The Art Dealer's Wife - - Available Now!

The Art Dealer's Wife is available now at all the usual places. 

Here are the links to Amazon - Barnes & Noble - Books A Million

 

The Art Dealer's Wife

 We are running a giveaway right now on Goodreads for my next book - The Art Dealer's Wife - enter for a chance to win 1 of 10 autographed copies - click here to go to the site

THE GIVEAWAY HAS ENDED - THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO ENTERED AND CONGRATULATIONS TO THE WINNERS!

Speedboat

SPEEDBOAT is a novel by Renata Adler. I came across it in my Goodreads feed. The cover caught my eye. Then I read some of the reviews and was intrigued enough to order a copy. Finished reading it recently.

The story is often described as a "plot-less" novel. Actually, it is a very cleverly designed and well-written collection of memories. Told by a fictional character about her fictional life. Arranged in short segments - some only a single paragraph. It reads like a conversation you've had with friends after dinner. One of those conversations that moves from topic to topic and back and forth and you hear something and wonder what happened next but before you can ask, the conversation moves on to another topic. Then it comes back again to the one you were interested in and you find out a little bit more, but before you can get the whole story the conversation veers in a new direction. Something like that.

The book was written in the 1970s and has the feel of the era. New York writer, movie critic, social critic. A bit of an edge to the voice. Adler was at times very much on the inside of the New York literary crowd, and very much on the outs. I like her work and was fascinated by the way she did this book.

A Moveable Feast

I recently finished reading A Moveable Feast, by Ernest Hemingway. Required reading for an art history course I'm taking this fall.

Early in his career, Hemingway lived in Paris with his wife and young child. They had a rather miserable existence but it was a heady time when other writers and artists of the era were there - Hemingway, Gertrude Stine, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, to name a few. This book provides a glimpse into what they and their era were like. The so-called "Lost Generation." A well-known moniker for the group that arose, as it turns out, from a throwaway comment made by an automobile mechanic and repeated by Stein. Hemingway did not like it. Great source for insights regarding the people and the time. I enjoyed it.

The Last Gentleman

The Last Gentleman, a novel by Walker Percy, was published in 1966. I finished reading it the other night.

This was Percy's second book and it doesn't appear to have gained the following of his first, The Moviegoer (see below). Also unlike Moviegoer, this book hasn't been critiqued as deeply for its philosophical assumptions and implications.

The Last Gentleman follows the life of Will Barrett, a young Southerner who relocates to New York in search of an authentic sense of himself and a life of purpose and meaning (common themes for Percy). Barrett, it seems, suffers from something identified only as a "nervous condition" marked by recurring fugues - episodes of disassociation from himself - and from periods of intense deja vu.

Through a series of circumstances, Barrett becomes acquainted with the Vaughts, a Southern family, apparently from Alabama, who have come to New York seeking medical treatment for their son, Jamie. The Vaughts like Barrett and in talking to him learn that they have many acquaintances in common.

When the time comes for the Vaughts to return home, they insist that Barrett return with them to help care for Jamie and serve as his companion. By then, Barrett is in love with Kitty, the Vaughts' daughter. He agrees to return with them to their home in the South where he looks after Jamie and romances Kitty.

That is the basic plot of the book, but in telling that story Percy also tells us the story of Barrett's life before he came to New York and his family's history and position in Southern society. And quite a lot about the Vaught family's story as well. Most of the book follows a continuous narrative, but not all of it and Percy slips seamlessly into discontinuous time - telling the reader things that happened earlier but without being as obvious about it as a reader today might expect from a popular novel of the current era.

This novel probably won't be my favorite Percy story. I enjoyed reading it and I thought Percy had a reason for writing it - something he wanted to tell us or something he wanted us to think about, he just never seemed to get to it. Obscurity, as someone pointed out about one of my own books, is a good thing, but too much of it makes a story unworkable. I would say something like that about this book.

Night Train to Lisbon

Everyone who writes or wants to write has suggestions about "keys" to great writing. Getting started is the most important. Never quitting is next. And then - - - reading well. I've tried to read well most of my adult life and with the pandemic quarantine I've redoubled that effort.

Last night, I finished reading Night Train to Lisbon, by Pascal Mercier. It's a philosophical novel about a language teacher, Raimund Gregorious, who is propelled by a combination of events on a quest to explore the life of Amadeu de Prado, a Portuguese physician and writer who was a member of the 1960s political resistance against the Salazar dictatorship.

The story is told through excerpts from Prado's writings, alternating between that and details about Gregorious' experiences, incidents from the life of Pardo, and from the lives of those who knew him. All of which provide the context for an exploration of ideas about purpose, meaning, the nature of memory, and the effect memory exerts on understanding.

For instance, Prado writes, "Of the thousands of experiences we have, we find language for one at most and even this one merely by chance and without the care it deserves. Buried under all the mute experiences are those unseen ones that give our life its form, its color, and its melody."

Suggesting, the things we remember are merely incidents that protrude like mountaintops from the sea of all that transpired in our lives, regarding most of which we have no conscious recollection. But the things we can't remember are still there, shaping our understanding of the present.

