Hot Okie Links

1. Tyler blogs Robin's book. Awesome


2. I blog my latest paper: Where is the Chinese Xzibit?


3. The Angii survived Tigernado!!


4. Sam Wilson clues you in on why this is the most glorious of all days

Oklahoma gettin' smarter, North Carolina gettin' dumber

Cool graph from a group called City Report showing how young educated people are flowing into selected urban areas.

Here the increase in young people with BAs or better in on the vertical axis and the increase in total population is on the horizontal:

As you can see OKC has the second largest increase in young educated people and that increase is large given its overall population growth. Charlotte NC and Raleigh NC are getting relatively dumber as their overall population is growing faster than their young and educated population (Atlanta and Dallas too!).

Interestingly New Orleans, Buffalo and Pittsburgh are losing overall population while gaining a decent amount of young and educated people, while Detroit and Cleveland are stinking in both dimensions.

I guess all those Mungowitz-educated  Duke students are not staying in NC!

Hat-tip to The Upshot!

We'll leave the light on for you

The NY times has proclaimed that moving inland, away from our coastlines is a new trend that's being driven by affordable housing in the heartland. Their poster child for the new inland meccas is none other than Oklahoma City!

The article actually cites 6 cases, which is a huge data set for a Times trends piece.

So come all ye coastals, cramped, beat down and hassled,
come ye, o come ye to Ok-la-home-ee.

If you want to fit in, here's a few things to remember.

If you want to tell someone they're a big ass*&(* just say "Bless your heart"

If you want to ask someone to lunch, just say "jeet yet?"

If you want to announce that you are about to engage in activity X,
just say "I'm fixin' to X" (eg. I'm fixin' to fix dinner)

Please be aware that there will be lengthy prayers before any and all athletic events.

Please be aware that noodling is a real thing.

Please be aware that you are now living in an irony-free zone.

Other than that you should be good to go!

And to think that Kobe Bean Bryant prefers Seattle to Oklahoma

Note that the ad two above is for Norman!

Yikes!

Live by the State, Die by the State

Ah yes, Oklahoma, the buckle of the bible belt. Would it surprise any of you to know there is a large-ish "monument" with the 10 commandments written on them on the grounds of the State Capitol (there's also an oil well on the grounds and those two sum up most of our state perfectly)?

Well there is:

Well, as Art Carden Tweeted, "live by the state, die by the state".

Now the Church of the flying Spaghetti Monster, a Hindu group, and a Satanist group all have proposed monuments to their deity (or one of their deities) for the Capitol grounds.

I especially like the proposed 7 foot tall Satan sculpture:

Whatever your religious beliefs are, Christianity is not the official religion of Oklahoma and a state sponsored monument to it, is an open door to state sponsored monuments to any and all religions, no?

One local legislator, Rep. Earl Seals from Bartlesville, shows the spectacular level of imbecility that also can be encountered on the capitol grounds:

"I do not see Satanism as a religion, and they have no place at the state Capitol," said Sears.

Well, Earl my friend here's a couple of things to consider.

1. You are not the arbiter of what is or is not a religion

2. Your implied premise that if you saw it as a religion it would then be OK to be on the Capitol Grounds is actually a bit too sad to be funny

Oklahoma Doctors Against Obamacare

With thanks to WH.  To be fair, these Okies may be upset because their vending machines are under attack... I hope they learn a lesson 'bout messin' with a vending machine's jealous man.

Best thing that happened in Norman Oklahoma yesterday!

That is a Oklahoma state trooper taking down an unauthorized interloper during the OU - Iowa State game.

Boomer Sooner?

Hand down, man down

People. I got an email from David Boren yesterday afternoon telling me that "shots were fired" in Central Normatopia.

Would you like to know why?

Massive stupidity.

Dude #1 puts a microphone up for sale on Craigslist.

Dude #2 stops by to check out the merchandise. Asks if he can take it outside and show it to his girlfriend.

Dude #1 laughs in his face agrees and lets him go outside with the mic without following him.

Dude #2 prepares to make tracks.

Dude #1 runs outside with a handgun and starts shooting at the rapidly retreating car of Dude #2, then gets in his own idiot-mobile and starts chasing after his beloved microphone.

I like to think Dude #1 was screaming, "Momma there goes that man" as he gave hot and lethally intended pursuit to the miscreant.

Hat tip to D. Boren and RK Gaddie.

(Day) Trippin' with Tyler

Mrs. Angus and I carted Tyler out to the heartland yesterday. To Meers, OK and the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge.

We ate lunch here:

Burgers were very good.

We then hit the wildlife refuge:

(clic the pics for even more aromatic images of the American Bison)

A good time was had by all.

Then we headed back to (relative) civilization in order to make our dinner reservation here:

Dry-aged rib-eyes and brussel sprouts with bacon.


Amen

Unknown Mortal Orchestra

UMO is coming to Norman! 3/11 at Opolis. Mrs. A and I will be there!



Here is info on the whole tour. This is amazing music.

Normatopia

The irises are blooming in the pond, the fish survived our "winter", and all is well with the world. (clic the pics for images that are even more bucolic).

Got mashed potatoes

but unlike Neil, We also got T-boned!

