The Eyes of Texas

[ImissWallyPryor 9045]

7 minutes ago, Duval Street said:

Volleyball can fill in.

I know this we will not go over well here, but every time I watch a VB match on LHN, the opponents* seem to have better eye candy.

* They also lose, which may indicate a correlation. 

Edited February 9, 2023 by ImissWallyPryor

[Wally Pryor 5244]

On 2/7/2023 at 8:20 AM, LTtxfan said:

Just posting as an fyi... this will be in the news again

 

Fucking pansies. 

[ousux 5587]

GenX

Yes, I blame GenX and older millennials who couldn't keep it wrapped up. Good job raising snowflakes who see an injustice everywhere they look

[ImissWallyPryor 9045]

1 hour ago, ousux said:

GenX

Yes, I blame GenX and older millennials who couldn't keep it wrapped up. Good job raising snowflakes who see an injustice everywhere they look

There are plenty of influences on children these days beyond their parents (too often parent). /no CR 

[RomaVicta 29784]

I'd just poll black students and let them decide. They know how the song makes them feel. If they don't want it, then so be it. Maybe we can revisit it in a few years.

I love the song and the tradition that it means to me. If it has the opposite effect on a segment of the student body, I'll go with their decision to stop the tradition.

As I wrote when this issue first arose, I feel weird that black people must appeal to me or other white people as arbiters. We're equal citizens.

[Doc Daneeka 6769]

17 minutes ago, RomaVicta said:

I'd just poll black students and let them decide.

 

17 minutes ago, RomaVicta said:

We're equal citizens.

 

[LonghornSean 3942]

Easily the last thread I ever want to see bumped.

[Tex Pete 20179]

4 hours ago, RomaVicta said:

I'd just poll black students and let them decide. They know how the song makes them feel. If they don't want it, then so be it. Maybe we can revisit it in a few years.

I love the song and the tradition that it means to me. If it has the opposite effect on a segment of the student body, I'll go with their decision to stop the tradition.

As I wrote when this issue first arose, I feel weird that black people must appeal to me or other white people as arbiters. We're equal citizens.

How about no? If someone falsely feels a song has something negative to do with them, that’s something they need to deal with. 

[TwiceHorn 31272]

On 2/7/2023 at 8:29 PM, utee94 said:

To be fair, citing an incident from over 70 years ago, isn't exactly fair.  Or representative.  Or topical.

I disagree. 

First of all, the post was in response to a contention that aggy is the racist institution.  It may well be, currently.  But UT lives in a glass house in that department over the course of its history.

UT has a bad history as a racist institution.  I think it has striven not to be in more recent history.

I don't believe for a second that EoT has racist origins and certainly not meaning.  I don't find the connection to a minstrel show to be convincing evidence of anything. Or the borrowing of a tune that has murky, possibly racist origins.  It's just not racist.

But, given the racial history of UT, and the timing of the origin of the song, it's not idly foolish to question its origins.  It has been questioned.  The questions have been answered.  A student referendum on how it makes people feel is pretty fucking stupid though.  Feelings are not reality.

If there were a less tenuous connection to something racist, I might analyze very differently.  But feelings that lack a solid factual basis are nothing to make any kind of policy over, even over something as relatively trivial as a school song.

Edited February 10, 2023 by TwiceHorn

[TwiceHorn 31272]

7 hours ago, ImissWallyPryor said:

I know this we will not go over well here, but every time I watch a VB match on LHN, the opponents* seem to have better eye candy.

* They also lose, which may indicate a correlation. 

You don't watch enough volleyball.  There are a handful of blondos on other teams that are very eye-catching, but overall, Texas Volleyball fields an upper-echelon team on attractiveness.  There are a lot of pigs pasty, chonky midwestern gals that play volleyball.

Edited February 10, 2023 by TwiceHorn

[GeorgetownLaw 131]

3 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

You don't watch enough volleyball.  There are a handful of blondos on other teams that are very eye-catching, but overall, Texas Volleyball fields an upper-echelon team on attractiveness.  There are a lot of pigs pasty, chonky midwestern gals that play volleyball.

