One of the community celebrations that make this the most conservative segment of Old Route 66 habitable took place this past weekend. Yes, the 33rd annual Tulsa Pride celebration attracted thousands to Downtown Tulsa on Saturday afternoon and evening culminating in the Pride Parade. This is an annual festival sponsored by Oklahomans for Equality. Yours truly was…
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Petroleum interests uber alles
Make no mistake about it, when it comes to pet industries of the State of Oklahoma Big Oil & Gas has a firm lock on the top spot. Yes indeed, just last week the small government conservative majority in the state legislature and their rubber stamp governor passed a law banning municipalities from imposing bans on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and…
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An Oklahoma primary for Independents?
It has been a busy weekend along the most conservative stretch of Old Route 66, especially for those of the Democratic persuasion. Friday evening many of the Oklahoma Democratic Party leadership met at the Tower Hotel in Oklahoma City for the annual Carl Albert awards dinner. After all the awards for Activist of the Year…
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Memorializing a wrong and worn out narrative
It was an eventful and amusing week along this exceedingly conservative stretch of Old Route 66 in the run up to the Memorial Day weekend. The justly earned “Tempest in a Teapot” award goes to the local ABC affiliate KTUL for their coverage of a Politico article posted to the Tulsa County Democratic Party Facebook page last…
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Arming our public schools
The deeply ingrained firearm culture has expanded yet again, this time to Oklahoma public schools. Governor Mary Fallin signed off on House Bill 2014 earlier this week. This new law authored by freshman representative Jeff Coody of HD 63 (Lawton) is intended to provide an extra level of security by allowing a trained school employee to carry a handgun on school…
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RUSH rocks the BOK!
Tulsa’s BOK Center was the venue for the opening show of Rush’s 2015 R40 Live tour. Rush, a three-member hard rock band from Toronto, Ontario, can still pack a stadium sized concert hall with all manner of fans and devotees that hang on every note and stay lost in the sound until the final curtain drops. This…
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“the right of the people peaceably to assemble,”
Three weeks ago I posted about the breaking scandal which has embroiled the Tulsa County Sheriff Stanley Glanz and his department. Since then undersheriff Tim Albin has resigned, reserve deputy Robert Bates has been allowed to go on vacation to the Bahamas despite facing charges of second degree manslaughter, Sheriff Stanley Glanz had stated although he…
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Saigon in memoriam
President Nixon’s achievement of “Peace with Honor” with North Vietnam came crashing down with the Fall of Saigon forty years ago this week. Three North Vietnamese Army regiments seized the South Vietnamese capitol virtually unopposed and crashed the gates of the Presidential Palace soon after the U.S. diplomatic contingent evacuated the embassy along with as many South Vietnamese citizens as…
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Movie review: The Water Diviner
War is definitely the gift that keeps on giving. It was appropriate that The Water Diviner, a fictional post-World War I historical drama, opened the day before the 100th anniversary of the start of the military campaign which inspired it. Russell Crowe directs and acts in the lead role and seems to gain a measure of redemption…
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The death grip on the death penalty
Death by nitrogen hypoxia. That is the latest modality now legally available to the State of Oklahoma to carry out death sentences. Governor Fallin signed off on HB 1879 last week after it wound its way through the legislature and was placed on her desk. The bill’s author is Representative Mike Christian from HD 93 (South…
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