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Grouchio posted:How popular is Alex Jones anyway? The people who buy in tend to really buy in, which amplifies his noise to background ratio. Each of his things gets usually in the range of mid single to low double digit millions nationwide from last I saw. So significant, but not dominant. Re: Houston v Dallas: from the Houston side, it always felt like the kind of poking fun and ribbing you give to someone who is putting on airs and trying to pretend that they are something that they aren't. And the response from Dallas always seemed to feedback that idea. Now that I am in Dallas, it seems like indifference and too cool for school looking down on Houston. But also the lack of humidity in Dallas has counted for a lot in selling the city. I've always said the best and worst things about Texas are the people and Dallas seems to exemplify this.
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Oct 2, 2017 14:27
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dallas is soulless i say that as a born citizen who lived almost all her life here
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Oct 2, 2017 14:34
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https://twitter.com/GregAbbott_TX/status/914554962864197633 MMhmm this is deffo a problem, in real life.
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Oct 2, 2017 14:46
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Our schools are too afraid to discuss the science of phrenology.
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Oct 2, 2017 15:25
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zoux posted:https://twitter.com/GregAbbott_TX/status/914554962864197633 Well he isn't wrong about fearing conservatives ideas.
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Oct 2, 2017 16:11
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Dallas is a perfectly average place to live. I like it here but it's a big ole v0v
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Oct 3, 2017 00:21
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I think a lot of people already knew this, but ICE targeted Austin for immigration raids because Greg Casar and Sally Hernandez pissed them off: https://twitter.com/GregCasar/status/915712764890554368
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Oct 5, 2017 00:36
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https://twitter.com/eramshaw/status/916309111364562944
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Oct 6, 2017 15:30
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 flooded out stores were back running almost as soon as the water went down. How badly was the courthouse damaged?Comrayn posted:Our schools are too afraid to discuss the science of phrenology. I can't believe are colleges aren't focused on abstinence only education. Also we need DARE tables set up in every commons at least once a week.
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Oct 8, 2017 06:12
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Well, how are the latest batch of statewide ballot measures going to gently caress us all this year?
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Oct 11, 2017 02:43
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 A grim slate, to be sure.
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Oct 11, 2017 14:11
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Lol a property tax exemption as compassion for widow/ers and disabled veterans. "We're sorry for your loss and we want to help, unless you're poor already then gently caress you!"
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Oct 11, 2017 14:39
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VitalSigns posted:Lol a property tax exemption as compassion for widow/ers and disabled veterans. I'm pretty sure there's a new one of these every year and it's really annoying
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Oct 11, 2017 14:41
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Yeah the partially disabled one is expanding on an existing benefit for fully disabled vets I believe.
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Oct 11, 2017 14:50
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Congrats to NEISD for coming up with the worst solution to the problem https://twitter.com/jennifer_hiller/status/917827629239160837
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Oct 11, 2017 15:02
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League of Educational Excellence would be better
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Oct 11, 2017 15:12
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zoux posted:
I don't understand why any of these matter, except the property tax ones.
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Oct 11, 2017 16:24
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JUST MAKING CHILI posted:I don't understand why any of these matter, except the property tax ones. They don't it's just that vagueries of Texas law require a ton of poo poo to be changed in the constitution rather than just statutorily. It's a great system  Interesting thread here, they're doing jury selection for the Twin Peaks poo poo from a couple of years ago and apparently some dudes are there trying to work potential jurors. https://twitter.com/TSpoonFeed/status/918119658141765632
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Oct 11, 2017 16:29
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zoux posted:They don't it's just that vagueries of Texas law require a ton of poo poo to be changed in the constitution rather than just statutorily. It's a great system Are they the normal jury nullification people?
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Oct 11, 2017 17:10
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Since it's not a drug case, I doubt it. Most people agree violent gang shootouts resulting in multiple murders should be against the law.
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Oct 11, 2017 17:14
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You mean cop murders of peaceful gatherings.
