Mavs Win! The lead from the Oklahoman story: “Dirk Nowitzki scored 40 points, Jason Kidd hit the go-ahead 3-pointer with 40 seconds left in overtime, and the Dallas Mavericks overcame a 15-point deficit in the final 5 minutes of regulation to stun the Oklahoma City Thunder 112-105 on Monday night and take a 3-1 lead in the Western Conference finals.” What the story doesn’t reveal is that I, me, this guy called it. At 8:49, I tweeted the following to Kurt Watkins, cousin and campaign manager of DA Craig Watkins, because Kurt had expressed his disappointment at the early Mavs’ deficit: “@kurtwatkins Hush your mouth. The Mavs have withstood OKC’s run. First half will end Mavs down 6. They will win by as many. Gonna be sweet.” The Mavs actually did better than that in the first half. They went to the recess down by only 5. I adjusted accordingly, adding one point to the final score with this tweet at 9:13: “@kurtwatkins Sorry. End first half Mavs down only 5. Revised projection: Now they’ll win by 7.” Picture me, with my children asleep, running around my living room with my arms out, flying like Jet Terry.
Be Afraid of Tornadoes. This is a strange story — made even stranger by its placement behind the DMN paywall. The headline to David Flick’s effort is “Dallas’ Tornado-Free Year Could Unravel Quickly,” and the lead unfolds thusly: “In one of the nation’s deadliest years for tornadoes, the Dallas area — despite residing near the southern tip of Tornado Alley — has so far escaped. But the message from weather officials: Keep your guard up. … The tornado that struck Joplin, Mo., on Sunday only added to the 365 deaths already recorded in 2011, one of the deadliest years in decades. When the Joplin figures are added, the 2011 deaths will be about 10 times those caused by tornadoes all of last year. The recent devastation serves as a strong reminder that whenever the warning sirens sound, residents should seek shelter.” It’s pretty certain that Flick just jinxed us. Dude, there are some stories that don’t need to be localized.
Read This Jim Schutze Column. He’s crazy, yes. And he doesn’t command the respect he once did. But every so often, Jim Schutze writes something worth reading. Here’s why Michael Hinojosa’s departure from DISD is a good argument to torpedo Governor Rick Perry.
DMA Scores New Art. With help from the Menil Collection in Houston, the Dallas Museum of Art has done something it has never done before: gone Dutch on a major work of art. My take: if the DMA wanted to get to third base on Menil, it should have picked up the full tab.
9 comments
Amen to this one from William McKenzie
http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/columnists/william-mckenzie/20110523-william-mckenzie-school-trustees-deserve-scrutiny.ece#slcgm_comments_anchor
I wonder if anyone has looked into tornado notification systems to see if that has affected the number of deaths. Were people not paying attention? Or was there less notification because of inadequate forecasts or budget cuts for public warning systems? Or is it just bad luck?
Blaming Rick Perry for DISD woes seems to be a bit of a stretch, but hey, you gotta blame someone.
Dallas schools have been messed up pretty good for a long time.
This AM’s SportsCenter, when discussing the Thunder’s post game comments, had one of the best lines I’ve heard in a while, “Meanwhile, Kevin Durant sounded like someone just stole something out of his backpack.”
Re: #3
Prior to this Schutze column, the DO consensus in immediately preceding posts posts about Hinojosa seemed to conclude that he was a rat all by himself who had milked DISD for his own gain and now good riddance, don’t let the door hit you, etc. A prominent post featured Carla Ranger calling for Hinojosa to be booted out immediately.
I understand that Schutze despises Perry enough to use anything to bash him, including throwing his shoes at him all the way down there in Austin if he had the arm for it, but as yet I don’t understand how Perry caused Hinojoa to leave. The reporting is that Hijosa has grandkids nearby his new destination and that he gets to keep $180,000 from Texas in addition to his new salary and pension in Georgia.
See http://frontburner.dmagazine.com/2011/05/20/michael-hinojosa-turns-out-to-be-a-big-liar-has-pants-on-fire-ctd/
and
http://frontburner.dmagazine.com/2011/05/19/michael-hinojosa-turns-out-to-be-a-big-liar-has-pants-on-fire/
Maybe I just don’t get it, Tim, so maybe you can explain how anything Perry did caused anything Hinojosa did in his own self-interests, or how if Perry had done anything different, Hinojosa might have acted differently. As I recall, Hinojosa already knew everything we all know now about Perry when he accepted his contract extension and also when he decided to take the Georgia job instead.
That doesn’t mean you can’t like Perry or knock him anyway, just because. Of course, if you disagree with Schutze, you might be a racist, so be careful.
So we’re supposed to take a seriously a column (Schutze) which includes this line near the top:
“massive ethnic-cleansing-style deportation of Mexicans”
Speaking as someone who is actually pretty “pro-immigration” but understands the frustrations of those who have witnessed lax or willful non-compliance of existing laws for decades, using the same sort of “ethnic-cleansing” language one would have used to describe what the Serbs did to the Bosnians, for example, to those who advocate stricter enforcement of immigration laws is simply vile. A non-hack columnist would find a way to criticize, and criticize harshly, those with whom he disagrees without invoking the language of ethnic-based mass murder.
So I have no idea if Schutze ever made a salient point about Hinojosa since I gave up after that line. Somehow, though, I doubt it.
This graf:
“Governor Rick Perry and the Tea Party are charging ahead with an agenda aimed at the destruction of public education in Texas and massive ethnic-cleansing-style deportation of Mexicans.”
So, is Schutze arguing race has something to do with Hinojosa’s departure? That somehow he and his family are targets of the deportation effort? I honestly don’t see any reason to introduce race into this discussion about education — except of course to foment hatred of duly-elected lawmakers and reinforce Schutze’s belief that Texans, especially Tea Partiers, are racist.
Meanwhile, I have to ask whether Schutze considered Hinojosa’s (and mankind’s) proclivity to seek what is in his own best interest, even exclusive of impending hardship. I’m talking about cash, and Cobb County has plenty of it. It’s convenient and financially attractive for Hinojosa to leave now, and so he is.
The broader political argument is a tough one to sell, especially when you’re as unhinged as Schutze. And to introduce a totally non-germane issue like immigration into this discussion makes him look like a race-baiter and undermines his case further, in my book.
OK, I take it back. Apparently Hinojosa’s departure was motivated by the fact that he can’t get along with his bosses, who are “not that professional.”
HT to Matthew Haag/DMN.
…or HT to Robert Wilonsky at “another” Dallas blog.