Hixter

75%. "If you ain't a native, you sure are fixin' ta become one! This clearly ain't your first rodeo." Getting ready to drive up to Austin for an evening of drinking and dining with some old friends; I'll definitely make sure I'm gone before President Obama's arrival screws up traffic tomorrow night. It's too bad he couldn't find the time to visit illegal-immigrant-stressed south Texas, but I guess that might adversely impact his $32,000-per-plate fundraiser at director Robert Rodriguez's house.

I don't think it would be stretching the truth to say that close to 50% of my friends are teachers. There are 4 or 5 Ph.D.s among them, and although I know that they work hard, they aren't busting their asses any more than most people I know; I see plenty of Facebook posts and text messages during their office hours. Technology has lessened our workload, and that's great, but I still don't feel that most people work as hard now as they did in my earliest days in the workforce. That includes myself. As for blue-collar workers, I have spent countless hours around less-than-legal workers from s

The '79 tour was pretty good, as they had something to prove. I first saw them on the somewhat lackluster 1982 tour, but the show I saw in Orlando was incredible -- especially for a stadium gig. The band had just come off a break and were raring to go. Still my favorite show of all time. Joan Jett and the B-52s opened.

There's a lot of truth to that. Things seem to have changed, even in the 30 years that I've been in the workforce. A large number of people sit behind Internet-connected computers these days and it's almost a given that they'll waste a lot of time screwing around on non-work-related browsing. Then there are the text messages, phone calls and the almost ubiquitous 'leave early on Friday.' Our grandfathers' generation would shake their heads at how lazy and pampered we've become. Some of it is certainly due to the loss of labor-intensive manufacturing jobs, but we're still a rather doughy work

1968 - 1973 was definitely the peak of their power: Sell Out, Tommy, Live at Leeds, Who's Next and Quadrophenia. I think that 5-year span was pretty much the pinnacle of rock and roll music as a whole.

Summerteeth

“What we’re seeing is a growing trend of low-quality part-time jobs,” said Carrie Gleason, director of the Fair Work Week Initiative, which is pushing for labor reforms. “It’s creating this massive unproductive workforce that is unable to productively engage in their lives or in the economy.”

That's fair as long as he also gets credit for the impending crash that's almost certain to follow. The markets are overpriced and ripe for a 30%-50% correction sometime in the next couple of years. Probably much sooner.

That graphic is from 2011 and fracking has grown so quickly since then that the United States is now the world's largest oil producer. I believe we're a net exporter these days. Check out the production in Texas and North Dakota:

Certainly wasn't boring. Well played by the USA team!

Today I went to the dentist and while checking out a panoramic x-ray of my teeth, he remarked that my left and right jaw joints were very dissimilar. I told him the story of an 18-year-old me drinking with my friends when one of the guys grabbed his father's handcuffs and cuffed me behind my back. After a few minutes of "I can't find the key," my friend picked me up at the waist and gravity did the rest. I fell about 4 feet onto my chin and shattered several molars and couldn't open my mouth for 3 weeks. The dentist's response was, "Dude, that's a terrible story!" Besides a childhood tonsill

If not, it looks like the whole thing is on YouTube. I also loved the Isle of Wight video.

This is my favorite post-Moon DVD, since it was done as a 5-piece. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Vegas_Job

The Israeli government has been blaming Hamas all along.

I doubt they'll dig out more than one or two old chestnuts, but I'll gladly fork over a few bucks to see The Two one last time.

As if the region didn't already have enough problems, the three teenagers kidnapped in Israel have been found dead, so a strong Israeli military response is very likely. One of the 16-year-olds was an American citizen, so we're in the mix, too.

Quite an exciting match. Wish I'd been at the pub to watch it.

It is quite possible -- and even reasonable -- to look at the available evidence and make a judgment call. I'm neither judge nor jury, but I'm allowed to have an opinion. OJ Simpson was acquitted, but in my mind he'll always be a murderer, and I arrived at that opinion by considering the available evidence. As of this moment, all the available evidence points to Bergdahl being a deserter. No I haven't. I've never called him a terrorist and I said that he may be a traitor. That distinction will depend on whether or not he aided the enemy. Because it's the law. Because that's how things

I'm quite adept at sifting through evidence and coming to a conclusion. To date, all of the evidence from parties close to the situation hasn't exactly painted Bergdahl as a model soldier. No, I wasn't there, but I wasn't aboard the Apollo 11 spacecraft, either, but I'm quite confident that it actually went to the moon. Likewise, and so far none of the facts have contradicted the presumption that Bergdahl was a deserter and, possibly, a traitor. As someone else has mentioned, I want him to have his day in court, but the desertion charge seems like a slam-dunk case.

White House: Yes, The Taliban Is a Terrorist Organization It standard practice to wait until the cessation of hostilities before POWs are released. Such release is conditional upon the promise that they will not return to fight their former captors. And these were not your average POWs, they were from the upper echelons of the enemy's command structure. Such prisoners are often tried for war crimes after the end of hostilities. “Is there a possibility of some of them trying to return to activities that are detrimental to us? Absolutely." -- President Obama

It's Friday afternoon, so I believe I'll have a beer.

What's conjecture? That the men are dangerous? The 5 Taliban were judged to be at high risk to continue their battle with America if they were to be released. A family member of one of the men has reported that after his release he promised to go back to Afghanistan and fight Americans. It isn't conjecture that he deserted, either. He packed all of his valuables and sent them home. He was seen crawling away from the base by Afghan nationals. Others reported that he was asking where he could find the Taliban. He's a deserter at best and possibly a traitor at worst. It isn't conjecture that

I think most people of any political party would say that trading 5 dangerous terrorists -- while the war is still ongoing -- for a deserter with self-professed anti-American feelings, would be a bad idea. It would have been darkly ironic if the Taliban he so eagerly sought out had killed him.

What exactly are you referring to?

There's plenty of dissent on the other side of the aisle, too, with the latest coming from former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta. I'd also suppose expect that most Democrats up for election in November will either distance themselves from the deal or remain mum.