Category Archives: Texas/Local stories

It May Not Be Terrorism But it Sure is Criminal

April 29, 2013

What attention the explosion at the West, Texas fertilizer company has been getting from most of the main stream media has been to cover the lives of the first responders who died in this tragic event along with some of the residents of West who also suffered from an explosion that registered an equivalency of a 2.1 earthquake. And as unsettling as all that is, it’s what you haven’t heard or seen in the media that will disturb you the most.

Today I live a little over a hundred miles north of the small central Texas town of West in a region that became popular with many descendants of Czech immigrants in the late 19th century. West is perhaps best known by visitors passing through this small community off of Interstate 35 for the kolaches that are a pastry favorite of the Czechs, most notably sold at the Little Czech Bakery at exit 353. In fact the town was officially designated “Home of the Official Kolache of the Texas Legislature” in 1997.

I know the town of West best from the mid-1960’s when a teenage friend of mine and I would travel down there most Sundays so we could watch the Dallas Cowboys play on the TV set at the VFW hall in West. The VFW was also located at exit 353 but on the opposite side of I-35 from the Little Czech Bakery. Don and I both dropped out of high school in 1966 to join the Marines but before that, when he had his little Austin-Healey Sprite, we traveled the 70 something miles from Dallas where I lived at the time.

In the 60’s the Cowboys hadn’t yet become America’s Team so sell outs to the game weren’t always assured. If the local game didn’t sell out two days before it was played it was blacked out in the area. Thus the trip to West, which for us, with gas around 25 cents a gallon then, made it cheaper to drive to West than to buy a ticket and watch the Cowboys play at the Cotton Bowl. Texas Stadium had yet to be built.

The Little Czech Bakery is part of a business that also supplies other needs for travelers sold in the attached Czech Stop. As the picture on the right shows, this popular roadside stop was just 3 miles south of where the fertilizer plant was that exploded April 17th.

So this brief but memorable history with the town of West came back into my consciousness following the horrible explosion of the fertilizer plant. The interest that developed for me following this explosion became focused on what caused it and any subsequent investigation to discover what led to the death of 14 people and where many homes and a 50-unit apartment building were completely devastated beyond repairs. It is this lack of media coverage regarding the investigation of what caused the explosion that grates at me.

Unlike the thoroughness by which we learned of the who and what of the Boston Marathon bombers as well as coverage regarding the victims, we have only been left with the somber reality of the fertilizer explosion by the televised tributes to its victims. With the exception of the Dallas Morning News, why hasn’t the MSM here locally done more to expose what the conditions were at the West Fertilizer plant?

Though a “spokesman for the F.B.I. in San Antonio said Thursday there had been no indication of criminal activity in the West plant explosion,” I would challenge that presumption with the facts we have. It may prove true that there was no certain individual or group that willfully set the fire that ultimately led to the detonation of the ammonium nitrate stored there. A quantity by the way that’s been revealed to be “1,350 times the amount … that would normally trigger safety oversight by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).” But we do have evidence of misleading information from the owners of West Fertilizer, Inc. as well as what appears to be negligence on the part of of Texas oversight agencies that any honest prosecutor might deem worthy of a court’s interest.

Here’s what we know.

The West Fertilizer Co. was cited for failing to obtain or qualify for a permit in 2006 after a complaint [by nearby residents] of a strong ammonia smell.
Because of deep-budget cuts that undermans federal regulatory agencies, OSHA has inspected the West plant exactly once in the company’s 51-year history. That 1985 inspection detected multiple “serious” violations of federal safety requirements for which the company paid a grand total of $30 in fines. OSHA’s 1992 process-safety-management standard for highly hazardous chemicals is supposed to protect against disasters like the West explosion, but it wasn’t in place for that inspection.
The failure of OSHA to do due diligence here is related to a conflict between OSHA and the state of Texas regarding the number of employees at the plant. “Some plants with 10 or fewer employees are exempt from oversight by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. A spokesman says the Texas plant had 13 employees when the accident occurred, but state records show it had only seven.”
The fact that the “West Fertilizer Co. was handling 2,400 tons a year [in 2006] of potentially explosive ammonium nitrate in a warehouse near schools, houses and a nursing home” as noted in a Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TECQ) permit apparently didn’t raise any “concerns, either internally or with other agencies, about explosion risks or the proper management of a chemical already notorious in Texas history.”
Bryan W. Shaw, Gov. Rick Perry’s appointee as TCEQ chairman, told the Dallas Morning News that “the state chemist and the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration [have] responsibility for regulating fertilizer fire and explosion risks. But the regulatory scrutiny for ammonium nitrate storage that Shaw outlined does not exist”.
The logical state agencies for oversight are disavowing their responsibility to cover the hazards of storing ammonium nitrate, a chemical in fertilizers used by domestic terrorist Timothy McVeigh to blow up the Murrah Bldg. in Oklahoma City back in 1995. “We don’t, at TCEQ, evaluate the explosive threat associated with these types of facilities,” said Perry appointee Shaw. And according to agency spokespersons, “the federal pipeline agency governs only transportation, not storage. The head of the state chemist’s office, Tim Herrman, said his agency has no legal authority or expertise to pursue fire or explosive safety at places that store ammonium nitrate.”
The knowledge Texas state agencies had about how “a routine fire getting out of control and superheating a container with a large volume of ammonium nitrate, widely used as a fertilizer and as an explosive [apparently failed to] discuss fire or explosive risks with the company or each other.”
A West Fertilizer, Inc. risk management plan, given to the EPA, stated that there was a “no” checked under fire or explosive risks, even though they also reported having as much as 54,000 pounds of anhydrous ammonia on hand. “The worst possible scenario, the report said, would be a 10-minute release of ammonia gas that would kill or injure no one. The second worst possibility projected was a leak from a broken hose used to transfer the product, again causing no injuries.”
Apparently the first responders who died in this explosion were either unaware or uninformed that when dealing with a fire where anhydrous ammonia was present that water should not be used. Using water to fight such a fire“ will result in warming of the product, causing the liquid to turn into a vapor cloud,” says the website of Calamco, a growers’ cooperative in California.

Now when you take all of these facts into consideration and then throw into the mix the apparent anti-regulatory attitude by Governor Rick Perry and most state agency administrators, especially the TCEQ, then it wouldn’t take a rocket science to draw the reasonable conclusion that criminal charges are not out of the question regarding the explosion at the West Fertilizer plant. But it’ll be a cold day in hell before our so-called representative form of government seeks to criminally prosecute any business that some state officials themselves are culpable of for conditions that caused the deaths of innocent Texans.

After Tim Herrman defended his agency against any negligence, I found it interesting that “the Office of the Texas State Chemist, a division of Texas A&M University, is fighting a Dallas Morning News request for inspection and inventory records, citing national security concerns regarding ammonium nitrate, which can be highly explosive and used in bombs.” To understand now how something poses a threat to our national security but at the time didn’t seem important enough to convey to the appropriate agency is the height of hypocrisy and seems more to be the actions of one attempting to expiate themselves for their failure in this matter.

This lack of attention to the safety of our workplaces and neighborhoods is no accident. It is the product of a concerted attack by the US Chamber of Commerce, industry trade associations, and conservative think tanks on what they see as onerous regulatory programs – but ones that were enacted by Congress over the years to protect the public from irresponsible corporate misconduct. SOURCE

The corporate media in this country along with overly corporate-friendly government officials will go out of their way to expose every facet to justify their prosecution of the so-called “War on Terror” but don’t expect them to police themselves when it comes to criminal negligence or willful disregard for the public’s safety by devotees of “free-market” capitalism.

In a Washington Post op-ed piece, labor reporter Mike Elk noted that the “decline in [media] coverage has created an environment in which companies may feel as if they can get away with massive safety violations because they will face little scrutiny from the media and the public.” A reporter at the Charleston Gazette who covered workers’ safety for many years, Ken Ward Jr., in a tweet to Mike Elk a few days earlier summed it up best when he said, “Terrorists want media attention, so we give it to them. Unsafe industries don’t want media attention – so we give that to them.”

I can’t speak for all North Texans, but I know that my memories of the West, Texas I knew as a teenager have had sufficient consoling with all of the reporting done about the victims in that tiny town conveyed by the MSM. It’s time now for some serious efforts to expose the people and the conditions that led to this awful disaster even if that goes all the way to the governor’s mansion. No more soft pedaling of the poor performances of the West Fertilizer Company owners and the state agencies we entrusted to carry out basic safety inspections.

