Materene

I just learned some interesting things about Astroworld from it's early days that I had never paid attention to before. The walkway that connects Astroworld with the Astrodome parking lot (the only remaining sign of Astroworld having been there), was not always just a walkway. Back in the early 1970's, when Astroworld was in it's infancy, you used to be able to drive cars across that bridge and drop people off right at the front gates.

During the 1980's when I first visited Astroworld, this privelege was no longer given. You had to park at the dome and walk or be shuttled across the bridge to Astroworld's front gates. If you look at the walkways, you'll notice they are wide enough to easily accommodate any vehicle from a passenger car to a bus.

I also noticed the hotel on the corner of the loop and Kirby (which is now the Crowne Plaza) was originally called the Astroworld Hotel. Many people know this, I'm sure, but it was interesting to see on video in the 1970 film "Brewster McCloud" wearing it's original Astroworld Hotel signage. I think the base for the original marquee sign is still on the street corner right beside the curb.

The Astrodome itself was much more of a wonder than just a domed stadium to play baseball in. When it was brand new, the dome served as kind of a public place. There didn't necessarily have to be a ball game in action for the public to use the dome's other facilities, like the lounge, or take a tour of the brand new stadium they payed for with their tax dollars. It's a shame we can't even get inside the place now. It's badly in need of repairs just to gain a certificate of occupancy, but nothing will be done. I am fully convinced the dome will be demolished before any of the public gets to see the inside of it again.

I think my family was thinking the same about Buff Stadium before it was demolished. One bright moment for me recently, the building I was born in on N. Main is still standing after 63 years. That has to be a plus considering all the change in the city, only a matter of time and it will be gone too. Thanks for the update on the Dome, it was a very unique engineering feat, I was always thrilled to sit in it and just stare at the ceiling, the bathrooms, well not so much.

Tonight I was doing that Google Earth ritual of going back into time when I noticed that the Peden property has now been totally removed. Does anyone remember exactly when they tore down the old building behind the main one, it was a very large steel building that housed the Peden Steel Delivery Trucks. My Grand Father worked as the night watchman at that building for many years before he retired from Peden. I would stop by very late to visit him some nights after being downtown goofing off. There appears to be a parking lot sitting on that spot that the building was located. I can remember in around 61 my Grandfather was out of work and started there at Peden working in the main building doing inventory and pulling sales from the bins. He must have been very happy to work there and they paid a decent wage, he talked of his boss by name but that was 41 years ago at the old steel building, so I can't recall what that name was. I do remember he always called him Mr!... Well there's just not much left of Houston I can remember, I did save another photo of my birth place there on Quitman and N. Main, the building is still standing and for sale again. I guess it will be there another 30 or 40 years until Houston Downtown moves further out, and it surely will.

Yeah...that was it, Winchester. It was just a big, plain hall. I preferred the nicely decorated ones, a little later, for instance, Kenny Stabler's Diamondback Saloon...(I-45 South). There was one on the NW side, too.

I quit the club scene around 80 so Stabler's came after that I'm sure, I never even went to MO & Joes or Roy Head's Club, although I lived on the North side. I guess we just get older and change, so I left Houston in 82 and only came back for a couple years. When I first got out of the Army I spent a lot of time downtown and everyone kept dropping the name of the Stampede Club, that was the happening club in 1970, never did even see the place. I can remember Jensen Drive as a kid and there were what were called ice houses in the 50's, every block on Jensen had an ice house or two, the name ice house was simply because even in the fifties Houston still had a functioning ice house at the edge of downtown and all the businesses or ice houses did not use refrigeration but bought ice everyday or every other day. They all had these aluminum bend over reach in ice boxes and they iced the beer and sodas down, you won't ever find a beer as cold as one that has been in the ice for several days. These people were very creative too, I remember one place that had a garage roll up door and you just lifted the door and the bar and stools were sitting there, they all threw out the bottle caps into the parking lot area to fill holes and dips. The one thing I remember most sitting there as a kid with family was the Oder of fresh saw dust, yep they always threw down fresh saw dust on the floors, a nice cool fan overhead and a big Jukebox, life was grand until the law makers all destroyed it.

