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Monday Roundup: Spring Break Late Edition

March 16, 2009 By Trey Garrison 3 Comments

The Lege won’t give up on levying a stripper pole tax. And they’re holding $11.2 million in folded $1 bills already collected until the lawsuits are settled and the money is either returned to the strip clubs, or turned over to the state. Question: Should strip clubs win, should they get interest back on the money?

I’m not saying this isn’t good reporting, I’m just saying I don’t much care if a city council member or candidate has donated to one political party or the other. It’s like talking about what church they go to — as long as it stays outside the council chambers, I don’t see how it matters. Am I wrong?

Dawn McMullen asks, “Who would Jesus defriend?”

Finally this morning, my friend Radley Balko poses a damn good question in the wake of the news of the AIG exec bonuses being paid.

AIG to pay out millions more in bonuses to the very executives who ran the company into the ground. This, immediately after accepting another $170 billion in federal bailout money. Question for my lefty friends: A few months ago on this site, we had a discussion about the morality of people who utilize offshore tax shelters. And Joe Biden said during the campaign that it was “unpatriotic” to avoid paying your taxes. At what point in this bailout madness does doing what you can to avoid federal taxes become acceptable? In other words, what percentage of the federal budget has to go toward bailout-out failed companies and their corrupt executives before taxpayers are justified in getting fed up, and refusing to fund the circus anymore?

Filed Under Culture, Humor, Politics, The DFW

Friday Roundup: PISD Stupidity, RIP Responsibility, WTF Myspace & More

March 13, 2009 By Trey Garrison 3 Comments

Why in the hell is my beloved Plano Independent School District following down the road of good intentions to its traditional destination, first paved by the Dallas Independent School District? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?

Define “expected” — family blames Boomerangs when they, the family, weren’t paying attention to their own toddler. I’d ask you to define “parental responsibility” but it’s an archaic phrase.

My dear friend Rawlins Gilliland sings the praises of Neiman Marcus, and rightly so. Great read.

Behold the new open-air CVS in Sunnyvale.

Also dear friend Robert Guest gives us a new reason — aside from all the annoying skins, crappy music, and the infestation of pedophiles — to hate Myspace: they’ll accept subpoenas from law enforcement, but not from defense lawyers. Which is funny, because it’s already been proven a Myspace missive can, indeed, exonerate the innocent after a New York man was found not guilty of a bogus gun possession charge when his lawyer introduced evidence the arresting officer was a steroid popper who posted on his Myspace page about the joys of beating suspects and planting phony evidence. (h/t The Agitator.)

The first ad for Prop 1, on the ballot May 8 against the city-owned convention hotel, is up online. Here you go.

Filed Under City Owned Boondoggle, Culture, DISD, Media, The DFW

Thursday Roundup: Justice, Injustice and Hat Crimes

March 12, 2009 By Trey Garrison 2 Comments

Dallas Police have made another arrest in the bizarre, brutal smoke shop murder last year. Good job. I’d still love to know just what the hell was the motive here. (Not to self: pitch to Tim.)

I like this. A truly guilty rapist tries to abuse Dallas County’s new openness to re-examining DNA evidence, something which has freed nearly a score of men wrongly convicted. DNA evidence shows the convicted rapist is, indeed, the rapist. Now DA Craig Watkins wants to see if he can get the guy additional time. And he deserves it. There are few greater injustices than being wrongly convicted by the state. There are few lower than people who know they are guilty abusing the new system designed to ensure against wrongful convictions.

And speaking of injustice — one of the cops guilty in the fake drug scandal is getting just two years probation instead of time behind bars. I’m sorry if this offends, but police have to be held to higher standards, especially those who willfully, knowingly put innocent people behind bars.

I like this, too. Sikhs spread awareness with an innovative turban derby. I like it because I don’t like the kind of person who can’t tell the difference between a Sikh turban and a Muslim one. But it does raise the question — is this accidentally marginalizing Islam? And more importantly, what the hell is it with religions and hats?

Filed Under Culture, Police, The DFW

“I Think I Crapped My Pants”

March 11, 2009 By Trey Garrison 10 Comments

I don’t care who you are, this is funny. (Thanks to Homers On The Range.)

Filed Under Creepy Guys in the Park, Police

Voter ID: Let’s Discuss

March 11, 2009 By Trey Garrison 4 Comments

I’m open to arguments about why requiring voters to show ID is wrong. I don’t buy the idea that it dissuades the old, poor or minorities from voting, because we’re talking about a freakin’ driver’s license, state ID, or two forms like a utility bill and a birth certificate. It’s no more an impediment than when you get asked for the same thing when you write a check, apply for public assistance, or rent a movie, and it seems to me this is one of the few times you should need to show that you are who you are. This despite my aversion to showing ID to any state agent on command, short of a legitimate traffic stop.

