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Brisketexan

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Brisketexan last won the day on April 4

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  1. They ARE afficionados of the flatulent arts....
  2. Hadn't seen that article, thanks. So cool. I get my hair cut up there (Bob's Barber shop), so I drive by all of them once a month. I've stopped and grabbed tacos from a handful of random places, and they've all been good.
  3. Also, they are EXTREME, and HARDCORE. The problem with touting yourself as WORLD-CHANING ZOMG THE BESTEST EVER EVERYONE ELSE IS SUCKY PUSSIES!...is that you've left little margin for getting called out on your bullshit. TLDR; Elon's wounds are almost all self-inflicted, chapter eleventy billion.
  4. In fairness, my farts are works of art that belong in the Louvre.
  5. This. We should provide them free gasoline.
  6. I mean, we've all known this forever. It's taught on day 1 at the Army War College: as goes Muleshoe, so goes America. It. Is. ON.
  7. It was actually in my informal protest meeting. TCAD guy explained that the land v. improvement distinction was functionally meaningless. Stupid, but that's the way it be.
  8. Sure. As mentioned with respect to almost all the other topics above....all it takes is money. The irony is that citizens (and in response, the cities and gov't entities that represent them) have insisted on low, low, low rates, don't spend any unnecessary money (and almost ALL money is "unnecessary," don't you know). So, decades upon decades of deferred maintenance is coming due. And just like your house, when you've been skimping on maintenance and spending $500 a year, just replacing a shingle here and there, putting a bucket under leaky spots, etc.....eventually, you can't avoid the fact that you've got to do a whole roof replacement for $30k. We have the infrastructure we've demanded for the past 50+ years (deliver me utility service, but don't spend any money doing so). Now, we're starting to demand things like "maybe it shouldn't leak so much that we don't have enough water to drink next month." Cool. The bill for the system you've asked for is coming due. Note that this applies to roads and bridges, water, sewer....all of it. The Boomers got it all built for cheap with post-war prosperity, and then insisted that they not pay a penny to maintain any of it (and they got their wish, meaning more money stayed in their pockets). Now, like any number of any short-sighted Boomer policies....it's time to pay the piper. Out of our pockets, of course. Not theirs.
  9. Interesting piece, with some good points. I think I ultimately agree with the thesis, although I do think the author misses the mark in that he points his finger in a single ideological direction, which - ironically - misses the point that the problems here are BROAD AND SYSTEMIC. That is, they are not solely the result of "leftist cultural elitism." That DOES play a role -- being out of touch and not realizing all that our broad society has to offer is a big blind spot and failing. But using to the topic of decline in religious activity as a specific data point, there's also culpability from the social/political right: a shitload of young people don't want to associate with religious institutions because those institutions are vocally mean and exclusionary (a double turnoff: people don't want to associate with those types of folks, and they also aren't so hip on the hypocrisy of "loving Christians" being mean and exclusionary). Pointing a finger solely in one direction is counter-productive. The metropolitan liberal elite miss and devalue some very important things; a broader perspective, realizing that multiple "traditional" things have essential utility and value would be helpful. The exclusionary and hostile American right is needlessly cruel and has elevated negative values (hurting the "other," and yes, pointlessly devaluing and denigrating minorities and the urban personal and economic culture (no, farmers are not the "only real and honest Americans")). Being more open and accepting of different ideas and approaches, and the benefits they can bring to individuals and a society as a whole, is a prescription that should be issued to every person in our society. By the way, I'm hopeful for precisely none of that. We're all-in on our current path, and only becoming MORE entrenched, not less (so, I disagree with that part of the thesis of the article. We may be seeing the data that the decline of the family unit is not good for us, and our social isolation is not good for us, but not only are we not doing anything to fix it, we're dedicated to making it worse).
  10. Also, I have an ambition to pick a Saturday evening, and do a "progressive taco trip" down N. Lamar between 183 and Rundberg. There must be 20 different trailers and patio joints with picnic tables and colorful lights strung over them. Take a few hours, and sample the wares from a half dozen one night? Yes please.
  11. Again, it's not a gold medal or anything - it's still a gringo taco joint. I'd generally rather eat at a taco trailer in a Shell parking lot. But they DO have some items that are legit mexican enough, and tasty. And yeah, the hot mom talent there is often pretty solid.
  12. I’m a huge believer in two concepts: 1) the vast majority of adversarial situations can and should be resolved by negotiation and compromise, and 2) a handful can’t be, and the fight must be fought to completion. It’s not always easy to know which is which…but sometimes, it’s pretty easy. Ana thinks that means one favors “endless war.” It doesn’t. Not even close. It means one favors avoiding war almost all the time; even take extreme measures to avoid it. But it also means that when war is the end point of a conflict, then fight it to win it. Because when a conflict has already demonstrated itself as the kind of conflict to explode into war, then a half measure to pause it instead of pursuing a path to end it definitively, it’s often a mistake. China is a great example of an adversarial conflict that can and should be managed through diplomacy, compromise, and a deliberate and patient strategy. Putin’s Russia has plainly demonstrated that it is a belligerent that will have to be managed - in part - with military force meeting its military force. “Peace in our time” appeasement of the wrong adversary is destined to fail.
  13. Has a couple of Long Drinks tonight myself. Remembered how much I like that as a summer drink.
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