George Clayton, DINO

George Clayton is the Democratic candidate for Texas House District 102. He is running against Linda Koop, the Republican candidate. I call Clayton the Democratic candidate loosely. Sometimes, people use the term RINO (Republican In Name Only) or DINO (Democrat In Name Only), but that's mostly done when one faction of the party wants to write a person out of the party. In this case, however, George Clayton appears to be trying to write himself out of the Democratic party tent.

After the jump, Clayton's strange response to The Dallas Morning News's endorsement of his opponent, Linda Koop.

Texas House District 102: Koop vs Clayton

A candidate forum for Texas House District 102 was held on October 8, 2014, at RISD's Westwood Junior High School. Linda Koop (R) and George Clayton (D) answered questions from the audience.

After the jump, where the two candidates stand on a wide range of issues.

State Fair of Texas - Midway

From 2014 09 30 State Fair

More photos after the jump.

OTBR: A Narrow Street in Zagreb

Latitude: N 45° 49.680
Longitude: E 015° 56.220

A child on a road trip with his family asks, "Where are we?" and the father answers, "Let's check the map. We're off the blue roads [the Interstate Highways marked in blue on the road atlas]. We're off the red roads [the US and state highways]. We're off the black roads [the county highways]. I think we're off the map altogether." It was always my dream to be off the map altogether.

After the jump, a few of the random places (and I mean random literally) that I visited vicariously last month that are "off the blue roads".

My Turn to Squeal on Rodger Jones

I have something in common with the author of last week's fascinating Points essay, a woman who got raked over the coals by authorities for letting her kids play in the nearby park, unsupervised.

Source: Rodger Jones.

That's how Rodger Jones, editorial writer for The Dallas Morning News, sets the stage for his readers to sympathize with whatever it was that happened to him. Can you say false equivalence? Do you think Jones was innocent of wrongdoing, like the innocent woman he's comparing himself to? No, Jones admits, passively, that in his case "mistakes were made." Do you think maybe Jones "got raked over the coals" for those mistakes? No, Jones admits, "There were no coals in my case and no raking."

So what exactly does Jones have in common with the woman who suffered injustice? Let's find out, after the jump.

Cottonwood Art Festival - Fall 2014

From 2014 10 04 Cottonwood Art Festival

Saturday was sunny and warm, perfect weather for Richardson's twice yearly Cottonwood Art Festival, now in its 45th year. After the jump, more photos from this Fall's festival.

Wunderland at RHS

Wunderland at RHS: Alice meets Captain Hook, Frankenstein and Nazis in dark twist on a children's story. Mental whiplash. World premiere.

Review: The Woman Who Lost Her Soul

Amazon

From The Woman Who Lost Her Soul, by Bob Shacochis

Oh, my God, she said. What's on these pants? Is this blood? Her sweet, earnest face, becalmed by the gentle tides of a comfortable life, filled with a look of mortification. Dutiful wife, instinctive mother, she sniffed at a patch of the stains, repulsed. They’re covered with blood! There's so much of it. Tom, what happened? Yes, that. What happened. He would have to tell her something but he did not know where to begin or where to end and he did not know if she should ever, ever know him so well, or how he spent his days when he was away from her."

And so the mystery begins. After the jump, my review.

Repeat Tweets: Someone Pick Up LaDarius Perkins

Repeat tweets from September, 2014:

• Sep 1 2014: Saw outstanding performance by @DarioPerkins27 at Lambeau Thursday. Sadly, there's not enough room on the roster. Someone will pick him up.
  
• Sep 2 2014: Payday lender CashAmerica donates to Ken Paxton and Linda Koop (say it ain't so, Linda). fec.gov (h/t @davelevinthal)
  
• Sep 3 2014: Payday lender CashAmerica reports giving money to Linda Koop. Her campaign says she returned the unsolicited money. @MarkSteger
  
• Sep 2 2014: Headline: "Ted Cruz Tells Koch Conference: Stopping Amnesty Most Important Issue." Before it was jobs. Or Obamacare. Mostly it's Cruz 2016.
  
• Sep 2 2014: RT @Neil_Irwin: "New WashPost publisher was founding CEO of Politico." Why not Breitbart? Or Newsmax? WashPost has fallen so far so fast.
  
• Sep 2 2014: A company "dedicated to understanding human behavior through the creative application of randomized-controlled experiments" is following me.
  
• Sep 2 2014: Richardson ranks 10th best in nation, according to WalletHub.com or 37th best in DFW area, according to D Magazine. Go figure.
  

After the jump, more repeat tweets.

Silver Screen Slayer at PST

Pocket Sandwich Theatre

Silver Screen Slayer at PST: Silly parody of '30s private eye, Nazi spy movies. Jokes about Hollywood Jews and gays not as funny as rest. C+