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Mack Brown shows class in final defeat

My interest in the 2013 college football season ended when the Oregon-Texas game at the Alamo Bowl concluded on Dec. 30.

The Ducks won big, 30-7, which made me — a native Oregonian — quite happy indeed.

But the moments after the game left me feeling sad that Mack Brown had coached his final game for the University of Texas Longhorns.

I’ve lived in Texas for nearly 30 years now, but never have become a big fan of college football here. Then came Mack Brown to the Lone Star State 16 years ago. He ran up some big numbers while rescuing a football program that had hit the skids. He won a national championship. His teams won about 75 percent of all the games they played during his time in Austin.

It wasn’t good enough, though, to suit many Texas boosters, alumni and the faithful who insist that they win every time they take the field.

The end of the Alamo Bowl showed why Coach Brown is such a classy individual and a gentleman.

He embraced Oregon coach Mark Helfrich in the middle of the field. He then whispered something into Helfrich’s ear and I was struck by the way he held a folder in front of his mouth to shield whatever he was telling the opposing coach from the TV camera’s prying eyes. Whatever it was, it must have been intensely personal.

Then the defeated coach talked to many of the Oregon players, congratulating them, patting them on the back, the shoulders, the head — maybe even a few backsides.

Coach Brown could have skulked off the field. He could have reacted differently. He left the field with his head held high — and his reputation as a gentleman burnished to a fine shine.

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Hoping Stockman flames out

My fond hope is that Paul Burka is right that Steve Stockman’s candidacy will vaporize after the March Republican primary.

http://www.texasmonthly.com/burka-blog/steve-stockman-non-story

It’s not that I’m terribly fond of Sen. John Cornyn.

Here’s my concern.

A victory by Stockman, a congressman who has become a GOP tea party golden boy, could spell doom if he manages to win this fall against whomever the Democrats nominate. You see, Texas is so solidly Republican — even with strong Democratic candidates running for governor and lieutenant governor this year — that Stockman could win this fall even with his loony record in Congress.

Burka is betting on Cornyn “wiping the floor” with Stockman.

I hope that’s true. Given what I know about both of these guys, Cornyn is the far superior Republican nominee.

As they say, though, stranger things can — and do — happen.

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Let’s just skip Texas governor’s primary

Can’t we just move right into the Texas general election campaign for governor?

How about just skipping these meaningless primaries? We know who’s going to be nominated: Republicans will pick Attorney General Greg Abbott; Democrats are going to nominate state Sen. Wendy Davis.

The Texas Tribune notes that the new year will see a significant spike in campaign activity from both candidates. Rest assured, they won’t talk about the primary. They’re going to talk — a lot — about each other.

http://www.texastribune.org/2014/01/01/texas-governors-race-getting-more-heated/

I’m ready for a rumble.

Abbott has been the prohibitive favorite to become the next governor ever since he announced his candidacy. Davis is the underdog, given the state’s decidedly Republican tilt.

Some folks have wondered where Davis has been lurking in recent weeks. She hasn’t been as visible as some have said she should be. Never fear, says Jim Henson, a Texas Tribune pollster. She’ll get in the game quickly, as will Abbott.

He told the Tribune: “I’m looking for both of the campaigns to get very aggressive as soon as they find it strategically sound. I would expect that ethics and character are going to be big parts of both of those efforts.”

Henson told the Tribune that Abbott will focus on Davis’s private law practice and her connection with firms dealing with the Legislature; he adds that Davis will train her sights on Abbott’s role in a cancer research outfit’s involvement with someone indicted for allegedly lax tax procedures.

Who needs primaries when you have two candidates many voters know already and who are loading up for a donnybrook that won’t end until — gulp! — next November?

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New normal in gas prices no longer so new

The “new normal” in gasoline prices used to be cause for laughter around our house.

I remember when Mom or Dad would pull up to the service station pump and tell the attendant — yes, they still have attendants in my home state of Oregon — to put a “dollar’s worth of regular” into the tank. That would be about four gallons. Off we went and tooled around for the rest of the day, maybe a bit into the next one.

Those days are gone.

Now comes news that gas prices are declining. They’re at the lowest level since 2010. They’re heading downward into the new year.