Death by acts of terror doesn’t even register on this graph

More people in this country have and will die from such industry negligence and regulatory agency incompetence than any acts of terrorism have or ever will. Since May, 1886 there have been 23 attempted or successful acts of terrorism; domestic and foreign. Of those 23 there have been a total of 3291 Americans killed. 2976 of those occurred on September 11th, 2001. Due to work place safety issues some 4500 workers die each year on the job. Just because some have problems viewing criminality beyond the desperate acts of low-income people or those with middle eastern ancestry is not something that decent people should abide by.

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Posted by lbwoodgate in Texas/Local stories Tags: anhydrous ammonia, bomb making material, crony capitalism in Texas, Dallas Morning News, negligence by Texas state agencies, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Texas, West fertilizer plant esplosion, worker safety

16 comments

Why Can’t Texas Cash in on the Marijuana Bonanza?

April 18, 2013

I rail against my native state Texas for the wellspring of stupid politicians we have been seeing over the last few years but the state does have some economic benefits for its citizens. So why can’t they see the financial gold mine that other states are beginning to realize by legalizing pot?

In a depressed economy where politicians are unwilling to raise taxes to pay for vital social services and equally vital infrastructure, you would think they could get beyond outdated taboos and unreasonable fears to find the necessary resources to sustain such services. There’s a natural product out there that’s been around for centuries that suffers from this stigma. One that not only has medicinal benefits to it but when properly regulated could reduce crime and prison populations while generating revenue to put people back to work in construction and the essential public services of education, law enforcement and firefighting services.

Marijuana has long been the victim of social biases that prevents its entry into the market place along the lines that alcohol and tobacco have. The alleged “evils” of marijuana have always overshadowed its economic value. The hemp cultivated from the Cannabis plant has the ability to produce seed foods, hemp oil, wax, resin, rope, cloth, pulp, and fuel.

movie poster for “Devil’s Harvest”, a 1942 film about an investigator who goes after the people who are corrupting the nation’s youth by spreading the weed of Satan–MARIJUANA!!!

There are, like any controversy, pros and cons to marijuana’s use as a euphoric substance. But before we tackle the facts and myths about marijuana lets come to terms with two arguments that hang over the use of any drug.

The Social Stigma of Marijuana

Any mind-altering chemical can impair judgement where some choices under the influence could jeopardize your health and well-being. But if the effects of the buzz that marijuana gives you was the only reason to prevent legalizing it, then alcohol and caffeine would have to be banned as well as other controlled substances (and some not so controlled) that currently make million$ for chemical and pharmaceutical companies.

There’s also the point of view that getting high in any fashion seems unnatural and thus unnecessary. Only weak-minded people want to get high, or so the argument goes. Yet natural states of high are built into our physiological system so that argument has little merit. Socially acceptable highs that don’t consist of controlled substances are the high we get from sugar and food. Getting “high on Jesus” or the high we get from winning a competitive sporting event are responses that many promote, not condemn.

There will be a propensity to induce this natural high, even by artificial means, to reduce the ill-effects of stress in today’s world where depression is reaching epidemic proportions. Alleviating excessive stress is necessary for sound health but not everyone can attain a state of nirvana through exercise and yoga therapies, not to mention the time it takes to achieve these states by using such tactics. Life styles that develop and sustain healthy diets, exercise, 7-8 hours of sleep and are filled with healthy doses of sex and genuine love for other humans, usually avoids the need for getting high from manufactured sources. But finding such ideal conditions in today’s fast-paced world has become more a thing of the past.

I don’t dispute that natural processes have advantages that unnatural measures haven’t but I am only making the point that getting high is not an innate evil and avoiding it is not necessarily something that should be done at all costs. Making marijuana illegal is not going to stop anyone who wants to try it. It does increase the risk of providing a product that has unsafe levels of THC, not to mention other toxic elements that get picked up through the less than ideal conditions of growing, harvesting and handling it from producer to consumer.

Considering the Facts

So, considering these two overarching points let’s look at the myths and facts on marijuana put out by the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), that governmental agency that currently supports what most assume is the general consensus of the American people.

Myth #1: Marijuana is harmless

This is a straw man that of course can easily be knocked down but is not a myth that anyone sensible would argue. Depending on where they got their marijuana, what one’s existing health conditions are and the frequency they use it, marijuana like anything else can be harmful. Drinking too much water can be fatal. Too much Jesus and too much Mohammad can and has been fatal since the days of the Crusades. Too much food or the wrong foods can be fatal. So suggesting that proponents of legalizing marijuana are claiming that the weed is harmless is simply a red herring that ignores the caveats that apply.

One of the claims the ONDCP makes here is that the health threat is greater based on “the fact that the marijuana available today is more potent than ever”. The potency currently is regulated by drug lords whose sole aim is to make it more addictive and thus more profitable. When licensed pot dealers who are regulated by U.S. inspectors meet standards that control potency, where this is a threat, it then becomes contained. But how big of a threat is this really?

The Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) notes that “Although marijuana potency may have increased somewhat in recent decades, claims about enormous increases in potency are vastly overstated and not supported by evidence. Nonetheless, potency is not related to risks of dependence or health impacts. According to the federal government’s own data, the average THC in domestically grown marijuana – which comprises the bulk of the US market – is less than 5 percent, a figure that has remained unchanged for nearly a decade.”

Myth #2: Marijuana is not addictive

I can personally vouch for this but again that doesn’t mean this applies in all instances. The government claims that “recent research shows that use of the drug can indeed lead to dependence. Some heavy users of marijuana develop withdrawal symptoms when they have not used the drug for a period of time.”

The key term is “heavy users”. According to the DPA “a federal Institute of Medicine study in 1999, fewer than 10 percent of those who try marijuana ever meet the clinical criteria for dependence, while 32 percent of tobacco users and 15 percent of alcohol users do.”

Perhaps the best argument that disputes the government’s claim about marijuana being addictive is that studies have found that addiction is not the result of some external substance. It’s a neurological disorder, making addiction a health problem. Ten kids can meet after school and smoke a joint but none will become addicts unless their brain isn’t wired properly to prevent this health defect.

In his book Clean, David Sheff takes an in-depth look into the causes of addiction. Though he finds that teens are especially prone to drug use and more likely to become addicted the earlier they start, any addiction that does occur “is almost always a symptom of another illness like PTSD, depression or obsessive disorder that likely doesn’t get treatment during any recovery program”.

Myth #3: Marijuana is not as harmful to your health as tobacco.

This would only be a fact if the average pot smoker toked as many joints a day as the average smoker. At the height of my smoking days I would consume two packages a day of cigarettes. During this same period I may have had inhaled a total joint in one week’s time. I know several people who smoked at least a reefer once or twice a day, everyday. I’m pretty sure that most smokers I was acquainted with smoked at a bare minimum 10 -15 cigarettes a day.

The ONDCP actually makes this case for me when they point out that “regular use of marijuana appears to be at least as damaging as regular use of tobacco”. These are their words, not mine. Notice they say regular use of marijuana, not the casual users or infrequent tokers. And then they fall short of any absolute by stating that this “appears” to be the case.

This entire argument should be pretty much dismissed because beyond the ONDCP’s claims based on a 1990 study entitled “Pulmonary complications of smoked substance abuse” and published by the Western Journal of Medicine, there is a more recent one from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and University of California at San Francisco, that finds “Occasional marijuana use does not appear to have long-term adverse effects on lung function. In fact they found that “cigarette smokers saw lung function worsen throughout the 20-year [study] period, but marijuana smokers did not. “

Myth #4: Marijuana makes you mellow.

Yes it does but it can also make you anxious and if you are prone to violence without ingesting marijuana, guess what? You’re going to be even more so at a heightened state induced by smoking the weed. Again, potency levels can be in play here but the research the ONDCP claims, regarding violence levels and marijuana use, doesn’t make us aware of what the behavior traits prior to smoking marijuana are of the “kids who use marijuana weekly” and who they found to be four times more likely to be violent than non-users.

“According to that study, incidences of physically attacking people, stealing, and destroying property increased in proportion to the number of days marijuana was smoked in the past year. Users were also twice as likely as nonusers to report they disobey at school and destroy their own things.” Was this a pattern of behavior prior to smoking weed and was weed the only drug being used here? What was the mental health state of these individuals? We don’t know any of this because the ONDCP fails to make such correlations.

