should have investigated it yourself and decided Not To Forward It.

Jill Wazzabob used to say: "A lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part" which I have morfed into "A lack of fact-checking on your part does not constrict my ability to make you look like the moron you am."[sic]


(*) I concocted this statistic. To native Texans: that means I "made it up".

Sunday, February 18

brother, can you spare a dime?

Add another item to the "Texas Dead Last" list: average credit scores.

Turns out Texas is the lowest of all 50 states. Whoda thunk that this marvelous place which gave us such mental lightweights (and fiscal disconservatives) as George W. Bush would also give us lousy credit scores?

830 highest possible score
707 highest state average (South Dakota)
705 2nd best (Vermont)
673 US average
651 49th worst (Nevada)
646 lowest state average (Texas)
330 lowest possible score

Details on Experian's site.

Unrelated post, as entered (smugly) from my Mac: Dim Vista - Forbes.com

Saturday, April 22

now ain't that phat?

What a way to spend a Saturday. Inside the Dallas Convention Center with 600 people I'd never met before (well, except for Mayor Laura). This was part of Shaping America's Health .. the next seven hours in a surprisingly fast-moving 21st Century Town Meeting® called Shaping America's Youth.

Turns out this is the 2nd one of these ever held. The first was in Memphis, earlier this year. Dallas had over 1046 registrants but only 600 made it to the event. I guess that's a good turnout, especially on one of the 4 nice weekends in Dallas every year (otherwise it's too hot/wet/cold).

The meeting itself was reasonably hi-tech. Each table (10 people) had a Mac iBook connected on a wireless network to a Think Tank near the stage. As we Solved World Hunger, our ideas were passed to this group which cut-and-pasted them into a presentation, offering near-immediate gratification.

The session leaders were David Campt and Julia Sullivan; they did a commendable job staying on their feet the entire time. Many of the attendees (37%) were Hispanic; several accepted the offer of earpieces for a Spanish translation (see also: Avance Dallas). We were handed wireless "voting gadgets" which had a USB interface at the top; the thing was called an "OpinionCounterIQ" (sadly, I didn't think to take a photo of it).

Random stuff:
0- Texas is the 6th fattest state; 63% of Texans are overweight or obese.
1- 35% of school-age children are overweight or obese; only 11% attend PE [Physical Education] classes.
2- David Campt (session leader) said that overweight Americans will die 19 years early, on average.
3- an upcoming TV show is due to be broadcast here on May 27th (channel 11); "The Biggest Generation" will be a good thing to TiVo.
4- Coming soon (April 27th): Bike & Walk to School day. Yeah, like parents will leave their SUVs at home to escort Junior to school. Right.
5- The Cooper Institute has program called "Promoting healthy behaviors in children"

Other speakers:
6- Bradie James (a Dallas Cowboy);
7- Alex Wolens - the mayor's 15-year old daughter;
8- Terry Wade regarding Marathon Kids (Richardson ISD);
9- Dr LeAnn Kridelbaugh, of the Dallas Area Coalition to Prevent Childhood Obesity (probably an offering of Children's Medical Center of Dallas)