Today's Blog Notes: Banjo on BP, Notable Notes, Disputations

Sunday August 14
Responses from yesterday's email announcing this blog are already arriving, and I see many people are curious as to why I am blogging this one little page, rather than working on thetexastimes.com ( see link at right.)

OK, first of all, NO, I did not stop blogging just because the Pope died, it just looks that way because that's when I got pulled away from my favorite web project by family and business concerns! The lunatic who has been circulating the Pope rumour has just been pulling ya'lls leg!!! :^D :^D :^D :^D :^D

In truth, I had to pull away over some involved senior citizen surgery in our family and the ensuing recovery period, as well as over a major business project that will soon be debuting at coastal marina stores, famous sports equipment outlets and deep sea fishing equipment shops all over the country and probably in some foreign lands as well, and at the Amazon.com video store.

While I could have handled one or the other along with the huge amount of work that goes into thetexastimes.com, there was no way to juggle all three at the same time.

As many of you have noted, thetexastimes.com is not only brain food, it's also eye candy, and while brain food is easy, eye candy involves huge chunks of production time.

I'll be back to thetexastimes.com soon, as the DVD deep sea fishing film project is nearing its autopilot stage.

In the meantime, enjoy the picture of the late Pope and visit the Ballad of the Alamo entrance, the "To the People of Texas and All Americans in the World" entrance, the famous Jeff Jarvis Quotation entrance, the American Blog page with the "Falluja, The Movie" tank battle film and music video made by our troops, and etc etc etc., and thanks for your questions about when thetexastimes.com will be back in production.

The answer is, very soon!



Saturday August 13
I have apparently picked up one those infamous "summer colds," but from which of my girlfriends, I have yet to discover. I am sure it will be the one with the sneezing and sniffling and runny nose.

Regardless, I don't feel too much like opining today, so I'll use this time to highlight a few notable posts here and there ---

Banjo on BP, Stephen F. Austin Statue
As usual, Banjo Jones at The Brazosport News has something special on line.

Firstly, Banjo recently visited the construction site of the giant new Stephen F. Austin statue going up in Angleton, and has posted a great collection of photos:

Here are the links:
Work on the Stephen F. Austin statue, which will b...
It got a little muddy in July at the construction ...
The crane on the right is used to lift the pieces ...
The bottom portion of Austin's jacket was put in p...
These two sections of Austin's torso are supposed ...
Austin's powderhorn sustained a little damage, but...
This is what the insides of one of the pieces look...


And, on a more serious note, Banjo has a fresh report chronicling yet another release of dangerous pollutants at the BP Chocolate Bayou plant:
BP UPDATE: Pulmonary disease alert !

As many of you are aware, I am no tree hugger and I strongly oppose the so-called "environmentalist movement", which has devolved into nothing less than a scheme by some very highly-paid attorneys and leftist political organizations to shake down corporations and taxpayers, using environmental issues for cover and environmental law as a tool.

But BP has clearly walked off the reservation.

In the last few months we've seen 3 fires and/or explosions at BP plants, including one at the Texas City plant that killed 15 people ( link here to a superb special report
from the Galveston Daily News online, featuring articles, pics and the dramatic audio recording of a Texas City Fire Captain calling for all available LifeFlights in the Galveston and Houston areas to come to Texas City)) and Banjo has been reporting on the many releases of toxins from the Chocolate Bayou plant.

I plan to continue linking to Banjo's new BP updates from Brazoria county, and for my part I will begin reporting regularly on toxic releases from the BP Texas City refinery (which produces somewhere around %3 of the nation's gasoline supply) as soon as I've had a chance to view the emissions reports. As well, I will be following up eyewitness reports which have come my way concerning the possibility that illegal immigrants have been employed by BP contractors.


Notable Notes:
Ann Linehan at BlogHouston reports the tragic news that City of Houston tax thievings via city sales tax are up, so now Mayor Boss Hogg White will not only be able to continue with his idiotic programs, like the downtown Jaywalking roundup and Operation Clearasil ( SafeClear ), he may even be able to hire more police officers, if he really wants to, without trimming an once of fat out of the budget.

Rorschach at Red Ink: Texas talks about his experiences with Canada's Socialized "Medicine" scheme, and celebrates Boeing's great victory over Airbus in the battle for the Air Canada and Air France contracts.

Charles Kuffner ponders the meaning of minority majority at OfftheKuff, and I lend a politically-incorrect hand.

Laurence Simon at IFOC has a letter from Kofi to Yasser, with love.

Bill Crider renames his blog Bill Crider's Pop Culture Magazine .

Disputations:
As usual, I've been cavorting about in the blogosphere and taking part in multiple debates and disputations over our state and national theologia civilis --- which, I suppose, is better than cavorting about in all those good ol' Texas bars I have frequented over the years (but at the moment I can't think of one good reason why this should be so.)

Wherever you have been hanging out lately, though, these links will take you to some interesting comment threads, to which I have recently contributed my own two cents worth, at BlogHouston and OfftheKuff.

At BlogHouston we gave the Houston Chronicle editorial board some much-needed help with their not-too-solid grasp of the stem cell research issue, and gave Tom Delay some much-deserved praise for blasting Houston's defacto "sanctuary" policy for illegals:
Demystifying the embryonic stem-cell debate for the Chron
http://www.bloghouston.net/forum/viewtopic.php?id=1698
DeLay criticizes, White/Hurtt support for HPD sanctuary policy
http://www.bloghouston.net/forum/viewtopic.php?id=1708


And, at OfftheKuff , I took on a couple of liberal die-hards over Rick Casey's and the Houston Chronicle's credentials to lecture anyone about political ethics, or for that matter any other sort of ethics:
"Bribery by not giving money"
http://www.offthekuff.com/mt/archives/005909.html#005909
Casey Repsonds to Van Arsdale
http://www.offthekuff.com/mt/archives/005919.html#005919



That's it for now, back at it when I feel a little better!

Later gaters!