Those names sound very familiar to me, think some of them played at a hall on Bissonnet, Bellaire area, in the early to mid '80's. I recall "Beer Bust" night & a live band, when "happy hour" was in full swing. Some years later, I preferred "The Rose", nice club.

I don't recall that hospital. From the aerials, looks like it was designed in the sixties, has atriums. Wish there was a picture of it, somewhere.

You must be talking about the Winchester Club that Issac played, and the Yellow Rose. I managed to go to the Yellow Rose one time and it was a bit crowded with the layout. I did go to the Winchester often, but home was the Wells Fargo.

Does anybody remember what the story was on the old hospital building on the southwest corner of Bellaire Blvd. and Wilcrest? Back in 1998, I used to look at it sitting in decay while I had lunch at the nearby Jack in the Box during my lunch hour. It looked like an old insane asylum straight out of Hollywood, but I cant seem to find much information online about it without a name.

The building caught fire at some point in 1998, and was later demolished.

I have searched now for one hour and found nothing mentioned, can't recall what the place looked like but I left Houston many years ago so I mostly remember the Blvd starting from the Chimney Rock area. Hate it when you can't find any photos of an area from an era past. Somewhere there has to be some aerial photos and they will be in a real estate property owners log and all taken from above. I specifically remember these log books were used in the 70's and all brokers had them, you might ask someone in real estate if there is a source for those. I did have a friend that leased an automotive shop there in that specific area in 74 but my memory was turned all upside down after I returned home after 25 years and I couldn't even find the coffee shop across the street from this friends old shop. Too much change for me!

Have really enjoyed reading these posts about 70's music in Houston. I remember Randy Cormer, Issac Payton Sweat, and the others. I was too young to go to the clubs mentioned but I was a faithful listener to KIKK & KNUZ when they were on the air.Love music to this day especially classic country. Favorite is still Gene Watson and his new CD is one of his bests love it.

Just wanted to throw this out there. Does anyone remember the Icehouse in Pasadena I think that is what they called it in the 70's they were always talking about that place on the radio. Would love to know if its still there and would love to see a pic. Thanks

I never was at the ice house but I do remember people that worked in Pasadena mentioning the place, most were all refinery workers and welders, it was a daily ritual for a lot of those guys to stop off after work.

I like to mix mustard and ketchup as a dip for my fries. I'm not sure if that's weird, but I'm the only one I know who does it.

While overseas we never had cokes in our club, so the mixed drinks were mixed with what ever they had, a root beer and rum or bourbon is not what I call a great choice, I think that is what made me drink more beer in the following years afterwards.

Does anyone know what type of trees surround the black water feature at this Rice U. building? You can see them at the 1:42 mark.

My internet connection is almost dead so I can't look at the video but it looks like possibly cypress

LOLOL. I lived in Porter in those days, back when Porter was a flashing yellow light on old 59. Then 7 mi back in the woods. I woke up in more than one ditch. Good thing I knew all the cops by name lol

OH... I would kill for a picture of Wells Fargo and Western Swing ( mrmystre@gmail.com)

Small world cause I also stayed there in Porter for a while, there was a trailer lot way back off the highway on that first back road that went back to the highway, you could buy a trailer and a good sized lot for 5 grand, lots of trees to cut but property was cheap then. Much later I lived in Conroe and drove that back way through porter to the 59, I drove all the way to River Oaks Chysler where I was working at the time. You remember that bad storm in 82 that dropped all the trees for 50 square miles, I got up that morning at 5 as usual because I had to leave early to get to work and the storm was just easing by Conroe and it actually missed us, but let me tell you one mile outta conroe it missed nothing, even the freeway signs on 59 were all down on the freeways, it looked like a combat zone there wasn't many trees that weren't damaged, they say it was a pack of tornadoes, I believe it. The fog was so bad I finally gave up and moved, just could see killing myself for nothing.