Have YOU actually looked in a mirror of yourself?  Talk about flab, paunch and sag…🙄

[TwiceHorn 31272]

4 hours ago, RomaVicta said:

As I wrote when this issue first arose, I feel weird that black people must appeal to me or other white people as arbiters. We're equal citizens.

I don't feel like they are appealing to us as white males.  There is a much larger body of stakeholders in it than current students, many of whom happen to be white males and females.  But our desire to maintain the song has nothing to do with our race or sex.

And, while I try mightily to be empathetic and to understand that things that may appear race-neutral at first blush actually are not.  But this isn't one of them.

Not only do I find the admitted connections to racist activity insufficient to make the song racist or even evocative, there's a lot of anecdotes that purely false rumors about the song (it's an o'erseer talking to slaves, etc.) inform quite a bit of thinking about it.

[TwiceHorn 31272]

On 2/7/2023 at 8:45 PM, C-Man said:

Most of it, besides ugly individual and smallish group incidents, is in the past.

Also, all of you bagging on my Sweatt v. Painter post kinda missed a big part.

But Sweatt v. Painter, 80 plus years after the 13th and 14th Amendments and the end of the Civil War, is a grotesque display of institutional racism from a place most of us consider to be a bastion of higher learning and enlightened thought.  I'm not sure exactly how much President T.S. Painter was really involved in denying Heman Sweatt admission to the University, but his name was on the building where I took physics 30 years ago.

ETA for @ChiTownDoc Looking to see whether Painter was actually implicated in the denial of admission of Sweatt (he is not, but happened to be President at the time so was the named defendant), I was reminded of the companion case of McLaurin v. Okla. St. BOR, in which McLaurin, a Negro, was admitted to a doctoral program at OU, but was forced to sit at separate tables in dining halls, libraries and in the Negro row in classrooms.  So OU was a cunt hair ahead of UT on this one.

Edited February 10, 2023 by TwiceHorn

[RomaVicta 29784]

I want to thank all of my fellow white people for explaining the emotional response of a black person to the song to me.

[TwiceHorn 31272]

10 minutes ago, RomaVicta said:

I want to thank all of my fellow white people for explaining the emotional response of a black person to the song to me.

I'm not explaining it.  I'm saying it lacks a factual foundation.

Feelings can be rational or irrational.  Any psychologist worth a durn will tell you that you can't let feelings dictate your actions, most especially the irrational ones.

Such a psychologist will also tell you that "you are entitled to your feelings," but also that before you act on your feelings, you need to coldly analyze whether the feelings have a rational basis or not, and whether the feelings, even if rational, are proportionate, before acting on them, and even then, act only in response to the rational underpinning and not just how it makes you feel.

Edited February 10, 2023 by TwiceHorn

[Hank Scorpio 17723]

My psychologist says I can say the nword all I want. 

[TwiceHorn 31272]

The point being, yes, you have to respect feelings to some degree, but I don't think you can really let them dictate much in the real world, unless they have a solid factual basis that you can actually deal with. Otherwise, it's like indulging a toddler, which is not a backhanded slam on the "protestors," but rather an analogy to just a raw nerve or bundle of irrational emotions that can't be indulged on every occasion, or even most occasions.

It's a bit of a fine line and one that society seems to be having great difficulty toeing for the time being.

Edited February 10, 2023 by TwiceHorn

[ChiTownDoc 21101]

1 hour ago, TwiceHorn said:

Also, all of you bagging on my Sweatt v. Painter post kinda missed a big part.

But Sweatt v. Painter, 80 plus years after the 13th and 14th Amendments and the end of the Civil War, is a grotesque display of institutional racism from a place most of us consider to be a bastion of higher learning and enlightened thought.  I'm not sure exactly how much President T.S. Painter was really involved in denying Heman Sweatt admission to the University, but his name was on the building where I took physics 30 years ago.