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Oct 11, 2017 17:16
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BrutalistMcDonalds posted:Dallas v Houston slap fights are weird. I imagine Dallas people do that, but overall they're in such a bubble... I rarely hear it. Dallas people are obsessed with wanting to be New York or LA though. The city even built its own wannabe Times Square. Dallas is the most insecure city in Texas, though I've heard people say that about Houston. In any case, Dallas will never be New York, because while New Yorkers are neurotic and insecure about a lot of things, they're not insecure about being from New York. Lote posted:The worst part of Dallas is the people that try to compare it favorably to New York, LA, or Chicago. Houstonians try to do the same thing. The political leaders especially want desperately to be seen in the same light as iconic American cities and they lose their loving minds when you explain to them* that Houston is pretty much loving irrelevant to most people - when someone wants to travel and see awesome sights, they think of places like New York, Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, Boston, even loving Philly which makes enormous amounts of money from tourism across the board even though people rag on it. I mean, Houston still loses it's poo poo over the loving Astrodome which absolutely no one should give a rats rear end about, struggles with basic things like recycling and drainage, has utterly poo poo public transportation (something everyone is weirdly defensive over, which I continue to not understand what the gently caress the people here are proud of), and is just a sprawling mess with no real appeal for anyone to visit other than for family/friends and when, I don't know, their sports team is in town? Houston has a lot to like about it, but gently caress me, the people here have trouble admitting it still has a long way to go like most other places do, but I guess that's Texas in general. *I don't even mean straight up talking poo poo about Houston, just being rational and explaining "You know, other cities tackled their problems by adopting better public transportation/urban planning/etc etc" or "The city doesn't gain much from tourism dollars the way other places do because etc etc"
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Oct 11, 2017 19:57
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Good soup! posted:Houstonians try to do the same thing. The political leaders especially want desperately to be seen in the same light as iconic American cities and they lose their loving minds when you explain to them* that Houston is pretty much loving irrelevant to most people - when someone wants to travel and see awesome sights, they think of places like New York, Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, Boston, even loving Philly which makes enormous amounts of money from tourism across the board even though people rag on it. Season 8 of Bourdain's Parts Unknown has a Houston episode in which he basically argues that if anyone is making America great again, it's the city of Houston. I think he makes a good point. It doesn't have the tourist appeal of other cities, but it has drawn and provided unparalleled opportunity for people from every corner of the globe.
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Oct 12, 2017 01:34
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Also features slim thug
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Oct 12, 2017 02:24
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EwokEntourage posted:Also features slim thug Seems to be knowledgeable about music, automotive fashion, and fine dining.
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Oct 12, 2017 02:42
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litany of gulps posted:Season 8 of Bourdain's Parts Unknown has a Houston episode in which he basically argues that if anyone is making America great again, it's the city of Houston. I think he makes a good point. It doesn't have the tourist appeal of other cities, but it has drawn and provided unparalleled opportunity for people from every corner of the globe.
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Oct 12, 2017 03:12
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Houston is the best place to live, maybe not visit. That is why Dizzee Rascal did a song about Houston featuring Bun B and not the other way around.
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Oct 12, 2017 12:36
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Austin is the most amazingly wonderful place to live, so hip, so fun
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Oct 12, 2017 13:20
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Watermelon Daiquiri posted:Austin is the most amazingly wonderful place to live, so hip, so fun Said the transplant as he self soothingly rocked himself back and forth in his car, during his 2 hour daily commute.
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Oct 12, 2017 13:25
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The lack of comprehensive public transportation outside the loop is annoying
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Oct 12, 2017 13:28
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This except Austin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAXwt04AFQE
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Oct 12, 2017 13:33
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At least Dallas residents will generally own it when it is pointed out that they are trying the fake it till you make it approach to city prestige. Austinites are loving obsessed with being authentic and get really defensive when you point out that nearly all of the "Austin is just naturally so quirky and weird!" image is the creation of marketing agencies trying to sell something. Yes I realize that I'm an Austin resident complaint that our authenticity is insufficiently authentic.
