Author Archives: Red from Texas

Unknown's avatar

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.

Where Have all the Cowboys Gone? Part 1

Leave a reply

The editorial board of the Dallas Morning News has a favor to ask of Cowboys Coach Jason Garrett.  They want the coach to get off of his high horse when talking about wanting players of good character and integrity.  The Cowboys’ recent moves indicate that when it comes to building the team, character and integrity don’t mean Jack Squat.  What will the legions of female Cowboys fans think about rooting for players who have abused women.

Garrett’s newest player, Pro Bowl pass rusher Greg Hardy, was accused of grabbing his ex-girlfriend, throwing her into a bathtub, choking her with both hands, picking her up over his head and throwing her onto a couch, which happened to be covered with assault weapons. This allegedly happened in North Carolina in May. A judge convicted Hardy in June and issued a suspended, 60-day sentence. But Hardy appealed and, before his jury trial, settled out of court with the victim, who refused to testify at the appeal hearing. Charges were dropped.

Garrett’s team signed Hardy after its backup running back Joseph Randle was arrested twice in four months, once on a shoplifting charge and once after a 22-year-old woman said he pointed a gun and threatened to kill her. So far, Garrett has kept Randle on the team, alongside Josh Brent, whom the coach reinstated in November after a mere 10-game suspension that followed Brent’s intoxication manslaughter conviction. The drunken-driving wreck killed a teammate in 2012.

After all that, Coach Garrett, we ask this: Please spare us any more talk about “good integrity” or “solid character” having anything to do with who plays for the Dallas Cowboys.

Garrett is like any number of NFL officials — up to and including Commissioner Roger Goodell — who talk a big game on the value of integrity and character, right up to the minute those things are outweighed by speed, size or arm strength.

Recently, Garrett was asked by a gaggle of reporters what he seeks in new Cowboys. “Personal character and integrity,” he said. But what of players with checkered pasts? Garrett replied that he’s most interested in “where [the player] is right now.” “There’s always a grey area,” he said.

Apparently, the “grey area” is whether or not a guy can play.

Image from sportscourtmedia.com

And Speaking of Incredible Wind Power

Leave a reply

Numerous media outlets are reporting that Sen. Ted Cruz (TP-Texas) will announce his candidacy for President today at Liberty University in Virginia. It’s very rare for a candidate to announce at a venue away from his home state. But Cruz’s time in DC has shown that his political agenda has almost nothing to do with Texas or improving the lives of Texas citizens. The Cruz agenda appears to be about one thing and one thing only – the greater glorification of all things Ted Cruz. And one has to admit that it has been a remarkably success so far. Red cannot recall a junior senator raising such a ruckus in his first term of holding any political office. Which raises the question of what it is that qualifies Cruz for President – beyond being 35 years old and a natural born citizen of the U.S.? And speaking of that second requirement – where do the “birthers’ stand on the undeniable fact that Cruz was born in Canada? Red doesn’t question Cruz’s technical qualification for the highest office, but how can one have questioned Obama’s qualification for the office and then ignore the same problem with respect to Cruz. For a decent analysis of the situation see Rick Ungar’s column in Forbes.

Wind Powering Down?

Leave a reply


The Dallas Morning News reports that Sen. Troy Fraser (R-Horseshoe Bay), the chairman of the Senate Natural Resources Committee, is attempting to end the renewable energy program he championed a decade ago, when the Texas wind power industry was just getting started. Wind power now accounts for almost 13,000 megawatts and at times supplies as much as one-quarter of the power being delivered to Texas electric power grid.

“Mission accomplished. We set out to incentivize and get wind started in Texas, and we far surpassed that goal,” Fraser said. “There’s no state that’s come close to what we’ve done.”

With the support of the state’s Public Utility Commission, Fraser wants to freeze the state’s Renewable Energy Credit program, ending a requirement that power retailers buy credits from wind and solar farms to meet state renewable standards. Also, the $7 billion-and-counting Competitive Renewable Energy Zone project, which has constructed 3,600 miles of transmission lines to bring wind power to Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and Austin, would officially end.

The bill is expected to go before Fraser’s committee on Tuesday, before being moved to the Senate for a vote. Already, renewable energy companies and environmental advocates are starting to lobby to let the program run through 2025, arguing that ending it with so little warning endangers an industry that has created more than 100,000 jobs statewide.