That's the flavor. I found it intriguing - six or seven story lines folding in on each other and the ideas that weave them together. And the quest to learn the details of someone else's story is something I readily identify with as a writer. I have several of those quests going right now, in fiction and non-fiction.

OTHER VOICES, OTHER ROOMS - TRUMAN CAPOTE

I recently finished reading Other Voices, Other Rooms - the Truman Capote novel noted pictured above. This was Truman Capote's first novel. Prior to this book, Capote had written for a number of literary magazines which made him a notable figure in those circles. This novel brought him to the attention of a national audience. The book was well received, widely acclaimed, and launched his career as one of the best-known writers of the twentieth century.

Capote was born in New Orleans but his parents were from Alabama and he spent much of his childhood with relatives in Monroeville. Other Voices, Other Rooms draws on many of his experiences there.

The book was an interesting read but a little strange at places. And the ending lost me at first, then I went back and re-read the last two chapters and figured it out. One or two of the people in the book seem not to have existed except to those living at Skully's Landing. When asked about it, Capote said he thought so, too. Which is an interesting response from the person who wrote the book. And that's what reading it was like for me, also.

THE MOVIEGOER - BY WALKER PERCY

Awakened this morning a little before five - couldn't get back to sleep - so, I went downstairs, made coffee, and finished reading The Moviegoer - a novel by Walker Percy.

The Moviegoer is usually described as a philosophical novel - sometimes as a stream of consciousness novel - I prefer the phrase “contemplative fiction.” It’s about the quest for purpose and meaning and the angst that goes with that search. Sort of a Southern fiction version of Waiting For Godot (Beckett). Compelling, quirky, and very engaging.

The book is set along the Gulf Coast and ranges from the Garden District of New Orleans to Ship Island near Biloxi. If you're from the region, ever been to the region, ever passed through the region, you'll recognize all of the places and references.

Released in 1961, it was the surprise winner of the National Book Award and established Walker Percy as one of the great Southern writers.

OBSERVATION ON PRIME NUMBERS - 3

The logarithm of every prime number is an irrational number—a sequence that neither converges nor settles into a repeating series.

OBSERVATION ON PRIME NUMBERS - 2

If 1 is included as a prime, then all prime numbers can be expressed as a sum using only the prime numbers appearing previously on the number line (using each number only once, no multiplicity). For example, 11 can be expressed as 7+3+1. This is true for every prime number, as long as 1 is included as a prime.

OBSERVATION ON PRIME NUMBERS - 1

All prime numbers greater than 7 end with the number 1, 3, 7, or 9.

LIFE IS LIGHT AND DARK

Life is light and dark. The positive and the negative. The true and the false. Both exist inside us. Both exist around us. Pursuing the dark leads only to greater darkness, but ignoring it leaves you with only half a story. And it leaves you terribly vulnerable to something worse. You have to go into the dark parts of yourself. Into that part of your life. You have to open the door and let the light inside.

THE LEGEND OF DELL BRIGGERS - A NEW BOOK FROM JOE HILLEY

My latest book - The Legend of Dell Briggers - a novella and two short stories - was released  everywhere on February 3. You can ORDER IT NOW at BOOKS A MILLION - BARNES & NOBLE, AMAZON and at Powell's Books and wherever you buy books online.

GRADING SATSUMA ORANGES

Grading satsuma oranges in Grand Bay, Alabama. November 2019

ANDY BURCHAM INTERVIEWS JOE HILLEY

An interview with Andy Burcham from 2006. Andy is now the radio Voice of the Auburn Tigers football team. The cover pictured above is from the re-released version of Double Take, published by Dunlavy + Gray. It's available everywhere in print and as an eBook.

Chinese Yuan and the Trade War

Every evening, the People's Bank of China sets the exchange rate for the Yuan against the US Dollar. Has anyone in the current US administration considered the rate set for this past Monday (8-5-19) was actually a warning of what China could do to US markets, simply by adjusting the rate to weaken the Yuan?

Devaluing a currency has a net effect on consumption similar to that of tariffs - it lowers the cost of the host country's products, while raising the price of imported goods. However, devaluing one's currency has a broader impact than merely targeting specific products with tariffs and produces collateral economic damage of a far-reaching nature, which is what we saw when the Dow Jones average dropped as much as 950 points on Monday.

Historically, Chinese officials have conveyed policy decisions through implication and innuendo. Rather like Michael Corleone in The Godfather Part II noting a dramatic shift of intention by a subtle shift in language. Perhaps Monday's valuation of the Yuan was just such a message.

Time

"Time brings all things to light." 

Willie Stark

All The King's Men

The Well Placed Weed trailer

This is a great documentary about Ryan Gainey - a gardener who lived in Decatur, Georgia. I watched the film on Reel South, a show on PBS.

Children of Men: Don't Ignore The Background

You should watch this - an analysis of the movie CHILDREN OF MEN.

Quite intriguing. And unsettling.

SPRING

All winter long

the trees in our backyard

were gray, empty sticks.

But a Cardinal came each morning

and sang from sunrise to noon.

Her song spoke

of a Spring to come

with blooms and flowers and fresh green leaves.

Now, that Spring

is here.

Life

I live a solitary life.

