Dear Santa, Howdy from Texas, big man. Hope things are well up at the North Pole, where I assume the ice hasn’t melted, the power grid works, and y’all haven’t deported any elves. I’m writing because I have a few tiny Christmas wishes for next year. Nothing huge. Just small, achievable miracles on par with, […]
Category: Opinion
Posted inOpinion
A Moment With Rob Reiner That Meant Everything
The year was 2015. I was not in a good place. I had quit my lucrative (ha) job in newspaper journalism to enter the equally lucrative world of local television, hosting a late-night comedy show on The CW in Austin. It was exhilarating, but I had no idea what I was doing. I was the […]
Posted inOpinion
Remember the ‘War on Christmas’? I Kinda Miss It.
Remember the “War on Christmas”? Yes, that early-2000s fever dream when Fox News convinced half the country that “Happy Holidays” was basically Sharia law in a festive font. A time when the right blamed “secularists” for everything, but everyone understood the subtext: post-9/11 panic, a dash of Islamophobia, and a preview of the endlessly escalating […]
Posted inPolitics
‘We Gave Tax Cuts to the Rich and Made Life Sh*t for the Poor.’ Texas Just Passed 17 New Constitutional Amendments.
Fewer than 3 million Texans bothered to vote this week, but that didn’t stop them from rewriting the state’s constitution — again — mostly in ways that make life easier for property owners, business interests, and the already comfortable. In a turnout so low it barely qualifies as “consent of the governed,” voters approved 17 […]
Posted inOpinion
When Storytelling Is Called ‘Terrorism’: How My Friend and Fellow Journalist Was Targeted by ICE
I remember meeting Ya’akub Vijandre a little more than two years ago. We were at the first Dallas protest held in the aftermath of Israel’s bloody siege of Gaza following the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas. This was back when I was still working with Dallas Weekly and Ya’akub was gathering content for his […]
Posted inEditor's Letter
Texas Is a Lot More Queer Than You Think. I Am Too.
I think I need to start at the beginning, because I’ve never talked about this publicly. During freshman orientation at McGill University, I ended up on a pedestrian-only stone street strung with pink decorations: The Gay Village in Montreal, Canada. There’s a Saint-Pierre-Apôtre Church with a Chapel of Hope dedicated to AIDS victims. Rainbows. Murals. […]
Posted inCulture
Oscar Wyatt Was Houston’s Oil-Slicked Gatsby. Step Inside His ‘Tower of Terror.’
Late last week my mom texted me, “Only the good die young.” Then, “Oscar Wyatt.” The 101-year-old oil tycoon was primarily famous for turning an $800 loan in 1955 into a pipeline company that became the Coastal Corporation — a national energy conglomerate that earned him billions. He passed away in Houston last week “peacefully […]
Posted inOpinion
Cool! It Really Looks Like Greg Abbott is Taking Orders From Libs of TikTok
Fellow Texans, it’s our sad duty to report that our governor appears to be taking his marching orders from a right-wing social media account (and, yes, we’re talking about … sigh … Libs of TikTok). While it’s a well-known fact that Gov. Greg Abbott lives in fear of being flanked on the right, in these […]
Posted inOpinion
Ken Paxton Compared Charlie Kirk to Jesus — Then Used Him as an Excuse to Crush Free Speech
In the conservative Christian movement, Charlie Kirk was more than a far-right activist — to many, including Attorney General Ken Paxton, the self-described free speech advocate who founded Turning Point USA was a martyr who died for his cause. That sentiment was on full display Tuesday night at an event organized by the Texas Tech […]
Posted inSports
Hey, New York Times? Stay Out of Texas Football Family Business.
Hey, New York Times, leave Arch Manning alone. This is family business. Has the University of Texas’ starting quarterback underperformed? Obviously. But is he “college football’s first flop,” as Times asked yesterday? Is he now a “man synonymous with failure?” Not really! He’s been … just okay! Reporter Will Leitch compared Manning to, among other […]