One of the many times of the year when annual “best of” lists come out. Any time start seeing these in the middle of the summer I am happy because there is no real news out there. Anyhoo, note that Loudoun County had 58% job growth last year. I figure 10 years from now DC suburbs will stretch out to Marietta, OH.

If you would like to actually afford the house you live in, however, you may want to consider the H-town. Houston added 100,000 jobs last year (100.001, if you include mine). There are millions of Houston haters out there, typically those that work in the media, guys like Bill Simmons from ESPN who for some reason prefers to live in Los Angeles.

Over the course of the summer I’ve seen an Astros game and wandered into a free symphony concert in the park right next to my house. There are plenty of great concerts in the summer and a ton of theater seats. To all the haters on the coasts, please don’t move here and try zone us out and flip our houses and bust our economy…stay where you are, hate on Houston, and be miserable.

Dr. Michael Debakey, perhaps the greatest heart surgeon of the last century, passed away last night. He was from Lake Charles Louisiana and his legacy looms large here at the Texas medical center and around the world:

Dear Members of the BCM Family:

It is with profound sadness that I advise you of the death of Dr. Michael DeBakey at 9:38 p.m. Friday, July 11. Below is a joint statement that was just released to news media by Baylor College of Medicine and The Methodist Hospital. I know that you join me in offering our deepest sympathy to the entire DeBakey family.

Peter G. Traber, M.D.

Baylor, Methodist mourn death of Dr. Michael E. DeBakey

On behalf of the entire Baylor College of Medicine and The Methodist Hospital families, it is with profound sadness that we announce the death of pioneering heart surgeon Dr. Michael E. DeBakey. The college, the hospital, and indeed the entire world, have lost a great man today.

Dr. DeBakey died at 9:38 p.m. Friday, July 11 from natural causes at The Methodist Hospital in Houston.

In a career spanning more than 70 years, Dr. DeBakey performed more than 60,000 heart surgeries. Other surgeons have used his innovations in cardiovascular surgery worldwide to save the lives of countless millions.

“Dr. DeBakey’s reputation brought many people into this institution, and he treated them all: heads of state, entertainers, businessmen and presidents, as well as people with no titles and no means,” said Ron Girotto, president of The Methodist Hospital System. “He always said that Methodist is a hospital with a soul … and for more than 50 years, Dr. DeBakey has been the heart and soul of Methodist.”

“He has improved the human condition and touched the lives of generations to come,” continued Girotto. “We will greatly miss him.”

“With each passing year, Dr. DeBakey continued to provide great wisdom to those who sought his counsel,” said Dr. Peter G. Traber, BCM president. “As Baylor College of Medicine’s first President, he set a standard for preeminence and never let anyone here forget the importance of leadership in academic medicine. We have lost a man who was a great physician, educator, leader and above all, a great friend.”

“We will miss him, but we will honor his memory by continuing to excel in those things he taught us,” Traber said.

“Dr. DeBakey singlehandedly raised the standard of medical care, teaching and research around the world,” said Dr. George Noon, a cardiovascular surgeon and longtime partner of DeBakey’s. “He was the greatest surgeon of the 20th century, and physicians everywhere are indebted to him for his contributions to medicine.”

“Dr. DeBakey was an incredible man and his contributions to medicine are unmatched,” said Dr. Bobby R. Alford, Chancellor of Baylor College of Medicine and Chairman of the Department of Otolaryngology at Baylor and The Methodist Hospital. “He was a dear friend and colleague for more than 40 years. He will be missed dearly.”

RIP

The great philosopher and basketball player Rasheed Wallace has said on occasion that “The ball don’t lie”. He says that every time he gets called for a foul he doesn’t deserve, and the player he “fouled” misses a free throw. It is the modern expression of karma, and it is a real simple concept. You see, it’s real easy to lie to others, and it’s almost as easy to lie to yourself, but the consequences of your actions are there for the world to see, and often things come to a head and force you to be honest with yourself and perhaps own up to those actions.