TIME MOVES QUICKLY

Christmas comes and goes, then Spring appears and Summer, then Christmas again, faster than it used to. Already the squirrels are playing mating games in the trees behind the house.

UNEDITED FOOTAGE CONNECTING A WATER LINE

The City of Houston replaced the waterlines in our neighborhood. This is from the final work on our street.

Unedited Footage - View from the Porch - Junk Gypsy - Round Top, Texas

View from the porch at Junk Gypsy Antiques, Round Top, Texas

Unedited Footage - Lunch at Stanton's City Bites 2

Lunchtime at Stanton's City Bites in Houston, Texas

Unedited Video - Teague's Tavern at Round Top, Texas

The view from a window at Teague's Tavern, Round Top, Texas.

UNEDITED FOOTAGE OF A TRACK HOE

One house leaving - another house coming

UNEDITED FOOTAGE ANTIQUE ROSE EMPORIUM

Unedited Footage from the Antique Rose Emporium - Brenham, Texas
May 26, 2018

FIVE GUYS

Five Guys - not sure which I enjoy most - the hamburgers or the peanuts

UNEDITED FOOTAGE WASHINGTON AND SHEPHERD

Unedited Footage - Washington and Shepherd - Houston, Texas

WHAT THE RED MOON KNOWS - AVAILABLE NOW

Set along the Gulf Coast, What The Red Moon Knows tells the story of Ruth Ecklund—seventy-something and enjoying a settled life—until the day she sees a man standing next to a yellow Cadillac. And suddenly, her world turns upside down.

She knows him—she thinks—but it can't possibly be true...can it?

Is the man beside the yellow Cadillac really Elvis—with whom she had a brief romantic encounter as a teen? Or is he Bobby Wayne Pugh, an Elvis impersonator on the run from Las Vegas hit men?

The Red Moon knows the answer but to find it Ruth must survive a madcap jaunt across Florida, an unsettling journey into the memories of her past, and a wild ride into the imagination of the stranger with the yellow Cadillac.

What The Red Moon Knows—the latest novel from Joe Hilley—available now from Dunlavy + Gray in paperback and as an eBook.

UNEDITED FOOTAGE OF ICE MELTING ON A WINDSHIELD

Winter in Houston, Texas

Presidential Imperative

Proverbs 16:10 says, "The lips of a king speak as an oracle, and his mouth should not betray justice." (NIV)

That verse doesn't say the king IS an oracle or that the words he utters always are true or infallible. It says he speaks AS an oracle—with the force and authority of an oracle, but it goes on to say that because of this, the king's mouth should not betray justice.

In saying that the king's mouth 'should not' betray justice, the verse presupposes that even though his speech carries authority, the king still has the capacity to say things that are wrong, untrue, or contrary to the duties and responsibilities of his office.

Rulers occupy a special place, a special office. That office gives them positional authority and power—authority and power derived solely from the office they hold. Because of that, they must control their tongue, self-edit their extemporaneous comments, and guard the language of their formal statements, lest they betray the moral imperative of their office and incur judgement because of it, rather than blessing. 

UNEDITED FOOTAGE OF A TRUCK OUTSIDE A CAFE

Unedited footage of a truck outside a cafe in Houston, Texas - December 2017

UNEDITED FOOTGAGE CROSSING THE ATCHAFALAYA

From the window of a car on I-10 Eastbound

BBC Imagine 2013 Vivian Maier

Incredible photos and even more incredible story

UNEDITED FOOTAGE OF A SMALL LAKE

Unedited footage of a small lake in November

UNEDITED FOOTAGE OF A CRACKER BARREL FIREPLACE

Fireplace in a Cracker Barrel store, November 2017

UNEDITED FOOTAGE OF A DEBRIS PILE

Debris pile in Houston, Texas

Unedited Footage of a Downtown Street

Scenes from a Houston street at night.

LUNCHTIME AT STANTON'S CITY BITES 1

Lunchtime at a Houston favorite.

UNEDITED FOOTAGE OF A PARKING LOT AT NIGHT

A parking lot at night, in the rain.

UNEDITED FOOTAGE OF A NEIGHBORHOOD

A neighborhood in Houston, Texas.

Unedited Footage of The Flood

Hurricane flooding in Houston. Briar Forest Drive looking east, toward the intersection with Gessner Road. Recorded on September 3, 2017.

FINAL CUT

Final Cut - A family moviemaking tradition comes to an end

From Calvin Trillin, The New Yorker, September 11, 2017 issue.

New Orleans’ Queen of Creole Cooking Still Reigns at 94

A great story about a great chef and a great person. Leah Chase, chef and co-owner of Dooky Chase Restaurant in New Orleans.

The Moundville Archaeological Park

Taking a break from the hurricane for a few minutes. This is a short video about a late-prehistoric site in Alabama.

Bernstein, The greatest 5 min. in music education

I often lament not paying closer attention in music theory class. This is a good five-minute substitute.

Unedited Footage of A Rose

The first post-hurricane rose bloom. Notice the sandbags still in the background.

SANDBAGS BEFORE THE STORM

Lowe's said they were sold out of sand. Which was true, but the lawn and garden section had bags of paving sand and paving base. The bags worked just fine.

