Thumbs up, down
House-cleaning at Baylor, O’Reilly leaves Fox and a salute to a steel oleander.
Who would have thought that Fox News would be a leader when it came to bringing attention to National Sexual Assault Awareness Month? But congratulations to them for an end (albeit tardy) to the scourge of Bill O’Reilly. The bloviating sack of hot air who never hesitated to let America know who was good and who was bad in his starkly black-and-white mind was not invited back from a sudden vacation after the disclosure of sexual harassment lawsuits to the tune of $13 million. Warning to children, please jump to the next item. O’Reilly, who insulted anyone who disagreed with him, in one instance was caught harassing an associate producer over the phone in a bizarre sexual fantasy that involved rubbing her with a loofah — only he kept calling it a falafel.
Was that a misprint or did Baylor University really hire a woman to be its new president? Linda Livingstone, a one-time professor in Waco who most recently was dean of George Washington University’s business school, begins cleaning up the mess left by Ken Starr in June. She’ll also know her way around the Bears’ troubled athletic department; Livingstone was a varsity basketball player at Oklahoma State.
To be revered in Galveston is to be called a steel oleander. That was Lyda Ann Thomas, the former island mayor who died this week at 80. Like the flowering shrub found around the Bay, Thomas was vigorous and hardy. She’ll be most remembered for her calm leadership during violent hurricanes. But this editorial board was most impressed by a BOI who was accessible, ecumenical and in possession of a long-term vision that kept the city, like an oleander, always in flower.
Now that he’s a frequent flyer to Houston in pursuit of romance, New York Times columnist David Brooks (his work often appears on these pages) sees us as a city of love right up there with San Francisco, Rome or Venice. “It’s a great city,” he told the audience at dinner Thursday benefiting Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation. “I can’t wait for you to finish it.”
Only curmudgeonly Thumbs writers could find room for improvement when the Astros are sitting on the second-best record in Major League Baseball. This begins with opinion writing on NYTimes.com about baseball jerseys that ignited a wildfire of email traffic in Houston. Essayist Todd Radom called the Astros rainbow (actually, it’s a sunset) uniform “the greatest ugly sports uniform of all time.” The team this season is putting great product on the field. But to kick things up a notch, we have to get rid of the generic aesthetic and bridge the current to the past. Bring back the sunset tops: pullover, no buttons.
You’ll no doubt be surprised (not) that Gov. Greg Abbott delivered a state-of-the-state speech to the Greater Houston Partnership that was long on applause lines and short of substance. With things fraying around the edges in Texas, why can’t our top politicians address real issues? (Memo to elected officials: Your No. 1 job is to solve problems). Our applause is for something else he didn’t talk about: bathrooms.
Why would leaders of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission become certified peace officers? So they could qualify for “hazardous duty pay” while travelling on junkets. That’s the testimony induced by Houston state Rep. Sarah Davis at a House ethics committee meeting that ultimately resulted in the resignation of TABC director Sherry Cook. Cook and staff were busted for misuses of travel money during a Hawaiian junket. If state employees are traveling to resorts in Hawaii on the taxpayers’ dime, the trip needed scrutiny in advance. We do, however, recommend approval of all travel to winter conferences in North Dakota.
Blame oxygenates. That’s why it’s costing 20-cents-a-gallon more to fill up your ride over last month. To cut down on smog, refiners mix up a “summer blend” starting in April. They add ethanol, methanol and butyl ether to fuel, and the result is fewer emissions at a higher price.
You’d think that a constable and a justice of the peace would not want a high-powered, assault-type rifle associated with a school. They might even desire those weapons off the street. But not Rowdy Hayden and James Metts of Montgomery County. They’re selling raffle tickets at $10 each to win an AR-15. Proceeds benefit a party for graduating seniors at New Caney ISD high schools.