satriela

I'm illogically slightly bothered by GM food. Probably a lot of people of my generation are. I don't think our children will care because it won't be new and scary to them.

Why not just buy healthier food? When I was going through my cancer treatments I had a very strict diet and it wasn't that hard to abide by the rules the hospital set down. All I had to do was think before I bought. You don't have to eat junk. There's plenty of good food out there, just learn to read a label.

I recommend a heaping helping of personal responsibility to go with people's anger toward the food industry.

Sugar "grows naturally," too. It's called sugarcane. It even used to be cultivated in the Houston area. Where did you think Sugar Land got its name? But I guess it works better to raise people's hysteria level to pretend that one naturally-occurring plant is better than another naturally-occurring plant.

Stevia isn't a good replacement for sugar in all circumstances because its taste isn't the same. Even though the overall sweetness level is much higher than sugar, people end up consuming more of it because it takes so long for the "sweet" flavor to kick in, unlike with all-natural sugar where the sweetness is right there.

That's worrisome since at least one study has shown that Stevia can cause liver damage. I'm not against Stevia in principle, but it needs more testing and hasn't gotten much, even from its proponents. It wouldn't bother me at all to see packets of "stevia" next to the "Equal" and "Sweet-n-Low" at the diner.

I'm OK with that.

Well my anger isn't toward the food industry, its toward the regulators who are supposed to be monitoring/regulating the food industry. As far as not eating junk, I don't.

However, there is a connection between income and diet. If you have $5 bucks with which to feed a kid, you can afford about 4 pieces of fruit on that (2 if its organic fruit) OR you could afford a double cheeseburger and some fries.--which will leave you more full?

When it comes to glucose levels, stevia IS better than cane sugar, and thousands times better than high fructose corn syrup. And the very fact that its not sitting side by side with sweet n low and splenda on a restaurant table reflects on how the food industry has cripped the FDA.

US Food policy in general sucks. There is no excuse for all the trans fat in our food except that the food giants are in bed with the regulators.

Also, big sugar has almost killed stevia, the one sweet herb that has little impact on glucose levels and grows naturally.

As for GM, when it gets beyond selective breeding, I'm all for labeling.

I wanna know .. outside of private thoughts, or conversations away from --outside of earshot-- of an offending group, have you ever done anything that is intentionally (or unintentionally) racist or biased?

The worst thing I have ever done is seriously question some prospective tenants about how many people would be staying over, and I know it was race related. It didn't matter because somebody put down a deposit before them, but I have yet to reconcile it with myself.

I wish Krispy Kreme would come back. Man how I used to love those evening runs (to the one on Richmond)) for warm, hot, donuts. Yummy.

<sigh> how I agree with you.

I'm in the process of buying a foreclosure and wondering the same thing. One person I talked to said that they were a worthless rip off and another said she wouldn't buy a home without one...

I would be surprised if they accepted 2 year olds

I wonder how big media will spin it if Hillary wins the votes and Obama wins the caucus? Will they go by who got the most delegates overall or will they say its a Hillary win?

Here's how I tell the difference: when someone is being an ass and I have to suffer them, I try to call them out on it. There are a few who will be be surprised and genuinely sorry; they didn't realize they were being obnoxious. The vast majority either shrug it off, get even worse, or give you a faux-pology and go right on their way.

Exactly what I've seen/what happens to me. But for me it happens with both women and men. The fauxpology happens more often with women.

Maybe an Obama-Richardson ticket or Obama-Edwards. That would almost be an unbeatable pair.

I'd take either ticket and be very happy.

nolo's books are a good way to find standard legal forms. www.nolo.com

If you join Houston Apartment Association, www.haaonline.org you get access to their standard forms.

Good Luck!

i think the reps are against hilary because if she does ultimately get the nomination, she will feel the pressure to put barack on the ticket. this combo won't be beat. but if barack gets the nomination, there won't be the same pressure on him.

And he'd be dumb to put Hillary on the ticket when he can just as easily win with Edwards without having to deal with Bill...

As a Democrat you hope that the Latinos are voting "for" Hillary and not against Obama. Otherwise if Obama gets the nomination and loses their vote he will be toast.

So do you think latinos will sit out or defect to McCain should Obama get the nomination?

Okay not sure how this is great exposure for the city other than to pimp itself out to serve the needs of Clinton. She hasn't given a damn about showing her face down here, until she's in dire need of the delegates here. If she were in a landslide advantage, as she and her campaign managers assumed they would be in at this point, would they be debating down here? Hell no they wouldn't. This is a huge turning point for her campaign. With the split so close in the California Primary, all of a sudden now Texas is important. BULLSHEET. She hasn't given a damn about any issues here up to now, but all of a sudden she's going to have all the compassion to run down here to debate on the home turf. More self serving politics, where were they last year, or the year before. When Houston opened it's doors to hundreds of thousands of displaced people from Louisiana, was she down here at least giving them a pat on the back? Ten dollars to a nickle, if she makes her appearance down here, that all she's going to talk about is how great and proud she was of the City of Houston, and how important they are to her. BULLSHEET AGAIN!

