Tag: Texas

Whiskey and Texas

Seawriter
Seawriter
216846
 

Texas and whiskey go back to the state’s beginnings. The Cherokee name of the Republic of Texas’s first President, Sam Houston, was “Big Drunk.” He did not get drunk on Chablis. He drank whiskey.

“Fires, Floods, Explosions, and Bloodshed: A History of Texas Whiskey,” by Andrew Braunberg tells the story of Texas and distillation. He starts at the beginning and takes the story forward to the present.

It starts earlier than most might imagine. Braunberg shows the first tipple distilled in Texas was brandy, starting in the 16th century. The product of Spanish vineyards along the Rio Grande, it was big business through the end of the 1700s. Whiskey came later, after rum. It arrived with the Old 300, Moses Austin’s first Anglo colony. Sugar-based rum lost out to whiskey because grain was easier to produce in Texas.

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Parsing Immigration Policy #97

Illegal Immigration’s Impact on South Texas Property Owners

00
Hosted by Mark Krikorian
With guest Susan Kibbe

Historically high levels of illegal immigration continue to contribute to every state being a border state, every town being a border town. But the phrase doesn’t do justice to the impact that real border communities experience.

On this week’s episode of Parsing Immigration Policy, Susan Kibbe, executive director of the South Texan’s Property Rights Association, describes life as a rancher in southern Texas, migration changes she has seen over the years, and the impact of illegal immigration in her community. The association focuses on many property owner concerns; but the key issue, and the issue that gave rise to the creation of the association in 2006, is border security and the its impact on property owners.

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Three Martini Lunch

New Texas Border Battle, Russia Targets U.S. Drone, Sister City Scam

32
Hosted by Greg Corombos & Jim Geraghty

Join Jim and Greg as they applaud Texas for trying to protect its border with Mexico since the Biden administration clearly has no interest in doing so. But will the GOP plan survive the courts if it gets through the legislature? They also break down the news of a Russian warplane forcing down a U.S. surveillance drone, including the immediate U.S. response and the long term consequences. Finally, they inject some much needed comic relief into the week as Newark, New Jersey, finds it became sister cities with a place that doesn’t even exist.

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Internet's Hank
Internet's Hank
10023
 

This is something I overheard a California expat say about her new digs in the Lone Star State. Hailing as I do from the frozen north where look askance at anything spicier than sharp cheddar I figure I’m unqualified to judge. On this Taco Tuesday, the holiest of the holy days of the Taco Week, […]
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Three Martini Lunch

2022 Martini Awards Part 2: Sorry to See You Go, Rising Star, Fading Into Oblivion

00
Hosted by Greg Corombos & Jim Geraghty

Join Jim and Greg as they offer the second installment of their highly coveted year-end awards. Today they remark on the people connected to politics that they’re most sorry to see pass away in 2022. They also share their choices for rising political stars and the political figures who appear to be fading into oblivion – rarely to be heard from again.

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Full Size Tabby
Full Size Tabby
1010
 

Episode 5 – Buc-ee’s is the funniest yet. If you have any connections with Texas but haven’t caught Babylon Bee’s video series on the California couple moving to Texas, you ought to catch up. The episode released yesterday (November 21) is in my opinion the funniest yet. They discover Buc-ee’s.  Preview Open
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Texas Governor Abbott Invokes Invasion Clause of US Constitution

tigerlily
tigerlily
2421
 

This looks a big deal and long overdue: Texas Governor Greg Abbott has invoked the invasion clauses of the United States and Texas constitutions. This action, of course, is directly related to the Biden administration’s intentional failure to enforce our nation’s immigration laws, including border enforcement (which I believe can be easily proved to any disinterested observer).

This failure by Biden to enforce our immigration laws has caused great harm not just to the state of Texas, but to all of the several states and to the citizens of the USA. As far as I know, there is little to no case law regarding this issue (Section 4 of Article IV of the U. S. Constitution), which reads as follows:

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Parsing Immigration Policy #76

Flawed Studies Misuse Texas Crime Data Resulting in False Claims about Illegal Alien Crime

01
Hosted by Mark Krikorian
With guest Jason Richwine

Summary

Academics and activists have been misusing data from the Texas Department of Public Safety to claim that illegal immigrants have lower rates of crime than the native-born or legal immigrants. On this week’s episode of Parsing Immigration Policy, Jason Richwine, and co-author of the recent report, Misuse of Texas Data Understates Illegal Immigrant Criminality, discusses the flawed research, which has been relied upon by activists, media, and even litigators to claim lower rates of crime among illegal immigrants and to support unlimited illegal immigration.

The Center’s report reveals that while strong claims about the overall criminality of illegal immigrants are not possible with current data, prior research has understated it substantially by ignoring or downplaying that the immigration status of many arrestees and convicts is unknown at the time of arrest, resulting in an undercount in the data. Over time, illegal immigrants move from the “other/unknown” category to the “illegal” category as their status is determined. However, in cases where they are in custody for only a short period of time, illegal immigrants may not be identified at all.

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Three Martini Lunch

Rejecting the Left’s Grade School Gender Agenda, Beto Way Behind, Biden Tone Deaf on Inflation

02
Hosted by Greg Corombos & Jim Geraghty

Join Jim and Greg as they discuss a recent New York Times poll showing 70 percent of Americans opposed to elementary school students being instructed about sexual orientation and gender identity. The country is clear on this and Republicans would be insane not to highlight the chasm between the parties. They also enjoy a new poll in Texas showing Gov. Greg Abbott nine points ahead of Beto O’Rourke in the governor’s race and it gives Jim a chance to tell the media that their dream of the Democrats winning statewide in Texas will likely have to wait…again. And they dissect President Biden’s “60 Minutes” interview, in which he’s frustrated that people aren’t happy that inflation has plateaued somewhat in recent months and completely bungles his Taiwan policy again.