I’ll give a couple of examples. When I came back from Taiwan I brought back a suitcase full of black tea. Every morning I drank a big mug of black tea and didn’t drink water until about noon. After a couple months of this I start doubling over with excruciating pain. I couldn’t even focus on simple tasks. I was vomiting, couldn’t keep anything down. Thought I was having some serious intestinal problems. Finally I found out I had a kidney stone. You see, an ingredient in black tea binds to calcium and if you drink enough of it, the kidneys filter out all the liquid and you have concentrated black tea/calcium rock stuck in your kidney. I swear if you talk to anyone who had a kidney stone they will tell you they think they are dying they are going through so much pain. The kidney stone didn’t lie.

Now today I’m having pain under one of my fillings. A couple of weeks ago the dentist told me to change the filling but I canceled my appointment last week because my tooth didn’t hurt. But for the last few months I haven’t brushed my teeth in the morning, and I’ve been drinking these canned coffees with 21 grams of sugar. I’ve weighed out 21 g of sugar and it is substantial, and the tooth don’t lie.

After 18 we are adults and can’t blame others for our actions. We all know what our bad habits are and what we need to do to change those habits. Unfortunately, we have to be confronted with a cavity, or a kidney stone for us to change our habits.

Some cool animals from the Houston Zoo, right next to the medical center.

Elephant

Spectacled Bear

The extended family and I went on a weekend trip to San Antonio about a month ago.  Alas, we didn’t get to see my beloved Hornets play, but we saw some cool touristy stuff.

The Riverwalk Cruise

Rivercenter World Music

Sewing Machine Art Gallery

We got some neat coasters from these guys.

Some more videos from the Houston Rodeo

Bull Riding, Ouch

Steer Wrestling Bump

This was interesting.  The Steer Wrestler was black so when he got up everyone gave him the Larry Bird treatment, a standing ovation!  At the calf scramble the organizers were sure to interview the token black kid at the scramble.  Rough bump, though.

Barrel Racing

This poor girl was last place, I think.

Bareback Riding success

Calf Scramble

For those who are curious, here is a good example.

I’m glad the Stelly tax finally has come down.

“This legislation is a tremendous victory for the people of our state,” Jindal said. “Allowing Louisianans to keep more of their hard-earned money in their own pockets not only benefits families all across the state, it is also one of the best ways we can grow and strengthen our economy and encourage increased investment. The elimination of the Stelly tax means we have cut more than $300 million in taxes, and more than $1 billion in taxes over the next five years.”

Over on Between the Lines Jeff Sadow defends Bobby’s recent voucher program.  As usual he is spot on.

Now that Bill Gates is retiring to muck up society with his philanthropy, a reminder on how he mucked up our computers with his filthy monopoly.  Actually this is a great internal email from Bill Gates 5 years ago.

I’ve run into a lot of flak from colleagues who treat McCain’s proposal to lift the federal ban on offshore drilling as if it were a suicide pact.  Woe is freakin’ us, bros.  Relax, if your state doesn’t want to drill, like Florida or California, it won’t.  However, if your state does want to drill for oil, like perhaps Virginia, new business and tax revenues comes to both your state and federal gov’t, and you have more high paying jobs in your  state that Americans are willing to do.  If you live in a state that wants to drill, and you don’t, you can call your local congresscritter.  That’s called federalism, and there’s nothing wrong with that.  This is the easiest slam dunk proposal I’ve heard from McCain and I can’t see how it isn’t a winner.  I expect more like this will come out and haters will come out in droves in the media…and in my building.

The only criticism I’ve heard from Obama and the media is that “drilling will only reduce the price of gas by a few pennies.”  Well, #1 how do they know, and #2 wouldn’t citizens rather more of the money you use to put gas in your tank go to Americans rather than Saudi Arabia or Venezuela?  When the best criticism against a policy is, “it isn’t as good as you say it is” then that really isn’t a criticism.  To quote Marcellus Wallace: “That ain’t no kind a answer”.