Ships and Planes and Deja Vu
Printed as an op-ed in the Austin American-Statesman under a different title, July 25, 2006.
View ArticleBig Brother in the Data Mines
All of the metadata sucked up by the NSA came from corporate servers, not our home computers. If we claim to fear Big Brother, it would be good to clarify his identity or, more important, for whom he...
View ArticleIn Praise of "Unruly MOBS"
Texas became an unlikely venue for a tactic that has quickly become known as "the people's filibuster." Between the redness of Texas and the arcane rules of the Texas Senate, it's impossible to...
View Article"FBIs" Face the Most Racism
I was honored this week by the Native American Journalists Association for this column.I don't normally post my Indian stuff here, unless I can tweak it to relate directly to the other 99 and 1/2...
View ArticleAgainst Liberty
It's said that opinions are like a certain part of the human anatomy in that everybody's got one.Equality is a value we honor.It does not follow that all opinions are equal.
View ArticleApportioning the Risk of Gun Ownership
The NRA claims that widespread gun ownership is not a substantial risk to people generally.If this is so, there's a way to structure the law based on that "truth" and to resolve the political standoff...
View ArticleUnfriendly Fire
The so-called war on terror has probably killed and maimed more people as "collateral damage" than as purposeful combatants. Then there is the collateral damage to US civil society.When President Bush...
View ArticleA Requium Rant for the Borderlands
Communities on the Texas-Mexico border used to co-exist in a state of economic symbiosis. The idea of requiring a passport to cross would have been laughable.Some of the economic activity did involve...
View ArticleBaptistville
When the Indian Nations were divided up for conversion among various flavors of missionary, the Baptists did not get the Cherokee Nation. The Methodists were invited to compete with the Presbyterians,...
View ArticleWendy Davis Ayes
Yes, I am singing in the Wendy Davis for Governor chorus.For one thing, the demise of Voting Rights Act enforcement makes her a marked woman. As I said to my friends when I ran for County Court at Law,...
View ArticleConfessions of a Presumed Terrorist
I was not raised with the anonymity of the big city. As a small town boy, I've had ample time now to reflect on the brave new world unleashed by the USA-PATRIOT Act.Russ Feingold, the only Senator...
View ArticleManaging Vice
If we don't manage vice, it will certainly manage us.The difficult policy decisions exist in a sea of hogwash, victimless crime defining one shore and sin defining the other. When policy gets blown...
View ArticleWhy I Can't Root for the Washington Team
When the National Science Foundation sent me the 2011 report on earned PhDs. I immediately headed for the graph that breaks down the numbers by race/ethnicity.Like all credentials, the PhD can...
View ArticleDisappointing a Fan
In retirement, I've become a paid op-ed columnist for Indian Country Today. I've been unable to land a similar gig anywhere near my home in Texas. Whether my inability to get a Texas gig is about...
View ArticleA Faculty E-mail
The names are stripped so I will not be responsible for breaching privacy.If you want the names, check with the NSA.PROFESSOR 2 had STUDENT in his summer 1 terrorism class and speaks highly about...
View ArticleA Personal View of Affirmative Action
My mail tells me that Indians, like most Americans, are conflicted about affirmative action, but have little idea what it means.The policy appears to have once more dodged a bullet in Fisher v....
View ArticleDreaming
I could not tell if I was dreaming.You know how it is. You wake up but something about reality doesn’t seem quite right and you think you might still be asleep but you can’t really tell?I stumbled out...
View ArticleAmerican Indians and Diversity
This term, the Supreme Court heard a case about affirmative action in university admissions, Fisher v. University of Texas, where my alma mater was on the side of diversity for a change...
View ArticleLet Me Take You on a Sea Cruise
"Coffee more...you want?" A young man, brown but of indeterminate nationality, is walking by with a carafe. My mind replies, Si, por favor, but I quickly realize I have not identified his accent and...
View ArticleThe Treaties in Our Dreams
Like most Indians who give thought to our relationship with the United States, I dream of Indian treaties as sacred promises or, at least, what the Constitution says in so many words: “all Treaties...
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