Myth #5: Marijuana is used to treat cancer and other diseases.

This is another straw man created by anti-marijuana supporters and is mentioned in the ONDCP’s report. What supporters of medicinal marijuana claim is that it has been proven helpful for treating the symptoms of a variety of medical conditions. Big difference between implying that it directly “treats cancer” and treating “symptoms of cancer”. In its report the ONDCP does state “that THC, the primary active chemical in marijuana, can be useful for treating some medical problems. Synthetic THC is the main ingredient in Marinol®, an FDAapproved medication used to control nausea in cancer chemotherapy patients and to stimulate appetite in people with AIDS. Marinol, a legal and safe version of medical marijuana, has been available by prescription since 1985.”

It further claims that marijuana as a smoked product has never proven to be medically beneficial and sites a 1999 study from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) that “concluded that smoking marijuana is not recommended for any longterm medical use, and a subsequent IOM report declared, “marijuana is not a modern medicine.” Yet Several state legislatures appear to have found sufficient evidence that disputes this claim along with the testimonies of many cancer patients who smoke the rope to alleviate their pain symptoms. It also ignores the fact that Big Pharma gets a cut in the legal sale of Marinol® In those states that have legalized marijuana for medicinal purposes patients are allowed to grow their own and thus save the expense of a drug store purchase.

What really caught my eye is the ONDCP’s claim that “medicines are not approved in this country by popular vote. Before any drugs can be released for public use they must undergo rigorous clinical trials (emphasis mine) to demonstrate they are both safe and effective, and then be approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Our investment and confidence in medical science will be seriously undermined if we do not defend the proven process by which medicines are brought to market.”

The image of the FDA as one that looks out for the interests of American consumers has been seriously tainted over the last few decades. So-called “rigorous testing” is often nothing more than those tests that the companies themselves have done and submitted to the FDA for review. These tests are then signed off on by FDA officials who are under pressure from corporate friendly directors often appointed by conservative administrations. One WSJ report noted in the case of Menaflex, a new device to treat knee injuries, that “some senior FDA staff members complained in documents that the handling of Menaflex, made by ReGen Biologics Inc., shows how political and industry pressure can influence scientific conclusions.”

The deaths of some 60,000 people occurred when the FDA failed to do due diligence with the reports from Merck with their nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug,Vioxx, after it was discovered that they “were developed by the company’s marketing department, not its scientific department.”

So until the FDA can be shown to once again serve the public’s interests rather than pharmaceutical lobbyists, we needn’t feel intimidated by the ONDCP’s claims about “our investment and confidence in medical science” is being undermined regarding medical marijuana. For more on the FDA’s recent history for easy approval on pharmaceuticals read, The Problem with Fast-Tracking Drug Approvals: Pharmas Fail to Follow Up

Addendum, Ad nauseam

The remaining five myths posted on the ONDCP’s web page are equally filled with vagueness and misinformation or inadequate information. Comparing marijuana’s use to the Ecstasy drug is an irrelevant apples to oranges comparison. And if the main reason the government feels that someone’s marijuana use is hurting those other than users because of the “violent” nature of marijuana trafficking, then it only seems reasonable that we remove this problem by taking it away from unregulated drug lords.

Not only do we remove the violence but we control the conditions its grown under and processed for sale. The money we save decriminalizing it by removing it from court dockets and emptying prison space will be additionally enhanced by the tax revenue we garner from its legitimate sale. Then of course there is the additional jobs benefits this new business creates.

Underage kids are no more likely to get their hands on it as a legalized substance than they are in its current state. Even the ONDCP admits that “if kids want marijuana, they can find it. More than half (55 percent) of youths age 12 to 17 responding to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health in 2002 reported that marijuana would be easy to obtain. The survey indicated that most marijuana users got the drug from a friend, and that almost nine percent of youths who bought marijuana did so inside a school building.”

But here’s the clincher that ONDCP makes. “[N]early 17 percent of the young people surveyed said they had been approached by someone selling drugs in the past month. In the 2000 survey, more than a quarter of 12 to 17 yearolds (26.6 percent) reported that drugselling occurs frequently in their neighborhoods”.

It only seems logical that the need to “push” marijuana in locations where kids gather is because there are no legal outlets that can be monitored for underage sells. Strict regulation and monitoring of known suppliers in a legal environment diminishes, if not removes, this vulnerability to our nation’s youth.

Reality Check

Let’s be clear here though. Like any controlled substance there are hazards that can occur. Abuses in all aspects will prevent a scenario where those who shouldn’t have access to marijuana are unable to do so. Like smoking tobacco, drinking alcohol and eating unhealthy foods, parents and society have an obligation to provide accurate information and utilize all resources to educate our kids about marijuana smoking. Proper education is something we are always obligated to do despite any industry’s effort to circumvent such education to protect their profits.

Rather than using science to appeal to their intellects we will fail as we currently have to prevent inquisitive kids from trying something that society considers taboo. Taboo not for the right reasons but for the fairy tales we tell them that discredits our authority in their eyes once they discover that they won’t grow horns from its use. There’s nothing to prevent concerned citizens to diligently educate kids about marijuana as they do other drugs, especially alcohol, in a child’s formative years; in their homes, their schools, churches and youth clubs.

If a child or young adult then makes the choice to use pot, then clearly there are drivers there that not even attempts to banish its access will stop. Throwing them in jail may have a “scared straight” effect but it will also give them a criminal record that will follow them in their early attempts to seek gainful employment and could even associate them with a true criminal element that may carry on once they’re no longer incarcerated

Once we resolve to act like intelligent adults not motivated by irrational fears, then we can take control of a product that has too long been socially demeaned and its users relegated to a criminal icon. We remove the stigma and the legal costs that takes this thing out of the dark shadows and make it a profitable source of revenue that creates jobs and funds for the essential public services that the anti-marijuana crowd seem all to willing to cut taxes for.

Now if only these facts will penetrate the thick skulls of the ideologues and bible thumpers here in Texas we may solve our budget issues they created in the first place.

The Top Five Special Interest Groups Lobbying to Keep Marijuana Illegal

Wednesday, 02 May 2012 08:59

Posted by lbwoodgate in Economy, Social Discourse, Texas/Local stories Tags: Cannabis, Controlled substance, economic and social benefits to legalizing pot in Texas, Health, legalizing pot, Marijuana, Office of National Drug Control Policy, Social stigma, Texas

7 comments

What is it About Texas Politicians Who Have No Shame?

April 16, 2013

Texas used to have a healthy mystique about it that was often the envy of other states and far away places like Lithuania. That’s been lost for future generations now since the presidency of George W. Bush and a host of other Texas politicians who have been in the national spotlight of late. The butt of many jokes, Texas is now too often seen as a place where “stupid” comes to breed.

In a recent Senate roll call vote to see if a bill containing gun control legislation could come to the floor for a debate, the two Senators from Texas both voted against it. They were two of the 31 Senators who cast a vote against a debate on the package which includes a comprehensive package that expands background checks for gun purchases, increases penalties against gun trafficking, and invests in school safety. One of the amendments that will be proposed is a watered-down version for universal background checks offered by Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Pat Toomey, R-Pa. A full-throated universal background check amendment could prevent criminals, gang members and mentally unstable people from buying a gun. The Manchin-Toomey compromise falls short of this and was even spoofed on SNL

In what was once considered the world’s greatest deliberative body, Senator Cornyn and junior Senator Ted Cruz voted to oppose discussion on any gun control measure including this important issue. It’s no secret that both are opposed to most if not all attempts to rein in gun violence, especially measures to inhibit the purchase of deadly assault guns like those used in the mass shootings this country has seen over the last 30 years. But that gun control measure will do little if we don’t also try to control who purchases any firearm for the very intent of inflicting harm on innocent people.

Recent polls show that a vast majority of Americans favor this sensible type of measure over every other suggestion that gun control advocates have presented. What doesn’t make sense about ensuring that a wife beater, a vengeful gang member or someone who has a criminal record that includes armed robbery or murder is restricted from buying a weapon that puts them at a distinct advantage over their victims? Currently there are background checks required if you purchase your weapon through a licensed gun dealer. But 40% of all firearms are sold through gun shows and private sells that are not governed under the same guidelines.

Most of the Senators who oppose added gun control measures will likely vote against this bill once it comes to the floor but appeared willing to allow their constituents the right to hear their pro and con views.