ETA for @ChiTownDoc Looking to see whether Painter was actually implicated in the denial of admission of Sweatt (he is not, but happened to be President at the time so was the named defendant), I was reminded of the companion case of McLaurin v. Okla. St. BOR, in which McLaurin, a Negro, was admitted to a doctoral program at OU, but was forced to sit at separate tables in dining halls, libraries and in the Negro row in classrooms.  So OU was a cunt hair ahead of UT on this one.

Hey man, I’m ChiTownDoc, not ChiTownAnnoyingAssAttorney.  

[59 Burst 434]

40 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

The point being, yes, you have to respect feelings to some degree, but I don't think you can really let them dictate much in the real world, unless they have a solid factual basis that you can actually deal with. Otherwise, it's like indulging a toddler, which is not a backhanded slam on the "protestors," but rather an analogy to just a raw nerve or bundle of irrational emotions that can't be indulged on every occasion, or even most occasions.

It's a bit of a fine line and one that society seems to be having great difficulty toeing for the time being.

I think that was well said…

[Doc Daneeka 6769]

5 hours ago, RomaVicta said:

I want to thank all of my fellow white people for explaining the emotional response of a black person to the song to me.

That someone has a particular emotional response to the phrase “chink in the armor” or “niggardly,” for example, or to “The Eyes” shouldn’t, imo, be more important than actual facts and meanings. People can have whatever emotional response they want to such things, but that imposes no burden on anyone else to accommodate it.

At some point, it becomes emotional blackmail to demand others place your feelings above facts and infantilizing to accommodate it. 

[Nice Guy Eddie 13412]

The Eyes will eventually be removed. Whether this round of voting or in ten years.

and on the list of what impacts or matters to me, this is far down the list. I don’t think it should be removed, but meh.
 

On 2/7/2023 at 8:28 AM, MAUFRAIS said:

Results will be released on Alamo Day, which is disrespectful to our Latinx students. Shameful.

Mexico kicked the Texians ass so disrespect would be the other direction. Is Alamo Day a thing? Lived here 53 years and your post is the first I’ve ever heard of a day named after the loss. Must be a SA tourism thing.

[alincoln 2364]

13 hours ago, RomaVicta said:

I'd just poll black students and let them decide. They know how the song makes them feel. If they don't want it, then so be it. Maybe we can revisit it in a few years.

I love the song and the tradition that it means to me. If it has the opposite effect on a segment of the student body, I'll go with their decision to stop the tradition.

As I wrote when this issue first arose, I feel weird that black people must appeal to me or other white people as arbiters. We're equal citizens.

Is this satire?  If so, well done.

[TwiceHorn 31272]

3 hours ago, Doc Daneeka said:

That someone has a particular emotional response to the phrase “chink in the armor” or “niggardly,” for example, or to “The Eyes” shouldn’t, imo, be more important than actual facts and meanings. People can have whatever emotional response they want to such things, but that imposes no burden on anyone else to accommodate it.

At some point, it becomes emotional blackmail to demand others place your feelings above facts and infantilizing to accommodate it. 

And a part of the civil rights struggle requires acknowledgement that it wasn't just the legal disadvantages that blacks and others were placed under, but the emotional and psychological impact of having to live in a society that would do such things to them, the "generational trauma."

It I think is a very real thing and requires understanding and empathy.  But EoT just isn't it.

[RomaVicta 29784]

9 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

Otherwise, it's like indulging a toddler, which is not a backhanded slam on the "protestors," but rather an analogy to just a raw nerve or bundle of irrational emotions that can't be indulged on every occasion, or even most occasions.

I'm not going to fight much longer on this hill. I've made my point. Thanks for responding to it. I think you know that I respect your insights.

However, think again about your sentence above. No, it's not a backhanded slam, it's full on disregard and dismissal. You also disregard context. You know, the centuries it took for a people to move from enslavement through oppression and to what is a semblance of citizenship. This is not a flock of birds taking flight at the slightest noise.

Toddler? Irrational emotions? Indulgence? Really? C'mon.

Toddler is reductive no matter how you modify it with commas.

