lost highway

But the reason you're getting annexed is the state of TX is losing income tax revenue so they're leaving it to the cities and counties to provide basic services like road repair. This incentivises the cities to annex areas to broaden their tax base since they're paying more of the bill than other cities in neighboring states.

The taxes in your state are unruly because you aren't paying income tax, and none of your citizens are. It might sound like a libertarian utopia, until someone's got to pave a road.

Sometimes I fear we are using our "smart" devices to willingly handicap ourselves as humans.

I loved Black Swan Green, but I found A Thousand Autumns of Jacob DeZoet to be one of the best books of the decade. Such a huge scale, interesting history, it really had it all for me. I'm thinking with Bone Clocks that it's probably not the last book we'll see from him. Just like with music, a career-artist is entitled to put out a stinker, or at least something that's uneven. Don't let my comments prevent you from reading it, there's certainly some enjoyment in there. In fact the book is divided into 6 separate narratives from different characters' perspectives and different moments in

I'm nearing the end of this one. It's been kind of a disappointment. In turns captivating and other moments ridiculous. I don't mind a mixed bag, but Mitchell has been one of my favorites because I've found all of his work to be so masterfully done. Clunky and awkward fantasy prose was not something I expected from him.

There's some weird stuff going on with public opinion on the right (I could take apart the left on a host of other issues). It's like this: Anything Obama does that you don't like is destroying the constitution. You don't need to know how, if it's bad, it must be illegal. Conversely, anything a police officer does, if legal, is good. It's as if there's no need to change any law because they're automatically good. Choke a guy to death? Court says it's okay, then we're done here. Obama does something I don't like, then it's illegal. There's an authoritarian (neo-fascist?) thread in wha

Maybe it means that the kids got old.

I saw the Preservation Hall Jazz Band in Los Angeles last night. It was pretty fun.

Now don't get crazy. (I'm going to have to check out NRBQ).

Me too. Also as a kid cutting my teeth on punk rock in the early 90's I had some weird ones like: Husker Du via Lifetime The Who via Green Day Wire via Minor Threat The Monkees via Minor Threat Wipers via Nirvana

I think there's plenty of bias on the part of the critics of cops. This has never been about what all police are doing to me. I think the "Fuck the Poh Lees" camp is wrong, and they're in the way of progress. The problem is about what this one officer did. It would seem letting this guy off lends to much merit to people who have some overarching perception of "all cops". You and I know that "all cops" don't shoot unarmed people.

You can't be armed by the weapon you're being shot with.

Probably so. Apologies sir.

See, this attitude is a barrier to accountability. I don't want to live in a country where law enforcement is regarded as a feral dog that you should know better than to aggravate. I believe a certain level of competence should build trust, as opposed to this loose-cannon fear. Hixter might bow before the same night stick this officer should have used, and a lot of what he's saying is procedurally true. That's part of a broken system to me; as a taxpayer I don't believe law enforcement should ever be justified in unloading on an unarmed man. It's insane. It wouldn't happen in many other coun

And so it made sense that after he was shot once, the officer prudently shot him more times in case after sustaining the first gunshot wound he might once again get up and take the gun that had just shot him. From there what's a few more bullets?

And it's not good. The system is looking a little broken here.

I finally got around to Jolie Holland's Wine Dark Sea. It's pretty amazing- definitely her grittiest album to date.

Yeah, that could prove worse than any pipeline.

I still find it strange that some people think of citizenship as some kind of currency that they earned, but others are trying to shortcut and steal. Apparently being born into a wealthy nation as a winner of the cosmic lottery entitles you to look with fear and disdain at anyone who aspires towards similar opportunities.

The fact is that this country's rhetoric on illegals has been in bad faith for decades. The reason our "laws keep getting their teeth kicked out" are that they're obsolete. They've been impossible to successfully enforce for so long, that now they stand in the shadow of the fact that the people breaking them are essential to our economy. So many south-western conservatives that come from money can stand like the eagle from the muppets, saluting in front of stars and stripes, while these darned illegals manicure their lawn, replace their roof, and do the drywall on their basement remodel pr

Please elaborate.

Whatever they did, it turned out a heck of a lot better than the last one.

I read that and never figured out what he meant. Maybe that they hadn't realized the strength of the record they'd made?

Man they need to hire an editor at some "pint" to read "ever" paragraph. Other thoughts: 'Cars Can't Escape' sounds a lot different than the version I've had for years, it's way better. 'The Good Part' is a little different too. 'Let Me Come Home' is a crazy mess of a song. I agreed with Jeff it's a difficult listen. Is the version of 'Hummingbird' exactly the same as the Wilcobook version? I somehow don't remember it sounding quite like that. I think that Wilco's production aesthetic, and perhaps just the way people make recordings sound now, versus in the mid 90's is WAY better.