Category: Thinking Allowed

Eternity Defined

I read this somewhere; I forget where and perhaps the actual details are different, but here’s a definition of eternity that I like: Imagine a block of granite a thousand miles thick, floating in space. Every thousand years, a raven alights on it and sharpens its beak with two flicks…back and forth. The raven flies… Continue reading Eternity Defined

A Modest Rationale for Ending “Economic Diversification” Efforts

If you live in Midland, you’re familiar with the Midland Development Corporation (MDC), the quasi-governmental agency that uses some of our taxes to bribe entice companies to either locate in Midland County or expand their operations if they’re already here. The special sales tax that funds these efforts has been in place for a decade,… Continue reading A Modest Rationale for Ending “Economic Diversification” Efforts

Laws of Combat

I’m going through my files – physical and computer – and deleting or archiving those that are likely beyond their useful life. This is one of the final steps in unwinding the website business. In the process, I’ve run across a lot of things that I acquired and kept over the years for no apparent… Continue reading Laws of Combat

Google’s free website program doesn’t help everyone

I posted brief rants about the Texas Get Your Business Online (TGYBO) initiative yesterday on Facebook and Twitter, but that wasn’t particularly satisfying, so I want to continue the rant here. After all, anything worth doing is worth overdoing. Here’s a quick refresher. TGYBO provides free websites and hosting (for a year) to small businesses in… Continue reading Google’s free website program doesn’t help everyone

Rick Perry’s Tax Return: Reading too much into it?

Texas governor Rick Perry’s plans to host a day of prayer and fasting in Houston’s Reliant Stadium on August 6th have – not surprisingly – evoked a wide range of reactions. Some are accusing the governor of crossing the line between church and state, some are suing to stop the gathering, and some are applauding… Continue reading Rick Perry’s Tax Return: Reading too much into it?

ABC’s “Combat Hospital” raises moral issues

ABC is airing promos for a new summer fictional drama entitled Combat Hospital. This is a Canadian-conceived show set in 2006 in a military hospital at the Kandahar Airbase in Afghanistan, and purports to depict “the frantic lives of the hospital’s resident doctors and nurses from Canada, America, the UK and other allied countries.” Wartime… Continue reading ABC’s “Combat Hospital” raises moral issues

Trading the Real for the Fake

I daresay that Georges Seurat’s painting, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte is only recognizable to most people in the most vague, I-think-I’ve-seen-a-poster-of-that-somewhere-before sort of way, and most of us would surely not be able to describe it sight unseen. I suppose there’s nothing inherently wrong with this; the painting is more than… Continue reading Trading the Real for the Fake

Some Actual Facts About Oil Industry Taxes

One of our local TV stations made a provocative post on Facebook this morning, on the subject of the Congressional hearings about gasoline prices, and whether oil companies “should get these tax breaks as oil and gas prices continue to soar, even if it impacted business here in West Texas?” The comments were predictably appalling… Continue reading Some Actual Facts About Oil Industry Taxes