Open Note to Retailers...Dedicated to Guitar Center

So, it appears in our spare time (between 2-3a), we're going to take up electric guitar. We decided that Guitar Hero is an absolute waste of space, we can push buttons, let's learn a craft. T has an old one that's he's taken apart and is going to need a lot of work, and I don't have one at all, so we decided to do our homework and get some gear.

Imagine the glee when we found that Guitar Center is running tax day specials, (since we'd have to purchase, at minimum 2 guitars and an amp) that we could get up to $100 off our order, because hobbies ain't cheap, bitches. Well, decent musical instruments aren't anyway. I played bassoon for over a decade; ever price one of those things? Hint: you could buy a car.

Note to retailers, if you run a sale, then exclude everything from such sale, it's not a sale, but a gimmick. Exactly ONE of my items qualified. They had a note on their website that if you had exclusions, call them. So, I'm thinking, given the size of this order since this stuff is excluded, you might cut me a little break, yeah?

HELL NO. Basically, the Customer Service Rep told me that once she keyed in everything (manually), there might be specials that aren't online advertised. So, I asked, "you're not going to make me redo this order manually with you, and spend 20 minutes out of my life before you tell me there are no special deals, when I can just do this one I've already got online in a couple of minutes?" She assured me, "defnitely not", that there are deals that they can't run online.

The short of it, is that she lied. I spent 20 minutes doing a phone order, there were no special deals, and the thanks I got was some nice young lady trying to upsell me on extended warranties. No little 5-10% discount or whatever because the order was a biggun or anything. Just a "fuck you very much, what's your credit card number?" Actually, she was totally nice, I'm just pretty dissatisfied with Guitar Center right now.

So, what was on special? Well Roland (excluded) would allow some obscure synthesizer to be sold on the promotion. Basically, a lot of back stock shit nobody wants is on sale. They're running a deceptive special and I just wanted to take my 5 minutes and let people know.

Try Musician's Friend (their tax day special is a bit of a gimmick as well) or One Music Square. The latter is a small town shop out of Huntsville who will match any advertised price. Anything but Guitar Center, because right now, as far as I'm concerned, Guitar Center is stupid and sucks balls.

Colander Cheese

So, Saturday was our annual pilgrimage to the Texas Renaissance Festival. As usual, we walked around, drank copious amounts, ate fried foods, and bought home decor. Now I have to figure out how to mount swords in the art niches in the rotunda.

As a new feature this year, the RenFest will sell you a bottle of wine so as you wander aimlessly you can swill wine. J took advantage of the offer and spent most of the day sipping on Chocovine. I remained resolute in my desire to drink beer, so she got out of there far cheaper for the day on drinks.

As usual, I wore my shirt giving out free fashion advice to the sartorially challenged. The staff working the RenFest tends to like my shirt. The other patrons? Not so much. The shirt also led to the best line of the day: "I now know what 30 pounds of cottage cheese in a colander looks like."

Also amusing was the young gentleman who wants all of you to know: a bodice is not a shirt. Please wear a shirt, any shirt, under your bodice. Nobody wants to see me in a bodice, shirt or not, but I pass this information along regardless.

We also learned there is a RenFest outside of Austin. We will be examining our schedules and seeing if we can make that work. After all, we drive to Waxahachie every year for Scarborough. Surely we can make it to Austin for a day.

We may go back. So if you're at TRF later this season and see some drunk guy in a kilt wearing a snide t-shirt, it just might be me.

Shock The Vote 2010

So, early voting in Montgomery County starts today. Get your vote on here, if you are inclined to vote early.

As always, I will try to convince you of the correct way to vote. Based on historical evidence and election results, most of you will ignore me. Whether or not that's good is subject to debate. I will point out things wouldn't be any worse had you followed my advice.

My rules of thumb this year: vote against the incumbent and against donks. Now, this may not leave you much to vote for, but many races in Montgomery County have alternate selections (read that as LP) on the ballot. Review and consider your choices.

I'm going to highlight a few notable races and leave you to exercise my rules on the rest. First off is US Representative for District 8. Kevin Brady is the incumbent. Kevin Brady voted for TARP, therefore he should get sent home to contemplate his sins. I'm reasonably sure Kent Hargett will be no better on the subject of fiscal restraint. I know a lot of hardcore efenants have problems with libertarians in general and the LP in specific. However, if you send back to Congress anybody who voted for TARP, next time push comes to shove they'll spend another couple hundred billion dollars of your money. I can guarantee any libertarian that manages to get into office ain't voting for half the stupid crap the efenants and donks have managed to pass off as necessary. Vote for Bruce West.

