2nd Thought
Ahead to the Past
Our most basic social programs are under attack.GRAYSON HARPER
Boy. Lately I’ve been having this eerie feeling of waking up in a strange place.
Ducking Out
Is Kay Granger hiding from tough questions?JENNIFER BRIGGS
I was two years old when, one morning before the rest of the family was awake, I stacked a couple of stools on top of one another so I could reach the Dippity-Do my sister kept on the top shelf of the dressing room — the extr...
Racism’s Echoes
It’s still influencing American politics.DAVE MCNEELY
A best-selling novel called The Help, set in Jackson, Miss., in 1962, is about the relationships between black maids and the white families they work for. Kathryn Stockett’s first novel has been made into a movie (see review ...
War on Sag
The baggy bottom boys are losing their grip.Eddie Griffin
Haven’t we been through this before? No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service. Even an irreverent shirtless, shoeless hippie from the 1960s got the message that you cannot walk into a five-star restaurant as if you were going to the be...
Leaving Afghanistan
GWYNNE DYERIt’s beyond satire. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, telling The New York Times what he had learned during his long tenure, explained that “I will always be an advocate in terms of wars of necessity. I am just much more...
Bombs Away
Perry should prepare for the fine-tooth comb.DAVE MCNEELY
After insisting for a year that he had no interest in running for president, Texas Gov. Rick Perry said a few weeks ago that he’s thinking about it.
Backsliding
Fort Worth schools just lost a lot of ground.Eddie Griffin
For a while there, things were looking good for education in this country — and even in Fort Worth.
Weapons of Mass Exploitation
Ravi BatraPrior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003, there was frenzied talk about WMDs — weapons of mass destruction. When it was later determined that Saddam Hussein possessed neither chemical nor nuclear weapons, the White Ho...
IffySwift Justice
An immodest proposal for tykes’ right to carry.E.R. BILLS
Oh boy, here we go again. Last month, a kindergartner carried a gun into a Houston elementary school, and it fired when he was trying to pull it out and show it off at lunch. There’s no mystery regarding what happened next: T...
Fiddling, Burning
Politicians are mugging while Texas’ future goes up in flames.DAVE McNEELY
The lobbyist walked out of the capitol, disgustedly shaking his head. “It’s the worst session I’ve ever seen,” said the lobbyist, a former legislator of more than a decade. “Everybody over there’s scared to death.