My Letter to the Editor

Someone named Ed Hirs wrote an editorial in the Houston Chronicle that I happened to see. Mr. Hirs seemed to be talking about a subject that he is not familiar with. I wrote the following letter to the editor. I would assume it will not be published, so in order for it to see the light of day, I'm posting it here. I am also including the offending editorial for you to enjoy.

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Dear Editor,

Professor Ed Hirs in his May 23 editorial "Trump 'trickle-down' tax plan would be a failure for Texas" makes several glaring assertions that just are not true. Prof. Hirs says that President Reagan's plan did not work in the 1980s, while every available policy metric solidly refutes that. And to go further, the same tax cut plan worked under President Coolidge in the 1920s and under President Kennedy via Lyndon Johnson (the tax plan had been pushed by Kennedy, after his death, Johnson got the bill passed). Tax rates came down, the economy grew and people went back to work, every time.

Professor Hirs would do well to look at the writing of fellow Houstonian, Professor Brian Domitrovic, who has chronicled the history of not only supply-side economics, but also a recent detailed history of the successful supply-side tax cuts of JFK in 1963-1964.

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Good Baseball Coaching

I like this video that I saw on Instagram. The ball may not have landed yet, and it was clearly a homerun the split second it left the bat. Pay close attention as it is tempting to try to see where the ball might land, to the first base coach. His way of motioning to the hitter to pick up his pace and get around the bases is laudable, and proper.

That ball hasn't landed yet! 😱⚾️💣 . . . #baseball #ultimatebaseballtraining #baseballislife #homerun . 📸: @moralez_m18 @josedelrio2014

A post shared by Ultimate Baseball Training (@ultimatebaseballtraining) on May 19, 2017 at 5:21pm PDT

Golden Girls Cafe, a Facebook Post and Social Media

Earlier today, one of my Facebook "friends" posted this article about a cafe themed around the 1980s television show Golden Girls. (see the screen capture below)

Her post included a link to an ABC News affiliate where the story was posted. As you can see, for some reason the first person to comment did not want to actually click on the link and learn anything, and instead opted to just ask the person who posted the link to the story where the cafe is located.

The person who shared the story with Facebook replies "Not sure."

I am amazed by this.

Why would you post something to Facebook without knowing the details of the story? Was this person simply posting things based on catchy headlines? I clicked the link, and the opening sentence appears as such: "Time to grab the girls and head to New York for a cheesecake roundtable."

So, "New York" is the proper answer to the question.

If we fall victim to "fake news," well, it is out own fault. This is a minor, yet important example of the problem we have in this country (and the world) with the quality of news, complete with biases and mistakes. Social media has turned into a funnel for fake and inaccurate news, and sharing links which you have not yourself read, is as bad as the original garbage content in the first place.

I tried my best to hide the details of who said what here, the who is not important (you can tell by the few details I did include that the person who posted it initially is the same person who responded to the first comment).

Ditch the Man Cave; Bring Back the Study

I saw this online and it registered with me because I could not agree more. Ditch the man cave with jerseys and junk and video game consoles. Bring back the study with bookshelves and books and good music.

Has Anyone Seen Hillary?

Has Hilary been spotted in any black churches or black communities doing anything significant lately or that was just for the campaign? 🤔

— Pastor Carl Day ⛪️ (@PastorCarlDay) January 16, 2017

Nat Hentoff Dies; Listening to Billie Holiday Until the End

Saw earlier tonight that Nat Hentoff had died. I never met him, and unfortunately I was very late to his work, having not discovered him until the late 90s thanks to Drudge and the internet. Hentoff was a great writer, even when I did not agree with his point of view, I liked the way he wrote.

Anyway, I saw this tweet from Nat's son Nick just now and thought it worthy of posting. Listening to Billie Holiday...that's not a bad way to leave.

Sad to report the death of my father #NatHentoff tonight at the age of 91. He died surrounded by family listening to Billie Holiday. pic.twitter.com/15LEtUqBGh

— Nick Hentoff (@Nick_Hentoff) January 8, 2017

Former Professor of Mine Pens Editorial

I was about to leave San Antonio today after a long holiday visit. I flip to the editorial page of the San Antonio Express-News, and there before me an editorial by my "old" (maybe that should be "former") economics professor Cyril (Cy) Morong from my San Antonio College days. Aside from it just being kinda cool to see a former professor write in the newspaper, it also happens to be a good editorial.

Cy was a very interesting teacher, and I recall taking his class over a summer period, which means the class moved quickly, and many times did not lend itself to the thoughtful discussion that economics classes used to be about. We had a textbook for Cy's class, but we also had a supplemental reader, and I still own my copy and I still read it. In fact, the opening of the book will be featured as part of something else I am working on this year...more on that later.

Here is the editorial from this mornings paper: