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THE TEXAS OBSERVER VOLUME 101, NO. 17 A Journal of Free Voices Since 1954 FOUNDING EDITOR Ronnie Dugger CEO/PUBLISHER Carlton Carl EDITOR Bob Moser MANAGING EDITOR Chris Tomlinson ASSOCIATE EDITOR Dave Mann INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER Melissa del Bosque STAFF WRITER Forrest Wilder ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Julia Austin CIRCULATION/OFFICE MANAGER Candace Carpenter ART DIRECTOR Daniel Lievens WEBMASTER Shane Pearson POETRY EDITOR Naomi Shihab Nye COPY EDITOR Rusty Todd CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Nate Blakeslee, Robert Bryce, Emily DePrang, Michael Erard, James K. Galbraith, Patricia Kilday Hart, Steven G. Kellman, Robert Leleux, James E. McWilliams, Char Miller, Ruth Pennebaker, Kevin Sieff, Brad Tyer, Andrew Wheat CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Jana Birchum, Alan Pogue, Steve Satterwhite CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS Maggy Brophy, Michael Krone, Dusan Kwiatkowski, Alex Eben Meyer, Ben Sargent TEXAS DEMOCRACY FOUNDATION BOARD Lisa Blue, Melissa Jones, Susan Longley, Jim Marston, Mary Nell Mathis, Gilberto Ocafias, Jesse Oliver, Bernard Rapoport, Geoffrey Rips, Geronimo Rodriguez, Sharron Rush, Kelly White, IN MEMORIAM Molly Ivins, 1944-2007, Bob Eckhardt, 1913-2001, Cliff Olofson, 1931-1995, Frankie Carter Randolph, 1894-1972 entire contents copyrighted 2009, is published biweekly except during April, June, October and December, when there is a 4-week break between St., -0746, fax Email [email protected] , texasobserver.org . Periodicals Postage paid in Austin, TX, and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER Send address changes to: The Texas Observer, 307 W. 7th St., Austin TX 78701. Subscriptions:l yr $32, 2 yr $59,3 yr $84. Students $20. Foreign, add $13 to domestic price. Back issues $5. Airmail, foreign, group, and bulk rates on request. Microfilm available from University Microfilms Intl., 30o N Zeeb Rd, Ann Arbor MI 48106.. INDEXES The Texas Observer is indexed in Access: The Supplementary Index to Periodicals; Texas Index; and, for the years 1954 through 1981, The Texas Observer Index. Investigative reporting is supported in part by a grant from the Open Society Institute. Books & the Culture is funded in part by the City of Austin through the Cultural Arts Division and by a grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts. r a ,1 OPEN SOCIETY INSTITUTE & Seslai owvJatsos Network Oaltwfal An. Man’s 8 7.den, \(Aug that formlitl dcerily e r is a a li tf Latino. ‘r c Observer ,…,.01th s we ei re b orn Mexico, server error. DIALOGUE FANNING THE FLAMES Thanks for drawing public attention to this scandalous environmental crime at Corpus Christi’s Citgo refinery \(“The disgrace that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, which is supposed to be protecting the environment, does nothing to prevent chemical fires and the release of dangerous fumes, which come at a huge cost to the health of those who live close to the refinery row in Corpus Christi. TCEQ needs to step up to the plate and stop protecting the filthy polluters and start representing the people it is supposed to serve. Corpus Christi has much to commend it in terms of the natural beauty of the coastal bend, but refinery row is a nasty eyesore, which represents a growing hazard to people who live in the areaparticularly the young and poor. Adrian Clark Posted at texasobserver.org SAVE THE SHARKS There is a solution to illegal, unsustainable shark fishing \(“Blood Treasure,” Worldwide this is a $30o million dollar industry and growing. Case in point Holbox, Mexico which has gone from a regional shark fishing hub to a multimillion-dollar whale shark tourism Mecca in just five short years. Re-purposing shark fisheries to shark tourism is as easy as making a cell phone ring. We’re missing the political will, and some vision. Fishermen make a few dollars per shark, when they could be making $4o-$8o per diver sustainably. Patric Douglas www.sharkdiver.com Posted at texasobserver.org IS GOD AN OLD MAN? Tom Palaima and Bob Jensen \(“The very different approaches to reality with stark differences. Palaima’s instructs a reality based on what was historical/ traditional and what will be a narrow, literal interpretation of scripture. The other approach, Jensen’s, instructs a reality based on what is. For Palaima tangible and narrowly interpreted. For Jensen, those stories are valid because they inform us in how love might be lived today. Jensen does not need an idol of an old man sitting on a throne either confirming choices with tickets to Heaven or tormenting souls for eternity. Given a choice between Palaima’s brand of Christianity and the Christianity of Jensen, I will always go with Jensen. Meredith Lancaster Coupland WHERE HAVE ALL THE COMMIES GONE? Thanks for this bit of Texas history that is not widely known about liberal leaders who emerged from the University of Texas at Austin in the mid-loth century \(“So Long to the Communist Threat,” when there were no Republican voting boxes, as far as I know, in my home county of Terry. It’s interesting to learn that in spite of all calling themselves Democratic Party members, the conservatives and liberals were battling even then. We need more personal memoirs like this. Betty Hamilton Posted at texasobserver.org IRVING’S CHANGING MAKE-UP It might be important to understand that the Latin American volkerverwanderung into Texas \(“White Man’s sity” at all. We used to have diversity, but these communities are simply becoming overwhelmingly Mexican as other groups leave. Joseph Lindsay Posted at texasobserver.org SEPTEMBER 4, 2009 TEXASOBSERVER.ORG 3