Author Archives: Red from Texas

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About Red from Texas

I'm proud to be Red. I have lived most of my life in Texas and I love this place. Here are a few things you should know about me. 1. I am happily married and intend to stay so. 2. I live in a house that is older than you, unless you are really old. 3. I own 2 rifles and a shotgun. I think handguns are just trouble. 4. I have never killed a man, but have taken out some deer and hogs. 5. I was a good student, but never close to being valedictorian. 6. In no particular order I like the Houston Texans, San Antonio Spurs, Houston Astros, FC Barcelona, Tottenham Hotspur, Texas Longhorns and Houston Dynamo. 7. I hate Dallas but always have a good time when I go there. 8. I was a Dallas Cowboys fan for 26 years but declared that I was no longer a fan during the 1987 strike. 9. I don't own any pets. I like cats, and a good dog and I have met at least 3 of them in my lifetime. 10. I think the best part of Texas is west of I-35. 11. I own two pairs of cowboy boots, but don't wear them very often. 12. I don't have a pronounced Texas accent, but can affect one when needed. 13. My last meal would be fried shrimp with tartar sauce, a baked potato with all the fixins', a dinner salad with 1000 Island dressing, yeast rolls and chocolate fudge pie for dessert. 14. I'm an old Dad, but my children are none of your business. 15. I have two degrees from UT-Austin and somehow managed to fall in love with and marry an Aggie. 16. Most of my family are right-wing nut jobs but I love them anyway. 17. When I get to play golf on a regular basis, I shoot in the low 80's. 18. I don't get to play golf on a regular basis. 19. I think Fort Worth is the best town in Texas by a long shot. 20. I have a mean herb garden. Regards, Red P.S. Remember it's not a color, it's a state of mind.

Today in Texas History

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From the Annals of the Indian Wars –  In 1874, Lt. Francis D. Baldwin and three army scouts captured the Kiowa Indian known as “Tehan.”  Tehan was a white captive of the Kiowa Indians taken when he was a child, perhaps between five and ten. The Indian name Tehan was their version of Texan likely from the Spanish which many Indians spoke on some level.  He was adopted by the Kiowa medicine man Maman-ti and became a respected and fierce warrior.  He was in striking contrast to the Kiowa with his red hair, fair skin, and thick neck. Tehan was about eighteen when the Red River War broke out in the summer of 1874. He was among those who fled the Wichita Agency in late August and camped near the upper Washita River while traveling west toward Palo Duro Canyon.  While looking for stray horses, he was captured by Baldwin. Although Tehan pretended to be grateful for his “deliverance,” his captors took no chances and kept a rope tied about the prisoner’s neck to prevent any escape attempt.  Tehan escaped during a subsequent skirmish with the Kiowas.  He rejoined his adopted tribe, sporting a suit of clothes the troops had given him.  In later years several men claimed to be Tehan.  His actual fate will likely remain a mystery.

Pope Francis Reaches out to Texas Teen

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Pope Francis has been conducting video teleconferences with parishioners around the world.  He recently connected with a Texas teenager who claims to have lost a soccer scholarship when the school found out he was an undocumented alien.  ABC News has the full story.

Soccer aficionado Pope Francis took a page from his favorite sport’s handbook recently in his message to a young man in McAllen, Texas, who had shared his story of adversity during an ABC News virtual audience with the pontiff via satellite.

Ricardo Ortiz, 19, of Houston, told Pope Francis on Monday that he’d lost a soccer scholarship to college once the school had found out he was not a U.S. citizen.

“They informed [me] that I wasn’t able to attend the university of my dreams,” he said. “I ended up going to a community college, started working full time, started supporting my family.”

When Ortiz was around 17, his father had an accident and nearly lost his leg. He was not able to work.

Thankfully, due to the 2012 immigration law Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, Ortiz attained a work permit and held down after-school jobs.

“That happening impacted my life in a very deep way. I had to become the breadwinner of the family. I had to be the person that supported our family,” said Ortiz, whose family had then grown with three younger brothers. “I never lost faith. I never lost the strength that my father and mother gave me.”

Eventually, his father was able to return to work and Ortiz was able to graduate high school, where he’d picked up soccer in his junior year and excelled. On Monday, he asked the pope what was the solution to the world’s problems.

Pope Francis, a well-known avid soccer fan, expressed admiration for Ortiz and told him Monday that “the match is played between friendship in society and enmity in society.”