Irrational emotions? See context above. Consider the world today in America for black Americans. I know that you do, and you take the right side.

The University handled the petition of black students very well. The Eyes got a settlement as well. A mildly representative student government suggests a referendum on the issue. Immediately, this forum starts talking about "them" wanting something that's too much. So we move to indulgement.

Why do I get to take the position of indulger? I think this is part of my recent education on systemic racism (provided by a political cartoon. It's sorta like going to Harvard.). It was defined as people who are not racist who unthinkingly support systems (law, government) that incorporate racism. I'm guessing you knew the definition, but I wanted to make sure we agree on terms.

I think the assumption of decision maker is part of systemic racism. You're not a racist. You would speak out against it should you witness racism. Me, too. When this issue first came up, I first argued on this forum from the perspective of someone who decides if these students should be "indulged." I recoiled. They always come to us. Always. Now we're arguing about Confederate statues and a song I love, The Eyes of Texas.

Thus I concluded that we should be petioning them. The black students and alums are rational fellow citizens (not irrationally emotional toddlers), let them make the call after fair discussion. 

I also concluded that should black students and alums feel strongly enough about The Eyes that they want it retired that it would be of great merit for the University of Texas to change the song to something else. I'd miss the song, but I'd be proud of the University.

Written without rancor. Written respectfully. 

 

Edited February 10, 2023 by RomaVicta

[BevoAbyss 2057]

Meanwhile, I received President Hartzell's email (cheerleading or propaganda?) this morning about the move to the SEC. Regarding academics, Hartzell said the move will:

-- "strengthen our global brand and reputation, leading more people to consider our university as a place to study, teach and work" 

-- "Our academic mission will benefit as a result"

Could someone explain how allying UT with the most racist, backward states of America achieves the above goals? In effect, UT is literally allying itself with the former confederacy. I think it is a regressive, disgraceful move. 

 

Edited February 10, 2023 by BevoAbyss

[Guest]

8 minutes ago, BevoAbyss said:

Meanwhile, I received President Hartzell's email (cheerleading or propaganda?) this morning about the move to the SEC. Regarding academics, Hartzell said the move will:

-- "strengthen our global brand and reputation, leading more people to consider our university as a place to study, teach and work" 

-- "Our academic mission will benefit as a result"

Could someone explain how allying UT with the most racist, backward states of America achieves the above goals? In effect, UT is literally allying itself with the former confederacy. I think it is a regressive, disgraceful move. 

 

Yeah, trying to tie it to academics seems dumb, even thought the average SEC school is better academically than the average Big 12 school. Quit blowing smoke.

I think the move sucks just because the entire conference realignment is dumb. I don't give a shit about playing South Carolina or Miss State. I want to play the schools of people I actually know. But I guess that's for another thread. The original Big XII was pretty damn solid until people started to get butthurt. (Nebraska, A&M)

[David Dennison 18656]

15 minutes ago, BevoAbyss said:

Could someone explain how allying UT with the most racist, backward states of America achieves the above goals? In effect, UT is literally allying itself with the former confederacy. I think it is a regressive, disgraceful move. 

I mean, Texas did secede before Fort Sumter.

[VirginiaLonghorn 4750]

I fly my Texas flag on 2 Mar, 6 Mar, and 21 Apr … and I don’t give a fuck if the sentiment or deed offends anyone.

[ChiTownDoc 21101]

2 hours ago, RomaVicta said:

I'm not going to fight much longer on this hill. I've made my point. Thanks for responding to it. I think you know that I respect your insights.

However, think again about your sentence above. No, it's not a backhanded slam, it's full on disregard and dismissal. You also disregard context. You know, the centuries it took for a people to move from enslavement through oppression and to what is a semblance of citizenship. This is not a flock of birds taking flight at the slightest noise.

Toddler? Irrational emotions? Indulgence? Really? C'mon.

Toddler is reductive no matter how you modify it with commas.

Irrational emotions? See context above. Consider the world today in America for black Americans. I know that you do, and you take the right side.