Yeah, some Bing images are weird. If I zoom in or out in a weird way, things change. Hey presto, the Macy's on that department store turned back into a Foley's sign! I don't know if they'll delete the older images permanently.

Way back in 71 my Father in law at that time was an electrical contractor and I was working for him, we drove back and fourth to Bryan for over a year while they were building the first really big apartment complex around Bryan College Station. Every now and then we would not drive back but stay in one of the apartments that we had just finished if it had the power turned on, and we would drive into Bryan looking for a decent place to have a beer and a little time off, there wasn't anything in Bryan in 71, least we never found it, there was one big club on the far side of the city named the Red Lion, a very big club for that town but it was empty and we were the only ones there. So many years after that I gradually watched the town grow and even worked on some machinery another employer had leased out there, it really took off and look at it now. I don't believe there is any country left, well except where I live now and there's still a lot here but this is all farming country no industry. I really had a hard time finding landmarks when I was home a few years ago and I guess it will be worse if and when I ever do visit again. You know I still remember Princes out there on south main along with Playland Park and a lot other popular places in their day. There was a time when you wanted to go south you always drove through downtown and main street, it was a shorter drive and scenic one, as a kid I remember looking at everything on main and south main, just not much to look at now except tall buildings with no character or history.

Yeah, some Bing images are weird. If I zoom in or out in a weird way, things change. Hey presto, the Macy's on that department store turned back into a Foley's sign! I don't know if they'll delete the older images permanently.

Way back in 71 my Father in law at that time was an electrical contractor and I was working for him, we drove back and fourth to Bryan for over a year while they were building the first really big apartment complex around Bryan College Station. Every now and then we would not drive back but stay in one of the apartments that we had just finished if it had the power turned on, and we would drive into Bryan looking for a decent place to have a beer and a little time off, there wasn't anything in Bryan in 71, least we never found it, there was one big club on the far side of the city named the Red Lion, a very big club for that town but it was empty and we were the only ones there. So many years after that I gradually watched the town grow and even worked on some machinery another employer had leased out there, it really took off and look at it now. I don't believe there is any country left, well except where I live now and there's still a lot here but this is all farming country no industry. I really had a hard time finding landmarks when I was home a few years ago and I guess it will be worse if and when I ever do visit again. You know I still remember Princes out there on south main along with Playland Park and a lot other popular places in their day. There was a time when you wanted to go south you always drove through downtown and main street, it was a shorter drive and scenic one, as a kid I remember looking at everything on main and south main, just not much to look at now except tall buildings with no character or history.

LoL was at Moe and Joes on opening night. Wife and her friends were frequent flyers at Fools Gold.. Ya Moe and Joes was on 1960.

I'm old I admit it but I really thought it was the Winchester at Chimney Rock & Westheimer and Fools Gold was actually in Spring Branch off old Hempstead Hwy over the RR tracks, I need a memory bump.

Never made it to Moe and Joe's but I remember when they built it, I had to plan my clubbing so I could drive home before I passed out and that was a bit of a far drive for me. I tried making the old 59 club a few times to meet up with friends that lived out in New Caney and about, that was a terrible drive at 2:30am , on the way there a Wild Turkey was riding with me but on the way home it was dead and couldn't talk anymore! lol

Neat!

