In other words: Don't steal the towels

The Wife and I took a quick trip this weekend to Winstar World Casino in Oklahoma.  The Wife had never been there, and it was a casino she wanted to visit, and I needed to get some face time in the poker room. (My game is not in a good place right now)

At around $200/night the casino tower is not a bad deal for a weekend rate, our room was a King Size premium room with a comfortable bed, a flat screen TV, a work desk and a chair.  One negative, for me, was that the room did not have a refrigerator. (Two words: mini-bar)  The bed was comfortable. It's unusual for me to get a restful night's sleep in most hotels. I hit this bed and immediately fell into a deep sleep both nights.

The downside to Oklahoma casinos is that there are no free drinks.  We knew this going in and brought beer and cider to drink in our room so it was OK. (I don't drink when I'm playing poker so it really isn't a big deal)  One tip: If you do want to purchase a drink it's worth your while to buy it at the Aces Lounge within the hotel, not at the bars in the casino.  You can't take the drink onto the gaming floor but the pours are MUCH MORE generous there and the prices are the same.  So take a break from gaming and sit down and enjoy a quiet drink at that bar.

I didn't snap pictures during this trip but I did get one picture of this little sign in our bathroom:

Don't take the towels, got it?

I've seen these before in some hotels and they never fail to generate a chuckle.

On another note: The towels sucked.  They were a little thin and scratchy.  I wouldn't want to take them even were I tempted.

All in all a good quick weekend.  With the new 75 MPH speed limits on some TX Highways it's just about a 5 hour drive. Not a bad weekend get-away if you don't require free alcohol at casinos.  (Note: Almost every license plate in the parking lot was from Texas, and almost everyone I talked to there was from Dallas/Fort Worth.  Oklahoma thanks you Texas for your tax dollars.)

Shorter Apple Dumpling Gang

Ted Cruz needs to turn down the heat. The Apple Dumpling Gang, Chron.com

Talk radio host and Texas state Sen. Dan Patrick is many things, but subtle is not one of them. So when he says that a fellow Republican is too confrontational, we'll take him at his word.

In other words: We didn't hear the interview in question so feel free to ignore everything else below this.


Shutter the Ed Board, and redeploy the resources to local news coverage.

More security genius from the TSA

Testing drinks purchased in the clean zone, I kid you not.....

Passengers could be asked to give drink samples to TSA, Janelle Ericsson, KJCT8.com

Passengers say their problem is not with the rules at the airport. They understand why drinks are not allowed through security, but when they buy one while they wait for their flight, they say the TSA shouldn't ask to test it.

The article is somewhat poorly written, but the concept is this:  After you pass security, inside the clean zone, you decide to purchase a drink from a store/restaurant etc.  The TSA now believes they should test that drink for.......well, they're not saying actually, they just want to pull you aside and test it.

It's a monumentally stupid idea from a monumentally incompetent agency that desperately needs some oversight.  Or better yet, to be outsourced to the individual airports and removed from Federal control.  In it's current form, the TSA is nothing but a jobs program for the unemployable. (I stole that from my friend Kevin).

I like the headline though.  "Passengers could be "asked" to give drink samples..."

Bull, they're going to be REQUIRED to do it, upon threat of detention.

International Growth up at IAH.

That's the good news in the following Houston Business Journal article:

Expedia Study: International Arrivals up at IAH. Matt Joyce, Houston Business Journal

Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport is growing as a destination for international travelers, according to an Expedia, Inc. analysis of customer data.
The Bellevue, Wash.-based online travel company found that international arrivals to IAH increased 9 percent in the first five months of 2012, compared with the first five months of 2011.

The bad news for IAH is a little further down:

Also in Texas, Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport saw 37 percent growth, and Austin-Bergstrom International Airport saw 23 percent growth.

It's important to note that this is ticket sales, and not increasing flights, that data wasn't analyzed here.  But it appears that DFW is growing their business while IAH is remaining somewhat stagnant.  Whether this was brought on by people moving their former United ticketing to American (which hubs out of Dallas) or not was not addressed.

There is a downside, to Houston, for all of this anti-UA anger, and it's going to be felt at the arrival/departure gate. Time will tell if this is the first sign of that.

If you think Houstonians hate United....

Wait until they start flying Spirit*.

Discount Airline Spirit will serve IAH, Chron.com

Non-reclining seats, fees for carry-on baggage , disastrous customer service and fares that may not be as cheap as advertised coupled with a Houston passenger base that has high expectations for even discounted coach product (if you don't believe me, read the comments of almost any UA article on Chron.com, or spend some time at IAH.) is a recipe for disaster.

And, believe me, some Houstonians hold a grudge. (again, go take a look at the comments for the Spirit article, it's a river of fire against UA for "abandoning" Houston.)

This could be the best thing that happens to United.  Compared to this airline, UA economy is going to feel like first class.









*this is not necessarily a knock on Spirit.  If you know what you're getting into with them and are OK paying fees for everything but oxygen they're you're airline, and some people really believe (as they do with Southwest) that they are getting a deal on the flights.

ChronBlog Class Warfare

Bringing it hard today.....

Most of you will never "see" my house either.

How dare they sell this house?

If only we all could enjoy Chesapeake's 1% tax rate. - This is the actual lead-in headline on the home page.

Tax break for Landry's - owned by Billionaire Tillman Fertita - on agenda. - Whether or not you're for these types of tax abatements (I'm not) whether or not the company in question is owned by a Billionaire is irrellevent.

In all of these stories the question isn't whether or not the subjects are wealthy, it's whether or not we're dealing with good public policy.  As someone who's against drilling subsidies and tax abatements I think they're bad public policy, but that holds the same for "green initiatives" or tax abatements "for the community" as well.  Bad tax policy is bad tax policy.

The home headline is just ridiculous.

There are, and always have been, rich and poor people on this planet, even in Socialist and Communist countries there was a wealthy class that lived off the backs of the poor.  The Politburo had Dachas while the proletariat had bread lines.  Income disparity is very real, and not really all that bad of a thing.  Oddly enough, in progressive states, such as California, the income disparity is greater, on average, than the rest of the nation.  My guess is that this is partially driven by the lack of wealthy businesspeople willing to invest in jobs that are sure to be taxed out of profitability.

I understand that ChronBlog, for all of its ballyhooing about the death of newspapers and their comparative worth to a community, is a bad newspaper whose current editorial slant is doing more harm than good to Houston and her repuation, but that doesn't mean that this type of shoddy, attention-grabbing, schlock should go unchallenged.  Certainly not when they bemoan a low tax rate while supporting (on the editorial side) almost every tax increase that's come down the pipe.  At least be intellectually honest and suggest that Chesapeake's tax rate should be dramitically increased.  That's the argument ChronBlog is making, not that the populace should be taxed less.  It's not that the poor are being put upon, but that the "rich" are not being burdened enough.....

Except newspapers of course, these for-profit enterprises should be given special treatment, as if their contribution to society somehow outweighs that of the oil and gas industry.