Oak Cliff Primp

In order to maintain a level of sanity -which is required to live in Dallas from time to time- one may find themselves skipping on Vern's old timey barber shop for a more refined experience. For me this sophisticated happening takes place in Oak Cliff, a revitalized part of town with old Dallas charm and a twi$t.

Oak Cliff has seen a transformation in recent times with the addition of the Bishop Arts district, some updating of local landmarks, very good restaurants and the place where I get my hair did, Solstice Salon.

Yep, old Vern gives a fair cut at a fair price, but ask yourself, "Am I Worth It?"
The answer is 'yes my friend you are worth it.'
Solstice has a relaxed and chic atmosphere. It's an experience for all the senses to enjoy. I usually stumble in before lunch and grab a cup of their fresh coffee then relax into a therapeutic shampoo with hot towels and aromatherapy before my haircut. Owner Frank Solis and his sister Marisa have years of experience in the DFW area and Frank's wife Amy is in charge of (amazing) facial treatments.

My awakening doesn't end there, oh no, after all I am in "The Cliff," I might as well enjoy it and I do...
Now it's time to head over to Bolsa for some lunch. There aren't many lunches in Dallas under ten dollars; at Bolsa you get the freshest, local ingredients prepared to perfection and presented like a 5 star meal.  As if this wasn't enough they also boast a mixology bar with some of the best cocktails in the city.  $10 M-F lunch special and $5 mixology drinks.
I had the BLT with pickled onions and arugula, butternut squash soup, and an

Agua Miel                   

Ambhar Reposado Infused w/Chamomile,

Lime, Raw Honey Syrup

*salute*

Total lunch $15 plus tip.*salute twice*

You can't hardly get thru the line at McDonanlds for 15 bucks. At Bolsa they exceed my expectations every time. 

Seriously, it's such a hidden jewel I hate to even share it with you.

Finally, some shopping to top off the afternoon. Not Target or Northpark. No, you needs something unique. Something a little artsy fartsy. Bishop Arts is the district for you, homeboy.

Take a stroll down the old school streets, do a little window shopping and be sure to poke your head in Artisans Collective. Where local artists display their original works for your perusal. Make a purchase, support a local artist and walk away with a one of a kind gift. (literally)

In order to maintain a level head, metrosexual status and feed the soul... take a 'man appreciation day' in Oak Cliff. 

Sometimes you just have to treat yourself...

Why?

Because...

You're so money you don't even know it.

Garth Brooks On Obama

So Garth Brooks supports Obama's presidency. Wonder who Chris Gaines supports?

Dont let another vacation be ruined by socialism...

This failure of a generation is as true in the halls of Congress as it is at Penn State.

I watched the Gabby Giffords 20/20 special last night on ABC. Talk about courage. I was reminded of the events of that day and how a couple of brave bystanders wrestled the shooter to the ground as he tried to reload. There's no telling how many more lives would have been taken that day had those brave strangers not come to the rescue by putting their lives in harms way for the good of their fellow man.

If you follow the news like I do, you'll find many stories of heroes in our country who do the same thing everyday. I'm not talking about just police and firemen either. I'm talking about strangers going about their lives and crossing paths with a choice between right and wrong. Like the man who entered the convenience store to find a robbery taking place. The man rushed to the back and grabbed a beer bottle, came to the register and clocked the gunman over the head, he was then shot 4 times. He survived and possibly saved the clerks life. He said he didn't see himself as a hero but rather he was just doing the right thing.

This brings me to the Penn St. scandal.  As educators and coaches, do they not have the legal and moral responsibility to protect children from harms way?
How could these crimes of pedophilia be covered up and allowed to continue on?
How can the NCAA and college sports fans look the other way and allow Penn St. to finish their football season?
How can students of an American University support the enablers of pedophilia?
Apparently this phenomenon is all to real in America.

"If they were completely objective, they would say, 'These people did something terrible and I can't support them, I cannot be in their corner.'" says Dr. Don Forsyth, a psychology professor specializing in group dynamics at the University of Richmond. "But they aren't objective."

PDiddie breaks it down:
What's happening to the students in Happy Valley is a common psychological phenomenon. The rest of the country watches the students and thinks they're missing the point. But in the students' minds, the story is happening to them. After all, "We are Penn State."

Social psychologists use two terms: BIRGing and CORFing -- Basking in Reflected Glory and Cutting off Reflected Failure. In the first, fans of a football team, for example, want to identify with the players' success. Decked out in team gear, they'll say, "We had a great win. We were awesome," when in reality the fans had no part in the win. Cutting off Reflected Failure happens when a team makes a mistake or loses, and fans blame it on an external factor to distance themselves from the defeat. "The refs were biased. The weather's bad." The true blame doesn't lie with the team.

"This is clearly a case of collective identity," says Dr. Forsyth of the Penn State reaction. "Students leave home, leave their family and they want to identify with their school. Their school has always been a place of tradition and honor, and that has been tarnished. So when they lose that identity, they panic."


What's happening to the students in Happy Valley is a common psychological phenomenon. The rest of the country watches the students and thinks they're missing the point. But in the students' minds, the story is happening to them. After all, "We are Penn State."

Social psychologists use two terms: BIRGing and CORFing -- Basking in Reflected Glory and Cutting off Reflected Failure. In the first, fans of a football team, for example, want to identify with the players' success. Decked out in team gear, they'll say, "We had a great win. We were awesome," when in reality the fans had no part in the win. Cutting off Reflected Failure happens when a team makes a mistake or loses, and fans blame it on an external factor to distance themselves from the defeat. "The refs were biased. The weather's bad." The true blame doesn't lie with the team.