I suspect however that the gun-advocate supporters in the Senate will actually say very little other than some NRA talking point that has little basis in fact. They simply didn’t want to appear foolish as someone who would deny the constitutional prerogative of speaking freely and openly on a matter of grave concern. So what were Cornyn and Cruz thinking?

This is after all, in theory at least, a democracy. Only in dictatorships or oppressive oligarchs is speech suppressed that is critical of those in power. And therein lies the rub. Where does the real power lie?

For someone like Cruz, who campaigned on the theme about how his father fled the dictatorship of Fidel Castro to come to this country and make a life where people were, among other things, able to speak freely seems contradictory for him to oppose an honest and open debate on this issue. He knows he also can vote against this bill once it’s time, so why would he and Cornyn choose not to even allow any debate that would include universal background checks?

The Power of the NRA

Though 14 years ago Wayne LaPierre, the executive vice president of the National Rifle Association, told Congress the NRA supported “mandatory instant criminal background checks for every sale at every gun show”, today he and NRA President David Keene now oppose such checks for a variety of reasons, most of them that struggle with credibility issues. From complaining to how much of a hassle this regulation would impose on “law-abiding citizens” to the obvious fear mongering argument that this legislation would lead to the slippery slope of confiscation, the NRA has dodged and weaved around how nine out of ten Americans favor universal background checks.

“When you cut through the clutter of the gun-control debate,” say William Saletan with Slate.com, “this is the easiest conclusion to draw: The NRA has no compelling argument against universal background checks. Checks don’t regulate what kind of firearms or ammo you can buy. All they do is keep guns out of the hands of criminals, abusers, and mentally ill people. That’s worth $5 and two minutes of your time. Pass the law.”

Clearly then the pressure here being put on Senators Cornyn and Cruz is NOT from their constituents. Even in pro-gun Texas where the NRA is trusted more on the issue of guns than Barack Obama by a 47% to 43%, more Texans favor a ban on assault-style weapons by a 49% to 41% margin. They also oppose the NRA’s suggestion to arm public school teachers and to putting armed police officers in every school. It is highly likely then that they would also support a universal background check, especially when you consider that across the country 84% of gun-owners and 74% of NRA members are supportive for “requiring a universal background-check system for all gun sales”.

So this can only lead to one conclusion. Cruz and Cornyn, like so many other politicians are dismissive of their constituents where there are powerful corporate interests that counter them. In this case it is the gun manufacturing lobby who are pulling the strings to cancel out the people who actually elected them. And who best represents the gun manufactures than the NRA.

In its early days, the National Rifle Association was a grassroots social club that prided itself on independence from corporate influence.

While that is still part of the organization’s core function, today less than half of the NRA’s revenues come from program fees and membership dues.

The bulk of the group’s money now comes in the form of contributions, grants, royalty income, and advertising, much of it originating from gun industry sources. SOURCE

Cruz received more money than any other Republican, on the Senate Judiciary Committee, including Charles Grassley from Iowa, in just his first year as a U.S. Senator along with earning the NRA’s top rating of A+. And though Cornyn only had an A rating from the NRA, he did receive $12,450 in donations last year.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas uses a life size photo of a Remington 750, a popular hunting rifle, to make a point about the proposed ban on certain kinds of guns

I haven’t been able to pinpoint information on donations from specific gun manufactures, but Cornyn has, over his Senate career, voted in favor of the gun industry in all of the gun-related legislation that has made it to the Senate floor for a vote, including the one in 2005 that prohibited lawsuits against gun manufacturers.

Most of the manufacturers’ donations to candidates are likely these days, in lieu of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United case, to be filtered through SuperPacs that allow unlimited money while keeping donor information secret. Following the outcome of another federal court case known as SpeechNow.org v. Federal Election Commission multiple SuperPacs began to appear. One was the Texas Conservative Fund that spent its entire load – $5,872,431 – opposing Ted Cruz’s primary opponent, David Dewhurst. Dewhurst had an A rating from the NRA but failed to get the personal endorsement of Wayne Lapierre that Cruz received.

Cruz and Cornyn are clearly patsies for the gun industry. While cowering to the moneyed special interests and allowing the wing-nuts that support an over-zealous interpretation of the 2nd amendment provide a front for them, these two have demonstrated that Texas is once again in hot pursuit of winning the race to the bottom.

* Texas GOP rejects ‘critical thinking’ skills. Really.

Posted by lbwoodgate in Gun Control, Texas/Local stories Tags: crazy in Texas, free speech, Gun control, gun manufacturer lobbyists, Joe Manchin, John Cornyn, National Rifle Association, no votes on debating gun control legislation, NRA, Pat Toomey, Ted Cruz, Texas

10 comments

Why Texas is Winning the Race to the Bottom

April 14, 2013

Extremism of any stripe is always profoundly ignorant and detached from reality. Feeling passionate about an issue always needs to be accompanied with arguments that people can identify with and that have plausibility. But don’t inform Texas politicians about this. They’ll have you skinned and boned for such heresy.

Zealots who oppose any and every kind of gun control legislation have demonstrated just how far they are willing to take their fanaticism in recent months. Abortion opponents have also gone to extreme measures to prevent any woman from ending an unwanted pregnancy. So it comes as no surprise that this duel fanaticism would show up in a political campaign and no-less than a bumper sticker slogan.

Steve Stockman is running for re-election in a the new 36th Texas congressional district that was formed by the GOP after winning majorities in the House back in 2010. The 36th includes all or part of the following counties: Chambers, Hardin, Harris, Jasper, Liberty, Newton, Orange, Polk, and Tyler. Apparently Stockman is out to take the crown away from Louie Gohmert for most bat-shit crazy congress creature in Texas. Gohmert‘s 1st district was also part of the GOP gerrymandering that allowed him to defeat the Democrat incumbent.

If Stockman’s bumper sticker isn’t evidence enough of his poor mental state then perhaps this tweet of his that expresses a convoluted thought about women and gun threats will help convince you.

Lord knows how much safer moms are with their infant children handling a gun than a criminal who , according to Stockman, will surely cross paths with them.

Now in the event that there really is anyone in his district that would take Stockman’s claim serious about babies, they would have to ignore the reality that a baby is no longer in the mother’s womb and therefore have no need to feel threatened by abortion, assuming of course their brain had developed such capabilities to think in terms of abortion. Why do I feel I even have to explain such an obvious point? Because “stupid” is starting to reach epidemic levels here in the Lone Star State

If fetuses were even capable of understanding that their prospects for a bright future are severely limited with such people as Stockman and Gohmert in positions of political leadership, they would probably pull the plug themselves.

Steve Stockman and Louie Gohmert: Two of the reasons why Texas is winning the race to the bottom and making Mississippi look like an intellectual’s haven

Posted by lbwoodgate in Texas/Local stories Tags: abortion extremists, babies with guns, GOP, gun extremists, Louie, Louie Gohmert, Steve Stockman, Texas, Texas politicians, United States

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Saturday Humor

April 21, 2012

If Money’s No Obstacle, Have I Got a Peanut Butter Shake For You

There’s an original eatery in the small city of Denton, Texas north of Dallas that many have referred to as “a 50′s style drive up burger joint” called Mr. Frosty. It is a 50’s style restaurant, not as a nostalgic design replication by some contemporary firm but because it’s appears now just as it did when it opened in the 1950’s. The exterior and interior have been kept up for all of these years but you can see the wear and tear is there, which in a quaint old way, gives it some character. How else would you be able to explain why this place still draws crowds nearly everyday it’s open, even after a new Sonic® was built less than 200 yards away just a few short years ago?

It’s likely this restaurant was built about the same time the Interstate Highway System began construction under Eisenhower, running Interstate 35 one short block from Mr. Frosty. It had to be one of only a few buildings at the time and this area was not quite so seedy as it is now, with pawn shops and Christian soup & salvation kitchens mixed in with small mom and pop businesses that are housed in rough looking buildings that probably struggle to pass the city codes’ minimum standards for occupation.

That being said, you would only imagine that their food is so remarkable that the locale is not a distractive factor for Mr Frosty patron’s. But who are their patrons? You might think that it would only appeal more to the blue collar, trucker crowd with their moderate means of income. But one look at the price of a Frosty’s favorite will dispel that notion pretty quick.

Then again, Mr Frosty has been around so long that it may have preceded the use of the decimal point

Posted by lbwoodgate in Humor, Texas/Local stories Tags: 50's style hamburger joint, denton texas, Interstate 35, peanut butter shake, Restaurant, Small business

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Want To Be Seen As “Cool” In Texas? Buy a Gun Silencer.