A Conversation with John le Carré and Ben McIntyre

A Conversation with John le Carré and Ben McIntyre, The New York Times

Buying Gas Before The Storm

The scene outside Costco in Houston yesterday morning.

Maddow: Racism Is 'A Persistent Infection' In White American Culture | R...

UNEDITED FOOTAGE OF THE SKY

Unedited Footage From a Bookstore #1

No Nazi Scumbags Allowed In The US Military | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC

Is The Gig Economy Working?

The internet and all of its accouterments has transformed many things, not the least of which is the way we work. Work in all of its forms has been revolutionized, but the question remains - is this new way of working really working?

Is The Gig Economy Working? - by Nathan Heller, The New Yorker

Proverbs

From the fruit of his lips a man enjoys 

good things, 

but the unfaithful have a craving 

for violence.

Proverbs 13:2

Encouraging Good Writers

What Parents Can Do to Nurture Good Writers. An interview by Dana Goldstein. The New York Times, August 2, 2017. Read the article here. 

Several of you asked about digital versions of my earlier novels. An eBook version of Sober Justice is now available. Here's a link

We Face A Test

Refugees, immigrants, minorities, and the poor do not present a threat to us. But our response does. If we as Christians embark on a political, social, or personal path that ignores them, turns them aside, casts them back to the despair from which they have fled, then we harden our hearts to their cry and to the cry of the Holy Spirit. And when we do that, we cease to be the Church, cease to be a body of Believers, cease to be Believers at all.

For us, the issue of how to address the disadvantaged people of the world is a test. One that poses the question, do we really believe what Jesus said, and are we really committed to living in obedience to Him, or have we reduced His words and life to a collection of religious tenets to which we merely give mental assent? One offers the way to life. The other leads only to death - theirs and ours.

Capitalism and Democracy

Capitalism threatens Democracy - Democracy threatens Capitalism

Fourth of July

The Star-Spangled Banner is not a Gospel hymn.

We Need Real Leadership

We need real leadership. Not the constant-campaign we get from the GOP. That latest healthcare bill that passed the House wasn't designed to help Americans get healthy and stay healthy. It was designed to pass, so GOP members could say to the right-wing base, "We kept our promise." That's all. No intention of moving us forward. No intention of solving a problem. No purpose whatsoever except to help members remain in office.

THE BABY BOOM IN PERSPECTIVE

According to available data, birthrates in the United States have steadily declined from a rate of about twelve live births per female of childbearing age during the eighteenth century to a current rate of less than two. Plotted on a graph, the birthrate trend-line follows a slope steadily downward with only one deviation - the period associated with World War II known as the Baby Boom.

Demographers date the Baby Boom in the US at various times, but from a statistical perspective the birthrate rose above the trend-line in 1940 and increased steadily to a peak around 1955-56, then declined back to the trend-line after 1964. During that twenty-five year period, approximately 33,971,000 babies were born (US Census Bureau, Table 53, Statistical Abstract of the United States (1970), p. 47). Births during that period produced a generation of men and women who went on to lead one of the most creative periods in human history.

In 1973, abortion was legalized in the United States with the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade (410 US 113 (1973)). Following that decision, the rate of reported abortions rose from 0 in the 1970s to approximately 1.5 million procedures in 1980. Thereafter, the rate declined to approximately 1 million per year, where it has remained since. From the time abortion was legalized through 2011, a total of approximately 40 million abortions were performed (See, Trends in Abortion in the United States - 2011, Guttmacher Institute (January 2014)).

Think about that for a moment.

Abortion has eliminated a generation the size of the Baby Boom generation. And with it, the creativity, ingenuity, and advancement that generation might have produced.

SAVING CHRISTIANITY FROM THE AMERICAN DREAM

The book Radical, by David Platt has been out a while and I'm sure many of you have already read it. It has been on my e-reader for quite some time, but I only started reading it a few weeks ago. Great book about rescuing Christianity from the American Dream.

In this era's highly-charged political environment Believers often view Christianity through a political lens, rather than the other way around. Politics drives the train. Likewise, devotion to the American Dream, with its underlying philosophy of self-determination, often drives our lives, our priorities, and our theology. This book addresses that dilemma.

The will of God and the American Dream are not one and the same. Jesus calls us to a life of radical faith, not radical self-achievement.

Radical: Taking Back Your Faith From The American Dream

CHINA STEPS UP INVESTMENT IN AFRICA

Four hundred years ago, more or less, Isaac Newton told us that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. The notion of homeostasis applies a similar idea in a different way, suggesting that change in one area of a system dictates change in another. And so we find one of the great axioms of life. Whenever one thing wanes, another waxes. One lessens, the other increases.

As the United States withdraws from engagement with the world others, most notably China, have stepped in to fill the void. Trains, power plants, investment in agricultural production. Providing financing, technical support, and operational assistance. We back away, they step up. Our influence wanes, theirs waxes.

See below, Andrew Jacobs, "Joyous Africans Take to the Rails, With China's Help," The New York Times, February 7, 2017

He Who Oppresses the Poor

He who oppresses the poor 

shows contempt for their Maker, 

but whoever is kind to the needy 

honors God.

