Dimensionally Barrett

  Houston is a funny city. It has its issues; in fact, like any major city, it has significant problems. However, one thing it has that I have always appreciated is that it has remained a remarkably green city, in terms of green space . There are the bayous, Memorial Park, Hermann Park, and myriad smaller parks throughout the vast area that is the United States’ fourth largest city. When I was little kid and well into my twenties, there was more greenery than we have now (I’m pretty sure, though despite part of this being my subjective perception, I’ve seen large amounts of acreage paved over, excavated and built on). A mainstay has been the aforementioned Memorial Park and the Arboretum found within. I’ve taken quite a few photos over the years and typically pop one or two up on Facebook, but I think maybe now would be a good time to post some here. I’m not in the mood for politics or history or anything terribly weighty right now. In the aftermath of January 6 and President B...

  Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg Needless to say, Biden’s inaugural address is what this country has been needing for the past four years. Perhaps longer. The U.S. has been fractured and fissured for generations, and while I’m usually prone to not get lured by rhetoric, this felt very much like a signal for a fresh start. There’s a sense of “groundedness” in President Biden’s address that has been lacking in recent time. His list of challenges that the country has to face was unvarnished; but it is an inventory the like of which we rarely hear from a president and needs to be said, probably repeatedly for some time to come. Biden’s more of a Truman than I expected in this; he’s straight talking (and a better rhetorician; good speech-writing here!) and he has something else; a flair for the dramatic that I didn’t know he had! This was dramatic but not bombastic. I’m sure the pundits will dissect and pore over his words, his performance, and there will be an awful lot of bash...

  "This is not who we are." - quote from too many talking heads I am disconcerted and dismayed by the events from yesterday as a seditious crowd of Trump supporters overwhelmed security forces and invaded the Capitol Building (frankly, with the assistance of DCPD looking the other way apparently ). However, I’m not surprised. I’ve already essayed the impact of Movement Conservatism and its evolution elsewhere here and I’m not going to repeat that. Were this another country we were watching from afar, many of us would be clucking and tsk-tsking about how come they can’t get it together. There really isn’t much to say about yesterday’s insurgency/attempted coup; it was foreseen. The President himself had given plenty of notices that he wasn’t going to go quietly. That he’d mobilize his loyalists should surprise no one. If I am surprised, it’s at the abetment by law enforcement; but even at that, it’s not “I’m shocked, I tell you!” surprise. It’s more “Spock raising an ...