This is the second time in the last 5 years that I've gotten plowed into by a student pulling out from a stop sign while I was driving down a street that had no stop sign! This time Mrs. Angus was driving and I was sitting on the inside of the door shown in the photo.

Yikes!!

Now THAT's A Superstore

An exercise in imperfect capital markets. A classic article.

In a system with perfect capital markets, you would be able to borrow against a highly certain future return. A slight discount for risk, perhaps, but if we are talking about a term of a week or so that should be no problem.

Well, this lady decided that she could not borrow against the future earnings to be gained from selling the meth she was going to make. She had a cash flow problem, lack of $$ to buy the meth makin's.

But this woman was an American. From Oklahoma. No barriers like imperfect capital markets were going to hold HER back.

(Gotta like how the news reporter starts out by saying she is speechless, and then jabbers for several minutes).

Point is that our lady went to Wal-Mart, stole the stuff she needed to make the meth, and started cooking it up right there in the store. Yes, she did. Really. You can read about it.

Clearly an example of market failure. P-Kroog will likely want an investigation, a commission, and a new federal agency to ensure that the poor have better access to capital markets. To be fair, the bed-wetters may have a point: THIS loan likely would have been paid back, unlike the crap loans Barney Frank and Mel Watt forced the banking system to make on housing.

Okies: Behold your Governor

Mary Fallin has a plan for ending Oklahoma's drought:

“I encourage Oklahomans of all faiths to join me this Sunday in offering their prayers for rain,” Fallin said. “For the safety of our firefighters and our communities and the well-being of our crops and livestock, this state needs the current drought to come to an end. The power of prayer is a wonderful thing, and I would ask every Oklahoman to look to a greater power this weekend and ask for rain.”

Wow. Wouldn't you be praying to the same God who SENT THE DROUGHT TO BEGIN WITH? Aren't you asking the Deity to admit his/her mistake and change course? How exactly to you phrase a prayer like that? Do you have to promise to quit doing the bad stuff you did to have the drought come your way? Aren't you just supposed to pray for the strength to deal with the path the Deity in his/her wisdom has put you on? Doesn't Fallin run the risk of getting us all turned into pillars of salt or something for our impudence?

If this doesn't work, what's next, rain dances?

In case you were wondering

You know that God damned road seemed like it went forever
Exhausted fumes made our eyes turn red and swell
With our clothes stuck to the seats and to our bodies
It was a stinking summer trip through southern hell

--David Bromberg

Whole Foods!

The new North Raleigh Whole Foods opens March 16!

4.96 miles from the Rancho d'Munger.

Poor Angus.

But, help is on the way! It's the "Wrath of Grapes," or the Grapes of Wrath backwards, sort of.

Such a deal!

I am not sure in how many other NBA cities you'd see this (from today's game vs. Heat):

When I die, I'll be Sooner dead!

Watch out where the Okies go....

don't you eat that yellow...ice??

Oh my, people, Oklahoma city resident Eugene Junebug Eddins (I am NOT making this name up) has a problem:

"A drunken man decided a bathroom break couldn’t wait and relieved himself near an ice skating rink on Friday afternoon.

The man was spotted by an off-duty sergeant with the Oklahoma City Police Department who was with her children, according to the police report released on Monday.

Witnesses told police a man was urinating in the open with his genitals exposed.

Eugene Junebug Eddins, 39, was arrested and charged with public indecency.

After checking the Eddins’ background, the officer said Eddins was wanted on four Oklahoma City Arrest Warrants.

Two of the warrants were for public drunkenness and the others were for failure to appear in court."

Pay no attention to that Okie behind the curtain!

Over at New Geography, Joel Kotkin writes about 10 cities best poised to do well post great recession. Interestingly Mungo-land (Raleigh-Durham) and Angus-topia (OKC) are on the list.

Here's what Joel says about the OKC:

During the Great Depression, it was Oklahomans who moved to California to escape the Dust Bowl. Now there are considerably more people moving from California to Oklahoma than the other way around....And Oklahoma City—which enjoys low unemployment as a result of its steadily growing energy and aerospace sectors—has been ranked among the best job markets for young people, ahead of Dallas, Seattle, and even New York (having Kevin Durant lead the NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder for the foreseeable future can only improve the buzz).

Of course, none of the cities in our list competes right now with New York, Chicago, or L.A. in terms of art, culture, and urban amenities, which tend to get noticed by journalists and casual travelers. But once upon a time, all those great cities were also seen as cultural backwaters. And in the coming decades, as more people move in and open restaurants, museums, and sports arenas, who’s to say Oklahoma City can’t be Oz?

Who indeed, people, who indeed?

One tough Okie

Oklahoma State University student Kasey Cook was shot in the leg last night in Stillwater. Here is a news report. And here is the awesome, amazing, report from the OSU student newspaper.

And here is my favorite part from the second report:

"He (Cook) had blood running down his leg and he asked me if I just saw a guy running and I said 'Ya' and he was like 'He just shot me,'" Schram said. "I asked him if he needed to sit down and he said 'No, it didn't burn as bad as I thought it would' and I was like, 'Dude you just got shot and he sat down and made a joke and said 'At least it didn't hit my balls.'"

I know this guy is an OSU Cowboy but all I can think to say right now is Boomer Sooner!

Hat tip to Louisiana Keith