Why are we killing off a program that has been remarkably successful in providing clean renewable energy to Texas?  It couldn’t have anything to do with the oil and gas industry’s influence over the Tea Party dominated Legislature, could it?

Today in Texas History – March 23

Leave a reply

From the Annals of Industrial Incompetence – In 2005 BP’s Texas City refinery exploded when a hydrocarbon vapor cloud ignited at the ISOM isomerization process unit.  Fifteen workers were killed and more than 150 were injured. The Texas City Refinery was the second-largest oil refinery in Texas and the third-largest in the U.S. BP acquired the Texas City refinery as part of its merger with Amoco in 1999. Consulting firm Telos had examined conditions at the plant and released a report in January 2005 which found numerous safety issues, including “broken alarms, thinned pipe, chunks of concrete falling, bolts dropping 60 feet and staff being overcome with fumes.” The report’s co-author stated, “We have never seen a site where the notion ‘I could die today’ was so real” – unfortunately prophetic words.

The Eleventh Commandment – Thou Shalt be Packing Heat

Leave a reply

Texas Republicans are convinced that the right to bear arms is a God-given right.  This has been a primary argument in their fight to bring concealed carry and open carry of firearms to Texas campuses.  It leads to some interesting exchanges on the Senate floor.  Such as when Sen. John Whitmire (D- Houston), the longest serving senator, questioned gun rights advocate Sen. Brian Birdwell (TP- Granbury).

Whitmire:  “You believe it’s a God-given right to arm yourself and to defend yourself. I don’t want to put words in your mouth. Is that the premise of your legislation?”

Birdwell: “The Declaration (of Independence) says we are endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights and that to protect these rights, governments are instituted among men to preserve them. Article VII of the U.S. Constitution brings forward the Declaration as original law, therefore, creator and God are the same to me.  The right to self preservation and the right to defend one’s life is God-given because of the language in our Declaration and Article VII of the U.S. Constitution.”

Whitmire:  “And you’ve explained that to me and I do not understand fully the God right…I don’t remember in the Sunday school lessons or in my Scriptures that God spoke, obviously to weapons, or concealed weapons holders.”

Texas Wipe Out

Leave a reply

Texas led the nation in having 5 teams make the NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament.  It turns out that was the high point for Texas fans as all five teams lost in the first round.

Butler 56 Texas 48

Arizona 93 Texas Southern 72

Utah 57 Stephen F. Austin 50

UCLA 60 SMU 59

Georgia State 57 Baylor 56

We knew the Longhorns were no good, but Baylor and SMU losing was a surprise.  At least Texas Southern managed to score more than 60 points.

Today in Texas History – March 20

Leave a reply

From the Annals of the Good LBJ – In 1965, Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson notified Alabama Gov. George Wallace that he was calling up the Alabama National Guard to supervise a civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery.  The action followed the confrontation of Bloody Sunday on March 7 when a group of 600 protestors were attacked by state and local police wielding billy clubs and firing tear gas in a brutal clash that was widely broadcast on television to the revulsion and outrage of millions of decent Americans.

After an Alabama federal judge ruled that the planned march to Montgomery could go ahead, President Johnson and his advisers worked quickly to find a way to ensure the safety of King and his demonstrators on their way from Selma to Montgomery. Standing in the way was ardent segregationist Wallace.   The Governor initially promised LBJ that he would call out the Alabama National Guard to maintain order, but then went on television to demand that LBJ send in federal troops instead.   LBJ was understandably enraged and sent out a press release stating that because Wallace refused to use the National Guard to preserve order,  he would call up the guard and give them all necessary support. Several days later, some 50,000 marchers followed King on the 54 mile march guarded by state and federal troops. Arriving safely in Montgomery on March 25, they watched King deliver his famous “How Long, Not Long” speech from the steps of the Capitol building.  One can only imagine how the despicable Wallace felt seeing his Capitol being used by King and his followers.

Red Out

Leave a reply

Red will be on vacation for the next week, so posting on the site may be sporadic at best.  Red needs to rusticate every now and then and get back to his country roots.  Life in the big city can wear on a man.