Red urges all Texans to vote in today’s election. Even if you don’t have a local election, the constitutional amendments are on the ballot and all but one of them should be voted down.
So exercise your franchise and participate in the democratic experiment that is the United States of America or quit your damn complaining.
From the Annals of the Founding Fathers – In 1793, Stephen F. Austin was born in Virginia. Austin often referred to as the “Father of Texas”, was actually following in the footsteps of his father Moses Austin. Austin was raised in Missouri, but educated back east gaining a degree from Transylvania University and then studying as a lawyer. He was pursuing a legal career in New Orleans, when his father traveled to Texas and received an grant that would allow him to bring 300 American families to Texas. Moses Austin caught pneumonia soon after returning to Missouri. He left his empresario grant to his son Stephen. Though Austin was reluctant to carry on his father’s Texas venture, he was persuaded to pursue the colonization of Texas by a letter from his mother written two days before Moses Austin died.
At the age of 24, Austin led a party of potential settlers to San Antonio covering 300 miles in about 4 weeks. Austin sought a reauthorization of his father’s grant. While in transit, Austin learned Mexico had declared its independence from Spain, and Texas had become a Mexican province rather than a Spanish territory. Jose Antonio Navarro, a San Antonio native with ambitious visions of the future of Texas, befriended Stephen F. Austin, and the two developed a lasting association. Navarro, proficient with Spanish and Mexican law, assisted Austin in obtaining his empresario contracts. With a reauthorized grant, Austin began to explore the area between San Antonio and the Brazos River to find a suitable location for a colony – eventually settling on San Felipe in present day Austin County.
“Like most passionate nations, Texas has its own history based on, but not limited by, facts.”
John Steinbeck, Travels With Charlie, 1962
The Texas Supreme Court will tackle home schooling in Texas this week in a case pitting home schooling advocates against the El Paso Independent School District. The case involves Michael and Laura McIntyre from El Paso who have been home schooling their 9 children since at least 2004. Allegations were that the children were mostly singing and playing instruments and that little or no actual education was occurring because the children were going to be raptured at the second coming. The problems were somewhat confirmed when one of the McIntyre children ran away from home in an attempt to actually get an education. The school district was unable to confirm what level of education the girl had received and she was place in a school almost 2 years below her age level. That prompted El Paso educators to make some attempt to determine what was going on at the McIntyre’s “home school.” They were rebuffed at every turn with the McIntyres being assisted by the various home schooling associations, and truancy charges followed. The McIntyres sued, predictably claiming that their religious freedom had been interfered with by the state attempting to make sure their children were getting some basic education. The El Paso Court of Appeals found that no parents have an absolute constitutional right to home school their children completely free of any state supervision, regulation or requirements. The McIntyres appealed to the Texas Supreme Court which will hear arguments this week. The Washington Post has the full story.
From the Annals of Cattle Ranching – In 1912, the XIT Ranch of Texas sold its last head of cattle. The XIT was once one of the largest cattle ranches in Texas, and the land was received in exchange for financing the construction of the state capitol building in Austin. Thus, the XIT it was not owned by the iconic independent cattle ranching pioneer popular in Western mythology. In fact, many of the biggest cow operations in the 1800’s were owned by big-city capitalists and stockholders. The Chicago capitalists behind the XIT—also known as the Capitol Syndicate Ranch—were leveraging their capital and banking on the growing American appetite for fresh beef.
The CSR determined that ranching would be the only profitable use for their new land. The built a a large and highly efficient cattle-raising operation that stretched over parts of nine Texas counties. At its peak, the XIT had more than 160,000 head of cattle, employed 150 cowboys, and operated on 3 million acres of the Texas panhandle.
Increasing land prices and declining beef prices, convinced the CSR that they could make more money by selling their land. By 1912, the XIT abandoned ranching altogether with the sale of its last herd of cattle. As the land was sold off the XIT holdings shrunk. By 1950, the XIT consisted of less than 20,000 acres.
Map from the XIT Museum.
Jerry Jeff Walker should be singing about freeways in Texas. Any laments about an L.A. Freeway are passé, and JJW need only travel a few miles in his attempt to avoid getting killed or caught. The Texas Department of Transportation has issued its annual Top 100 Congested Roadways list and I-35 in Austin from Hwy 290 to Hwy 71 has been named the most congested stretch of highway in the state. The stretch of I-35 (known to long-time Austin residents as “Interregional”) has surpassed the West Loop in Houston to claim the number one place in Texas to while away the hours waiting in traffic. Fortunately, Red’s intimate knowledge of Austin’s highways and byways allows him to generally avoid the parking lot that is I-35 whenever he graces the Capital City with his presence. In Houston, however, the West Loop can be damn near unavoidable because of the complete absence of crossings of Buffalo Bayou in the western part of the Inner Loop area.