I totally agree! Clinton wants the free exposure and free publicity of a debate in a state she had probably assumed she wouldn't have to do much campaigning in.

Undergrad...no

Grad...yes

All I have to say is: GO GIANTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am black and do not see him as MY spokesperson. I think he raises good points AT TIMES and challenges the status quo which angers and scares a lot of people. That said, I think he also puts his foot in his mouth A LOT and really doesn't pick his fights very well.

I agree. I also think that its quite unfair that the media picks people to put on TV and then says they are "speaking for black people". What a joke. There are 40 million black American in this country. No one person, not Jesse Jackson, not Al Sharpton, not Quanell is speaking for all of us.

Whites in Houston are now about 49% based on the 2000 census.

San Diego, I don't know where you get that. I lived there 4 years and Filipinos hung out with Filipinos and generally white people partied in the Gas Lamp, Hillcrest and Pacific Beach...no blacks, Asians or Latinos en masse in San Diego's downtown scene. At least in Houston, Latinos, Asians and blacks all shared the same district. How's San Diego any better?

I think people are down on Houston because of what they want to think of it. It is just Houston, or Texas, and no matter the facts are, it's just a prejudiced place (or just because those snooty Californians say so). But I don't see that based on my experiences and how things are really laid out.

I find Houston to be FAR LESS segregated than San Diego. Now that's one place that has some serious socio-economic segregation issues compared to Houston. As I've said, I've lived out there and no one wants me to get started on that.

Even compared to L.A., look how Pakistanis, African-Americans and such live far from say, the Chinatown in the SG Valley or Little Saigon in OC. There's no fu fu or soul food anywhere near those Asian businesses in that part of L.A. Then notice in Houston how New Chinatown (which is Houston's equivalent of the SG Valley) has lots of African and Pakistani businesses very close by on the parallel streets! Things like Ethiopian Soul Food or an African Food Store sitting in Houston Asian strip centers which have pho and karaoke. I never saw that in L.A.'s Chinatowns, driving down Atlantic or such.

I mean, why is it just partying white people in the Sunset Strip or in Old Town Pasadena and Santa Monica Main St. for the most part? As I've said, at least the partygoers en masse of different colors have shared the same district in Houston, whether that was the Richmond Strip, Shepherd Plaza and downtown Houston.

My own large circle friends had Russians, Hong Kong Chinese, Miami Cubans, Vietnamese, Filipinos, Filipino-Americans, Chicago Poles, Mexicans, Jamaicans as well as good ol' Native Texans.

If that isn't race mixing in H-town back in the good old Alief days of my youth, then I don't know what is. Elsik High School had so many kids from Vietnam, the Philippines, Hong Kong, El Salvador etc. as well as the incoming kids from Florida and Ohio and from what we experienced, it was a pretty cool time. There was conflict based on social category (kikkers, jocks, new wavers, jell-heads and what not) but not on race.

Adults, kids, what does it really matter? I think Houston is one of the least segregated places in America. Black Enterprise rated Houston a couple of times as the best city for blacks. The Los Angeles Times in Dec. 21 2007 pointed out in an article that Asians are flocking to Houston ("Flocking from SoCal to Houston"). Chinese street signs abound along Bellaire Blvd, Vietnamese near downtown...(and they do not in Los Angeles). If Houston is so racist and backward, why do these favorable or noticeable conditions exist here?

Now, in SoCal, I knew of Filipinos who only hung out with people of Filipino extraction. I know this one 25 year-old Filipino chick who always brought Filipino CDs to work and she didn't even know who the hell John Lennon was! (I mentioned that to her two years ago on his death anniversary.)

In Laguna Beach/San Juan Capistrano and other such snooty Southern OC areas...my wife, her friend and I went to a Starbucks in late 2005. Some white girls were sitting al fresco and I got bad vibes from them. So my wife and I went in to get our order while the friend stayed outside. When we got out, my wife's friend said that those girls uttered, "Filipinos are assholes."

Now, I've never heard that remark from a white person in Houston in my 20 some years of living here. Not even close. In fact, in 1990, this pretty white girl named Tracy, a native Texan, actually made a list of Filipino phrases for herself when Filipino nurses started flocking to Memorial City Hospital where I once worked. A beautiful blond dancer at Centerfolds who thought I was a "cutie" allowed me to kiss and fondle her breasts while telling me "Mahal Kita" (Filipino for "I Love You") though she didn't have to say that because I'm not Philippine-born and I don't speak Tagalog.

