Free Republic

Mess with Texas. You most likely associate the phrase “Don’t mess with Texas” with cheesy t-shirts and that unmistakable brand of Texas swagger.What you don’t know is that the slogan is the product of a 1980s anti-littering campaign and a federally registered trademark of the Texas Department of Transportation. The initiative is credited with cutting highway trash by 70% from 1986-1990.So maybe the best way to piss off a Texan is to mess with our state — cruise down a Hill Country two-lane during wildflower season and throw your pickle juice and mustard-stained Whataburger wrapper out the window. Local law...

ESPN Chris Mortensen: Houston Texans hire Bill O'Brien as Headcoach Bill O'Brien and Texans agreement...see you on SportsCenter tomorrow am. Happy New Year— Chris Mortensen (@mortreport) January 1, 2014

Team owner Bob McNair announced Friday that the Texans have fired their longtime coach after dropping a franchise-record 11th consecutive game Thursday night -- a 27-20 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars -- to tumble to 2-11 on the season. "We had a great run here and we will never forget our back-to-back AFC South championships," Kubiak said in a statement. "Coming back home was a dream come true for all of us. This will always be our home. Thank you.” TheMMQB.com's Peter King first noted Friday that he expected the team to fire Kubiak, who exits after seven-plus seasons and...

AUSTIN, TX, November 11, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – State Senator Wendy Davis' statement that she is “pro-life,” made just before she officially entered the governor's race this weekend, was designed to “muddy the waters” about her position on abortion and appeal to voters who are far more conservative on the issue than she is, according to some pro-life leaders in the state and around the country. Last Tuesday, the Forth Worth Democrat told an audience at the University of Texas in Brownsville, “I am pro-life.”

Strange things are afoot in the South Texas oil patch and in the sky above...cellphone video, taken by worker Xavier Garza, shows a reddish-orange orb in the northern sky. Witnesses say the camera didn't pick up a dozen more lights that appeared and reappeared several times, typically hovering in formation. It happened two nights in a row. And last week, a photo surfaced on the website of the Mutual UFO (Unidentified Flying Object) Network, a volunteer group that investigates UFO claims, purportedly taken at a well site in the same stretch of the Eagle Ford. Allegedly taken from a security...

Charles Hauboldt, a Texas funeral home owner, wants nothing more than to see his Houston Texans bury the Baltimore Ravens’ Super Bowl drive at this Sunday’s big game at M&T Bank Stadium. He’ll get his chance as the winning bidder for a playoff ticket auctioned by a Texas Catholic priest and rabid Ravens’ fan. Hauboldt’s high bid of $2,115 won him the ticket, a flight to Baltimore, lodging and ground transportation – not to mention the chance to sit next to Trinitarian Father Stan DeBoe, the man who put the ticket up for grabs. The money will be used to...

Call it Niall Ferguson's Pauline Kael moment . . . During the roundtable segment this morning on ABC's This Week, Ferguson, an academic with appointments at Harvard, Stanford and Oxford, said that "all the Texans I know" can't stand Rick Perry. Ferguson was reacting to host Christiane Amanpour's question about Perry's highly-animated New Hampshire address. Ferguson professed to like the "swaggering Texan" side of Perry he apparently saw in the speech. George Will had a caustic comeback. View the video here.

Christopher Hitchens said that his 'time' is coming as he made his first public appearance in months...The controversial writer and fervent atheist, who is suffering from oesophagus cancer, attended the Atheist Alliance of America conference in Texas where he was presented an award by Richard Dawkins. The 62-year-old said that he had been determined to attend the conference because of the state's Bible Belt devotion. Receiving the Richard Dawkins Freethinker of the Year Award, Hitchens looked gaunt and his voice was soft. ... During his speech Hitchens said that he appreciated the fact that Texas governor Rick Perry had been...

More Texans disapprove of Rick Perry’s performance as governor than approve of his work for them, a new poll finds. Forty-five percent of Texas voters have a positive view of Perry’s job performance while 48 percent disapprove, according to the latest poll of Texas voters released by Public Policy Polling today: . The good news for Perry: The Republican presidential contender has finally moved ahead of President Obama in the Lone Star State, 51 percent to 44 percent, after trailing the Democratic incumbent a month ago.

Do you live in Texas, but hate governor Rick Perry? Do you love coyotes and hate concealed weapons and lower taxes? Well the Obama campaign is anxious to hear from you. "Your feedback will help hold him (Perry) accountable on the campaign trail, inspire fellow Texans to get involved, and introduce his record -- his actual record -- to voters across the country," Hector Nieto, the campaign's Texas director, told Texas supporters in an email blast today. "Your words will remind him that even as he runs, he won't be able to hide --

Texas Gov. Rick Perry sounds more like a presidential candidate by the day. This weekend he gave a rousing speech at the Republican Leadership Conference in which he blasted the Obama administration as a bunch of smarty-pants busy-bodies. “They clearly think they know best,” said Governor Perry. “And let me tell you, I vehemently disagree. They don’t know best.” As he kept speaking he was interrupted by audience members chanting “Run Rick, Run!” But here’s a question: Is it too late for Gov. Perry to throw his drawl into the ring? It gets late early when it comes to running...

Badass ole Stevie, I miss him...

Authorities are still searching for a Rio Grande City woman after busting a Starr County-based gun ring. A federal grand jury indicted Jeniffer Lopez and nine others on federal firearms charges last week. U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, & Explosives (ATF) agents arrested two ringleaders and seven suspects but 28-year-old Lopez remains at large. The group is accused of “straw purchasing” about 60 high-powered handguns and assault rifles between December 2008 and April 2009. Straw purchasing is buying a gun for a criminal or someone else. The federal crime is punishable up to five years in prison. Court records...

Four Houston Texans were named to the 2010 AFC/NFC Pro Bowl, the NFL announced today....

Playoff Hopes Still Alive With One Week to Play I facetiously told a friend ago that I had a better chance of nabbing a Pulitzer Prize than the Texans had of making the playoffs after losing their fourth in a row and falling to 5-7 a few weeks back. But after watching how the stars have seemingly lined-up perfectly in favor of the Texans over the past few weeks, maybe a trip to Columbia University during the month of May just might be in the cards for me after all someday.

Playoffs Hopes Remote With Four Games Remaining The Houston Texas had one major objective heading into the 2009 season: Playoffs or bust. With a 5-7 record and four games to remaining, I guess it’s pretty safe to say the 2009 season has been a colossal bust.

It was Charles Dickens who once wrote “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.” It’s almost as though Mr. Dickens had privy to a time machine and was in attendance to witness the same pain and agony that Texan’s fans saw first hand on Sunday after noon at Reliant Stadium.

The sound of the air being knocked out of the guts of over 71,000 people all at once is devastating. It’s the sound that ended the Monday Night Football battle between the Titans and Texans as Kris Brown missed his second field goal of the night.

Young’s confidence is now at an all time high. Plus, he’ll be even more motivated by the fact that home in Houston was where he was hoping to stay after being bypassed by the Texans’ brass during the 2006 draft. Young then took out his revenge in tantalizing form, as he raced through the middle of the field to lead his Titans to an overtime victory during his Reliant Stadium debut .To further heighten the humiliation that game, there was a deafening roar of the crowd cascading though Reliant Stadium as though it were a Texans’ player who had scored...

No one knows for sure what the outcome of the game would have been if Kris Brown's field goal attempt would have been good as time expired in Indianapolis on Sunday. But we do know that the game would have been extended to overtime; and the way the Texans’ offense was clicking, chances are, they probably would have found the end zone.