Photo from the TXDOT.
After months of rampant speculation and very little (make that almost no) evidence of what actually happened, we finally have a video shot from the outside dining area at the now-defunct Twin Peaks in Waco. While a few stalwart gang members stand relatively steadfast (one prominent Cossack member whips out his pistol attempting to provide cover for the headlong flight of his colleagues) when the shooting erupts, the vast majority of the self-proclaimed meanest, toughest bad asses around run, scramble and crawl their way to safety apparently leaving their fallen brethren behind. How embarrassing.
From the Annals of the Wilds – In 1984, Pres. Ronald Reagan signed the Texas Wilderness Act of 1984 establishing five new wilderness areas in East Texas. The five were the Big Slough Wilderness Area, Indian Mounds Wilderness Area, Little Lake Creek Wilderness Area, Turkey Hill Wilderness Area and Upland Island Wilderness Area. These areas were preserved from logging and development and now serve as islands of wilderness in Texas’ National Forests. In 1979, the Secretary of Agriculture had recommended the establishment of three wilderness areas totaling 10,712 acres. Texas congressman John Bryant sponsored legislation that would have set up ten wilderness areas in Texas covering 65,000 acres, but the bill went nowhere until citizen support expanded in the district of Congressman Charles Wilson, where three of the wildernesses lie. Wilson agreed to a compromise of five wilderness areas totaling 34,700 acres. That compromise was made possible by the willingness of lumber giant Temple-Eastex to trade some of its land inside Upland Island and Indian Mounds for Forest Service land outside.
Imagine a Republican President today signing a bill that creates wilderness areas.
Red has put together a short list of the accomplishments of Sen. Ted Cruz (TP-Texas) since entering elective office:
Meanwhile, the Jeb!!!!$$$$? “Campaign” plans to highlight the complete lack of accomplishments. The Texas Tribune has the skinny on Jeb!!!!$$$$?’s latest attempt to take down Ted.
“We feel really good about Texas,” said Jeb Bush campaign manager Danny Diaz, suggesting in an interview late Wednesday that Cruz has little to show Texans after three years in the Senate. “Where’s the accomplishments?”
“The reality is, we look forward to communicating our record of accomplishment, the most conservative record of accomplishment in the field, versus others, and that includes Sen. Cruz,” Diaz told The Texas Tribune following the third Republican presidential debate here at the University of Colorado Boulder. “Sen. Cruz has not distinguished himself” either by repealing Obamacare or keeping the nation’s debt from exploding.
“So the reality is, once again, good floor speeches, great PowerPoint, but when it comes time to get things done, where’s the accomplishments?” Diaz asked. “So as we discuss these differences with Texans and others, we’re going to highlight the most accomplished conservative record in the field versus folks in the field that don’t have any really discernible accomplishments.”
This week Red features the not so longstanding rivalry between Mary Hardin-Baylor and Hardin-Simmons at Shelton Stadium in Abilene.
The third ranked MHB Crusaders come into this matchup on a hot roll with butter having won all 7 games this season. And not just winning – the Crusaders have put an old-fashioned butt whipping on every opponent so far. The closest game was last week’s 48-20 blowout of Texas Lutheran. This is nothing new in Belton, as MHB has only lost one conference game in the last 10 seasons. This year the Crusaders are averaging just over 53 points a game.
The thirteenth ranked Hardin-Simmons Cowboys will have taken a backseat to no one either. HS is also 7-0 and pretty much destroying the competition – except for a 35-27 close call against Texas Lutheran which would be undefeated except for playing these two juggernauts. HS is not scoring points at the same incredible rate as MHB, but it may have a better defense.
There is nothing unusual about the American Southwest Conference championship coming down to this game. For all but two seasons the conference crown has passed back and forth between these two powerhouses. But this year’s playoff stakes are unlike any other. With the departure of Mississippi College and Texas Lutheran after the 2012 season, the ASC dropped below the seven-team threshold for an automatic qualifying bid. There was a two-year grace period, and two provisional programs have since been added, but the conference has been pushed into the Pool B grouping, where 13 teams are fighting for one bid. The winner of this one is probably in, but the loser may be left in the cold despite having had an otherwise exceptional season. Red calls it for Hardin-Simmons 59-53.
Photo of Shelton Stadium from http://www.hsuathletics.com.
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