Mud (2013)

IMDB

Mud (2013): Two Mississippi boys meet a drifter who lives on a boat in a tree. Yep. Adventure, suspense, coming of age. Early Oscar buzz. B-

Tom Pauken Asks, "Where's the Beef?"

Quick, who is Clara Peller? If you can answer that 1980s' trivia question, Tom Pauken just might be your candidate for governor.

Tom Pauken is running for governor. He's an underdog. Greg Abbott is the favorite. So, naturally, Pauken takes potshots at Abbott, like this one uttered in a Texas Tribune TribLive conversation: "He is good at raising money, but in terms of substantive ideas, where's the beef?"

After the jump, where's the beef?

S2L77: Isfahan is Half the World

From 1977 03 29 Iran

Pavilion of 40 Columns

From 1977 03 29 Iran

More after the jump.

One Step Closer to Restaurant Row

Source: Hermansen Land Development, Inc.

Richardson appears to be getting one step closer to building a row of 1980s-style suburban restaurants at Central Expressway and Floyd Rd where the demolished Continental Inn used to be. So much for any dream of mixed-use development between the freeway and the single family homes in the Heights Park Richardson Heights neighborhood.

Three years ago, the city held a series of meetings to gather stakeholders' inputs on the aims of redevelopment of the West Spring Valley Corridor, which includes the land in question here. What rated highest with the stakeholders were the pretty pictures of sidewalk cafes and strolling shoppers. The city had other ideas. It purchased the old Continental Inn, demolished it, and is now (presumably) in the process of acquiring the other parcels of land on the block. Once all the land is in hand, Richardson will likely sell its stake to Hermansen Land Development, Inc., for construction of, not sidewalk cafes with strolling shoppers, but a 1980s-style restaurant row.

After the jump, why that unimaginative development may be one step closer.

Plano East 34, Berkner 13

From 2013 09 13 Berkner vs Plano East

Plano East is the largest high school in Texas. Official UIL enrollment: Plano East 6,015. Berkner 2,654. I'm just saying. I'm not making excuses (yes, I am).

Back to football. The Plano East Panthers beat the Berkner Rams convincingly Friday night at Tom Kimbrough Stadium. The Rams kept it close early, tying the score at 7 early in the second quarter, but from then on, it was all Panthers. A 57-yard fumble return by Berkner gave Rams fans something to cheer late in the fourth quarter, making the final score 34-13.

More photos after the jump.

Pete Sessions Draws a Challenger

I never understood how Pete Sessions keeps getting re-elected to the U.S. Congress term after term without drawing any serious opposition. I couldn't understand the nature of his support. Oh, he gets top ratings from groups like the NRA and National Right to Life, but he's just so... sleazy -- he also gets top ratings from the payday lenders and Vegas strip clubs.

Sessions usually draws a Democratic challenger and maybe a Libertarian challenger, but in his safe Republican district (safe thanks in part to gerrymandering), his re-election is never in doubt. Big business Republicans can count on him and he's always been good enough at pandering to the Tea Party types to keep them in line. He promises to repeal Obamacare, but he never does anything really crazy like shut down the federal government or default on the federal debt, which would be disastrous for business.

More and more, the Tea Party is not content with lip service crazy; they want the real thing. Sessions should be way too establishment for them. I never understood why he didn't draw a Tea Party challenger in the GOP primary. After the jump, why that might be about to change.

A Bad Reason for Voter Photo ID

Jared Patterson, candidate for Texas House District 112 (challenging incumbent Angie Chen Button) posted this on Facebook:

In an attempt to purchase a roll of stamps this afternoon, I was asked to show two forms of photo identification (because I hadn’t endorsed the back of the credit card I was using). How is it rational to determine that purchasing stamps must be more protected than our election process? #VoterID #CommonSense

Source: Facebook.

After the jump, why #VoterID is not #CommonSense.

Kon-Tiki (2012)

IMDB

Kon-Tiki (2012): Drama, not documentary, but what a story. Cross between Columbus and Survivor. Inspiring adventure. Fine filmmaking. B-

District 112: Race to the Right

The race for the GOP nomination for Texas House District 112 is heating up. The primary is still more than a half year away, but incumbent Angie Chen Button is already sending campaign mailers to constituents. Of course, Button is staking her claim to being a strong fiscal conservative, "100% Pro-Life" and a "defender of the 2nd Amendment." Her mailer is silent on funding for public schools and health care.

That's not conservative enough for Jared Patterson. Button's challenger is doggedly trying to get to her right. He lined up the support of Cathie Adams, who was voted out as state party chair in part for failure "to reach out to independents, disenchanted Republicans, and minority groups". Most recently, Adams was heard saying that Grover Norquist was "showing signs of becoming a Muslim" because he was growing a beard. Grover Norquist not pure enough for Adams? The author of the pledge against tax increases signed by 95% of GOP members of Congress? So much for the Muslim vote. (Or the bearded vote. Or both.) Adams also opposes immigration reform (so much for the Hispanic vote) in part because one proposed bill calls for biometric scanning of non-citizens at airports, which Adams says, "of course, we know in biblical prophecy that that is the End Times." So much for the non-evangelical vote. Most recently, Adams called protesters against Texas's recent anti-abortion, anti-women's health law "stinky stalking feminists" and "feminazis". So much for the women's vote.

That's Cathie Adams. That's the woman that Jared Patterson is proudly standing next to in his bid to represent Richardson and Garland in the state legislature. After the jump, Jared Patterson shows why Cathie Adams is in his camp.

The Whole World is Listening. If Only Someone Speaks.

State Senator Kirk Watson of Austin is bragging about a bipartisan bill passed by the Texas legislature that allows for the use of electronic message boards to facilitate communication between local government officials like city council members. Watson's bill enables something like a Facebook for local government, where council members can write messages to each other and they can respond to each other electronically, all of it in open threads the public can read. I don't really need to describe how Facebook works, do I?

Why is this a big deal? Previously, such electronic communication between council members was forbidden by the Texas Open Meetings Act, which insists that all group communications take place in public, in posted, open session. The effect of the law is to suppress deliberation, not foster it. Council members can't get together between meetings to discuss issues. They can't send emails copying the full council. They can't even email or talk to each other one-to-one because of the chance that the discussion eventually gets passed one by one to the full council. Such "walking quorums" are also forbidden.

After the jump, what this means for Richardson.