Ups and down
Greetings this week from the bunker, deep in the bunker. We parachuted down after analysts were blabbing about $ 10 oil, $ 1 gas and see-through buildings in the Energy Corridor. CNBC anchors were breathless during a midweek selloff: “There’s a bloodbath. … I want to stop looking at this stuff. … CEOs won’t talk to us.”
Listen up climate change deniers: All of this means gasoline is way cheaper than, say, Evian. And there’s the temptation to burn more of it even as we read reports from NOAA saying 2015 is the hottest year on record by far.
And for deniers about the viability of newspapers, consider this week’s stories you won’t find anywhere else:
Chronicle reporter Dane Schiller painted vivid and horrific pictures of the inside of a Houston brothel. The 70-year-old madam of East End cantina Las Palmas II was sentenced to life Wednesday after a federal investigation. Unanswered question: How did the Houston cops let this fester for 20 years?
The Chronicle’s Markian Hawryluk showed there’s hope for quadriplegics as Top Gun Houston neurosurgeon Dong Kim of Memorial Hermann uses adult stem cells with the goal of restoring limited movement and sensation. You’d think our governor would be a very interested party, demanding that Texas — not California — be the leader in stem cell research and funding in the United States.
The New York Times’ account of Ted Cruz as a judicial clerk leaves you asking if the administration of the death penalty is justice or a game for young lawyers who, unfortunately, are the brains for many judges. Reporter Jason Horowitz wrote, “During his clerkship, he presented his boss with a caricature of him and other clerks pulling a stagecoach driven by the judge. According to someone who saw the illustration, there was a graveyard behind them with headstones representing the number of people executed in their jurisdiction that year.”
We don’t want to sound like Ted Cruz in our criticism of New York, but it never made complete sense why a homegrown Texas law firm would stick the name Giuliani on its shingle. Let’s face it, Rudy’s more hat than cattle and he could beat a certain Houston congresswoman in any race to a microphone. If our local firms feel the need for star power, may we suggest Vinson Elkins & Clooney or Baker Botts and James (as in LeBron).
Finally, we like the idea making rounds on Facebook about a way to preserve the name of Lanier Middle School: change it from Sidney Lanier to Bob Lanier.