These anecdotes divulge a lot to me regarding Houston's place in race relations. Houston simply did not have a history of "No Dogs, Chinks or Flips Allowed" like it did in California.

In SoCal, especially in Southern OC and Northern SD, they PRETEND not to be prejudiced. At least in Huntsville or Corsicana, Texas, they're HONEST about what they feel, from what I've observed.

California is the least racist, or so the legend goes. NOT!

Wordlyman,

I just have to say that I totally agree. Part of the reason I still live in Houston is because I find the people to be so willing to "integrate" and be nice and civil to one another. When I go out with my friends, who are all of different races, we don't even get a second look. I appreciate that. I've been lucky enough to travel to many different large cities: New York, D.C., London, Cape Town, Frankfurt..etc. and Houston ranks highest for me with on the surface race relations. Its a laid back place. Its a welcoming place.

I appreciate that. A few months ago a white male friend, (I'm a black woman) and I were eating dinner at Chachos and he commented that he would never see this many people of different races in a restaurant where he's from (Detroit). I think he's got a good point. That's not info that could be easily broken down and quantified and put in a study, but its part of the day to day experiences of everyone in this city that make it easier for us all to well, get along; and be around each other.

Awesome info guys!

How about electricians - any you'd recommend?

I too am looking for a good, licensed insured electrician.

The Field by Lynn McTaggert is another awesome book which combines QM and spirituality and more fully explains a lot of what is mentioned in What the Bleep.

the intersection is picking up new business

we just recently completed CD's for a new 24hour dinner where Alfredo's was located

3-6-9 chinese food is THE BEST. And they deliver. If you eat inside, its white linen service for a cheeseburger price. Everytime we go we wonder why its not packed.

Not current, but interesting all the same is 1986's A PLACE OF DREAMS: HOUSTON, AN AMERICAN CITY. Published by Rice University Press. Amazing photographs.

We agree that high stakes testing is one thing that lowers the bar and is easily fixed. However, I am not hopeful that this easy fix alone will result in students being better prepared for college level work. Too may other factors conspire to keep that from being a reality. Complex situations require multi-pronged solutions and that to solve them we must heed Mencken's warning, "There is always an easy solution to every human problem that is simple, neat, and wrong."

So what are you saying? If many different things can't be fixed at once, we should leave the whole thing alone? I think the public education system needs an entire overhaul, but barring that, I see nothing wrong with doing something quite easy and quantifiable quickly--like taking out high stakes testing quickly--while in the process of making some of the other changes that need to be made (like stricter standards for teachers and curricula).

While I agree that high stakes tests are a contributing factor to students not being prepared for the rigors of college level work, they aren't the sole factor. NCLB was not passed until 2002. When I first began teaching in the UC System in the early 1990s, California did not have high stakes testing and even then many students weren't well prepared for college level work. The reasons for students not being prepared are complex. There is no doubt that a singular focus on test scores, particularly if teachers feel compelled to teach to the test, is problematic, but to my way of thinking that isn't the only reason students entering college aren't prepared to do college level work.

I agree that the reasons are complex; I just think high stakes testing is one thing that lowers the bar and is easily fixed.

I've been an academic for more than 2 decades who currently teaches in the University of

California system and agree that many students are not prepared to handle college/university level work. But believe me it's not just the students who have attended urban schools. Many students even those who have attended schools that have good reputations are not prepared for the rigors of college work. While many of these students do possess the "basic skills" of literacy, they aren't the "basic skills" needed for success at the university. Too many students aren't able to read difficult texts critically, write coherent, analytical papers, synthesize, summarize, or back up their opinions with strong arguments.

You can blame high stakes testing for that. I work in an HISD school that feeds directly to Lee and what proponents of high stakes testing either don't realize or don't care about is that kids have to be taught how to take a multiple choice test. It is not something inherently learned in any academic area. Sure, great teaching will lead to at least okay test scores, but great test scores come from teaching the test...and great money comes from great test scores...

Just my two cents.

My senior year of college I worked as a psych tech in a state mental facility to boost my psych degree. I worked in the Baker Act Unit which meant that as cops brought in the fresh patients, it was my duty to do the first interview, take vitals and change them. One early morning around 3:00am, the cops brought in this really slight guy reminiscent of the Bushman from the movie The Gods Must Be Crazy. I usually brought some food to the first interview because that helped people open up. Well this guy is not responding to any of my questions, he's wearing his shirt like a toga with no pants and he reaches over, picks up a banana and just chomps into it--no peeling, just chomps right into it. He eats the entire banana like this and I just gave up on the interview. We get him to bed and a few hours later I'm doing vitals for the whole unit (about 10 patients). He walks into the dayroom nude, with only a toilet paper roll covering his uh, parts, and proceeds to go shake his thang in the faces of every other patient in the room. They ended up calling a code yellow. I politely left the unit.