Opinion & Commentary

Last night the SMU Mustangs quietly tip-toed into the semifinals of something called the CollegeInsider.com Tournament (CIT) with a seven-point win at Northern Iowa. It’s not exactly March Madness – more like March Mediocrity – but considering the Mustangs and head coach Matt Doherty haven’t had a lot of success they’ll take it…

A couple weeks ago in my guise as Jim Schutze, really cool hipster (instead of crazy old man with gun), I wrote a post for DC9 At Night about Michael Seman, a research associate and doctoral candidate at University of North Texas’ Center for Economic Development and Research, who is…

I’m really worried about what the Reverend Robert Jeffress is going to say at Dallas First Baptist Church Sunday about the quake in Japan. I live within a three-mile radius of First Baptist, and I’m afraid I won’t be far enough away. The ad for his sermon that appeared here…

Whether you’ve reached the end of your rope or merely the end of your week, welcome to Whitt’s End: *Couple weeks ago I circled tonight’s Mavs-Spurs game at American Airlines Center in anticipation. Now? No biggie. After dropping games it should’ve won to Memphis, New Orleans and Portland, suddenly Dallas…

Those images of the out-of-control nuclear plants in Japan are hard-wired to our own situation in Dallas. Their tragedy is our challenge. The question is whether we see the wire in time. City council member Angela Hunt has succeeded in forcing Mayor Dwaine Caraway to put the issue of natural…

Dear Mexican: Why is it que cada vez that I talk to a Hispanic (not many Mexicans in New York, yet), it seems that they have a fantasma that they think lives in their house? I know that Carlos Mencia has used this in his material, but I wonder if…

In the media business, we get paid to keep up with all of this government political stuff. Other people have lives. But I am starting to see signs that the Big Thing is finally hitting home with other folks, or, as we sometimes call them in the news business, real…

OK, let me ask you about something else, while we’re on the subject. And first of all, I am not going to say anything negative or critical about rich people, because I don’t want to offend anybody’s religion. Today. But what about people who are super-duper chickenshit about the homeless?…

Welcome to Local Music ‘Mericans, where we meet some of the people behind the local music scene — those who aren’t necessarily members of local bands, but more the people who make the scene move. Kyle Thomas has been the drummer for Reverend Horton Heat, Shallow Reign, The Daylights and,…

Here’s another thing. Have you read all this crap about how the city is going to plug up the tunnel system downtown because some waffle-brow bow-tie city planner told them that’s why nobody’s on the sidewalks? Downtown has pedestrian tunnels between many of the buildings. Originally they were truck tunnels…

I covered part of last week’s school board meeting on the budget crisis. I was way back in back of the room gossiping with other reporters, which is really the only thing I like about news events any more, and nobody wanted to talk about the school board crisis. We…

Whether you’ve reached the end of your rope or merely the end of your week, welcome to Whitt’s Merten’s End: *Well, that was quick. Chuck Greenberg formed the current Rangers ownership group, and less than seven months after the sale was complete, he’s out. No longer managing partner. No longer…

Talk about a disconnect. On Wednesday night I see Governor Rick Perry on television, with that little cowboy sneer he gets, saying, “The lieutenant governor, the speaker and their colleagues are not going to hire or fire one teacher, as best as I can tell.” Kind of like he’s saying…

Sure, it’s not the death penalty, but the NCAA just released a statement saying it has accepted self-imposed sanctions by Southern Methodist University on its basketball program. SMU’s recommendations included two years probation (March 10, 2011, through March 9, 2013), a reduction of 15 recruiting days and a two-week ban…

Today the Dallas school board meets to hear the possible “good news” from the superintendent — that the district may only have to fire a quarter of its teachers instead of a third, depending on how badly the Rick Perry Banana Republicans and the TeeTee Party in Austin underfund public…

Dear Mexican: When the Second World War ended, the Germans and Japanese had to return all territories they had acquired by force. The United States acquired most of the West by force from Mexico, due to the war with Mexico. Agreed the United States won the war with Mexico, but…

It makes sense that a 212-year-old agency with a $50 billion annual budget would know how to talk. One of many sharp insights in the new Katrina documentary, The Big Uneasy, is that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has got its line down cold. Again and again in the…

Yesterday a commenter wrote in to Unfair Park in reference to an item about Dallas Mayor Dwaine Caraway and the legal action he has brought against his own city to prevent the release of an embarrassing police tape. The commenter said, “It’s hard to imagine the tape shows anything other…

Two things. The first is serious business. The second, not so much. As you know by now, a Dallas judge today granted lawyers for Mayor Dwaine Caraway their request for a temporary restraining order forbidding the Dallas City Attorney from releasing an embarrassing police investigative tape of the mayor. The…

Welcome to Local Music ‘Mericans, where we meet some of the people behind the local music scene — those who aren’t necessarily members of local bands, but more the people who make the scene move. Kris Youmans has one of those jobs that looks cushy from the outside, but, from…

Guess what. Maybe it has started. The great gray horse may be rising to her feet at last. Maybe the sane middle class of America isn’t dead in its tracks after all. I have a column in this week’s paper talking about a real Tea Party movement in the UK…