Unwelcome Visitors

Gun sales are up, but will Texas see tourism growth from war correspondents?

Update: New sources say only small portion of weapons to Mexico from U.S.

Independent journalist Michael Yon, former Green Beret who has spent much of this decade covering the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, is slowly shifting focus from Afghanistan to the conflict in Mexico.

Noted for his balanced and measured coverage, it appears from reading his recent dispatches that he may be spending more time in Texas.

The word "Mexico" today is starting to ring like "Iraq" did six years ago. It's interesting that Afghanistan evokes very little emotion, and so reporting truth from there is less likely to spur outrage. And today, Iraq is no longer the lightning rod that it was... [b]ut Mexico...there's a lightning rod. ...

Hurricane Mexico seems to be gathering energy both in reality and in the media. At least if you cover Mexico, you can live part time in Texas or thereabouts with Americans. Been a long time for me.

One of the main lightening rods is the alleged U.S.-originated firearms trafficking, which is discussed in a 17-page Department of Justice statement. Such rumblings could have tremendous 2nd Amendment implications, and its makes Texans justifiably nervous.

The proof is in the fact that sporting goods stores and gun dealers can't keep certain ammunition types in stock and gun sales are through the roof.

My prayer is that Yon's observations are not so prescient this time around. I suspect he'd agree. .:.

Kickstarting Innovation Engines

New firm provides spark for startups

Last week TechCrunch reported that the Capital City added a new fuel for entrepreneurs with the debut of the Capital Factory, an incubator for young enterprises founded in January. Modeled after YCombinator, a successful incubator in Silicon Valley, Capital Factory terms itself a "seed stage mentoring program."


The firm is accepting applications until 11:59 pm PACIFIC TIME April 3 for startups interested in joining the inaugural class. Capital Factory will provide $20,000 for up to 5 percent equity in the company, as well as run entrepreneurs through a 10-week course run by 10 experienced business leaders. To view Capital Factory's YouTube video, click here. .:.

The Cost of Free Speech

Being fined $25k for his two Twitter posts, Dallas Maverick's owner and billionaire Mark Cuban ended up paying $510.20 a word.

At that rate, even the famously terse Gettysburg Address would cost $141,835.60. No wonder Cuban cleverly notes in a later post: "can’t say no one makes money from twitter now. the nba does )"

According to Twitter.Grader.com, Cuban's 14,487 Followers rank him 2,587th among all Twitter users. That puts him in the upper one-tenth of 1 percent. .:.