"This is clearly a case of collective identity," says Dr. Forsyth of the Penn State reaction. "Students leave home, leave their family and they want to identify with their school. Their school has always been a place of tradition and honor, and that has been tarnished. So when they lose that identity, they panic."

 And the cognitive dissonance gets worse.

Many students see JoePa as a victim, and their strong identity with him means they feel like victims, too. So they blame the media or the legal system. Is it a coincidence that the only real material damage from the riots was an overturned TV news truck? Respected ESPN reporter Tom Farrey said he was hit by a rock.

Most of us can't truly relate to the most important part of this story; the part that really has nothing to do with football. The part with the kids whose lives have never and will never be the same after such abuse from adults they were supposed to be able to trust. The part with the parents who couldn't save their children from sexual predators. But when you're 18 or 19 years old in State College, football is what you see everywhere around you and abuse (and the victims' faces) are hidden.

Think of the world our parents’ generation inherited. They inherited a country of boundless economic prosperity and the highest admiration overseas, produced by the hands of their mothers and fathers. They were safe. For most, they were endowed opportunities to succeed, to prosper, and build on their parents’ work.

For those of us in our 20s and early 30s, this is not the world we are inheriting.

We looked to Washington to lead us after September 11th. I remember telling my college roommates, in a spate of emotion, that I was thinking of enlisting in the military in the days after the attacks. I expected legions of us -- at the orders of our leader -- to do the same. But nobody asked us. Instead we were told to go shopping. 
 
The times following September 11th called for leadership, not reckless, gluttonous tax cuts. But our leaders then, as now, seemed more concerned with flattery. Then -House Majority Leader and now-convicted felon Tom Delay told us, “nothing is more important in the face of a war than cutting taxes.” Not exactly Churchillian stuff.

Those of us who did enlist were ordered into Iraq on the promise of being “greeted as liberators,” in the words of our then-vice president. Several thousand of us are dead from that false promise.

We looked for leadership from our churches, and were told to fight not poverty or injustice, but gay marriage. In the Catholic Church, we were told to blame the media, not the abusive priests, not the bishops, not the Vatican, for making us feel that our church has failed us in its sex abuse scandal and cover-up.

Our parents’ generation has balked at the tough decisions required to preserve our country’s sacred entitlements, leaving us to clean up the mess. They let the infrastructure built with their fathers’ hands crumble like a stale cookie. They downgraded our nation’s credit rating. They seem content to hand us a debt exceeding the size of our entire economy, rather than brave a fight against the fortunate and entrenched interests on K Street and Wall Street.

Now we are asking for jobs and are being told we aren’t good enough, to the tune of 3.3 million unemployed workers between the ages of 25 and 34.
 
This failure of a generation is as true in the halls of Congress as it is at Penn State.

With the 60 Minutes report last night that Your Congress has been trading stocks on insider information (which is illegal everywhere else in the country) you can only arrive at one conclusion: it's time to clean house.

And with the police crackdowns on Occupy encampments in Portland and Oakland last night and this morning, is there anybody still wondering what that is all about?

UPDATE: Last night NYPD rounded up all reporters from the OWS site so they couldn't film what was about to happen. They then moved in and forcibly removed the protesters. Check your social media for real news about the nights events.

Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progrogressive Alliance is beginning to think fond thoughts of cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, and, um, something else it can't quite recall -- oops! -- as it brings you this week's blog roundup.

Off the Kuff took a tour of Houston elections from the 1990s to see how they compared to more modern matchups.

Following Rick Perry's latest gaffes, Letters From Texas explains why the governor has become such a hopeless band nerd that the crazy girl who can't get a prom date pities him.

Darth Politico commemorates Veterans Day with a discussion about the history of red tape and veterans benefits. Emphasis on 'red'.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson points out that Republicans in Texas are boxed in. They know know taxes must be raised to run our state's government, but can't bring themselves to say it, much less do it: Texas GOP's cowardice.

On the same night Houston Mayor Annise Parker celebrated barely being re-elected, a few blocks away the HPD arrested seven Occupy Houstonians for refusing to move a tarp which the police called a tent. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs doesn't think that's a great way to start a second term ... unless she plans on again representing the 1%, that is.

BossKitty at TruthHugger sees another disappointing campaign season. Inundated with Republican this and Tea Party that, BossKitty is embarrassed by what we are hearing in the post Republican Whack-a-Mole Misses the Point. Some economic guru is writing the script for each candidate to spout as the only way to get back on track, because it is always Obama's fault. We all know it was Obama's fault even before he was born. But some of the solutions totally miss the big picture.

Bay Area Houston is remembering on Veterans Day on how we continue to screw our vets.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme notes that BP wants the government to hide data while celebrating the end of its cleanup responsibility. This week: crony capitalists 2, regular citizens 0.

Lightseeker at TexasKaos gives a brief summary of the GOP voter suppression campaign gearing up for 2012. Check it out: Voter Suppression Update 2011.

Neil at Texas Liberal attended an Occupy Houston press conference about OH participants arrested by Houston police for covering up electrical equipment with a tarp during a rainstorm. If only Occupy efforts across the nation had the same First Amendment protections as large anonymous corporate political donations enjoy under the Citizens United case.

Sunday Funnies