The University handled the petition of black students very well. The Eyes got a settlement as well. A mildly representative student government suggests a referendum on the issue. Immediately, this forum starts talking about "them" wanting something that's too much. So we move to indulgement.

Why do I get to take the position of indulger? I think this is part of my recent education on systemic racism (provided by a political cartoon. It's sorta like going to Harvard.). It was defined as people who are not racist who unthinkingly support systems (law, government) that incorporate racism. I'm guessing you knew the definition, but I wanted to make sure we agree on terms.

I think the assumption of decision maker is part of systemic racism. You're not a racist. You would speak out against it should you witness racism. Me, too. When this issue first came up, I first argued on this forum from the perspective of someone who decides if these students should be "indulged." I recoiled. They always come to us. Always. Now we're arguing about Confederate statues and a song I love, The Eyes of Texas.

Thus I concluded that we should be petioning them. The black students and alums are rational fellow citizens (not irrationally emotional toddlers), let them make the call after fair discussion. 

I also concluded that should black students and alums feel strongly enough about The Eyes that they want it retired that it would be of great merit for the University of Texas to change the song to something else. I'd miss the song, but I'd be proud of the University.

Written without rancor. Written respectfully. 

 

‘Written without rancor. Written respectfully.’

-Nobody On Surly, ever

[TwiceHorn 31272]

4 hours ago, RomaVicta said:

I'm not going to fight much longer on this hill. I've made my point. Thanks for responding to it. I think you know that I respect your insights.

However, think again about your sentence above. No, it's not a backhanded slam, it's full on disregard and dismissal. You also disregard context. You know, the centuries it took for a people to move from enslavement through oppression and to what is a semblance of citizenship. This is not a flock of birds taking flight at the slightest noise.

Toddler? Irrational emotions? Indulgence? Really? C'mon.

Toddler is reductive no matter how you modify it with commas.

Irrational emotions? See context above. Consider the world today in America for black Americans. I know that you do, and you take the right side.

The University handled the petition of black students very well. The Eyes got a settlement as well. A mildly representative student government suggests a referendum on the issue. Immediately, this forum starts talking about "them" wanting something that's too much. So we move to indulgement.

Why do I get to take the position of indulger? I think this is part of my recent education on systemic racism (provided by a political cartoon. It's sorta like going to Harvard.). It was defined as people who are not racist who unthinkingly support systems (law, government) that incorporate racism. I'm guessing you knew the definition, but I wanted to make sure we agree on terms.

I think the assumption of decision maker is part of systemic racism. You're not a racist. You would speak out against it should you witness racism. Me, too. When this issue first came up, I first argued on this forum from the perspective of someone who decides if these students should be "indulged." I recoiled. They always come to us. Always. Now we're arguing about Confederate statues and a song I love, The Eyes of Texas.

Thus I concluded that we should be petioning them. The black students and alums are rational fellow citizens (not irrationally emotional toddlers), let them make the call after fair discussion. 

I also concluded that should black students and alums feel strongly enough about The Eyes that they want it retired that it would be of great merit for the University of Texas to change the song to something else. I'd miss the song, but I'd be proud of the University.

Written without rancor. Written respectfully. 

 

Same, regarding rancor.  It's a tough question in some ways.

And, yeah I get a majority imposing its will on a minority.  There's been too much of that.

I tried to avoid or at least explain inflammatory things like "toddler" and "indulge," but failed at other analogies.  Possibly because those that frequently let their actions be dictated by their emotions tend to be subject to ridicule for it, so there aren't a lot of "neutral" examples or analogies for that.

If the song had racist meaning, I'd agree it had to go, even if that meaning was lost to time but for the report on its origins.  I'm not sure what other "racist connections" might change my thinking on it.

 

Edited February 10, 2023 by TwiceHorn

[BurntOrange&White 39655]

1 hour ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

Yeah, trying to tie it to academics seems dumb, even thought the average SEC school is better academically than the average Big 12 school. Quit blowing smoke.