April 4, 2012

Being cool is different to different people. To the very wealthy it’s how they can dispose of their excess wealth by being the first to buy a piece of modern art that cost more than many people’s job income each year, as Morley Safer showed us in a segment on last Sunday”s “60 Minutes”. For other’s, being cool is all about peeing in your pants. Here in Texas, never wanting to be outdone by anyone else, we have a combination of the wealthy arrogance and Billy Madison immaturity to convey what’s cool.

Nationwide, more than 22,000 [gun] noise suppressors were sold this year — 9 percent more than last year — and the most were sold in Texas for at least the third year in a row…

“People just want them,” Glen Furtardo said, … manager at the Winchester Gallery gun store in east Fort Worth. “It’s like tattoos. … They have come out of the closet. Now everyone gets them.”

DeWayne Irwin, who owns the Cheaper Than Dirt gun store in north Fort Worth, said he has steadily seen sales of silencers rise, along with ammunition and guns, over the past two years. “Ninety percent of the people who buy them just think they are so cool,” Irwin said. “This is Texas.” SOURCE

For many of us who were born and raised in the Lone Star State we have slowly watched too many people in it devolve into a dysfunctional, undereducated caveman-like society. Texas has a progressive legacy with such people as Sam Houston, John Nance Garner, Sam Rayburn, Miriam A. “Ma” Ferguson, Molly Ivins and Ann Richards.

The state can lay claim to some of the music greats like Buddy Holly, Willy Nelson and Stevie Ray Vaughn. Military heroes ranged from John Coker in Texas’ fight for independence to Audie Murphy’s Medal of honor action in WWII and carried through with today’s highly decorated William Harry McRaven, who currently serves as ninth Commander, U.S. Special Operations Command and who’s credited with organizing and executing the special ops raid that led to the death of Osama bin Laden.

There was a certain pride Texans had that was the envy of many in the other 49 states. We still project to many around the world an enduring mystique of the American cowboy that symbolizes the rugged west of an earlier time. But over the last few decades Texas is becoming the butt of many jokes and is being represented by some of the most notable mental midgets of our time. The disease that has festered was perhaps sparked by the infamous Texan who killed President Kennedy back in 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald. Since then the state has gradually edged toward the ideological red of the political spectrum that now divides us as a people.

The rest of the world now sees buffoonery coming out of Texas either in the personal images of George W. Bush, his “turd blossom”, Karl Rove, or the current self-serving, coiffed governor, Rick Perry. It’s the state that wants to secede from the union, built an expensive, ineffective wall along the Rio Grande to keep their cheap labor force out, engaged in revisionist history in school text books affecting the rest of the nation’s school systems and along with several other red states, implemented a law requiring an intrusive vaginal sonogram for any woman contemplating an abortion.

We have the highest number of people without health insurance coverage and rank near the bottom in the important educational categories of science and math. And even with the third-most millionaires of any state, with 381,165, Texas is still only #25 in Median Household Income, reflecting the low wage base for most working families.

So it wasn’t surprising, after watching Bill Maher’s “New Rules” segment last Friday to discover that Texas, along with several other states now allows you to buy silencers for both handguns and hunting rifles. Evidently the law has been around for a few years and as a Texan who owns no gun(s) I was unaware of this law. Maher’s revelation in his “New Rules” segment sent me googling for information on this subject which brought me to Anna Tinsley’s story in the Ft. Worth Star telegram published back in December 2010

Its’ a good story. It doesn’t bash gun owners and even slips a comment in from a Dallas volunteer for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence to question why a citizen who arms themselves for security reason needs a silencer. Recent events in Sanford, Florida might provide a clue for this. Texas too has a “stand your ground” law that allows you to shoot people who you suspect pose a threat to you anywhere away from your home. A noisy handgun or rifle going off might disturb the neighbors watching the current episode of “Survivor”.

We may be dumbing down in Texas but we are considerate about disturbing our neighbors as suggested by Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson “if you’re getting rid of squirrels in your back yard”. Patterson, a former state senator who shepherded conceal-carry legislation in 1995, hunts wild hogs by attracting a herd of them to a feeder and picks them off as they’re eating. The silencer serves “a practical use if you want to shoot one without scaring others off”, he says.

What I found especially amusing in Tinsley’s story were those gun owners who might use silencers on them as they fire off rounds with other like minded people.

Some people take their silencers to shooting ranges. Others might take them to “machine gun shoots,” where gun lovers gather to fire at targets.

An un-cool person might purchase ear protection headsets where many are reasonably priced for around $50. But only the cool Texan would spend between $199 to $6,000 for a gun silencer.

Who wants to look like this

when you can look like this

Those of us who have to suffer these troglodytes can only shake our heads and wonder how much further this state will recede into the shallow-minded abyss that thinks being cool entails using a weapon solely intended to kill and then shows concern that it’s use will exceed normal decibel levels.

Posted by lbwoodgate in Texas/Local stories Tags: Bill Maher "Real Time", Billy Madison, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, George W. Bush, gun silencers, John Nance Garner, stand your ground laws, Texas, Texas sells most gun silencers, troglodytes in Texas

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When People and Our Humanity Disappear

March 21, 2012

A beautiful woman vying for a state competition is as common in Texas as droughts and Friday night football. We have plenty of all three. Texas can lay claim to two former Ms. America’s in Shirley Cothran (1975) and her predecessor back in 1971, Phyllis George. Both attended school at North Texas State University, my old alma mater, which has had a name change since then to the University of North Texas. But there is a departure in this norm today where one young contestant seeking recognition by the general public is not in it for the looks or talent.

UNT student Skylar Conover

photo by Al Key, Denton Record-Chronicle

University of North Texas student Skylar Conover is competing with other Texas physically handicapped women for the title of Ms. Wheelchair Texas.

The 22-year-old was diagnosed with facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy — a disease that causes progressive muscle weakness and loss of muscle tissue — during her freshmen year of high school. Going from being a cheerleader and dancer to having to use a wheelchair was a drastic change for Conover.

“My whole life flipped upside down,” she said.

Conover said her friends disappeared after she was diagnosed because they didn’t know how to deal with it.

That’s why she decided to conduct workshops with youth groups to educate them about the different types of disabilities and teach them to be compassionate. SOURCE

What caught my eye about this story was not the courage Skylar is showing for not allowing her fate to devolve into despair and dependency. It is indeed no doubt admirable that she has mustered the mental strength to figuratively make lemon-aide out of lemons. Though facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) is considered a minor disability that affects approximately 5 out of every 100,000 people, it decreases one’s mobility and their ability to care for themselves. Read more about this genetic disorder that tends to strike both male and females equally between the ages of 10 and 26.

Skylar’s path for her life has become centered around her discovery since contracting her disability that she is fading from view, at least with those she once considered close personal friends. This observation is what piqued my interest in her story.

At first, she said, little changed because there was no apparent difference between her and her friends.

“They couldn’t see it, and therefore, it didn’t exist,” she said.

Then, she began using a wheelchair during her junior year [in high school].

“When I started using a wheelchair, all my friends said bye,” … I appeared to be different. All of my friends disappeared.” SOURCE

Rightly or wrongly I think as many of us can identify with Skylar’s victimizers as we can with her. High school adolescents is all about appearance. Looking both “hot” and “cool” are images that seldom reflect someone who is physically handicapped. It’s true that there are those at this age who rise above this inappropriate behavior but it still lurks just below the surface with most high schoolers and exposes itself more often than anyone wants.

Skylar herself may have played this role to some degree as a member of the in-crowd in her freshman cheerleader role. Perhaps she was one of those exceptions though and such esteem-killing behavior never played a part of who she was.

Skylar’s becoming invisible to her friends after contracting FSHD left me thinking how little we seem to realize, especially at early ages, that our treatment of others affects their self-respect. I can recall a couple of situations where I was a part of that crowd that shunned unacceptables because of how they looked and acted. These weren’t physically handicapped people either. They were simply human beings who had the misfortune of being a part of an adolescent social world that seldom looked beyond surface appearances.

We can damage people we deem "unacceptable"

I was never the deliberate mean bully who browbeat those who one might consider uncool. I was even empathetic at times when others weren’t. But I do recall two incidences that occurred which I was ashamed of later and wish I had the ability to turn back the clock and do things differently.

