The Pronunciamentos of May

This May was notable for two Pronunciamentos grandly declaimed in the contemporary public square i.e., via mass media. The first incident was the Mayor’s mother, Rosie, who in a Helen Thomas-style New York Times interview reminded the electorate of her flaming radical past. She said of the Alamo defenders: “When I grew up, I learned that the ‘heroes’ of the Alamo were a bunch of drunks and crooks and slaveholding imperialists who conquered land that didn’t belong to them.”

I suppose that is one way to look at it if you are as far left as Rosie. However, I have credibility problems with anyone who helps found La Raza Unida then shouts “racism” at opponents with no sense of irony.

Oil, Oil Go Away. Come Again Another Day.

What was the word, the name, which has yet to be mentioned in this British Petroleum disaster? Not to leave you hanging, it is Ixtoc. Ixtoc was an exploratory well drilled by Pemex, Mexico’s government-owned oil company. Located about 60 miles out in the Bay of Campeche, in about 150 feet of water, Pemex leased Sedco’s 135F Triangular Semi-Submersible drilling rig for the job; using their own crews as was their standard practice.

The dogs bark and the caravan moves on ...

The “dog” in the picture is not a dog at all but a coyote hitching a ride on Portland, Oregon’s light rail service. Actually he was kicked out of the airport terminal, so he calmly waked over to the light rail station and hopped on. To me this pretty well sums up my opinion of all these light rail projects springing up around the country―and here.