Next up: Governor of the State of Texas. Vote for Rick Perry again, and keep getting what you've been getting. Sweet. Vote for Bill White and get yet another donk with no concept of fiscal restraint and a penchant for interesting accounting. There's a great idea, on both counts. Again, I advise you all to try LP.

I will now take a moment to advise you on the tactical issue of voting LP. If you efenants in the audience really do feel like a donk may win in a close race, feel free to vote GOP yet again. I only want you to do so in the full and certain knowledge the GOP will not change if you do. If you continue to vote for the GOP when they misbehave, they'll continue to misbehave. A sharp uptick in the LP numbers will send a signal to the GOP that something is wrong, and they need to recalibrate. Incentives matter, and the GOP needs to learn they can get unelected right quick if they continue to be the party of less big government.

Moving slightly further down ballot, David Dewhurst can choke on a bucket of fail. I'd like to say I don't care who is the Lt. Governor as long as ain't him, but I'd be lying. There's a Green Party candidate in this race. A dead weasel is a better choice for elected office than anyone who runs as a Green.

Most of the other down ballot races I'm not incensed enough to berate you over. I note CISD has several positions open, and they are contested. Here's the relevant summaries if you live in CISD.

As always, be kind to your poll workers and if you don't bother to educate yourself, stay home.

Annual POA Meeting 2010

So, the prettier, politer half of YPS and I went to the annual POA Board meeting last night. Really, the Board should sell drinks at these things. It would be a way to help out the budget and make the meetings more bearable. The Board should also see about holding the meetings in a place with some lights, too. People were, no joke, using flashlights to read the programs. Whoever designed the auditorium at Oak Ridge High apparently felt lights weren't necessary.

Anyhow, the usual suspects were in attendance. Brandi Leal, some other PCMI minion, the social planner (Jennifer?), Linda Houston, Rick Gadd, Greg Grant, and Roy Hailey. I guess Bliss Roberts resigned from the board, since she wasn't there. As always, our fearless leader Al Brende didn't show up. They also had the new MoCo deputy who is our contracted patrol leader.
The big news: meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Greg Grant got booted off the board. Sebastien Moulin and Kenneth Brown are now our resident board members. Kenneth has been involved in the community as Traffic Safety Chair ever since we moved here. Now that I can associate a face to a name, I've seen Sebastien at just about every meeting I've attended, so he's obviously involved as well. Whether or not they'll do a good job is the next question. If not, we can boot them next year.

Of course, given the Board is still controlled by Land Tejas, I'm quite sure there's a hard limit to what Sebastien and Kenneth can accomplish if Al and his minions are against it. In any event, I wish them well, right up until they try to do something I don't like. Then I will call for their removal from the Board, banishment from polite society, and ostracization from the community. If it comes to that, any of you who might be members of polite society or the community shall have to let me know how that works out.

Greg gave a lovely little speech about everything he had done for the community, and it may all be true. I dunno. Given the crappy summary notes the Board puts out for meeting minutes, you'd never be able to tell. However, he flat out admitted he doesn't answer emails. I think his lack of response may have killed his reelection. People may accept that nothing can be done about a situation, but they don't like feeling their concerns are ignored. I get a sense a lot of residents don't feel anybody listens to them. Perhaps our new resident members will do a better job at communicating with the rest of us. Again, we shall see.

What was more interesting to me was the budget numbers presented. The subdivision has run in the red every single year since the community was built. Maybe I'm dumb, but this indicates a problem to me. You can't run any organization over the long term with continual deficits unless you're the federal government. Last time I checked, we weren't. We're also supposed to be maintaining a reserve fund to pay for the expenses we're bound to face in the future for things like road maintenance and clubhouse maintenance. I asked about it. We have nothing in our reserve fund, we owe our builder 200 large, and the Board is out spending money on speed bumps. This makes no sense to me, and the snide dismissal by Brandi does absolutely nothing to endear her to me.

Our budget is the biggest problem we, as a community, face and nobody seems to be doing anything about it. Instead, everybody demands funding of their little pet issue and stubbornly resists any cuts to the pet while insisting everything else be discarded. It doesn't help that we're still $500K short from all the dues we should be collecting. Something has to give, and sooner rather than later. I don't want my assessments to be raised every single year because the Board is incapable of managing our money responsibly. Since Al and his employees run the Board, I'm pretty much blaming Al and Land Tejas for this one. They built a bunch of amenities that are expensive to maintain, and then set the assessments too low to adequately cover them and a reserve fund. I guess it's easier to pitch your nice, shiny community if it has low assessments.