Gas prices at lowest level since 2010

It’s not that we should be surprised that gasoline still costs about $3 a gallon in Amarillo, which is a bit lower than the rest of the state. My wife and I just returned from the Metroplex and were surprised to learn that drivers there are paying about 20 cents more per gallon than we are.

We’re all going to welcome the prospect of paying less for gas in the new year — and hopefully beyond.

Automakers are building more fuel-efficient cars, people are buying them (we’re driving a Toyota hybrid and loving the 45 miles per gallon were getting with that little buggy) and domestic energy producers are pulling a lot of oil out of the ground in newly discovered well fields way up yonder near the Canadian border.

I still have to chuckle at the notion that gasoline that dips below 3 bucks a gallon is now considered “cheap.”

My memory of the old days remains too fresh.

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Our new year has arrived with great joy

Years that come in with “firsts” are always worth remembering.

We welcomed 2014 in fine fashion. It was so fine that I want to share just a bit of it here.

The end of the year just past saw us drive to Allen to spend some time with our sons and with one of the boys’ family, our daughter-in-law, our grandson and our brand new granddaughter.

It was a glorious couple of days to be sure. I’ll stipulate right up front that it was our first new year with our little one, our granddaughter Emma Nicole, who’s about to turn 10 months in just a few days.

Why is that so special? It’s hard to define. It falls into that category of life’s mysteries that you have to experience to understand completely.

Grandparents know what I’m saying.

Our older son spent a day with us before he returned home the next day. We spent the next two days and nights with our younger son and his family.

Ah, but Emma stole the show. Make no mistake about that.

Our grandson left to spend time with his father. We said so long to him as he departed New Year’s Eve. Our son and daughter-in-law planned an evening out with friends to ring in the new year.

Would we mind staying home with Emma? Uhhh, no. We not only didn’t mind, we welcomed the idea of playing with her until she — or we — crashed for the night. We laughed the evening away with our little pumpkin. She turned in for the night, but only after filling us with this unique joy that remains beyond my ability to describe it.

Did we stay up until midnight? Nope. We turned in right after Emma.

We awoke the next morning and were greeted with her cheerful little smile.

OK, so maybe our new year wasn’t all that special.

But it was to us. This will be a good year, indeed.

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Not a ‘career pol’? Give me a break

Don Huffines cracks me up.

I stumbled onto his website this New Year’s morn and found something hackneyed and time-worn: a declaration that a politician is not a “career politician” and who is a “true conservative.”

Home

Huffines is running against state Sen. John Carona of Dallas.

Carona’s been in the Legislature for a while. I don’t know much about him, except that he, too, declares himself to be a conservative. My bet is that he’s not conservative enough for Huffines, although I only can presume that to mean that Carona doesn’t declare his conservatism with the requisite zeal and fervor that many on the far right seem to insist in their politicians.

He vows to serve only 12 years in the Senate. Then he’ll back out … he says. Border security is a federal responsibility and if the feds don’t do the job, Huffines vows to hold ’em “accountable.” Of course, he opposes the Affordable Care Act. He wants good highways, good public education that enables parents to have more “choices,” and wants the government to let private enterprise create jobs.

Does any of this sound familiar? It should. I think I’ve heard it a bazillion times during my lengthy career covering politics and government in Texas — and in Oregon, where I grew up and where my career got its start.

Don Huffines, though, is not a career politician and, by golly, he’s going to make it all happen just because of that declaration.

I’ve heard that one, too. A lot.

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Time to plan for rising sea levels

Climate change is the subject of intense debate, particularly over its cause.

Manmade or natural? It doesn’t matter to many of us who believe that the climate is, in fact, changing.

What’s more, it should matter even less to those who live along our coastlines where sea levels are rising. That is virtually beyond dispute. The ocean levels are increasing and they figure to threaten the very communities that sit at the water’s edge.

http://www.texastribune.org/2013/12/24/on-climate-change-a-push-to-think-locally/

Thus is it time for local experts to take the hint from climatologists and other experts to deal with this issue locally rather than continue to think globally about climate change.

Texas is one of those many states sitting along large bodies of water that are facing increases in sea level. The Coastal Plain, in fact, rises from the Gulf of Mexico quite gradually, meaning that much of the plain rests at or just slightly above sea level for many miles inland.