It was at 5619 Fannin, adjacent to the Warwick. The current 5619 is the MFAH building/garage but the old 5619 had to have been south of Ewing according to the Historicaerials map. Apartments lined both sides of San Jacinto from Calumet to Ewing:

http://www.historicaerials.com/aerials.php?scale=7.27682619386921E-06&lat=29.7239771921243&lon=-95.3889641924652&year=1964

Old National also had locations at 7434 Park Place (the Odd Fellow's Building near Telephone):

http://www.arch-ive.org/parkplace7430.php

and 2510 Broad St. I need to get over there - it's a cute little place:

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=2510+Broad+Houston,+TX&hl=en&ll=29.705844,-95.306772&spn=0.006933,0.009645&sll=29.705844,-95.306772&sspn=0.006971,0.009645&t=h&z=17&layer=c&cbll=29.705796,-95.306861&panoid=K2uMRLO2BDkfpOhpaF9BYQ&cbp=12,15.16,,0,1.9

I'm happy to have been one to actually view movies from the Majestic, course that photo was old as dirt before I first went to the Theater in the early 50's, make's a person wonder how they made enough to pay for that fine building charging a nickel admission. I think around 55 possibly 54 it was 20 cents for an adult 0 for a child. Now you need to take out a personal loan to go to the movies.

If you look at more current bing maps all that's left is a green empty field. I really enjoyed the link lockmat provided. It sure is sad to see all your memories in pieces on the ground.

Ain't it the truth!, I love Houston of old, still find myself missing home but for now I guess I'm better off in Louisiana. Everyone in the family is now gone in Houston, still a couple cousins older than myself but for the most part they're all gone. Like you said everything is torn down or fallen down now, even my church I attended in the early 50's. I was only at Astroworld one time and that was around 76, by then I was too old to enjoy the rides. I do remember the Arms Museum going up and what a fine drag strip it was on the street in front, back in 71 there wasn't much traffic out there and it was quiet so all the street racers would hang out at Bill Williams or at the old Mc Donalds right there under the 45 down two blocks from Al Parker Buick. Yes I was quite lost when I finally came back to Houston after 25 years, when I left I knew already it was in a massive change and not for the better. The place where I lived had an overpass come down in the front yard when they put the Hardy Toll Road in. There was an old stock tank in the back yard that had been there since the 40s and they tore down the apartment I lived in and even filled the stock pond, now there is nothing left but the driveway that went into the garage under the apartment. Nothing stops it just keeps turning and picking up speed.

I was looking at the old Astroworld plot on bing maps and when I zoomed in close enough, Astroworld appeared! The photos provided are of it after it was closed down and some of the rides are gone, but everything else is just about still there. Weird.

http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&where1=Houston%2C%20TX&q=houston%2C%20tx&form=LMLTSN&cp=29.674121649347356~-95.40752053473396&lvl=18.619432303989498&sty=b&encType=1

I wonder if Bing is using Google Earth photos? I know Google Earth is at least two years behind and even longer in some locales. I can go to Spring Branch and look at an address from say 1 or 2 thousand feet and it shows recent photos within the past year, drop to street level and it still shows my vehicles sitting in my old yard 5 years ago!

I placed a link here on the board of my blog but this area is also a good place so I'll do the same here. Just some music videos or parodies that I make myself to share on face book and other places I visit. It takes a few hours to make one of these and sometimes less, after a while you get mind freeze and can't think of anything interesting so I try to use local headlines even though it may be political it's still all in fun. So here is the link to my storage, all are accessible from there, the player has a forward and backward tab arrow to go through all videos. Maybe sometime in the future HAIF might install the widget for viddler as it does for youtube. youtube has become too big and I no longer store anything there, everything you post is just about stripped because of people trying to steal a dollar. I guess that's what the world has come to

http://www.viddler.com/explore/sn00ze/videos/56/

Seriously

http://www.viddler.com/explore/sn00ze/videos/36/

I was the original drummer in the Southern Comfort Band. My buddy, Tony Taliaferro, hired Freddie Pate and they played all over for years as the Tony Taliaferro Band. I knew Randy Corner and Texas Cookin pretty well. Randy was an incredible guitar player, and was offered a national tour, but he had a serious dislike of travel!Randy preferred to play locally, and today is still in the North side of Houston I believe. Someone had mentioned Randy is nearly blind, but he has had an eye condition his entire life where his eye lashes actually grow inward...he was always wearing shades at night!

