Opinion & Commentary

Welcome to Local Music ‘Mericans, where we get to know the people behind the scenes in Dallas/Fort Worth music. Jamie Kinser started booking shows after shaking hands with Ernest Tubb’s nephew, Lucky Tubb. Before long, a handshake turned into a partnership. Next thing you know, Kinser’s original endeavor of booking…

Work has started on the Fort Worth JFK tribute, a memorial plaza to be dominated by a larger-than-life statue of President John F. Kennedy with his hand extended for a friendly shake. What a difference a half-hour drive makes. When complete, the Fort Worth memorial will serve as stark contrast…

Does public housing, including Section 8 vouchers that help poor people pay rent, and other “dispersal” programs, cause crime? A reader commenting on an item posted here at the end of last week cited an article published in The Atlantic magazine in 2008, called “American Murder Mystery,” saying pretty much…

Who’s a liberal these days, and who are the conservatives? I look in the mirror, I don’t even know. I look in The New York Times this morning, I’m even more confused. The Times has a story out of Miami about major cuts in federal housing subsidies. The story calls…

This Texas Republican primary for United States Senate is very compelling in a totally sick twisted way. The opponents are attacking our former mayor Tom Leppert for his few good qualities. Very few. Needles in a haystack of bad. But his opponents have found those rare needles of good in…

Dear Mexican: I’ve tried and failed to learn the Spanish language for the last two years. Last year, I visited a Spanish-speaking church to help immerse myself in the language, but only understood about 10 percent of the message. Also, I tried to watch the available Spanish channels at home,…

How much is 20 million bucks? Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings announced last week he is putting together a $20 million private investment fund to spur economic activity in the city’s beleaguered southern half. So, how much is that? What does 20 million bucks buy for you these days? I have…

Welcome to Local Music ‘Mericans, where we get to know the people behind the scenes in Dallas/Fort Worth music. John Iskander was “at dinner with a priest” when he came up with the name Parade of Flesh, his one-man live music “boutique.” But it would be rather antiseptic to label…

So the city council is actually going to put itself through another ethics reform debate. They do this every year. It keeps coming around again on a regular cycle like some kind of unpleasant bodily function. Ask me. I know why. It keeps coming up again because it’s absolutely lipstick-on-a-pig…

Drug arrests at Texas Christian University certainly have seized everybody’s attention around the country. But surely it’s not because people are shocked, shocked to find drugs on a college campus. Probably has more to do with the close juxtaposition of the words “drug raid” and “Christian.” But who cares why…

Sad Philadelphia story in the morning papers: The company that publishes The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Philadelphia Daily News and Philly.com is negotiating to sell all three entities to a cabal of rich, powerful politicians. In a heart-rending op-ed piece in The New York Times, veteran Philadelphia reporter Buzz Bissinger says…

Dear Mexican: This question was inspired by the recent video you did on the Republicanos and the Latina/o vote. What’s your opinion of Cuban-American and Tea Party cariñito Marco Rubio? All this talk about him being the “Hispanic” savior of the Republican Party by being the vice-presidential nominee is getting…

I need to talk about Kenya, but the larger conversation is about Dallas and especially poor minority Dallas. So I see in advance that some people will think I must be a racist idiot. What kind of racist idiot would draw parallels between Africa and southern Dallas? The short answer,…

Connecting some dots in today’s newspapers: Apparently the real story in America today is that we despise the poor and consider them to be less than human pieces of shit, while we absolutely worship money and are crack-addicted to personal luxury. Maybe the day’s worst story anywhere in America about…

I don’t want to suggest that my wife is a sharp stick in the eye, but from time to time she does like to “point things out.” To me. So this morning when I reached for the place on the bedstead where I had neatly and carefully laid out my…

Welcome to Local Music ‘Mericans, where we get to know the people behind the scenes in Dallas/Fort Worth music. Chris Galt isn’t always the most welcome person in a venue. He comes rolling in with his own console, often unplugging everything and rewiring the systems together just hours before a…

Let me role-play this thing. I’m Daddy Jimbucks, sitting on a pile of dough. Maybe I’m looking for an investment. Maybe not. Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings is in my office pitching a major initiative to create prosperity in southern Dallas on terrain that has been racially segregated, bitterly poor and…