Proverbs 14:31

December Retail Sales

From 1992 through 2015 (the most recent year available), retail sales for December have increased in every year except one - 2008.

America In The Age of Socrates

Socrates made a fatal mistake. He thought the Greeks wanted to know the truth. What he learned, albeit too late to make a difference, was that truth no longer mattered. The Greeks only wanted to be persuaded - to be moved - to be stirred. Truth, it seems, had been redefined to mean only that of which one could persuade another. And now we enter that age ourselves.

Truth and Lies in the Age of Trump, The New York Times, December 10, 2016

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/10/opinion/truth-and-lies-in-the-age-of-trump.html?_r=0

Quiet Oblivion

I see people on the street who seem to live a life of quiet desperation - but in the pews and shopping malls I see more who seem to live a life of quiet oblivion.

Near The End

Near the end, people will revere the symbols of freedom more than freedom itself.

Twilight Of The Republic

During the recent presidential campaign, candidate Trump turned hyperbole into an art form, creating supposed facts to suit the sort of American mythological claims many think are true. Like the notion that vast numbers of immigrants come here illegally in order to commit crimes (the crime rate among immigrants is roughly equal that of the population in general), vote in our elections (voter fraud requires the collusion of hundreds of local poll workers at every level), and other claims for which neither he nor anyone else has an supporting evidence.

Now that he has won election to the highest office in the land, some had hoped that president-elect Trump would move to more reserved, judicious, comments based on substantiated facts and actual truth. After all, when a president speaks his words have consequences, both at home and abroad. But this weekend Trump returned to his old form, Tweeting on the topic of a three-state recount that the reason Hillary Clinton won the popular vote was due to "millions" who voted illegally for her. Claims for which no one has any supporting evidence.

Campaigning by hyperbole is one thing. Governing by it is quite another.

When one campaigns by hyperbole, their statements are often dismissed as political rhetoric or mere puffery - the kind of statements the stereotypical used car salesman might be expected to make when attempting to sell a car of dubious quality and value.

When one governs by hyperbole - making up supposed facts and using them to justify policies that obviate, obfuscate, and contravene the constitution - mere hyperbole becomes propaganda.

The kind of propaganda Trump attempts to sell - that elections are tainted by voter fraud (though only affecting those who voted for someone else), that illegal immigrants are stealing our jobs, that globalism doesn't work, that we can withdraw from the world economically while imposing our will militarily - not only lays the basis for constitutional crisis, but turn us away from an electoral republic toward a dictatorial empire and the death of everything we claim to value about America.

If We Abandon The World

If we abandon the world - globalism, international monetary system, and the like - the world will abandon us. Our economy lives on credit, much of it extended to us by other nations, and on the constant supply of goods from abroad. Foreign countries only deal with us because it is profitable for them to do so. If we, as a consequence of our own choices, make dealing with us unprofitable, they will no longer buy our bonds and notes, or trade with us in the manufacture of the products we consume.

A Face In The Crowd

And then there's this - from Paul Papanek

The Past Is Always With US

"Hitler increasingly presented himself in messianic terms, promising to 'lead Germany to a new era of national greatness,' though he was typically vague about his actual plans."

Kakutani, Michiko, From 'Dunderhead' to Demagogue, The New York Times, September 28, 2016

Reviewing Hitler: Ascent 1889-1930 by Volker Ullrich (Knopf)

The Past Has A Way of Repeating Itself

"Here, 'Hitler adapted the content of his speeches to suit the tastes of his lower-middle-class, nationalist-conservative, ethnic-chauvinist and anti-Semitic listeners,' Ullrich writes. He peppered his speeches with coarse phrases and put-downs of hecklers. Even as he fomented chaos by playing on crowds' fears and resentments, he offered himself as the visionary leader who could restore law and order."

Kakutani, Michiko, From 'Dunderhead to Demagogue, The New York Times, September 28, 2016

Reviewing Hitler: Ascent 1889-1930 by Volker Ullrich

Totally amazed that Reagan Republicans - who embraced the conservative view that Russia was a threat to world peace and US security - now readily accept Donald Trump's embrace of Russian president Putin as a leader to be emulated.

President Trump

Donald Trump sounds convincing - like the guy you see at the party who seems to know everyone, even you, and people who regularly have three or four drinks before dinner find him . . . interesting.

But the speeches he gives are mostly about himself with policy positions painted with the broadest strokes possible. The most oft repeated being, "We're gonna make America great again." He gives little detail about how he would accomplish that, but he makes the claim anyway, leaving plenty of space for listeners to fill in the blanks.

Giving Trump the benefit of the doubt, and reading past his sparse comments on policy, he sounds like a CEO addressing shareholders or employees at an annual gathering. And that might be expected. After all, he's spent a lifetime leading a number of companies. But as attractive as the CEO model might be, the presidency is not a CEO position and the government is not a business corporation. This is a critical point because if he wins the presidency in the general election, the differences between corporate CEO and president of the United States will become a major stumbling block as he confronts one of his most important official duties - proposing the next year's federal budget.

After years of government shutdowns and debt-limit grandstanding, almost none of which had any noticeable effect on the individual lives of private citizens, the federal budget might seem like merely a document. It is, in fact, quite the opposite.