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Oct 12, 2017 13:53
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Everything was inauthentic once and in 100 years people who just moved to Austin from Mars will be asking why the new arcology going up in Hutto can't be authentic like the Domain
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Oct 12, 2017 15:20
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Badger of Basra posted:Everything was inauthentic once and in 100 years people who just moved to Austin from Mars will be asking why the new arcology going up in Hutto can't be authentic like the Domain Well at least the Mopac improvement project will be wrapping up by then
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Oct 12, 2017 15:22
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litany of gulps posted:Season 8 of Bourdain's Parts Unknown has a Houston episode in which he basically argues that if anyone is making America great again, it's the city of Houston. I think he makes a good point. It doesn't have the tourist appeal of other cities, but it has drawn and provided unparalleled opportunity for people from every corner of the globe. I agree that the opportunities here have been amazing for everyone (hell I'm here because I followed the job market at the height of the recession and I'm grateful that Houston weathered the storm so well during that time), but unparalleled? Ehhhhh we might have to agree to disagree on that, because I think plenty of other major cities have enormous opportunities with far better amenities but to each their own, perhaps I'm just cynical about Texas as a whole but can still appreciate the cities, so I'm sorry if I sound like I'm being contrarian.  Also, I'm well aware Bourdain goes out of his way to places outside of cities or cover more regional stuff in a bunch of his episodes, particularly if they have an influence on urban centers or other cities, but when he suddenly makes a jump nearly two hours away to Palacios? I gotta admit I'm still completely puzzled by that - you've got a million different angles and things across all parts of the city that you can cover and the right decision is to go to...Palacios? Uh...What?
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Oct 12, 2017 16:09
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Good soup! posted:Houstonians try to do the same thing. The political leaders especially want desperately to be seen in the same light as iconic American cities and they lose their loving minds when you explain to them* that Houston is pretty much loving irrelevant to most people - when someone wants to travel and see awesome sights, they think of places like New York, Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, Boston, even loving Philly which makes enormous amounts of money from tourism across the board even though people rag on it. I don't know what you're talking, we know we're not a tourist destination, we're strictly a business town and any who tells you otherwise isn't from around here; you come here to do business, eat some fantastic food, and get out. Good soup! posted:I mean, Houston still loses it's poo poo over the loving Astrodome which absolutely no one should give a rats rear end about... We don't care what other people think, it's historic to our city so it's important to us and want to keep it, the plan is to convert it into a parking complex and use the top of the dome to form a giant enclosed park, then turn the surrounding parking lot into entertainment district or something. The reason why this hasn't happened yet is because one of the county commissioners has been holding out for the last 15 goddamn years and is completely gun-ho about having it restored and declared a national monument.  Good soup! posted:...struggles with basic things like recycling and drainage, has utterly poo poo public transportation, and is just a sprawling mess with no real appeal for anyone to visit other than for family/friends and when, I don't know, their sports team is in town? Those are problems we fully acknowledge and the root of it stems from the fact we've build the city outward rather than building it upward. Houston proper is one of the biggest cities in America by itself, but you take into account all of unincorporated Houston it probably is the biggest city in USA. Building the city upward and fixing infrastructure is something a lot companies and people want to do, HEB for example has started building megaplexes (blocks sized building that contain offices, residential, commercial businesses in one central location). Harvey has opened a lot of people's eyes in Houston to our short comings, so it something that's getting address sooner rather than later. Good soup! posted:(something everyone is weirdly defensive over, which I continue to not understand what the gently caress the people here are proud of) We're not proud, we're mad, the reason we're defensive about it is because not too long ago we were sold on the idea building a metro over-rails system that cut down on traffic and people's commute time, instead we got a glorified bus on rails system that goes to one part downtown to the other, achieving gently caress all and causes a poo poo ton of accidents. Back Hack fucked around with this message at 16:42 on Oct 12, 2017 |