I think the move sucks just because the entire conference realignment is dumb. I don't give a shit about playing South Carolina or Miss State. I want to play the schools of people I actually know. But I guess that's for another thread. The original Big XII was pretty damn solid until people started to get butthurt. (Nebraska, A&M)

Athletics writes a check to academic side every year. Going to the SEC will only increase that check moving forward. And it’s been proven that a visible, successful football program will drive admissions to your school. 

Edited February 10, 2023 by BurntOrange&White

[CockadoodleHorn 40]

The Awesome Jugs Machine thread is more important than this thread.

[NeverMarryAStripper 21781]

2 hours ago, VirginiaLonghorn said:

I fly my Texas flag on 2 Mar, 6 Mar, and 21 Apr every day right above my Longhorn flag… and I don’t give a fuck if the sentiment or deed offends anyone.

 

[BurntOrange&White 39655]

57 minutes ago, CockadoodleHorn said:

The Awesome Jugs Machine thread is more important than this thread.

rapid fire jugs

 

 

 

[Frank Drebin 5622]

3 hours ago, BevoAbyss said:

Meanwhile, I received President Hartzell's email (cheerleading or propaganda?) this morning about the move to the SEC. Regarding academics, Hartzell said the move will:

-- "strengthen our global brand and reputation, leading more people to consider our university as a place to study, teach and work" 

-- "Our academic mission will benefit as a result"

Could someone explain how allying UT with the most racist, backward states of America achieves the above goals? In effect, UT is literally allying itself with the former confederacy. I think it is a regressive, disgraceful move. 

 

The current teams in the SEC sans Texas and OU are better academically than the current teams in the Big 12 sans Texas and OU.

Vanderbilt, Florida, UGA and A&M are better than anything in the Big 12.  I mean maybe ISU is better than A&M, not sure.

[NeverMarryAStripper 21781]

and as for them being racially backward, it just makes us look better

[Longhornfan1024 1707]

On 2/8/2023 at 9:13 PM, VirginiaLonghorn said:

No … they need an ass whuppin’ 

Or to be scared of a school shooting.  Wait . . . .

[markstanco 12505]

22 hours ago, ousux said:

GenX

Yes, I blame 

Oh yea, how every sentence is started by a millennial. 

[NeverMarryAStripper 21781]

It's just like everything else these days.  I don't really understand what the fuck is happening, but I won't be around that much longer to worry about it.

[ztejas 43265]

3 hours ago, BevoAbyss said:

Could someone explain how allying UT with the most racist, backward states of America achieves the above goals? In effect, UT is literally allying itself with the former confederacy. I think it is a regressive, disgraceful move. 

You're right. Texas is really going to miss the bastions of progressive thinking and tolerance that are West Virginia, Baylor, Texas Tech and Kansas State. 

[Tex Pete 20179]

5 minutes ago, Frank Drebin said:

I mean maybe ISU is better than A&M, not sure.

I don't know either, but I would definitely attend Iowa State (or fund a child attending Iowa State) before attending Texas A&M.

[Tex Pete 20179]

3 hours ago, BevoAbyss said:

Could someone explain how allying UT with the most racist, backward states of America achieves the above goals? In effect, UT is literally allying itself with the former confederacy. I think it is a regressive, disgraceful move.

Randolph?

[Cairn Horn88 8170]

We will always have our Texas culture....that will never change.  There will be no sec sec chanting from us....ever.  aggy did everything they could to be as much like the backwards sec schools, just to be a part of them and be accepted.  We have great academics, great sports programs that will continue to thrive.  Deep down, their administrators are thrilled to death to have such a university of the first degree coming to their shores. Take no prisoners.

[ImissWallyPryor 9045]

17 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

Texas Volleyball fields an upper-echelon team on attractiveness

I’ll back off my statement that almost every team is more attractive, but I’d still not put Texas in the upper echelon. If there are 3 tiers, Texas is in the middle, not knocking on either door.

That comes with the territory of being an elite team, much like being an elite academic institution. 