Tony Taliaferro moved to Nashville 25 years ago, made a couple of albums, was Dottie West's Band until her death, and today is married to Louise Dorsey (Frank Dorsey aka Englebert Humperdink's daughter).

I still play everyday in my music studio at home, have a much nicer kit than was available back in the 70's, but really miss Gene Watson, Mundo Earwood, Randy Corner, Roy Head, Johnny Rodriquez,Eddie Marshall, tons of others... and all the joints we played. I really believe the best music live and recorded came out of the 70's.

Absolutely, I left Houston in 82 and have only been home for short times, I don't like the change that has taken place and I'm still undecided as to where I want to be buried.

My roots call for me to come home but all my close family is in a little Baptist Church cemetery in Big Cane La, I guess in the end it don't really matter. Nothing ever stays the same and change comes in every corner of the world. You guy's sure made some good music and I can tell you all of us sure enjoyed it, that was why all those clubs were so successful. Thanks for all the information it was very enlightening, Kelly from the looks of his photos still looks young and I know he'll be performing til he drops.

Likewise...had to become a member to reply to this. Brought back to many happy memories (dating myself). Wells Fargo Parker Road and Randy Corner....I used to ride my motorcylce to Wells Fargo just to hear Randy, the band, and dance. "Sometimes I talk in my Sleep" was the best. You see, I played in a small neighborhood CW band that played on Fri, Sat, and Sunday in a shack on Airline drive called the "Little Drop Inn". I was only in high school at the time but would venture over to the WF Parker Road club to lean how the pros do it. I actually grew up on the next street over from Randy. Before the Wells Fargo days....how about Bill Miraz's or Polish Hall.....tickets stapled to your collar, cold beer at the then drinking age of 18, and the pure two step and polka. Our lead singer, James Haley, went on to play with Frenchie Burke himself. Me....joined the Navy so I could get U.Sam to pay for my education. Really miss the those days....we could walk to school (Hohl elementry ...Parker and Yale). Once I got out of the Navy 5 years later in 81, so many things had changed. Now it was Desperados and Diamond Back but still good dancing...just no bands like Randy's. Anyway..thanks for the trivia question that brought me back to the times. I still have a never been peeled bumber Wells Fargo sticker...I should put it up on eBay Cheers.

I know all those spots, sure wish there was some photos of The Wells Fargo, I did go to the Desperadoes one time and after the place closed I was sitting there in my truck with my girl friend , some idiot came out and started shooting his pistol in the air! I don't think I ever went back. Do you remember a club on the North side that was old as dirt and you weren't allowed to wear a hat, I can't remember the name of that one because I was only there long enough for them to tell me to remove my hat, I left. My good friends went in anyway but it seemed a little odd to me, man if they could see the world today wearing a hat at a country western club seems pretty unimportant to me. I spoke with someone about that old 59 club and was told that after all the illegals started going there they just got tired of the fights and shut it down, after all those years.

I'm not sure what else I can tell you without wasting my breath. It sounds like you don't like government, so you are critical of any action they might take... thus they are evil no matter what. If that is going to be your logic, then trying to explain a subject as complex as this will really end up being blockaded by the mental wall you have built about government being bad. Go ahead and keep fighting against your best interests, ignore experts like me (and the link I referenced), and when the internet changes one day due to a lack of competition... you can blame the bad government for not doing anything to stop it.

Sorry Brian, you haven't been keeping up with current affairs, for the past 50 years. We have so many thieves and law breakers in government they decided to make a career of it. If we all look deep enough we can find a little humor even in a bad situation, myself I like to make silly videos, so here have a laugh.

http://www.viddler.com/explore/sn00ze/videos/24/

I get paid a lot of $$$ to deal with the logs and information that you are talking about on a daily basis. I'm a professional in this field and earn my living from it. I'm sorry if I offended you, but I get really upset about this issue because I know it intimately. It's probably how a doctor feels when he knows what's wrong with a patient, but the patient insists the doctor is wrong because they read something online and came to their own conclusions. Trust me, an ISP can glean any information about you and log whatever they want. Even without an ISP, your computer holds any piece of information that you have ever done on it... and it can be retrieved as well. If you are worried about your data, you should be screaming for MORE government oversight and heavier regulation... but that is besides the point.

