Honoring MLK by Restricting the Right to Vote

Jared Patterson is running in the 2014 GOP primary to replace Angie Chen Button as representative in Texas House District 112. He posted this on Facebook the morning of August 28, 2013, the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr's "I Have a Dream" speech:

Fifty years ago, a Christian conservative stood before the nation to proclaim his Dream. May we honor the content AND context of Dr. Martin Luther King's speech.

Source: Jared Patterson, Facebook.

Just ten hours earlier, the same Jared Patterson posted this on Facebook:

Voter ID laws have to be among the most common sense pieces of legislation during my lifetime.

Source: Jared Patterson, Facebook.

Somehow, I don't see the sentiment expressed here as being compatible with honoring either the content or context of MLK's speech.

After the jump, how far have we come in 50 years?

Richardson's Racial Dot Map

Source: U of VA Cooper Center.

The map is a visualization of US Census data. The boundaries of the crop above are generally the boundaries of Richardson. It consists of one dot per person, color coded by the individual's race and ethnicity. Blue is white. Green is black. Red is Asian. Orange is Hispanic.

After the jump, some random observations.

Being Elmo (2011)

IMDB

Being Elmo (2011): Documentary of a puppeteer. Behind the scenes on Sesame Street. Too sweet. Maybe should have picked Oscar the Grouch. C+

Tax Expenditures in Richardson

Tax expenditures: spending by another name.

A tax expenditure program is government spending through the tax code. Tax expenditures alter the horizontal and vertical equity of the basic tax system by allowing exemptions, deductions, or credits to select groups or specific activities. For example, two people who earn exactly the same income can have different effective tax rates if one of the tax payers qualifies for certain tax expenditure programs by owning a home, having children, and receiving employer health care and pension insurance.

Source: Wikipedia.

It's understandable why Congress has grown so attached to tax expenditures. It's a way to spend without blame. In fact, Congress is more likely to take credit for reducing taxes.

That's Washington. How about Richardson?

S2L77: Across Afghanistan

Afghanistan
March 26-27, 1977
Empty land. A few mud villages, including sleepy Ghazni.
Kandahar was unremarkable.
We stopped for camel rides at some nomad's tent.
The bus ran out of gas.

Source: Personal travel notes.

From 1977 03 23 Afghanistan

More after the jump.