The federal budget lies at the heart of an administration's plan for governing. The budgetary process - the process by which each year's allocation of funding is determined - becomes the battle ground upon which dreams and political rhetoric collide with the enduring enemy of all attempts at government reform - the narrow-minded but often powerful congressional constituencies in both parties who protect and defend billions of dollars in federal pork aimed at projects in their home districts.

The CEO of a private corporation could address company budget problems by simply deleting from that budget those items he thought were unnecessary - a power often referred to in government as the line-item veto. However, the president of the United States does not hold line-item veto power. The president can approve a budget and sign it into law in its entirety, or he can veto the budget in its entirety and send the document back to congress. But he can't strike from the budget those individual items he does not wish to fund. Approval or disapproval of the budget is an all or nothing matter.

In addition, most of the items the president will want to cut from the budget have their own congressional constituency - congressional members, even from within the president's own party, who are determined to retain some measure of federal largess for voters back home. As a result, a first-term Trump will watch as his administration becomes bogged down in relentless congressional arguments over each and every item he wishes to strike.

And then consider this . . .

To alleviate his frustration, a President Trump will do what he has already done when confronted by Republican Party hierarchy and the Republican Establishment - he will look beyond congress and the legislative process and rally the American people to his cause. Using the same empty and vacuous, but oh so entertaining, rhetoric that won him the office, he will make a very public argument for why he should have greater budgetary control. In speech after speech he will chide Congress for its failure to govern and exhort the American people with promises that he can easily fix most of the government's problems, if only he had the power to strike individual appropriations from the budget.

His argument will seem appealing and opinion polls will show voter sentiment strongly in favor of Trump's request. A Republican controlled Congress, facing the prospect of voter anger in their home districts, will give him the line-item power he seeks - by constitutional amendment if necessary.

Using his newly acquired power, Trump will dramatically shrink the federal budget. Deficits will become a thing of the past. Key government programs wiped out with the stroke of a pen. The American economy, almost instantly devoid of excess federal spending, will descend into a depression far more devastating than the Great Depression of 1929. Millions will be out of work. Voter anger once again will rise.

Rather than addressing the truth - that his federal budget policy withdrew trillions of economic activity from the national economy - Trump will turn again to the rhetoric that holds the key to his power and divert public attention to illegal immigrants as the source of the nation's economic trouble. Illegal immigrants, he will say, as he already has, are the ones who stole our jobs and destroyed our economy.

With that rhetoric as his tool, he will convince Americans that the economic crisis is really an immigration crisis, one that requires the deployment of federal troops in a massive roundup of some fifteen million allegedly illegal immigrants. A Republican controlled congress, eager to retain their office and its paycheck, will rubber stamp all of his proposals.

Sporadic resistance will create poorly organized disruptions, but those attempts at resistance will attract national media attention and provide the illusion of widespread unrest. In the midst of that, he will declare martial law and, as his second term approaches its end, he will declare a national emergency, temporarily suspending federal elections, leaving himself in office indefinitely.

And so . . .

If you think this is nothing more than the overactive musings of a fiction writer, you should read the history of Germany from 1920 to 1945. This is precisely how Hitler shredded through centuries of German law, tradition, and practice to become first chancellor, then Fuehrer - an absolute ruler with absolute and unrestrained power.

Cage Free Eggs Revisited

Earlier I wrote about cage free eggs with a rather sarcastic tone. I assumed caged in this context meant the chickens were confined to a chicken house but able to walk around. This morning, the Diane Rehm Show had a guest who talked about cage free and what it meant.

Here's a link to a video showing hens in laying cages. Apparently, they're confined like this most of their laying life.

Commercial Chicken Laying Cages

Deception

If you try hard enough,

you can convince yourself

of anything.

Taxes

The other day, we were down at Texas Medical Center and while I waited for my wife to bring the car around I noticed all the plaques and pictures on the wall in the lobby remembering those who'd gone ahead of us and reminding us that they helped create that facility. The buildings have names that enshrine their memory, too. Like Brown, Alkek, Fondren, Dunn, Smith, Scurlock, and Mary Gibbs Jones. And that's just the part at Methodist Hospital. Other areas of the Center have their own memorials.

With Tax Day falling in this month, many have no doubt expressed their disdain for paying taxes. That sense of frustration is understandable. It's quite an eye-opener to see how much money the government gets from our hard-earned income. But this week I've also been thinking about another aspect of the tax system. The Estate Tax and all of those plaques on the wall in the hospital lobby.

Under US law, a federal tax of forty percent is imposed on all estates valued above five million dollars. That's a much higher rate than the federal income tax, but there are ways to legally avoid that tax. One of those ways is by giving everything above the five million dollar limit to a qualifying institution or entity - a charitable cause, your alma mater, the church you attend, or by giving it to a foundation of your own.

As I thought about that and the plaques on the wall in the hospital lobby I realized the federal tax code actually pushes us to give away our wealth. The law forces us to think about our estate in terms of others. To address those needs, issues, and causes that are dear to us. To start or join a work that takes more than a single generation to accomplish.

