Opinion & Commentary

All right, class, today our lesson is: “Logical Wormholes and Semantic Corkscrews: Translating the Language of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Into More or Less Plain English, or, You Know, Spanish. Whatever. Language How People Talk.” But first an ironclad guarantee. This is not a homework assignment. There will…

I have a column in the paper this week about the Trinity River levees, and I had a please-respect-my-lawn thing here yesterday about plastic bottles and White Rock Creek. Even I didn’t get the connection between the two before the comments started rolling in from the idiot, free-market, libertarian, government-hating,…

Here is where this libertarian bullshit — the propaganda foisted on us by Koch-brothers, Harold-Simmons-style polluter robber barons — just makes suckers, fools and chumps out of us if we believe it. A story in today’s New York Times reports that the top national park system official killed a plan…

Dear Mexican: I am an Anglo intruder in New Mexico. When I moved to Albuquerque from Virginia, I fell in love with Mexican culture. I was impressed at what I called “Southwestern hospitality.” To me, the words “laid back” or “easy going” describe perfectly the people I’ve met, in New…

I can tell you this much for sure: You and I do not know the truth about the mortal danger to downtown Dallas posed by potential flooding on the Trinity River. I will give you specific important instances here of misleading statements by public officials, but I can’t give you…

OK. Uncle. I give. And it wasn’t the public urination. I do that all the time. Three things made me decide it’s probably time for Occupy Dallas to de-occupy. First: allegations that a minor was sexually assaulted in one of the tents the Occupiers have pitched according to their agreement…

Welcome to Local Music ‘Mericans, where we meet some of the people behind the local music scene — those who aren’t necessarily members of bands, but make the scene move. Bear Claw’s family is part of the Kiowa Indian tribe up in Oklahoma. He works nights as a bouncer at…

No way is this over. No way should anybody let this drop. The Occupy Dallas arrests last Saturday should be taken as a direct challenge, not a lesson or defeat. The Dallas Police Department is already trying to paper over the outrageous arrests of seven bank protesters last Saturday on…

Hey, Tea Party people and libertarians. Does it bother you at all that the Dallas police Saturday arrested seven people for “improper use of a sidewalk?” Does it occur to you that if bullshit charges like those can stick even for a minute, it means you can’t walk down the…

In my column in this week’s paper, I talk about that “flow control” deal, which has to do with how much trash gets trucked into southern Dallas. As usual, some of the responses I’m getting are from people mad about the way it came out who think the answer is…

Dear Mexican: These days, using the word “nigger” is considered so offensive that we now use the term “N-word” in its place. Of course, never mind that African-Americans use it amongst themselves as a term of endearment, pero esa es una historia para un otro dia. Sin embargo, it raises…

For the last couple weeks I have been getting beaten about the ears by people working at City Hall with our new mayor, Mike Rawlings, who are mad at me over a couple columns I wrote saying the new mayor seems just like the old one, Tom Leppert. They say…

We’re all innocent until proven guilty. The police can investigate hell out of somebody, and that person may turn out to be pure as the driven snow. But there’s another reality in the world having to do with an old cop saying: “Crime makes you stupid.” Frankly, the behavior of…

Great trick-or-treaters last night on my street. Some years we just get kids from the block. They’re great. But last night we got spillover from the Halloween gala on Swiss Avenue a block away. When that happens, we get an even bigger window on the festival. Got me thinking. Check…

Welcome to Local Music ‘Mericans, where we meet some of the people behind the local music scene — those who aren’t necessarily members of local bands, but more the people who make the scene move. Back in the day, Paul Quigg played in some amazing and important local music acts…

Dear John F. Kennedy Library Foundation: Good move on blowing off the Sixth Floor Museum and executive director Nicola Longford regarding her plans for a 50th anniversary commemoration of the Kennedy assassination in Dealey Plaza. Believe me: You don’t want to touch this gang with a 10-foot pole. According to…

Maybe you’ve been following the saga of Lisa Chambers, the Dallas County homeland security director who was canned this week over who knows what. The only part of it I’m really personally interested in is the paranoid part, because I happen to be paranoid myself. It’s like a club. We…

I think of everything the wrong way, from a skewed perspective. Who knows why? Maybe I got dropped on my head as a baby. But here’s how I’m looking at this deal in which Dallas County Judge Craig Jenkins fired the security lady who wouldn’t sweep for FBI bugs in…

Dear Mexican: There’s something I am concerned about, or bothered by. I was born and raised in Mexico, but I’ve been here for eight years. All the talk about 9/11 is too much, because every single year brings a rehash of the tragedy. I really think that remembering the event…

Now this is something I could really kick myself for. I can take being wrong. It’s one thing to be accused of being too Pollyanna. (Not sure that has actually ever happened.) But the one thing I cannot forgive in myself is not being negative enough. That just should not…