One occurred in the eight grade to a new girl named Gloria, who transferred to our elementary catholic school when her parents relocated to that area. Her newness automatically made it a handicap to make friends easily but she had another characteristic that made it difficult for her to meet boys. In its ugliest manifestation by teenagers, she was simply – fat. Borderline obese. As a result, many of the boys in our class weren’t attracted to her. It falls back on what continues to this day about physical appearance among teens. Where I saw it hurt her the most was at a class dance.

As Catholics in the early 60’s we socialized in ways where boys and girls would attend planned and chaperoned events and then pick dance partners. Ideally you were expected to interact with more than one boy and girl but it doesn’t always play out that way. Everyone linked up with who they had a crush on. Gloria was perhaps the only girl at the dance who wasn’t being asked to dance. Only after some of the girls implored the boys to ask Gloria to dance, did she actually get to. Yet I know she understood these were merely gratuitous gestures on our part and I recall seeing that hurt in her face.

I never saw Gloria after that school year because we went on to separate high schools. Perhaps she assimilated into the group later unless her parents relocated again and she had to start over and deal with similar abuses from shallow-minded teenage boys. Perhaps it never changed and her life was never truly fulfilled because of how she grew up seeing herself as others did.

The second incident happened in my sophomore year in high school and was more tragic. To this day it haunts me a bit. Jimmy Ray Lee was a thinnish boy who sat next to me in Home Room class. He had short cropped hair, wore glasses and was a member of the school’s Reserved Officers Training Corps (ROTC) program. Back in those days some looked down on the ROTC as nerdy. I neither liked or disliked Jimmy. My acquaintance with him existed only as a member of my Home Room who happened to sit next to me.

I recall having brief conversations with him but never went much beyond the occasional “this class sucks” or “that teacher blows” comment. Later I would think how he must have been starved for friendship. He was trying to fit in where he often wasn’t wanted, wasn’t accepted. I wasn’t one of the popular crowd in high school but I wasn’t a Jimmy Ray Lee either.

I can’t remember precisely when it occurred but sometime during early 1965 when it was cold enough to require a heater running in your car, Jimmy died from asphyxiation. Mrs. Iris Farmer, our home room teacher, informed the class the day after his death that he had died as a result of carbon dioxide fumes inside his car. Evidently as he was running his heater while driving with the windows up, the exhaust gases leaked inside the auto and he was overcome by the toxic fumes.

Mrs. Farmer was visibly upset while sharing this sad incident, crying some as she conveyed what happened. Unlike the rest us who didn’t truly know Jimmy she apparently had; well enough at least to call him a “gentle, sweet boy” and wondered out loud “why did this have to happen to him”.

To this day I wonder if Mrs. Farmer was sparing us all of what really may have happened to the kid no one seemed to like. Was it an accident or did he intentionally allow the leak he was already aware of to engulf him while he idly ran the car in some secluded spot where no one would see him. He was invisible to most of us already so he could have just have easily done it in plain sight without anyone giving it much thought.

Jimmy, Gloria and Skylar are victims of a shallow mind set that judges people who appeal to our stereo-types of what is attractive. It’s an image that has been created in part and nurtured by a culture that values healthy, beautiful people. Implicit in this perception is that all others are somehow less valuable and to be avoided.

It may not be totally fair to condemn those close friends of Skylars and others their age who shun unacceptables. They are after all products of the generation who preceded them. If it were some innate characteristic, some mutant gene that has evolved with the human species then all kids would act this way. But we know that not all teens are this cruel to their peers. Some have been raised with a set values that sees people more for who they really are, below their skin or broken body appearance.

There’s no shame to realize we have all been culpable of such hurtful behavior some time in our lives. I think the real shame occurs when it continues into adulthood and we become unable to acknowledge this ugly side of ourselves. When confronted by those who know better that infecting others with low self-esteem is wrong, these adults instead make rationalizations for their destructive behavior rather than face any flaw in themselves. It lives with them and gets passed on to their prodigy where future Skylar Conovers and Jimmy Ray Lees suffer. An aspect of humanity has indeed disappeared.

We should all celebrate it when someone like Skylar not only doesn’t allow this sickness to take hold but is motivated to eradicate it before it gets started. But if history is any indication that she will be successful we need only remind ourselves that one of the greatest faith systems that was built on the teachings of love, tolerance and compassion ultimately developed into a springboard for many to persecute those who were different from themselves.

Posted by lbwoodgate in Social Discourse, Texas/Local stories Tags: cool kids versus nerds, Disability, facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy, fitting in with other adolescents, low self esteem, peer pressure, teen self images, teen suicide, University of North Texas

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Staying Active: Finding Fulfillment in Work

January 4, 2012

I’ve been working part-time at a delightful catering service called “Extreme Cuisine”. It’s been the perfect outlet for me after being laid off from my 18-year career with a home builder back in October, 2009. Unable to find full-time work with equal or near-equal compensation I decided to go in that direction I was being reluctantly pulled towards – early retirement.

I was fortunate enough to have built up a savings in my 401k over nearly two decades and with my wife still working full-time as a school nurse, I had the resources to clear all my debt, including our mortgage, pay myself a small stipend each month and access health care coverage through my wife’s employer. I really wasn’t ready to retire in the fashion I wanted but it seems fate intervened and forced a lesser form of that lifestyle on me, ready or not. I count myself fortunate compared to the millions still out there looking for full-time work.

Working is for me, as for many people, about more than just bringing home a paycheck. It’s a source of social connection and allowing your creative side to manifest itself, even if at a level that doesn’t completely fulfill you. I tried to fill this void at first by volunteering. I worked with elementary school kids a couple of semesters helping them with their reading and writing skills but surprisingly lost interest after that. I guess I’ve lost that inner child one needs to connect with young kids today.

I also worked for a hospice service briefly too. Most of that time was spent with an aging WWII vet who was mostly confined to bed and was quickly losing his ability to think clearly. I would encourage him to talk about his life, especially his military service and his job experience as a tool man for oil rigs in foreign ports. His wife had died about a year earlier and nearly all of his five children lived far enough away to prevent any daily or even weekly visits. He eventually lapsed into a semi-comatose state and because he had a DNR (do not resuscitate) order, was kept on pain-killing medications before expiring from an inoperable stomach tumor.

Doing this kind of work requires lots and lots of heart. I lean more towards the cognitive aspects of human interaction than I do the emotional. Thank God for those people who are cut out of for this kind of humanitarian service.

I began to think I might never really find that kind of “work” experience that appealed to my need for social interaction and contributing meaningfully to some effort. After being unemployed for nearly a year I also realized that age had began to creep in on me and my ability to work a full 8, 9 or 10 hours day was becoming something of the past. A mid-afternoon nap has not only now become something to look forward to each day but gives me a boost of energy to allow me more creative time for writing. I have no shame in admitting that getting 40-50 winks each day is part of my daily regimen.

Then the perfect opportunity availed itself to me. My wife informed me that a fellow nurse friend of hers had a sister, Kathleen, who owned a small catering service and was looking for some part-time help. I’ve never had any “kitchen” experience other than what little I do at home and on my grill during summer months but this type of work was non-threatening and actually piqued my interests. I called Kathleen the next day and she invited me to come out and interview with her business partner, Matt. I went to work that next day.

The whole environment at “Extreme Cuisine”, is pretty much a family affair. Kathleen’s two adult children, Renee and Ryan, work there routinely along with other family members when the need arises, like a large festive event. EC prepares the food, delivers and serves it up too. Everyone else who works there are young also, some who attend college full time and even a few high schoolers. This mixture of people, oddly enough, seems to have provided the perfect blend for me to work with.

Renee has a beautiful voice and often breaks out singing in a fashion that has you wondering why she doesn’t go pro. She’s been married a couple of years but you would think they were married last week the way she speaks often and admirably about her husband, Michael. I hope she retains that feeling. The cynic in me says time will diminish that some but not her devotion to her marriage.

Ryan, a couple of years younger than Renee, has recently earned his wings as a Sous chef. He completed his training at the Culinary School of Ft. Worth and has plans to work for his Mom’s company at least until other opportunities open up to him. Ryan is also about to join the ranks of newly weds. He and his fiance, Hannah, have made plans to tie the knot this June.

Recent Culinary graduate and sous chef Ryan with proud mom, Chef Kathleen

Both of these young people have adopted me as their “grandpa” figure; a position I rather enjoy. Somehow the gray hair of mine gives off that air of being a kindly elder gentleman; at least that’s the perspective I allow myself. Two of the college students who work there are Mark and Ariel and as is the case at many job sites, these two have found one another and are now more than work mates. I think they’ve been dating for about a year now.

