Thumbs up, down: Bar outlaws masks
Beto 3.0 should listen to his mama; Musk’s toilet ‘challenges’; El Paso not quite a herd.
In old westerns, you can always tell the thieving bad guy by the big bandanna masking his identity. Apparently, in some parts of Texas, wearing a mask can still get you branded an outlaw, even if you’re a nice young couple out for a rare date, keeping on your masks at a restaurant to protect your immunocompromised 4-month-old son, who has cystic fibrosis. Their story went viral this week as media outlets across the world reported how Natalie Wester and her husband, Jose Lopez, were forced to leave Hang Time Sports Grill & Bar in Rowlett when they refused to take off their masks. Wester said a waitress sat down and told them, “Our manager sent me over because I’m nicer than he is. And yes, this is political,” before informing her of the restaurant’s no-mask policy. Then the waitress reportedly explained that masks don’t work anyway because they’re like using a chain-link fence to keep out mosquitoes and they also don’t give people enough oxygen. The restaurant, which bills itself “always a good time,” may be vulnerable to allegations of false advertising now that owner Tom Blackmer has confirmed the rotten time in store for customers who dare practice good pandemic hygiene. Blackmer declared: “I’ve put my blood, sweat and tears in this business, and I don’t want any masks in here.” We won’t ask if he bothered to sanitize after that exchange of bodily fluids. But suddenly, that pork tenderloin sandwich on the menu seems less appealing.
Turns out, the folks who tell us not to erase history when somebody wants to remove a Confederate statue are open to exceptions. Federal prosecutors were ordered by a judge this week to release new Capitol surveillance videos from Jan. 6. Quickly, many proTrump Americans became transfixed by a single one-minute clip that appears to show insurrectionists walking calmly as they enter the Capitol to subvert democracy and overthrow a presidential election. By Thursday, Newsweek reported that the video had been seen more than 1.7 million times on social media and for many people, it was all the ammo they needed to argue that the Capitol riot was instead a peaceful garden party of freedom-loving patriots. Never mind that they chose to ignore other footage showing police officers under attack by people throwing flagpoles like spears and nearly crushing officer Daniel Hodges of the D. C. Metropolitan Police to death in a door frame as he screams and they beat him with his own baton. Just study carefully the new video of rioters
we’re told came for peace. Ask yourselves: What kind of peaceful people enter through a smashed window? What peaceful people sport bullet-proof vests and stolen police riot shields? Unfortunately for the insurrectionists, the riot wasn’t some statue that’s easily toppled. Their little revolution was televised. The proof will live forever.
As they say, you’re entitled to your own opinions but not your own facts. But often even the right facts lead to divergent opinions among experts. We wanted to cheer El Paso’s announcement this week that it was the first city in Texas to achieve socalled “herd immunity” against COVID-19. As of Sept. 20, 75 percent of El Paso residents 12 and older were fully vaccinated. That’s certainly a laudable accomplishment, exceeding federal vaccination goals and blowing Texas’ paltry statewide vaccination rate out of the water. But state officials and vaccine expert Dr. Peter Hotez say herd immunity isn’t so easy to determine. It usually means the point at which a virus naturally controls itself without any further public health measures such as vaccines, masks and social distancing, the Chronicle reported. But Hotez said he doesn’t use the phrase anymore because it’s easily misunderstood and misconstrued as a reason to avoid masks and other COVID-prevention protocols. Regardless, a Texas city with a 75 percent vaccination rate and residents who reportedly respect science enough to voluntarily wear masks at most public places is a winner in our book.
We can’t say the same thing about another El Paso success story that went sour. It’s official. Beto O’Rourke, the failed candidate for U.S. Senate and president, is running for governor against Republican incumbent Greg Abbott — or maybe he isn’t. We got conflicting reports on that story this week as Democrats eagerly await any sacrificial candidates who step forward to make the Texas governor’s race competitive for the first time in 30 years. For a guy who famously told Vanity Fair, “Man, I’m just born to be in it,” he can’t seem to make up his mind whether he wants to be in it. If only he were as decisive about his next political run as he is about taking away people’s AR-15s and AK-47s: “Hell, yes.” We have to say, given the governor’s poor run of late on COVID, on abortion, on just about every issue we can think of — and the frightful folks he’s got running to his right in the Republican primary — we’re glad to hear that any Democrat is considering challenging him. And maybe all this suspense about his plans means we’ve got a Beto 3.0 on our hands, a guy who’s matured a little, outgrown the #TMI and can finally play it coy. Or perhaps he just took his mama’s advice: “Maybe he shouldn’t be so open about everything,” she told the Dallas Morning News in 2019. “Like, the biggest mistake to me was when I heard he was at the dentist’s office,” she said, referring to her son’s sharkjumping livestream with his hygienist. Take your time, Beto. We’ll wait, but only if you make it worth our while.
Speaking of oversharing, the next time multibillionaire and bona fide Texan Elon Musk takes a Tesla road trip from the $50,000 home he rents in Boca Chica, he should make a stop at Space Center Houston and inspect the toilet on display. He can make sketches of the vacuum needed in zero gravity to, well, keep the astrotourists focused on the spectacular view from the loo. Musk tweeted Monday that Inspiration4, a three-day mission that sent the first all-amateur crew into orbit, experienced “some challenges” with the toilets. Future flights, he promised, will have an upgraded waste system, as well as a small oven. Of course, booking with SpaceX is not all about sitting on a throne in low orbit or floating frozen pizza bites. The crew conducted an experiment on blood flow designed by Baylor College of Medicine scientist Ashot Sargsyan. The flight blasted off from Florida but Texas could be the launching pad to Mars. Hopefully, Musk will have figured out the kitchen and bathroom for that somewhat longer trip.