Ben Facts

We had a magnolia die this summer due to lack of water. We learned our lesson and started shopping for trees. I figured I’d share this research.

With the goal of getting a fast-growing, big tree, it looks like the Pecan is the best shot for Texas.

List of trees here:

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/fea/home/gardening/stories/hg_txplants.2170970c4.html

My research of maximum heights:

25–40 m Bald cypress (Taxodium distichum)
10-12 m Big-tooth maple (Acer grandidentatum)
25-33 m Black walnut (Juglans nigra)
23-27m Bur oak (Quercus macrocarpa)
10-11 m Caddo maple (Acer barbatum)
17-30 m Cedar elm (Ulmus crassifolia)
5-6 m Chinese pistachio (Pistacia chinensis)
30 m Chinquapin oak (Quercus muehlenbergii)
23 m Deodar cedar (Cedrus deodara)
10-12 m Lacey oak (Quercus laceyi)
13-20 m Live oak (Quercus virginiana)
20-27 m Native pecan (Carya illinoensis)
10-12 m Osage orange (Maclura pomifera)
36 m Shumard oak (Quercus shumardii) (after 20 years!)
10 m Magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora)
10-13 m Texas ash (Fraxinus texensis)
33 m Texas red oak (Quercus texana) (12 m after 20 years)

http://www.texas-best.com/texasbest/plants/plants.html

41-50 m Pecan

I’m voting for Obama, despite the fact that John McCain has done a lot to get me excited about him.

These are things politicians can talk about to get me happy:

• Balanced budgets
• Avoiding and stopping wars
• Making friends and allies out of other countries
• Giving the impression they care about people more than companies.
• Talk about balancing the budget. However they choose: raise taxes, cut spending, both?
• Answer people’s questions like you listened to their question and are trying to answer it.
• Sacrifices. Good, true change takes sacrifices. Nobody can give change, especially in our government. Our goverment is designed around stopping people from doing thigns.

These are things they can talk about that gets me angry:

• Abortion: Either side. Just leave it alone. There are bigger problems.
• Tax cuts. That just means deficit spending.
• Plans to spend billions here and billions there.
• Hyping drilling for oil, “clean coal” or anything like that. I think we can go solar/wind/geothermal/hydrogen in the time that it would take to develop the oil. Also, we don’t need any more carbon in the air.

Individual reviews about the candidates (in order of them being chosen):

• John McCain: My favorite republician. He’s taken a hard-right shift on energy. If it wasn’t for that, I may have voted for him. I like McCain-Feingold, his plan in immigration (and that it almost cost him the nomination), and his prior stance on carbon emissions.

  I loved his line from his acceptance speech:

I’ve fought the big spenders in both parties, who waste your money on things you neither need nor want, and the first big-spending pork-barrel earmark bill that comes across my desk, I will veto it. I will make them famous, and you will know their names. You will know their names. (Link)

• Barack Obama: I like him. It’ll be interesting to see what he means by “change”. I’m inclined to believe him, but am not really sure what that will look like. I believe him enough to vote for him.
• Joe Biden: My favorite of the Democratic primary candidates. He answers questions. He seems real. He seems like he’d be easy to get along with, but doesn’t seem at all like a pushover.
• Sarah Palin: That was a great speech. I like how she addressed her executive experience. I don’t like how drilling for oil is her panacea. Check her Charlie Rose interview. “How do you approach fixing schools?” “If we could drill for oil, we’d have money to fix schools.”

So, take environmental and pro-war stuff out out of the mix, and I think John McCain has the best plan and chance to change Washington. But he’s wrong enough on Iraq and his hard-right shift on the environment to lose my vote.

Notes on also-rans:

• Mitt Romney seems like a bully with a temper. Not a statesman. Check the video of a reporter calling him out here
• Fred Thompson: It’s a breath of fresh air that you can’t get elected by being an actor towing the party line.
• Dennis Kucinich: That guy is an ideallistic kook. I like that he’s around, but I hope this is his last presidential run.
• Hillarie Clinton: the primary was too bloody. She hung around too long. I’m glad running on inevitability didn’t work. But, otherwise, I liked her campaign. Since she bailed, she’s been a gem.
• Bill Richardson: Seemed way to into his past and not hungry. I got the impression that he was more about getting known than anything else.
• John Edwards: I don’t see him as presidential, almost goofy.
• Rudy Gullianni: This guy is a myopic moron. I’m glad he didn’t win.