Growing up in one of the most politically active communities in Houston, I was taught from an early age that voting was our most important civic duty. My father would always say “If you don’t vote, you don’t count.” In those days, people had a great deal of confidence in one another and our electoral...
As a first-generation American kid, the saying, “you only really appreciate something when it’s gone” was repeated to me ad nauseum and drilled into my brain by my parents, who were forced to flee their homeland of Cuba in 1960. I heard it at family gatherings as well, and when visitors came over. Hearing it...
If the February blackouts weren’t a wakeup call to the Texas Legislature, this week’s electricity conservation alerts — unheard of in mild April weather with demand nowhere close to peak levels — should make them bolt upright. It’s clear we desperately need market reform that prioritizes reliability, not just capacity. Unfortunately, “Texas-style blackouts” is already...
Should power generators be required to guarantee that they can provide a certain amount of electricity? That’s what state legislators are considering at the Texas Capitol. A cadre of out-of-state banks and tech companies fretted in a letter to state leaders that such a mandate would “inappropriately and unfairly” impose more costs on renewable energy companies. Instead,...
When I needed to get a test done at my local hospital, my first thought was to ask around and search the internet to determine what this would cost me. I’ve tried to ask the hospital directly before but have been told they can’t tell me what a procedure will cost until after it’s complete....
A recent Wall Street Journal article highlighted the devastating mental health effects of the pandemic on children. Kids have been subjected to stifling lockdowns even though there has been overwhelming evidence that children are at low to no risk of experiencing severe symptoms or transmitting COVID-19. While the article is certainly correct to emphasize the...
Is it time to end policing—as was recently insisted by a member of the majority party in the United States House of Representatives? In response to the shooting death of Duante Wright, Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan tweeted in part, “No more policing, incarceration, and militarization. It can’t be reformed,” equating policing with “government...
When the lights went out in Texas earlier this year, corporate media and the left swiftly developed a narrative and stuck to it: Texas failed because it didn’t regulate enough and it wasn’t part of the national grid. This storyline also claimed a lack of electricity from wind and solar had nothing to do with the...
“Those who educate children well are more to be honored than they who produce them; for these only gave them life, those, the art of living well.” So wrote the philosopher Aristotle in the Fourth Century B.C. Books are indispensable to a sound education, and in light last week being National Library Week, I wanted to look for...
As a candidate, Joe Biden promised amnesty for illegal immigrants already in the United States and expanded asylum for those on the way. Now that he’s become president, Biden formally lifted his predecessor’s pandemic-based prohibition on border crossings for minors from Northern Triangle countries, ostensibly turning away all other would-be immigrants. In February, 59 percent...
Medicaid expansion is not a good idea, and here’s why: It fails to improve the quality of care. Support for Medicaid expansion often looks like a new op-ed titled “Refusing to expand Medicaid is wrong call.” Although its author highlights the need to focus on the quality of care for specific individuals, he misses the...
When Texas voters walk into a polling place, the process is clear; election workers check them in, comparing their photo IDs to the county voter rolls. It takes seconds, but it adds a level of security to our election that Texans truly value. And Texans want the same security for their mail-in ballots; better than...