You Didn't Build That--Somebody Else Made That Happen

I read the entire speech. I have watched it multiple times. He's talking about two different things. There are brilliant people who are food servers yet will never catch a break that another person, perhaps not as intelligent, will. That might be due to luck. But, this has nothing to do with the following: 


"If you’ve got a business -- you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen."


That statement is complete BS. All of the risks for business owners reside with them and their investors. That is it. The avenues of capitalism are there for all of us. Are we blessed to live in this nation where we have these sorts of opportunities? Of course. So, Henry Ford did not build that company? Bill Gates did not build Microsoft? Steve Jobs did not build Apple? Any restauranteur, who risked their life savings to own their own dream job, the buck does not stop with them? Maybe they were all lucky. Or, maybe they all were driven much more so than the typical individual. That great teacher Obama spoke of, why did not ALL of their students reach their potential? It goes beyond family upbringing and their personal network. Are my college professors responsible for my successes today? No. Were they paid to provide a platform for me to show prospective employers that I can be assigned an elongated, multi-categorical task and complete it successfully? Yes. I have two friends that I went to college with who own their own companies. They took massive risks to build them into what they are today. Each had a financial backer who got a return on his investment. That investor and entrepreneur stood to lose their respective pants if the idea was not executed properly. 


All successful companies are due to team efforts to a certain extent. You must surround yourself with the right people in order for it to click on all cylinders. I sell homes. I need a quality product and a good builder coupled with a good location in order to be successful. But, they don't get anything done without a good salesperson at the helm of the community. If homes do not sell, we stall and everyone's job is in jeopardy. 


In closing, I do not think Obama is a bad human being. We just see things differently. You won't see me demonizing him essentially because it is not the right thing to do. I cannot imagine the pressure a president feels while in that oval office. They all age a ridiculous amount while there. I feel Obama is more of a salesman as opposed to Bush. Obama believes that government knows best. I emphatically disagree with that sentiment.

Come Back to Texas...

It's just not the same since you went away
Before you lose your accent
And forget all about the Lone Star state
There's a seat for you at the rodeo and I've got every slow dance saved
Besides the Mexican food sucks north of here anyway.

Who knew that Bowling for Soup would have a song that would ring true in the Five O household. Now that we are back, a few observations. We were very blessed to live in California and Hawaii for the last six years. Whether home was Oahu, Maui, Kauai or Orange County, CA, the scenery was awe inspiring. Simply, if you have not been to visit Orange County, stop debating about your next vacation and search for  airfare and hotels in Laguna Beach, CA. I'm happy to help steer you in the right direction if need be. It is by far our favorite coastal location in the entire country and that includes all of Hawaii's beach towns.

The above photo highlights South Laguna Beach and the Montage resort. It is the priciest hotel in the area. There is no other place I'd rather be than anywhere along that coastline. But, here in the Houston area, we have Galveston. Hey, it is no Laguna, but it is the ocean and there is something magical about the sound of the shore. Since we left the land of utopian weather and In-N-Out burgerville, upon returning to Texas I noticed a few things I would like to hit on.

First up: driving. Did Texans forget how to drive over the past six years? Any time I am on the freeway, what I see is the moronic pursuit of trying to be "first" and a plethora of cars zig zagging from lane to lane being driven by what one can only assume is the leader of the narcissistic douche canoes. The preceding term can also be applied to the Stanford band if need be. Trust me, it need be. Anyhow, I digress. It was not this pathetic when we departed in 2006. We are not in a race. You are not saving time by pretending you are Jeff Gordon. See you up the road at the next light. 

Second up: shoulders. I've never understood this. We have immense traffic problems in and around the Houston area. Yet, nearly everywhere, there is at least two lanes wasted by some painted guideline denoting a shoulder in case your vehicle breaks down or you are in an accident. Rest assured, if you do pull over on the shoulder, everyone driving will slow down to gawk at why you have pulled over on the shoulder, thereby voiding the very reason for the creation of the shoulder to begin with: to keep traffic moving. Follow me here. If that was a lane with moving vehicles, the flow would be better across the board and if it became blocked, the same result would occur. OK, I am going to run for mayor now. 

Third up: HOV lanes. Can you tell I have an issue with Houston traffic infrastructure? Say, when the HOV lanes were created in the 1980's, was the goal to make them impenetrable for a period of 25 miles or so? Hey, let's set up concrete barriers as walls and entomb the occupants on this one lane, one direction roadway depending upon the time of day. Um, did Houston ever think to look to Los Angeles for guidance here? The "carpool" lanes in LA are located in the, wait for it, "shoulder" portion of the roadway. And guess what? You can enter and exit these lanes at literally any point as there are no concrete barriers prohibiting usage. How nice was it for the civil engineers to take into account those people that do not enter the freeway from the depths of suburbia. Why this has not been corrected here is beyond me. It makes no sense at all. What a waste of space, dollars and resources.  