Edited February 10, 2023 by ImissWallyPryor

[BevoAbyss 2057]

1 hour ago, ztejas said:

Texas is really going to miss the bastions of progressive thinking and tolerance that are West Virginia, Baylor, Texas Tech and Kansas State. 

Of course, no conference is perfect. But, only one conference is centered in the former confederacy.

I guess the Pac 12 was too liberal for the BOR -- oh I know, it was about the "money" and "late night" games -- even though UT and Austin align far better with Stanford, Cal-Berkeley, Silicon Valley, and Washington. Arizona and UT have partnered (with other universities) to build the world's largest optical telescope. (Don't know enough about UCLA and Oregon academic research.)

Apple, Google, Facebook, and Tesla (etc.) have built factories in Austin area and have offices in high profile skyscrapers in Austin. Hiring tens of thousands of workers. A massive tech-economic boom.

Tell me which cutting-edge firms from the South are planting roots in Austin area? With big factories and skyscrapers? Are there any? 

Ah hell, who gives a damn about aligning the State of Texas's freaking flagship university with cutting-edge tech, science, and astronomical universities when we gotta go play "big boy" football in the Deep South. Lulz. 

[ImissWallyPryor 9045]

20 minutes ago, BevoAbyss said:

Of course, no conference is perfect. But, only one conference is centered in the former confederacy.

I guess the Pac 12 was too liberal for the BOR -- oh I know, it was about the "money" and "late night" games -- even though UT and Austin align far better with Stanford, Cal-Berkeley, Silicon Valley, and Washington. Arizona and UT have partnered (with other universities) to build the world's largest optical telescope. (Don't know enough about UCLA and Oregon academic research.)

Apple, Google, Facebook, and Tesla (etc.) have built factories in Austin area and have offices in high profile skyscrapers in Austin. Hiring tens of thousands of workers. A massive tech-economic boom.

Tell me which cutting-edge firms from the South are planting roots in Austin area? With big factories and skyscrapers? Are there any? 

Ah hell, who gives a damn about aligning the State of Texas's freaking flagship university with cutting-edge tech, science, and astronomical universities when we gotta go play "big boy" football in the Deep South. Lulz. 

Do you think the people and institutions you wish to align with care that much about conference affiliation?

[VirginiaLonghorn 4750]

Astrology … where astronomy and the secsecsec connect.

[cochamps 1878]

3 minutes ago, ImissWallyPryor said:

Do you think the people and institutions you wish to align with care that much about conference affiliation?

Some of them don't even care about football, which is a deal breaker.  Don't get me started on the two time zones, even if I will concede that the destinations are more desirable.

[Frank Drebin 5622]

34 minutes ago, BevoAbyss said:

Of course, no conference is perfect. But, only one conference is centered in the former confederacy.

I guess the Pac 12 was too liberal for the BOR -- oh I know, it was about the "money" and "late night" games -- even though UT and Austin align far better with Stanford, Cal-Berkeley, Silicon Valley, and Washington. Arizona and UT have partnered (with other universities) to build the world's largest optical telescope. (Don't know enough about UCLA and Oregon academic research.)

Apple, Google, Facebook, and Tesla (etc.) have built factories in Austin area and have offices in high profile skyscrapers in Austin. Hiring tens of thousands of workers. A massive tech-economic boom.

Tell me which cutting-edge firms from the South are planting roots in Austin area? With big factories and skyscrapers? Are there any? 

Ah hell, who gives a damn about aligning the State of Texas's freaking flagship university with cutting-edge tech, science, and astronomical universities when we gotta go play "big boy" football in the Deep South. Lulz. 

You think we should have gone to the Pac 12?  

[NeverMarryAStripper 21781]

35 minutes ago, BevoAbyss said:

even though UT and Austin align far better with Stanford, Cal-Berkeley, Silicon Valley, and Washington. Arizona and UT have partnered (with other universities) to build the world's largest optical telescope. (Don't know enough about UCLA and Oregon academic research.)

Cal-Berkeley was my oldest son's first choice, and the only law school he applied to that turned him down.  Fuck them.  He had to go to his backup, Harvard.