Along with these young adults there are also Kathleen’s nieces, Elizabeth and Rebecca, both in college and who fill in when needed and as classes allow. Daniel and Austin are the high school co-workers, and Jake and Brandon, former classmates of Ryan’s, pretty much make up the “regulars” at EC.

The catering business is one of those that is pretty much boom or bust. The holidays are the busiest naturally but during this down economy even these periods are not as fulfilling as they have been in times past. There will be some weeks where I may work only a day or two.

But their product is what keeps bringing people back. I have tasted some of the richest desserts and most savory meats ever while working there. A sample of their taste delights can be found at their website here. Click on the Gallery link at the top of the page to view what is in store for those who order from Extreme Cuisine Catering.

For me personally however, it’s the camaraderie I share with everyone there, including Chefs Kathleen and Matt. They have all enriched my life on a daily basis and have gone above and beyond on certain occasions. This last Veteran’s Day they honored my time in the military. I was presented a delicious white frosting cake and a handsome and sturdy rocking chair with the Marine Corps logo emblazoned on the top rail of the back support. That’s me setting in it pictured below at the kitchen with the EC gang. Because we know each other’s birthday dates from our Facebook pages, no one escapes a rendition of the birthday song on their special day, often led by Arial.

From left to right: Jake, Daniel, Chef Ryan, me, Austin, Renee, Mark, Arial and Brandon

I have been fortunate to find a place like this that I can still stay active in. I work mornings and am able to leave after lunch, giving me time to do what I like most these days – nap and write on my blog.

I am not enticed to stay there because I rely on this job for employee benefits I was requiring and accustomed to with my previous full-time job. This small business operation like many others struggles to make payroll each week. But it is such operations as this that, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration:

•   Represent 99.7 percent of all employer firms.
•   Employ half of all private sector employees.
•   Pay 44 percent of total U.S. private payroll, and
•   Generated 65 percent of net new jobs over the past 17 years.

What can’t be reflected in such statistics though is the relationships that form between a small group of people. I feel certain that the success of Extreme Cuisine Catering is more than just their fine food. It is the workmanship of people who feel comfortable with each other. Somewhere I’m sure there are other statistics that tell us what common sense does – the less stress we experience in our lives, the more productive we are.

I have gained more than learning how best to prepare tasty salad dressings and skin a cantaloupe with little to no waste at EC. I have gained new friendships that fill that void we all need to be productive members of the communities we live in.

Posted by lbwoodgate in Business/Jobs, People, Social Discourse, Texas/Local stories Tags: after retirement, Catering, close work relationships, Extreme Cuisine catering, happy productive workers, part-time work, small family businesses

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Michael Burgess and the Theory of Rational Expectations

October 18, 2011

Many of us who lean Progressive but live in Red States must constantly stay alert to the ways of conservative politicians who have professional wordsmiths help them disseminate a message that evokes a false sense of representative government. Scratch the surface of any of these messages and underneath is a clear intent to promote self-serving corporate interests, NOT those of the voting public.

In a recent e-mail video to his constituents, Congressman Michael Burgess of Texas’ 26th District praised the work of recently selected Nobel Prize economist Thomas J. Sargent and found an expression in this man’s work that states “what’s going to happen is going to depend partly on what you think is going to happen”. This is a part of Dr. Sargent’s “rational expectations” theory, a theory that he has also been very critical of himself after he he formulated it. It’s kind of like the flip-flop actions of those politicians who claim they were for something before they were against it.

I’m not being critical of economist Thomas Sargent. Economics is complex and too often a fallible discipline. But I am disappointed that Mr. Burgess would try to extract something from a theory that it’s own creator has become critical of. It gets even worse though as the congressman tries to expand on this dubious theory, asserting that “people do not respond passively to economic policy, instead they anticipate the future conditions and adjust according to their best interests”.

: “I hope this look masks what I’m really thinking”

Congressman Michael Burgess

This conveniently segues into the Republican talking point that business uncertainty today is preventing economic recovery from happening and its all due to “the constant regulations and the lack of a long-term direction from President Obama”. This creative piece that comes from the Party of NO may sound good but in fact provides “zero evidence to support this assertion” according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

“If firms were seeing demand for labor that would cause them to hire, except for their uncertainty, then we should expect to see large upticks in average hours per worker and increased hiring of temps. In fact, average weekly hours is still down from its pre-recession level. Temp employment is down almost 15 percent from its pre-recession level.”

Congressman Burgess then continues his pretense and tells us what he thinks Dr. Sargent’s theory intended. “We need to tackle long term problems now, in the present, instead of waiting to solve our nations most important issues” Burgess claims. Sorry, if you were expecting clarity on what those “long term problems” are and how we are “to solve our nations most important issues”, all you get is this: continue to strip the government of its oversight responsibilities, continue to cut spending, repeal the health care law, explore tax reform and domestic energy exploration.

Never mind that it was the lack of government oversight that allowed toxic assets to build up in financial institutions during the late housing bubble which spurred the recession that has seen millions of jobs disappear. Never mind that spending cuts have eliminated millions of jobs and threaten to undermine the social safety net that most of our seniors, children and handicapped citizens rely on.

Oh, and that awful health care reform bill that prevents health insurance companies from rejecting our applications because of preexisting conditions or canceling our coverage if needed treatments are deemed too expensive is something we can all do without, right?

Burgess also touts “market based solutions” as a remedy to alleviate high health care costs yet hopes we are oblivious to the fact that no action was ever taken in this area when the Republicans had complete control of the Congress and the White House for 8 years under Bush? Not one bill was brought to the floor by the GOP to address our serious health care costs in this country.

And you can explore “our domestic energy production” until you’re blue in the face but we are still not going to find enough oil reserves to offset our demand and compete with the growing demand from other developing economies like China and India. That notion is just another of those creative pieces that come from people whose primary interest lies with the fossil fuel industry and there depleting resources. Instead of promoting exploration of clean, renewable energy sources, Michael Burgess and nearly every other Republican in political office has a record of voting against initiatives like this because they threaten to take federal funding away from Big Coal and Oil.

If Congressman Burgess was really interested in practicing what Dr. Sargent’s theory intended – tackling long term problems now – he wouldn’t undercut those efforts to generate job growth now, even if it means he’d have to divert from theoretical perspectives of the free market that support the belief that less spending and greater tax cuts will pull us out of this economic recession. Never mind that the record of the Bush tax cuts coincided with the weakest economic expansion of the post-war period, blowing up the national deficit and debt, while not bringing any of the promised gains.

Our congressman is an ideological cowboy like the rest of the GOP is. They utilize the conservative construction of ideas rearranged in a fashion intended to disguise their tired old worn policies that got us to this point to begin with. They fully intend on repeating these talking points over and over again without any basis in fact, hoping that the lack of critical thinking within their constituencies is still below the level necessary to challenge their positions.

The doubt that he and his Party are fostering about causes that negatively affect economic recovery is a straw man argument, unlike the doubt they generate among thinking people that are not falling for a repackaged set of ideas that have helped create one of the greatest income gaps in our history. If pulitzer prize winning economist Thomas Sargent’s theory suggest that “what’s going to happen is going to depend partly on what you think is going to happen”, many will be sorely disappointed if they think replacing the current administration with an even more corporate-friendly one will bring different results than it did under Bush/Cheney.

To his credit, Congressman Burgess didn’t quote Chris Sims, the other half of the duo that won the Pulitzer for Economics. Had he, another Pulitzer prize winning economist would have busted him for this misstep. From Paul Krugman’s column yesterday:

Professor Sims doesn’t want to be pigeonholed. “I’m not ‘non-Keynesian,’ ” he said, adding that he has been an active “promoter of new Keynesian macroeconomic models,” because they “are the place in our profession where theory and data and policy decision-making are coming together.”

“It doesn’t really make much sense to stand on the sidelines and take potshots at them,” he said. “If you don’t like the way they’re working, you should try to do better.”

He and Professor Sargent have been “trying to do empirical macroeconomics using formal tools of statistics,” he said. “Those tools aren’t in themselves ideological.”

