Author discusses early love of hunting in and hunts in Wyoming and Texas. With dramatic loss of wildlife, the North American Conservation Model and conservation organizations, have added and maintained wildlife habitat, along with the 1937 Pittman-Robertson Act, which promoted a federal excise tax on hunting equipment. Hunting does promote conservation.
Author relates his history and love for Texas and America with a plea to people to end the culture wars, the secession movement, and attacks against libraries with a particular indictment of Kendall county officials for their lack of knowledge of what the county libraries do.
Kendall County has been in the grip (and still is) of an Exceptional Drought—the highest level. Several local initiatives provide information on water in all its forms. The Texas Legislature has made it nearly impossible for counties to regulate development in unincorporated areas of the county. Pressure must be put on state reps to give cities and counties ore authority to regulate development, not less.
Hatred, bigotry, political polarization, and distrust are huge problems that must be solved if we are to remain a democracy. We need all people to fix it. Extremism in on the rise and increasing in Texas. The writer provides possible ways of fighting extremism and ending hatred.
School vouchers will divert your tax money into private schools and subsidize wealthier people sending their kids to elitist schools. The governor’s school voucher plan defunds public schools, funds private and religious schools, funnels dollars away from struggling schools, and widens the education inequality gap.
The record-setting temperatures this summer stressed the grid nearly to the breaking point several times. ERCOT, the agency responsible for operating the power grid, issued several “conservation alerts” over the past three months, with one episode of “emergency operations” that warned of possible rolling blackouts. Fortunately, the grid remained operational and no blackouts were needed, but it was a close run thing.
Details why writer is proud to be an American and details his American heroes. Democracy functions with civility and truth and being a Democrat/Progressive for the writer means many different things.
Getting a direct flight from the San Antonio Airport (SAT) to Reagan National in DC is a “massive priority”, says Ted Cruz, the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. The main obstacles to a direct flight are FAA rules that restrict the number of flights into Reagan and the distance of the flight.
The average temperature across the U.S. in July 2023 was 2.1 degrees above normal, “with July 2023 ranking as the 11th-hottest July in the 129-year climate record.” NOAA also said that “July 3, 4 and 5 all consecutively broke records as the Earth’s hottest day since scientists began recording in 1979.” Despite warming temperatures, “Leading energy companies are intent on…expanding fossil fuel production and insisting that there is no alternative. While governments will need to lead the way to making significant adjustments to mitigate climate change, we can all make personal changes to reduce our environmental impact.
The United States is playing Russian Roulette with our debt and our fiscal future. The current national debt is a whopping $32 trillion, almost 100% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). We must raise revenue from 19% to 21% of GDP by eliminating most deductions, exclusions, preferences, and credits. We must bring spending down (currently 23% of GDP) to revenue over the next 10 years by freezing domestic and defense spending, reforming healthcare, and putting Social Security on a solid footing by reducing benefits to the top 25% of earners.