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| musings of a conservative Texas attorney-to-be on law, faith, politics, technology, and life |
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No, it’s not a political one. It’s this: who comes along after trash has been collected on trash day, opens a neighbor’s trash can, and deposits two unsealed bags of foul, stinking, rain-drenched trash? Who does that?
William’s right; I am beseiged by idiocy.
Not Everyone Should Own a Home. Amen. What the Australians, the Europeans, and those who actually have to make their living in banking all get is that many, many people lack the means and others the responsibility to own their own homes. What was lacking in the run-up to the current bubble was not regulation. On the contrary, what was lacking was a free market - lenders were pressured more and more forcefully into suicidal maneuvers; most of them, facing oppressive government in the short term, opted for the long-term risk, held their noses, and took the plunge. And here we are, having inflated credit and the nominal money supply beyond all reasonable bounds, watching institutions which weathered two world wars and the Great Depression fold on a weekly basis. Methinks the problem was not leaving them alone too much of the time…
Mona Charen has a fantastic and fascinating take on Michelle Obama’s Fearful Vision on National Review Online. Read all the way to the end; it’s a great demonstration of one of the ways this country so often rises above those who would destroy it.
Well, it has been a while since I posted. The craziness of starting work, recovering from a hurricane, and otherwise getting on with life tends to get in the way of informing the world about one’s activities.
I have a million thoughts about the election, politics, human nature, and other topics. But, seeing as that’s about a hundred thousand per reader, and as it would probably require the next ten years of my life just to convey a couple of weeks’ worth of thoughts, I think I’ll punt. Check in later for a snapshot of this week’s million synaptic misfires…
The power is finally back on! It only took 11.5 days, but we have lights, A/C, cable, internet access… In short, we have our home back, and it is good.
As I said in my last entry, we survived Hurricane Ike just fine. In fact, we don’t seem to have suffered any damage except for the power outage and a front door that no longer opens due to swelling (the wind blew water right at the door all night, and it swelled to a point it can longer be moved except with kicking). The power is still out for us and about a third of the metro area. We have been blessed by wonderful friends who have put us up for the last week, but we’re hoping to get power back by Thursday; our zip code is scheduled for 80% or better restoration by then.
Meanwhile, life goes on. Work is starting to pick back up after the storm, and life is generally good. Now if we could just get power back and reduce our commute to something resembling sanity, all would be well here.
Just a quick update that we are alive and well, but still (as of last night, anyway) waiting for the power to come back on. It went out a couple minutes after my last live-blog post. More to follow soon.
To all who are checking this site out for Hurricane Ike info, I’ll be live-blogging the storm. My wife and I live in The Heights neighborhood of Houston (map here). That’s quite a distance from Galveston and the coast, but right in the path of this monster. I plan to blog until I lose power or need sleep.
Friday 5:31 PM: First live-blog post. It is definitely getting very windy on our street; trees are whipping around nicely and the chimney is starting to whistle at us. No rainfall, yet. Estimate winds at 10-15 mph with 30 mph gusts.
Friday 5:39 PM: My friend Phil is also going to be blogging about the hurricane here.
Friday 6:10 PM: First power outage (for a few seconds) at 6:01, about 8 hours before landfall. This brought to mind two things: our router wasn’t on a surge protector yet (remedied), and I’m not sure where our power lines run; it dawns on me they may be the lines nearby that run through lots of branches, in which case this little experiment in live blogging will be little, indeed.
Friday 6:16 PM: First signs of wind damage; a few huge limbs broke off of a tall (~45 feet) tree at the end of our driveway, taking out part of a fence and falling at least partly in a neighbor’s garage. I think it dinged his SUV (the door was open for some reason).
Friday 6:33 PM: This is what neighbors are for! A bunch of people (myself included) went out and removed debris from the common driveway, so no logs become window-smashing projectiles, at least not on our windows… Sarah and I haven’t even met all of our neighbors, yet, but these seem really nice: good folk, just waiting out a storm. (Oh, and their SUV is fine. Don’t think the fence is gonna last the night, though…)
Friday 6:46 PM: Two more mini-power outages. This is either going to get cut off abruptly by the power going for good or it’s going to get long quickly. So, if you want to keep reading, click the link below.
Joe Holland has posted an altogether excellent review of The Shack (hat tip: Tim Challies). Meanwhile, my blog has attracted a couple comments on the topic. Granted, there are not too many comments, but they contain themes worth a little discussion.
I sure hope so. America’s dependency on foreign oil will be much more easily reduced if we’re not fighting off a cartel. Three cheers for the Saudis and capitalism. Source: The death of OPEC.
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