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Oct 12, 2017 16:39
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Speaking of authenticity and identity and so on... Article about two brothers from Plano who joined ISIS and went off to fight in Syria. The parents are being charged with lying to the FBI about their sons' activities. Who knows if the kids are still alive but they're probably dead. This has of course shocked people who remember the brothers from high school. I don't want to make too big a deal out of it, but they remind me of John Georgelas aka Yahya Abu Hassan who became one of ISIS' most prominent ideologues and who was also from DFW. So was Micah Johnson who worked at a Jimmy Johns sandwich shop in Mesquite before radicalizing into black nationalism and going Rambo on the police. And there is the privately-educated Richard Spencer who became America's top neo-Nazi and, like Georgelas, is from a family of wealthy Dallas physicians. Lee Harvey Oswald moved to Dallas less than a year before shooting Kennedy, so Dallas can hardly be blamed for that. But I have a feeling that Dallas might have a habit of producing extremists because it's a materialist and often *private* place that seems to avoid the turmoil that happens elsewhere, and being an extremist is all about living (or rather, dying) for a cause greater than oneself. Dallas people like to stay indoors and watch TV when they're not out shopping. And occasionally, their kids grow up to become ISIS terrorists, would-be Nazi dictators and anti-cop one-man guerrilla armies. Alex Jones grew up in DFW as well. As a once-very-alienated DFW suburban kid I can relate though I wouldn't recommend doing any of these things. Spencer actually talked about this: quote:“My upbringing did not really inform who I am,” Spencer said with a shrug. Then he reconsidered. “I think in a lot of ways I reacted against Dallas. It’s a class- and money-conscious place—whoever has the biggest car or the biggest house or the biggest fake boobs,” he told me. “There’s no actual community or high culture or sense of greatness, outside of having a McMansion.” He emphasized culture in a way that evoked a full-bodied, Germanic sense of Kultur. In fact, Spencer has joked that he would like to be the Kulturminister of a white “ethno-state.” He imagines himself having a heroic role in the grand cycle of history. “I want to live dangerously,” he said. “Most people aspire to mediocrity, and that’s fine. Not everyone can be controversial. Not everyone can be recognized by a random person in a restaurant.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Yr10uOTEXU SHE is Dallas straight out of central casting. I can see a lot of people reacting in horror at her as representing everything wrong with everything, and I would've at one point but now I find this whole thing kinda hilarious. She's also probably a lot of fun to hang out with. I started laughing when she pulled out her card. You can't make people like this up. So I'm fine with Dallas. There's also an earnestness to the culture that is lacking in a lot of places. BrutalistMcDonalds fucked around with this message at 18:34 on Oct 12, 2017 |
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Oct 12, 2017 18:07
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Back Hack posted:I don't know what you're talking, we know we're not a tourist destination, we're strictly a business town and any who tells you otherwise isn't from around here; you come here to do business, eat some fantastic food, and get out. I worked in news for years in Houston. Speaking from personal experience I have met a ton of representatives, city officials, and plenty of Houstonians that think this way, particularly with how projects like Bayou Greenways 2020 and the Memorial Park Master Plan are framed. The latter in particular was interesting, as a number of officials I spoke with were constantly invoking Central Park in NYC, which, while not necessarily a bad thing to do and falls in line with a lot of PR buzzwords to get people to understand the scope of the project, rubbed me the wrong way. My thinking is - you've got a prime opportunity to do something awesome with a "by Houstonians, for Houstonians," vibe to it, stop trying to compare yourselves to a place like NYC because, no disrespect, there is absolutely no contest. quote:We don't care what other people think, I think with the way the flood control officials have handled things, clearly.  (kidding)quote:it's historic to our city so it's important to us and want to keep it, the plan is to convert it into a parking complex and use the top of the dome to form a giant enclosed park, then turn the surrounding parking lot into entertainment district or something. The reason why this hasn't happened yet is because one of the county commissioners has been holding out for the last 15 goddamn years and is completely gun-ho about having it restored and declared a national monument. I'm aware of the plans that have been put forth and they sound cool, but christ, there have gotta be better historical hills to die on, IMO. Was there even a championship or anything notable won there? quote:Those are problems we fully acknowledge and the root of it stems from the fact we've build the city outward rather than building it upward. Houston proper is one of the biggest cities in America by itself, but you take into account all of unincorporated Houston it probably is the biggest city in USA. Building the city upward and fixing infrastructure is something a lot companies and people want to do, HEB for example has started building megaplexes (blocks sized building that contain offices, residential, commercial businesses in one central location). Harvey has opened a lot of people's eyes in Houston to our short comings, so it something that's getting address sooner rather than later. In my experience, I've run into a lot of people that will fall over themselves to defend the massive sprawl as part of the city's personality or just the way things are. Perhaps I just ran into a constant stream of dumb people of all ages from covering the city for six years, but there are a lot of people I've talked to that don't even have that on their radar of things the city needs to get under control. Seeing more high rises go up in downtown and midtown, along with the businesses and offices moving in with them, is definitely promising and a step in the right direction, but the high rent prices and gentrification in some areas may be hurting more than helping but that's everywhere. quote:We're not proud, we're mad, the reason we're defensive about it is because not too long ago we were sold on the idea building a metro over-rails system that cut down on traffic and people's commute time, instead we got a glorified bus on rails system that goes to one part downtown to the other, achieving gently caress all and causes a poo poo ton of accidents. I think I'm remembering the moment I was soured on things like this. Years ago, Mayor Annise Parker made a visit to a neighborhood group in the Heights. It was a big meeting, lots of people, there were a bunch of HOA's and a few other groups there (may have been the Super Neighborhood from that area, 22 I think? Could be wrong). An older woman took the mic during the Q&A and started talking about public transportation, she said she had the privilege of living in a bunch of places throughout the world, France I think, New York, and maybe another before settling with her extended family in Houston. She expressed disappointment with the light rail and the buses, a feeling that was shared by many in attendance who were nodding and such, and she wasn't hostile or anything about it. Parker's response was weird - she just instantly takes back the mic, not snatching it or anything just with a bit of a stern grab, and proceeds to spend the next few minutes telling this woman that she was wrong. Parker said something along the lines of "I've been to places all over the world, etc etc" and she says "I can assure you, we have a great bus system, our trains are great," and so on. Not "oh I see, I'm sorry to hear that, but we are working to do this and this" like canned PR type thing, just that the woman was 100 percent wrong and just hand waving through any criticism. At the time, I was a bit infuriated, I have to admit. Being an advocate for your city and staying positive is one thing, but being so willfully loving dense that you can't admit that your system has massive shortcomings and doesn't even do a great job of helping people who live closer to the city? If you're gonna be defensive, fine, whatever but gott drat at least admit the city has a long loving way to go because of lovely policies that were allowed to fester - something that can be applied to plenty of other cities. fake edit: I think my cynicism has more to do with Texas and it's garbage state politics and me getting closer to finally relocating back to the northeast, because even though it may not sound like it I've enjoyed my time in Houston and I've had some great experiences here
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Oct 12, 2017 18:25
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zoux posted:Well at least the Mopac improvement project will be wrapping up by then Let's not get our hopes up.
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Oct 12, 2017 18:29
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Back Hack posted:I don't know what you're talking, we know we're not a tourist destination, we're strictly a business town and any who tells you otherwise isn't from around here; you come here to do business, eat some fantastic food, and get out. Houston is a great place to visit. I live in SAT and we do 2 or 3 long weekend trips a year to Houston. NASA, Kemah, Childrens Museum, HMNS, all great places to visit. Even went to a Texans game and had a great time. The League City area is on our short list of places to move if we leave San Antonio
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Oct 12, 2017 18:48
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