I also blame Al for the people who won't stop bitching about the golf course. Yeah, Al gave himself a revenue stream for his golf course out of our POA dues. Yes, it was sleazy and unethical, but we got it stopped and it's over. Unless you can figure out a way to make Houston National Golf Club give us our money back, have a cup of STFU and let it go.

We also spent a whole bunch of time listening to people nattering about speed bumps. People are for them, people are against them, they're too high, they're effective, they're not effective. Whatever. Somebody explain to me how an organization that can't adequately fund ongoing operations can find the money to install speed bumps. I'm not seeing it. You can desire speed bumps all you want, but you need to figure out how to pay for them. I don't see where the POA has the money.

I'd comment on what Officer Friendly had to say, but he rambled so much I'm not entirely sure. Something about double edged swords, and gangs, and how he drives his own truck around to be super-ninja cop or something. He was marginally more coherent than a head trauma patient, but only just.

I'm beginning to feel these meetings are more or less political theatre to keep the residents partially mollified. Al and his cronies are going to do the minimum possible to keep the subdivision an attractive marketing opportunity until they can close it out. Once they hand over the POA, we'll still have the same budget problems, but it'll be our problem and we'll have to raise assessments or slash services. The future looks pretty bleak from where I'm sitting.

Meditations on Mayhem

So, yesterday I had to show at the courthouse in bustling, scenic downtown Conroe for an abortive attempt at jury duty. Apparently, everybody knew there was not going to be court yesterday except for the dullard who sent all us prospective jurors an email on Saturday. A a result, I basically got a free day off work. Both woo and hoo.

Anyhow, the court is picky about which items you can bring into the building with you. I figured the .45, the pocket knife, and the big multitool were no-gos. I forgot about the smaller implements on my keychain.

The tiny Leatherman that lives on my keychain was unacceptable. I had to walk back to the truck and drop it in the glove box.

On the other hand, (clockwise from left), an Atwood Prybaby, a County Comm Peanut, a Craftsman 4 way screwdriver, and a P-38 were all admitted with no comments or complaints.

Now, I'm not doing anything but making idle speculation here. If I were inclined to commit some form of property damage or injury to personnel during my time in the building, I don't see what the point was. I can inflict as much, if not more, damage on someone with the Prybaby as I can with the Squirt, and I don't need to open it up. Between the three tools and the lighter, I figure there's all the fun you deserve to have in a secured area. I can disassemble just about anything that doesn't require a wrench, and then set the joint on fire.

I am constantly baffled and amazed at the feeble minded nonsense that passes for security in this country. I'm also a tad disgruntled that the county asked me to show up, and then made me empty my pockets of almost everything that might be useful in an emergency. If I'm to be trusted with deciding the fate of my fellow citizens, why won't you trust me with a pocket knife?

Disintermediation Strikes Again

So, Terry Lowry has come up on our radar again. This time, he's trying to claim being a precinct chair means you have to pass Terry's litmus test before you can be considered to be a real Republican or some shit. Doesn't this get shot down every time it comes up at the state convention? Shouldn't that be a clue? I have to admit, having watched and participated in way too many "No True Scotsman" debates with my fellow libertarians, watching the Republican party engage in the same pointless wrangling is pretty funny.

What's even funnier is watching Mr. Lowry desperately try to cling to his power and influence. He's very obviously still working off of the old media model. He had a platform, both through his radio show and his newsletter, that was not available to most people. Through the use of his platform, he could influence things. So candidates, attracted by his platform, would come to him and try to get their message out. It's the only reason he has any use at all to politicians. At some point, he apparently began using his platform as a bargaining chip to get money to continue his newsletters. Right there, his credibility went out the window.

What he's failed to realize is that his role as a gatekeeper is dwindling every election cycle. Why does J. Random Candidate need to deal with Terry Lowry? Mr. Candidate has the internet. Anybody with any snap who is involved in local politics has web access. So J. Random can bypass Terry completely and put his message to the electorate directly. What value is Terry Lowry adding to the process? If you answered "none", you'd be correct. There are ways he could add value, as he does appear to have some level of access most people don't have, but he doesn't grasp how to use the access positively.

Like most old media types, he hasn't figured out in the brave new networked world your credibility is the only thing you have to offer your readers. If you've already sold your credibility, you've got nothing. Yeah, the information presented may be true and useful, but if your readers don't trust you, they won't come back. You've got to be a lot more upfront about your conflicts of interest and your support for candidates than Mr. Lowry has ever been.

There's been just absolute bucketfuls of information on this around the web and in print, and Terry Lowry has ignored all of it. So, he deserves to go the way of the dodo. I hope he's enjoyed his run at being influential, because it's coming to close.