Texas Medical Center was started by Monroe D. Anderson, a cotton broker who created a foundation to avoid federal taxes on his estate. The money that went to that foundation after Mr. Anderson died bought the land for the Center and helped fund construction of its first hospital. His vision was an inspiration to those who carried out the mission he started and that vision still drives the current generation of leaders who manage the Center today.

Yes, the federal government takes a big chunk of our income. And, yes, the federal government is far more intrusive than our Founders ever imagined. But the Estate Tax is one thing the tax code gets right. It encourages us - forces us - reminds us - to think of others. To build toward a future with dreams and visions bigger than we can accomplish in our lifetime. To join with those who've gone before us. To add our efforts to their's and to remind those coming after us that caring for others is their responsibility, too.

Everyone uses unisex restrooms at home.

Aspire to goals and dreams that are bigger than one could achieve or complete in a single life.

The Smartest Places On Earth

 If you're interested in our economy - where it's headed and what's really happening - you need to watch this webcast from Brookings Institute.

The Smartest Places On Earth - Brookings Institute

Cage-Free Eggs

Caught a blurb a moment ago about a grocery store that will move toward selling 100% Cage-Free eggs soon. Cage-Free eggs. Hmm.

Now, Cage-Free Chicken - I see that. A way for some to feel good about eating chicken. At least it wasn't confined to a cramped coop and force-fed steroids to make it grow into a giant chicken breast with a beak before someone killed it, plucked it, gutted it, and wrapped it for display in the store.

But Cage-Free eggs

When I was a boy I had a dozen yard hens and a rooster. They wandered free and wandered everywhere. So did their nests. And when I found their nests, I gathered their eggs and took them in the house to the refrigerator. When we cooked them, they tasted like whatever the hens had eaten - bark from the camphor tree is the flavor/scent I remember most in the scrambled eggs - there was a camphor tree behind the garage and they routinely pecked at its roots.

So, if you like Cage-Free eggs, help yourself. I prefer the consistency in flavor of whatever's in the bright white cartons with the brand logo stamped on each clean, smooth egg. But I do wonder how they get the eggs so uniform in size and shape.

Health Care

I don't know the total number of people living in the United States who do not have medical insurance coverage, but I know this - whatever the size of that group might be, it's large enough and pervasive enough that doctor's offices and related businesses (medical imaging, testing facilities, etc.) have self-pay (cash) fee schedules.

Looking Ahead

Looking ahead, if Donald Trump gains the Republican nomination and wins the general election, we could face more than just the bungling missteps of an uniformed politician.

All of Trump's leadership experience comes from the private sector where he has been CEO of private corporations. As a CEO he could say, "Do this," or "Never mind. Let's do that." And he could give those directions at a moments notice.

He could do the same with the corporate budget. "Spend here." Or, "Take the money from that account and use it on this one." The president of a business corporation might have that authority. The president of the United States does not.

So, the question becomes, what happens when President Trump's ideas and plans run headlong into the constitutional process?

Republican Presidential Debates

The Republican Presidential Debates were a success. They convinced me that I really am a Democrat.

Moving On To A New Line Of Articles

I began the current series of articles by proposing to visit hamburger restaurants around the city of Houston and report about our experiences. These articles were to detail actual trips my son and I made and the food we consumed. We made those trips and I wrote a couple of articles about the first two places where we ate. But in the process of preparing a third article detailing our experience at the next stop I became convicted about two things.

First, I am overweight, and not by a small about. Recreational consumption of food is a huge problem in the United States - for me personally and for millions of our fellow citizens. Meanwhile, much of the world goes hungry. We eat for entertainment. They eat only to survive. That's not right. I'm not a Catholic but the Catholic catechism defines gluttony as a mortal sin. That is as true today as it has ever been.

Second, not all the food we ate was of equal quality. All of it was good, but some was better than others. However, each of the people operating the restaurants we visited worked quite diligently to earn a living. They need all the customers they can get and don't need someone criticizing their work.

So, I'm not going to finish the current series of articles. Instead, I'm going to focus on not eating so much. If you enjoy hamburgers and are curious about which kind is best, take a trip around your own city or town and decide for yourself. As for me, I'm pushing myself toward salad and apples.

Burger Tour of Houston - Second Stop - Hubcap Grill

Our second stop on the Burger Tour of Houston took us to Hubcap Grill. They have several locations around the city but we visited the original site, located at 1111 Prairie Street, downtown. This is another of the hamburger joints in the "store-turned-cafe" genre and as you can see from the photo below, the interior is quaint but cramped. (They have outdoor seating on one side).

The hamburger I had that day was hand-patted - which is the first step beyond the "machine burger" served by fast food restaurants - but beyond that I found it . . . unremarkable. Good, but not outstanding and lacking a noticeable  "wow" factor. You can see part of one on Jack's plate in the photo above. He gave it his typical, "better than McDonalds" rating. I gave it the, "Okay, but let's try another place" response.

Hubcap Grill is a favorite for many Houstonians and has a strong reputation. If I were already downtown for another reason and wanted a hamburger, I would go there. But for a special trip, I would go somewhere else.