You are forgetting that net neutrality has existed since the beginning of the internet. If you like it the way it is now, then you should support maintaining a free and open internet. If you would like a better understanding of the issues, I suggest reading over the following link. They lay it out in a manner so non geeks like me can understand it... http://www.savetheinternet.com/frequently-asked-questions

We all already know what an ISP can do and can't do, if they're gathering data on you without a court order or the normal daily course of business it's called privacy invasion. These people that wrote this law specifically wanted to keep information on everyone indefinitely and the sole purpose was stated so that they could use information in a lawsuit, it had nothing to do with a court order by a judge that was watching a predator or a child porn ring or otherwise, the laws already exist to do these things. Once again it was done to silence people like you and I by some twit who was offended by what you or I said. I don't think you still see the broader picture here, you seem to be locked in on the commerce aspect of it and I could care less about that, other than being forced to pay for bandwidth , which by the way I already do with an office connection. It would be terrible to allow companies to start charging per gig downloading, it would kill the internet. AT&T is already scalping everyone charging those outrageous fees for their online text, I'm sure they aren't the only one doing it. The last thing I want is government, they can send 2/3rds of it home tomorrow and we would all be much better off. If a new law is needed to oversee the internet then do it in the proper arena and not with a small group of people trying to promote an agenda.

Your rant makes no sense. The government and law enforcement can already use your computer and the internet sites you visit against you in a court of law. How do you think they go after child porn cases and terrorism cases? The Patriot Act is what harmed your personal privacy rights... so get mad at that. As far as net neutrality goes, it's a commercial issue and essentially trying to stifle capitalism and the free market. While it's mainly conservatives leading the charge against this... there are also guilty Democrats like Houston's own Gene Greene who is a pathetic front man for the industry as well.

You know little about what you talk about, before you start telling me I rant take the time to clean up your own act. If I ever decide to rant you'll be the first to know. IP providers do not maintain complete records of all your traffic, they don't have the resources to do it. People like you are what I dislike most, if you have an issue or disagreement with another, you attack and in your case you call my opinion a rant. For your information I am neither Republican or Democrat, the attempt was wrong and it was the right thing to do by stomping down a snake. It's really all very simple follow our laws and constitution, if you have a problem with that then you need to move somewhere where you can join a revolution. You really need to do some research and find out what goes on behind the scenes, providers have to dump information from there servers and this bill or law would have forced them to keep everything indefinitely. The real reason is for this bunch of losers to have an inside on your personal information, if you can't see that then you are already a lost cause and I won't waste any more time with answering your post. This is not about the industry, too bad you can't distinguish that. My final word will be at the voting booth, my brotherly love for a fellow Houstonian say's have a nice day.

As a web and software developer, take it from me when I say net neutrality is one of the most important things that needs to be maintained. It's a topic a lot of people have no clue about, but computer geeks like me know that it is one of the most important battles going on for the freedom of the internet. Without maintaining a free and open internet, large companies will in essence be able to kill any start up that comes along. In other words, say I created the next Facebook that completely tears FB a new one like FB did to MySpace... well without net neutrality, FB would be able to pay for premium bandwidth out of their huge $$$ chest that I, a lonely start up, would not have access to. When users would come to my site, it would run slower because my competitor is paying for premium bandwidth, and thus users would think my site is "slow" and they'll stick with the faster option. Without net neutrality, there would be no competition anymore. Startups like Google will never again happen. Instead, the big boys will see it's competition, build their own variation, and then pay for premium delivery of their data and kill any form of new competition.