Publicity

So, the afore-mentioned Michael Berry read part of yesterday's blog post on air. Which is cool and all, as I'm glad to be making a contribution to the public discourse. However, a link or something on his blog might have been nice.

UPDATE: The audio is at this link for a download. It's at about 1:15 in. Go here to get the streaming audio. Way to snip the entire argument, Michael.

Legitimacy

So I didn't listen to Debra Medina on Glenn Beck live this morning, unlike J. Instead I got the endless replay from Michael Berry on the way home. Apparently Mr. Berry has his knickers in a twist because Ms. Medina answered "I don't know" when asked if she thought the US government had any involvement with the 9/11 attacks. Apparently the only correct answer to the question is "no" or else Glenn Beck will mock you and the former city councilman will pile on.

First off, the irony of Glenn Beck mocking someone for not believing the official version of events should be lost on no one. How much time did Beck spend asking questions about a birth certificate? None, right?

Secondly, let's discuss some of the more glorious moments in the history of the United States. Shall we list the times the FBI illegally spied on citizens for expressing different political opinions? All 2000+ of them over 15 years? There are the multiple documented cases of the FBI killing citizens for no real good reasons. Fred Hampton and Vicki Weaver might have something more to say about that if they hadn't been shot dead. We could also discuss some of the more gruesome medical experiments the government decided to conduct on its citizens. Maybe I'm cynical, but given the government's past willingness to visit barbaric indignities upon innocent citizens and then try to cover it up I can see how someone might not believe the feds when they claim innocence.

Finally, I'll ask a reasonable doubt question. There were, in 2001, approximately 1.6 million federal employees. Neither Glenn Beck or Michael Berry or anybody else can say with absolute certainty none of those employees had anything to do with 9/11. If they did, they sure as hell wouldn't admit guilt after the fact, now would they? The evidence would have been shredded before close of business that day.

Now, I don't have any good evidence the government had any direct involvement. I don't think they did; however, I'm not willing to rule the possibility out either. I don't know if there was direct involvement or not, but apparently that's not an acceptable answer if you want to be a "legitimate" Republican candidate. Not being a Republican, it's not really my problem.

Now, admittedly, I'm a cynical bastard with a low opinion of the political process. Given that, you'll excuse me if I think this is yet another attempt to protect the mainstream candidates from insurgents outside the traditional party power structure. Team affiliation trumps principle for too many people anymore. It is more important to elect someone with the right letter after their name than someone who shares your beliefs and principles. I wish the GOP in Texas the best of luck with this approach, but I would think the entire Tea Party phenomenon has pointed out a significant subset of the electorate is sick of it.

Votinatin'

Once again, the voters of Texas are being asked to poke around in the dog's breakfast that is the state constitution and fix some of the screw-ups from days gone by. As a handy service, I have compiled a list of how you should vote if you are crazy enough to take my advice on politics. My list only covers the Amendments on the ballot because out in the sticks where I live, that's all that's on the ballot.

1 - Against. I was unaware cities and counties possessed military bases. If buffer areas are needed, the entity responsible for the base needs to handle the problem, not the surrounding jurisdiction.
2 - For. If I'm living in my house, it should be taxed as my house, not taxed on the theoretical value if my house was an office building.
3 - Against. I fail to see why things being done differently in Harris County vs. Blanco County is something the state needs to worry about.
4 - For. I'm just slightly for this. I could be convinced otherwise by a strong argument.
5 - For. It's an adjustment to the reality on the ground. If you need more people than you can get, what are you supposed to do?
6 - Against. You want more bonds, come back and ask for them again.
7 - For. If there's no conflict between National Guard service, why would there be for the State Guard?
8 - Undecided. While in theory, I am fine with what the state is doing, I am uneasy at the state providing resources to handle what should be a purely federal function. Once the state starts down the path, the fed may expect it.
9 - Against. Beaches are so goddamned important we should strip property rights away from people based on the whims of the weather? You're either for private property or you're not. If the state wants public beaches, the Lege needs to pony up some cash and buy the land.
10 - For. Two year terms essentially become endless campaigns.
11 - For. Given my views on eminent domain, I'll take whatever limits I can get.

Further analysis can be found here and here.

If you have candidates, I certainly hope you've done some research on them before today. If not, stay home. We have enough ignuts making policy without the rest of the ignuts encouraging them.

And as always, be nice to your election workers.

Traffic Light Solution

So, as I mentioned last week, the county will at some point be putting up a stop light at the intersection of Rayford and Legends Ranch. People have been complaining for some time about the apparent lack of progress. I think I may have a solution.