“We are all created for friendship in society. All of us bear responsibility for everyone else,” the pope said. “And each one has to make a choice in his or her heart. And we have to help that choice to be made in the heart. Escaping it through addiction, through violence, does not help. Only closeness and giving of myself, all that I have to give, the way you gave everything you could as a boy, when you supported your family. Don’t forget that.”

Mom and Dad Must be so Proud

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A Texas State student in San Marcos is now driving an child’s electric Barbie car after her license was suspended for DWI.  Apparently, walking  or riding a bike was just  too much for this dedicated student who has attracted a lot of attention for roaming the campus and environs in the pink Barbiemobile.  UPI reports on the attention that the carless co-ed is getting. The moral – don’t let exercise get in the way of your abject laziness.

Tara Monroe, 20, a junior studying industrial engineering, said her license was suspended and her father took her car away after she refused a Breathalyzer test during a DWI stop following a Waka Flocka Flame concert.

“Riding a bike around campus sucks,” Monroe.  “Like really sucks.”

Monroe’s solution came in the form of a $60 electric Barbie Jeep she found for sale on Craigslist. She said she named the vehicle Charlene in honor of its previous owner.

Monroe, for her part, seems to be reveling in the attention.

“Most people don’t find the things me and my friends do very funny, just immature, so I didn’t expect to get this big of a reaction,” she said. “People who don’t know me are shocked but my friends weren’t even surprised because I do stuff like this all the time.”

“This is the best way I could have gotten my 15 minutes of fame,” she said. “Basically, it was the best decision I’ve made in college, yet.”

Yes, Mom and Dad must be so proud.

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From the Annals of the Republic –  In 1839, the last mention of the steamship Cayuga was recorded and the notable vessel passed from history.  The Cayuga, an eighty-eight-ton side-wheeler built in 1832, had been the first commercially successful steamboat in Texas and was critical to the Texian war effort during the Revolution.  She carried army supplies, messages, and transported government officials and refugees. Most curiously, she was the floating capitol of Texas.  Pres. David G. Burnett impressed her for public service.  When the government was forced to evacuate Harrisburg ahead of Santa Anna’s army, Burnet and his cabinet used the steamer as their temporary capitol for about a week.

After the revolution ended, the vessel was sold at auction on December 15, 1836 at Lynch’s Ferry. The new owners refitted the vessel and renamed her the Branch T. Archer. The last mention of the  former Cayuga was a Liberty County sheriff’s sale on this date in 1839, advertising the sale of the historic vessel.

$106 Million Down the UH Drain

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The University of Houston is desperate to achieve Tier 1 status – this time in athletics.  The Texas Tribune reports that UH has transferred over $108 million from vital academic programs to support its athletic programs that the good citizens of Houston could not care less about.

But while fan attendance may be lacking, the university’s teams have received huge support in another way. To fund its ambitions, the University of Houston has transferred more than $100 million from its academic side to its sports programs in recent years, figures reviewed by The Texas Tribune show. Meanwhile, the university has launched or is planning a series of expensive sports construction projects, and the school’s athletics department has struggled to stick to its annual budget.

Athletics departments at public universities are generally expected pay their own bills, with schools usually chipping in to cover shortfalls. But Houston’s subsidies in recent years have grown beyond the norm. From 2008 to 2014, the school transferred $106 million to athletics, according to financial reports reviewed by Tribune.

Houston’s subsidy shows no sign of shrinking this year, even though administrators have told the department that they’d like it to become more self-sustaining. School leaders remain committed to making the teams more competitive. They see basketball and football success as a way to increase the school’s visibility and strengthen student and alumni ties. To do so, administrators say, the school has to spend money. 

Meanwhile, the Houston Chronicle reports on exactly how little the City of Houston at large cares about UH’s quest to become the No. 4 sports attraction in Houston (after the Texans, Astros and Rockets).

Imagining the Cougars filling the void is laughable in 2015. The University of Houston can’t fill its own football stadium, let alone carry the weight of a major athletics program in a city much more obsessed with the Aggies and Longhorns. But that doesn’t mean Hunter Yurachek can’t recognize the enviable opening currently staring the Cougars straight in the face.

“This is a city that is on the rise, and this is a university that is on the rise. … We want to get to the same level from a wins and losses standpoint and a notoriety standpoint that our pro sports friends are having in this marketplace,” said Yurachek, UH’s vice president for intercollegiate athletics.