Fourth up: texting and driving. I don't even know where to begin here. On more than one occasion, I have seen both hands on the wheel, holding the phone at the 12 noon position and the driver is either reading or actively texting. Just why is this necessary? What is so freaking important that one must try to type out a text while navigating either the local roadways or the interstate? Is responding to that text so important that you must do it while you are in charge of a 4000 lb. pile of metal moving at a high rate of speed? It is time Texas catch up with the rest of the country and ban hand held phones while driving. Must be hands free all the damn time. Do you need to wait for a body count? Seriously, just what are the lawmakers doing over in Austin? Apparently nothing. And if you text and drive, trust me, you are not "better at it" than the next guy. You are just as distracted and your response time is as poor as one who is hammered drunk behind the wheel. If you must text in the car, do it from the passenger seat. Don't endanger the lives of those with you. 

Look, I love my home state. It is just very slow about some things and many of them happen to be related to traffic in and around our beloved city. Rest assured, we are very excited to return home to the land of Tex-Mex. I just simply cannot enjoy it nearly as often as I did in the past. Gotta keep that ticker healthy. Great to see you Houston. Completely unrelated and in closing, here is your Fun Fact of the Day: there are 192 days until the start of the Texas High School Football season. 

The Buffett Rule: Politically Dishonest Gamesmanship

Don't you feel sorry for President Obama and the other millionaires who didn't earn income from long term capital gains last year? Unless you have been living under a rock for the past couple of days, Mitt Romney released his tax returns from 2010. Can you believe he had an effective tax rate of 13.9 percent on income of $21.7 million? He must be cheating the system. Just how can Romney pay that low of a tax rate while the rest of us hard working Americans pay much higher rates of 20, 25, or even 30 percent?

Scapegoats and Cyber Toughness

I was in Orlando, FL yesterday as I took in about 3/4 of the Texans/Ravens game. Duty called as my stepdaughter was competing in UDA Nationals for Cal State Fullerton. They won their 11th national title in Division 1 Jazz Dance. What, you don't think I can tie dance and football together? Keep reading. They are a cohesive team consisting of 16 total members. They "start" 10 freshmen who have never appeared on the big stage before. This is the showcase that ESPN airs in the spring. This is the March Madness of Dance. This is the BCS of Dance. These national titles are recognized in Titan Gym on campus at Fullerton. If your daughter (or son) dances for a top-tier university, they want to be on ESPN's recap of the competition. In essence, you have arrived as a dancer collegiately if this can be realized. The girls have practiced tirelessly for about two months. Rehearsing the same routine over and over again. Striving for perfection. They sacrificed partying with their sorority friends to accomplish the goal that they set for themselves this past spring when the team was formed. There are no perfect dances, mind you. Fullerton scored 95/100, to obliterate their closest competitor by more than three points. This is a VERY large margin of victory in the dance competition world. So, where am I going with all of this? Follow along...

Roll Tide: Take Two

Every summer, college football teams gather in camps across the country to ready themselves with the hope of achieving their goals. Most teams have goals that build upon one another. I imagine they look something like this:

1. Win Division if member of conference with a championship game
2. Win conference championship game (if Big 12, win conference)
3. Win BCS title game/bowl game

Logically, these goals build upon one another. It makes sense that a team needs to accomplish an earlier goal to acquire the opportunity to achieve a latter goal. Essentially, you cannot head out and run a marathon without obtaining some smaller goals leading up to the main event. Enter Bill Hancock, the BCS, politics and the above is not necessary any longer. 

Let Them Play...Let Them Play...Let Them Play

The Coaches Poll essentially kept the Oklahoma State Cowboys from facing off against LSU on January 9th. Well, that was actually the vehicle driven on the BCS highway that fleeced the Cowboys this year from participating in what should be rightly theirs. There was one perfect team in college football this season. The rest of them endured one or more setbacks and endured blemishes. It is the subjectivity of grading blemishes rather than victories that ultimately leads to determining number two which borders on criminality. Don't think it is criminal? Check the dollars involved. We don't know with certainty if Alabama is better than Oklahoma State. But, they are receiving the SEC/pedigree nod over the Pokes. Nothing more, nothing less. Supporters of the sequel will tell you that Alabama earned it. They are lying to you. Period. In college football, Every Game Counts. It is their mantra. It is the BCS slogan. Unless that game took place on November 5, 2011. The "game of the century" did not count. Somehow, all of the other regular season games for the rest of the teams under consideration did manage to count. One thing they all have in common: they have not faced LSU. Yet, the only team to receive a reprieve has. And they lost. At home. As a 6 point favorite. Follow along...

Hear Me Out: LSU Should Forfeit CCG

Get ready. Do you hear that? These are the rumblings from SEC country regarding the fact that LSU has punched their ticket to Atlanta, GA to face the Bulldogs from Athens for the Southeastern Conference Championship. On an even cuter note, they probably do not even need to win the game to advance to the "Mythical National Championship" game to be held in New Orleans on January 9th. Do you know what I would really like to see? Something that could and should occur. Due to the fact that LSU does not need to win the SEC to play for the MNC (go ahead and think about that for a minute), Les Miles and his LSU Tigers should forfeit the game to make a point. He has bigger fish to fry. Georgia has nothing to lose. What if the "Honey Badger" is injured? What if Jordan Jefferson loses his cool and get ejected and suspended for the next game? Why risk injury to one of the marquis starters for a game that has become meaningless? Did you catch that? The SEC Championship Game is virtually meaningless this year. That's right. LSU can lose this game and still punch their ticket to the Superdome this January to square off against the latest team "selected" to play for some apparent title. This is how jacked up the system has become. Bill Hancock's deal with the devil must be a damn good one...