Monday morning, shortly before 7:15 AM, someone t-boned a school bus at the intersection of Birnham Woods and Riley Fuzzel. By 6 PM Tuesday night, the county had put stop signs up at the intersection. I was quite surprised, since normally it takes a bit more time to get MoCo to do anything.

So, if you really want the county to act on the traffic light, run into a school bus there. It seems to get them moving quickly.

The Pains Of Community

So, there was a POA Town Hall Meeting last night at the intermediate school. I'm still vague on the distinction between an intermediate school and a junior high. Since the two complexes are next to each other, I assume there is one. Anyhow, the POA situation is not changed terribly since last I posted on the events o' the subdivision.

Last night's meeting was attended by Brandi Leal, our PCMI manager, Sarah Hudson, who also works with PCMI, Roy Hailey, our POA attorney, and Linda Houston and Rick Gadd, two of our non-resident board members. Not in attendance were Bliss Roberts and Greg Grant, our two resident board members. As always, Al Brende wasn't there, either. Has anyone actually ever seen him? I've been to several of the POA events in the last year and he never shows up. In the cheap seats out of front of them were about 44 residents, give or take a few.

The most important news: The POA is still broke. So far this year, we've spent just over a million dollars. There's $44K left in the operating account. I sincerely hope much of the expenses for the year are paid upfront, or else there's a problem. My math suggests our burn rate is right at $112,800 a month. As a side note, that seems a trifle excessive. In any event, $44K isn't enough to cover three months at that rate.

The attorney explained (again) what is being done to collect the money we're owed by delinquent builders and homeowners. Unfortunately, you simply can't get blood from a stone. If the entity in question does not have money, you can't get it from them no matter how many nasty letters you send. Having said that, the POA is foreclosing on 32 houses in the next two months. As builders sell properties, they are paying the POA the past due amounts. I guess if you want the POA to be current, you should be extolling the virtues of our humble community to everyone you meet. Push that real estate, folks!

We are going to go overbudget paying for the constables who spend 4 hours wandering aimlessly through our subdivision. So far we've spent $31K of the $35K budgeted for the year. The more numerically inclined among you can see that's not going to work. Given we're so broke, why we continue to pay for a Constable to do... do... okay, I'll be honest. I have no idea what the hell the constables do for their 4 hours in the subdivision besides hang out at the Splash Pad scoping out MILFs. Since the Pad is closed for the fall, they won't be doing even that. I know they're not enforcing traffic laws. I'm sorry, but giving the more scatter-brained among us a warm fuzzy feeling when they see a police car just isn't worth $35K.

On that note, we pay $160K a year for the guards at the front gate. That's guard service alone, not any of the infrastructure to support the guards. I have no idea if that's excessive or not.

So,the next topic of conversation was the pool hours. Let me be upfront with you: I don't care. I don't go to the pool. I don't know what the hours were. I barely read what the proposed hours are. Some of you, quite obviously, care a whole lot. In fact, I get the impression that one or two of you could give a rat's ass about anything other than making sure the pool will be open when you want to swim. Here's an observation: the pool hours are always going to be one of the first things to get axed when the POA goes broke because pool hours are one of the few discretionary items in the budget . Again, other than my desire to not see my assessment increase and to see the POA remain solvent, I don't care. Fight amongst yourselves about when the pool stays open and get back with me.

Anyhow, if you really like to swim, the pool will be open from 5AM to 10Am throughout the fall for you to swim at your own risk. I note, however, that the pool is not heated. It's going to be a wee bit chilly come January. Having owned a pool until recently, and having had to jump in it in January, I can verify this from personal experience. I ain't that hardcore. More power to you if you are. Go sign the waiver at the clubhouse and get on with yo' bad self.

After finances and pool hours was the best part of the meeting: Open Forum. Some of what I have mentioned above actually came out in the Open Forum. You know what an open forum at a POA meeting is? It's an opportunity to bitch. Whee! Or, for those of us who don't really have any complaints, it's an opportunity to see what everybody else is complaining about this month.

First up is the most annoying complaint: Spring Trails property values are apparently higher than ours. Let me be the first to say: so fucking what? Don't come to the meeting and complain about a fact. This is like coming to the meeting and complaining that Riley Fuzzel is only two lanes past Rayford. Yeah, and your point would be? There's nothing the POA Board, or anybody else, can do to magically make property values in Legends Ranch increase. A quick run through some of the builder websites and the properties for sale at Spring Trails tells me houses start out priced higher in that subdivision. I can buy a similarly sized home in Spring Trails for $100K more than I can buy one in Legends Ranch. Of course they're gonna be worth more on resale! They were worth more in the first place. If it offends you that much, (and since this is the second meeting I've heard this complaint, it must), sell your house and move to Spring Trails. Quit complaining about the real estate market. It's not susceptible to change by the POA Board no matter how much you bitch about it.

