Bunker Mulligan "Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry." ~Mark Twain

Volkswagen has always had some of the best commercials in the business. This one isn’t real, but tells a wonderful story.

Thanks, Cerberus.

I have just established a new web site/blog exclusively for Texas bloggers. If you live within the confines of the rivers Red, Sabine, Grande, Pecos, and Canadian, you qualify. If you are a native living outside the State, you may also join as an expatriot expatriate.

The site will be a forum for all things Blogger Texan, to include some design, code, CSS, and other things digital–we have some extremely talented people in Texas–and announcement of events and awards.

It is an open blog, with the capability for registered users to post their own thoughts.

What I’m getting at here is an invitation for Texas bloggers to join and contribute, and for the foreigners among you to visit us here in the Republic of Texas. No visa required.

Once again, Russ Vaughn has sent me a new poem. He already has it posted at American Thinker, and you were going to go there anyway!

The guys at PowerLine have us beat. The Minneapolis/Saint Paul combination took the #1 and #4 spots. We in Corpus Christi were barely edged out by Fort Wayne for the bottom spot. What I’m I talking about? A report in USA Today on the recent Men’s Health article identifying the smartest and dumbest cities in the country.

Smartest

• 1. Minneapolis
• 2. Boston
• 3. Denver
• 4. St. Paul
• 5. Seattle

Dumbest

• 1. Fort Wayne, Ind.
• 2. Corpus Christi, Texas
• 3. Laredo, Texas
• 4. Las Vegas
• 5. Newark

Jim and the Gang had fun with it this morning, and spoke with the morning talk-show host in Fort Wayne to compare notes.

How do you determine the dumbest and smartest cities in the USA? Matt Marion of Men’s Health says criteria include:

• Bachelor’s degrees per capita
• Residents’ SAT scores
• State creativity scores (patents per capita, for instance) as assessed by Catalytix and the Richard Florida Creativity Group
• Number of universities
• Number of Nobel Prize winners for physics and medicine born within city limits

Note: Not all criteria are weighted equally

Hmmm. I wonder what the weighting criteria were. How many cities have Nobel Laureates? Boston has both MIT and Harvard–I would guess they have a leg up on that one. Of course, they have Ted Kennedy and John Kerry to balance that just a little. Why just physics and medicine? How about Mathematics?

We have only one university, but I doubt there are many other cities of our size with more.

We have some discussion going on right now regarding schools, so the degree and SAT criteria could be significant. All in all, it is a topic for lighthearted banter more than anything else. Perhaps I’ll build my own survey and see what kind of rating I can develop. I can assure you my top five list would include only cities in Texas. Boston might hold all five of the bottom spots on their own.

Ann has an excellent monologue on watching the inauguration. She gives Wolf Blitzer his due (Is there a less knowledgeable reporter on TV?) and has some wonderful insights.

One of the things that disturbed me was that since Kennedy’s assasination, an American President is sheltered heavily for protection. It is probably a good idea with so many lunatics out there wanting to be noticed, but it is really a shame that someone like Bush, who apparently loves personal contact with people, cannot take the chance that the next hand he shakes holds a weapon.

I intend to read the speech over and over and try to compare it to others of the past. I think the emphasis on freedom and liberty has some elites in the world a bit concerned.

Anyone heard from Kim Jong-Il lately?

No, I’m not talking about the rumors spread around Austin that Rick Perry had a homosexual affair. I’m talking about Kinky Friedman, who will officially throw his hat into the ring for Governor in 2006.

Kinky is confirmed to appear on MSNBC’s ‘Imus Show’ on February 3rd, from 7AM to 8AM (CST), to announce his candidacy for the governorship. Billy Joe Shaver will give an invocation prior to Kinky’s announcement.

The announcement will be made in front of the Alamo, then Kinky will take the cameras to the bar at the Menger Hotel, where Asleep At the Wheel and Sweet Mary’s Blazing Bows, our group of children fiddlers, will join Kinky for more on-air fun. More surprises and guests are expected.

For those of you unfamiliar with Kinky, check his website. He is a lover of animals, proprietor of Kinkajou Records, writer of books and regular articles for the national magazine of Texas, and authentic Texas character.

“I’m an Independent, which is the party of George Washington, Teddy Roosevelt, Sam Houston, and Davy Crockett.”

Kinky already has his platform delineated:

Legalize casino gambling to fund education

Abolish political correctness “We didn’t get to be the Lone Star state by being politically correct”

Take a good look at death row. “We need to make sure that we’re not putting innocent people to death, which I believe we are”

Outlaw the de-clawing of cats

Bring young people into his administration. “Young people are less corrupt. They are the future of Texas ; it’s theirs to win or lose.”

And he promises nothing that cannot be accomplished, including bringing new ideas to Austin from around the State.

I’m a Jew, I’ll hire good people.

I’m a fan and intend to get a campaign bumper sticker when I travel to Austin for my grandchild’s birth in a week or two.

(Wallace pointed me in the right direction)

I eased off on the spam controls this morning because a couple of people emailed that the control prevented them from commenting on posts. Lo and behold, I immediately got five spam comments. So, the block is back. I’ll try a different approach if I get a chance to install it today.

****UPDATE****

This whole comment spam issue is problematic because it causes some consternation for me and some of my readers. Both of my email addresses which I used for notification of new comments have either shut down or now block anything coming from the site due to overloads. That is frustrating because I depended on the notification to let me know when a new comment was posted, especially for comments on posts which have moved down the list on my page. I enjoy reading comments, and respond any time I think someone expects it based on their comment. But I’m sure some of you think I’m ignoring you and your opinion. Trust me, I don’t ignore your opinions. And I enjoy the back and forth, even if some days I’m too busy to respond.

Let’s face it. None of us has all the answers. But together we can come up with most of them! All I can do is ask for your patience.

****UPDATE 2****

I deactivated the spam blocker that was giving people problems and added one which requires entering a code. I must warn you that sometimes the code is difficult to read. If you have doubts, copy your comment and see that it goes through before discarding it just so you won’t have to retype, or simply give up thoughts of commenting.

If this is an annoyance, let me know.