The thing that did catch my interest and would take me back there on a special trip was the story of the original owners - Italian immigrants who came to America in the early twentieth century and opened the location as a store. Photos of the couple hang on the walls and the current owners were more than willing to talk about the history of the place. And though I might not drive down there solely for the burger, I would return especially to hear more of the founders' story and this time to take notes.

Hubcap Grill - 1111 Prairie Street, Houston, Texas

Burger Tour of Houston - First Stop - Lankford Grocery and Market

Our first stop on the Burger Tour of Houston was at Lankford Grocery & Market - part of the Texas grocery-store-turned-cafe restaurant sub-genre. All the Houston food web sites and eatery referral places rave about this place so we began our quest for the definitive burger here. Our first experience rated an "okay" from me. Jack gave it his usual "better than McDonalds" but really, I was underwhelmed. The burger was big, which is good, and loaded with whatever toppings we requested, also good, but I thought the flavor of the meat was flat - it didn't appear to be hand-patted - and lost in the add-ons. 

This place is known far and wide and the general public talks about it all the time so we went back for a second taste after visiting several other eateries. This time I ordered my burger plain - meat and bread. Jack still gave it a "better than McDonalds" rating and I still found the meat lacking, but the atmosphere was better and the place had that "grows on you" feel.

The story of the business is rather interesting - family owned for multiple generations, began as a grocery store now just a restaurant. Still operated by a Lankford. An in-law was manning the cash register on our most recent stop, which I suppose said something about their trust in him. It also told me the owners placed greater emphasis on the food and service than on the money, which goes a long way toward explaining why this place is always packed. They serve many other dishes besides hamburgers, including breakfast, which we intend to try, but that's for another tour.

The picture below shows the interior.

Lankford Grocery & Market is located at 88 Dennis Street in the Montrose section of Houston

Burger Tour of Houston

The picture above is a shot of Callaghan's Irish Social Club - a bar on Charleston Street in Mobile, Alabama, and home of the best hamburger on the Gulf Coast. From Corpus Christi to Apalachicola, you can't find a place that beats the taste of their burger. Jack and I have eaten there many times and when we're in Mobile we do our best to go there for lunch.

Since moving to Houston we've tried to find a burger joint with a comparable taste and similar ambiance. We've been aided in our effort by Jack's gift of "Burger Bucks" - money he gave me last Christmas to help cover the cost of a burger tasting tour of Houston. Two men with an appetite and cash, in an '85 Mercedes with a broken air conditioner - we've sweated our way through some interesting experiences.

Over the next few weeks, I'll show you pictures of the places we've visited so far and catch you up on or assessment of the flavor.

Grand Bay Elementary School For Colored

This is a picture of the Grand Bay Elementary School For Colored. It was constructed with help from the Rosenwald Fund and used to educate African-American children in the 1920s. The site is along U.S. Highway 90, east of Grand Bay, Alabama. Classes for grades one through six were conducted there until the 1940s when the school was consolidated with the school at Dixon Corner (photo from Fisk University).

Daryl Hall and Cee Lo Green

Last night, Daryl Hall was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (along with John Oates of the combo Hall and Oates). So, continuing with the Daryl Hall - Live From Daryl's House emphasis, this is Daryl singing Crazy with Cee Lo Green.

Daryl Hall and Todd Rundgren - Live From Daryl's House

Most of you have probably already seen Daryl Hall's show Live From Daryl's House. This is Daryl singing with Todd Rundgren from an episode several years ago. I think the versions they do on this show are better than the originals.

Can We Still Be Friends

Same-Sex Marriage

Last fall, George and Barbara Bush attended the wedding of two friends in Maine. The friends were two women who were marrying each other. This is old news, but I refer to it now to say that same-sex marriage, like many other so-called polarizing issues, is easy to discuss in polemical terms in the abstract - “we ought to do this” or “we ought to do that.” But the issues become something else when the people involved are our friends.

I don’t know about you but when issues like this touch the lives of my friends they also touch my life as well - in a personal way - and my reaction to the critics who attack my friends is usually something like, “kiss my ass.” I think George and Barbara would give a more polite “none of your damn business” response, but the point is still the same - political issues divide us in the abstract, which is where politicians want to keep them so they can use those issues to manipulate us. But our personal reaction to those issues, when we encounter them through our own lives or the lives of our friends and family, tells us more about where the country is headed and how those issues will finally be resolved.

 

 

 

 

An old postcard advertisement 

 

 

A barn in Grand Bay Alabama

Governor Christie and the Highway Flap

As I continue to read about the controversy involving New Jersey governor Chris Christie and lane closures from Fort Lee onto the George Washington Bridge, I have become suspicious that this is an attack on Christie from the Republican right, rather than a substantive legal problem or a challenge from the left.

Many conservative Republicans were upset with Christie's comments following Hurricane Sandy, his cooperative stance with the Obama administration during hurricane recovery, and his refusal to use the catastrophe to score cheap political points with the far right. I think this continuing brew-ha-ha is more about political payback and the internal war within the Republican Party and much less about anything else - which would be an interesting twist - Christie operatives try to squeeze the Fort Lee mayor for not endorsing Christie, only to get squeezed themselves as operatives from the far right kick the story from one news cycle to the next.