There was also an amazing amount of discussion about how other people keep their lawn. I'm sure none of the good citizens in attendance ever get letters about their lawn care. Well, except for me and the guy that admitted he gets them. Not being at all anal-retentive about lawn care, I just can't get fired up over this issue like some of y'all do. Having looked over the deed restrictions carefully, I'm willing to bet money a large number of residents are in violation of the landscaping guidelines and don't even know it. I'm equally as willing to bet Brandi isn't checking for some of the things in the deed restrictions. It seems to me if you keep your lawn mowed, nobody cares. Well, that's not entirely true, but it's a good rule of thumb. Some of your neighbors care a whole lot about the way you keep your lawn. Some people apparently don't have a lot to do except find fault with their neighbors.

While we're on the subject of lawn care, let's discuss untended builder lots. The POA is not going to force mow the builder lots and homes. I know some of you will be unhappy, but it's the right decision. If the POA force mows, the lawn service has to be paid. Remember the part above about the POA being broke? Yes, the money can eventually be recovered when the property sells. But in the meantime, the POA is out the money, and with things as tight as they are, that's not an optimal situation. The POA can't afford to kick out $17K once a month to force mow and wait some indefinite period to get the money back.

The traffic light at the front entrance came up again. We're on the list and have a nice day. After the goatfuck that was the traffic petition, the Commissioners' Court isn't inclined to do any favors for us. So someday, we'll get a traffic light out there. One person in attendance thought the way to get the traffic light was to call and complain to the Commissioners. Hmm. Maybe I'm missing the subtle nuances of the political process, but isn't BS like that what got them pissed off at the subdivision in the first place? I'm thinking continuing to antagonize the Court isn't likely to win us friends at the county. We may want them to think kindly of us at some point.

Some enterprising soul also asked about speed bumps. Apparently, speed bumps are in the budget for next year. These will not be the cheesy little bolted POS ones, either. Brandi is talking full on strips of asphalt and everything. Now I'll have to go back and look, but I seem to recall the survey on speed bumps from one of the community newsletters came back with a resounding NO. If that's the case, why are we going to spend money on something the residents don't want?

There were more complaints and blather, but at some point I had enough and left. Frankly, listening to people bitch about mind-bogglingly trivial bullshit gets old fast for me. Shockingly, I'm not a customer service kind of guy. Instead, I'd like to propose a good rule of thumb for these meetings. I know everybody thinks their problem is the most important one in the whole world. Surprisingly, the rest of us don't much care about your petty individual problem. If your issue doesn't affect a significant portion of the rest of the community, a town hall meeting probably isn't the time and place to bring it up. Brandi and the rest of the Board have contact info posted on the official website. Call or email them and bitch instead of airing your personal problems in front of the rest of us.

Community Involvement

So, the taller and grumpier residents of YPS Manor went out to see about the concerns of our fellow neighbors and community residents here in Legends Ranch. I even took notes! So in my attempt to be more of a social creature and less of a misanthropic hermit, I'm actually going to try to be polite. It didn't work so well last time, but today's a new day.

Anyhow, a group of concerned residents are not satisfied with the POA and how it's being run and the response to their concerns. So, they all got together and decided to organize the residents to try to pressure the POA into compliance.

As a side digression, one of the problems is the current makeup of the POA. Our POA, since the subdivision is not completely built out yet, is still controlled by the developer. The developer has different goals and concerns than the actual residents. This is not, in my opinion, something susceptible to change quickly. Best option is to wait until the remaining 200+ houses are sold. Tedious, but the alternatives are time-consuming and expensive. Expensive, as we shall soon see, is an issue for the residents.

Anyhow, the concerned residents have two major issues. The first issue strikes me as legitimate, the second one far, far less so. Issue the first is the finances of our POA. Some numbers were tossed out yesterday that frankly, looking at the financial statements posted on the web, don't make any sense. I'll have to do some digging and see WTF is really going on here. However, if we are collectively ponying up over a million dollars a year to the POA, the POA had damned sure better be exercising some fiduciary responsibility. I have no problem with anyone who wants to understand the disbursement of the monies, especially with an eye to improving how the money is spent.

The next major, and to my mind illegitimate, gripe is the traffic petition. Mommy & Daddy Busybody can't keep their precious snowflakes out of the street. Polite, dammit, polite. Let me try that again.

