September 2011 Archives

Chris Christie should not be subjected to multiple, baseless, cruel fat jokes.  He is a bad candidate based on his merits; weight has nothing to do with it.  Imagine his brash, crass style while negotiating with enemies holding nukes.  No, thanks! Michele Bachmann should not be constantly questioned about submission to her husband.  She's crazy enough to be dismissed based on what comes out of her mouth on a daily basis.  Her gender and religion...

The so-called "Patriot Act"and its circumvention of the Fourth Amendment was all about keeping us safe from terrorists, right? Wrong."On September 12, 2001, Assistant Attorney General Viet Dinh started creating what would come to be known as the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act--the Patriot Act, for short. The law greatly eased restrictions on what law enforcement officials could do pursuing criminals, with the hope being...

Above is a picture I took of people welding a ship or a barge of some kind at the Houston Ship Channel.(Photo copyright 2011 Neil Aquino.)Here is a history of welding. At the bottom of that history are other welding related links.Here is a definition of welding from Merriam-Webster--Join together (metal pieces or parts) by heating the surfaces to the point of melting with a blowpipe, electric arc, or other means, and uniting them by pressing, hammering,...

A few days ao I made post about attending an Astros' game.As it turned out, this was the 200,00th Major League Baseball game played since the founding of the National League in 1876.Who knew?Well....it seems these nice folks below knew.Sometimes you just show up someplace and there is a blog post already waiting for you.The 200,000th game involved the Colorado Rockies defeating the Houston Astros by a score of 4-2 in 13 innings.Here is a list of the...

Houston At-Large #2 City Council Candidate Bolivar Fraga appears to be playing all sides.The Harris County Republican Party website lists Mr. Fraga as a Republican.This would make sense as Mr. Fraga voted in the 2010 Republican Primary.However, Mr. Fraga told Houston political blogger Charles Kuffner in an interview that  he voted in the Republican primary to support one candidate in particular.Mr. Fraga told Mr. Kuffner that other than in 2010 he has voted in Democratic primaries. You...

From KHOU:A judge has ordered a former KBR Inc. employee to pay $145,000 of the company's court costs after she lost her lawsuit alleging she was drugged and raped while working in Iraq. A federal jury in Houston had ruled for KBR and against Jamie Leigh Jones after her civil trial in July. KBR had asked U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison to award $2 million in legal fees and court costs against Jones, but Ellison...

This week, my son turns 21. This will be the first birthday for which I have not been able to tell him "happy birthday" on his birthday, but I'm guessing it won't be the last.Birthdays became a pretty big deal for me with his arrival. I began to call MY mother on my birthday and thank her for bringing me into the world. It was as much her day as it was mine because it...

In his book, We're Right, They're Wrong, James Carville described the kind of Democrat he was by calling himself a 5/65 Democrat. That way, he said that people should either be working or going to school from the age of five to 65. It should be the business of government to not only make this as easy as possible, but they should be about protecting those beyond the two extremes.However, it is another conversation in...

Rick Reilly of ESPN gave a speech at a convocation for a journalism school and spouted off comments that all bloggers should be interested in. Essentially, he said that we are saps if we write for free. However, I'll let you decide for yourself."When you get out there, all I ask is that you: DON'T WRITE FOR FREE! Nobody asks strippers to strip for free, doctors to doctor for free or professors to profess for...

(Blogger's Note 9/23/11 --I made this post last year and have updated it just a bit for this year. It looks to me like it took some work, so why not use it again? Thanks for reading.  hope you enjoy all seasons of the year.) September 22 is the first day of fall.(Above--The 1890 painting Autumn Rain by Julian Alden Weir.)What exactly is fall?Here is a definition.From that defintion--"The autumnal equinox marks the first day of the...