Also, the arguments that conservatives and large corporations make about seeing the need to pay more for video data delivery because it fills the networks, etc. is BS. We already pay for it! Right now, I have a startup company where I pay $$$ for every byte downloaded from my server (just like The HAIF does) and what goes out to the internet. The more users that request our data, we pay for more bandwidth. You, as a consumer, pay $$$ for speed (and now amount) of data you download. Without net neutrality, large companies want to be able to pay extra money (think of it as a bribe) that will tell Verizon/Comcast/etc to deliver their content to you faster than my site. So you even though you, the consumer, are paying for a fast speed to the internet... large companies want to slow your access down to certain sites.

There is no doubt problems exist with respect to commercial activities within the internet, I look at it much differently more from a simple users perspective and my only interest is these low life politicians stay out of my business and do not have an inside to what I do who I speak to and what I say. This is exactly why they have chosen to start a controversy and say there is a problem to begin with, so they may slime their way into our everyday lives and have a conduit to silence people they don't like or don't support their silliness. People really need to take a very long look at what they have tried to do and understand the backroom activities of just a few individuals with no regulatory authority what so ever. You see in this bill or law they passed were in between the lines sections that were going to force all providers to keep all your traffic on a file that could be used in a court of law, does that open any ears out there?? Yes this was one of their answers saying that if they could do this then they could use these records to prove the guilt of persons un named in a court of law. In other words these few people have decided they now have the authority to keep records on every individual's internet usage and use it against them if they decided they don't like what you read, say, or where you visit. These people that have attempted to do this with faking a crisis are without a doubt the worst element of our society. How did it come to pass with such a small group of people that they were given permission to circumvent privacy laws by attempting to do something so silly. I think it just shows how corrupt this white house is and just another example of using false information to change this country. If it is indeed an issue of commerce and competition then there are already the conduits to file a lawsuit or complaint against an entity or individual. A large scam or unlawful scheme was just averted when the congress dropped the hammer down, I'm not choosing political sides when I say this because the end result if this had been allowed to happen could be absolutely disastrous to each and every one of us. Never ever give up your right to privacy and freedom of speech when it has been hidden in a bill or law that wasn't even presented before the public. You can only guess how much this has really pissed off a lot of us veterans and you can be sure we are watching these people. So the issue is far more reaching than just Net Neutrality, the name was catchy and offered a foot in the door to do some serious harm to a lot of good people. Just like everything they have tried recently they FAILED! Watch them closely

I assume the 'FCC clowns' remark is regard to net neutrality.

This is a complex issue. I'm starting a thread on this topic.

I have one concern with this FCC issue and that is the FCC does not have the authority to pass laws. The attempt to regulate was an attempt to silence free speech and had nothing to do with provider rates and usage. The overall plan was to be able to sue and silence people using obscure laws that they made up, one being that all providers were to keep all traffic from your IP on permanent record. I call it privacy invasion and also it leads to criminal activity when your private information has been stolen, because we know how well the government guards our private information don't we. It was a blatant arrogant attempt to destroy one more of our rights as a free people. Think about this for a moment, if you are an enemy to someone in high places all they have to do to smear you or cause trouble for you is look at what you've said on an email or a forum, now take it from there. What's good for the Country is not the goal of either party, in the future something will have to be done to neutralize all the division caused by these self serving politicians. The constitution has served us well and anyone deviating from following the constitution should be barred from ever holding any public office.

It's hard to have Net Neutrality when you have a very small group of people telling you what you can say or do! Freedom of Speech for the Win.........

this doesn't make sense.....so, target cannot hang a santa cap on the target logo at christmas or target cannot program a seasonal target logo that reoccurs each year? is google patenting it's specific designs? i could understand that, but not something so vague.

Heh heh, money talks you know what walks

Not much left out there for the little guy, soon as you walk out your door every morning you become a criminal. No that can't be right, now it's soon as you turn on your computer and go on line. That's the great thing about growing old you don't have too much time to worry about stuff like this so it really isn't important. There was one win for the little guy last week, the congress stopped that take over by the FCC clowns, that was a major win for everyone!