Windows Crash on The Strip

Someone was quick on the draw and captured this amusing scene in Las Vegas.

The Lone Tree at Enchanted Rock

I joined a few friends for a hike up Enchanted Rock, an amazing batholith located about 2.5 hours west of Austin. The weather was very hot, causing my dog Jodi to go into "maximum pant" mode.



According to Texas Parks and Wildlife, the rock "is a huge, pink granite exfoliation dome, that rises 425 feet above ground, 1825 feet above sea level, and covers 640 acres." The rock is "exfoliating" because huge slabs have broken away and are slowly sliding off the mountain.



The "Lone Tree" picture is my first semi-decent attempt at black-and-white digital photography. I'm always amazed at the tenacity of life. Flora and fauna, given the slightest chance, will try to flourish in the most unlikely areas, including the face of an otherwise barren rock.



A few more pictures can be seen here.

Bevo the Bull

I ran into a classmate who happens to be a Texas "Ex" (an alumnus). My friend has had Longhorn season tickets since he graduated, and I was invited to take his extra ticket to watch the Longhorns take on Missouri.



The Longhorns won a fairly tough game. Never before had I seen a game with so many spectators. 82,981 fans were crammed into Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. 99.5% of them were wearing the classic burnt-orange hallmark color. The remainder were Missouri fans, who were shoehorned into a small section near the North end zone.



Pictured above is the famous Longhorn mascot, Bevo. Why "Bevo?" The legend goes something like this:

During a late night visit to Austin, a group of Texas Aggie pranksters branded the University's first longhorn mascot "13-0," the score of a football game won by Texas A&M. In order to save face, UT students altered the brand to read "Bevo" by changing the "13" to a "B," the "-" to an "E," and inserting a "V" between the dash and the "0." For years, Aggies have proudly touted the stunt as the reason the steer acquired his name. But was the brand really changed? And is that why he's called Bevo?



Sorry. Wrong on both counts.

The real story is much less exciting. The bull actually got it's name from a sports reporter covering the Longhorns' 1916 victory over the school then known as "A&M College," now Texas A&M.



More photos from my first Longhorn game can be seen here.

Busy Days, Busy Nights

The last week has been hectic. As of tomorrow, we will have had three papers to complete and two exams to pass. There are no classes next week, and everyone here is excited for the opportunity to get some extra sleep catch up on our reading.



I've been blogging heavily on politics lately, but next week will be spent reflecting on the semester, now shockingly half-over!



In the meantime, may I recommend the following article?

Afghanistan Votes

This picture is cool.



[Thanks, Power Line.]



UPDATE: Glenn Reynolds is on top of all the good news out of Afghanistan.

It's ABC's Turn...

...to be scandalized.



Matt Drudge has published Mark Halperin's internal memo to members of the ABC news staff. We now know that, along with CBS, ABC will officially do all of your thinking for you, which means that they will be pulling for John Kerry. In the memo, we see clearly at ABC takes editorial direction from the New York Times:

The New York Times (Nagourney/Stevenson) and Howard Fineman on the web both make the same point today: the current Bush attacks on Kerry involve distortions and taking things out of context in a way that goes beyond what Kerry has done.

Because this premise originates from the Times, it is accorded the status of Holy Writ by Halperin, who then goes on to say:

Kerry distorts, takes out of context, and mistakes all the time, but these are not central to his efforts to win.



We have a responsibility to hold both sides accountable to the public interest, but that doesn't mean we reflexively and artificially hold both sides "equally" accountable when the facts don't warrant that.

Read: Both sides lie, but we're only going to one side accountable.



Now for the real laugher:

It's up to Kerry to defend himself, of course. But as one of the few news organizations with the skill and strength to help voters evaluate what the candidates are saying to serve the public interest. Now is the time for all of us to step up and do that right.

ABC News serves the public interest, but only by helping Kerry win.



With this memo, ABC now joins the list of major news organization that no longer have my trust. The pantheon of shame now includes:

• NBC, for the fraud they perpetrated against General Motors during an episode of "Dateline."
• CNN (and "Time" magazine), for the fraud they perpetrated in their "Operation Tailwind" story. And let's not forget the NY Times op-ed piece written by Eason Jordan, who disclosed CNN's complicity with Saddam Hussein by refraining from reporting systemic rape, torture, and oppression in Iraq.
• cBS, for their obvious disregard for truth during the recent Memogate scandal.
• The New York Times for the Jayson Blair scandal.

Visit Jeff for his take on the scandal, which includes a helpful link to a list of ABC affiliates.

A Summary of the Last Eight Days

Courtesy Hugh Hewitt:

In the past eight days, John Kerry has:

• Announced to a national audience that American actions in defense of national security must pass a "global test";
• Announced that he would sell nuclear fuel to Iran;
• Could not answer, and badly filibustered a question on what he would do if Iran continued to push towards nuclear weapons acquisition;
• Denounced as unilateralism the coalition that George Bush put together to overthrow Iraq, and called for unilateral appeasement of North Korea;
• Compared Iraq to Lebanon, but insisted a summit could entice other countries to join the effort in Iraq, even after the French and the Germans announced they would not do so even if Kerry was elected;
• Twice identified the most pressing proliferation problem as the American effort to develop a new generation of nuclear weapons capable of destroying deep bunkers, thus equating the United States with rogue states like North Korea and Iran and proclaiming hostility to modernization of the American arsenal --vintage Kerry defense thinking;
• Announced plan after plan for which no details exist;
• "Absolutely" pledged not to raise taxes on anyone earning less than $200,000 annually, a pledge that even his most ardent admirers know is either a bald lie or a repudiation of most of his spending plans (e-mailer LL suggests a new Kerry slogan: "Read my flips: no new taxes!");
• Ignored the creation of 1.9 million jobs over the past 13 months and ignored the economic consequences of the Clinton recession and 9/11 attacks while attacking Bush's tax cuts;
• While calling attention to his Catholic status, defended his vote against banning partial birth abortion, called for taxpayer support for abortion, argued that "parental notification" was connected to dads raping daughters and defended the wholesale harvesting of frozen embryos for research purposes --four positions completely opposite of Catholic Church teaching and far outside the American consensus opinion on abortion;
• Actually said "John Edwards and I are for tort reform," and told the American people that lawsuits against doctors are 1% of the health care problem;
• Defensively denied being "wishy washy," a "flip flopper," and a "liberal," while complaining about being branded such by the president;
• Embraced the Kyoto Treaty and called for its resuscitation with amendments;
• Told America that General Shinseki had been fired by Bush and that the firing had a "chilling" effect on all generals, and one day later said Shinseki had been "retired" --not fired-- and left off the "chilling effect" argument --a record one day flip flop;
• Saw his running mate get woodshedded and his campaign try to reverse that blow by arguing that the Vice President should have remembered meeting Edwards;
• Heard his wife assert that American troops were fighting for oil and many other stunning things;
• Watched as Bush did not make a single memorable error in two debates while effectively underscoring Kerry's "global test" pratfall, focusing on Kerry's did-nothing time-serving two decades in the Senate, wrestle the ISG report to its appropriate place in the discussion of the Iraq War, persuade by repeated argument (which the Vice President also helped along) that coalitions can not be led or maintain by derision or democracies built by indecision;
• Watched as Bush effectively and accurately branded KerryCare as an expanded form of HillaryCare;
• Watched as Bush simply and devastatingly branded Kerry as not credible on taxes, spending and most important of all, defending the United States.
  
  

And to top it all off, this killer line:

If this was a good eight days for Kerry, then November 11, 1864 was a fine day for Atlanta.

The entire Hewitt post can be found here. Excellent.