Some of my fellow residents are concerned about the lack of traffic enforcement within the subdivision. Since the roads in the subdivision are privately owned and maintained, the county has no authority to enforce the Texas Transportation Code. Apparently, this is unacceptable to certain folks in the subdivision. So they have started a petition to allow the county to come into the subdivision and enforce the law. Anybody want to guess my position on this? Anybody?

Man, you people aren't any fun. Coming as a complete shock to all my loyal readers, I think this is the worst idea I've heard since...well, truthfully, since the n00b opened his yapper last time. Repeat along with me one of the painful lessons of history: if you pay the Danegeld, you never get rid of the Dane. If the County Commissioner's Court accepts our petition, they will decide whether or not we pay for the privilege of allowing the cops in to write us tickets. If they agree, we will also never be free of the agreement. Gee, a commitment to help fund the county that we can never break and have no control over! Wow, this sounds like a spectacular idea! Umm, not so much, thanks. How about no? Does no work for everybody?

Now, maybe I missed it in amongst the comedy over at the Yahoo group, but I haven't seen anybody provide me with any statistics that justify the need for traffic enforcement. I get a lot of anecdotes about people not stopping and driving too fast. Since I doubt many of these people have radar guns, I have to question how they know how fast people are driving. Since we're apparently paying a fair sum of money to have constables sit around and not enforce the traffic laws for 4 hours every night, maybe they could gather some data on how many vehicles they see breaking the law relative to the total number of vehicles. Why not? They're apparently keeping a list of the "problem drivers" in the subdivision. If they're already doing the work, let's see the data.

Frankly, the meeting last night was not to "provide information". The meeting was to convert everybody to the positions the organizers held. The information presented was cherry picked to portray the organizers' position in the best possible light. Anyone presenting an opposing viewpoint was dismissed as "ill-informed", even when the organizers had nothing but hand waving to support their positions. All in all, I have to say we got off to a rousing start at engendering bad feelings and creating acrimony. If this is what a POA is good for, I'm glad I've missed out all these years.

Off The Lawn

Houston, in a vain attempt to make the city nicer, kinda sorta thinks about banning cars parked in your lawn.

Two observations come immediately to mind. One, you've got to get a slight super-majority of neighborhood residents to go for it. Good luck with that. Two, I don't see anything that would prohibit what some of the craftier residents of Pasadena have done. I've seen several houses in Pasadena where they paved the entire front yard. I don't think Houston has quite thought through their clever plan in that regard.

I'll insert the standard libertarian disclaimer about the government shouldn't be involved. I'm too lazy today to make any argument for or against the proposal besides pointing out the practical issues.

Governor Kay?

So, we got the mail inviting J to donate money to the exploratory committee for Kay Bailey Hutchison, who is thinking about fixin' to start runnin' for Governor. She was a mediocre senator, so I suppose she'd make a mediocre governor. Would she be better or worse than the current aggie with the shellaced hair we've got in Austin now? Who knows? I vote for slightly worse, with an off chance of better.

The problem with practical politics is the people that end up running for office. The best and the brightest don't get involved, only the venal, the busybodies, and the power-hungry.

In any event, since Rick Perry has a lock on the position for the moment, she'll have to beat him in the primary. The attempt and the campaign should make for some entertainment, which is really all I can hope for out of the whole mess. I'm certainly not going to get someone who is concerned about the creeping expansion of the state.

On the donk side, I notice one of the younger generation has signed up for "Bill White For Texas" on Facebook. I guess Bill White has decided he was such a success at straightening out Houston, he's gonna move on to Austin and fix the whole damn state. Funny, Houston doesn't seem fixed to me, just slightly less broken than when Lee P. was mayor. In any event, I don't think Bill White can win statewide. Of course, my predictions on these matters are notoriously flawed. I'll go with the complete opposite of what I really think: Kay takes the primary and Bill beats her in the general election. This way, I'm on the record as predicting the outcome should that circumstance come to pass. I'm also in there saying it's the opposite of what I think, so if goes differently, I can claim the actual outcome as my thoughts on the matter. I'll get the hang of this prognostication thing yet, if only by making so many predictions one of them has to come true.

Of course, the burning question now becomes: who gets the Senate seat? I guess we could also ask who gets to be Mayor of Houston, but that's definitely a booby prize by any stretch of the imagination.

One Sentence Review: 103.7 Jack FM

103.7 is the radio station you get when somebody with the last 40 years of Top 40 hits loaded on their MP3 player hits shuffle.