Also, maybe voter ID fraud hasn’t been a big problem in the past, but with groups like ACORN getting millions in stimulus money, and given their track record, it’s not hard to see how it will be a problem going forward.

Still, I’m open to other arguments, or to arguments about why I’m wrong in my initial premises.

Have at it.

Filed Under Politics

Wednesday Roundup: Roundhouse Kick to the Union, Curse of the Trinity River & More

March 11, 2009 By Trey Garrison 7 Comments

Oh. My. God. It’s like someone built a machine to extract my very dreams: Texas seceding from the union, and Chuck Norris as its president.

Does anyone get the feeling the entire Trinity project is cursed? And exactly why weren’t they testing the ground where they wanted to build something before they started trying to build it? You know, for sand. Or Indian bones?

I’m not sure I buy the argument that voter fraud isn’t a problem, given that groups like ACORN are out there doing their level best to turn every election into a Chicago-style hoax fest. On the other hand…No, there really is no other hand. Seems to me voting is the one place where you should have to show some kind of ID.

Also up in the Lege and needing support — a bill to require written consent to search a car in a traffic stop. This is important because police, like potential date rapists, need it drilled into their heads that no means no.

Filed Under City Owned Boondoggle, Culture, Fort Awesome, Humor, Police, Politics, The DFW

Tuesday Roundup: Captain Obvious All Over the Place

March 10, 2009 By Trey Garrison 1 Comment

A lot of the magical stimulus money won’t create jobs in North Texas? Oh, you think so, doctor?

Yep, it was a hoax.

Celebrating 69 years of death by roundhouse kick — happy birthday Chuck Norris.

There are criminal masterminds. And then there’s this guy.

Filed Under The DFW

Monday Roundup: Yes Do Nothing, Charity Strategery, Blue Law Blues & More

March 9, 2009 By Trey Garrison 3 Comments

Challenge: Find the emptiest statement by the emptiest suit. Answer: While hotel opponents say the facility is predestined to lose money, the mayor contends that developing the hotel is a reasonable risk considering “the biggest risk is that you do nothing.” Explanation: Doing nothing won’t cost $550 million, ruin the city’s credit, and result in an empty 1,200-room downtown dormitory that will probably get foreclosed on, just like the city-owned convention center hotel in St. Louis was, just a few years after HVS told St. Louis exactly what it told Dallas.

While local charities are struggling, Mr. Obama (peace be upon Him) wants to soak those greedy rich by limiting their deductions for charitable giving. Strategery!

Headline you just don’t see everyday: “Abilene woman dies from ram injuries.”

OK, my dirty little secret — I don’t drink anymore except special occasions. Granted, everything seems special when you’re on the wagon, but hey, whatev. So I got nothing to gain, anyway, but who could be against overturning the 19th Century prohibition on selling liquor on Sundays, which Texas is considering?

So now even Pat Buchanan is turning against the failed War on Drugs?

What’s disturbing about this video of what may be a kidnapping and may be just a prank outside a Plano Wal*Mart isn’t the potential kidnapping, per se, but the fact that no one in the parking lot even looked twice despite it being in broad daylight and crowded.

Filed Under City Owned Boondoggle, Creepy Guys in the Park, Life, Politics, The DFW

Steve Blow: “Aw Shucks, Political Corruption, Investigative Journalism — What’s The Difference?”

March 8, 2009 By Trey Garrison 33 Comments

Steve Blow — the DMN’s single worst columnist — now draws equivalence between the blatantly corrupt shakedown practices of County Commissioner John Wiley Price, and one of the few journalists in Dallas trying to expose Price’s political thuggery.

Right now, words fail me. Just as they have Steve Blow for the last 20 years straight.

Bonus: Here’s my take on the “need” for a master plan for the Dallas inland port.

Filed Under Creepy Guys in the Park, Media, The DFW, Zombies

Friday Roundup: Rushed Edition*

March 6, 2009 By Trey Garrison Leave a Comment

A couple in Parker County learn that you can’t count on 911 when you’re in trouble, but you can count on something else.

First zombies, now werewolves.

Here’s your Friday morning feel-good.

* (I have a ton of work and I’m trying to go see Watchmen this morning.)

Filed Under Creepy Guys in the Park, Guns, Life, The DFW, Zombies
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