We’re safe here on the Caprock, which sits nearly 3,700 feet above sea level. No one I’m aware of has said the Gulf of Mexico is going to rise that much.

But our neighbors downstate, along the Gulf Coast from the Valley to the Golden Triangle — indeed all the way along the coast eastward — need to begin thinking about the consequences of doing nothing.

It involves a lot more than just filling up sandbags, folks.

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Good bye, Mr. Simmons … and good riddance

Harold Simmons is dead at age 82.

His death has drawn a lot of attention in political circles. The billionaire Texan was a big contributor to Republican candidates and causes. That’s fine. I don’t begrudge that one bit.

What I do begrudge, though, is the $4 million he gave to a particular GOP effort.

http://www.texastribune.org/2013/12/29/harold-simmons-gop-mega-donor-dead-82/

It occurred during the 2004 presidential campaign between President George W. Bush and U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry. Simmons kicked in the big dough to a group dedicated to smearing Kerry’s reputation, which he earned while serving in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War.

Swift Boat Veterans for Truth thought it would smear Kerry’s war record with lies, suggesting he didn’t really earn the medals for valor while serving during that long-ago war.

It was a disgraceful display of rotten politics — which can be pretty rotten even without this kind of defamation.

Simmons played a hand in that slander, which must not go unnoticed as the political world bids good bye to 2013 and to this individual.

I’m quite aware that both parties are awash in lots of money, much of which is used as ammo to smear candidates from the other side. None of it is appealing. None of it is fair.

The “swift boating,” of John Kerry, though, will stand for a long time as an example of how politics can stink to high heaven.

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MSNBC jokesters toss a bomb at Romney clan

MSNBC went over the line.

With both feet.

Check out this link, taken from CNN.com, about a disgraceful display of bad taste exhibited on MSNBC, having to do with Mitt Romney’s family and the presence of an infant sitting on the former Republican presidential candidate’s knee.

http://thehill.com/video/in-the-news/194168-lemon-slams-msnbc-for-romney-grandson-joke

MSNBC talk-show host Melissa Harris-Perry is an interesting, intelligent individual who hosts a weekend show on the cable network. For the life of me I cannot fathom why she allowed this discussion making fun of Mitt Romney’s adopted grandson, an African-American infant named Kieran, to make some point about the Republican Party’s difficulty with minority voters.

I’ve long held to the belief that one should not poke fun at family members, or make fun of people’s appearance or the sound of their name. For the network to use a baby to make a cheap political point simply is beyond disgusting.

As the commentators noted on this CNN link, adoption should be saluted as something wonderful and grand. That’s all should have mattered when MSNBC showed the photo of Mitt and Ann Romney with their grandchildren.

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Obama most admired man in U.S. Who knew?

The Gallup Poll has just released a survey that is going to surprise more than a few folks. It surprised me, for example.

It says President Barack Obama is the most admired man in America — by a comfortable margin at that.

http://www.msnbc.com/hardball/obama-clinton-most-admired-gallup

The most admired woman happens to be former first lady/Sen./Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Why is this so surprising? I see a couple of interesting things here.

The first one is obvious. President Obama has had a rough year, particularly as it relates to the unveiling of the Affordable Care Act. The debut of the ACA was a disaster, technically speaking. The rollout came on top of a barrage of criticism of the ACA from Republicans who managed somehow to win the argument.

Despite all the bad press, the president continues to stand fairly tall in the minds of millions of Americans.

Much the same can be said of Hillary Clinton, who left public office at the beginning of the year as a controversy over her office’s handling of an uprising in Libya drew fire. The consulate in Benghazi was attacked, four Americans died in a ferocious fire fight and Clinton took lots of heat over the way her office handled the initial response.

Yet, for the 12th year in a row, she remains America’s most admired woman.

The second factor is interesting as well, in that Gallup isn’t exactly known for favoring so-called “liberals.” The poll long has been viewed by observers as tilting a tad to the right. Still, the poll is deemed reputable.

The lesson here might only be that we need not pay too much attention to the chattering class that so often seems to outshout the rest of the us.

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