 

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Three Martini Lunch

Beto Still Behind, GOP’s Slim Senate Hopes, Alaska’s Odd Elections

22
Hosted by Greg Corombos & Jim Geraghty

Join Jim and Greg as they welcome the news that after big fundraising numbers and weeks of intense campaigning, that Beto O’Rourke is still well behind Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and hasn’t improved his numbers at all. They also cringe as the National Republican Senatorial Committee shifts resources around to help candidates who have underperformed in their own fundraising. And as Alaska voters head to the polls they give thumbs down to the state’s system of advancing four candidates to the general election and using ranked choice to determine a winner.

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Three Martini Lunch

Where We Stand in the 2022 Midterms

01
Hosted by Greg Corombos & Jim Geraghty

Jim and Greg continue their week of special podcasts by focusing on the critical 2022 midterm elections.  They start by looking at the most competitive U.S. Senate races and come to different conclusions about which party is likely to be in control of the Senate next year. They also look at the race for the House, which is likely to swing back to GOP control, but is it a lock and how big of a GOP majority is reasonable to expect?  Finally, they examine the highest profile governor races, which may produce presidential contenders before too long.

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Three Martini Lunch

Redefining A Recession, Al Gore’s Ugly Analogy, Media Boost Beto Again

11
Hosted by Greg Corombos & Jim Geraghty

Join Jim and Greg as they hammer the Biden economic team for insisting two straight quarters of negative economic growth is not necessarily a recession. They also verbally pummel former Vice President Al Gore for comparing anyone not on board with his big government climate agenda to the police who refused to confront the shooter in Uvalde, Texas. And they get a kick out of NBC News once again wondering if this is the year that Democrats win in Texas with yet another glowing profile of Beto O’Rourke and his uphill campaign for governor.

 

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Tale of Two Tacos … err, Hispanic Congresswomen

Kelly D Johnston
Kelly D Johnston
20121619
 

First Lady Dr. Jill Biden (I’m required to include both titles, apparently) was insensitive but not entirely wrong about the diversity of the Hispanic community in her recent sophomoric speech in San Antonio.

And apparently, San Antonio is known for its breakfast tacos. That was news to me. My Hispanic wife’s family has deep roots in San Antonio, but we’re more about pilgrimages to the San Fernando Cathedral, where her parents were married and the ashes of the heroes who died in Santa Anna’s 1836 attack at the Alamo are still interred (my wife’s ancestors fought on the winning side of that battle). And also – especially – the iconic Mi Tierra Cafe and Bakery, the best Mexican restaurant in town. It’s open 24 hours and almost always crowded. I miss the long-gone economy boot store.

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What Do Electric Vehicles and Eating Insects Have in Common?

Kelly D Johnston
Kelly D Johnston
54182719
 

Channeling his inner Marie Antoinette and demonstrating an example of the Biden Administration’s unparalleled tone-deafness a few weeks ago, US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has simple advice for combatting higher gasoline prices: Buy an electric car.

At least he hasn’t advised us to eat more insects yet. But it may be only a matter of time. The same interests and climate cultists pushing EVs also encourage you to eat bugs. Behind all this is a punitive and bizarre economic and cultural agenda. More sustainable for the planet, they claim, as they move us towards a “net zero emissions economy” by 2050. If not sooner. More about that later.

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A Texas Solution to a Local Problem

Seawriter
Seawriter
19131435
 

I think many of you know that the architect of the Uvalde disaster, police chief Pete Arredondo had been elected to Uvalde’s City Council before the massacre and sworn in after it.  This left many Uvalde residents deeply unhappy. Many of his constituents were seeking to remove him. However the city charter does not have provisions to remove him from city council for his incompetence as police chief, and he cannot be recalled because he was just sworn in and has not been in office long enough. The mayor was explaining this to one irate citizen after another.

Then one of his constituents addressed the city council and offered them a lifeline. Listen:

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‘Fort Pelosi’ Hits Rock Bottom

Kelly D Johnston
Kelly D Johnston
31112656
 

As an 18-year-old high school graduate a couple of weeks from starting college, I remember holding the microphone from my cassette recorder to my parent’s stereo in our small Oklahoma town to record President Richard Nixon’s August 8 resignation address to the nation.

Afterward, I stepped outside our home’s front door, gazing upward towards the cloudless blue sky on a beautiful summer evening to let the history of that moment settle in. I still have that cassette tape. I can still quote key phrases from the speech from memory. I had just made my first trip to Washington a month earlier, on my way to Canada as part of an International Air Cadet Exchange Program. I’d seen how the final throes of Watergate had gripped the nation’s capital. Tumultuous times.

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Three Martini Lunch

Red Wave at Border, Black Guns Matter, Imaginary ‘Whipping’ Punished

73
Hosted by Greg Corombos
With guest Rob Long

Rob Long is in for Jim. Join Rob & Greg as they cheer a Republican victory in a very unlikely place. They are also excited to see the skyrocketing number of African-Americans purchasing firearms. They then go on to criticize the Biden administration for punishing border patrol agents for a “whipping” allegation that never actually happened.

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Three Martini Lunch

The Texas Elementary School Massacre

11
Hosted by Greg Corombos & Jim Geraghty

Join Jim and Greg as they discuss Tuesday’s horrific mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, that left at least 19 students and two teachers dead. First, they examine the calls for legislation to restrict access to guns or certain types of guns and what impact those steps would have had in this case. They also get into why young people come to the point of contemplating or carrying out such heinous attacks and what ideas closer to home might make a big difference. And Jim previews this week’s NRA annual meeting and how the the horrific events of the past couple of weeks might be addressed.

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