dbigtex56

This "mutual desire" must be something recent. Last I heard, Bush was encouraging the manufacture and purchase of fuel-inefficient vehicles by offering generous tax credits on vehicles over 6000 lbs GVW. I'm unclear as to how that reduces our dependence on foreign oil.

Breaking news on Local 2 - apparently he was stopped for no front license plate. When asked for his driver's license he became argumentative, and allegedly pushed an officer, at which point his partner tased him. Is this why he's called an offensive linebacker? I don't know much about football.... link to article

This is just plain wacky. In our unzoned city, how is one to know "where young people commonly gather"? Last I heard, young people are a mobile and fickle lot. If a sex offender signs a lease and a Chuck-E-Cheese goes up next door, is he obligated to break his lease? Maybe we should also ban red-light runners from living close to where young people commonly gather; they pose an even greater threat.

"A proposal to penalize businesses that employ undocumented workers was not voted on during the meeting." To clarify 'they', city council tabled that part of the proposal. It was addressed in the article.

Yes, people who enter (and remain in) our country should do so legally. Having known a few people who have gone through the process, that's much more easily said than done. Imagine your worst Department of Public Safety experience multiplied by a thousand and dragging on for years. Imagine gambling your life savings and career on the whims of some faceless bureaucrat. Imagine being told that all of your affairs are in order, only to be told a couple of months later that they're not. To negotiate the process takes extraordinary persistence and determination - and sometimes deception. In at least a couple of cases of which I'm personally familiar, sham marriages provided the only viable means to remain legally in this country. And these are people who have been working and paying taxes here for years. The first step in any meaningful immigration reform would be a restructuring of the bureaucracy. But so long as the rich and powerful continue to exploit illegal aliens for profit, that's not going to happen anytime soon.

No casabas?! Have they all had mastectomies?

Did you know that 'Britney Spears' is an anagram of 'Presbyterians'?

Fire in the hole! Wonder if fireworks manufacturers will now have to include a warning against this sort of thing?

They're not so inclined. They remain dependent on cars.

And if the option is not exercised, it remains a dependency. A heroin addict has a drug dependency, even though it through his own choice that he started using, and has the option of quitting. If one is dependent on something, it's a dependency. Your point seems to be that people ought not to have dependencies, because they have options. But they do have dependencies, regardless of whether you approve or not. And some people are dependent on their cars. de

Ah! You're saying they have the option of breaking their dependency; yet, still it's a dependency. It exists. There is such a thing. Exclamation point.

I'll concede the Alabama Theater (which, after all, is on neither Alabama nor W Alabama.) However, I cannot concede the ice house. Google "alabama ice house" (with quotation marks) and every reference is to West Alabama Ice House. My point (and I do have one) is that there is not an E Alabama. It's just called Alabama east of Main St., and no Metro buses run down it. Not even the misnamed 78 Alabama bus.

Just caught the end of the Dr. Phil show (not a big fan) this afternoon. The jist of the show was that he had hired private detectives to hunt down someone pulling telephone scams here in Houston. Lots of local shots, mostly of freeways and tarot card/palm reading establishments. Tomorrow Dr. Phil promises to kick some scammer butt, so if seeing Houston on national TV trips your trigger, tune in.

If you're going to an address on Alabama, and take the Alabama bus...you ain't gonna get there. And that doesn't strike you as odd? btw: Virginia and W Virginia? Two separate states.

"Ed Bradley, the veteran "60 Minutes" correspondent and one of the pioneering black journalists of his generation, died today of leukemia. He was 65. Bradley, who had won 19 Emmy awards, covered an incredible array of stories after joining the CBS newsmagazine in 1981, from brain cancer to sexual abuse in the Catholic Church to the high school shootings at Columbine." Washington Post article I didn't even know he was sick... He'll be missed.

What you said was "There is no such thing as car dependency." You then mentioned Park and Ride and HOV lanes - transportation geared to commuters, and both of which are dependent on cars. I maintain that it would require radical measures to allow most suburban developments to be livable without automobiles. Until such time, car dependency is a reality for many people, which is (IMHO) very unfortunate.

You're joking, right? If there's a "lack of better options", what remains is car dependency. These sprawling suburban developments would be nearly impossible to retrofit with any sort of practical local mass transit. And because shopping, employment centers, schools, etc. are so far flung, options such as walking, bicycling, pogo stick or rickshaw are unlikely to meet transportation needs. Until such a time as teleportation becomes practical, car dependency is, unfortunately, a fact of life for all too many people.

Well... for those who want things fast, cheap and at all hours, it's ideal.

First initial here, too. I guess it's a moderator thang...

From a strictly anatomical perspective, that little girl seems very oddly proportioned; like a hydrocephalic dwarf.

Don't listen to her, Red! I like your smug attitude!

Latest rumor is that condos are in the planning phase for the parking lot in the 1000 block of Westheimer (next door to Mary's.) The parking lot sign and money drop have already been removed. What sort of impact do you think this will have on Lower Westheimer?

It's been my understanding that the street orientation was skewed from directly N/S to minimize the number of bridges needed to span Buffalo Bayou, and that the street grid was layed out by a Mr. Borden (yes, same Borden's as in ice cream.) And in regard to streets' names and actual directions... isn't it odd that the 78 Alabama bus's route never takes it onto Alabama? A more accurate name would be the W Alabama route.