Convincing scattered alumni to show up for Tom Herman’s debut against boring Tennessee Tech at TDECU Stadium is one thing. Making the Cougars stand out in a region long devoted to the NFL, NBA and MLB is another battle entirely.

If Herman is juggling 50-pound barbells, Yurachek is lifting multiple mountains at once. Mack Rhoades’ replacement was as honest, upfront and direct as the Cougars’ splashy new football hire during a recent interview. Yurachek also didn’t shy away from the multi-tiered challenges the university faces at it attempts to build something that’s never been built in a city that thrives on endless expansion: a collegiate program that deserves annual attention and devotion, not just random likes on Facebook.

“We’ve got to increase our fan base,” Yurachek said. “We’ve got somewhere in the neighborhood of 160,000 University of Houston alums that live within an hour drive of this campus. Our season-ticket base for football is roughly about 14-15,000, and that’s not good enough.”

UH sports are laughable indeed.  Red advises you to go to a Dynamo game – at least they aren’t wasting your tax dollars on a foolish quest to gain attention.

We Want Rick, We Want Rick, We Want Rick – to Quit

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Rick Perry’s troubled path to the GOP nomination took another hit on Wednesday when  the campaign lost the last of its staff in New Hampshire. Perry’s New Hampshire political director Dante Vitagliano has left one sinking ship for another by joining the still on the ground campaign of Ohio Gov. John Kasich.  According to Vitagliano, “it has become clear that the path forward for Gov. Perry is not through New Hampshire.”  Leaving open the question of exactly where is it that Rick’s path actually runs through?

Apparently, Perry’s only remaining hope is ultra-conservative South Carolina. Perry continues to maintain a staff of five in SC.  Perry field director, Erik Corcoran, heads the staff and claims that Perry has actual volunteers in the Palmetto State,  “We’ve confirmed to [Perry headquarters in Austin] that they hired the right people and we’re in it for the right reasons,” Corcoran said. “I’m not going to disparage anyone who has left, but it sends an enormously powerful message, especially to young people, that there is a team out there that’s in it for the right reasons.”

Listen up young people.  Get on the bandwagon of a 65 year old, tired and temperamental white guy who hasn’t had a new idea since 1996.  The staff needs you.  They’re in it for the right reasons – after all it’s Perry’s last chance to boost his enormously oversized ego.   Who wouldn’t want to be a part of that?

Today in Texas History – September 2

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From the Annals of World War II – In 1945, Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz signed the Instrument of Surrender with Japan that ended World War II. Nimitz, who was from Fredericksburg, was named commander in chief of the Pacific Fleet shortly after Japan’s 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor and ultimately had command over all of the Pacific Theater with the exception of Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s Southwest Pacific sector.  Nimitz was responsible for implementing the offensive that eventually brought the Japanese to unconditional surrender. Nimitz and the representatives of Emperor Hirohito (who did not later commit seppuku) signed the peace treaty aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.

In 1964, Fredericksburg initiated a plan to honor its most famous son.  A  local group established the Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz Memorial Naval Museum in the old Nimitz Hotel on Main Street in Fredericksburg. From this humble beginning arose the excellent National Museum of the Pacific War.  If you have not been there, you need to go.

Jade Helm 15 Update

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Red was really starting to think this whole Jade Helm 15 thing was a bunch of hooey, when lo and behold Red heard that Lionel Messi and Argentina was going to be in Houston for a match against Bolivia on Friday.  That got Red to thinking about why two South American teams would come all the way to Houston to play a so-called “friendly” against each other when there are umpteen places either in Argentina, Bolivia or somewhere in between that could host this match.  So Red is naturally suspicious that this is a big scheme by Obama (socialist, Kenyan, Muslim terrorist sympathizer that he is) to encourage more illegal immigration – who else watches soccer anyway? – and further erode the Tea Party’s chances of putting their man in the White House before it’s too late and they all die off.  So when all the illegals take a moment off from committing criminal acts and taking handlouts from the feds while watching the nefarious socialist sport of soccer, the jack-booted thugs will be getting busy rounding up our women, children and most importantly guns.  It’ll be easy for them to spot the true patriots because they will be the only ones not mesmerized by Messi’s magical moves con la pelota.  So take Red’s advice, suffer through 2 hours of futbol (as they call it).  It will be worth figuring out exactly what is “offsides” in order to keep the JBT’s away from your WCAMIG’s.  Sacrifices must be made lads.

Vigilantly yours,

Red