Bonded

Well, in yet another stunning repudiation of the YPS voting guide, all statewide amendments passed. Locally, I note the voters decided a new jail wasn't necessary, but everything else was. Despite our occasional reluctance to acknowledge the fact, Texans are, after all, Americans and Americans do love us some debt. I wonder how many people will be bitching later when taxes increase to pay off the nine billion dollars of debt just voted into being.

Total turnout for our precinct? 184, with 70-something early voting. I'll call it a round 260 people. This from a precinct of almost 4,000 registered voters. Statewide numbers look to be right at 12.6%, based on the Prop. 9 numbers and a registered voter count of 12.6 million in the state. The next time anybody says anything about democracy being the will of the people, I'm going to tell them to have a nice hot cup of STFU. 5% of the voting public managed to screw the rest of us into a 9 billion dollar IOU.

I'm bitter about democracy right now, so I'm going to go drink coffee and mutter to myself.

Schlock The Vote

So in a bizarre twist of events, our regular donk alternate election judge returned no paperwork for the upcoming election. The county called J for advice on who should be the alternate. J, in a fit of lunacy, gave them my name. So I am the alternate judge for the upcoming election. Everyone should hope J remains in good health, because otherwise I’ll be in charge. That never ends well. I have an admitted tendency to abuse power for my own amusement, and I have a really strange sense of humor.

Part of the judgeship involves going to the class on how to run the election. Important highlight: don’t use your cell phone or other wireless communications device within 100 feet of a voting booth. Aside from that, there was almost nothing of interest. Lowlights: the endless litany of stupid questions, the giggling bitch in front of me who kept loudly agreeing with the instructor.

Now, there are a number of constitutional amendments on the ballots this year. As I try to do before each election, I’ll give you the short summary of how you should vote to create the ideal world as imagined by me.

Prop. 1 – Yes. Angelo State doesn’t want to play with Texas State anymore. I sense a money grab as the root cause, but it’s the institutions fighting about their share of the pie. Sure, let ‘em go.
Prop. 2 – No. There’re plenty of sources of funding for education without going in the hole to provide more.
Prop. 3 – Yes. Anything to slow the rate of tax increases.
Prop. 4 – No. We want to borrow a billion dollars. For stuff. What kind of stuff? Just stuff. Yeah, I want a little better explanation of where a billion dollars is going.
Prop. 5 – No. I see sweetheart deals in the making.
Prop. 6 – Yes. I’m ambivalent, but it does lower some folks’ taxes.
Prop. 7 – Yes. In the absence of abolishing eminent domain, I’ll take this one.
Prop. 8 – Yes. They’re tweaking the home equity loan rules. I don’t have any heartburn with the changes.
Prop. 9 – Yes. They’ve paid.
Prop. 10 – Yes. Get rid of useless offices we don’t need anymore.
Prop. 11 – Yes. The weasels need to quit hiding.
Prop. 12 – No, no, no, no. The ignuts at TTC cannot be trusted with $5 billion. They have proven that point with the whole Trans Texas Corridor bullshit.
Prop. 13 – Yes. When we let you out on bail, you have to play nice or you go back to jail.
Prop. 14 – Yes. Avoid the expense of unnecessary turnover.
Prop. 15 – No. Somebody will fund cancer research if the state doesn’t.
Prop. 16 – No. The state needs to quit racking up debt for special projects.

Feel enlightened? Of course you do. Go forth and vote in accordance with my wishes. Failing that, just go vote.

Vacation Punishment

So we departed town and went to New Orleans for the weekend to celebrate our anniversary. Ate some food, drank some booze, bought some stuff, had a grand old time.

As punishment for my sins, I was rear-ended on the way into work this morning. Some asshat with a suspended driver's license and no insurance apparently wasn't paying enough attention to notice my truck was stopped. I am so less than thrilled.

CHL Lecture

So I was in municipal court yesterday, because I’m a lazy scofflaw. While I was there, the nice officer who serves as the bailiff was going over the rules of the court. The part that perked my ears up was when he mentioned CHLs and knives. I’m paraphrasing here, but his speech was essentially they aren’t allowed in the courtroom, so if you have them, take them back out to your car now. He followed up with the old “if I see them, it’ll be unpleasant” speech we’ve all heard at least once.

I find this a little bit odd since concealed carry in a courtroom is supposed to be a felony for us reg’lar folks. Of course, since I live in a dinky little town, court is held in the municipal auditorium. I don’t know if that affects the legalities in any way. It might not technically be a court until court is in session since it’s a multi-function venue? I dunno. Still, I thought it was an awfully laid back attitude to take about the issue.