Professor Sims spoke favorably of the Obama administration’s fiscal stimulus programs, which are Keynesian in their countercyclical spending. “An expansionary fiscal policy is probably what we need right now,” he said

This new GOP/TeaParty gang will work diligently with for-profit interests to privatize social security and Medicare/Medicaid while keeping wages low so wealthy investors get a bigger bang for the buck and the middle class becomes assimilated in with lower-income working families.

Lest you think I exaggerate, let me remind you of what incoming House committee chairman in charge of bank oversight, Rep. Spencer Bachus, told voters shortly after the GOP regained control of the House last November: “In Washington, the view is that the banks are to be regulated, and my view is that Washington and the regulators are there to serve.” And most recently House Majority leader Eric Cantor is heading to the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania Friday to talk about income disparity and how Republicans believe the government can “make sure the people at the top stay there”.

I support #OccupyWall Street

Posted by lbwoodgate in Corporate Influence, Society and Politics, Texas/Local stories Tags: corporate special interests, corporate-friendly GOP, critical thinking, Economic Nobel prize winners, GOP double speak, Michael C. Burgess, Nobel Prize, recycled GOP policies, Republican, Thomas J. Sargent, what GOP wants you to hear

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The Silence is Deafening

October 5, 2011

The existential question that asks,“If a tree falls in the woods, and no one hears it, does it make noise?”, seems to be in play here regarding falling gas prices. The answer to the question would be “no” if it was measured by the sound of Tea Party types taking back their diatribes that blamed federal policies and regulations on high gas prices earlier this year.

Is Obama to blame for declining gasoline prices?

For those of us who live in Texas, Michigan and Missouri we have seen the price of gas drop below three dollars a gallon recently. No change has occurred with federal regulations governing oil production from what it was earlier this year when gas was at or over $4 a gallon around the country, yet there is nary a word from the anti-Obama crowd about how his “socialist” policies have allowed this to happen.

This denier contingent will no doubt remain silent until prices once again rise but can they honestly be taken seriously any longer when their claims have been aptly muted after seeing that global market conditions, consumer demand and speculation by traders have impacted these swings in price?

The national average for regular unleaded gasoline is $3.51 per gallon, down from a high of $3.98 in early May. Last week’s plunge in oil prices could push the average to $3.25 per gallon by November, analysts say.

Prices for oil, gasoline and other commodities dove last week along with world stock markets over concerns the global economy is headed for another recession. When economies slow, demand for gasoline, diesel and jet fuel falls as drivers cut back on trips, shippers move fewer goods and vacationers stay closer to home. SOURCE

But for those of us who can see the writing on the wall, the anti-Obama crowd will find some measure of revenge for being exposed as frauds by continuing to blame the White House for lower demand because unemployment rates will continue to be high for the foreseeable future.

In a related story, there was a local incident here where a gas well drilling company “was pumping contaminated wastewater into a tributary of Hickory Creek.” It was discovered by city government workers. Though the story made the front page of the Denton Record-Chronicle it was posted in the “crime blotter” section so the name of the company wasn’t revealed. According to the report “city employees visited a well site in the 3100 block of Airport Road on Thursday and saw that a pit liner had been buried on the property and a pump was forcing the contaminated water from it into the nearby creek. A man at the site saw the city officers and turned off the pump.”

It should be noted that Hickory Creeks feeds into Lewisville Lake directly upstream from the City of Denton’s drinking water intake structure.

City employees took samples of the creek water and learned that contaminants were far above the level allowed from wastewater. A subsequent laboratory test showed the contaminants were 10 times higher than the last time the creek water was tested, the report noted.

The company did not have a permit from the city or a state regulatory agency to pump the wastewater into the creek, the report states.

City employees sent a notice of violation of the water code to the company, and company officers agreed to clean up the site. The company was required to shut down the well site until the cleanup took place.

According to the police report, officers monitored the cleanup, and 24,360 gallons of wastewater were removed from the creek and 48 cubic yards of dirt were taken away. SOURCE

This apparent crime of the dumping toxic waste in Hickory Creek by this private gas drilling company ought to raise the ire of all concerned citizens. But it will come as no surprise that little or no response will come from those who shriek the loudest about getting government out of business practices and let them police themselves.

What makes this story even more relevant is that there’s been a lot of hollering by political extremists on the right here about keeping government out of the private sector, specifically targeting the EPA in its attempts to regulate CO2 emissions from coal-fired power plant; something they feel will generate higher utility bills and take jobs away. Our Texas district 26 Congressman, Michael Burgess, was on the local CBS network the other day repeating the Republican talking point about how such action by the EPA will kill jobs as it allegedly threatens to shut down Texas’ 18 coal-fired power plants.

But there is no evidence to support this contention. The only power plant that could be affected by new EPA regulations in this state could be the Welsh Power Plant near Pittsburg, Texas, owned by American Electric Power. However, a recent piece by Daniel J. Weiss and Valeri Vasquez with the Center for American Progress has discovered that it is more likely that AEP is threatening to shut down this plant along with 21 others of theirs around the country simply to “to stoke congressional and public opposition to EPA’s efforts to reduce toxic air pollution.”

AEP’s threat to close these plants due to the pending EPA air toxics rules is also somewhat misleading. Last year, it announced a plan to close five units at the Phillip Sporn Plant in New Haven, West Virginia. Source Watch, a nonprofit that publishes “documented information about the corporations, industries, and people trying to sway public opinion,” reported on AEP’s 2010 retirement plans.

In October 2010, Ohio Power Co. filed an application with the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio for the approval of a December 2010 closure of the coal-fired Philip Sporn Power Plant unit 5…In September 2009, Appalachian Power filed an integrated resource plan (IRP) in Virginia that projected a 2010 shutdown for Sporn unit 5. The same IRP projected that Sporn units 1-4, with 580 MW of total capacity, would be retired in 2018.

In other words, AEP planned to close this plant five months before EPA’s March 2011 proposal to reduce toxic air pollution from coal-fired utilities. Yet AEP has included closing these units under “AEP’s current plan for compliance with the [EPA] rules as proposed includes permanently retiring the following coal-fueled power plants.” SOURCE

According to the Sierra Club AEP has consistently opposed better clean-air standards and has fought efforts to require modern pollution controls. Closing down the Welsh plant would avoid costly court costs because in 2005 the Sierra Club and Public Citizen sued AEP “for thousands of violations at its Welsh power plant in Texas”

The threats from coal plant emissions have been well documented about the costs to our environment and human health.

This evidence, showing once again that the claims by free-marketers are far from reliable, will go unnoticed by such people. Their purist notion that there is no room for government oversight of for-profit companies simply refuses to acknowledge that “the markets” are not some disconnected holy entity but are the creation of imperfect people who often over-indulge their self-interests traits.

Posted by lbwoodgate in political fringe groups, Texas/Local stories Tags: allowing corporations to police themselves, American Electric Power, anti-government forces, Daniel J. Weiss, declining gasoline prices, Denton Record-Chronicle, EPA, Obama and lower oil prices, Obama haters, Texas, United States Environmental Protection Agency

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Category Archives: Texas/Local stories

It May Not Be Terrorism But it Sure is Criminal

Here’s what we know.

The West Fertilizer Co. was cited for failing to obtain or qualify for a permit in 2006 after a complaint [by nearby residents] of a strong ammonia smell.

The knowledge Texas state agencies had about how “a routine fire getting out of control and superheating a container with a large volume of ammonium nitrate, widely used as a fertilizer and as an explosive [apparently failed to] discuss fire or explosive risks with the company or each other.”

What is it About Texas Politicians Who Have No Shame?

Most of the Senators who oppose added gun control measures will likely vote against this bill once it comes to the floor but appeared willing to allow their constituents the right to hear their pro and con views.

This is after all, in theory at least, a democracy. Only in dictatorships or oppressive oligarchs is speech suppressed that is critical of those in power. And therein lies the rub. Where does the real power lie?

The Power of the NRA

Why Texas is Winning the Race to the Bottom

If Stockman’s bumper sticker isn’t evidence enough of his poor mental state then perhaps this tweet of his that expresses a convoluted thought about women and gun threats will help convince you.

Lord knows how much safer moms are with their infant children handling a gun than a criminal who , according to Stockman, will surely cross paths with them.

If fetuses were even capable of understanding that their prospects for a bright future are severely limited with such people as Stockman and Gohmert in positions of political leadership, they would probably pull the plug themselves.

Saturday Humor

Want To Be Seen As “Cool” In Texas? Buy a Gun Silencer.

Michael Burgess and the Theory of Rational Expectations

The Silence is Deafening

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