Why are conservative white men so angry?

Across the pond, from the Guardian.

(Michael Kimmel's new book) strokes a broad, acerbic brush over the white supremacists of the Mason-Dixon Line, the NRA and Tea Party stalwarts of the Bible Belt, the men's rights activists of cyberspace and the high school spree shooters of parental nightmares. The common feature, he argues, is their shared belief that certain degrees of status, privilege and social advantage, perceived to be their natural or god-given rights, have been snatched away by sudden social change. The resulting anger is targeted not at a globalised neoliberal economic system that has declared ordinary people expendable – irrespective of their race, class or gender – but immigration, civil rights and feminism. 

Yes, the South is full of these.  Texas is all but consumed by them.  They are much more likely than not to be middle-aged and living no closer to a city than in an exurban belt at least 20 miles out.  They own more than one gun, listen to Rush Limbaugh, and have a broadband Internet connection which they use primarily to post comments on Free Republic, Townhall, Breitbart, and Yahoo (scroll down and click 'view comments').

Thus their POV is represented online to a vastly greater proportion than is actually present in the public discourse.

They're the minority.  Thinking people know this.  But they scream so incessantly and so loudly that people in public office and the media and even those who disagree with everything they say think they're the majority.

Their complaints are heard mostly by those of their creed and social status whom they have elected to represent them in Washington and Austin.  This is a slightly different problem, though, because so many Americans who are not like them have ceded them control over their lives.  This is why I can agree with Russell Brand's message while rejecting his suggestion not to vote.

The answer to the question in the headline?  I don't care.  They just need to be made to understand that they don't call the shots any more.  And the only way to do that without firing any shots is to show up at the polls.

They're not taking the country back.  Well, they won't if we stop them, that is.

Dome's fate punted back to Harris commissioners

The county's voters rejected public debt to fund the proposed convention facility last Tuesday; that was not to be interpreted as "tear down the Dome".

The Houston Astrodome's obituary may have been written when voters rejected a $217 million bond proposal to renovate it, but some Harris County commissioners who will decide its ultimate fate said Wednesday it's possible that burial for the city's landmark structure is still some time away, if it comes at all.

"It's anybody's guess now," Steve Radack, one of the five members of the Harris County Commissioners Court, said.

And a quick decision or start to the demolition of the world's first air-conditioned domed stadium, dubbed the "Eighth Wonder of the World"?

"That's not going to happen," Radack said.

"We will wait to see what the consensus of Commissioners Court is before we decide what to do with the Dome," another commissioner, El Franco Lee, said.

For those of us who want to see the old girl live on, Commissioner Radack has assumed the role of Astrodome protaganist.

Studies in recent years have estimated that the cost of demolishing the Astrodome to be as much as $78 million. Radack said he understood it would cost about $20 million to fill the hole left behind.

"I think the Dome has served its purpose, but I'll say this: I'm not going to support tearing it down and then covering the hole with $20 million in dirt and a parking lot," he said. "If that's all, it can just stand there."

It doesn't have to do that, either.  It can be a revenue-generating public facility and remain an iconic symbol of Houston's past... and future.  My request of the Harris County Commissioners Court is to please consider again the Ryan Slattery (UH architecture student) option.

The Rodeo and the Texans want parking; the Dome sits over a 35-foot-deep hole in the ground with a 9-acre footprint.  There's your parking garage, and it can be two levels.  Eighteen acres' worth of underground parking.  Put a floor down over that (a roof for the garage) and then strip the Dome to its skeleton -- a Texas version of the Eiffel Tower -- and repurpose it as a semi-open air park.

(It probably can't have a crater with a lake and trees as seen here, but it can be nine acres of green space with grass, shallow-rooted indirect sunlight-flourishing shrubbery, pavilions, playgrounds, walking paths, concessions, etc.)

A park like this instantly becomes the crown jewel of the city.  An actual tourist destination for people from around the world ... just like the Eiffel Tower.  A selling point for the Olympics.  Perhaps most importantly of all, a bold symbol of a world-class city that pays tribute to its heritage and shines as brightly as its future.

Let the Rodeo and the Texans collect the fees for the subterranean parking -- your car stays cool in the summer! -- with half of the money collected paying back the taxpayers for the deconstruction and revitalization expenses until the (yes, public) debt is settled.  After that, those greedy bastards can keep it all.

It's the best way -- as far as I can see the only way -- that everybody can get what they want.

This is the plan, commissioners.  Make it happen.